We recently connected with Kayce Ward and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kayce, thanks for joining us today. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

Primrose + Lily wouldn’t be where it is today without being a family business.

It started with my dad, who knew I should be a planner before I knew it myself. I went to college to pursue psychology, but he was concerned that I would get overly attached (in a not great way) since I wear my heart on my sleeves. He pointed out that I had been unintentionally coordinating our family get togethers for the last few years and that I should consider a career as a planner. I switched majors the next year, graduated with a degree in planning, and have never looked back.

The next piece of advice my dad gave me was to work for vendors I could be working with in the future. After college, I spent the next 7 years doing just that. I sold wedding dresses, helped catering teams serve food, became a certified mixologist, dabbled a little in cakes and flowers, and finally landed in the rental industry. After 6 solid years helping brides choose the best fit rentals for their special day, my best friend and I launched Primrose + Lily.

My mom, she’s my best friend. She’s the yin to my yang and Lorelai to my Rory. My mom and I had talked for 3 or 4 years about going into business together. We dabbled between wedding planning, owning a venue, maybe a satellite coffee and ice cream shop – the dream was ever changing. But what stayed the same was our want to do something together. Where my strengths lie in communications and social media, mom strives in bookkeeping and decorating. It’s quite the perfect duo.

Families are the backbone of who you are, regardless if you want to admit it or not. My dad started me down this wonderful path 13years ago, and now my mother has helped it come to life. To keep the company true to who we are, we named it after us – Primrose (a flower) for the street I grew up on and mom still lives on, and Lily as my favorite flower. As our company tagline says – it’s y’all in the details.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

My name is Kayce, I feel as original as the spelling of my name, and hope all entrepreneurs feel that way! As you’ve read, my family is the back bone to who I am as a person and who my company is as a whole. Both of my parents helped in creating Primrose + Lily, but the overall feel, vibe, and contact is all me! After working for others the past 16 years, I made the decision to dive into my planning business full time as I strive to grow it into the beautiful, simple, and confident business that I want it to be.

Full of personal insight, honest opinions, and dance floor moves, I have been honored to work with couples who have a vision of their wedding but put their trust in me to execute it. And I LOVE what I do! I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something in me that truly loves using my OCD to line up tables in a straight line, make sure place settings and centerpieces are complete, and then let my couple flat out just enjoy their time with their family and friends. That’s what’s in it for me – seeing all of their hard work come together and them loving it (a nice review here and there doesn’t hurt either haha).

But I think that’s how a lot of us got to where we are today – we had the standard job, realized we were destined for something different, and made that dream come true. And let me tell you – it’s SO worth it!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

As previously mentioned, I have had numerous jobs within the wedding industry – the last of those being rentals. I worked for a renowned rental company in the area for 9 years, and it was a wonderful time. 6 years in is when I decided to launch Primrose + Lily; I’d work rentals as my day job while working on my website, social media, and emails for Primrose at night.

Primrose + Lily has been a presence in the wedding industry for 3 years now, and that has given me time to make some strong vendor connections and obtain wonderful client reviews. That pairing has helped my company grow large enough to pursue planning full time. Yes, there were definitely some long nights along the way, creating websites is a tedious pain in the butt, and I missed some friend’s birthday parties, but now I’m able to make my own schedule and make it up to everyone.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Word. Of. Mouth. – primarily through other wedding vendors. I think that the key starting point for planners in general is to get in talks with venues. Finding the perfect wedding location is usually the first place couples start. If the location they chose has a preferred vendor list and you’re on it, score! All couples want to feel like their wedding day is in good hands, so why wouldn’t they choose vendors who have worked at that space before?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.primroselily.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/theprimroselily
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/theprimroselily

Image Credits
1 – Stephanie Alberse Photography 2 – Anchor & Veil Photography 3 – Precious Pics 4 – Courtney Paige Photography 5 – J. Lauricella Images 6 – Mary Mincey Photography 7 – Magdalena Stefanek Photography