We were lucky to catch up with Michaela & Olivia Morin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Michaela & Olivia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

We have been so lucky to have the support of our Family and Friends. Our mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law and multiple friends have helped us from setting up the picnics to running errands and helping build things. Our parents are two of the most hard-working, caring, genuine people as well as our two biggest cheerleaders. We attribute our work ethic all to them!

Starting a small business isn’t easy. There are so many roadblocks and unknown paths you have to take that often discourage you and without the support from our community, we would have given up a long time ago.

Asking them to share on social media has really been the best way we have been supported by family and friends. It isn’t labor intensive, it doesn’t require a ton of time and it simply pushes us out to all of their followers which gives us a bigger reach in the digital world!

Michaela & Olivia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are two sisters who share a love for working with people! In both of our full-time professions, we have been planning events for a combined 16 years. We thought it was time to share that with Connecticut.

and so … The CT Picnic Co. was born during a pandemic!

We started by planning outdoor, themed dinners for our family to get us through the quarantine blues, on a budget! These outdoor events made it possible to get together with friends and family in a safe way, while also having fun.

And that is how we built The CT Picnic Co.! Luxury picnics provide a safe and clean environment.

We specialize in small to medium size events, mainly outdoor. We have done baby showers, weddings, bridal showers, date nights, friends get togethers, graduation parties, birthdays,

The customer sends an inquiry on our website, we email back and the planning starts there! We have our own warehouse of decor that we have hand selected to use. We work with our customers to plan every aspect of their event from the second the guests walk in the door/tent! We are always interested in new themes or asks from our customers which keeps us on our toes!

Have you ever had to pivot?

We are actually in the process of pivoting our business model for the next 2023 season. We both work full time jobs so juggling a full-time job, with a side business that quickly exploded, so there was not much time to recharge,

Being in New England, our weather is the true teller of our picnic season. Typically, we host events from May 1 to November 1 but that can vary!

This past 2022 season was a real doozy for us. We had a ton of events for the business but also a lot of life events … our brother got married, two cousins got married, trips planned etc. Going forward, we have decided to focus on medium size events. It allows us the chance to be more creative as there is more to decorate and plan for larger events, we can pay very close attention to these events and prepare more in advance, set up site visits, consultations and so much more!

We are so excited for this new evolution of our brand and cannot wait to see where it takes us in 2023!

How did you build your audience on social media?

We never realized how much time you can spend on social media!!

After our first season, we decided to have cards printed that said, “Thank you for supporting our small business!” and had our Instagram and social media handles added to this card. It has greatly added to the number of pictures/stories people have tagged us in!

Despite digital being such a HUGE revenue stream for our picnics (we mostly get our business from Instagram), it seems that consumers still want something physical to reference or take with them. The thank you card has been such a nice touch!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thectpicnicco.com
• Instagram: @thectpicnicco
• Facebook: The CT Picnic Co.

Image Credits
Haley Rome Photo Gustavotessaro Photography Cheskaandco Photo