Listen to the Podcast About Swanson Signature Events
Podcast Summary
In a fascinating interview hosted by Nate Rodriguez of Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos, Jennifer Mullis of the famed Swanson Signature Events shared an inside look at the event planning powerhouse she’s a part of. As the summer and fall of 2024 approaches, Mullis confirmed that clients can expect a delightful mix of weddings and events, now primarily focused on the scenic low country Savannah golden isle side.
Shifting to a highlight from the recent past, Mullis recounted a unique wedding at the Jekyll Island Club Resort. The feature that stood out? Dueling pianos at the reception, courtesy of the Felix and Fingers team. This novel touch was a hit with attendees, reflecting the trend of individuality in 21st-century wedding formats.
Mullis went on to describe the unique modus operandi of Swanson Signature Events. Setting themselves apart in the event planning space, they offer an unparalleled level of excellence to their clientele. When a client hires Swanson Signature Events, they secure a dedicated team armed with a diverse set of skills to execute a flawless event.
The conversation with Jennifer Mullis of Swanson Signature Events showcased not only the brand’s dedication to quality event planning but also its commitment to adapting to both contemporary trends and client’s creative requests. Given the brand’s reputation and approach, those planning an event in 2024 can anticipate a seamless execution with a significant touch of creativity when they choose Swanson Signature Events.
Learn more about Swanson Signature Events
This interview was provided by Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos
Podcast Transcript
Nate (00:24)
Hello everybody, it’s Nate with Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos. I’m here with the amazing Jennifer Mullis of Swanson Signature Events. We’re gonna be talking a little bit about, well, everything. Jennifer and I have become kind of close friends, so I’m really excited to be talking with her here today. Hello, Jennifer.
Jennifer Mullis (00:42)
I’m excited to be here!
Nate (00:44)
I wanted to be here. Wonderful. So I wanted to dive right in and talk first, kind of to see how your week, your season is shaping up and just learn a little bit about what the summer and fall of 2024 are shaping up to be for you.
Jennifer Mullis (01:00)
Yes, so thankfully it is shaping up to be a beautiful season. We have some great weddings and events on the books. We have a few in Atlanta still. We have, so we’ve gone through a little bit of a transition and we had an Atlanta branch. So we still have some there.
But we can go through the transition a little bit more in a little bit. We’re kind of phasing out Atlanta and focusing more on the low country Savannah golden isle side of things. So thankfully we have some beautiful weddings there in Savannah as well.
Nate (01:33)
Ooh.
Absolutely, and as as much as I love Atlanta, I got to admit the scenery in in that in the Savannah area is prime so
Jennifer Mullis (01:49)
No, because we have the beautiful Oaks. Yeah.
Nate (01:52)
That’s right. Okay, so you know, obviously you all do a ton of weddings and rather than give you a million to choose from, I’d love to hear, tell me about your most recent wedding. Was there anything especially noteworthy? Do you want to shout out the couple?
Jennifer Mullis (02:09)
Yeah, my most recent one was in June and it was at the Jekyll Island Club Resort and it was such a fun wedding. That was the one where we even got to work with you guys, Felix and Fingers. And what was so exciting is, exactly, what was so exciting is that she did have the dueling
Nate (02:16)
Mm
Jennifer Mullis (02:33)
at her reception. And I have not had a bride do that before and I was so excited when she told me she wanted to do that. And that ended up being such a fun and unique detail for her wedding and everybody loved it and was so surprised when they walked into the dance floor area and saw the two pianos. It was just, it was so fun for everyone.
Nate (02:58)
Awesome. I, you know, when I asked that question, I wasn’t even thinking about the fact that it might have been with us, but I’m so excited to hear that. It’s always nice to get a little, you know, extra pat on the back. But that’s so cool. So, you know, one of the things that we’re known for is, you know, our uniqueness and especially when it comes to weddings. But I’d love to hear a little bit about what makes Swanson Signature Events like sort of unique in the space.
Jennifer Mullis (03:09)
Exactly!
So when you hire Swanson Signature Events, we really try to keep a certain level of excellence on every event that we do. We take every event personally and put our hearts and souls into it. And when you hire us, you get a team. It’s not just one person. So on the day of your event, you will get at least a lead and an assistant, if not also a day of that comes and helps with setup.
There is so much that goes into a wedding day that we really want our leads to be able to focus on the bride and groom for the day. And then the assistant focuses on the vendors and helps with setup. And then if we have our third person, that third person focuses on the personal decor inventory, which is the stuff that the bride brings, such as seating charts, place cards, guest books, you name it, all the things.
And those all take time to put out, but a venue is not going to put those things out for you. So each of our three members has a certain focus so that we can make sure that day runs smoothly. And if there are any fires, because sometimes there are fires we can’t plan for, the bride and groom will not know about it. We take care of it so that they can focus and enjoy their day.
Nate (04:50)
that as somebody who is actually planning my wedding right now, I’m getting married in about a month and having that sort of, I don’t wanna say buffer, but having somebody that I know can handle all of those things is so, so helpful and has been a huge stress relief. So that’s really amazing. So, you know, we’ve done weddings with you
Jennifer Mullis (04:56)
Wow, congratulations!
Nate (05:13)
We’ve talked a little bit about the weddings that you’ve done, but I wanted to touch on something that a lot of folks might not know, and that is a little bit about your background. It’s not very often, and I’m going to kind let the cat out of the bag here, but it’s not very often we meet a planner who started on the other end of the spectrum in law. So tell me a little bit about that, kind of the history and that decision to make that transition from working in law to working on weddings.
Jennifer Mullis (05:39)
Yeah, so in college and all that, was pre -law doing all this stuff to go to law school and that was definitely my dad’s dream for me was for me to be a lawyer. And I even got into law school, had a seat, and a couple weeks before law school started, I told my dad that this was his dream and not mine.
That was a tense moment for a while, I’m sure. And I told him that I really wanted to be an event planner. And of course at that moment he’s like, but that’s not a lawyer. But I’m so grateful to say that he has seen how much I love it. He has seen the events that I have produced. And now he is totally on board and very supportive.
Nate (06:09)
boy.
Jennifer Mullis (06:34)
But it’s interesting to say that my law background is actually very helpful in this business because like being on the planning side, if you hire me for full planning, for example, I have to read all the contracts that come in and make sure that they are what you’re wanting. And if not, how can we possibly get some things changed? And I’m looking at pricing and I’m also, have to do a lot of writing. and.
that all kind of came from that pre -law background. So I am glad to say it’s been helpful. But yeah, it’s definitely a change from law to event planning.
Nate (07:14)
It’s a -ha -ha!
I was going to say, I don’t know if you picked the less or the more hectic side of the job industry. But yeah, I would actually say that that’s actually something I didn’t even think of is like, yeah, somebody who understands the ins and outs of things like contracting and.
Jennifer Mullis (07:28)
That’s a good question!
Nate (07:40)
what it means to put together a good plan. mean, if you’re preparing something, I don’t know if you were going into like trial law or anything like that, but I could actually see it being, there would be a lot of parallels in preparation for working in law versus preparing a wedding. I always tell my couples, like, it’s a, they say it takes a village to raise children, it takes two villages to plan a wedding. awesome.
Before we talk more about like weddings and events and I want to hear some more stories, there was something else that you had mentioned to me before that I wanted to give you a chance to kind of dive in and share a little bit more about. And that is MOPs or Mothers of Preschoolers. And that project, I know it’s really dear to your heart. Tell me a little bit more about
Jennifer Mullis (08:24)
Yeah.
Yeah, so when my son was born, we moved to Savannah two weeks after he was born. And we moved from Middle Georgia and that was really hard leaving my family at that particular moment. So when I got here, I didn’t know anybody. And it’s really hard to get out and know people when you’re stuck at home with a newborn. And we moved here for my husband’s job at the time. And so he was, you know, working long days.
So I found out about Mothers or Preschoolers and that was such a fun and helpful way to meet other moms who were going through the same things I was going through and ended up being a huge support network for me and over time I ended up moving my way up in a volunteer position to the director role for several years and helped direct
Nate (09:15)
soon.
to the director role for several years.
Jennifer Mullis (09:23)
group which was just wonderful to see I was able to help moms who were in similar situations that I was when I first started out and so that was definitely a it was very dear to my heart and Taught me a lot even for event planning to direct that much so It’s great
Nate (09:26)
It’s just wonderful to see I was able to help moms who were in similar situations.
Well, you know, would say directing wedding guests after their third or fourth glass of wine and directing preschoolers is kind of the same thing.
Jennifer Mullis (09:53)
That’s true. That is true. So you’re at a point. Moms who are tired and exhausted and overwhelmed, yeah, it’s a lot of similarities.
Nate (10:05)
Well, and I will say I’ve been working on my vow writing, and I fully intend to cry like a baby. So that’s going to be very similar as well. So before we move on, we’ve talked a little bit about mothers preschoolers for you there in Savannah. But if I heard you right, is MOPPS, or Mothers of Preschoolers, an organization that folks could find elsewhere as well?
Jennifer Mullis (10:14)
It’s right!
It is. It is actually a national organization. So there are chapters of it all over the country. The main hub that kind of overlooks everything is in Colorado. So it’s amazing that there are chapters for moms all over the country. So it’s really exciting.
Nate (10:35)
Ooh.
okay.
That’s so cool. It’s really exciting. Well, I know for a fact that the folks that watch this, a lot of them are getting married. And if they’re anything like me, it’s part of the five -year plan to get married, have kids. And so knowing about support and options for the next steps is kind cool. I know I will be definitely checking it out when the time comes. OK, so I want to talk a little bit about stories. I want to hear.
If you were to tell me about any wedding from your history with Swanson Signature, something that’s funny or especially touching, I know that I love hearing stories of great weddings. I’m the kind of guy that still gets misty at every ceremony I’m a part of. But I also know that
you know, that can really Share a little bit about who you are, about who Swanson Signature Events is. It can be a disaster story. It can be a funny story, or it can be something especially touching. Just share with me some experience that you’ve had.
Jennifer Mullis (11:53)
That’s a great question. So I…
I of think back to my wedding that I had in May. And the reason that one’s on my mind is because I, that was a full planning as well. So I worked with that couple for a year or a little over a year and really got to know them and got to know kind of some things that were important to them. So when we came to the May, I was able to put a lot of sweet moments into their day.
that I knew would matter to them. So like we worked into the timeline, for example, where I knew the green was really close to his mom. So we made sure that his mom got to put the boutonniere on him and get a special sweet moment with him and get a photo. And we made sure we got to work it out during the dances, the first dances, he got to dance with his grandmother. And that was one of the
Nate (12:35)
Mm
Jennifer Mullis (12:52)
first dances I’ve seen because I haven’t had a green one a dance with his grandmother before and just getting to those personalizations and I just loved seeing throughout that whole day we got to personalize things to them and at the end of the day they were like this was our day and what we wanted and it wasn’t just a you know like thrown together general day and that just made me so happy to hear
Nate (12:53)
No.
Right. just made me so happy to hear that. Right. you know, I’ve been in the wedding. my gosh. I guess that I still get misty at every wedding I do. I am going to be a mess at my own wedding. But yeah, my favorite weddings are also when folks add those personal touches. It could be something specifically funny.
In a moment, I’ll share an anecdote about our own wedding. But when you can tell that the moments and the things that they’re doing are especially meaningful, just makes my day. I’m trying not to get lost in memories of the weddings that I’ve had that have had those elements. You touched on that this couple was a full planning client of yours. Tell me a little bit about
your full planning. Like what goes into it? How many hours do folks get with you? What’s sort of entailed in your full planning packages?
Jennifer Mullis (14:13)
Yes, there are full planning packages. The lead alone will end up doing somewhere between 250 to 350 hours of work. And we are very involved. We have a five stage process. the first phase, we work with the client and we pick out vendors with them. We make sure the whole vendor team is built.
And what I do is I listen to them and what they want. So let’s say it’s photographer. I find out what type of feel do they want. Do they want the light and breezy photos? Do they want more moody? And then I’ll present photographers to them and they get to choose who they want to meet with. And I’ll get meetings set up and then they choose their photographer, for example. Once we get the whole vendor team built, then we move to design.
And that’s where I listen to what they want as far as design. I create a design board for them. Once it’s approved, we use that design board to go to rental companies, stationery, and the florist and get that design dream built. It’s so fun. That’s such a fun part of the phase. I feel like
I feel like everybody, all the brides love that face. And it’s one of my favorites too. And then we move to coordination where we start bringing together the timeline in their day. What do they want to incorporate into their day? And making sure I know what the vendors need. How long do vendors need for set up? What do they, do they need power? Do they need vendor bills? All those things so that we can create a timeline.
Nate (15:32)
Right.
Jennifer Mullis (15:54)
that is hopefully helpful for vendors. Because like you said, it takes two villages of people to bring together a wedding day. So I want to make sure everybody has what they need on the vendor side and everybody has what they need on the client side. And then is execution. So that’s where they are for the rehearsal. And we lead
Nate (16:04)
Right.
Jennifer Mullis (16:16)
We’re usually on Friday also already working on personal decor items. We’re going ahead and working with clients to get them all set up and organized. So on Saturday, usually Saturday, the wedding day, when we show up, we’re there to get everything going. We’re not worried about anything missing or needing to organize things. And we’re usually there on the wedding
anywhere from 10 to 12 to 14 hours between our team. So it’s lot of long days. And then there’s the most part, but that’s where we’re just following up, making sure everything was good and all of that. So it’s quite a process, although it’s a fun one.
Nate (17:00)
Awesome. Awesome. So I mentioned that I might have mentioned five or six times on this interview that I’m getting married myself. And we talked a little bit about customization, and we talked a little bit about decor. Or actually, I wanted to ask you about decor, but I wanted to share a little bit about our personalization in decor. So.
Jennifer Mullis (17:21)
What?
Nate (17:21)
You know, right down to the way our ceremonies run, we actually have an officiant that’s my dear friend that’s going to introduce us. But we also have, and I don’t want to give too much away, but we have a, our first dance is actually going to start with a dance that’s not just us dancing. We have a chair dancing routine for our guests to start us off and it’s going to be part of our introductions. And that’s the kind of goofy personalization
Jennifer Mullis (17:42)
Bye!
Nate (17:47)
I’m using, but I’ve seen a lot of those sort of unique things. So for us, we’re actually using local wildflowers as all of our floral. We found a nursery that grows and helps populate and keep populated local wildflowers where I’m going to be getting married in central Virginia. And they actually
Jennifer Mullis (17:47)
Bye.
Bye.
Nate (18:08)
wind up growing more than they need to help maintain the healthy population. And so we were able to rent in some of those, and it’s kind of special. I wanted to ask you a little bit about fun decor. We talked about execution. Tell me a little bit about the execution and what some really cool things you’ve seen as far as decor in those stages.
Jennifer Mullis (18:13)
Yeah.
So some fun things I’ve seen in decor. I love right now that it’s trending to use fruit in the florals. I was just at a style shoot Wednesday and the florist and the designer was really showing that off. So they had the florals, but then they had grapes and pears and they even were using eggplant and stuff like that. So I at a style shoot at Pula House, which is near us.
And it was so fantastic. Like, I’m seeing more and more fruit and vegetable trends with the florals. And I think that is so fun. I know, right? And I also love that floral installations are so huge right now. I just think it’s so pretty when there’s florals hanging over the dance floor or over the head tables. So I’ve really enjoyed that. And I also enjoy seeing, I know,
Nate (19:04)
Ha! Who’d thought?
Jennifer Mullis (19:25)
the non -fluoro side, seeing the ground umbrellas being used at ceremonies for extra shade. But I think they look so classy. So I’ve really been enjoying some of the new things trending in.
Nate (19:37)
OK, so yeah, so florals all over the dance floor. I always kind of think it’s really cool when couples put flowers on sides or in front of our piano. It’s kind of like getting to play my instrument in a garden. But yeah, it’s really cool. And I never would have guessed fruit, fruit of all things. But now that you say it, I it makes perfect sense. I myself am having a summer wedding. Why not have summer fruits? So OK, so you had mentioned
Jennifer Mullis (20:02)
Right, exactly!
Nate (20:07)
earlier you said that you had a really funny story and I got distracted and sidetracked. Tell me that tell me the story.
Jennifer Mullis (20:14)
So I remember I was working at one wedding and I had sent everybody down the aisle and usually after I send people the bride down the aisle I walk away because I’m going to work on some other things for a few minutes to make sure cocktail hour is ready and I started hearing everyone laughing and I was like hmmm I wonder
Nate (20:28)
Mm
Jennifer Mullis (20:36)
about but then I listened and I could tell the officiant everything picked back up and was going. I found out later there was a moment in the ceremony where the grandfather was supposed to stand up it was a special moment. When he stood up his pants fell down. His boxer stayed on.
Nate (20:56)
no. no.
Jennifer Mullis (20:57)
But he’s down. But thankfully he was very witty and said something very funny to the audience so everybody knew it was okay to laugh and they all just laughed it off. It ended up being a really sweet but funny moment. So you just never know what’s gonna happen in weddings. In events.
Nate (21:13)
you never ever know. That actually reminds me of a lakeside wedding I did years and years ago. It was at a private residence. had a beautiful lakeside home and we were doing the ceremony down next to the lake. Well, because of the layout where everyone had to park at this private residence was about 30 yards off camera off to the side. Ceremonies going beautifully. They get to their vows.
suddenly a car alarm starts going
Jennifer Mullis (21:46)
no!
Nate (21:47)
But the thing that made it brilliant was the groom without missing a beat in the middle of his vows just ducks his head and puts his, and he just goes, Mark. And it’s his brother who’s in the front row has sat on his keys. And he knew this because his brother, it happens to his brother all the time, because he always keeps his keys in his back pocket. And so he’s always sitting on his car keys and setting off his car alarm. And so it just turned into this moment.
And then so, you know, Mark stands up, turns off the car alarm and just kind of does one of these and everybody starts laughing. And then we go right back in. But it was the pacing of it was like watching a comedy movie. was just brilliant. And I mean, this wedding was six or seven years ago and I can still see it in my head vividly. Sometimes those unexpected moments are the things that make like make the memories that last literally a lifetime. Now, Grandpa may never live it down.
Jennifer Mullis (22:44)
That is speechless.
Nate (22:46)
But everyone’s gonna remember grandpa’s speech now, so.
Jennifer Mullis (22:47)
That’s a good point.
That’s okay.
Nate (22:54)
Okay, so before we wrap up, and I wanna ask you a little bit more about what it means to actually get involved with it with someone who’s listening to true events for your wedding. But before we do that, I wanna talk a little bit about kind of the other side of the coin. You know, you and I are professionals. We see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of weddings. And we always love talking about the things that go really, really well or the things that are just spectacular. But I always like to take a moment in our show to talk a little bit about the challenges
a piece of words of advice, words of caution for our couples. Can you tell me any, I’m gonna ask two questions. The first question is can you tell me a story where something went wrong and either, and you know, it got resolved or now it got resolved or can you tell me, give advice of like, hey, this is a challenge or a mistake that I see a lot of couples make and here’s how to fix it. Either one of those would be.
Jennifer Mullis (23:50)
Yeah, so I feel like a mistake I see a lot of couples make is they think that the venue coordinator is going to be their own personal.
coordinator or planner and that’s not the case. So I have a lot of them talk to me and they’ll go well I don’t necessarily know if I need to hire you but I wanted to just go ahead and reach out but we have a venue coordinator so don’t really feel like y ‘all are necessary. But venue coordinators work for the venue. Of course they’re going to serve the client in the light of the venue but we serve
Nate (24:08)
It’s not.
Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Mullis (24:32)
the clients. So if anything goes wrong on the day of, unless it involves the venue, the venue is not going to help with that. I know I mentioned earlier, they’re not going to put out your personal decor. They’re not going to help you in the planning process with coming up with your timeline, your design, or any of that. So I, that is something that I really want to caution people about is like, please
Nate (24:37)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Jennifer Mullis (25:01)
Understand we’re here to work for you guys and to make your day easier show you how to save money if possible Like we are focusing on you and go ahead and hire us from the beginning Whether that’s full planning or whether that’s event management, but that way you know you have someone on your side from the beginning
Nate (25:18)
Mm -hmm.
Right, right, and my gosh, I could hug you. Because that is, you know, we talked about it taking two villages and everybody has a role in a position. And it’s really easy for couples to get my own fiance, who hears me talk about weddings probably too much. You know, even she kind of didn’t understand the difference between a venue coordinator and a wedding coordinator.
And this is not to say that venue coordinators are in any way horrible or bad. It’s just their role is very, very different. Their role is to make sure the space is beautiful and everyone with the venue is where they should be and if they have a kitchen to make sure the catering is on time. There’s a lot more details than that. So I’m going to second, third, fourth, and fifth that statement. That is absolutely an amazing piece of advice.
Jennifer Mullis (25:55)
No, they’re great. They’re great.
a lot.
Nate (26:18)
Okay, so we’ve talked about the do’s, we’ve about the don’ts, we’ve shared stories. I know I am excited to hear what you have to say about like, what does it mean? What is the process getting started with Swanson Signature Events? What do you look for in a couple? What should they be looking for from you? Tell me about if any of our couples out there want to bring Swanson Signature Events into their wedding
Jennifer Mullis (26:45)
Yes, so one of the first ways to reach out to us is to go to our website. I believe it’s just swansonsignatureevents.com and fill out one of our lead forms and that’ll come in to us and if we have that date available we will be, I mean we’ll be on top of getting out and reaching out and we…
I try to reach out within a few hours. If not, if it’s a weekend or something, it might be like 24 hours. But I try to reach out as quickly as I can and go ahead and let them know about our different offerings because we do have the event management, which is for people who want to do most of the planning but want more of a day of. But our version of day of is we come in 60 days out because we can’t do an excellent job of day of.
Nate (27:13)
Mm
Mm -hmm.
Yeah
Jennifer Mullis (27:36)
if we haven’t been part of some of the planning process. We need to know what’s going on and help with the timeline. Or do they want full planning? And do they want to add on some other services that we offer? So I kind of let them know all those things so that we can build the package around them. And as far as our ideal clients, a lot of it is the ones who are willing to trust us.
and trust our professionalism because sometimes I think it’s hard if they don’t trust us and I feel like we almost are trying to push a rock up a hill but it’s like please trust us and know that we have your best interests at heart and we really are working for you.
Nate (28:22)
Absolutely. I ask folks that question, probably the number one answer. I ask questions like, what is the one piece of advice? What is the one mistake? And resoundingly, folks say, trust the professionals. I’ve been very blessed to be in the wedding industry for a number of years. And every single person I’ve encountered, it’s like,
It’s their life, it’s their mission to make every wedding just absolutely spectacular. And so, we don’t get married once, well, I’m gonna get married once, but we don’t just get to see a handful of weddings over the course of our life. We see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. We know what works, what doesn’t, and we know how to make the things you want work because we have a slightly different perspective, different scope. And so that is…
You know, that is amazing. you might have seen me chuckle when you mentioned day of coordination. you know, there’s day of is a very bit is a bit of a misnomer. It’s, you know, it’s 60 days of. okay, so I wanted to share one last little detail before we hop off and I’m really excited to announce it. So, Jennifer, you are offering something really incredible that if folks, you know, see our podcast,
Jennifer Mullis (29:24)
Okay.
Nate (29:40)
And you know.
See our interview and want to get started with you as long as they mentioned that they saw you and me here they get you know $250 off the event management package, which is that sort of like partial planning that we talked about or day of coordination and $500 off You know the full event production package their full planning package. That is absolutely incredible. I also get to say that we are going to essentially match that so couples that book with us
if they’re booking our most basic package, will get at minimum $250 off and up to $500 off. We have many, many packages, so. But as long as they’re working with Swanson, they’re gonna get a little something special from us, and as long as they mention this podcast, they’re gonna get something special from you. I have just had an absolute blast talking with you, Jennifer. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences and your story with me, and hopefully we’ll see you at a wedding real, real soon.
Jennifer Mullis (30:40)
Thank you so much, Nate. I really appreciate
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