We recently connected with Sarah Brehant and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
Answering this question is really embarrassing, but hoping that it helps someone else, I’m happy to share. I started my wedding planning business with absolutely no experience (do not try this at home!) After finding a deep love for planning and design while planning my own wedding, the planner I had hired asked me to team up with her. I joined her for a short season then said my goodbyes when I realized this person was not trustworthy. While navigating my own wedding, I learned a lot, but it was absolutely not enough to open a business. I went into the business blind, not realizing the importance of education, being fully trained in every avenue from catering to rentals to the nuances of planning, providing an enjoyable client experience, having solid accounting- I knew almost nothing! Somehow, I booked a handful of clients (sorry to anyone in year one!) and I learned things quickly as I experienced them at weddings. For instance, don’t book a florist just because she’s the only florist you know and you feel comfortable with her because you worked together once at a photoshoot. Do your due diligence and make sure the florist you’re recommending has a vast portfolio that matches your clients vision as well as their budget. This I did not do and I’ll never forget the photographer and bridesmaids pointing out the wilted, dying flowers on the wedding day. I felt so bad and so responsible but luckily the bride never even noticed. As a first year planner, I didn’t even comprehend that I was basically responsible for the entire wedding, so when it started raining at a tented wedding during toasts, I was the one who needed to figure out a way to put the tent walls down and gather help in order to do so. It was all just a learning curve. Through years of experience, I learned the hard way and some of my clients paid for it in year one because they didn’t receive the type of white glove service I pride myself on today. Luckily, I never received any complaints, and it might just be me being hard on myself but I know now that they deserved better! In year two, I hired a business mentor who coached me and provided group settings which allowed me to listen to other planners talk about their problems which helped me learn, grow and experience so much quicker. I moved on to another mentor and learned eons of information and it helped me learn how to do my job better, scale my business and book my dream clients.
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 owner, planner and designer of Sarah Brehant Events, an award winning Wedding and Event Planning company located in Connecticut, servicing New England, New York and all destinations. I go wherever love takes me! Sarah Brehant Events opened in 2017 after falling in love with event planning and design through planning my own wedding. I grew up an artist, I loved painting, drawing, photography, anything creative and I always wanted to be an Interior Designer. I still do actually! I fantasize about shadowing an Interior Designer through their work week because it’s so interesting to me to create such a permanent design for your clients. For weddings and events, the idea of being able to take a blank slate, such as a tent or a white venue and create a custom, personalized event that is a perfect reflection of our couple is so exciting to me. I love being able to pull out every bit of our couples personalities, lives and relationships and hearing the guests saying ‘this is so them!’ It is the most satisfying challenge to get to know someone in a short amount of time and execute a large scale production that even teaches their guests something new about them.
We specialize in large scale productions, so full tent builds on private properties, or venues such as historical mansions by the water. Many of our couples have destination weddings and often get married on the water. We strive to create a fun and laid back planning experience, walking our clients through each phase of planning a wedding with ease and intention. From budgeting, to a custom curation of vendor recommendations and designing their wedding with them, we hand hold them through every step of the way. On the day-of, our goal is to allow our couples to be in the moment, We thoughtfully plan everything out with our couples, so on the day-of, we can just make it flow while our couples can truly be a guest at their own wedding while we are working out any kinks in the background!
How did you build your audience on social media?
I’m not really sure if I have an audience per say but I appreciate every single person who supports, likes and engages with our business on social media, it’s such an easy way to support and goes such a long way. I would love to share some advice that I learned throughout the years! When I first started out, I thought I should share every single event I was hired for on my Instagram. If I received an album, I’d share it to prove I was working! Like, here I am hired for a real event, I was here! But the reality was, this is not the case. Eventually I learned who my ideal client was and who I wanted to serve, which, like I mentioned, is blank slate, private property, tented or historical mansion weddings who want detail oriented designs that showcase who they are as a couple. That means even if I absolutely adored my bride who hired me to design their wedding at a ballroom, I should not share the photos unless I wanted to go back and work there again. You become known for what you share, so think of quality over quantity. Share only what you want to do again and what brings you joy.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
I never imagined in a million years I’d be a business owner. I have always lacked confidence, but through each new couple, successful wedding and five star review, I realize this business is here to stay and I’m pretty damn good at it. Most importantly, my heart is in it and I just love what I do. Some of my key milestones were booking my dream client and sharing the gorgeous photos everywhere! I always knew I wanted to plan tented, waterfront weddings and this one was just everything I wanted in a client and a wedding.
Getting referred by incredible vendors who I’ve been so lucky to know and have built meaningful relationships with; there’s nothing more special than that. Having brides refer new clients, same feeling of gratitude and joy knowing that my services were good enough for them to recommend me. Having someone trust you enough to refer you, it just means the world.
I also want to share something that happened that was a low for me but helped me grow. I had my dream inquiry come in, a bride that had booked my absolute dream venue. It was the venue of all venues and this was my ticket to get in and work there! We hit it off so well on the call. When I hop on calls with inquiries I know right off the bat if we are going to be a good fit and can almost always tell if they’re going to hire me. We hung up, excited to work together and she started sending me her inspiration, her dress, things that most people will only send if they’re serious about working with you and plan to move forward. I knew it was a slam dunk! Three days passed and the contract still wasn’t signed and I started to get concerned. Finally, she emailed me telling me she went with someone else and that it was a really difficult decision but due to Covid and having to change venues already, she picked the planner that had worked at this venue before because they were a safer choice even though she felt more connected to me. I was CRUSHED. I cried for a week. I manifested and manifested and finally, about 9 months later, another inquiry came in from an incredible bride getting married at the same venue and we clicked and she booked me! Her wedding might be one of the most exciting designs I’ve ever had the privilege of doing. So, with that being said, I just chalked it up to it wasn’t meant to be. What’s meant to be will be!
Contact Info:
- Website: sarahbrehantevents.com
- Instagram: @sarahbrehantevents
- Facebook: facebook.com/sarahbrehantevents
Image Credits
Mary Claire Photography, Melanie Ruth Photography, Lynne Reznick Photography, Chris and Becca Photography