We were lucky to catch up with Riley Gersch recently and have shared our conversation below.

Riley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

When I first started Elegant Affairs by Design, I did not have any employees. It was just me, myself, and I handling all of the tasks from answering emails, calls, drafting proposals, finalizing and sending out timelines, ordering rental equipment, coordinating with vendors, etc. I quickly learned that no matter how good you are at your job, you can’t be good at everything.

I was very hesitant to hire. I am a huge perfectionist, and an even bigger control freak! However after many months of working 12 hours a day, I finally gave in and hired my first assistant. When I hired my first assistant I thought that I would only need help on wedding days. The relief was immediate and not too long after I hired 2 more assistants. These 2 would not only help on wedding days, they would also assist with all the other duties of running a business from admin to marketing and everything in-between. Call it destiny. Call it God’s plan. However you want to describe it, bringing these 3 ladies on was the best move i have made in my 5 years of being a business owner. If I were to go back in time the only thing I would change is that I would have hired them sooner.

Riley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Elegant Affairs by Design is a boutique wedding planning company based in Tampa, Florida. We service all of Florida and destination. Our mission is to create elegant, timeless design dreamed of in fairy-tales and curated through sophistication in every detail.

I learned that I had a passion for weddings when I began to plan my own wedding. I was on a mission to create my fairy-tale dream wedding, and as the pieces started coming together, I realized that the complete joy I felt being able to bring my vision to life could be shared with so many other brides. I fell in love with designing and organizing the small details. Prior to getting married, I had assisted another wedding planner for about two years and I did not want these skills to go to waste. I became a Certified Wedding Planner through the worlds largest leading certification program in the world – The Certified Wedding Planning Society. After receiving my certification, I then launched EABD in February of 2018.

EABD currently offers three different packages – full planning, partial planning, and month of coordination. I would have to say that full planning is my favorite. I love being able to be with our couples from the initial consultation to the day of execution. Seeing all those decisions and all those special touches come to life on their wedding day is the best part.

Every single day, our team dedicates our work to ensure that every couple is blown away by the details that make their day one-of-a-kind.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Referrals are the best source of new clients for us. I would say about 70% of our new clients are from word of mouth referrals. Our mission is to curate and maintain relationships with past couples, vendors, and venues. There is no greater form of flattery than when our referrals come from former clients, vendors, and venues.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building our presence on social media has not been an easy feat. Honestly, I’m not sure how influencers do it! When I first launched EABD in 2018, I set monthly and yearly goals for our audience on Instagram. While we did not have many followers at first, we slowly build our presence by getting our name out there. By setting up tours at new venues, grabbing coffee with local vendors, and orchestrating styled shoots, our audience on social media slowly grew. It is certainly not anywhere near some other planners, however, I am very proud of how far we have come.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.elegantaffairsbydesign.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/elegantaffairsbydesign
• Facebook: facebook.com/elegantaffairsbydesign
• Other: Tik Tok @elegantaffairsbydesign

Image Credits
Brandy Grace Photography Amanda Zabrocki Photography CreatedFour Wedding Photo and Video Jake and Katie