We were lucky to catch up with Randy Daoud recently and have shared our conversation below.

Randy, appreciate you joining us today. 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.

My Aunt Aleen Danjou with Danjou Events who is a florist and a wedding designer approached me in encouraging me to start up my lighting business. At first I was very hesitant from having literally no knowledge about anything wedding related. All I had to my name was $1,000.00 and a BMW coupe that I had saved money to buy from when i was 14.

When it comes to lighting, if you think your reception space could use a little something to spice it up a bit and add a little color and mood to the space, it’s highly recommended that you consider lighting. It really can make a big difference and change the entire mood of the space.

At that time (2015-2016) not a lot of people were doing lighting. What you may not know is Michigan is a very diverse state with multiple cultures. Weddings are very high in demand in this state as far as working events every weekend.

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

In January of 2015, My father suddenly passed away from a massive heart attack. I was only 20 years old. Fortunately, he left us with a home and businesses that he had established already. Unfortunately, both the businesses and house had a mortgage that we took on to continue to make the payments. I am the eldest of my siblings. I have one brother and one sister. Taking on responsibilities at a very young age can be stressful. With seeing all the expenses that we had to endure, I was still in college and did not want to end up in another form of debt. I was looking for other ideas to see how I can make money and support my family in paying the bills, my personal expenses, and my tuition.

In the beginning, I was nervous, and scared of failing. After crossing paths with other vendors in this industry and seeing how they are friendly and family oriented and are all in this for the same reason and that reason is to have the clients satisfied and happy for their big day, I began to love this business more and more each year.

Having proper lighting brings out the natural beauty. When good lighting and good decoration come together, they create a work of art. My Job is only lighting up events but I promise you, the first thing when the newlyweds enter into the ballroom for their first look of the hall, my work is noticed first from the ambience color of the ballroom, to the lighting structured and well evened out. 9/10 clients first responses are the compliments of my lighting around the perimeter of the ballroom.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

All I had to my name was $1,000.00 and a BMW coupe that I had saved money to buy from when i was 14. I wanted to set an example to my younger siblings that it is ok that we are going through this now and that one day we will get through this and get better.

I did my research on lighting equipment with what style lighting to get and see what no one else has first. I also started to pay attention to other events and see how not a lot of venues nor vendors at that time had lighting in their events nor packages. Two months pass by after the passing of my father. I sold my BMW, Purchased 24 lights to start off, leased a pick up truck to drive to and back for this business, took a leap of faith and signed the holy cross and kept going. I knew that having only 24 lights wouldn’t be enough so for every event I would do, I would save a good amount of money to the side to purchase more lighting after all my payments, tuition fees were paid. When everything was paid, I went straight to ordering more lights and more equipment to do more than one event a day.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

In January of 2022, I met with an engaged couple (Harry and Vana Hartounian) at their venue space to do measurements and count of lighting for their event. The room was an empty space literally just 4 walls, beautiful arches and in the heart of downtown Detroit. The moment I met the clients, I knew they weren’t going to go with anyone else. Before doing my measurements, I was very amused with this specific space. I had so many ideas of specific styles of lighting to do for them before even saying anything. I think I was more ecstatic to do their wedding than themselves even getting married. Right away Vana had told me, “what do you think of this venue Randy?” I immediately answered “There is a lot that I really would love to do and I would be honored to transform this entire space. Can you trust me with what I want to do?” She nodded and began laughing. We discussed over the months before the wedding with what they wanted. A standard ballroom with a minimum of 450-500 guests require 45-50 lights with Randy’s Lighting Unlike other companies that will do whatever just to take the client. For Harry and Vana and because i had their entire trust with lighting the perimeter of their ballroom(space), we had over 125 Lights. They got married in May of 2022 and til this day, I wish I could do that event and day all over again. Moral of the story, from the first day meeting Harry and Vana, I knew what they wanted, went above to meet their needs and seeing their reaction on the day of their wedding made me love this business just more. It’s the joy and and smile on the clients faces that keep me going. They went from being just clients of Randy’s Lighting to literally family.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @randyslighting
• Facebook: @randyslighting

Image Credits
Cinema 48, CChanel Photography