We recently connected with Sarah Blessinger and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

It wasn’t until a third friend of mine said “Hey, Sarah – you’re really organized. Would you mind helping on my wedding day to make sure everything gets set up and goes smoothly?” that I even realized “wedding planning” is a real job and people got paid money to do this for a living!

I spent the next 9 months steeped in online research, taking courses to learn about the skills that would be required of me, and interviewing lots of different business owners in the wedding industry – from photographers to florists! The first thing that I knew I would need to set in stone for my business was a name. I probably wrote down over 100 different options. Some were fun, some were silly, and some I hated. But a few really stood out to me. After chatting with a small handful of trusted friends and family members, and also checking the potential business names against the state’s registry, Kindred Weddings and Events was born.

Before even setting up a website, I made sure I set up the backbone of my business, by filing for a business license and liability insurance. This first phase of becoming a business owner was a lot of “desk work” where I was learning how I wanted to structure my business, what applications or services I would need to use to create the perfect client experience, and how to spend my time wisely working on my business.

Then it was time to find some clients! My wedding planning business was not an overnight success. In fact, it took me 4 years before I could take my business full-time and quit my traditional 9-5 job. In those 4 years, I learned so much about being a business owner, creating a well-talked-about client experience, and showing up each and every day to do the work.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Kindred Weddings and Events was born out of my desire to bring creative work back into my life. I had been pursuing acting for several years and was feeling burnt out with the work, the cycle, and the hustle. After getting married myself, I saw a real need within my sphere of influence to find ways to help couples intentionally craft a guest experience that allowed them to connect with their loved ones on an otherwise stressful, yet momentous day.

With each wedding completed, my style and vision for the company has evolved. The largest pivot happened in 2019. I was 2 years into my business, still working endless hours as a side hustle, and was starting to feel that same burnout I had felt previously with acting. I knew something had to change.

I immediately decided to take a deep dive into the past year of weddings, making a list of all of the good, the bad, and the things that must change. I started to notice a common thread through all of my favorite weddings from that year – they were smaller and more intimate than the traditional wedding. The smaller group allowed the couple to feel more comfortable and confident allowing them to show up as their best selves. And allowed them to craft an event that spoke directly to their unique group of friends and family.

So in 2019, I niched down to only serving small and intimate weddings of under 100 guests. Although it was scary to niche down to such a specific subset of weddings, and I feared that I would only end up with no potential clients, I am so proud of myself for making this change. Focusing on one specialty, one offer has made my business far more successful and has allowed me to find ideal clients more so than any other change in my business.

I’m not surprised to find that I found a career where I can uplift relationships and be the cool backstage mom of weddings!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

You tend to hear that the wedding industry is an oversaturated market with similar vendors offering exactly the same product or service. I don’t think so. Because each individual business is built by a specific person whose life experiences and choices help guide them. While there are tons of other wedding planners in my market, none of them can do it just like me because none of them are me!

The #1 thing that has helped build me up as an expert in my niche of intimate weddings in my market is good, targeted SEO. In 2022, 64% of my inquiries came from Google, with 80% of my bookings coming from couples who found me on Google! I want my ideal clients to be able to find me as they search the internet trying to find “ideas for a small wedding” or “how to budget for a small wedding”. Being able to provide them with free education and support for their wedding vision before they even realize what I can offer them is truly priceless.

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

For most of my life, I have operated as a people pleaser. The type of person who jumps at the chance to help, to pitch in, to say yes, and to go the extra mile even if my tank is on empty and I’m desperately hangry. Just after pivoting my focus to small and intimate weddings only, I learned the most beautiful lesson about saying “No” in my business.

I read somewhere that every time you say “Yes” to something you are also saying “No” to something else that hasn’t even been introduced yet. So if I say “Yes” to this client inquiring today, that has a guest count of 150 and a wedding at a venue that is logistically problematic and they want a discount, I might have to say “No” to the perfect ideal clients that inquire next month for this same wedding date. All because I’m scared of letting someone down (someone I don’t know personally) and fearful I won’t get any more inquiries for the upcoming wedding season.

That story is not hypothetical, it really did happen to me. I got stuck with a very less-than-ideal client because I chose to give into the fear of a scarcity mindset. Which is so silly, because when you break it all down, there are over 2.4 million weddings every year – and it’s quite impossible for me to do even just 1 percent of those celebrations! I had to get better at saying “No” when something wasn’t a good fit, so I could prepare for the best “Yes” that was coming my way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kindredweddingsandevents.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kindredwedevents/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kindredweddingsandevents
• Other: https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/kindred-weddings-and-events-north-hollywood/f5f371e54800b109.html

Image Credits
Kami Arant Photography, Aly Tovar Photography, Angelica Marie Photography