Listen to the Podcast About Polly Knows Best
Podcast Summary
In a recent episode of Eventful Endeavors, host Shawn Grindle got up close and personal with Nicole Peters, the creative mind behind ‘Polly Knows Best’. As a prominent force in the West Coast event planning industry, Nicole unveiled her journey towards becoming an entrepreneurial expert in this field.
Reminiscing about her beginnings in 2016, Nicole recalled the pivotal moment when she realized her admirable natural skills in event planning. As a person who was inherently passionate about hosting and creative expression, Nicole explained how she embarked on this rewarding career path. At the initial stage, Nicole managed her event-planning venture part-time, alongside a full-time position in fundraising and donor development.
Notably, her transition into full-time event planning was greatly influenced by her enjoyment in organizing big annual fundraising events in LA and New York. Over time, she honed her skills by learning on the job and self-teaching, eventually moving into wedding planning. Nicole also shared her unique ability to accurately anticipate the number and experience of guests, a talent that proves invaluable in her line of work.
Operating under the name ‘Polly Knows Best’, named after her mother Polly, Nicole doesn’t limit her expertise to just weddings. While the brand is primarily associated with wedding planning, it also extends to other types of events. So, if you’re seeking comprehensive event planning services that embrace creativity and meticulous attention to detail, look no further than ‘Polly Knows Best’.
This interview was provided by Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos.
Podcast Transcript
Shawn Grindle (00:24)
All right, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of eventful endeavors. We are here today back on the West Coast I’ve got with me today Nicole Peters Who is the owner and creative mind behind Polly Knows Best an event planning company out here on the West Coast? So thank you so much for being here Nicole
Nicole Peters (00:42)
It’s great to be here.
Shawn Grindle (00:43)
Great, so I always kind of start off the same way with everybody, which is tell me your story. How’d you get involved in event planning? Was it always what you wanted to do? Did you change careers at some point? Give me your story of how it started.
Nicole Peters (00:56)
That’s a great question. I mean, I had this moment probably back in 2016 where I was like, OK, I really want to have my own business. What am I good at? And I started thinking through, what do I do naturally? And I started realizing that basically my whole life, I just naturally plan events. People have always just asked me to host things. I enjoy hosting things.
Shawn Grindle (01:08)
Mm-hmm.
Nicole Peters (01:26)
come from a very creative family, so I enjoy being creative and doing fun things. So it was kind of like, what’s the thing I always gravitate towards and finds me? And it was event planning. And so I decided, I think I’m just gonna give this a go and tell my family and friends I’m doing my own event business and hire me. And so it’s just been a slow build since there. Kind of, I started part-time. I was working another full-time job, doing fundraising and donor development.
And then my favorite part of that job was planning these big annual fundraising events in LA and New York. And so it just kind of added to my portfolio and I kind of was learning and teaching myself, learning on the job. And always found that it’s just what I gravitated towards. People would call me, can you do my wedding? I’m like, yeah, of course. And so I worked with some people that had experience as an assistant for a little bit, but more or less taught myself and do still really enjoy it.
Shawn Grindle (01:58)
Uh huh.
Right.
That’s awesome. So you started just like planning friends weddings. You’re like, sure, I’ll do it. And then you’re like, okay, we’re doing this. This is like a full time thing now.
Nicole Peters (02:29)
Yeah, and I just have always kind of had a knack for knowing how to create. I have like a sixth sense of how guests will experience a space and how many guests will actually come. I don’t know, it’s like a sense I have, I just know it. And they’re like, how’d you get the number so accurate? I’m like, I don’t know, I just knew.
Shawn Grindle (02:38)
sure.
Right, yeah.
I can read minds. I can see the future. I know how this is going to go. But that’s good. I mean, you kind of need to have that when you’re planning events, too. You kind of need to know, you know, what’s going to happen here. You’re going to have a realistic thing because most of the time the people don’t know. So speaking of events, do you mainly do just weddings? Do you do a little bit of everything? Do you still do any corporate planning or what’s your kind of forte?
Nicole Peters (02:56)
Yeah.
Yeah, I like doing a little bit of everything. So, Polly Knows Best is the title, the business name for all my weddings. So I do all my weddings under that. I named the business after my mom, her name’s Polly.
Shawn Grindle (03:18)
Okay.
Okay, I was gonna ask, that was gonna be one of my questions. So I was like, it’s a unique name, so I was curious.
Nicole Peters (03:33)
yeah people call me and they’re like is this Polly? I’m like well it’s Nicole but you’ve got the right number
Shawn Grindle (03:36)
Hehehehe
I mean, we’re Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos and my name’s Shawn. And there’s a story behind that one too, which we won’t get into, but it’s like, I get that, so it happens.
Nicole Peters (03:46)
Yeah, totally, totally. So that’s the umbrella for my wedding business. And then I have another umbrella for my big fundraising events and corporate events. But I enjoy doing them all. So it keeps it interesting and fun. I love weddings so much. But if I did a wedding every weekend, I think I would burn out really fast. So I’d rather be fresh for my clients. You know?
Shawn Grindle (04:09)
They’re long. Yeah. It’s like they’re like 16 hour days. I mean, they’re long events. You know, it is a it’s a it’s one thing. How many do you end up doing like a year like overall events like weddings and fundraiser everything
Nicole Peters (04:23)
Yeah, I try to keep it at about like one a month. Because I also have a lot of leadership development stuff my husband and I do together. I try to keep it one a month so it’s fresh and I can focus and do it really well. I will do two, but that’s kind of my max. If I’m at two events a month, I can’t do three or four well and really give it my all and be present and not like frazzled when I show up to do the event.
Shawn Grindle (04:28)
Okay.
start.
Yep.
Right. Yeah. But that’s good to know that some people don’t know that and they just do all this stuff and then they’re getting behind other emails and the clients are like freaking out like, where are you? And it’s like, sorry, I was working on this, you know. So it’s good to have that. So let’s focus a little bit on weddings today because I’ve been talking to a lot of people about fundraisers and corporates in the last couple episodes. So I want to get back to weddings. Is that cool? And we’ll talk a little bit about everything, but I want to talk to you about weddings.
Nicole Peters (05:01)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, let’s do it.
Shawn Grindle (05:19)
is my one question I like to ask people is like, what’s the, you know, when people are just starting to plan their wedding, just got engaged, what’s the number one piece of advice you’d have from the get go? Step one.
Nicole Peters (05:32)
So it can go two different ways. My first answer is you have probably never planned a wedding before, so please get help. You need help. I am in the middle of redoing my backyard right now and I’m not a landscaper. And so I called a landscaper to help me because I want it done well and I’ve never done it. And so it’s like, you need a wedding planner.
Shawn Grindle (05:43)
Yes.
Nicole Peters (06:00)
You don’t need to have a full service wedding planner. There are a lot of things you can do yourself, but you need someone to walk you through the process if you’ve never planned a wedding before. There are just a lot of things you will not think through. There are, you’re probably not gonna think about weather and what if it’s raining and what if it’s windy and you know, like let’s make weather plans and just in case. There’s just a lot of pieces and guest experience that people don’t think through.
And the second one is timeline. People don’t really understand how long things take. And so I find that without help of someone who knows, it’s difficult to make an accurate wedding timeline, which affects your whole day. So I would say the first step is getting help. And then the second thing is that I think planning your wedding is like so much more than just planning a wedding. You are…
making probably more decisions with your partner than you’ve ever made together before. And so like carving out space and time so that you’re doing well in the process because it is stressful. And so I think that there’s actually a need for like emotional health in the middle of all the logistics and planning.
Shawn Grindle (06:59)
Right? Yeah.
Yep.
I love that. And that’s true. I mean, I ended up, I mean, I planned a lot of my own wedding and it was stressful, but it also like looking back and I was like, it was fun. We enjoyed it. Like, and the relief when it was over was great. But.
Nicole Peters (07:29)
And it’s important, you’re never gonna get that season again. You’re never going to be planning your wedding again, hopefully, right? If all goes well, you’re not planning another wedding, so don’t just rush through it and be stressed out of your mind. I see people miss these really special moments because their stress and anxiety is so high. And it’s like, just enjoy this. You’re not gonna get it back.
Shawn Grindle (07:36)
Yeah, yeah, if all goes right, you know.
Yeah, and that’s why you hire people. I mean, I had a couple once, you know, I dated an hour wedding planner, we came into the process, and they sent me a timeline that they had made. And they’re like, what do you think about this? And they had allocated 20 minutes for dinner. It was 200 people getting through a buffet. And I was like, what do you think they’re gonna do? Eat a chicken leg, throw it in the water? I was like, this is an hour, hour and a half before lucky. Like we need to like revamp this whole thing. So yeah, that’s why it’s good to talk about that. But this is actually a great transition
Nicole Peters (08:19)
Absolutely.
Shawn Grindle (08:23)
mentioned, you have like this coaching that you do. This is something I’ve not seen before. So you, you offer like a coaching thing that and then you come in and execute it. So talk to me a little bit about that. The list of things you’ve got because this is unique to me.
Nicole Peters (08:37)
Yeah, so when I work with couples, I offer packages where I’m hopping on Zoom and helping them through the planning process. And then I have a whole worksheet that’s very simplified. The first, it’s a Google Sheet and it’s got all these tabs. And the very first tab is 144 items in order. And if you do all of these items in order, your wedding will be planned. No problem.
Shawn Grindle (09:01)
Aww.
Nicole Peters (09:05)
And I’ve the feedback I’ve gotten from brides is like that is their favorite. They are like, I had so many details spinning in my head. I didn’t know what to do first. That worksheet was like game changer. So I give them the worksheet and then depending on the date of their wedding, I actually put in due dates for everything. So it’s like you don’t need your whole wedding planned eight months out. Eight months out, you just need these five things done. And if you do that, you’re good.
Like we don’t have to feel the stress of 144 items eight months out. And so then it’s seven months out. Do these five more items, six months out, do these five more items. So I find that people really love that. And then once a month, depending on the package they book, I hop on an hour Zoom call and we talk through it. What questions are coming up? What are your concerns? And as we’re doing all that, we build out the timeline, we build out the floor plan, we build out the vendor list. So then when it comes time for the wedding day,
Shawn Grindle (09:34)
Right.
Nicole Peters (10:01)
I know exactly what’s going on. I show up with my team and we just implement it and it’s smooth. So all of the worksheets are like in all the order that my team knows exactly what needs to be done when they see it. So it works well because I have a really set system and then it helps the couple feel at peace. Like this is being managed and I’ve done what I need to do.
Shawn Grindle (10:26)
And I think, you know, I talked to a lot of wedding planners about this too, but I think it helps the couples maintain kind of their creative control because a lot of brides and grooms, I think sometimes when they’re like, Oh, I have to hire a wedding planner, but I have this vision, they think the wedding planner is going to like take over the vision, which we know is not the case. But this also gives them a really concise like, look, you’re in control. This is just the tools to help you. Almost like a like a wedding coach. I love it.
Nicole Peters (10:49)
Totally.
Yeah, exactly, that’s what I call it, wedding coaching. And years back, I didn’t do the coaching part and people would just want day of coordination. And then I’d show up and I’d be like, what, this doesn’t make any sense, what am I doing? And I was like, this is not working, I’ve gotta rework this problem. And so now what’s really great about the coaching calls too is I’m spending so much time with the couple.
Shawn Grindle (11:08)
Yes.
Nicole Peters (11:18)
through the planning process that when it gets to the wedding day, I feel like I know them and they’re like my friends. And then I know what their personality is and what they want. There are like, from my experience, there’s two types of brides. You’ve got bride A who wants to be in every detail and she wants to know that you’re on the timeline. You’re, she’s like, you, she wants to know, Hey, in five minutes we’re going to go do your couple photos. In 15 minutes we’re going to sit down for dinner. Like she was a need to know person.
Shawn Grindle (11:22)
Right. Sure.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Nicole Peters (11:47)
Is the need to know and then the second pride that I often work with is that I don’t want to know anything I just want to float through my day and have it be magical Don’t tell me anything and so when I do all those coaching calls I get to figure out which one they are So I don’t know how to serve them on the day like it’s their day and so it needs to be amazing
Shawn Grindle (11:53)
Right.
Also, it’s nice to, if they have that list, do you also work as a kind of hold you accountable to that list? Like, all right, did you get these things done? Are we good here? You know, like, and if they’re like, no, we still didn’t do this, you’re like, okay, no worries. Here’s what we’ll do, you know, that kind of thing.
Nicole Peters (12:29)
Yes, and I find that people tend to panic thinking, I haven’t gotten enough done, I’m behind and behind. I hear that pretty much every wedding. And when we, because I think I’ve done so many weddings, I look at it and I’m like, actually we’re not behind. We’re good. Like the number of things you still have to do, the amount of time we have, it’s not a problem. We’re good. And they’re like, really? And then it just like takes a deep.
Shawn Grindle (12:37)
Right.
Nicole Peters (12:56)
Like they could take a deep breath, you know?
Shawn Grindle (12:59)
Yeah. It’s so funny because wedding planning, it’s, you know, I’m not a wedding planner, but from what I gathered, just talking to so many of them, it’s like, it’s part executioner and part like therapist. It’s going to be okay. Like we’ve got it. Take a big deep breath, you know, part yoga instructor center yourself. Yeah.
Nicole Peters (13:15)
Oh my gosh. Yes. Well, and one of the questions I always ask couples when we get started is, like, what are you most excited about? And what are you dreading? Like, what are you really concerned about? And oftentimes the answer to the concern part is always a specific family member. I’m really concerned.
Shawn Grindle (13:40)
Oh, yeah, Uncle Jim. Ugh.
Nicole Peters (13:43)
Yeah, like there’s always a couple people they’re like they’re gonna come to the wedding we don’t really want them You know, so
Shawn Grindle (13:49)
Yeah, parents, parents paid, parents paid, they want them there, so I guess we gotta do it, I don’t know.
Nicole Peters (13:56)
Totally, and then it helps me as a planner, day up, to kind of help manage things and be like, oh, that’s Uncle Jim.
Shawn Grindle (14:04)
Yeah, my one goal in life is to never be that person that people are dreading to have at their wedding. If I can go through all of my life without having that, me being that guy, that’d be great, perfect. Because you never know when you’re that guy.
Nicole Peters (14:14)
Totally. Yeah, and I find that the people who are, whoever they’re like dreading coming, people do tend to be on good behavior for a wedding. So whatever the worst case scenario is that they’re imagining, it almost never happens.
Shawn Grindle (14:27)
Yeah.
This is actually a perfect transition because one of my favorite questions I like to ask is what’s the um, what’s the cringiest thing you’ve ever seen at a wedding? Either something that’s gone wrong, somebody misbehaving, something you know that the couple did that just they thought would work and just didn’t work. Like anything that pops into your mind.
Nicole Peters (14:51)
Oh, yes. So I did this one wedding and the groomsmen were supposed to be there. They were going to do all these photos ahead of time. So we need the groomsmen there in their outfits, their tuxes and the officiant for the wedding had to, we had to start the ceremony at exactly four.
Shawn Grindle (14:54)
Hahaha
Okay.
Nicole Peters (15:19)
because at 4.30 he had to be in his car because he had a flight to catch. So it was like, nothing can go wrong on the timeline, which normally we stick to the timeline, so I wasn’t too worried about that. But the time the groomsmen are supposed to be there, I’m looking everywhere, like where are the groomsmen? Where’s the groom? Where’s the groomsmen? I asked the bride, I’m asking the bride, they’re coming, they’re coming, they’re coming, they’re coming. An hour after they’re supposed to be there, I’m told they’re here.
Shawn Grindle (15:25)
Wow, okay.
Nicole Peters (15:47)
Great, okay, well they know where their room is to finish getting ready. So I’m taking care of all the stuff, 30 minutes goes by and I’m like, where are they? I go.
Shawn Grindle (15:56)
What time is it now? How late are you guys late already?
Nicole Peters (15:58)
Oh my gosh, we’re not late yet, but like we are supposed to be doing photos like right now and I’ve never, I haven’t even seen them yet. So I’m like, okay, I was told they’re here. They’re not here. So I go outside and they are like hanging out in the parking lot. They are like, they’re smoking, they’re playing with the soccer ball and they’re, and there’s like 10 of them. And I’m just like, and they’re this, for this particular wedding, they were huge guys, like these huge guys.
Shawn Grindle (16:03)
Yeah, sure. Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nicole Peters (16:27)
So I let this, I come out there, you know, a little blonde girl, I’m like, Hey guys, we are supposed to be doing photos right now, like literally right now, and you guys aren’t even dressed. They’re like, oh, sorry. And so they come in and they put on their tuxes and every single one of them has no idea how to tie a tie, no idea how to put their pocket square in, no idea how to pin on the boutonniere. So I’m just running around frantic and then I tell half of them,
Shawn Grindle (16:33)
Yeah.
Oh.
Nicole Peters (16:57)
Look up a YouTube video right now and tie your ties. Like, come on. Somehow.
Shawn Grindle (17:01)
Yeah. You’re just in there. Are you just in there like dressing 10 guys like 10 guys? OK, come on.
Nicole Peters (17:06)
Yes, I went totally as fast as I could. As fast as I could. Seriously, it’s a miracle we started on time. I don’t know how. I started on time. I don’t know how.
Shawn Grindle (17:13)
Oh no.
You did start on time? You think out of ten guys, one of them would know how to tie a tie and they’d help the others like…
Nicole Peters (17:25)
not one of them.
Shawn Grindle (17:27)
That is, that is, where did this, where was this wedding at? Like what, what area? Nashville. That’s even more surprising to me. I don’t know why. You think Nashville, it’s like a bunch of guys that like know what they’re doing, but I guess not, man. Yeah.
Nicole Peters (17:32)
It was in Nashville.
Yeah, totally. No, it was, it was comical and very frustrating.
Shawn Grindle (17:49)
Yeah. Did the bride even know that all that was going on or did she never know?
Nicole Peters (17:53)
She was a little panicked, but I just kept her out of it. We’re good, you just keep getting ready. Just keep getting ready.
Shawn Grindle (18:00)
Yeah. And the girls are probably already ready, right? Were they like…
Nicole Peters (18:03)
Oh yeah, for the most part, yeah, they were ready. And then we ended up just moving a bunch of the photos till after the ceremony. So I think we extended cocktail hour a bit and like, you know, like dinner timeline got pushed a little bit, but that ceremony started right at four. Yeah, it was like, the officiates got a flight to Kath.
Shawn Grindle (18:06)
Yeah
Yeah.
Good job, well done. Good, good move. Yeah, which is also funny to me. The addition’s like, look, I gotta go to Vegas tonight. I can’t be here. Like.
Nicole Peters (18:33)
Right? Like, we couldn’t fly out two hours later.
Shawn Grindle (18:36)
Yeah, really cutting it close there. Similar to that, so aside from cringey things, what’s the most unique thing you’ve ever seen at a wedding? Something that stands out as like, oh, that was really cute or like, could be anything.
Nicole Peters (18:39)
Yeah.
Hmm.
thinking.
I don’t know why I’m drawing a blank on this one. I feel like I should have a long one.
Shawn Grindle (18:57)
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I usually like I usually tell people like, it could be like, like I did one once where the mother and son, you know, we have the pianos at the show. And instead of doing a mother son dance, they decided to do a piano duet. So they like played a song together and it was just awesome. Like it was so cool. And like, I will never see that again, you know, but I always say to people like, was there ever like a speech that was like,
Nicole Peters (19:10)
Oh, that.
Shawn Grindle (19:22)
Oh, that was amazing. Or like a first dance that you were like, Oh, that’s a winner. Like, I’ve never seen something like that before.
Nicole Peters (19:29)
I mean all the examples come into mind are from my own wedding. Can I use my own wedding? Oh my gosh.
Shawn Grindle (19:33)
Yeah, I 100% use your own wedding. Yeah, I use my own wedding for things all the time. My wedding was awesome, okay? So yeah, tell me about yours.
Nicole Peters (19:40)
Yeah. Well, there were a couple of things about our wedding that I just love so much. The first thing was that we decided we had about 130 guests and my husband and I are very people and we just care so much about like every person coming. And so and we knew we weren’t going to get a lot of time with them and some people were flying in. And so we
that would tell people what table they were at, we were gonna like hand write each person this like really meaningful note and card about how much we loved them and like how much they meant to us. And it took us a long time, but it was one of the things that people were so touched by when they were at our wedding, and people were taking photos of them, and they were like, I can’t believe you guys wrote so many. And for us, it was like,
Shawn Grindle (20:18)
Oh, that’s awesome.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Nicole Peters (20:36)
we’re not going to get to say this to you on our wedding day. So we’re going to write it because we care so much that you’re here. Um, yeah. So that was, I’ve actually suggested to couples that they do that since we did that years ago, but no one’s taken me up on it yet.
Shawn Grindle (20:45)
That’s awesome.
Yeah.
I love that, I think that’s so cool. I’m kind of jealous I didn’t think of that. I wish we had this conversation before my wedding. But then I invited a lot of people and there were some people there that I had an Uncle Jim or two. So I would have been like, what am I gonna write to this person? Thanks for coming, don’t eat all the steak. I don’t know. Like, yeah, please, you’re cut off after two. So that’s really cool, that’s really unique. I like that a lot, I love it.
Nicole Peters (20:59)
Thank you.
Yeah.
Don’t have more than two drinks, please.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was fun.
Shawn Grindle (21:27)
So let me see, so let me ask you this. So you’ve been doing, did you plan your own wedding or did you get into that afterwards?
Nicole Peters (21:34)
I planned my own wedding, but I did hire a friend to do Day of Coordinating because I just wanted to enjoy it, you know?
Shawn Grindle (21:38)
Okay, cool.
wanted to coast through that. That makes sense.
Nicole Peters (21:43)
Yeah, I don’t want to be worrying about the timeline for my own wedding.
Shawn Grindle (21:47)
Yeah, no, you just want to relax. Okay, that makes sense. So let me ask you this because I talked to a lot of people about like, you know, obviously nowadays with weddings, like social media plays a big impact. We’ve got TikTok and Instagram, people are seeing things that they’re like, Oh my god, this is so unique. I want to do that at my wedding. So what have you noticed since when you started doing weddings towards now, things that have changed like trends that have gone different directions?
Either things we used to do a lot and now we don’t do, or things that we never did, that now everybody wants to do. What are some of the things you’ve noticed change?
Nicole Peters (22:21)
Um, I would say since COVID, a big change is that it’s become more acceptable to get married any day of the week. So right. So like you used to just go to a wedding on a Friday or Saturday, but I’ve done a Monday wedding. I’ve done a Thursday wedding. Like there’s kind of a bit more. Yeah, there’s a bit more freedom now that you kind of can get married whatever day of the week you want. And it’s less.
Shawn Grindle (22:31)
Yes!
No.
Yep. I did a sundae.
Nicole Peters (22:50)
expensive to get married on a weekday and so people are taking that option a lot more and it’s not so weird. So that’d be my first answer. Second answer is micro weddings are really becoming a bigger thing. I’ve done several of those recently where people are like, I just want 20 of my closest friends here and that’s it and I’m not going to invite everybody I know and all the extended family. I just want to have this really epic moment with
Shawn Grindle (22:56)
Yeah.
Nicole Peters (23:18)
20 or 30 of my closest friends. And so I’m finding that they’ll usually pick a place that’s maybe an hour or two away. It’s beautiful, they’ll spend their money on, instead of spending money on feeding 150 people, everything is like higher end and top tier for 20 or 30 people and making it a really special experience. So I would say micro weddings are the other trend I’m seeing.
Shawn Grindle (23:37)
Right.
I love both of those things. And I think, you know, I love that a lot of that old tradition of like, you have to invite every person you’ve ever met, any every person your parents have ever met to this wedding. Like, I mean, I had a lot of people at mine, but I just I like throwing parties. Like I was like, oh, well, that person’s fun. You know, I got to invite them. But then if I invite them, I got to invite them, you know. But I got married on a Sunday. And like, look, like I tell people all the time, like there is nothing wrong with it. Like, first of all, if people got to take off work, that means.
Nicole Peters (24:05)
Yeah, me too.
Shawn Grindle (24:12)
Only the people that really like you are gonna be there and the rest won’t. So great. I’m sorry, you know, this person can’t get off work. Oh bummer, I really wanted them to be there, you know. But everybody who like really wants to be there will be there. Whether it’s on a Saturday or a Wednesday, it’ll happen. So I have a next, this Thursday, I’m doing a wedding a week from today, which is awesome. I’m doing a Thursday wedding and it’s great.
Nicole Peters (24:16)
Totally.
Totally.
Okay, yeah.
Totally. And one of the things that’s really great about a Sunday wedding, I did that too, is that for your out of town guests, you could plan a really fun outing on Saturday the day before. And then what ends up happening is you get more time with the people that have come to see you. And so you could do a beach outing or a hike or have everyone meet up in a fun location and grab lunch. It just makes it more relaxed, I think.
Shawn Grindle (24:47)
100% yeah.
Now.
Nicole Peters (25:05)
because it’s kind of fun to get more time with people that you want to see.
Shawn Grindle (25:08)
Yeah. Yeah, I’d say I got more time because everybody came in either late Thursday or Friday morning. So if the wedding was Saturday, Sunday, a lot of people probably would have left. But since the wedding was Sunday, it’s like we did things Friday night. Like we did things all day Saturday. It was like a long weekend. And then Sunday, by the time Sunday rolled around, we were all having so much fun from the last two days. I was like, oh crap, I gotta get married tomorrow. Like, I forgot. It’s coming up quick. So yeah. So it’s
Nicole Peters (25:14)
Mm-hmm.
Totally. Yeah, yeah, I like that.
Shawn Grindle (25:38)
I do like that a lot that people are starting to do that. And especially with somebody like us, you’re going to get a lot of available vendors. You’re going to get some of the best vendors. If you’ve got a DJ company that you’re looking at, a lot of DJ companies have multiple DJs. You’re going to probably get the main guy, the best one, because it’s not a Saturday where they’re doing four or five events. They’re probably doing one, and you’re that one. So I think a lot of times you’ll get kind of the A team of people.
Nicole Peters (26:02)
Yes, absolutely. Totally.
Shawn Grindle (26:08)
at your event too, which is great. Go ahead.
Nicole Peters (26:09)
Yeah, which speaking of, can I add your question when you asked like, what are some of the best things you’ve seen at weddings? The actually the other thing that’s coming to mind is when you and your wife were playing at Greta’s wedding. I have never seen the audience, the crowd, all the guests, like so like out of their seats and involved in the evening entertainment for hours. Like that, I was actually really amazed.
Shawn Grindle (26:17)
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
It was fun.
Nicole Peters (26:36)
by how engaged everyone was with you guys playing music and making up lyrics on the spot. So I’ve actually recommended you guys to a bunch of clients since I don’t know if they’ve called you. But that just popped into my head.
Shawn Grindle (26:45)
You’re too kind you’re too kind where I’m trying to remember I was trying to remember where what venue were we at? I remember the way it looked but I can’t remember the name of it. Do you remember? It was outdoors, right? It was outdoors and had it was very like green. I remember I just can’t remember the name of it It’s gonna drive me nuts. I’ll have to reach out to them and see if I can get them on here because I remember really Liking that venue. I’ll look it up. I’ve got it somewhere in my in my mess of
Nicole Peters (26:56)
Was in Irvine.
Yeah!
Yeah, I can’t remember.
Shawn Grindle (27:13)
in my mess of emails somewhere. But yeah, I appreciate you saying that. We always like doing unique stuff. And usually for us, it’s great, because people who hire us usually do a lot of other unique stuff. So we’ve seen some very fun things at weddings. And I always love that because I get bored if I just see the same, okay, here we go, here we go. Classic, classic, classic. So anyway, so one other question I wanna ask you is like,
Nicole Peters (27:29)
Yeah.
Totally.
Shawn Grindle (27:43)
What’s like a big need that you’re seeing in the wedding industry right now?
Nicole Peters (27:50)
Hmm. Well, pricing is crazy. Pricing is crazy. It’s going up. It’s so expensive to get married. I don’t know how we solve this problem, but I would love for there to be like a place where people could like reuse things from other weddings more easily. Like I know people sell stuff on Facebook Marketplace once they’ve run their wedding.
Shawn Grindle (27:56)
It’s going up.
Nicole Peters (28:17)
But I would love if there was like a forum where people are like, I did my wedding and I have these 50 vases, who wants them? You know, and like there was a little bit, cause every wedding is gonna have vases. Every wedding needs a gift table with a gift box and a gift card sign and a welcome sign. Like, I don’t know. I feel like there’s this need to like repurpose things in the industry a little bit better. If someone wants to take that.
Shawn Grindle (28:38)
Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. And it’s less landfill. It’s less trash. It gets recycled into other people’s weddings, which is good too.
Nicole Peters (28:50)
Totally and the people spend so much money and like we’re literally throwing it away at the end of the day and And so I don’t know I don’t have capacity for that But if someone could take that and go to business for the wedding industry, I think you’d be really successful
Shawn Grindle (29:03)
Shremm.
Here you go, you heard it here, a million dollar idea. Somebody take it, we don’t have time. So it’s all yours. No copyrights here, you can have it. I like that, I think that would be huge. I mean, I use stuff from like friends weddings, you know, and we still have a few things from our wedding that are just sitting in like my shed. And they’re eventually gonna get thrown, like when we move, they’re not gonna be used. So it’d be cool if there was like, almost like even like a physical place, I could just go take them and be like, here you go. Like, you know.
Nicole Peters (29:11)
Yes.
Thank you. Yeah.
Exactly. Drop them off and then they all get uploaded and then they’re like, I don’t know.
Shawn Grindle (29:41)
Yeah, like a buffalo exchange, but for like wedding stuff. Like I can go give you this stuff and maybe take some of this stuff. Like that would be fun. Yeah.
Nicole Peters (29:50)
Totally like I was just talking with a client who just did her wedding and she was like I feel like every time I turned Around everything was a thousand dollars. I want these things printed a thousand dollars any more flowers for this thousand dollars It’s like let’s bring down the cost a little bit on some of the unnecessary things Repurpose
Shawn Grindle (30:08)
Yeah.
Yeah. And that’s why we ended up making, I mean, my wife’s very handy. So she made a lot of our decorations herself. So we didn’t print things, um, really at all, which saved us a lot. And also again, if you want the cost to go down, look at a weekday, cause you know, I mean, it’s like, even like us, like we’re often the difference of a thousand dollars on a Sunday versus like another day, like Saturdays. I just, I can’t work on price because it’s a Saturday. It was only, you know,
Nicole Peters (30:33)
Totally.
Shawn Grindle (30:38)
how many a year I can’t do it. 52 or so a year or so, can’t do it on a Saturday. But Sundays, let’s go, I’m in. Yeah, well, it’s not all that. I do a lot of other things, but yeah, I’m usually, I think I have one Saturday off this year. So I don’t see my friends on Saturdays. So usually I see them on Sunday. So if you book your wedding on Sunday, I’ll come out and I won’t do, I won’t see my friends.
Nicole Peters (30:41)
Yes.
Yeah, you’re working a lot of money.
Okay, listen up.
There we go.
Shawn Grindle (31:10)
Yeah. Anyway, okay. Well, we’re just about a time. So is there anything else before we wrap it up that you kind of want to mention kind of want to say a shout out anything else about your business you want people to know obviously will link to your socials and everything so people know where to find you but anything else you want to kind of drop in before we head out here.
Nicole Peters (31:29)
Yeah, I mean, if you like anyone listening, I do a free coaching call for anyone that wants to just inquire and learn more and share some of the details about your wedding and see if my team and I would be a good fit. So feel free to go to my website and you can book a free 30 minute zoom call coaching call. So we’d love to connect with you guys on that are listening. And then I think the last thing is that even though I’m a wedding planner,
Shawn Grindle (31:49)
Nice.
Nicole Peters (31:59)
So much of the importance of the wedding planning season is like you’re building the foundation for your marriage. And so don’t get so caught up in all the details that you miss the importance of what’s happening. Like you’re about to enter a whole new season of life. So do that well and let’s not be frantic and anxious and all these things. Like let’s start this new season in peace. And with laughter and joy, I think it’s so important.
Shawn Grindle (32:20)
Yeah. Right.
Yum.
Nicole Peters (32:29)
Yeah, the couples just don’t get so caught up in the planning.
Shawn Grindle (32:33)
Yeah, and enjoy it. I mean, really enjoy it. I mean, I, Mo wedding was the most fun I’ve ever had. And even looking back on it, like planning it, I would do it all again if I could throw that party again, because I had so much fun. Like I would do it again. Like, and then once it’s over, you’re, you know, you’re just married. Okay, we’re just working. And so it’s really a fun time. So I like that piece of advice and that’s good. And now that I know that I didn’t realize you did the free coaching call. I’ll definitely, um, when I talk to some people, I’ll send them your way.
Nicole Peters (32:51)
Yeah, enjoy it.
Shawn Grindle (33:02)
if they don’t have planners, because I talk to people all the time that have no idea what they’re doing. And they’re like, no, we don’t have any plan, we’re just winging it. I’m like, you need help. Let’s talk. So yeah, so I’ll send some people your way.
Nicole Peters (33:08)
What happened?
And don’t wing it, please. For the sake of, totally, for the sake of all your vendors that day, please don’t wing it.
Shawn Grindle (33:20)
Yeah, please. I’ve worked enough weddings where there’s no plan or anything and I’m like, this is not gonna work. I told you this wasn’t gonna work and now we’re here and it’s not working and you’re getting upset. And I’m like, I warned you. So yeah. All right, well, that’s it for us. So thank you so much for doing this, Nicole. I appreciate it. And like I said, I’ll definitely send some people your way and we’ll link to all your stuff so people know where to find you and all that fun stuff, all righty?
Nicole Peters (33:25)
Yeah.
Thank you so much, Shawn.
Shawn Grindle (33:48)
All right, thanks Nicole. You have a great rest of your day. All right, bye.
Nicole Peters (33:50)
You too.
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