Listen to the Podcast About Green Dress Planning
Podcast Summary
In a recent podcast interview, Kayli McGee of Green Dress Planning spoke with host Alyssa Jones about her unique business name, current wedding trends, and the importance of standing out in a crowd. The conversation kicked off with Kayli sharing the origin story behind “Green Dress Planning.” Understanding the struggles of wedding vendors in identifying the correct point of contact, Kayli decided to wear a bright green dress to a wedding, effectively making her stand out and easy to find. This act of distinction inspired her to name her planning business ‘Green Dress Planning.’
Kayli showed her expertise and passion for crafting enjoyable wedding experiences when asked about current trends in the industry. She expressed her excitement for non-traditional aisle and ceremony setup, which aims to bring close family members into the emotional realm of the couple’s vows. From switching up seating arrangements to circular ceremony setups, she highlighted the potential for creativity and intimacy in these new styles.
The podcast ended with Kayli hinting at a prospected couple planning a circular ceremony, proving that these innovative ideas are not just trends but growing realities in the wedding industry. Kayli’s enthusiasm and business savvy insights showcased her as an influential figure in the evolving business of wedding planning during this engaging Green Dress Planning podcast.
Learn more about Green Dress Planning
This interview was provided by Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos
Podcast Transcript
Alyssa (00:25)
Hello everybody! This is Alyssa from Felix and Fingers again and I’m here today with Kayli from Green Dress Planning. Thanks for being on here, Kayli!
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (00:35)
Thanks for having me. I’m so excited!
Alyssa (00:39)
Kayli is actually one of my best, I would say frienders, friend vendors in the industry. We like to go work at coffee shops a lot together and so I’m really excited to have her on here today. I’m gonna start off, I want everybody to know, can you tell everybody why you’re called Green Dress Planning?
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (00:58)
Yeah, so I’m wearing a green dress today. I am a wedding planner and damp coordinator. And I wanted to start a planning business just to kind of go solo officially. And I got the name inspiration because I was actually at a wedding and a lot of my rules entail of like brides and grooms not being allowed to answer questions on their wedding day because
choice intoxication is real. And so I always ask them to redirect questions to me. And a lot of times vendors are hard to find, right? They’re all in black and you’re like, yep, go find that girl named Kayli. But I was wearing a bright green dress that day instead of black. And they were just kept saying like, go find the girl in the green dress. And it made it really easy for me to find or really easy for me to be found. And it…
Alyssa (01:50)
Ha ha!
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (01:53)
of stuck and it was an available name and easy to spell and everything and then I get to wear a green dress and have an excuse to buy really cute green dresses all the time.
Alyssa (02:02)
I love that. As a vendor, can definitely tell you that story is completely true because the amount of time to be like, find so and so, and I’m like, I don’t know who that is, and everybody looks the same, everybody’s all in black. So I love that. So, yeah. Amazing.
So one of my first questions for you is, and I asked this most of our guests, but can you tell me about a favorite trend that you’ve seen recently? Because we know that the wedding industry is filled with trends. So what is something that you’ve seen recently that you really are enjoying?
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (02:39)
That’s a really hard one to narrow down just because there are so many like creative like nods to traditions. But one that I’m like really excited about is like a non-traditional aisle slash ceremony setup. Something as simple as switching the sides that the family sits on. So often like the bride standing on this side and her family’s here and
the other partner is on this side and their family’s right there, but having the family members of the opposite sit across, so like, for example, if like me and my boyfriend got married, right, having my family sit over here and his family sit over here, when you’re facing in, you get to actually look at your family. Generally, it’s really high emotion and you look for support and…
I really enjoy the thought of being able to look across and look at my siblings and look at my parents and my grandparents in those moments. It’s really special. I’ve also seen a lot of people do circular approaches to a seating ceremony. So instead of having it classic, like everyone sitting here facing forward, it’s kind of surround and it’s just the couple in the middle. That’s really fun, giving people a little bit different view.
and not having to be behind a whole bunch of people. But there’s a lot of different things that people can get really creative with the ceremony and that’s what I’m most excited about. I have a couple that’s gonna do a circular ceremony and I’m like, I’m so excited for it. So I’ve seen runaway ceremonies are fun too.
Alyssa (04:13)
I love that, I know that.
I it. My favorite thing as a wedding mentor is to like show up when they’re doing something different and be like I’m so excited because I’ve been wanting to do this for like years. Okay, so I have another question for you that is something that I get asked a lot as somebody in the wedding industry and I wanted your take on it as well. But do you think, and I have a feeling that the answer is going to be yes, but do you think that hiring a planner or a day of coordinator is worth adjusting your budget and cutting back on other things and why?
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (04:23)
Yes.
So I might be a little bit biased as a plumber. But if I’m talking to all the brides and grooms in the world right now, yes, it is so worth adjusting your budget. Whether you work with me or you work with my coworker, my peer, whatever, like find someone. Planners and coordinators are a massive investment in your sanity, right?
I talked about Joyce intoxication. It is real constantly making decisions saying yes and no in the moment might seem really simple, but towards the end of the day, after you’ve answered 150 questions, you just want to be done, right? You’re just like, don’t talk to me. I just want to be over it. And it always breaks my heart when couples say like, we’re just excited for it to be over. That’s kind of the womp womp part of the wedding party planning. So being able to have someone to kind of offload a lot of that, stressful aspects of it.
is definitely worth the investment. I’ve never ever spoken to a couple that has regretted getting a coordinator, but I have spoken to many couples that have regretted not getting one. Yeah, you might be able to do your wedding and get away with not having one and it’d be totally fine. But what if it doesn’t? What if something does come up and it does add extra stress that you don’t need? The amount of people that are just over the moon with having someone totally outweighs
the, the success rate of people that don’t have one, in my opinion.
Alyssa (06:16)
I completely agree with that. I see a big difference in couples at the end of the night who have somebody on their team who is doing all the little things that really add up at the end of the day. Like you said, those little tiny decisions. Even, you want the catering here or do you want the catering here? That can be something that when you’ve been asked that all day, the end of the day you just see people being exhausted. So, I can’t…
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (06:44)
Yeah, I had a wedding the other day that they had. Yeah, I had a wedding the other day and they had a parking situation and all of the guests were getting tickets. And yeah, and in that moment, the last thing that the bride and groom probably wanted to deal with was figuring out why people were getting tickets and getting that all taken care of, getting signage out there, getting in contact with those people when they’re like in hair and makeup and getting dressed. So those are the kind of things that you really don’t plan for.
Alyssa (06:46)
Echo what you’re saying enough.
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (07:13)
and where having a coordinator is really going to make a difference.
Alyssa (07:17)
Definitely. And I love that you talk so openly about the difference between having somebody that’s planning your wedding and having somebody who is just there for day of coordination. Because I know for a lot of people, they really like doing the DIY things. They really love the wedding planning process, but they don’t know how to hand over the reins on the day of. So can you give any advice for anyone who’s planning their own wedding?
but is trying to hand off to a coordinator the day of and how they can make their life and their coordinator’s life as smooth as possible that day.
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (07:53)
Yeah, I identify really strongly with those brides and grooms who are very DIY because as a planner and coordinator, I’m like, always want to be in control. like me trying to figure out how to be a planner and have my own wedding someday, right? Is something that I always think about. And so that’s what I really focus in on my packages is really like finding that balance between like what you want to do and what you don’t want to do and then handing off those things. And the biggest thing with
really heavily DIY couples is going to be decor. Oftentimes is the hardest aspect of more DIY. It’s much more affordable. So I love the DIY concept. am obsessed with saving money. But the biggest thing that I do is just having those really often touch those consistent touch bases with your coordinator and making sure that you have
all of your ducks really, really in a row. I had an amazing bride on October 27th, Addie. Her and Jordan both, I don’t even know why I just say Addie. Her and Jordan both were like over the moon, best DIY couple I’ve ever worked with. I came in and Addie handed me a full like binder. She had everything in bins.
Jordan knew where everything was and they had everything labeled and everything. So it was super easy, right? I love the trick of the little, you can buy like a 10 pack of them at Target or Walmart, right? Of little plastic container bins and they had a table one, table two, table three and they had a bin for each one. And I had all the votives for table one in there, all the votives for table two, the table numbers, the name tents, all those things in each box for each table. And that was such a game changer and having those bins
pre-labeled so that at the end of the night when we had to put it away or when they had to put it away, they were able to grab the bins that said table numbers and put all the table numbers back in that bin. So it was a really easy unload and reload versus like having all the voters in one spot and all the table numbers in one spot, having them pre-organized table by table made such huge difference and really just going through and communicating with me leading up to the day of like, here’s how we’re going to be prepping. So.
The communication obviously is what it comes down to and then organization is huge too.
Alyssa (10:16)
I love that. So question for you, because I know that I have a lot of clients that come to me who maybe haven’t booked something yet. They haven’t booked a photographer. They haven’t booked a day of coordinator. I’ve even had people come who don’t have a venue yet. So do you have any advice on how far out each type of vendor should be booked or maybe what order is a really good order that you see people booking in?
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (10:42)
Yeah, this is a really interesting one to talk about and I’m glad we’re talking about it because a lot of timelines for booking vendors is changing or a couple vendors that you really expect are like totally different. A really big one that I’ve noticed lately is hair and makeup. Hair and makeup is oftentimes a lot more expensive than people are expecting and the timeline for booking those is a year plus out.
especially if you have a very specific makeup artist in mind. all of like, like if you have a wedding in October, like booking right now for hair and makeup in like November timeline is super, super reasonable, which I don’t know, five, six years ago, I don’t think would have been the case. So I feel like doing a breakdown of the timelines for the different vendors is a good thing to talk about.
But I think hair and makeup is a really, really big one that books out a lot farther than people are thinking. Venues have been pretty consistent in regards to booking timelines. Always kind of that year, year and a half out. I don’t think that’s a huge surprise for anyone.
Same thing for like photographer. I don’t think that one’s a big surprise, but hair makeup has been the big one. Coordinator can be very different from coordinator to coordinator. You have a lot of companies now that just like they’re a company of coordinators and you can probably book those not necessarily as far out, but then when you have much more like niche design coordinators, you do want to start looking at that like eight to 12 months out.
That’s kind of where I’m at. Like I have weddings booked all the way until October of 2025, right? So, and then I’ve had those booked since June of this year. So we have a huge gap. And if you are looking for someone, like a very specific person, you wanna reach out as soon as possible. But if you’re more open-minded, then the timeline’s a little bit different.
Alyssa (12:49)
I love that. So can you tell me something? Because I know that we’ve talked about how different coordinators and different planners have different approaches and different things that they specialize in. What’s something that you specialize in that is maybe different than other planners or coordinators?
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (13:05)
I don’t think it’s necessarily like totally different, but it’s something that I like to speak on a lot. Cause there are different types of planners and different types of coordinators when it comes to events. There are a group of coordinators and planners that are very design focused and very creative and very like in general, like working on the aesthetic, excuse me, and things like that. And then there’s the logistics planner, right? Making sure.
that all of the timelines and things are all being written out and executed. So what I really talk about pretty forwardly is that I’m very focused in on logistics planning. I have many creative bones in my body and I love being creative and I love design and aesthetic and everything, but ultimately my bread and butter is logistics planning and making sure that we kind of have a full timeline and that it gets taken care of and executed.
Very type A in that sense. So a lot of my couples come to me for help on like timelines. Like, do we do a first look or do we not do a first look? If we do a first look, how is that going to affect the timeline? And if we don’t want to do a first look and it’s really important to them, me working with them and getting creative on the timeline so that they can get exactly what they’ve always envisioned is something that I really, really like to spend my time doing as a coordinator.
versus only doing design. Obviously I do provide input on design and things quite often as well, but I really, really, really enjoy the couple that’s like, hey, I wanna do this and I need to figure out how to make my timeline work. And that’s where I get excited. And I’m like, yes, let’s figure it out.
Alyssa (14:51)
Yes, I know. I’ve often even asked you questions about timelines because I think that might be the hardest part in a wedding planning process is figuring out how many tables you have. If you’re doing a buffet, how long does it take to release all those tables? Those details are things that if you’re not at weddings all the time, it’s really hard to guess what that timeline is going to look like. And if it gets off, it can really throw off multiple things in a row.
And so I think that’s something that’s just so important. And that is why I tell all my couples, I’m like, think hiring a day of coordinator or wedding planner is so worth it because you don’t want to be checking your watch the whole day trying to get through everything.
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (15:37)
And like when you are running behind you want someone who is going to be there saying we’re gonna take care of I made this adjustment to make it work because it’s impossible it’s virtually impossible to have a wedding that’s perfectly on time the entire time. I have yet to see one I’ve come very close to very closely executed weddings but there’s always going to be some sort of minute here minute there I had a wedding that
they overestimated how much time they needed for photos. And that’s a great problem to have, but then we had a situation like, what do this 18 person wedding party do for the next hour that we had set aside for photos? So kind of playing around with it and making the most of the time in those moments is huge.
Alyssa (16:24)
I love that. Okay, I have one last question for you. And this is a question that I ask everybody. But what is the biggest piece of advice that you would give a freshly engaged couple who is just at the beginning of their wedding planning journey?
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (16:37)
that is a big question.
Other than the classic hire coordinator and planner, because that obviously is a huge piece of advice that you will not regret. And if you start with that, you will build your budget around it and make it work. I would say if at any point you feel you have the need to say, I can’t wait for this to be over, take a step back and reevaluate.
Alyssa (17:05)
That’s such good advice.
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (17:07)
The wedding isn’t just about the day. It’s about the experience of coordinating and planning it together to like have those experiences with your family and your friends and your future lifelong partner or your current lifelong partner. And the last thing you want is it to be a dreadful experience. And if you have those moments where you’re like, my gosh, I don’t like, I am so ready for this to be done.
That’s a moment where it’s like, okay, what’s causing that? Is it a stress? Is there a stressor? Right? I’m going to reach out to my I always tell my clients I’m like, if there’s something that keeps you up at night, and you’re not going to go to sleep, text me. And I will tell you if it’s worth being stressed out about and say like, okay, yeah, we should probably figure this out. Or I’ll be like, girl, why are you even thinking about that, dude? Chill, right? And I can help you deprioritize that and come down and then be like, okay, actually, this wasn’t that bad. But
In those moments, it’s like, okay, is it a wrong vendor match? Is there a vendor that is causing you way more stress than there needs to be? Then maybe we need to re-evaluate to make sure that that’s the best vendor match or if it is guest issues, right? Kind of seeking reassurance from your coordinator, as I’m gonna keep plugging. Going and getting that reassurance and double checking, I think is huge. Don’t let wedding planning…
Alyssa (18:27)
It’s
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (18:36)
set the tone or actually no let wedding planning set the tone for your marriage and if it’s starting to set a negative tone let’s work on it to fix it and make it a positive experience.
Alyssa (18:46)
love that! That’s such good advice. Well, thank you so much, Kayli, for joining us on the podcast today. Thank you everyone who’s watching and listening to this. Again, this is Alyssa with Felix and Fingers and Kayli with Green Dress Planning. And thanks so much for listening. Bye, y’all!
Kayli, Green Dress Planning (19:04)
Thank you.
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