Listen to the Podcast About Pretty Little Events
Podcast Summary
In the recent episode of Eventful Endeavors, the host, Shawn Grindle, welcomed Sally Shin, the owner and creative force behind Pretty Little Events. The West Coast based events planning company, Pretty Little Events, has been a dream venture for Shin who kick-started her career in hotel restaurant management. Moving from a corporate environment, which included planning private events, to starting Pretty Little Events was a natural transition for Shin. She emphasized how the business allowed her to maintain work-life balance, in addition to managing the demands of motherhood.
During the discussion, Shawn asked about the main focus of Pretty Little Events. Sally shared that it’s mostly social events like birthdays, showers and corporate gatherings. These make up the bread and butter of her operation, although they host several weddings throughout the year too. With a diligent team ready to assist in different areas including LA, Orange County, and San Diego, Pretty Little Events can handle multiple tasks during their busiest days.
Sally highlighted the evolution of the events planning industry, reminiscing about acquiring her first client through an in-person meeting in the pre-social media era. However, she acknowledged that with the advent of social media platforms, especially Instagram, business expansion has become more attainable and bridging network gaps, simpler.
Their journey from a word-of-mouth business to managing a large-scale digital presence, while working to fulfill their vital client engagement, makes Pretty Little Events a remarkable player in the event planning industry sector.
This interview was provided by Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos.
Podcast Transcript
Shawn Grindle (00:25)
All right, welcome back to another episode of Eventful Endeavors. Today we are here with Sally Shin, the owner and creative mind behind Pretty Little Events, which is a West Coast based events planning company. So first of all, Sally, thank you so much for doing this today, I appreciate it.
sally (00:41)
Yeah, thanks Sean for having me.
Shawn Grindle (00:43)
So the way we always like to start out with everybody we have on is just kind of asking how you got started in this industry, what was the story there?
sally (00:55)
into it. I have a background in hotel restaurant management. So in my corporate life, I used to plan private events and do a lot of things with restaurants and event spaces. And the transition just seemed supernatural. The next step, once we started having kids, I really didn’t have the time to be able to do mom and then work nights, weekends, holidays.
hospitality hours. So it’s just a transition and it just made sense.
Shawn Grindle (01:31)
So then you can kind of make your own schedule more doing this kind of thing.
sally (01:35)
Yeah, absolutely. So work, you know, be home and be present during the week and then on the weekends have parties and weddings. Um, yeah.
Shawn Grindle (01:45)
Sure. So are you doing mostly, is it mostly just weddings or you do all kinds of events? Like what’s your kind of main focus with the company?
sally (01:54)
Our bread and butter is really social events. So any type of social events that entails like birthdays, showers, corporate events, holiday parties, and then we have a few weddings throughout the year. We used to focus on weddings, but now we’re in a life stage where we have so many parties and so many things in one day, like one Saturday.
Shawn Grindle (01:57)
Okay.
sally (02:21)
that our weddings are very limited and we take on just a few a year.
Shawn Grindle (02:27)
Okay, so you actually have, do you have like a relatively decent sized team, so you can do multiple events in one day? Nice.
sally (02:33)
Correct, yeah. I have about five girls right now and they are all over and depending on the area whether it’s LA, Orange County, San Diego, they’re there to assist on the weekend. So if we have multiple things going on a Saturday then we have you know all of us who would be available to do like one party here and then someone else is doing another party or set up or breakdown.
Shawn Grindle (03:02)
Yeah, that makes life so much easier to start expanding so you don’t have to get sucked into everybody wanting their event on the same date. So I love that. Yeah. I know. Yeah.
sally (03:09)
Yeah, there’s only a limited number of Saturdays of the month. We have four Saturdays and trying to maneuver everything. But yeah, absolutely, we make it work.
Shawn Grindle (03:19)
So when did you go solo? When did you start the company? When did you leave the corporate world and do that?
sally (03:23)
Yeah, well it’s been a journey for us because when we first started there was no such thing as social media. So, you know 16 years ago, um When I first got my client my first very first client I went to her house. It was an in-person meeting. There’s no zoom There’s nothing like that Uh, no facetime So I went to her house gave her this portfolio that I had printed
Shawn Grindle (03:42)
Sure.
sally (03:49)
and she looked through, it was kind of like a lookbook, and she looked through our past events, and she hired me. So, you know, the first good eight years of it, I feel like was all word of mouth, just trying to get your word out there through different websites. And then social media came along, and Instagram came along, and that’s when I really felt like, okay, it’s a lot easier to get the word out there, it’s a lot easier to.
get connected with so many people. So we really made the jump doing this full time about seven to eight years ago.
Shawn Grindle (04:26)
Okay, cool. With the social media boom and everybody being able to… Is that still how you get most of your stuff is just through like social media spreads and word of mouth like that?
sally (04:33)
Yeah, oh yeah, most definitely. Well now we’ve been doing this for so long that we have a good clientele and they come back to us year after year. But yeah, any new inquiries or anything like that or they’ve seen something on Instagram, oh you know I love this party that you did. I think social media is a huge thing for small businesses. So yeah, Instagram is great. Facebook’s kind of phasing out, but.
Shawn Grindle (04:42)
Right.
Sure.
sally (05:03)
I need to get on my TikTok. I hear TikTok’s good.
Shawn Grindle (05:07)
I have talked to so many people about this and I can’t, I want to, but I’m not, I’m bad at Instagram still. Like I’m still like learning social media and like I don’t know, like it takes like making little mini movies. It just seems so daunting.
sally (05:20)
Yeah, it’s another full-time job.
Shawn Grindle (05:23)
Yeah, exactly. I’m like, Oh, it just seems so tiring to do all that. But yeah, it’s definitely something everybody’s on nowadays. So I’m sure it’s only a matter of time where we have to be on it. Yeah, I need a tutor. So speaking of social media, so this is always interesting. Because I, you know, I’ve always played and done the shows, but I didn’t get into the events world until like the last five years really, like doing the corporate stuff. So
sally (05:27)
darned Kenya.
We have Yeah, for sure.
Shawn Grindle (05:51)
social media was already really big then. So aside from like, you know, word of mouth spreading, you know, your business, how social media kind of like changed with like, like trends, like things you’ve seen that you used to see at events that now they don’t, you know, people can see things on a Tik TOK or Instagram be like, I want that at my event. Like, have you noticed a lot of that? Like uniqueness coming because of that.
sally (06:16)
it is super unique because in the party world, right, everything is visual. Whether it’s some sort of an installation or some sort of a design, everyone’s seeing this little picture in a square. So when they reach out, they’re like, I want this, this is what I want. And then you start to get into like budgeting and the realities of how much every single thing costs. So a lot of social media and a lot of, you know,
Shawn Grindle (06:21)
Right.
sally (06:44)
clientele that come to us and they don’t know what a budget should be or what a good budget should be to achieve that. So a lot of it is just sharing how much things are, giving them the knowledge like, hey, this is how much a cake goes for nowadays. You know, a two-tier, three-tier cake could go for $500 and up. And when you’re looking at one little Instagram post, really breaking down how much things are. I think…
Shawn Grindle (07:01)
All right.
sally (07:14)
Clients are like, oh, okay, so they don’t see that there’s a price tag behind it and it’s our job as designers To be able to take the clients vision or a client’s budget Everyone has a budget everyone has their own vision and then making it into a reality, right? So whether it’s scaling it down or doing a version of that so I think social media is a lot of it is like You know
Shawn Grindle (07:28)
Sure.
sally (07:42)
what we see is not real.
Shawn Grindle (07:44)
Right. Yeah.
sally (07:46)
Yeah, so that’s I think the challenge and you know with the cost of everything being, you know, our cost of materials, cost of wood, paint, you know, to produce these things overhead, everything has gone up, you know, in the last, you know, after COVID. So it’s very difficult because automatically right there, there’s already a 30% increase in what our budgets used to look like even like three years ago.
Shawn Grindle (08:04)
Yeah.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. Everything got much more expensive after COVID. I mean, myself included, it just, things changed after that thing. So, you kind of mentioned budgeting, so that makes me wonder, whereabouts in the process do you usually come in with your clients? Like have they already kind of found a venue? Do they have sort of an idea of what they wanna do and then you come in and kind of mold it? Or do they just come to you and say like,
sally (08:20)
Very, yeah.
Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (08:45)
It’s all you. Or is it a combination of both?
sally (08:48)
We love that, we love when clients come to us and say, hey, this is, and they’re really just up front, this is how much I wanna spend, this is where we are, and then we just kinda take it and run with it. That’s probably the best case scenario because then we are able to manage the whole project as a whole and really know, like, okay, how much are we gonna allocate towards the venue? How much are we gonna allocate towards food and beverage? What is your flower budget gonna look like? So we can really just line item everything, and we’re,
if they bring us on in the beginning process. However, some clients come to us and say, oh, I’m having my party here. Okay, then I can gauge. All right, well you still need rentals. You still need music or whatever. So then I can budget that way. So we have a full planning service. We also have a partial planning service and then we have day of. So day of is, it’s similar to weddings, similar to what?
Shawn Grindle (09:30)
Right.
Okay.
sally (09:47)
you know, what we do with wedding planning. Same thing with party planning, because now a party’s like a second wedding, everyone’s, you know, these parties are getting super extravagant, super, like even for kids’ parties, it feels like sometimes we’re planning another wedding. So, yeah, so the process is really similar when it comes to weddings and parties for us, and then it’s just on a smaller scale for like a birthday or something.
So yeah, we could come in at any point. A lot of the times people do come to us because they’ve seen something. They’re like, oh, I love this thing you did with this party, this design, or the balloons, or whatever. So that’s how they, that first, that’s what catches their eye first. And then we have that conversation, that consultation, like, okay, great, you know? Like, what are we working with? Where’s your venue? And then we get into the logistics of everything.
Shawn Grindle (10:47)
So, you know, along the lines of like, you know, doing all these weddings and all these events and having like, you know, a lot of people on your team, how do you do you cap yourself like at a year of like a certain amount of events you want to do or like, how many can you do throughout an entire year? Do you limit it? Like, what’s your kind of capacity there?
sally (11:03)
Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good question. COVID changed all of that, everything. I mean, before COVID, I don’t even remember life as an event planner before COVID. I think like that, yeah, it’s like that boom happened where, you know, we couldn’t celebrate for a year or two years, people started canceling their baby showers. So now they’re like, oh my gosh, I never had a baby shower. Now I want to go all out on-
Shawn Grindle (11:12)
Sure.
It’s a different world.
Right.
sally (11:32)
my baby’s first birthday or whatever, even graduations. Oh, I didn’t graduate senior year because it was during COVID. I wanna have a huge graduation party or for college or whatnot. So it changed everything. And I think with the boom that the event industry really showed up. I mean, we were working like crazy for a little bit for that year after everything opened up. I think everyone was celebrating something. And there was a…
Shawn Grindle (12:00)
It was nuts.
sally (12:01)
Yeah, it was a great, great year for us to really just pump out tons of events. And I think, I don’t know, like 60 to 80 events in one year, I want to say that’s kind of the number where we were. Of course, that’s not the norm. That’s not what 2023 or 2024 is going to look like. Definitely 2024, I’ve seen, you know, a huge like a quiet time in January and February.
Shawn Grindle (12:23)
sure.
sally (12:31)
And then things are starting to pick up again because the weather is getting nicer. I don’t know what it is. I would love some insight on that. But yeah, I think now a comfortable number so we don’t kill ourselves It’s not 60 to 80 for sure because that was Definitely just working all the time never seeing family not having you know work-life balance not having a single Saturday Sunday off
Shawn Grindle (12:36)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Right.
sally (12:58)
So I would say like 50 would be great. That way we can really focus on elevating our events, giving our clients more time, even one on one time, because with 60 to 80 events, it was definitely, there wasn’t enough hours in a day. So yeah, I think this year is going to be one of those years where it’s going to really show us where are we gonna be with events, how many events are we gonna do a year.
Shawn Grindle (13:27)
Yeah.
sally (13:28)
Yeah, so it’s changing again.
Shawn Grindle (13:31)
Right. And we’re kind of getting into that like, okay, the COVID boom happened. Now that’s settled down. Now we’re back to like, okay, so this is going to be kind of the new normal for a bit, you know? And I’m confused. You know, I know you’re in California, I’m in California, and I’m confused because I thought like January was usually my slow season. And then January was insane this year. So there’s like no, there’s like no consistency with like, when is, when it’s going to be slow out here. I have no idea anymore. So.
sally (13:35)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, so.
Oh, good for you. Yeah. I mean, us too. January is historically the slowest month. And, you know, this year was, it was for us, but we did have all of a sudden, like, January 1, 2, 3, we started off the year just, like, working and then a couple of weeks of, you know, downtime, which was great.
Shawn Grindle (14:03)
Yeah.
Yeah.
sally (14:20)
and then just recoup reading from the holidays and then trying to get back into it again.
Shawn Grindle (14:26)
Yeah. So let me ask you this, because you’ve done a lot of events, and this is always one of my fun things to ask, is like, out of all the events you’ve done, what’s something that stands out to you as being super unique? Like one of the most unique things you’ve seen at an event, something that, first thing that pops into your head of like, that was really, really cool.
sally (14:45)
So, you know, we do a lot of kids parties and none of our kids parties are ordinary. They’re very over the top and our clients really love to celebrate. Go big or go home type of thing. And the number one Instagram post we have last year.
Shawn Grindle (14:53)
Sure.
Yeah.
sally (15:07)
um was this bluey party do you know what bluey is so it’s a show on disney but it’s like a cartoon and um like my daughter is obsessed with it i don’t know if you have kids okay very okay but you know like adults love this show it’s a cartoon but adults even love it because the it’s written so well and the story’s so great so you should watch an episode it’s called
Shawn Grindle (15:11)
No, what’s a what’s bluey?
Okay.
No, I don’t, not yet, but so I’m not familiar with Bluey. I’m sure eventually I will know what Bluey is, but.
Yeah. Okay.
I should watch it, yeah.
sally (15:37)
called Bluey. But it’s, you know, we did this elevated Bluey party and I don’t even know, it’s like the biggest party, like, you know, so many shares, like the number one post. So it’s really memorable because it was like a cartoon. You would think, you would think like, oh, it’s just a little kids party, but it was more than that because I think how we approach the party is…
Shawn Grindle (15:54)
Wow.
Yeah.
sally (16:06)
If you go to a kids party, say, Shana, the last time you’ve been to a kids party, but how are you gonna make it fun for adults? How are adults gonna find it in an environment or atmosphere where like, oh, this is chic, this is nice, this is not what I thought a kids party would be like, but still keeping it approachable and friendly, because after all, it’s a kids party. So that one definitely was super memorable. We did a lot of…
Shawn Grindle (16:11)
My brother. Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, of course.
sally (16:35)
cool things. We did a fringe installation, a balloon installation. We brought in like different lounge seating, table seating, cocktail seating. We had full-service catering, entertainment. So it was just it’s just one of those moments where I was like, ah, like this is the party that I would want to attend. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (16:53)
Yeah, that sounds awesome. Yeah, I wish I hadn’t seen the show. So were people like in costume or was it just like the decor? Like what was like the thing that everybody was like, that just, the idea of it, you know?
sally (17:05)
I think it was because, yeah, I think it’s because the design was pretty impactful. When you walk into a, it was on a basketball court and we had transformed the basketball court, you would never know that that’s what it was. So when you walked into the space, you’re just automatically transported to, you know, this bluey world.
Shawn Grindle (17:12)
Sure.
Thanks.
sally (17:31)
And you would not know that underneath you, underneath the grass was a hardscape. Like we brought in flooring and everything, so.
Shawn Grindle (17:38)
Right, yeah.
That’s awesome. That is really cool. Yeah, I’ve never seen the show, but that’s interesting. Because our gig, we don’t do a lot of…
children’s party because we play a lot of older music songs for adults. So we don’t do a lot of that stuff. So I never even thought that like kids, I mean my, my birthday party is when I was younger, we didn’t do anything fancy like that. So I’m jealous, you know, yeah. Like that sounds like, it sounds like they’re throwing big parties for the kids. And that’s a, that’s a lot of fun. So, um, similar question. This is always my favorite one is on the flip side of that. What is kind of your.
sally (17:52)
Yeah.
No, yeah, yeah. And neither did we. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (18:20)
I call it like the do not do this kind of list in any type of event, like something that you’re like, I always tell my clients, like, if you think this is a good idea, it’s not, it will be cringy. I’ve seen it. It never works. Or even further than that, like something you’ve seen that actually was so uncomfortable, just very cringy, you know, that has led to you making these rules.
sally (18:26)
Mm-hmm.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I don’t know. My number one rule in event planning is even if you’re going to create one little moment, whether it’s the main focal point where you take photos or the cake, to really make at least one area an impactful, well-put-together, intentional space. Because a lot of the times, I think when people try to do it on their own…
Shawn Grindle (18:52)
Okay.
Sure.
sally (19:13)
they spread themselves too thin and they think, okay, well, I have this space, but I have to decorate all of it. So then when they try to decorate the whole space, it looks really sparse. Whether it’s like, okay, trying to put, you know, helium balloons here, and then the rest of the room looks, you know, really bare. So why not use that budget to make at least one area impactful? Because you’re gonna take all of your photos there, in that area.
Shawn Grindle (19:24)
Right.
sally (19:41)
whether it’s that backdrop or that area where you’re gonna take all your group pictures, like an Instagrammable moment, I think is what everybody’s looking for. So when things become cringy, I think is when I see DIY done and it’s not, they’re not focusing their attention on like creating that one moment and then everything else just kind of falls.
Shawn Grindle (19:41)
Right.
Yeah.
sally (20:10)
you know, short.
Shawn Grindle (20:12)
Yeah, that makes sense. And you know, I wanna ask because I’ve noticed a lot of what you’ve kind of been talking about throughout this conversation is a lot of like decor based stuff and you know, that kind of thing. So is that your main passion? Like when you do these events, are you really into like decor and like the look of it more than like the logistics and all that stuff? Is that where you think like you really shine?
sally (20:37)
I think we’re known for our designs, and I think that’s what attracts our clients because they have the same sort of aesthetics. Everything that happens behind the scenes, whether it’s a timeline or a schedule or lining up vendors, budgeting, space planning, menu planning, staffing needs, seating chart, I feel like our clients, that’s not the fun part. That’s not why they want to partner with the planner.
Shawn Grindle (20:45)
Sure.
Yeah, sure.
sally (21:05)
We do all of that and I think that’s a huge chunk of the work that we do behind the scenes to really pull off events like this. You definitely do have to focus on making sure that you do have a solid timeline and things for the party. But for the most part, when I’m on a phone call with a client, they wanna talk about design. They wanna talk about color palette. They wanna talk about, oh, this is my theme. This is my vision.
Shawn Grindle (21:27)
Yeah.
sally (21:31)
You know, so I think that’s what really shines through, especially in social media, where you’re judging everything by a picture or judging everything by what you see in a story or a reel. But we do 100%, half of our job is behind the scenes, making sure all of those elements that you’re talking about, like outside of design is taken care of too.
Shawn Grindle (21:40)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
I think people sometimes don’t realize how much actually goes into planning these things, you know. Right.
sally (22:02)
Yes, yes, and I don’t think people think about it either because a lot of my clients, you know When we do hop on a call and we talk about you know, the design or whatnot. They’re not asking Okay, so how many surfers are we gonna have? You know, like they don’t they don’t want to talk about it I actually have to bring it up and be like, okay to execute your party and to make sure it goes off seamlessly We we need the staff. So that’s those are the conversations we have to have to logistically execute a party. Yeah
Shawn Grindle (22:15)
Right.
Sure.
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, and this kind of segues me into my next question is because, you know, I notoriously have told several people on this podcast that when I got married, I naively was like, I don’t need a wedding planner, I’ll be fine. And then learn very quickly. That was the dumbest decision I could ever make. And I did get one and it was so worth it. Like I learned my lesson very early. Like I said, I hadn’t gotten into events before that. Now I look back on my young self and I’m like, you were not smart.
sally (22:51)
Oh good.
Bye.
Shawn Grindle (23:02)
Um, so my question then is like, with anybody just starting to plan an event of any kind, like what’s your number one piece of advice, um, step one, like what’s your piece of advice? What would you say?
sally (23:15)
Just research because I think a lot of the time when clients come to us and they don’t really know what things are going for like you, you know how you said you didn’t think you needed a planner. But once they’ve done their due diligence, they’ve done their own research, they’ll soon realize, oh wow, okay, I’m in over my head. I do need the help. I am at the very least going to need a day of coordinator for my wedding because otherwise
Shawn Grindle (23:27)
Right.
sally (23:45)
I’m the bride and I’m gonna be doing all that. So yeah, I think just knowing that if you want to enjoy that day where you have spent a year, two years planning and spending, investing so much into it financially and just your time that it goes off and that you’re able to enjoy it and be a guest of your own celebration.
Shawn Grindle (23:48)
Yeah.
sally (24:14)
Um, yeah, and then, um, you know, really, um, having, uh, like priorities of, okay, what is most important to us? Is it the photography? Is it the food? Is it the experience for our guests? Is it, um, the flowers? So really kind of having like, okay, my top five things that are most important. And then, and then after that, maybe the, the less you’re important things like,
Shawn Grindle (24:36)
Sure.
sally (24:42)
Invitations, you know, we don’t really care about the paper and what paper suites look like or we don’t really need a videographer So just having kind of a list of what’s most important and for you
Shawn Grindle (24:55)
Right. And that in theory, that should also help with your budget a little bit too, right? Because then you can be like, well, we want to save some money for what’s more important for you. And this is less important. So, you know, when you look at that kind of thing, is that kind of how you can manage it as well? No.
sally (25:06)
Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Cause we’ve had a lot of brides in the past who, you know, wanted to make sure their photography, food and flowers really stand out. But they’re like, oh, you know what? I’m gonna DIY my invitations. Save, you know, save 500 to a thousand dollars there on invitations. So, so for sure, it really prioritizes where we allocate budget.
Shawn Grindle (25:16)
Right.
sure.
Yeah.
Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. And that’s definitely something to look at going forward. I mean, I, you know, I always tell people when I talk to them for the first time, like, you know, because I’m I do the music. So I’m like, is that where’s that list for you at most important? Like, you know, are we are we up there? We are like, you know, we care more about how it looks. And cool. That way, I know, like, if this is important to you, like, let’s have a chat about it. So, yeah.
sally (25:44)
Mmm. Yeah.
Uh huh. Yeah.
I mean, I’m going through that right now with a couple. They’re like weighing out the pros and cons of, okay, if we have a DJ and an MC versus a live band and how much that’s gonna cost and how that’s gonna fluctuate the budget. But, and then I have another bride who wants to have a DJ. It’s not super important, but it kind of is because she expressed.
Shawn Grindle (26:07)
Right.
sally (26:24)
hey, I want a DJ that’s gonna bring the energy, that’s gonna get people onto the dance floor, that’s going to create that like, oh, moment where they’re not just sitting at the table and they’re gonna come out and participate. So yeah, in that case, if a bride is telling me that 100% I think it’s so important to get the right DJ, MC on board, yeah.
Shawn Grindle (26:44)
Yeah.
Yep. And this is why it’s good to have planners like you, because you probably have a network of many DJs that you know who’s good at what. So you can pull from, right? Yeah.
sally (26:55)
Exactly, yeah, their personalities, are they, you know, more outgoing? Are they going to bring that higher energy or some, you know, brides and grooms, they don’t, you know, maybe that’s not the vibe they want to create. Yeah. Everyone, yeah.
Shawn Grindle (27:06)
Sure, everybody’s different, you know, and that’s why it’s good to have somebody, you know, you can sit there and Google all day and find your vendors, but it’s like, it’s just so much easier to talk to somebody who’s like, I’ve worked with all these people, I’ve seen them, I know your personality, I know their personality, you guys need to meet. So, yeah. Anyway, so we’re getting close to the end here, so let me ask you this, aside from planning weddings, like if you were doing something else with your life, what would you be doing? Like what are your other like major hobbies? What are you passionate about?
sally (27:20)
Uh huh. Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I feel like I’m happiest when I’m creating. Honestly, I’ve done so many different things and the happiest times are when I’m passionate about doing something creative. So I thought about this and I was like, even if it’s like, I used to make jam at home and I used to, you know, like it could be as simple as making a sauce or making a jam or something.
Shawn Grindle (28:00)
Okay.
sally (28:07)
Anything that gets me… I love food too. So I think if I weren’t doing this at a capacity of event planning and being creative that way, it would definitely be something to do with food.
Shawn Grindle (28:11)
Yeah.
Okay, you like to cook? Yeah, yeah.
sally (28:24)
I love to cook. I think that’s how I unwind, especially after a crazy long weekend. I’m just like, I just wanna be at home and be in comfy clothes and turn on some jazz and open up a bottle of wine, get some fresh bread and some deli meats and cook and eat and just be home with the family. I’m such a homebody.
Shawn Grindle (28:39)
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, me too. And it’s a battle when you’re when you work this kind of job where you’re on site a lot and doing this stuff. And a lot of them are long days and you’re out for like 10 hours. I’m like, I just want to be home.
sally (29:02)
Yeah, I mean, you know, like when I think about that, I’m like, you know, at least when I’m doing that and it is tiring sometimes, it is hard on your body, you don’t know that the time is going by because you’re so in love with this job that you do. I’m so, you know, I’m like, I can’t believe I get to do this for a living and be creative.
Shawn Grindle (29:17)
Sure.
Yes.
sally (29:26)
So when I am working those 16 hour days, sometimes we wake up at like 5 a.m., we don’t get home until like 9 p.m. after our breakdowns or whatnot. At the end of the day, I’m like, wow, at least it doesn’t feel like what I felt like doing these corporate jobs where I’m like, oh my gosh, I don’t like what I’m doing. But I actually do love it. And I think the only other thing that I would find that much love in is being in the kitchen.
or something to do with food. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (29:57)
Sure. Well, if the wedding industry starts to get slower and the events start to slow down, maybe we’ll find you open in a restaurant or something one day, who knows? Ha ha ha. You know? Yeah, just real quick before we go, if you could choose your favorite type of food, either to cook or to eat, what would it be? Like favorite type of cuisine? Tacos! Okay, cool. Got it.
sally (30:05)
Exactly. Yeah.
Tacos, tacos 100%. Oh my gosh, I don’t know. I think I’m spoiled because I have LA right here. Best tacos ever. You can get, you know, street tacos for $2 or fancy tacos for like $5, but they’re all great, all wonderful. I don’t know. I don’t think I could ever move out of SoCal because the taco scene here is amazing.
Shawn Grindle (30:29)
Sure.
Yep.
Yeah, they’re so good. Yeah
Yep.
sally (30:49)
And even at home, you know, Taco Tuesday is so easy. We just make our own chips and salsa. My husband’s like frying up tortillas and we make our own like, you know, chips and dip. And I don’t know, tacos are life.
Shawn Grindle (30:54)
Yeah.
Right. Yeah, I came back from Australia yesterday and I got back to the States after three and a half weeks. And the first thing me and my wife said was we need Mexican food. I was like, we need it right now. So that was the first thing we did was get Mexican food. It was great.
sally (31:11)
Yes! Oh yeah. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (31:20)
Anyway, before we get out of here, is there anything else you wanted to mention, anything else we missed, anything else you want people to know? I mean, obviously we will link to all your social media and everything so people know where to find you, how to get in touch with you should they be booking an event. But is there anything you kind of wanted to mention before we hop out of here?
sally (31:34)
Yeah. Yeah, you know, the only other thing is, you know, we’re always pivoting, always. I think, you know, the one thing I learned from COVID is you have to continue to evolve and pivot your services. And, you know, we’re so excited. Like 2024, we’ve been able to have a small little kind of creative space. It’s called the Ederton Warehouse. And…
Shawn Grindle (32:01)
Oh cool.
sally (32:02)
It’s an extension of our home base, our workshop. So we have our offices. I’m in one of the offices right now. And then we have our workshop where we do all of our custom builds, like backdrops and painting and all that sort of stuff. And then extending out to that, we have 1,000 square feet of creative space. So we use it for photo shoots. We use it for any photographers who want to come in and do…
Shawn Grindle (32:15)
Oh wow.
sally (32:29)
mini sessions, we’ve done birthday parties, baby showers, bridal showers, and workshops. You know, if a creative wants to come in and teach, have a class, teach a workshop, get some students in, we’ve done that. So, yeah, we’re really excited. It’s just like a blank canvas for people to come in and just use it. And I think as long as you know, if I’m creating…
Shawn Grindle (32:40)
Sure.
sally (32:59)
That’s what I’m happy, so I think this venue, we’re so excited about, or not venue, but creative space, because we want to be able to provide that, like, you know, my challenge, planning little parties is, where do I have my party? I just want an open space where I can have a, put things together, invite some friends, and that’s what we created.
Shawn Grindle (33:05)
Sure.
Yeah.
Great. Where is it located at? Just so I know. It’s in Fullerton? Great. That’s awesome. And you got that recently? Is that a new kind of addition?
sally (33:23)
It’s in Fullerton. Mm-hmm.
We just finished construction in November or December and we started offering it in January or February on Peer Space. We’re on Peer Space and we have an Instagram, the Anerton Warehouse. And I actually am going to have a site visit right now after I get off this call meeting a client here for another birthday. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (33:34)
Wow.
Great.
Nice. Great, I love it. Well, I’ll also link to that too, and I’m gonna follow you guys after this. So that’s really exciting. That’s exciting. I’m happy for you guys. I’m happy you got that space. That’s just great. That’s just expansion, and that’s gonna be a really cool addition to all of that. So glad to hear about all that. Anything else? Before we sign off, I know you gotta go meet a client, and I gotta…
sally (34:00)
Thank you.
Thanks, John. Yeah, appreciate it.
Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (34:19)
get back to helping people plan their events as well. So we should probably do that. But yeah.
sally (34:23)
Awesome. Both things Sean, it was so fun to talk and chat and I’m glad we finally aligned our schedule. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (34:29)
Yes, thank you for doing this. I appreciate it. It’s been great. And we’ll talk soon, all right? All right. I will, you too. Bye.
sally (34:34)
Okay, alright, have a good week! Alright, bye!
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