We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michelle Bautista-Ablang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michelle below.

Alright, Michelle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share a customer success story with us?

I was invited to interview as an inspiring entrepreneur and creatives. In 2023, I officially started my small business in Las Vegas, NV. It is called Las Vegas Wedding & Event Decoration Rentals, commonly known as LVWEDRentals. We just launched our website this year as LVWEDRentals.com. In recent years I realized that life is too short to not celebrate all the small and big milestones in our lives. It has become my mission to support each person’s special day like they are part of our own family by providing quality decoration services.

Michelle, 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?

I grew up planning lots of parties for myself, friends, & families. Throughout my working years, I worked in the restaurant industry & the healthcare field. One day I found myself planning my baby shower & wedding at the same time. I put together my own decorations for my baby shower. Then when it came to my wedding planning, we had a newborn. I didn’t want to “DIY” anything. Our wedding was also not planned to be in Vegas. I wanted the most simple decorations & I didn’t want to buy them. I saw how many people had challenges in reselling their items online. I felt that it was not ideal for me to buy decorations that I did would use one time & not have the space for afterwards. I too found myself having a collection of just general party planning & decoration supplies from prior events. In hopes of saving money, space, and time I then seeked out wedding decoration rental companies. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful in finding decoration vendors or rental companies with such concepts. As someone with management experience & a brief history of business colleges courses, I have always had an interest in owning a side business. After years of being in healthcare, I quickly knew that I didn’t want to only have that as my career. Although I love what I do as a dental hygienist, I still got a glimpse of what life would be like if I didn’t practice dentistry. I experienced a broken leg, being pregnant, and general “healthcare provider burn out”. There was no way I could support my family or be more present with them if I relied off of this one source of income. Last year in 2023, I utilized $1000 of my leftover tax refund. It was either I pay off more of my student loans debts or invest in something. With a leap of faith, I then made the decision to invest in our business license. Since then, with the power of social media & word of mouth, we have had almost 20 clients book decoration services with us. What’s been amazing is that many of our clients come to Vegas from all over the world. My siblings & husband are a big driving force behind the decoration service team. It has made LVWEDRentals a whole family affair. It is so fulfilling to work with my family in order to take a lot of the stress off our clients & their own families. Seeing everything come to life on each client’s special day is always so worth it. Event planning can be stressful already in itself & we always strive to keep the process exciting!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I broke my leg, then got pregnant & realized how hard it is to work in dentistry, physically. My husband also had to take a step down from working. I had to brainstorm ideas for a way to utilize my other passions for other sources of income.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

You don’t always have to spend money to make money! I was always discouraged to start a business because I never had a lot of savings set aside for it. The idea of investors or a business loan was the assumption. Social media and networking cost nothing! Most of our clients have come from instagram or through mutual friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://LVWEDRentals.com
• Instagram: Lvwedrentals

Image Credits

Photos from my iphone