We recently connected with Tracy Pratt and have shared our conversation below.

Tracy, appreciate you joining 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?

Bloom & Ivy began out of a desire to use our time and energy for good. We’ve always been makers and doers, and initially floral arrangement was a fun, low-pressure creative outlet. When the pandemic hit and we watched our friends and neighbors struggling with still wanting to make their special life celebrations feel beautiful and meaningful with so many new obstacles, so we decided to see if we could help. We shadowed a friend who was in the event florals industry and we did a few low-risk events until we felt that our skills and offerings were meeting our personal expectations for clients. We applied for an LLC and, from there, we reached for what platforms were accessible–websites like The Knot and WeddingWire–to keep finding leads. These made it easy for us to get something going without worrying about it being perfect in the beginning! To us, doing was more important than planning; we knew that we could learn by doing if we just took the first step to try. Before long, we were booking 2-3 events per weekend with clients whose feedback praised us for prioritizing warm, friendly service over being impersonal in the name of professionalism. We just want to help our customers throw beautiful celebrations!

This is where the dreaming began. I’ve always been thrilled by the idea of what’s next, and in sharing how excited and proud I was of these fun new experiences, those early clients kept asking for vendor referrals–did I know a DJ? A day-of coordinator? A bartender? Did I know anyone with 38 brass candlestick holders?–so many needs to be filled, and I wished I could help! While I didn’t have names for those clients then, I went back to my school on Monday and saw a coworker who did creative consulting and brand management. I saw my daughter coordinating events at her college internship, my son rebuilding the sound system at his church, and his wife decorating her house for Christmas. I realized that all the hands I would need to lift this business beyond floral design were right in front of me.

Some took more convincing than others. My daughter-in-law for one, who contributes as a coordinator and floral assistant, was a harder sell because she loves details; she wants to know how everything works before it begins and self-identifies as suffering from imposter syndrome and this isn’t uncommon! Lots of entrepreneurs feel this way starting a business. Some struggle with pricing themselves what they’re worth. Others feel that they have no right to market themselves as professionals until they’ve attained a certain level of experience. I think the reason each of the people who have joined our team did so because I truly just want them to share in the joy that I’ve felt in helping others, and I try to model that kindness and customer service will take you so much farther than any perfect social media presence. I offered them each low-pressure opportunities to sample the work, with gentle feedback and lots of encouragement, and now I have interested parties reaching out about getting involved all the time.

Once we had a team of willing workers in place, then we could focus on improving systems and scaling operations. We found a new client management system, we delegated and divided responsibilities based on strengths and skills, and we keep focusing on that original principle of identifying needs and adding them as we go.

Tracy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Tracy Pratt, founder and owner of Bloom & Ivy Weddings and it’s little sister company, Top of the Table. Bloom & Ivy Weddings began as an event florals vendor but has expanded to a full-service event company offering rentals, day-of coordinating, event planning, bartending, DJ, live music, and more. Early in our story, we repeatedly spoke with clients that were still missing key vendors for their special celebrations and decided that these were needs we could fill ourselves!

Our current team is led by myself and my daughter Jill. We are assisted by Jen Pratt in admin, coordinating, and floral design, and a very special mention of Aline Elmurr, who makes all of our branding and web design dreams possible. Our desire since the beginning has been to share in the joy of our clients by offering affordable and personalized products and services while doing business in a warm, friendly, and personalized manner. The majority of our business is done through customized contracts so clients pay only for the products and services they actually want, making our business easily accessible for both big and small budget brides.

We know that most brides are unfamiliar with large-scale event planning–all first time brides are! We strive to be an encouraging, knowledgeable, and trustworthy voice for these brides as they navigate the industry and each work to bring their unique vision to life. From inquiry to project completion, we offer advice, solutions, and quality service to see them reach their event date with confidence that they’ve planned a fabulous celebration.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Full transparency: I’m not a very technical person! I don’t know how SEO works and I hired someone else to figure out email hosting for my domain. I don’t look at this as a weakness though, because it allows other people on my team to bring their skills and know-how to the table. So while most businesses these days will probably refer to their social media savvy or SEO work, the most effective strategy for us has been to stay true to our commitment to be kind. Yes, we love our beautiful, simple website and the fact that our personalized contracts allows for a wider clientele, but vendor and client referrals currently account for a third of our bookings, matching our lead capture from vendor registries like The Knot. That number grows the more venues and vendors we work with. We don’t stress over follower engagement or queuing posts for the feed. In a visual media driven world, kindness and treating others like they matter is still king.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We are fortunate to operate in a location with a cluster of high-quality event venues in a convenient radius, and this has been our greatest asset for keeping our project calendar full. With these nearby venues and our whole team on hand, we’ve been able to provide top-tier service to as many as 5 weddings in a single weekend. The most overlooked aspect of the event industry is that your interactions with other vendors are equally as important as your client’s experience. Networking doesn’t need to be an ordeal: just try to make sure that the vendors you collaborate with enjoy working with you! Have a good attitude, say hello and thank you, and be kind to every vendor you interact with, whether or not you stand to benefit. If it’s sincere, those preferred vendor list offers will come to you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bloomandivyweddings.com/
• Instagram: @bloomandivyweddings
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloomandivyweddings
• Other: Pinterest : https://www.pinterest.com/Bloomandivyweddings

Image Credits
DASH Photography, Luke Lambertson Photography, Carly & Ethan Photography, Sarah Jordan Photography, Savannah Shaw Photography, Maura Davis Photography, Alyssa Foster Photography