We recently connected with Sadia Khatri and have shared our conversation below.

Sadia, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.

Some of the biggest trends we are seeing are bringing the outdoors in! This is everything from boxwood greenery walls to 5-10ft tall trees to an entire aisle runner made of grass. Florals have always been a big part of weddings but these days greenery is gaining popularity for sure. Flower walls in all colors and styles are also very popular, as are floral and/or greenery chandeliers, suspended from the ceiling.

Indoor sparklers continue to be popular to bring a wow factor to entrances and first dances. And last but not least – one of my favorite high impact trends – Custom printed vinyl dance floor wraps. These can completely change the look of a space and can be as colorful or neutral as you wish.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m the founder and creative director of SK Designs, a full service event design and planning company. My company is based in the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio area but we have done events from Michigan to Texas, California to New York and lots in between.

I fell into event planning early due to my heavy involvement in MYNA, a Muslim youth group, during my childhood and into my teen years. This evolved over the years into where it is today.

What I am most proud of is creating this company from the ground up with no outside investment. It has certainly been a labor of love, but I’m extremely blessed that my husband, who is now my business partner as well, has supported my efforts wholeheartedly since we met. We are so excited to have taken the huge leap this year of transitioning into a warehouse space, allowing our inventory and our capabilities to continue to grow.

I want my past, current and potential clients to know that I put my heart into EVERY SINGLE EVENT that I do. It keeps me up at night (in a good way!) and I am always looking for ways to improve or give even more to your event than you are expecting. The network of high quality vendors I’ve been fortunate to forge relationships with will go to work for you to create the perfect event for you.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

From a young age, I have always loved planning events, whether it be parties for my friends or conferences for my youth group. Friends and family always told me I should do it for a living, and eventually people started hiring me to curate beautiful events for them. I officially created SK Designs in 2008 but started on a very small scale while working in the corporate world-planning and designing on the side, evenings and weekends while working full time during the week. About six years ago, I was doing 8-10 events per year and with the support and encouragement from my husband Nicholas, I finally took my business full time. In 2021, we planned and/or designed 46 events and by the end of this year we will have 60 events completed, with the last being on New Year’s Eve. Our books are already filling up for 2023 and beyond as well!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I am so honored that our clientele is almost exclusively through word of mouth from family, friends and past clients, or referred by other vendors in the events industry. We have been able to cultivate strong relationships with many popular venues in the area who consistently send clients to us whenever they have a need for something we can provide, especially with South Asian or Middle Eastern clients, which is definitely our specialty.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.skdesigns.me
• Instagram: instagram.com/skdesigns.me
• Facebook: facebook.com/skdesigns.me

Image Credits
Amal Saeed Photography Bambino International Sadia Khatri