We recently connected with Lauren Clay Jeffcoat and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lauren thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Growing up, I was OBSESSED with weddings. As a little girl, I always wanted to play “wedding” with my friends. I can remember having a box underneath my bed with clippings I had cut out from magazines and glued to the inside of shoebox to make my dream wedding backdrop – complete with my dream gowns glued to popsicle sticks with my friends heads pasted over the models. As I got older, I put down the popsicle sticks and got my fix by spending a lot of time with Randy Fenoli, watching every episode of “Say Yes to the Dress” and by begging my mom to buy me the latest issue of “BRIDE” every time we went to the grocery store. In 2016, my sophomore year of college, I went to a job fair on campus and made a connection with a local business owner who offered me to come interview at his family’s wedding venue. Of course, I was THRILLED. Landing this job as a 19 year old was an absolute dream for me. I immediately fell in loved with the wedding world and was so incredibly grateful for the role I had in making couple’s big day come to life. After being hired as a Wedding Day Hostess, I quickly worked my way up the ladder. I was soon upgraded to an Event Manager and by the end of my first year there I had become a Director. Though I was young, I was mature. I paid incredible attention to detail and worked tirelessly to ensure our couples truly had the best day of their lives. In my 3 years with the venue, I had worked right around 100 weddings, planned well-over 25 events for the venue, managed all of their social media accounts and web media, and had grown my network of vendors and companies by the hundreds. During my time with the venue, I was also able to land a summer internship with the esteemed “Brides of Oklahoma” magazine. When graduation came around in 2019, I was sad to see my time with the venue come to and end – little did I know, I wouldn’t be removed from the wedding world for long. In 2019, I graduated from The University of Central Oklahoma with degree’s in both Strategic Communication and Organizational Communication and also received a minor in Leadership. At that time, I had dreams of moving to Dallas to work for a well-know advertising agency – owning two small businesses was never on my radar. It took me about to 5 months out of school to land a job. I began working in my field as a Digital Marketing specialist/Social Media Manager for a local children’s hospital. Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit 6 months into my new job, as a non-essential employee at a nonprofit hospital, I was let go. Thankfully, I was able to continue some contract work with the venue during my search for a new job. About 2 months later,I ended up getting offered a position as a marketing manager for a national company. While I loved the company and the people I worked with, something inside of me just didn’t feel right. The slowdown that COVID forced on us all really gave me time to evaluate the things in life that I loved and that were important to me; and through I did enjoy marketing and advertising, there was something about weddings that had always called to me. Then of course, when I caught COVID and spent two weeks in bed daydreaming (or maybe hallucinating?), the entrepreneur bug had bitten me and I couldn’t shake it. Two months later, I quit my corporate job, went to Disney World with my lifelong best friend, turned 24 in the Magic Kingdom, and came home and got to work laying the groundwork for my new business. By January 2021, everything was official – Lo & Co. Weddings and Events was open for business and was accepting clients. By February of that same year, a little hobby of mine took off and became a secondary business. During quarantine I started making cute little snack trays for all of our nights-in. The snack trays were elevated to lite bites and before you knew it I was making full-blown artisan style charcuterie boards. This was just something I started doing for fun for our friend and family gatherings; I had zero intentions of making it a business. The first photo I posted on social media of one of my creations was for my little brother’s birthday, in August. I always bake our family members a cake or dessert for their birthday, and my brother, not being a big sweets guy, had requested I make him a “meat and cheese board” instead. Of course, he always gets what he wants, and I made him a huge charcuterie board, completed with birthday candles, and my mom posted a photo of it on social media and the people went wild. By Thanksgiving and Christmas of that year (2020) I had several of our close friends and family ask if I would put something together for them to take to their holiday gathering. I made about 8 boards total at that time. I popped some photos of what I made and got even more order requests for NYE that year. I made 10 boards for our friends and family’s celebrating the New Year at home. By Valentine’s day of 2021, it had erupted. I had 32 orders and deliveries to make. At that point I knew that this was more than just a side hustle – so I extended my business and added LC Charcuterie to the mix. By the end of my first year, between both my brands I was published 5 times in print and online, planned and participated in 8 styled/editorial shoots, completed 72 events, crafted 306 charcuterie orders, and surpassed my corporate salary – IN YEAR ONE. I was amazed at the opportunities God gave me and 3 years later I am still in awe that I GET to do this. Year two surpassed the bar I set for myself in year 1 and year 3 brought me the opportunity to finally be the Bride myself. I had my dream wedding and married my dream man in May of last year (2023) and now everything is that much sweeter with a business and life-partner by my side. To summarize it all, I can confidently say it’s all because my God has been good to me, my city has supported me and my clients have fueled me. Heading into year four, all I feel is gratitude and all I see is stars.

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.

I probably went overboard on the first question telling the story behind my business – so I suppose here I should share about the “what” of my business!
The type of products and service I provide are vast. Of course, the main services I offer are wedding and event planning, coordination, styling and designing as well as creating food art and catering spread/gifts, but I also have some other talents and passions I have worked into my businesses. I LOVE to design, so when my clients allow me to put on my creative hat and design custom invitation suites or signage or other small decor for them, my heart sings! Using my left side of my brain to make something pretty is such a nice vacation from all the planning and administrative duties my job(s) demand of me. I also dabble in calligraphy and videography. Both of these creative hobbies were things I picked up in college. In my “off-season” I offer my videography services to couples for engagements, weddings and receptions as well as to small businesses for content creation and website material. As of April of this year (2024) my husband and I launched our new company, Birdie and Bogey’s Mobile Putt-Putt. We are the first of our kind in Oklahoma. Our 9-hole course was hand-made by us in our garage and can be taken to any venue and be set up for guests to enjoy. In addition to our Putt Rentals, we also offer add-on’s such as: custom signage, score cards, golf-balls and more. In our first month of business, we completed 5 events and have 6 more on the books for this spring/summer. We have loved seeing the community that this business harbors for people of all ages.

I have been fortunate enough to receive some accolades during my self-employed career thus far. During my time as a business owner I have been nominated for “Best of the 405” and have made it into the Top 5 category for both of my brands (in the sectors of catering, wedding planning and event planning) all three years of my businesses being open. I was honored for LC Charcuterie to have won the 2023 Best of the 405 title in the “Food & Drink” category. In 2022 I was recognized, out of 450+ nominations across the state, as a NextGen 30 under 30 award winner. I have also been nominated for the best event planner and best caterer in the OK Family Metro magazine. I am so grateful to serve a community who values and supports small businesses.

I think what sets me apart from other people in the industry is my passion for people and attention to detail. In my mind, no detail goes unnoticed or unappreciated. I have always been taught that the little things matter and doing everything to the best of my ability, and in a way that honors God, is of upmost importance. This has been a mentality that has been transferable to quite literally everything in my life for the entirety of my life. I’m grateful for parents that instilled that type of work ethic in me from a young age. Giving the details the time and attention they deserve is no easy feat. In addition to the long days of meetings and designing and preparing for events, not to mention the 12-16 hours of execution on event days, I spend countless hours ensuring every little things is as it should be. Oftentimes I go above and beyond what I was hired for to help make my clients dreams become reality. It will never get lost on me how special it is to walk beside my clients on the moments leading up to their best day(s). Getting to celebrate the start of a life together, the shear joy of a new life entering this world, or the celebration of a life leaving this world – birthdays, anniversaries, or even just because – it is all so incredibly special and I truly can not put into words the privilege it is to share with my clients some of their best days. Through my career I have met some of the very best people and have built some of the most amazing relationships. I am so thankful for my network and feel so lucky to continue growing it here in the great state of Oklahoma.

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

Building my reputation within my market is something I had been working on for years. before I even thought about launching my own business. Back in my college days, when I wasn’t even working under my own brand, I knew the importance of representing myself well and establishing the type of professionalism I wanted people to associate with me. I would bend over backwards to make sure events ran smoothly and that everything was perfectly in place – even when it wasn’t my job to do so. I was always eager to lend a hand to other vendors so that we could create magic for our shared client together – even when I wasn’t collecting a paycheck, or even recognition, for helping out. I immersed myself in knowledge of current trends and news pertaining to my industry. I became a resource for clients both existing and potential – and I have carried that over into my current businesses because I had established myself as “that person” before I was “the person” to go to. I take great pride in my work and pay careful attention to all the small things that come together to create the bigger picture. My clients, and the vendors I work alongside, take notice of this and by spreading the word have helped me to build my reputation within my market.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I would say the most effective strategy for growing my clientele is emphasizing networking and forming relationships. No matter how big your advertising budget is or how well your social media accounts are performing, nothing holds a candle to word of mouth promotion – and that’s coming from a former ad pro.
People will always trust the referral from other humans more than they will buy into anything they see online. Knowing this, I made it a priority from the moment I launched my brand to make the people the foundation of everything I do. Offering beautiful products and quality service was obviously a top priority- but making the people I served feel like a million bucks was always something I heavily focused on, and it is what I believe truly gained me my place in my industry. I have Beene privileged to work alongside so many incredible people at so many distinguished events and its not because of the reels I made on Instagram – it’s because of the relationships I made putting people first and allowing them to do the work for me – sharing my name and the personal experience they had with me as a vendor and as a person in a room full of opportunities. No matter how big my business grows, I can promised that I will always have a hand in everything that takes place under my brand name and I will personally always connect with the people that I serve.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/loandcoevents AND https://linktr.ee/LCCharcuterie AND https://linktr.ee/birdieandbogeys
• Instagram: @_loandcoevents_ AND @lc_charcuterie AND @birdieandbogeys
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loandcoevents. | https://www.facebook.com/lccharcuterie
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lauren-clay-jeffcoat-996596117_wow-i-cant-begin-to-put-into-words-how-activity-7158155533722529793-RINz/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Xd49JyX0YWRj-JxT67TnQ

Image Credits

Carsyn Craytor Photography
Ashley Sunderland Photography
Courtney Lyles Photography