We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lauren Gertz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
Within my career as a wedding planner it is very important to work with grace, patience, love, optimism, ambition, and organization. My parents always made sure to give my brother and I lots of attention, love, and positive influence. My dad was a business owner and entrepreneur so I saw first hand what lots of diligent work and personal life balance looked like. They always made sure that we had a positive outlook on life, were ambitious throughout childhood and school, as well as went about all communication with grace and understanding.
This left a large impact and helped a lot with how I began my career and even more now that I own a business. I want to make sure my clients, team, and colleagues feel heard, loved, and in good care. It is very important to me because of my parents that I always do the best I can, especially within the event world. We must always problem solve with poise, confidence, and understand that there are going to be changes throughout the day we may not have control over. Patience is one of the largest life lessons my parents implemented and I believe it is the biggest backbone to our industry as planners and managers of one of the most important days of someone’s life.
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 am the Owner and Lead Event Planner at MDP Events! I have a very strong passion for all things weddings, food, and music! Growing up in Rhode Island, I always loved planning, organizing, and detailing anything and everything since I was a little kid. Beginning with planning events in middle school, including my own Bat Mitzvah, organizing events and conventions throughout high school, and always loving all things design, I knew a life in events was a possibility for me.
Although I went to college for Psychology and got a degree in IO Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice, I found my niche working in weddings in Newport, RI. During college I did multiple event internships and after working for a luxury wedding planning company throughout my Junior and Senior year, I realized it was my dream career!
Following working for a few years in Newport, my best friend and I decided to get up and move to Boston. I worked in the Boston Seaport for 4 years for a magnificent catering company and venue learning the other side of the wedding and event world.
After managing, menu designing, and coordinating countless weddings, social, and corporate events in Boston, Covid hit and I decided to move home while we were all out of work. During that time, my boyfriend and I made the big move to decide to relocate to Sarasota, Florida where we bought our first home and I opened MDP Events!
MDP Events was born in the beginning of 2021 out of a passion for the industry as well as a drive to bring others joy through events! MDP Events is named in honor of my best friend, Margaretta (Maggie) Dundon Potter who shared the same obsession and love for weddings that I do. MDP Events is run on pure passion and inspiration which makes each and every celebration extra special to me and of course my couples!
Now I am beyond honored that this company of mine has flourished! I booked so many more events than I couldn’t imagined in my first year and have doubled that amount each year since. We have been named the Best Wedding Planner of Sarasota for 2022, featured in multiple publications, named Best of in The Knot and Wedding Wire for a few years, taken part in incredible shoots, joined and lead wonderful networking groups, been accepted to specialty groups, made amazing vendor relationships, and of course had the best time planning weddings for our outstanding couples. There is so much more to come, and I can’t wait to watch it all unfold while still standing proud it is all named after one of my largest motivations.
MDP’s wedding planning style utilizes our expertise in the industry to plan completely custom events for any size or style celebration! We are honored to have the opportunity to be a part of our couples’ special day. Through inventive design, detail-oriented planning, and stress-free production, we provide coordination that is ALL about our client’s vision! Our goal is to guide clients through every aspect of planning with ease and confidence so they can enjoy their engagement. We also offer A La Carte packages making sure that our couples are given the services that best suit their needs to make for a wonderful and fun planning partnership!
What makes our business standout from other planners is our backbone of pure passion. I opened MDP Events in honor of my best friend who shared the same obsession and love for weddings that I do. Not only do I adore planning weddings, but having a huge motivational inspiration makes each and every celebration extra special. We offer the standard packages as well as A La Carte options. We want to make sure their coordination package is what they need and best suits them to make our relationship as beneficial as possible.
We strive to not only to hand select an amazing vendor team and manage the logistics, but also our in-house production team will curate and produce quality design items to ensure details are perfectly cohesive and well managed. We are committed to working with the area’s top vendors and creatives to ensure their event is professionally executed and reflective of them. Wedding planning is a journey and everyone’s journey is different!
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
After working many different jobs throughout my young adult life and getting into the wedding world, I have come across a wide variety of different management styles. I have had great bosses and horrible bosses. A few of my biggest takeaways from my past managers were never to micromanage, belittle, or fail to delegate. There is no way that an employee or team member can grow without opportunity.
My advice would be to always allow for open dialogue, discussion, and fun. The wedding industry in particular can be very stressful and sometimes belittling. Not by your team, but by your clients. Sometimes couples forget to remember that their vendors are people too and we have lives outside of work as well as are doing our very best to make them feel like they are our only client. It is so important to make sure your team knows they can ask for help, chat about an issue they are having, as well as get a good laugh in during a tough time. The hospitality world can be a bit of a roller coaster and I think making sure your team knows they can always come to you and that you can always make a hard time feel less intense is key. I like to make sure my team members feel like they are appreciated not just around the holidays or after a tough season, but throughout every event giving feedback, gratitude, a little bit of fun, and time to take a break.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
There were a few things that helped me build my reputation within my market beginning with networking. Showing your face is very important to build relationships with other vendors. So much of our work is done online with colleagues and making sure you build a bond outside of the event day is key so they know they can trust you, laugh with you, and that you will perform to the best of your abilities.
Social Media and Instagram were a big piece of building my reputation. Showcasing past work, reviews, my style, and also just being active online was key for potential couples to be able to consider me as their planner. Again, showing my face to make the company more personable was helpful! We utilize fun ways for couples and vendors to be able to interact with our platform, have themed days, and make sure to be posting as well as commenting back. It is time consuming, but it is where almost everyone is doing their research!
Styled Shoots was another huge factor! There is no better way to learn someones work ethic, creativity, and personality than working with them. When first starting out, you may not have any clients or opportunity at all. That shouldn’t stop you! Reach out to florists, photographers, and venues and put together a styled shoot with a couple or models. Then you can gain all the content so you can be active on social media, recommend one another, and create that bond.
Through building relationships with venues and touring spaces I was able to get a decent grasp on the spaces I would potentially be working with and was able to meet the venue coordinators in person. I am used to working in new places, however clients like the idea of knowing you know their venue before booking you. Then more and more couples felt comfortable hiring me knowing I had worked at their venue before or that they liked my design work!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mdpeventsplanning.com/
- Instagram: mdpevents or https://www.instagram.com/mdpevents/
- Facebook: MDP Events Planning or https://www.facebook.com/MDPEventsPlanning/
- Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/MDPEventsPlanning/ Marry Me Tampa Bay: https://marrymetampabay.com/tampa-wedding-vendor/mdp-events/ Partyslate: https://www.partyslate.com/event-pros/mdp-events
Image Credits
Personal Photo (Teal): Stephanie Lanni Photography Hanging Greenery/Black & White Dance Floor: Dewitt for Love Photography Large Pink Building Bridal Party: Cornelia Zaiss Photography Terra Cotta Building Table Setting: Arianna J Photography Hanging Florals Blush in Tent: Steve Depino Photography Large Bright Floral Arch with Couple: Justin Demuutis Photography Place Setting with Peach and Florals: Stephanie Lanni Photography Couple at Beach Sunset with Veil: Beth Joy Photography