We recently connected with Kaylee Havens and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kaylee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Havens To Hold is a family owned and operated company that specializes in wedding consulting, planning, and coordination. The name came from my wedding hashtag. I have always been a planner and I’d been unofficially planning weddings and events since 2011. It wasn’t until 2020 when I was planning my own wedding, in the height of a national pandemic, that I decided to start my own company. When I started thinking of names, I immediately went to my wedding hashtag #havenstohold and an instant logo came to mind and the name was solidified. Havens To Hold officially launched as a company on August 16, 2020 and we have since had the opportunity to create dream weddings for 20 clients with 13 upcoming weddings between now and 2023.

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?

Event planning has always been my dream. I grew up planning everything I could get involved with from small get-togethers and graduation parties in high school to fundraisers for my sorority and eventually recruiting events for my post college career. I’ve always been a type-A personality that loves organization and a good timeline, so naturally my family and friends eventually started asking me to step in as the day-of coordinator for their weddings. It wasn’t until I was planning my own wedding, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, that I decided to officially offer this service to others and Havens To Hold was created.

I had no idea how to go about opening a business, and this is where I relied on the amazing people that were already in this industry. I reached out to my own wedding photographer, Hannah Nemeth Photography, and videographer, Adair Kucera Photo + Film, and asked them how they went about forming a company. I reached out to my own wedding coordinators, Duo Weddings and Events, and Merrill Ashley Events to learn more about the industry from current wedding planners. I am so thankful for the time these individuals spent with me as we were forming and I hope to be able to provide this same kind of guidance to those entering this industry in the future.

Havens to Hold is a family-owned and operated company that specializes in wedding consulting, planning and coordination. I serve as the lead planner and point of contact for our clients. My sister serves as our lead designer and in-house artist, creating custom venue paintings and handwritten signage. My mother serves as our rental liaison managing our rental inventory and bookings. We offer three planning packages, full planning and coordination, partial planning, and day-of coordination. All three can be customized to fit the needs of our clients and where they are in the planning process. Since opening, we have had the opportunity to work with 20 amazing couples and when I look back on this journey, that is what I am the most proud of. Our marketing is word-of-mouth, and these couples sought out and trusted us with one of the most important day of their lives and through their reviews we have been able to grow and welcome new couples to the Havens to Hold family. Check us out at www.havenstohold.com!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We genuinely love what we do, and as a family we have a passion for simply helping others. This has helped us stand out in this industry as we go above and beyond for our clients and the vendors we get to work with. No matter how well you plan, things will always pop up and try to derail the event you’ve spent months and sometimes years planning. We’ve seen this when a vendor has to back out due to a family emergency the week of the wedding, when a hurricane is headed straight towards your outdoor reception, or when a guest decides to bring that plus one that wasn’t actually invited, and in these situations, we step in so our clients can focus on the purpose of the day without added stress.

We’ve personally distributed late night snacks at times when tables malfunctioned, we’ve picked flowers outside of a venue and made DIY boutonnieres when someone hugged the groom too hard moments before he walked down the aisle, we’ve provided wireless mics during times that technology was malfunctioning, we’ve created a garter out of scrunchies when a bride forgot to purchase one for the scheduled bouquet and garter toss and so much more. These end up being humorous stories that we look back on but in the moment these actions have kept a wedding moving and our clients happy.

For our vendors, we try to streamline communications and details as much as possible. We provide all vendors with client contact information, layouts, décor details and descriptions, along with an exhaustive timeline that provides vendor arrival times and the schedule of events. After the wedding, we follow up and provide social media handles for each vendor so that others can be tagged when photos and videos are released. We continue to try and find ways to improve our client and vendor experiences.

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

That failure means failing. The past two years have been challenging as we learn and grow. At first I was terrified of even the idea of failure, and I would spend the week before a wedding in a state of constant worry that things wouldn’t be absolutely perfect for my clients. After my first few weddings, I realized that every mistake and every flaw was a lesson for improvement and that my clients-to-come were benefitting from this journey while my past clients were unaware the mistake happened or the flaw even existed. I had to learn that the real failure is not having the courage to try at all, and I am so glad that I had the courage to try in the first place by opening Havens to Hold.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.havenstohold.com/
• Instagram: @havenstohold
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HavensToHold/

Image Credits
Emma Camfield Photography, Kim Hymes Photography, Sage and Cedar Photos, Vici Photography, Linden Bloom Photo, Collins and Co Photography