Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah Mastriano. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

In general, I do think that every event professional has their own unique perspective on how they approach this fast paced, emotionally charged, sometimes wild industry. For me, that means remaining true to myself and relying on the tried and true systems I’ve found successful to keep my clients, myself and all of their vendors (sometimes 20+) on track for their big day.

With my background in the psychology of design – why people are drawn to the things they are drawn to – I can really put myself in the head of each of my couples to tap into what they need and what they’re envisioning. This is imperative to do as an event planner because every client and every event is so different. It’s also such a sentimental, high pressure day in someone’s life with so many opinions and emotions layered in.

Instead of treating every event as a cookie cutter day, I dive right into what makes the couple who they are. The ‘weirder’, the better! I am not afraid to step outside the box and get creative – infact, I love it. Even if it presents more challenges or obstacles for me as a designer or planner. This is definitely something that sets me apart from other professionals.

I appreciate the design/general experience of an event but really treasure the heart beat behind it more.

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?

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit – a love of design, creativity and art mixed with a type A business brain. Everything I’ve been drawn to, from when I was little creating my own small businesses on the playground through college and post-college jobs, combined my love for beautiful experiences. Interior design, fashion, retail, florals, food, music, photography – everything that sparks joy in our senses as people has always interested me.

As a life long learner and observer, I’ve always enjoyed watching everyone and everything around me. How someone sets their table, what music they play, a beautifully curated menu and gorgeous florals.

I began my professional career in fashion after studying and graduating from the Savannah College of Art & Design and worked various post-college jobs in New York City. From there, I worked nights running my online retail business and stumbled upon a lucky opportunity to open a brick & mortar location in Brooklyn in 2013. Once open, the shop focused on an experience. Walking in felt like a little magical wonderland filled with handpicked trinkets for your home, stationery for loved ones, a small assortment of clothing, thoughtful gifts..I fell in love with working with my customers and predicting what they’d want next. Buying and designing the space really scratched an itch but retail ultimately was not for me. I wanted to get out and be in the world while utilizing the things i loved about my store.

Once I moved the store back to my native New Jersey in 2016, got married in 2017 (and loved planning!) and then became a mother in 2019, it pushed me to be open to other opportunities but I did not know what. Event planning and design was always in the back of my head for years and years – I just never thought I had the personality for it.

In 2020, as COVID hit, I had to pivot and get creative with my boxes and boxes of new inventory that had nowhere to go since stores were closed and we were all in lockdown. I started doing care packages for customers to send to loved ones with ‘surprise’ gift items in it and it took off. From there, customers started asking me to help with bulk gift boxes for digitial/zoom events and weddings, baby showers, birthdays, etc. It became a whole business and I found myself staying up late into the night pouring over every detail of these ‘virtual events’.

Then one day during this time, a former employee of mine casually asked me to point her in the right direction of wedding vendors to plan her wedding (for the following year – fingers crossed that COVID restrictions would relax, which they sort of did) and it sparked an idea in me — “I wish I could help you plan it!” and she said “Well, why dont you?” and the rest was history.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I was a business owner for nearly 10 years before I really found what worked.

Opening the doors to my tiny tiny Brooklyn shop with barely any money and no idea what I was doing at 24 years old was an act of bravery and naivety that I thank my past-self for every day. It’s not something I would go for now as a more wise, cautious 36 year old with a family of my own and even larger responsibilities.

I failed and it was public – moving a storefront, trying a pop up in a new town that did not work, dealing with nightmare customers, high overheads, difficult landlords, being robbed, days where sales were $0 and I had no idea how I’d pay rent. It was scary at times and there were days I wished I could just throw in the towel and get a 9-5. In the back of my head, I always knew if I did ‘fail’, I was ‘failing up’ because it was building grit and resilience for whatever was next.

Making the leap to transition my business from retail to event planning while pregnant with my 2nd child (with a toddler at home) was a risk but one I never questioned. It felt like an outer power was guiding me to it and I have not looked back since. However, it took those failures and years of feeling like I was not where I should have been to get here.

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

As a millennial who came of age in the time of early social media (but still have memories of a time where we had none of it), my finger was always on the pulse of what was going on online.

I built tiny businesses from the time I was 6 years old; everything from babysitters clubs to handmade beaded jewelry and then in high school, I sold embellished apparel using vintage materials on Myspace (which was very new and not something used commercially) to classmates. In college, I continued my vintage inspired businesses and would spend weekends thrifting for pre-loved treasures to spruce up and sell.

This was the beginning of Etsy and I was one of the first groups on there. I’d pack the orders in my dorm room and drop off at the local post office to sell all over the world. Social media and those early days of indie e-commerce helped me accomplish this at such a young age and it’s how I got bit by the bug of entrepreneurship.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alovelyuniverse.com
• Instagram: @aloveyuniverse
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/alovelyuniverse
• Other: Tiktok – @alovelyuniverseevents
  Amazon Storefront- https://www.amazon.com/shop/alovelyuniverse?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsfshop_TQQWS97BAPKKGNAPRXXD

Image Credits

Grace Brown Photography, Olivia Faith Photography, DuSoleil Photography, Adam Okimatsu Photography, Daria M Photography, Veronica Lola Photography, Honescout Photography, L.C Allison Photography