We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stephanie Milosh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Stephanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Beauty & the Budget Events began after I fell in love with the wedding experience while planning my own wedding in 2017, and maybe this makes me a cliche, but I got hooked. Less than a month after my wedding, I was sitting at the same office worked at since graduating from NC State in 2014, bored out of my mind, and the business name popped into my head. I’d never considered being a business owner before, but I became totally captivated by the idea and couldn’t wait to get started.
I quickly learned that the wedding industry is much larger than I could have imagined, and every wedding planner had a different approach, even though we all have a similar end goal of creating a great wedding. There is a “typical” bride and a “typical” wedding that happens in each market, but I’ve never been one to follow trends without a purpose. From early days, I’ve loved working with clients who want to break the rules, try new things, incorporate their personalities and cultures, aren’t afraid of color, and understand that their wedding should reflect their relationship, just all dolled up. We’ve made it a mission to help weddings be beautiful on any budget, simply because we create moments based on what the couple wants and needs, rather than what the industry says.
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?
At Beauty & the Budget Events, creating an event is about more than never-ending checklists coming together to create a single, beautiful moment; instead, the entire process is meant to be enjoyed. Every moment is valuable, and we have packages to help clients every step of the way, or simply to wrap all their plans together in a cohesive and comprehensive way that helps them get down the aisle and into their reception without a care in the world.
We can work with couples to build a budget and secure vendors, share tips and tricks to make planning easier, develop a cohesive wedding aesthetic designed around your love story, and build their timelines and floor plans, among so many other things. Whether you’re planning an intimate elopement or an elegant affair for 500 guests, let’s partner together so we can manage the checklists while you enjoy your engagement season before embarking on a beautiful marriage.
As we’ve built our business, connected with incredible vendors, and worked with the coolest couples, weddings have become my absolute passion. Our favorite thing is being able to connect with super rad couples who challenge us with new ideas, especially when those ideas incorporate family and cultural traditions. We welcome all couples who want their wedding to express their love story and who they are in an authentic way.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Being an effective communicator is such an essential part of wedding planning, from attracting leads and booking clients to providing information and coordinating with vendors. As an English major, I’ve always felt confident in my writing and ability to communicate, but I quickly learned that rhetoric-driven journalistic writing doesn’t work for marketing.
For years, the rules of grammar had been drilled into my mind, I avoided colloquialisms to present myself as a professional, and I always wrote in clear, concise, unbiased language. Sentences started with a subject and verb, paragraphs had at least three sentences, and first-person was considered inappropriate.
Learning to write in my own voice was more difficult than I expected! Everything school taught was about removing myself from the content, and all of a sudden, I needed to put myself back in my writing. I had to tune into my speaking voice, my thinking voice, the honest way I communicate. I started writing from the heart. I allowed myself to start sentences with conjunctions. A paragraph might consist fo a single, long, descriptive sentence that was intended to stand apart.
Writing within the rules and then deciding to break those rules has been a fun experiment in changing what’s expected, which totally helps with weddings! We love when couples have personalized weddings that include elements they love, and a lot of the time, that means taking an alternative approach to traditions! We learned where the traditions came from and what they originally meant so we could determine if a couple wants to include it, remove it, or make it their own. Writing from the heart allows me to connect with couples in a genuine way during every part of the onboarding and planning process, and I’m able to create a professional approachable experience via my language.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
When it comes to booking clients, our goal has always been quality over quantity. We want to create the best possible wedding experiences for our clients, and that can only happen when there’s trust involved. A client can trust us if we understand and appreciate their vision, respect their budget and preferences, and provide personalized support and assistance. This works best when we book our ideal clients, and to find them, it’s all about speaking directly to them.
Our communication style with couples, even before booking, is intentional. We speak from the heart, want them to know that we see them as a couple instead of just another wedding, and regularly use language that appeals to the right clients. “Own your weird,” is one of my favorite phrases, because we love working with couples who know they march to the beat of their own drum and love the parts of themselves (and their relationship) that make them unique. Not only do we want to attract couples who aren’t afraid to do things their own way, but the word “weird” is a big turn-off for couples who aren’t likely to be a good fit.
“Your day, your way,” is such a theme for us that we have a page on our website dedicated to this topic. We don’t want our weddings to all look and feel the same. We believe each wedding should be a representation of that couple, not just a design that works for any couple. So we’re happy to travel all over North Carolina and beyond, working at a wide array of venues from barns and beach houses to mountaintops and museums. We design with every color of the rainbow, bring in a variety of textures and organic elements, and enjoy working with different aesthetics, cultures, and experiences. Our couples have been diverse, including their backgrounds and religions, priorities and preferences, guest lists and budgets.
When you know who your ideal client is and can speak directly to them, I find that clientele grows naturally because the right people will gravitate to you. We love creating an open and inclusive space to celebrate all love stories in authentic ways.
Contact Info:
- Website: beautybudgetevents.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/beautybudgetevents
- Facebook: facebook.com/beautybudgetevents
- Other: pinterest.com/beautybudgetevents
Image Credits
HollyLucasWeddingReception (pampas + black and coral): Venue-The Shiloh | Cirque91 Photography | Florist-Fern & Sun Palm | Rentals-Aztec Rentals Sunset (couple w ceremony): Venue-The Durham Hotel | MKM Photography | FauxReal Flowers | New York Bride & Groom Raleigh | Stylist-Perfection by Patricia | Diamonds Direct Rustic (tables): Venue-Windy Hill Farm | Photography-Destiny Pierce Photography | Florist-Orlaya Flora Cake cutting (two brides): Venue-Museum of Life + Science | Photography-Kivus & Camera | Love Cake | Rentals-American Party Rentals Centerpiece: Venue-21C Museum Hotel Durham | MKM Photography | FauxReal Flowers Lounge: Venue-3 Bluebirds Farm | Oak City Photography | Rentals-Cottage Luxe Cake cutting: Venue-JC Raulston Arboretum | Brian Anthony Photography | Cake-Cupcakes d’Amour | Rentals-American Party Rentals, Southern Vintage Table | Stylist-Jessica Hair MUA | Cake topper-revelry + heart