Listen to the Podcast About Ecklectic Events
Podcast Summary
In this thought-provoking podcast, host Nate Rodriguez shines a light on the dynamic world of event planning, in a candid conversation with Karli Heymans, an experienced industry professional from Ecklectic Events.
Delving into the heart-pounding excitement of the 2025 wedding season, Karli shares on her thrilling journey as an event planner, spotlighting the lightning-fast start she experienced. She also uncovers a trend echoing a return to larger wedding parties, a shift from the smaller gatherings dictated by pandemic restrictions, adding a new veneer of excitement to her work at Ecklectic Events.
Furthermore, Nate leads the conversation towards a more personal note, discussing Karli’s own wedding. With her expertise in the field, her wedding was an unforgettable event at the stunning Clay Theater in Greencoast Springs. She reveals her experience on her special day, flooded with remarkable memories including myriad photo-ops and fun twists on traditional elements, showcasing her unique influence as an Ecklectic Events professional.
The conversation takes an emotional turn as Karli divulges a cherished personal milestone – she is expecting her first child imminently. This intimate glimpse shows the passion and dedication that make her such an influential figure within the Ecklectic Events world.
This enlightening discussion presents an exclusive look at the bustling event industry, featuring compelling insights from one of its most accomplished professionals. Stay tuned for more engaging content from Ecklectic Events.
Learn more about Ecklectic Events
This interview was provided by Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos
Podcast Transcript
Nate (00:24)
Hello everyone out there at Eventful Endeavors. I’m Nate with Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos. And I’m here with the amazing Karli from Ecklectic Events. I’m really excited to talk with her. We have worked together for a couple of years now and I’ve been trying to get her on this podcast. So I’m super excited for her to be here. Thank you so much for joining us, Karli.
Karli Heymans (00:32)
Thank you.
You
Yes, thank
you for having me. I’m excited.
Nate (00:46)
Amazing. So to get started, I know that for us, know, the 2025 wedding engagement season has been just wild. How has it been for you over there?
Karli Heymans (00:57)
Yeah, the start of the year was pretty fast. I’m pretty sure on January 1st, I got more inquiries than I did the entire month. So I guess everybody was super excited once the new year hit.
Nate (01:06)
Ha!
Absolutely, it’s been really, really exciting. I’ve especially noticed sort of a trend back to things like slightly larger groups. I think the couple of years following the pandemic, the average wedding was like 75 people. Now it’s back up to like 100, 150. And that’s always really exciting when you can get that many folks together having a great time. So actually speaking of weddings, I know you just got married this past year, is that right?
Karli Heymans (01:21)
Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
Yes, I did last April.
Nate (01:38)
And so tell me a little bit about your wedding. I’m sure everyone would love to hear what a wedding professional does for their wedding.
Karli Heymans (01:42)
Yes,
it was awesome. I hope like most people say it was the best day ever. It was at the Clay Theater in Greencoast Springs. Yeah, yeah, I love that venue. We saw it and we instantly knew we’re like we have to get married here. So yeah, it was a great day had amazing vendors. Everybody was
Nate (01:51)
Thank
Oh my gosh, that’s such a beautiful place.
Karli Heymans (02:09)
just super involved and you know on their A game and you know it was was great it was an awesome day.
Nate (02:11)
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s gotta be awesome. You get to, you kinda had the inside scoop. I’m guessing you worked with a lot of folks you know professionally as well. That’s so cool. Is there a favorite moment or a favorite experience during your wedding day that you wanna share?
Karli Heymans (02:22)
Yeah.
honestly, I really enjoyed obviously getting married, and all the partying and everything. but right before the ceremony, we did a lot of kind of fun things. Like we did a lot of pictures with the full wedding party. I did a ton of first looks, just cause our timeline allowed it. so, you know, like with the groomsmen, with the bridesmaids.
Nate (02:35)
Yeah.
you
really? Okay.
Karli Heymans (02:55)
My dad, of course, and I even did one with the Gruton’s dad. And we just did a bunch of like really cool, kind of different photo opportunities before the ceremony. And I just felt like that was really fun to be able to kind of let everybody just like let loose and have fun and like enjoy this process other than just being in these, you know, super formal photos that you have to take and, you know, getting kind of tired of that. Yeah.
Nate (03:05)
Thank you.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, it’s, you know, when you work in the wedding industry, it’s a tough balance to strike because, you still want those formalities, but we see so many weddings that we’re like, we want to do something different. That are just always so strong. That’s awesome. And if I heard you right when we talked before the call.
Karli Heymans (03:28)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, for sure.
Nate (03:42)
there is the next step in life that’s happening right now. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but do you?
Karli Heymans (03:46)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
No, that’s okay. Yes, we are expecting a little girl. Next week, I will actually be nine months pregnant, so we are almost there. Yep.
Nate (03:53)
wonderful.
my gosh. my
goodness. Is everyone all ready and strapped in? Is your husband monitoring you side-eye all the time now?
Karli Heymans (04:05)
Yeah, he’s telling me to stop doing everything pretty much, know, stop carrying that and like, yeah, he’s all over it. Yeah.
Nate (04:08)
Ha ha ha!
That’s awesome. So, you know,
we’ve, we met several years ago. I know you’ve been in the wedding industry for quite a while now. I won’t, I won’t say exactly how many years, but I do know you started, you know, pretty young at like 21. And, but now this brand new to the world is Ecklectic Events.
Karli Heymans (04:22)
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Nate (04:33)
One of the reasons
I wanted to hop on so badly is I wanted to kind of share you guys with the world. Tell me a little bit about sort of the inception of Ecklectic Events.
Karli Heymans (04:42)
Yeah, so I think even since high school, I actually started assisting my previous company that I was with when I was 14. Yeah, so I was like assisting them a long, long time ago. Obviously, I went through high school and I went through college, just kind of helping them out when they needed me. So I always kind of knew that I wanted to do this. This was like my dream job to be a wedding planner.
Nate (04:51)
wow, okay.
Karli Heymans (05:06)
And I knew someday that I wanted to have my own company. So it was just pretty much a matter of time and when the right time was. And that just seemed to be this past year. The time just came and I was like, I’m ready. So I just decided to, it was a very easy transition just having had that so much experience over the years. So was…
Nate (05:06)
No.
Mm-hmm.
Karli Heymans (05:32)
It was a very nice, smooth transition for me to be able to like go into this industry knowing all the vendors I do and all the venues and all that. Yeah.
Nate (05:39)
Yeah. That’s awesome.
talk to me a little bit about, you know, I always like to tell folks whenever we talk about, about wedding planning, probably the number one thing that I always recommend if, if a couple doesn’t have a planner is, it is the best investment that you can make dollar for dollar. it’s can sometimes be a little behind the scenes or a little unseen the amount of work.
that the plan really do, but I get to see it on the weddings. I wouldn’t say there’s no, you know, I don’t want to speak to disasters, but often there’s little things that come up during the wedding day, little things that we handle that the couple never sees because their day is supposed to feel perfect. But working in the wedding industry, you know, there’s no such thing as a perfect day, but we still work tirelessly to make it feel that way. I was hoping maybe you could share a story or two about
Karli Heymans (06:05)
Thank
Mm-hmm
Mm-hmm. That’s the goal.
Yeah.
Nate (06:33)
you know, situations like that where little things come up or even medium or big size things come up and how you’ve sort of handled them and gotten through so that the couple has their perfect day.
Karli Heymans (06:46)
Yeah, for sure. I would say almost and not in a negative way, every wedding has its thing. know, every wedding, there’s something and that’s why we’re there. We’re problem solvers. So that is a big part of our job to be able to, you know, stay on our toes and be able to think through solutions and how do we fix this? How do we, you know, make sure that nobody knows about it and all those things.
Nate (06:54)
Yeah.
and
Mm-hmm. Right.
Karli Heymans (07:14)
I personally like to do everything that I can before letting the couple know that there’s an issue. So big or small, I try to do as much as I can to like, you know, make the situation better or fix it or whatever. I do have one like story that came to mind right away. The bride very much did know about this. However, it wasn’t avoidable for her not to know.
Nate (07:20)
Right. Right.
Right.
Karli Heymans (07:40)
So about two hours prior to the ceremony, the girls were getting in their bridesmaids dresses and I’m not sure if they didn’t try them on before the wedding day or what the situation was. They had all ordered them online, which is pretty popular these days. But you most people try them on and get alterations and know, things like that. So two of the bridesmaids.
Nate (07:48)
Mm-hmm.
or no.
Mm-hmm.
Karli Heymans (08:07)
were not fitting in the dress because it wouldn’t zip. So it wasn’t necessarily that it didn’t really fit. It was more of just like the dress wasn’t working. So I had gone into the bridal suite and everyone was freaking out and they were like, we can’t zip our dresses. Like there was something wrong with them. They even like took them off and tried to just zip them up as, you know, just the dress itself.
Nate (08:17)
Right, okay.
right.
Karli Heymans (08:32)
And there was definitely something wrong with these zippers. I don’t know what was going on. So of course everyone’s like, well, what do we do? There’s very specific style, very specific color. We couldn’t just use a different dress or whatever. So in my handy dandy emergency kit that I always keep on me at every wedding, I had a sewing kit and luckily I found someone there that knew how to sew.
Nate (08:36)
Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
Karli Heymans (08:57)
Definitely
something I don’t know how to do, but luckily there was someone there. And we sewed these girls into their dresses without using the zipper. And I found like a shawl, like a coverup type thing, same color for each of them that helped cover up the back. And I got those brought to me at the venue right away.
Nate (09:02)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Karli Heymans (09:22)
and they walked down the aisle with their dresses sewn in the back with some shaws covering them and the bride was like, I do not care. I am so thankful we found a solution. Like she couldn’t be happier. She was like so stressed out and we just like made it work. And then afterwards the girls were able to change into something else. So that was a big one because it’s like, how do you fix that? You know, it’s yeah.
Nate (09:27)
I
That’s awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, even if you do all of your long range planning and you’re the kind of bride, my wife was that kind of bride where everything had to be kind of exactly how she wanted it, having somebody there to enforce it and to fix problems before they reach you and to have solutions without you having to stop the joy of the day.
Karli Heymans (10:08)
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Yeah.
Nate (10:15)
to solve problems
is such a massive help. was the one thing I insisted on for my own wedding was like, we are having a partial planner. My wife is a project manager and I was like, you’re not managing this project to this day. You’re drinking wine with me and enjoying dinner and our family and friends. That’s awesome. So, okay. I always love to talk a little bit about trends.
Karli Heymans (10:19)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Nate (10:40)
Are there any, is there anything that’s sort of evolving and becoming more popular with weddings these days that gets you really excited?
Karli Heymans (10:48)
Hmm. I actually get that question a lot. I don’t know. I feel like it’s kind of hard to answer just because I see so many different style weddings. I guess I would say it’s in my perspective. It’s more of a timeline type thing. Like it’s more of how people do things.
Nate (10:56)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Karli Heymans (11:13)
I think just people, know, weddings, everyone wants their wedding to be unique, of course. But it’s so easy to look at other people’s weddings and, you know, their posts and the vendors’ posts and all that stuff and want to copy things that other people are doing because they really love what they’re doing. So, you know, sometimes it’s hard because you just get mixtures of like, this is unique and this is unique, but every wedding, every wedding’s different, of course.
Nate (11:17)
Right.
Sure. Right.
Right.
Karli Heymans (11:41)
But
I do see a lot of similar things over and over as far as decor goes, what people are doing like for seating charts, you know, people come up with these cool things like shot glasses and you know, things like that. So there’s like, yeah, little things here and there. But I would say it’s more of kind of like how people do things at their wedding is what I see, how the trends change is like, oh, this person did it like this, I’m gonna do it like that.
Nate (11:53)
I have a few.
Right. I would, I would actually agree with that. Um, you know, as soon as I asked that question, I started thinking of it’s not necessarily like a specific thing like activity or even the decor element. But I will say over the last couple of years, the focus on strict formality seems to be ebbing away and a lot more of the couples we work with are more focused on the celebration.
Karli Heymans (12:09)
That’s kind of what I see.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Nate (12:38)
Well, obviously
the ceremony is still the ceremony, but following the ceremony, it’s kind of cool that a lot more couples are looking to be like, all right, this is my special day, but it’s also my chance to have as much fun as possible with all of these kind of most important people in my life. so that’s really, really cool. okay. So I want to talk a little bit deeper about Ecklectic. so.
Karli Heymans (12:40)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Nate (13:03)
Tell me a little bit about what it means to work with Ecklectic Events. And what I mean by that is, is there anything unique about getting started? How do couples reach out to you? And what is sort of the unique steps that you go through when couples bring you on to help plan their wedding?
Karli Heymans (13:21)
Good questions. Well, people can reach me through the wedding websites. I am on those, so WeddingWire and The Knot. My website is on both of those. And I’ve also got quite a few inquiries straight from my website. So I’m not sure if that was from the wedding websites or through Instagram or however it was, but through there as well. I always like to start
Nate (13:29)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Karli Heymans (13:45)
my processes with my new couples through like a questionnaire. So I send them a nice questionnaire that asks about everything that they’re looking for. Now, obviously this changes depending on the level of planning that they have with me. It’s very popular these days for people to be doing just day of coordination.
Nate (13:51)
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Karli Heymans (14:06)
because people have the internet and they have Pinterest and TikTok and everything these days to pretty much plan their wedding for them. But every once in a while I get some of those people that want to upgrade to partial planning, you know, they don’t realize how much is involved or full planning. So depending on that, I will send them questionnaires asking about the vendors that they’re interested in, the venues they’re interested in, if they haven’t booked one so far.
Nate (14:11)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Karli Heymans (14:32)
and just kind of what level of planning they’re looking for from me. And then once I figure all that out, I’m able to kind of move forward with them as far as a plan for the entire planning process.
Nate (14:35)
you
Sure. Awesome. So I know, you know, working in the wedding industry, we meet all kinds of couples, all kinds of people, and there are always certain types of personalities that we connect with more strongly than others. Is there a specific aesthetic of wedding or a specific personality of bride that you tend to click with more than others?
Karli Heymans (15:06)
Hmm, honestly, I don’t feel like there is. I feel like I connect with a lot of people. Obviously everyone has, like I always tell them when I have a booked client to speak with their DJs and their bands and their photographers and make sure that you do click with them, especially photographers, because they’re in their face all day.
Nate (15:12)
Yeah.
Right. Yeah.
Karli Heymans (15:28)
So it definitely is a big deal to connect with your vendors. So I feel like that’s why phone calls, phone call consultations are so important to me, just because we can hear each other on the phone and or a Zoom call, whatever they want to do. So I guess it’s kind of just up to them as far as, you know, if they think that I fit what they’re looking for. But I feel like most of the time I’m able to.
Nate (15:31)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Ray.
Karli Heymans (15:53)
kind of I’ll be able to help anybody really. Like that’s how I see it. I don’t know. Yeah.
Nate (15:56)
Yeah, you know, that might
be the most difficult question I asked.
Karli Heymans (16:01)
Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, some people
I feel like are really need a lot of help from me and I’m totally fine with that and some people are like, I want you to show up the day of and do this and although I’m a little more involved in that, I can do that too. So I feel like I’m kind of able to have a wide range. Yeah. Yes.
Nate (16:14)
Right.
Yeah, yeah, we’d be very accommodating.
There is something you said in there that I actually wanted to kind of go a little bit deeper on. You know, it’s the modern age, it’s 2025. And so, you know, we work with a lot of couples that, how do I say this? They’re not big on hopping on the phone.
It’s, the era of like AI, it’s the era of like online forums and questionnaires, and you can just get the information you think you want and never talk to anybody and never get involved with anybody. And I am also really big on consultations. Um, I think it’s really important to, you know, this is your wedding day and yes, you’re going to have 80 or 150 of your closest friends and family. But.
Karli Heymans (16:42)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Nate (17:08)
The vendors you choose are people you’re gonna spend a lot of planning time with. They’re especially your coordinator, planner, and your photographer. Those are people that you’re going to spend probably the most time with, even more than family throughout the entire day, especially photographer and coordinator. We’re, might be a little bit biased, but I also think that personality is really important when it comes to entertainment, especially the way that we work with.
Karli Heymans (17:22)
Mm-hmm.
There we go.
Nate (17:34)
handling things like processional recessional music, first dances where I’m seeing all of this, we’re a very visible part of the nation for the day. But so yeah, I kind of wanted to reiterate that for everyone watching that like, you know, meeting your vendors and getting to know them, not just what they can offer your wedding, but as people that are going to be spending possibly the most important or if you’re, you know, if you’re expecting like,
Karli Heymans (17:37)
Thank
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Yeah, so far.
Nate (18:04)
Probably the second most important day of your entire life. So
far, that’s right. Yeah. Okay. I can go off on that tangent for forever. So I wanted to, I wanted to ask again. So, you know, folks can find you on Instagram. Folks can find you on your website. I believe it’s ecklecticevents.com that right? And Ecklectic is E-C-K-L-E-C-T-I-C events.
Karli Heymans (18:14)
Hahaha
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Yes.
Nate (18:31)
but, yeah, definitely reach out to Karli. If you’re out there watching. And, I actually, you told me before we hopped on here that you’re actually offering something kind of cool. If folks find you here on eventful endeavors, you mind sharing what that is?
Karli Heymans (18:45)
Yeah, absolutely. Anyone that mentions the podcast, am giving $100 off any of my packages. Yeah.
Nate (18:52)
So cool.
That’s so awesome. And you know what? Just to lean in even more with that, folks, if you were working with Karli and you reach out to Felix and Fingers, we’re actually offering a 5 % discount off of any of our packages. It winds up being a few hundred dollars, but yeah, that’s because we love working with Karli. So we hope you’ll let us do so.
Karli Heymans (19:10)
Yeah.
You
Nate (19:16)
Karli, thank you so much for joining me on the call today. I’m really excited for everyone to see this on Instagram and see all these videos. And hopefully, I know we’ll be seeing you few times this coming season.
Karli Heymans (19:30)
Yes, thank you so much for having me. All right.
Nate (19:32)
Absolutely, Karli. Thanks so much.
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