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Podcast Summary
Katrina Allen, the owner of Love Bloom events, was interviewed by Shawn Grindle on the eventful endeavors podcast. Katrina shares her journey into the events industry and how she found her passion for wedding planning.
After experiencing terrible bosses while working her way through nursing school, Katrina decided she didn’t want to work for others anymore. She wanted to be her own boss. With a recent wedding planning experience under her belt, she saw an opportunity to start her own business. Despite having no formal training or experience, Katrina believed in her ability to plan weddings and decided to take the leap.
Katrina started her business with minimal startup costs. She created a website using Wix and signed up for a wedding show. She also promoted her services on Craigslist. Initially, she did a couple of weddings for free to gain experience, followed by a few weddings for $100. Through trial and error, she learned the ins and outs of the industry and steadily increased her rates.
In addition to starting her own business, Katrina changed her major to business to gain a better understanding of the entrepreneurial side of things. She enrolled in a program catered towards working adults and proved herself worthy, despite being the youngest in her class. With the business prerequisites from her previous nursing studies, Katrina focused solely on business courses.
Love Blooms has since become a successful wedding planning business, known for its attention to detail and personalized service. Katrina’s journey from nursing school to wedding planner showcases her determination and passion for creating memorable events. If you’re in need of a passionate and experienced wedding planner, be sure to check out Love Blooms.
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. We are here today with Katrina Allen, who owns Love Bloom events. And we are here with another wedding planner today, which is exciting. Uh, my favorite vendor ever and the most important vendor at all events. So how you doing today, Katrina? You good?
Katrina Allen (00:39)
Ha ha ha!
Good, how are you?
Shawn Grindle (00:46)
I’m doing real good, doing real good. So, um, we always like to start off asking everybody the same question. So how did you get into this, you know, crazy events industry? Where’d you come from? What was the journey that brought you here?
Katrina Allen (00:58)
A long story or the short version?
Shawn Grindle (01:01)
whatever medium, right? Whatever you think is fun, you let us know. We got time.
Katrina Allen (01:03)
Okay, I can do medium. I can do medium. So I was in nursing school, gung ho about being a nurse. And I started nannying for a nurse. And I had some really, really terrible, terrible bosses, unrelated to nursing, but putting myself through college, I had some terrible bosses that I just were men and they were…
uh, one fired me because he developed feelings for me and I was getting in the way of his marriage. One, uh, the Helzberg Diamond, the, the boss there, he told this guy that if he bought a watch that he would let me take an extended lunch and I could go have lunch with him in the food court, even though I like wasn’t interested at all. Yeah. Terrible, terrible bosses. Um, and so then you go into the nursing industry and you have these patients that you’ve been taking care of.
and doing the dirty work of cleaning them and changing their linen, all that stuff. And then the doctor comes in, most of the time male, and just acts like they lost, oh! Oh! You dropped, sorry.
Shawn Grindle (02:17)
Don’t worry, we’ll cut that, don’t worry.
Katrina Allen (02:21)
Then they just come in and they act like they walk on water and that, you know, they’re just God’s gift to Earth. And I was like, you know, I just, I don’t want to work for the man. I want to be the man. And so I had just gotten married and I’m like, okay, I’m going to start a business. I just paid for at that point like $60,000 of nursing school. I still had a year left of nursing school.
Shawn Grindle (02:34)
Sure.
Katrina Allen (02:49)
It might have been like 80,000 at that point. Anyways, I was like, okay, I have no money. What am I gonna do that doesn’t have a whole lot of startup costs? So I had just gotten married and I was like, you know, I was pretty good at planning my wedding. I planned it while in nursing school, while working full time, while in California. I planned it in Washington. So it’s like, if I can plan that and I had fun doing it, I felt like I did a pretty good job. I was like, I can.
probably do that. So with no experience other than my wedding,
I came up with a name. I got on Wix. I got a website. I signed myself up for a wedding show and I put myself on Craigslist before Craigslist was like kind of a creepy place to go. And I did a couple weddings for free. I learned a lot. I did a couple weddings for $100.
Shawn Grindle (03:25)
Right?
Right, yeah.
Katrina Allen (03:45)
I was at 495 for like ever and then just experience, experience. And then during that, actually right when I decided to do, right when I decided to start my own business, I changed my major to business. I found an amazing program that was geared towards the working adults. And although I was the youngest person in the class, because these are for like,
the people that wanted to kind of reinvent themselves. But I proved myself worthy. I was like, I’m married. I’m starting a business. Like, I’m not, you know, whatever. And so they let me in, which was nice. And they took all of the classes that I had already done for nursing and they found kind of a home for them. And then that got all the prerequisites done for business. So all I had to do was take a year of like all of the business classes. So I stayed on track, got my diploma and the same amount of years as it would have taken for nursing, which is nice.
Um, and then yeah, I never looked back.
Shawn Grindle (04:47)
Awesome. I want to tell you something that’s really funny. We always say like when we do our piano shows, you know, we deal with a lot of people, we have a lot of fun people, people coming out having a great time. And we always say there’s two types of people that are the more the most fun than anybody else. And it’s teachers and nurses. Because because and part of my friends, they just put up with so much it. It really is like they always cut so loose.
Katrina Allen (05:06)
Hahaha
Yes.
Shawn Grindle (05:14)
And I can usually spot a table of nurses or teachers a mile away, because I’m like, they’re the fun ones, you know? Yeah. So I just had to mention that. So are you mostly just doing weddings and events up in the Pacific Northwest, or have you always been there, and where are you originally from?
Katrina Allen (05:18)
Yeah. Uh huh. Uh huh. Yup. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, so I went to school in California. So when I started my business, I knew that California wasn’t for me. And I was going to be moving back to the Pacific Northwest. So what I did was when I started my company, I started it in California and Seattle at the same time. And I had feet in Seattle doing the Seattle weddings while I was doing the California weddings.
Shawn Grindle (05:41)
one.
Okay.
Katrina Allen (05:59)
And then when I graduated and I moved to the Pacific Northwest, I continued to get some clients in the Bay Area, which was fine because that’s where my in-laws live. So we would just use it as an excuse to visit them. I still do some. I just flew there over Christmas for a proposal. But no, majority of my weddings are in the Pacific Northwest.
Shawn Grindle (06:10)
Right.
Right, cool, cool. How many, so do you do, are you just weddings or do you do other events too, like pretty much anything? You birthday parties, corporate stuff, or are you sticking mostly to weddings?
Katrina Allen (06:40)
Yes, so I’m gonna throw you a curveball for a second because I started as a wedding planner and then the years into that I started doing flowers and decor and my policy has always been like say yes to everything, you never know what you’re gonna like until you’re there doing it and then if you don’t like it don’t do it anymore. So I’ve kind of stumbled into like I’ve never tried DJing or photography but I’ve done a lot of like different um
Shawn Grindle (06:44)
Okay.
Sure.
Katrina Allen (07:10)
flowers and decor and linens and stuff like that. So the reason I bring this up is because to answer your question, no, I don’t do a whole lot of event planning or baby shower planning because they’re not as complex as a wedding or in the event industry, it’s normally corporate and they have someone whose job description includes that. But I am involved in events because of the decor and floral part of it. We do a lot of baby showers, bridal showers.
Shawn Grindle (07:31)
Sure.
Katrina Allen (07:40)
Proposals are huge right now. And then corporate, corporate galas and corporate meetings and stuff like that.
Shawn Grindle (07:49)
So did you have the name Love Blooms before you decided to get into florals and just got super lucky with how awesome that works? Like.
Katrina Allen (07:55)
Yes, Suher. Yeah, it’s funny that you say that because yes, and I thought about that for years. I was like, oh, like, you know, the universe knew, God knew, whatever you believe in. But I wish, honestly, I wish that I, my name, and we actually are starting this company because of it, but I wish I would have started K. Allen Events.
Shawn Grindle (08:03)
Yeah.
Yeah. Sure.
Katrina Allen (08:23)
which we’re starting now, but I wish that instead of Love Blooms, I wish I would have done K-On! events because Love Blooms smells of weddings, right? It’s a great name when you’re getting married, but when you are trying to do a corporate event, a baby shower, anything other than a wedding, like Love Blooms, oh, they do weddings, you know? And so I wish that I would have started.
either started KL and events at the same time so then my review portfolio would be as nice as Love Blooms is. But you don’t know until you know and so we’re actually starting KL and events this year because I want to start doing more corporate and all of the events other than weddings as well. But it’s hard to get corporate clients when your name is Love Blooms. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (09:14)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. HR is like, yeah, people aren’t in love with each other. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.
Katrina Allen (09:19)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yep. Mm-hmm.
Shawn Grindle (09:23)
Before we start talking about, cause I always have like fun questions about stuff we’ve seen at weddings, which is kind of the fun part of these conversations. But before we get to that, do you do, you know, speaking specifically of weddings, like you do mostly like full planning for people. Do you do kind of partial things? What’s your kind of bread and butter there?
Katrina Allen (09:30)
Yes.
Yeah, we have three packages, the full planning, the partial planning and the day of coordination. So we do all three. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (09:46)
whatever they kind of need. Do you, yeah. Are you on site a lot? Like how many weddings do you think you do a year?
Katrina Allen (09:53)
We have two packages. You can either hire me to show up or hire an associate to show up. So in total, Love Blooms coordinating, or I mean the planning packages all include the coordinating package as well. So in total, Love Blooms is probably at like 30-ish weddings a year coordinating.
Shawn Grindle (10:16)
Wow.
Yeah, yeah, it’s a lot. That’s a lot of weekends, you know? But that’s what we do in the industry. I feel like I haven’t had a Saturday night off in seven years. So, unless I go on vacation, yeah, the off season. I thought January was the off season. I thought January is usually the off season, but for some reason I’m super busy this month and like I’ve got events every weekend. I’m like, what’s going on? I guess I was wrong. It is February now.
Katrina Allen (10:22)
Yeah. Yes.
Yeah, yeah, except for the off season. Yeah, yeah, off season.
Yeah, well, it’s February now, so hopefully February isn’t as busy.
Shawn Grindle (10:47)
I’m going on vacation in a couple of weeks, so I’m done. Yeah, but okay, so let’s talk wedding. So one thing I like to ask people, so from when you started in the industry till now, what are some of the big differences you see trend wise? Like stuff maybe you used to see a lot and now you don’t see so much or stuff you never used to see, but now you’re seeing at almost every wedding. Is there anything that comes to mind that you think is notable?
Katrina Allen (10:49)
Ah, perfect!
So Baby’s Breath, when I started, was for barn weddings. You put it in mason jars and you get married in a barn and you have burlap everywhere and all that stuff. And now Baby’s Breath is modern and you have, you know, roses and Baby’s Breath everywhere for very modern black and white themed weddings. So it’s interesting how, I mean, I would consider modern.
and rustic to be like polar opposites of each other for a theme of a wedding. And so that’s interesting, but that now baby’s breath is no longer barn weddings, but now modern weddings. I think when I started, every bridesmaid that you had the same exact dress and they were all short dresses. Now they’re all long dresses and everybody.
Shawn Grindle (11:48)
sure.
Katrina Allen (12:09)
gets to pick their own within the same like color palette or you know, whatever, either color palette or one shade of color. So that’s definitely different. And then I, there’s definitely, like when I started, I feel like there’s a lot more hotel ballroom weddings.
But I think that was due to the fact that there wasn’t really a whole lot of more options. And then I think people started realizing, oh, weddings. Oh, we could do weddings in our barn. Oh, we could do weddings in our field. And so I think that is probably why that trend changed because there’s nothing wrong with a ballroom wedding at all. They’re very classy. But I do think that has changed just because I think of, you know, I’ve been doing this for 14 years.
So I think this has changed because of availability. And then smaller. So this trend is, I think it’s partially due to COVID when they were forced to have small weddings. So then the people that weren’t quite engaged that were attending those weddings realized, oh, small weddings are actually kind of fun.
And then cost because it’s so expensive to feed people. They are reducing the size. I just met somebody and she’s like, I was like, oh, what’s your guest count? And she’s like, well, if we invite everybody we know, it’s 250. If we invite the people that we talked to in the last year, it’s 150, you know? And so it’s like, people are really, all of a sudden, when you’re inviting people, they have a price tag on their forehead.
Shawn Grindle (13:51)
Yeah.
Katrina Allen (14:03)
Do I really want to spend $100 plus for this person to come to my wedding? And so, yeah, and honestly, when I started, soon into when I started, the average price for a wedding was 30 grand, and I’m still seeing the average want to spend be
about 30, maybe 40. So I don’t feel like, I don’t feel like the budget has increased all that.
much based on all of the fact that everything has gotten so much more expensive. And so I think that the size of weddings are definitely reducing because they only want to spend, you know, 30 to 40 on a wedding.
Shawn Grindle (14:47)
Yeah, that makes sense. I think I’ve noticed a lot. Have you noticed a lot more weekday weddings recently or am I losing my mind?
Katrina Allen (14:53)
No, that’s a new thing because venues got so expensive. And yes, and then people started going, well, what if I get married on a Monday? And then we just have a long weekend. What if I get married on a Thursday and have a long weekend? And they’re half the cost. And venues are, you know, 5,000 if you’re lucky, 10,000 if you are like wanting to get one of the really sought after ones. And so if you’re talking, get half the price of that, you’re gonna save a lot.
Shawn Grindle (14:59)
Yeah, maybe that was it.
Mm-hmm.
Katrina Allen (15:23)
Um, and I think the appreciation of having an outing and being able to like have a reason to dress up, um, occurred because of COVID. So before COVID, um, BC, before COVID, um, it was like, everyone was like, oh my gosh, that Thursday wedding, I have to take work off, how inconvenient, blah, blah. And now after COVID, it’s like, they probably are working from home.
Shawn Grindle (15:40)
Be safe.
Katrina Allen (15:52)
and so they can work from their hotel room and then go that evening to the wedding. Or they just appreciate the fact that they get to get out of their house because they’re stuck in their house working and all of that stuff. So I think, yeah, I think weekday weddings are definitely more common than they were ever 14 years ago.
Shawn Grindle (15:53)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I did a weekday wedding and I’d be the opposite. I’d be like, Oh my God, a weekday. How awesome I get to take work off. I’m coming. I’ll be there Wednesday, you know, and it works better for me because I work on the weekend. So if I can be back by Saturday, I’m good. So let me ask you this. So what’s your number one piece of advice if you for newlyweds just got married. Number one piece of advice when you’re starting that journey.
Katrina Allen (16:20)
Right? Yeah. Yeah, I’ll see you. Yeah. Take a whole week off.
Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (16:43)
Step one, what do you do?
Katrina Allen (16:47)
Okay, so step one is to hire a wedding planner, of course. The thing is, is yeah, the thing is, is if you’re one of those people and you just know that like wedding planning is going to be overwhelming to you or you’re just like you work full time, you want to have a life outside of planning your wedding, you’re not going to have time to do all of the legwork of research and all that stuff.
Shawn Grindle (16:52)
Obviously.
Katrina Allen (17:13)
do that and then they realize, oh no, this is a lot, this is like a full time job in itself and then they hire me and it’s like, man, like you could have saved yourself all of that stress and all of all of all of that and just hired me in the beginning. So I think you know just knowing yourself enough to know that like you don’t want another full time job or even a part time job.
and you want wedding planning to be stress free, then consult with the wedding planner. The meetings are free. We’re not lawyers. We’re not charging you $200 an hour just to have a meeting with us. And find out, let us tell you what we offer because we will also save you money along the way. So not only are we gonna save you stress and anxiety and being overwhelmed and all of that, but we’re also going to save you time.
and money and so like you have to put value on your time, your time is valuable and then we’re gonna save you money and then we’re gonna save you stress. So it’s like all of that has a value that is very valuable. So that would be step one. And then if you opt to not do a wedding planner, then you start looking for a venue.
Shawn Grindle (18:25)
Right.
Katrina Allen (18:36)
because that’s gonna be, you know, obviously that’s gonna set your date and kind of the tone for your wedding. But the important thing when you’re doing that is to get the out the door cost of the venue if they have special fees or food involved. I once had a client who decided to get married at the Hyatt in Seattle. Yeah, the Hyatt in Seattle. And…
Shawn Grindle (19:03)
Okay.
Katrina Allen (19:06)
Then she, so she signed on the dotted line, she got her, she got her venue and then she’s like, this is so stressful, like just getting the venue was like, that’s, I’m done. Like I need a wedding planner, I’m done. So then she hired me for the rest of it. And so we did a budget meeting and I was like, okay, how much overall do you wanna spend? And she’s like 20,000. I’m like, okay. And what venue did you choose? And so she told me and I said, I said,
Mom, I’m on camera. It’s okay. You’re gonna have to edit that one out too. So I said, okay, well, did they give you like a BEO? So like a cost breakdown to tell you like how much, right? Cause like, you have 200 guests and like, the high it’s $100 plus.
Shawn Grindle (19:41)
You’re good, you’re good, you’re good.
Right.
I’m already like, I’m already like, yeah, this was an ambitious budget.
Katrina Allen (20:06)
Yeah, yes. And so, and I was like, and then the high is like, you know, at least $100 personally. And so she’s like, yeah, they have a $10,000 minimum. And I go.
Yes, a $10,000 minimum. Yes, they do. That means you have to spend at least $10,000. But did they show you anything that would tell you that you can feed and drink people, 200 people for $10,000? And she’s like, well, no, I guess not. And I go, okay. I go, let’s get that because we’ll see what they can do. You know, because I didn’t wanna like
tell her you’re an idiot, but I wanted to tell her you’re an idiot. But yeah, it’s very unfortunate. You should have hired a wedding planner before because I would have saved you from making a mistake and hiring a venue you cannot afford. And so it’s just things, it’s, we know the questions to ask. We know, we know those things. And so you just, I had a…
Shawn Grindle (20:53)
Right. You have signed a bad deal.
Yeah.
Katrina Allen (21:20)
I had a client, she spent $3,000 on her bartender. That does not even include alcohol.
Shawn Grindle (21:30)
Just to bartend? I think my bartender’s, but still that’s way too much. My bartender’s were like 25 bucks an hour. That’s all I have. Like, yeah.
Katrina Allen (21:31)
to a bartender that has a cute little trailer bar.
No, way, way too much. Yes, way too much. And I was like, what in the world? Yeah, and again, she hired that vendor before she hired me. And so it’s like, I feel like a lot of people get to the step of like, okay, I think I need some help from a wedding planner, but like figure out that you need to, figure out you wanna go there first because we’re gonna help you not make those mistakes.
Shawn Grindle (21:45)
Yeah.
Katrina Allen (22:06)
And now, you know, we have less to spend on every other category because she overspent on this category. So yeah, that would be wedding planners the first step and then venue would be second.
Shawn Grindle (22:15)
sure. And I you know, I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but that I’m I probably this conversation probably like six times on this podcast. So I’m gonna be repeating myself again. But a wedding planner I talked to in Southern California put it fast. When she said it’s basically just like a real estate agent. You know, you might have to pay a fee for that real estate agent, but they are going to save you money and get you the best deal and make your life easier. You know what I mean? And you really can’t do it without them. You know, and I love that.
Katrina Allen (22:38)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-mm.
Shawn Grindle (22:44)
because I was like, yeah, it’s pretty much the same thing. And, you know, you wouldn’t really buy a house without that, you know, and you shouldn’t really plan a wedding without that. They are both very expensive things. Sometimes they can be just as expensive. So it’s like, you know, I liked that analogy. I thought that was interesting. So yeah, good advice. And don’t don’t. Yeah, when I got married, I thought I had a $10,000 budget and learned quickly that I can’t do anything for that. Like, I was like, no.
Katrina Allen (22:52)
No.
Uh huh.
No, mm-mm. Pot, potluck in a park. That’s what you can do, potluck in a park.
Shawn Grindle (23:13)
That’s not doable.
Yeah, yeah, it would have been a very bad wedding and it turned out great. We did get a planner and all that, so it worked out well.
So yeah, get a planner. So let me ask you this, because I have two questions. I’ll ask the first one first and the second one’s left and they go kind of hand to hand. And they’re my favorite ones. So what is the most fun or unique thing you’ve ever seen in a wedding? Something that happened that you’ve never seen again, probably never will, like very unique to this couple or just something awesome, like.
Katrina Allen (23:24)
Yeah, good. Yes.
Hmm.
Shawn Grindle (23:46)
Oh, that was really sweet or really funny.
Katrina Allen (23:52)
Hmm, unique. I have bad unique stories, so let me try to think of a good unique story. Okay, oh.
Shawn Grindle (23:57)
Well, that’s the second question. That’s the second question is what are the cringy ones? If you want, if you’re thinking of that, we could, we could start cringy. If you want to start there, I’m okay with that because that’s the more fun thing. Okay.
Katrina Allen (24:07)
Okay, I’ll do that so it’s, I’ll do that so it gets out of my brain. Um, I, uh, I, Grandma died on the dance floor.
Shawn Grindle (24:13)
Sure, let’s talk about that.
No!
Katrina Allen (24:21)
Yes. Heart attack. Just dance yourself to death.
Shawn Grindle (24:23)
Oh no, like on the dance floor.
Oh, I don’t even know how to react to that. That is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. What happened? Did the wedding just stop? I mean, did the wedding end? I mean…
Katrina Allen (24:32)
Yep. Ha ha!
I know, I know. Yeah, yo yeah. So, I mean, you know, we wedding planners pride ourselves in like, whatever happens, we’re there. We can, you know, we’ll power through, we’ll make it happen, we’ll come up with a plan B. Luckily, it happened like towards the end of the evening. But no, there’s no coming back after that. And I…
Shawn Grindle (24:58)
Oh man.
Did the music stop? I mean, everything was to stop, right? The music had to stop at all.
Katrina Allen (25:05)
Oh yeah, because right when she fell, like right when she fell, it was like, oh my gosh, what’s going on? And then there was, I think it was a nurse checked her pulse and there was none. And then we called 911, but oh yeah. And it was like, you know, you like awkwardly say like, hey, she at least, you know, she got to come to your wedding, like.
Shawn Grindle (25:21)
Oh, man.
Katrina Allen (25:31)
you know, she didn’t suffer, like all of the things you’re supposed to say, but it’s like…
Shawn Grindle (25:32)
Right.
She went out having a good time, you know? I mean, what? Yeah. I mean, plus I…
Katrina Allen (25:38)
She went out with a bang, man. Like, I just, I mean, yeah. So it’s just like, what do you say? Yeah, and then, so, yeah. It was, and then you get the ones, yeah. And then you get the ones where like, I’m pretty sure the best man and the bride were having an affair. Like, pretty sure I walked in on them like.
Shawn Grindle (25:46)
Oh.
Yeah, that wins.
Katrina Allen (26:02)
Oh yeah, she was a nasty, nasty person and he was the only, the best man was the only one that stood up for her and I was like, oh, that’s cute. Wait, brotherly love, standing up for your soon to be sister-in-law. But then I, during, when everyone is dancing, it was almost the end of the night, I walked down a really dark hallway to go get my boxes that I had stored in the
farthest away room. And as I was going there, they’re hugging in this dark, there’s no reason why they should be in this dark hallway. They’re hugging in this dark hallway and his hand is like halfway on the top of her butt, halfway on the lower back. She’s like nuzzled into his neck. And I was like, and then as soon as they saw me, they like stopped and like, you know, and I was just like, ooh, ooh.
what I just walked in on, but you might not want to sign. Yeah, yeah, and then I had, I had one of my clients reach out to me to let me know, they didn’t even last a year because he, he left her for the officiant, female officiant, yeah, which was a joint’s friend of theirs. I know that my cringey stories could just go on, but my unique stories.
Shawn Grindle (27:02)
NUTS!
The efficient? Oh man.
This is usually people are like, oh, the speech went on too long. You’re like, no grandma got it. The S man was talking up there. This is next level. I was like, you took it up here. Wow.
Katrina Allen (27:31)
Oh, no, I got some, I got some story.
Oh my gosh. Oh, I had a wedding. I had a wedding where the all of a sudden. Okay, so us wedding planners day off, we’re always like 10 minutes ahead of the schedule. So it’s time to do toast. And I’m like looking around for all of my key players. And I’m like, oh, the best man is missing. So I go out to find the best man. We are having a full blown yelling match with uncle.
Because uncle is blacked out drunk and brother is like trying to get him in the car He’s refusing to go in the car. He’s like he’s like I’ll drive I’ll drive home and you’re like not driving home You’re blacked out drunk get in the car and now we’re getting physical and I’m standing there going um I need you I need you inside. We’re about to do toast like get inside and he’s like I gotta deal with I gotta deal with this And I was like you go inside I’ll deal with this
Shawn Grindle (28:28)
Yeah.
Katrina Allen (28:35)
And he’s like, no, I know how to handle him. I know how to handle him. And I’m like, listen, who’s gonna bring him home? I need you guys in there enjoying your brother’s wedding. I’ll bring him home. And then after that, I was like, what did I just… I just offered to bring some man home that I do not know who is blacked out drunk. Okay, I should probably think before I speak. Luckily, they did not take me up on that offer. We got uncle…
Shawn Grindle (28:50)
What did I commit to?
Katrina Allen (29:04)
like the voice, the voices were so high you could hear it inside of the building. We were in the parking lot, you could hear it inside the building. Finally, uncle in the car and then the other uncle brought him home, I think. But anyways, I was just like, I could go on. So much, oh yeah, so much drama. I think like Unique’s…
Shawn Grindle (29:22)
Wow. Okay. Yeah. You’ve got, you’ve got some winning. You’ve got some winning stories right there. Just so anybody listening knows, you know, this isn’t most weddings, most weddings are fine. You know, he’s just, when you do a lot of weddings for many years, you see things.
Katrina Allen (29:36)
You know?
The thing is, is the bride and groom had no idea that uncle was blacked out drunk and there was a fight in the parking lot because I was taking care of it. I had, you know, brother taking care of it. And then I had brother go inside for toast before he was late for toast. And so, yeah, I guess like pulling it all around in the importance of a wedding planner, if I wasn’t there, the DJ would have announced for toast, brother wouldn’t have been there to do the toast.
Shawn Grindle (29:49)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Katrina Allen (30:08)
We would have had to go look for brother, where is he, to find uncle blacked out drunk and that, yeah, the fighting and all that stuff. Grandma, I couldn’t do anything about grandma, but yes, no, anyways, there’s, yeah, no. There’s a lot of stories, I’m sure wedding planners can say of the things that happened in the background that my clients have absolutely no idea and that is how it should be.
Shawn Grindle (30:11)
in the moment, awkward.
Nobody can tell that.
Never.
Katrina Allen (30:39)
Unless they paid for a service that never happened, I never tell my clients because ultimately, if the cake baker delivered a cake and some of the cake was messed up on one side and we refrosted it real quick and turned it away from the camera, they don’t even know that. That’s all they’re going to see.
Shawn Grindle (30:55)
Thanks for watching.
Yeah.
Katrina Allen (31:05)
And so that’s kind of how I plan is like, do you just, and part of it is when I was in nursing school, I wanted to be a nurse in an ER in a very, very busy city. So I love, I work well in chaos and
I like finding a solution. And so like when things like that happen, I’m like, I’m in my element, I’m good, let’s go. Let’s, you know, let’s get that. Let’s figure out what the solution is. So yeah.
Shawn Grindle (31:36)
So positive things, positive things, before we wrap it up, let’s not end on the horrible things. What are some memorable good moments that you’re like, that was really sweet?
Katrina Allen (31:37)
Um…
Yes! Yeah!
I mean, I always do love when the, like, any dance that’s done that’s not just a circle, like, you know, going around in a circle, especially with like parents. I do love that. It’s not technically unique anymore. I do love, there’s, I have-
one client doing it this year, but permanent jewelry for their favors. It’s pretty pricey, but instead of a shot glass that no one is going to bring home or use or whatever, unfortunately it’s kind of lady-oriented. The guys, they’re cigars, so you can either get a bracelet or you can get a cigar, but yeah, it’s permanent jewelry, and so it’s just like a chain necklace or a bracelet.
Shawn Grindle (32:40)
Uuuhhh
Katrina Allen (32:46)
Which is fun because then like, you know, for as long as you wear it, you’ll always think of this like fun thing that I did at a wedding. I think that’s really fun. I do have one client that’s toying with the idea of having long hair for the ceremony and then cutting her hair for the reception. Yeah, so it’s like a whole new, a whole new hair, a whole new look. I don’t know if she’s gonna do it, but it’s definitely, it’s definitely a thing.
Shawn Grindle (33:14)
Would she tell the groom or would it be like a surprise? Like not tell the groom, just, I’m gonna go do a little snip-a-snip during cocktail hour.
Katrina Allen (33:17)
It’s a surprise.
No, no, it’s gonna be a surprise. She’s gonna tell her that she’s gonna change into her reception dress and while changing into her reception dress, she will be changing her hair. Yeah, um, yeah. I did have a client, they had a brunch wedding, which is actually
Shawn Grindle (33:31)
That’s it, folks.
It’s kind of a fun little concept.
Katrina Allen (33:48)
coming, like talking about new trends and stuff, that’s definitely a new trend, because brunch timing-wise, like you can book a venue for like half the day, and so you save some money there, but they did a brunch money, a wedding, and they set sail in a hot air balloon after that. So that was cool. Yeah, that was cool.
Shawn Grindle (33:52)
Mm-hmm.
that’s awesome. And that would be probably around sunset too, right? Like they could take off around there. Oh, that’s really cool. That’s fun.
Katrina Allen (34:11)
Yeah, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yes. And only that timeframe of people can do it because if you wait until it’s dark, like who cares? Yeah. Um, yeah.
Shawn Grindle (34:21)
then you’re just going into the abyss. Then it’s scary, you’re like, where’d they go? Yeah, I love that. Well, that’s good, that’s good. See, there’s fun things out there too. It’s not all crazy. Anyway, so.
Katrina Allen (34:24)
into the events. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, right? Yeah.
There’s fun things out there. No, no, when you’ve been doing it for 14 years, though, you do have a lot of crazy, crazy stories. Ha ha ha.
Shawn Grindle (34:44)
Exactly. Um, so before we wrap it up, is there anything else you kind of want to say? Anything else you want to mention? Anything just fun that’s on your mind? I mean, I don’t think I have any other real questions or anything, but, uh, if there’s something else you want to, want to say, let me know.
Katrina Allen (35:01)
Hmm. I don’t think so. I think we kind of hit all the big points. Yeah
Shawn Grindle (35:03)
Cool. Yeah, it’s been fun. I always love hearing people’s stories. I will say right now, this is maybe the 10th or 11th episode and I think you’re winning on the Crazy Stories award. That’s gonna be hard to beat. I’ll let you know if somebody beats it, but that’s a tough one.
Katrina Allen (35:08)
Hehehe
Ah.
Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (35:23)
I don’t even know. Cause then you’re always gonna remember that. You’re always gonna remember that at your wedding.
Katrina Allen (35:24)
Yeah, yeah.
I mean that
Shawn Grindle (35:32)
That will be the thing that everybody remembers about your wedding and that’s such a bummer. Yeah, so, but you know, you gotta look at the bright side. I’m the type of person that tries to find humor and everything, so I’m just like, I would be like, well, okay. You know? Yeah.
Katrina Allen (35:34)
Yes. It is a bummer. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, like, yeah. No, I think I like awkwardly said like, well, she, she went out having a really good time or something like that. I was like, I just like, what do you say? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (36:00)
What do you say? There’s nothing to say. All right, well, listen, thank you so much for doing this. Thank you so much for chatting with me. I appreciate it. We’ll obviously link to all your socials and everything. You’re the first Pacific Northwest wedding planner we’ve chatted with so far. We’re talking to people from all over. Yeah, is it, was this before really, is it raining? Is it raining up there right now?
Katrina Allen (36:09)
Yeah, of course. Of course.
Welcome to the Pacific Northwest. Perfect.
sunny, sunny skies right now.
Shawn Grindle (36:27)
See, I’m in Southern California. It’s rain down here. It’s bad. It’s been raining, raining all day. So they’ll flip, but okay. Cool. Thank you for talking with us and we’ll talk to you soon. You have a great rest of your day. All right.
Katrina Allen (36:31)
Mmm. Yes. Uh huh. Yeah.
Of course. Okay, you too. You too. Thanks. Bye.
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