Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Rios and Katilynn Stephens.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The two of us have always had an eye for creativity and a passion for parties! Of course, with our love for party planning we have always been the ones to turn our loved ones dreams into a reality. Last year before quarantine we met through mutual friends and immediately became the ultimate duo. As we got to know each other better, we started talking about event planning and the parties we had planned in the past. With Mary’s background from California and me (Katilynn) being born and raised in Nashville we had so many crazy ideas, and one of those ideas was opening our very own event planning business. Just like our motto we said, “Oh Honey, we can do that!” We became a full-service event planning business in the beginning of February 2021, in which we are always trying to innovate new experiences and “WOW’ our clients. This process has been so fun and exciting but it has also been a lot of hard work. We have been humbled by this experience and we can not wait to see where we are in the next year as we continue to grow.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
How much time do you have? No part of this has been super easy, but we made it through with hard work and dedication. One struggle we had was branding. It took us about three weeks to come up with the perfect name and the logo and then building it to be the perfect branding concept. We wanted it to be fun and sweet just how we wanted to brand our company. After we got our website up, next came pricing we really wanted to stand out with pricing based on each client’s needs but the struggle will always be how to make it affordable for the client without compromising our value. Marketing has been a huge struggle as we both aren’t very big into social media and have found that this is the best way to market our company without the heavy costs but we are now getting the hang of it and are having fun creating our content. Lastly, our biggest struggle is transporting our items without breaking things. Just last week, we opened the back of the car and I had the bag with our wine glasses in it and another with our candle holders and they both were falling out at the same time and was stuck to choose to save the glasses or the candle holders… candle holders lost that one.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
What sets us apart from other companies is we take the time to really listen to our client’s wants and needs. We do our best to deliver on any special requests they may have. Along with adding special touches based on theme and or special occasion. The other thing that sets us apart is that we plan events of all kinds. “There’s no event too big or too small we can do it all.” We specialize in luxury pop-up picnics. We just love bringing people together and helping them create those amazing memories that will last a lifetime. We are so proud when we finish an event or picnic and the client can’t stop raving about how satisfied they were.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
We aren’t afraid of taking criticism from others to help make our services top-notch and asking for help when needed is hard but we will do anything to provide the best service possible. When it comes to social media, we are learning the in’s and out’s but finding there’s no wrong way to market on our socials just as long as we are active and responsive on them. We will take any advice someone throws our way. We find that building intentional relationships while networking and really being available for our vendors has been so important.
Contact Info:
- Email: honeyloveeventsplanner@gmail.com
- Website: honeyloveevents.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeyloveevents/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Honeyloveevents
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/honey-love-events-la-vergne?osq=Honey+Love+Events
Image Credits
Mary Rios Katilynn Stephens
