We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kate Faoro Wright. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kate below.

Kate, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I think the biggest risk I ever took was between two different life paths. This risk was less about being brave, and more about listening to my heart.

Prior to launching my wedding planning business full time, I was a yoga instructor, teacher training lead, and studio manager. I was very happy and fulfilled in that job. Prior to that opportunity I sold software, which provided a good living but had almost no joy in it for me. The choice to transition my life and lifestyle from software sales to full time in the wellness space was an intentional one. I planned, plotted, and economized to make sure my partner and I could sustain the transition while I went and got my slice of joy. It was one of the most rewarding decisions I had made to date. Regardless of whether anyone understood it, I lit up when I walked into the yoga studio and I had something to offer that helped people every single day.

During my time at the yoga studio, I also got married. I had a lot of fun planning the event; putting on a wedding shared many common threads with the community organizing and creative direction that brought me joy at the studio. So I started a wedding planning business on the side of my full-time job.

Developing my wedding planning business opened up a whole new lane of creative freedom for me. I could help people, shape my offering, and have unlimited opportunities for growth as a small business owner. No one was telling me what to do or how to do it. I was intrinsically inspired by charting my own course and becoming my own best guide.

After two years of growing success, I was on the precipice of applying for a regional leadership role with the yoga organization while also balancing an almost full-time book of wedding and elopement clients. It became clear that I would soon have to choose which part of my professional life to boundary: wellness or weddings.

I was spoiled for choice. Both paths promised a lot of fulfillment and happiness. But the riskier of the two was clearly forging into full time business ownership on my own. My answer became pretty clear when I considered the life not lived. If I didn’t lean into leadership in the wellness space now, it would be there for me should I ever want to return. But if I didn’t lean into my small business now, I’d wake up every day curious about “what would have been”.

Going into the summer of 2019, I felt pretty clear that my biggest risk could also be my biggest reward. In July, with a few encouraging signs from the people and circumstances around me, I went full time into my small business and peeled back to a part time yoga teacher. Hindsight being 2020 (pun intended): that was a bold time to start wedding planning as a full time career. But knowing now what would transpire, it was the fact that I chose this work, and kept choosing it every day, that got me through the unforeseen, challenging times ahead.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Tapestry Event Co. is a company of wedding and elopement planners providing products and services to modern couples who want to declare your marriage legacy through soul-nourishing, enriching event planning experiences. We’re the organizational magicians for you if you to ditch the scroll, get introspective, and build a celebration of the next chapter that feels joyously, authentically you.

We believe that planning your wedding, elopement, or ceremony is a unique chapter of your lives that presents an opportunity to establish a lasting legacy. In the words of Brene Brown, I am both “a map maker and a traveler”, inspired by the discovery and creation of a launch to marriage that has as much meaning and purpose as your love. We guide you through planning milestones with an approach that is grounded in the same values that founded your relationship. We help you build an event that allows you to truly be seen and celebrated by your partner and your community. We facilitate an experience that will serve you for the rest of your love lives.

We believe that your celebration should feel like home. We facilitate event planning experiences that support your lifestyles, your values, and the growth of your partnership. We want to you to spend more time in important conversations about your relationship and celebration and less time in the work and endless to do lists of wedding planning. We have tailored our tools and process to combine the best of agile, intuitive, boundaried, tech-savvy project management to support the growth of your relationship through this experience.

We are also known for our stand on healthy relationships and communication skills. We support our couples to work as a unit within the context of wedding planning; to show up equitably to the process and in support of each other; to create healthy boundaries with the people and influences around them; to generate a network of support for their wellbeing; to embrace the full emotional spectrum of the planning experience; and to show up on their day with a confident sense of self and community behind them. These are the opportunities within the wedding planning experience that we guide couples through to create and declare their marriage legacy.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I started my business in the peak of “girl boss” culture in 2017. While I never really bought into the premise as a whole, there were a lot of toxic, subliminal messages about what being a successful female entrepreneur looked like that DID get through to me in some way. Some of those toxic traits looked like networking your ass off, projecting positivity online, exclusively showcasing success stories, and unshakably pursuing radically independent business ownership above all else.

While the amount of work available to my business grew quickly, no one taught me what the balance of work, finances, and life could or should look like. All I knew in the beginning was that more was good and saying “yes” was the only option I knew. I had no framework to gauge real, human success in all that “conquer the world you bad business-owning boss” rhetoric. My “yes” was abundant and my “no” was practically non-existent.

Zero boundaries matched with lots of opportunity and interest will catch up to you quick. While years 1-3 of business ownership were big growth years, 4-5 were total burnout years. I had to take a hard look at how I operated my business and draw boundaries around what opportunities qualified as a “hell yes”. Anything that wasn’t a hell yes? That became a “no”.

It took awhile to get over the fear of what came after a “no” and exercising my no’s is still a skill I am working on today, but it’s the best shift I’ve ever made in my business. As the years go on, my list of “no” grows and evolves. There is only so much of me and my team to go around; there are specific types of opportunities that support our financial wellbeing; and there are characteristics in our couples that allow them to receive the experience that we promise. Being more specific every day is what allows us to serve bigger and brighter.

The lesson learned? It’s not the “yes” that makes for success. I mourn for the girl bosses out there still bought into unboundaried opportunism. Our “no”s are what define us, to ourselves, our couples, and our community. And it’s the “no”s that generate our reputation, our community, and our success. So to any small business owner out there who does not (yet) have a growing list of “no”, go out there and start finding them. Your list should be growing every day. Clarity is kind and it is most defined by what you turn away, rather than what you take on.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I don’t have a sexy story for how our business was funded. But I do think my story is relatable and may be encouraging to anyone out there who thinks they need to wait to get started in a service-based business. Spoiler alert: you don’t.

After planning my own wedding, I had a bunch of resources I had developed and compiled to facilitate me and my partner’s wedding journey. That, paired with my overwhelmingly positive experience (especially when compared to other wedding planning stories), made me think I had something to offer. So I opened a business bank account, spent a few hundred dollars setting up an LLC, and started looking for clients.

My funding strategy was to divert $200 from every paycheck at my full-time job to create a cash foundation for the business’ operating expenses. I reached this figure with in agreement of my partner to ensure that our family finances could sustain the investment. After the two years, the revenue generated by the business could sustain its own operating costs. However, I decided that continuing to supplement that revenue to strategically grow the business was the best strategy, so the cash diversion continued.

When I moved into the business full time in year three, it was self-sustaining and no longer needed financing from an outside source. That being said, my husband and I continued to adapt our lifestyle to the realities of a growing small business. The income I paid myself in years three through five did not yet replace what I had made in my previous full time work. In a way, my family and I think of this as a further investment in the business even though no cash moved between accounts. We continued to invest due to a combination of the business’ growth trend, our strategic plans, and the happiness and fulfillment it brought to our lives.

In year six, I was making a modest full time living as a small business owner. That living has continued to grow for myself as well as support the part time members of the team. It was a slow burn and slow burns don’t often get a lot of press. It’s my and my family’s success story patiently earned over many years, big action, self-education, and many small decisions adding up. So to anyone out there who is waiting on a cash influx or nest egg to begin, I offer my story and another way to start right now.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tapestryeventco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tapestryeventco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tapestryeventco

Image Credits

Photos by Alexandrae Photo, Weiss Photo and Film, and The Brothers Martens.