Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Megan Harris & Mallory Brown. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Megan Harris & Mallory Brown, thanks for joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
In the wedding coordination and planning industry, a lot of companies sell their services for either month of or even day of coverage. Although we obviously aren’t physically coordinating a wedding day until the rehearsal and the day of the wedding, we do everything we can to coordinate all plans and details (no matter how big or small) with our clients as soon as they book with us. Marmaros Productions aims to sell our services to our clients with no real boundaries as to when their coverage begins or ends. The day that we book a client, we want to actively build a relationship with them so that any wedding day decision is seamless and how a client would have decided on things. In fact, our company’s motto is that “we want to know your wedding day better than you do”. Weddings can be a day full of chaos and it is easy for a couple to just go through the motions of the day without really taking it all in. Because we know this to be true, we make sure that a wedding day is ingrained in our heads like the back of our hands so that we can allow for every moment from the start of the wedding day to the departure is cherished and savored by everyone. We don’t want a bride, groom, friend, or family member to have to worry about the details of the day whatsoever. We also know how crazy the month of wedding can be. Marmaros Productions alleviates that stress by being a part of the planning process throughout the entire engagement along with completely taking over communication with vendors. A lot of time, it is industry standard to leave the couple as the middleman between the vendors which we think just adds unnecessary stress to the engagement. Overall, Marmaros Productions aims to break industry standards by being thoroughly involved with clients from the day they book, looking for ways to alleviate client’s stress and own those tasks fully, and knowing a client’s vision for their wedding day as well if not better than they do!
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 background and context?
Marmaros Productions, an event planning and coordination company, was founded in 2017 by Megan Harris and Mallory Brown. We love helping couples with their wedding planning from engagement to honeymoon and aim to step in and help with every detail no matter how big or small. Megan and Mallory got into the industry in 2016 when one of their mentors entrusted them with her wedding day! They both have a background in stage production and event management, and wedding planning is actually a perfect union of the two of those things! Along with owning Marmaros Productions, Megan and Mallory had a few years where they broadened their experience. Megan worked at a popular North Georgia wedding venue for two years, so along with being a planner with Marmaros Productions, she learned the ins and outs of weddings from a venue perspective. To this day, she still works part-time at her childhood dance studio where she teaches and is their marketing and tech director. Mallory has worked at various concert venues for years and has worked in the logistics of gaming conventions for years. Through working a full-time job as a producer in the video game industry while maintaining her role as an owner and planner at Marmaros Productions, Mallory has built up 5 years of diverse experience in logistics and management of large events. As a company, along with seeing satisfied clients one of the other things that we are most proud of is seeing our team grow over the years! We now have three coordinators who have joined our team and we love the unique skills and perspectives each of them brings. Olivia Edwards joined our team first as an intern and then following graduation joined the team as one of our wedding day assistants. Both Brenna Warrick and Sarah Norton joined our team after Marmaros Productions coordinated their wedding days and they had the desire to in turn help other couples’ wedding days be just as perfect as theirs were! As business owners, it is truly surreal to see that others see and understand our company vision and are willing to contribute their valuable time, skills, and energy into serving any current and future Marmaros Productions couple!
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Megan and Mallory took an unconventional approach to funding and building the initial capital of Marmaros Productions. Both Megan and Mallory worked full-time jobs outside of Marmaros Productions for the first few years of the business. This was so that they could put 100% of the profits of Marmaros Productions into building the initial capital as opposed to taking a paycheck for themselves. Luckily, we were able to market the business and balance multiple jobs in order to see earnings come to Marmaros Productions without personally touching a dime ourselves. It took a lot of patience, hard work, and quite honestly some frustrations at times to continue to build the business from the ground up without income or real profit, but both Megan and Mallory look back on how they funded their company as broke college graduates with much pride!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The wedding industry is truly a large and small industry if that makes sense. Although you might not be working with the same vendors week to week or even month to month, a huge part of building your reputation within the market is building relationships with other vendors. A lot of venues and vendors have preferred vendors lists, so it is crucial to show your genuine authentic self when you first meet another vendor because that first impression could impact your chances of joining their preferred vendors list which could also impact your chances of more clients discovering your business. The obvious answer to this is also going above and beyond for each and every couple throughout the entire time that they are your couple. The wedding industry is an industry where businesses are discovered mainly through word of mouth, reviews, and social media (specifically Instagram). We aim to treat all of our couples like they are royalty and want to create genuine relationships with our clients. Hard work, authenticity, and honesty with clients tend to lead to positive reviews which also help us build our reputation within the wedding industry. Lastly, we work hard on showcasing ourselves on social media in order for clients and others in the market to get a good insight into what it is we do and how we can be differentiated from other wedding planners.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.marmarosproductions.com/about
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marmarosproductions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marmarosproductions/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarmarosTweets
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXRcw9g-DTMMUO11mCqfI8w/featured
- Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marmarosproductions Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/marmarosproductions/ The Knot: https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/marmaros-productions-lilburn-ga-1058933 Wedding Wire: https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/marmaros-productions-lilburn/03b5d65cc81c596e.html
Image Credits
Holly Marbut Photography Grapefruit Photography The Tinsley Co.