We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Meagan & Teddy Babanao. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Meagan & Teddy below.

Meagan & Teddy, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

We both believe that happiness and success go hand in hand. There is no firm measurement of success, so we like to stay focused on what truly makes us happy. Our focus has always been building and maintaining great relationships with our clients. Hearing their feedback and seeing the smiles on their faces when they see their event come to life is a total success moment for us. We’re truly doing what we love and I think it translates to our work as well.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Magnolia Sunsets is an event design company focused on intimate gatherings & weddings. We’re a husband-and-wife duo with a strong love for events & travel. With each event that we host, we like to leave a little sprinkle of our favorite experiences in travel and dining throughout the years, and to always prioritize the customer experience. Together, we have a background in sales, marketing, finance and event planning. We attended the same University, sat together in the same classes, and are now we’re married and living together, so it’s safe to say we make a pretty great team! Behind the scenes, each one of us takes on certain duties leading up to our events, which really helps streamline our processes.

Our favorite thing about the entire process is the interactions with our clients. We’ve been really lucky to have the most amazing and open-minded clients who allow us to take their vision, put our own spin on it, and bring it to life. We always put ourselves in their shoes and execute each event like it was our own. We know how it feels to be THE client; trying to pull together a huge event that is basically in someone else’s hands and we want them to feel comfortable talking to us about their vision so that we can be successful in bringing that vision to life.

We’ve recently hit our one year mark and it’s almost unbelievable what we’ve managed to do in such a short period of time, along with how many friends we have made in the industry. Apart from event design, we’ve recently launched @TheSunsetBride on Instagram (www.instagram.com/thesunsetbride) as a place where other vendors in the wedding/events industry can showcase their work. We’ve been so amazed by the creativity we’ve seen amongst South Florida vendors and are so excited to start this new chapter!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

One of the most popular assumptions about creatives is that our jobs are easy and that everything we do is fun. In reality it is the complete opposite. YES, it can be very fun – but none of it comes easy. Our minds are constantly churning with thoughts, plans, and ideas for the future and lots of them are very difficult to execute (physically, financially, etc).

For us, we’re planning and designing events, while keeping a personal relationship with our clients (remembering names, dates, colors, themes, and believe it or not, even the names of their children and spouses). That’s how close we are to every single one of our clients. On top of that, we’re dreaming up new ideas and plans for Magnolia Sunsets, creating content, posting on social media, submitting to blogs so that people can see our work – the list goes on. And all at the same time, we are responding to inquiries and designing events for new clients.

Being in the creative space has it’s highs, but most of the time, it has just about the same amount of lows. We’re not lounging around all day listening to music and hoping an idea pops into our heads. The creative process isn’t just about “idea & execution”…it’s everything in between that counts. We’re constantly working and thinking, and our brains never turn off. Not during dinner, not in the shower, not even in our sleep (yes, we dream about all of these things too!)

So the next time you tell a creative, “Your job is so easy” or “I wish I could quit my 9-5 and do what you do”, think again. Creatives don’t work 9-5 jobs, they work 24/7 jobs.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Everyone knows social media can be tricky. Things change every day, and all we want is for people to see us. With the changes in all of the social media platforms and not having a “viral” account – it’s hard for a lot of people to feel seen. We try to post regularly and feel proud of our work, no matter how many likes or followers we get in return. We look at our social media accounts as a portfolio of our work, to show potential clients what we can do for them and also to look back on how much we’ve grown! We’ll never forget when we first launched… getting our first 50-100 followers and feeling so grateful for their support. And we’ll continue to be just as grateful to anyone who supports us.

Likes & followers don’t translate to bookings and does not define your company’s success. So our biggest piece of advice to anyone just starting out is to stay true to yourself, and be PROUD of what you have done. When you put in the work, you will see the results. People can feel your energy – even behind the tiny screens. When you start believing in yourself, others will too.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.magnoliasunsets.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/magnoliasunsets
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/magnoliasunsets
• Other: Blog: www.instagram.com/thesunsetbride

Image Credits
LV PHOTOGRAPHY LLC / ELOI PHOTOGRAPHY / JESSICA DE PHOTOGRAPHY