We were lucky to catch up with Jaime Engebretson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jaime, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you’re open to it, can you talk to us about the best (or worst) investment you’ve made. What’s the backstory and the relevant context behind why you made the investment

I decided to start my business when I was on maternity leave from my corporate position at a Fortune 100 company. Prior to making that decision I was volunteering with my church as a wedding coordinator and would help out with setup for the ceremony and running the logistics of the ceremony part of the couple’s wedding day. I kept getting asked about other aspects of the wedding planning process and not wanting to say that’s not part of what I’m supposed to be helping with I would start researching and networking with wedding vendors to be able to give educated suggestions. This allowed me to have a network of trusted vendors that I could call upon when I ultimately started my business which was a great starting point.

A lot of times wedding planners will start their business because they planned their own wedding and had so much fun or they helped a friend on their wedding day and think oh I could do this. There isn’t a lot of startup costs or barriers to entry in this business, so a lot of planners pop up all the time. What I think sets me and other planners who have been doing this for a long time is that we put in the effort maybe before we even started our business. For example, I started as a church wedding coordinator and learned all the aspects of the wedding ceremony first. I built relationships with the vendors I saw at the weddings or through reaching out to learn more about their business. When I decided I wanted to seriously pursue this as a business, I went to school to get a certificate in Wedding and Event Design so that I could learn more about the logistical side of weddings, I learned about the religious/cultural differences in regards to the structure of the ceremony and I worked on real life case studies to understand how to handle wedding day emergencies before I ever had to encounter them. That educational knowledge is not only something that I can say sets me a part, but it gave me the confidence to say I am skilled in this profession, and I would be able to execute on their event.

Another area of investment I made in my business that set me up for success is I got a business mentor. I didn’t know what it took to start and run a business; I had always worked for someone else. I wanted someone to guide me in the business side of it and I purposefully looked for a business mentor that was not in the wedding industry because if I can explain exactly what I am wanting to accomplish to someone who is not familiar with it and they get it then I know I am describing it right and their feedback helped me gear how I setup my business plan, my website to start and even my pricing models.

I would say the best investments I have made in my business was educating myself and not assuming I could do it on my own and be successful. Even to this day, I collaborate with other planners and take webinars on areas I may still not be familiar with such as social media components or website/SEO aspects. Never losing the desire to learn more and push further is how you continue to grow as a business leader.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My business is J’aime Events, a Minneapolis-based Wedding Planning and Event Design company. We offer Full-Service Wedding Planning, Wedding Day Management/Day of Coordination and we help create stress-free events. Our main focus is wedding planning, but we are here to help with all of life’s celebrations from birthdays, anniversaries, grad parties, baby and bridal showers, corporate events, and holiday parties.

Not only are we strong on our execution of events under the direction of Jaime Engebretson, Owner and Executive Event Planner, who holds a Masters in Project Management and a Certification of Wedding and Event Design, but we are able to help you create the vision for your event. Whether you need a design board created for your event or help putting together ideas on your Pinterest board or offering vendor recommendations that can pull off the look you are going for.

J’aime Events officially started in 2015 and has executed on hundreds of events. Before launching J’aime Events, Jaime worked as a church wedding coordinator as a volunteer position and learned the various aspects of the ceremony while working full time at her corporate position. When Jaime went out on maternity leave, she decided to take her passion for wedding planning and her background in managing multiple high value projects to turn it into her own event planning company. She has grown her company from her first events being word of mouth to networking and marketing as a premier planning company in the Twin Cities.

J’aime Events has earned accolades such as WeddingWire’s Couples’ Choice Award and the Knot’s Best of Weddings Awards multiple years in a row and earning a spot on the Hall of Fame for the Knot as a wedding professional to earn the Best of Weddings Award for five consecutive years. Jaime Engebretson has also earned awards such as Best Networker in the Twin Cities by the Twin Cities Wedding and Event Professionals group and Best Event Planner in the Twin Cities in 2018 from the Twin Cities Collective group.

J’aime means “I Love” in French and with J’aime Events we love all our events as if they were our own celebrations.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

One of the best sources for new clients are referrals whether it is a referral from another wedding partner that we have worked with before or a past client that refers a family member or friend. We especially love when our couples share our contact information with their friends who are getting married and then we get to see our couple again at their friend’s wedding because most of the time after their wedding we may not hear from or see them again.

When a vendor refers us to a client that may have booked their venue and they know we are familiar with the space, or a photographer sends our information to a client to help with logistics/management for the day we know that we are making an impact for the day and providing our vendor partners with a service they value as well.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The wedding and event industry really took a hit with Covid and the restrictions for events. We had to do a lot of rescheduling and pushing out events which is hard when you are already booking up for years in advance to accommodate a new date for your clients. On top of that not having the regular influx of inquiries and bookings we have seen in previous years had us looking at what adjustments could be made to our business model to be flexible and resilient through this tough period. We saw quite a few of our vendor partners having to close businesses or adjusting their service offerings to be able to make it and stay in business.

There were also a lot of tough conversations that had to be had with clients and vendors about the restrictions and how we can manage their event while staying in compliance. We know that wearing masks, limiting head counts and social distancing are not words clients want to hear when they are thinking about their events but there were strict consequences if we did not follow state mandates so making sure they understood our stance on them and what we could and could not do for them.

It was a very difficult time not only for our clients but for us as well. We wanted to execute on all of our events and the only way to do that was to not get sick and in instances limit what events we could take so that we could allow for illness. Adjusting and making some hard decision during the interim set us up to still be here on the other side of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jaimeevents.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jaimeevents
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/jaimeevents
• Other: www.pinterest.com/jaimeevents

Image Credits
Amy & Jordan Demos Carina Photographics Lena Lakoma Photography Amanda Nippoldt Photography M Photography Rachel Lynn Photography Ari Reynolds Photography