We were lucky to catch up with Lindsey Nickel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lindsey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

At the end of 2021, I cut back on my wedding planning workload (I started my wedding planning business in 2010) so that I could think about what I wanted to do next in my career. I knew I wanted to do something I was really passionate about, but wasn’t quite sure what that was at the time. The idea I kept coming back to in my heart and my head was event planning for memorials, celebrations of life, and funerals.

The idea of an event planner for celebrations of life, funerals, and memorials first popped into my mind when my grandparents passed in 2015. I was watching my highly capable aunt plan their memorials and I was thinking, “Why isn’t there a professional to help her plan this? She has enough going on dealing with the paperwork, closing accounts, and the crematorium.”

Over the past few years, as parents of friends are getting older and passing on, I’ve seen very smart and highly capable people struggle with planning celebrations of life. They struggled because planning a large event while you are grieving and making decisions about how to plan an event to remember that person, is a lot to take on.

That’s when I realized there is a huge need for event planners for memorial services, celebrations of life, and funerals. I saw that I could take my 11+ years as a wedding planner and really help people during some of the hardest times in their lives when they feel like they are just going through the motions.

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’m a Napa, California based event planner specializing in wedding planning and celebration of life planning. When I’m not planning an event I love hiking, fostering dogs and binging Real Housewives.

I’ve been planning events since 2010 so I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work for a gorgeous, fun and low stress event day.

My clients and expertise have been featured in The New York Times, CNN, InStyle, Brides and The Knot just to name a few.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. The first party I ever planned was a surprise birthday party for my best friend in seventh grade. I started Lovely Day Events in 2010 when I was in Jackson Hole (where I spent my post-college years skiing in the winter and as a backpacking instructor in the summer). The Wyoming winters were too cold for this California girl, so I moved to Napa in 2014 and have been enjoying the beautiful weather and delicious food ever since. I’m so grateful to call Napa, Calif. my home.

I think becoming a wedding planner stems from always being very social and super organized (I’m lost without my checklists). I am very emotionally invested with my wedding clients and often shed a tear during the toasts. I love hearing from couples long after the wedding day and seeing photos of what’s new in their lives on Instagram.

In 2022 I expanded my event planning services to include celebrations of life, an idea that had been brewing for a long time after my grandparents died.

When I’m not planning an event I love hiking, fostering dogs and binging Real Housewives.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming after college to ski and be a back packing instructor for teens. Overtime I found myself engrained in the community and ready for a full time job. This was in 2010, at the peak of the great recession and jobs were few and far between. I had a wonderful mentor, I remember standing in the parking lot of the hair salon we both went to, she was showing me her new puppy and I was telling her about yet another job I didn’t get (you might recall at this time permanent jobs were few and far between). She said “you’ve always talked about starting your own business, why don’t you do that?” So I did. I was really involved in the nonprofit community at that time so I reached out to all my contacts and told them I was available for contract work. Since nonprofits were hesitant to hire permanent full time staff, but still had projects they needed help with a contractor was a perfect fit. I even went back to school and got a professional certificate in nonprofit management. The contract work turned into consulting and I focused on marketing / communications, special projects and events. Another mentor said, “hey, how about you plan weddings also?” so I started doing those in the summer too. One client after another I grew my wedding planning and nonprofit consulting business.

I moved to Napa in 2014 and closed my nonprofit consulting business to focus on weddings. In 2022 I expanded my event planning to include celebrations of life.

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

Word of mouth! Vendor relationships and referrals from event venues are the best source of new clients for weddings.

For celebrations of life, Google is the best source. I think that’s because grieving families are searching the internet for how to plan a celebration of life and realize the event is a big event to plan and then decide they want to hire someone. Since they are not sure where to start, they start with Google.

Contact Info:

• Website: lovelydaylegacies.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovelydayeventsxo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LovelyDayEventsAndWeddings
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseynickel/
• Other: Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/lovelydayeventsxo/

Image Credits
Milou and Olin Photography