We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mendy Brakensiek a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mendy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
A couple of years ago, our two oldest daughters got married 5 weeks apart along with two of our nieces (who are also sisters) who also got married within the same year. We had 4 weddings and showers within 6 months and I was in charge of the planning and decorating for all of them!! I have always had a love for throwing parties and decorating which is why my daughters and nieces entrusted me with their big days. At each wedding we had several vendors and venue owners ask who decorated and when they found out it was me, they encouraged me to go into business. I was nervous, but we thought since I already had a start to some inventory from all of the weddings/showers, that I would take a chance. In buying the items for all of the weddings, we had to do a lot of searching, leg work, and travel in order to find the items that we were envisioning to complete the look for their big days. The closest decor rental service that had items similar to what we were looking for was 3 hours away! I felt that there was definitely a need within our area and with the encouragement and support of my husband, POMP Events and Rentals was created! Everybody wants their event to feel special, no matter if it’s a wedding, a shower, birthday party, retirement party, etc. A lot of making these events special is in the details. Listening to my clients, getting to know them, and then incorporating ‘them’ into the event is what makes it all complete. I love being able to see my clients faces as they see the finished product for the first time. It’s a good feeling to know that you helped to give somebody a moment they will treasure for the rest of their lives.
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 back background and context?
In this day and age of Instagram and Pinterest, clients have an abundance of influence for the vision that they want to see come to life for their big day. A lot of clients have their Pinterest dreams, which can be a blessing and a curse. We like to sit down with the clients, go over their Pinterest dreams, walk them through their big day, and help make their vision come to life all while staying on budget. Our inventory is continually growing. If a client comes to us with an idea or look, and if we don’t have that particular item, we will get it if we feel that it will fit into our overall inventory plan and to keep us up-to-date in an industry that is always evolving. Our inventory consists of backdrops, arbors, rugs, furniture, signage, table decor, dessert displays, etc. We have two different options for our clients; the cost-efficient option or the stress-free option. With the cost-efficient option, POMP delivers the items, the client sets up and takes down the items themselves, and then POMP comes and picks the items up. Or, the second, and most popular, the stress-free option, POMP brings all of the items, sets them up, comes back after the event and takes down the items, repacks them, and hauls them away. The stress-free option gives the client more time to enjoy the day by entrusting POMP to bring their vision to life. Most clients don’t realize the time, effort and cost that comes into planning an event and by utilizing a rental service such as POMP, they can relieve a lot of stress, headache and cost. Your time is worth something!! Our clients will not have to spend their time and money running from place to place to find all of the items that they will need. Renting is by far more cost efficient and less time consuming. POMP does all of the design layout, item searching, price comparing, packing, transporting, setting up and taking down for you. A lot of people know what they want, they just don’t know how to get it all and then put it all together. That’s what we’re here for!!
How’d you meet your business partner?
I didn’t have to go far to meet my partner!!! She’s one of my daughters, Jade!! When Jade got married she was a first grade teacher and loving it. And like any other newly married couple, the next step in their lives was to have a baby and we were soon blessed with a grandson, Brock. I watched Brock for a short period while Jade went back to work after maternity leave, all while still running POMP. After returning to work, Jade made the decision that she would really like to spend more time with Brock and made the hard decision to step back from teaching. With more free time and the perk of most days being a ‘bring-your-kid-to-work day’, Jade approached me with the idea of joining me on the POMP journey. And, of course, I said yes!!! Jade and I work great together in the fact that we bounce ideas off of each other and aren’t afraid to tell each other if something isn’t working. She has her own unique way of envisioning things, as do I and we love to mesh our visions together. Jade is bubbly, creative, extremely outgoing, and has a fantastic sense of humor!! Working with her is one of my greatest joys. As a mother, I am extremely proud of Jade and so fortunate to be able to have a relationship with her, and my other children, that is thoroughly complete. I’ve been truly blessed in the fact that I can call my children my friends!! I can definitely say that all of my kids inherited my creative side and love for decorating. My other two daughters, my son’s girlfriend, and my two nieces all help us out on the big days with setup and tear down. POMP is definitely a family affair and, of course, GIRL POWER goes a long way!!!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
In our market, the more personal service you can give, the better. A lot of clients have a lot of different ideas of how they are envisioning their big day and need some guidance to help them hone in their ideas to achieve the final outcome. POMP is definitely a personal service in a day where a lot of companies do their business strictly on-line. You learn a lot from your client when you actually sit down, look through their Pinterest/Instagram ‘dreams’ and then talk them through how to make it happen. Also learning our clients’ personalities helps US in helping THEM. Getting to know their personalities helps us help them make a decision that they were unsure of and then we can explain to them why. Clients usually get overwhelmed with all of the decision making and we can guide them through it and put them at ease. We have also made personal connections with the venue owners and staff and other vendors. That networking is invaluable!!! In them getting to know us and the end product that POMP provides, gives them the reassurance also that we will make the day run smoothly, efficiently, and their venues will look even more fabulous!!! It’s definitely a trust factor. A trust between our clients and POMP and a trust between the venues/vendors and POMP. Trust that POMP will go above and beyond to make clients’ dreams a reality.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pompeventsandrentals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pompeventsandrentals/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pompeventsandrentals
Image Credits
Joy Lynn Photography Vasva and Co Angellica Photography Rachel Myers Photography