Listen to the Podcast About The Double Knot Twins
Podcast Summary
In the latest episode of Eventful Endeavors, Shawn Grindle ushers an engaging discussion with Leah and Linsey Fornaca, fondly known as ‘The Double Knot Twins’, offering an insightful glimpse into their journey as twin wedding planners. The Fornaca twins, renowned in the Orange County area, share their journey into becoming the successful entrepreneurs they are today.
Their fascination with wedding planning sparked after watching the movie ‘The Wedding Planner’ with Jennifer Lopez. Recognizing their inherent ability to plan events during their high school years, including their prom, they decided to hone this skill professionally. They both graduated from different universities, Leah from Cal State Fullerton’s entrepreneurship program and Linsey with a business management degree from Cal Poly Pomona, but eventually, they came together to navigate the professional world.
The Double Knot Twins credit a significant part of their success to their college years, particularly their certification from the extended university, where they learned from a seasoned wedding planner. They took the foundational knowledge and shaped it to their style, creating a unique, modern, and personable planning process that has been a hit with their clients.
However, the highlight of the interview was the glimpse into their working dynamic as siblings and twins. Leah and Linsey share a unique understanding, to the point that they can anticipate each other’s needs, which makes their work coordination seamless and efficient. They encapsulate the essence of the saying “two heads are better than one.”
They conclude their inspirational journey by emphasizing that they’ve made wedding planning their full-time profession, along with being mothers. Their story of turning passion into a thriving profession is a testament to hard work, dedication, and the power of shared dreams, making the Double Knot Twins a sought-after name in the industry.
Learn more about The Double Knot Twins
This interview was provided by Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos
Podcast Transcript
Shawn Grindle (00:24)
All right. Hello, hello, hello. We are back with another episode of Eventful Endeavors. Today, we have two people for the first time ever on our podcast. We’re going to be talking to Lindsay and Leah, the Double Knot twins, as they’re known around the Orange County area. Two wedding planners, sisters, twins that plan weddings and make things awesome on your special day. So first of all, hello guys. Thanks for being here. Cool.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (00:50)
Hello, super excited. Nice to be here.
Shawn Grindle (00:52)
Yeah, I’m really excited too, because we’ve not actually worked a wedding together yet. But I do wanna just hear, you know, I’m excited to talk about kind of what you guys do. So first things first, I always ask everybody, tell me your story. I mean, how did you guys get into this, especially get into it together? Like, how is that a thing? What was the story there?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (01:11)
Yeah, we actually were initially we had you know struggled on what we want to do with our lives We try to do different things we try to have our own you know strengths and then we you know We actually went to college at different places but then we came back together because We were actually very inspired by the wedding planner movie with JLo And I realized while watching that movie that this is like this is so us is something that has all of our strengths you know in there and
Shawn Grindle (01:29)
Nice.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (01:36)
our high school friends whenever we, if we wanted to hang out, we had to plan it. If we had any sort of winter formal plans or prom plans or anything, we had to plan it. So we were always the planners in our group of friends. And we had quite a group, so it was always a task. And after that, every project and every research project or school project revolved around the wedding planning industry.
Then we launched it out of Cal State Fullerton’s entrepreneurship program. I actually had students and a team working for me to help me launch my business with the entrepreneur program there. So big thanks to the Titans over there at Cal State Fullerton. And we’ve been going ever since. Yeah. And I had got my business management degree at Cal Poly Pomona and we came back together after our college years launched our, we got certified. We went to the
Shawn Grindle (02:09)
Cool.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (02:28)
extended university there and got our wedding planning certification, which was led by a wedding planner that had been doing weddings for 20 or more years. And she taught us a skill, gave us a big blank slate to start with, and we kind of edited and audited it to make it more modern and more us, and really just honed in on the process that we use. And we’ve made it our own and we’ve been
Shawn Grindle (02:55)
Wow.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (02:58)
call this our full time outside of being moms and yeah, and be the experts in the industry. So yeah, that’s where it all started.
Shawn Grindle (03:01)
Sure.
So I’m gonna ask you this because if I worked with my siblings, either nothing would get done or we would rip each other’s heads off. So what’s set like that dynamic like working together? Like do you split things up? Like hey you handle contracts, I handle this or you handle this area, I handle this. Like do you guys have like a good system at this point that you’ve done?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (03:27)
Yeah, so it is it is different working with your sibling, but it’s actually a really good different like you get to Work together. We’re kind of twin we’re twins too. So we kind of have the same brain or the way we think So we almost don’t have to finish a sentence. I’m like, hey, can you get that with that? Yeah, i’m right there I already got it. I’m already okay great like that’s how you sometimes with us and we’re on the same brainwave, but then also
Shawn Grindle (03:46)
Yeah.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (03:50)
People will call us like, she’s the string and I’m the kite. Like, I’m a little bit more of the creative, she runs the office. And so we kind of balance each other out like that. So yeah, we work as a really, really good team actually. And so yeah, it’s nice to have your sibling. Also, my other benefit I always say is you can kind of yell at your sibling, not yell, but like, you know, you can get real with them. Like if you were, you know, I’d be like, hey, what are you doing? You know, and it’s just my sister. You know?
Shawn Grindle (04:12)
Sure.
Right.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (04:18)
I’m not offended at all. It’s just how we are. And people giggle at us sometimes when we’re talking to each other in a friendly competitive way. We actually compete with each other to make each other better because we were like, oh, well, I got this better than you. Oh, mine’s better than you. And that’s, you know, our competitive nature that kind of created the perfectionists in us, I guess. And we just love it.
Shawn Grindle (04:36)
Oh, good, yeah. Good, healthy competition, you know? And everybody’s after the same goal, so that’s good. So you guys are Orange County, right? That’s where you guys are at?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (04:38)
Yeah, exactly.
Right, we’re always on the same path to that goal. Yep.
Yeah, I’m in Chino though, so it’s kind of on the border. Leah’s in Placentia, so Orange County, i.e. those are our stompy grounds.
Shawn Grindle (04:50)
Sure.
And do you guys mostly work around there? Do you travel? Do you like do destination weddings? Are you pretty much as long as the client’s got the budget and ready to pay for it, we’ll do it? Like what’s your kind of radius?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (05:04)
We like to say, you know, if I can drive there in an hour to an hour and a half, it’s our space. So LA, we’ve got the car as, you know, Burbank up in there. We’ve done down to San Nicolas, San Diego. We’ve done Murrieta up in like the Victorville area too. So anything in that range, we are game for. And if Sam wants to add a little extra, I’m happy to travel. But we, you know, our goal is to be in our little sweet spot here. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (05:09)
Cool.
Sure.
That’s great. Do you guys do, is it mostly full planning? Do you guys do full, partial? What’s kind of your main thing? A little bit of both?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (05:38)
Yeah, our most popular package, we have three different packages. Our most popular one is our two month out package. Because a lot of brides, they love shopping on Instagram and going to bridal shows and finding all their vendors. But once they book all their vendors, they’re like, what do I do now? So that’s where we’re very popular to come in on our two month out package where we can make the timeline, the floor plan, fine tune all the logistics, fill in the missing gaps, the holes, the issues.
Shawn Grindle (05:41)
Sure.
Yep.
Right.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (06:03)
do all the confirmation calls with the vendors and walk the space and just be the expert. And then that way we, they kind of almost the vendors hand all of their issues over to us and they go to us with any issues and they can go on a ride. So it’s a really great package. Everybody enjoys their day. All the experts have the assistance they need and we’re there from start to finish. We also have two other packages. I mean, if you want to just touch on them. Yeah, of course there’s our, we call it our princess package. That’s the full planning. So that’s a package that can help guide someone who wants help from the
Shawn Grindle (06:12)
Right.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (06:30)
top to the bottom.
I don’t even know where to start type of bride or help me find venue even know where do I go? Um, and so we’ve also had couples who are like I have never done a wedding before I don’t even think I’ve ever been to a wedding so I don’t even know how to start so though Those are the couples that like really need the full hands hand holding throughout the process And then we also have a day of package which I like to say is reserved for our type a OCD brides Who I know how to plan I want to plan it It’s my you know, I’m really organized, but I just need someone there on the event day to run my plans for me
Shawn Grindle (06:43)
Ha ha!
Yeah.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (07:01)
And so we have an actual like super long meeting right before their wedding and they hand off all their plans to us and we help run it and using our emergency kit and all the things we have to make sure that we can enjoy the day.
Shawn Grindle (07:10)
Sure. So with all those different packages, like how many like weddings do you guys actually do per year? Like how often are you on site? Do you do a lot? Do you do like, do you limit it? Like, is there like a limit? You’re like, this is my capacity. I do not want to go crazy this year.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (07:27)
Sorry, my phone’s ringing at the same time. So we typically do about 25 weddings a year, give or take 10. In our early years, we would do only like five to 10, maybe 12. And then, but now that we’ve been doing it for 16 years, we kind of squeeze in 25. There’s sometimes 30. I think we did 32 last year because including ceremony stuff, some of the smaller stuff, I don’t really count. But yeah.
Shawn Grindle (07:29)
Very good.
sure. Some of those micro addings, you’re like, those are easy.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (07:53)
Yeah, we work we do some venues do hire us to be the rehearsal and ceremony experts because the venue staff doesn’t want to go run a rehearsal They’re like, I don’t know how to run a rehearsal. So they hire us So that’s a really like an extra thing to do on a weekend We don’t have book but generally we do more than one or two a weekend and it has to space itself out Right because we got to be there for the rehearsal and the wedding which is two days. So it’s hard to book one weekend
Shawn Grindle (08:03)
Right.
try.
Right. Gotcha, gotcha. So you’re, I mean, if you do 30s, I mean, that’s almost every weekend you guys are out doing the thing. Yeah. I mean.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (08:22)
on the season. Yeah, and it’s very seasonal too. Sometimes it’s like, nothing, everything, nothing.
Shawn Grindle (08:28)
Yep, yeah, I know how that goes. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I get it. You know, I’m out there every weekend for the most part as well. So I don’t think I’ve had a free Saturday in many years. So I miss that, but here’s what it is. So you guys have been involved in the wedding industry for 16 years, you said, yeah. So this is a fun question I like to ask. So from when you started till now, what is like some of the major differences or like trends you’ve seen? Like, hey, weddings used to do this. Now they don’t really do that. Everybody’s doing this. Like…
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (08:40)
Mm-hmm.
Shawn Grindle (08:57)
What’s like some of that shift that you’ve noticed? Because I’ve noticed it even in the last, ever since COVID I’ve noticed it. So I’m curious over that course of time, what you’ve seen
change.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (09:06)
I’m all with a 10 years ago, 15 years ago. I remember like candy stations and like we didn’t have photo booths. We didn’t have, I mean, what was it? Yeah, we rarely had a videographer back in the initial days. Now it’s like, yeah. But now people are trying to have a lot of fun. They’re doing like more like how to entertain their guests with like dancers or entertainment. We even had a Darth Vader attack reception with some guys that got the film.
Shawn Grindle (09:13)
Uh.
Really?
Wait, it was the groom?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (09:34)
No, the bride surprised the groom by having Darth Vader attack the reception because she wanted him to not do any Star Wars stuff. And then she was like, but I want to surprise him with a Star Wars attack. And so it actually ended up being the spotlight of the night moment. And he was super surprised. Yeah, having fun entrances of like we’ve had ballerinas and dancers and drummers and like the dragon dancers. And gosh, we’ve had.
Shawn Grindle (09:39)
That is.
That’s amazing.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (10:00)
all kinds of fun things that makes it entertaining. A lot of writing groups aren’t doing the bouquet and garter toss anymore. They just play it just over traditions and someone telling them how to do it, but they wanna be themselves. So, that’s what we love. We like to make sure it’s their event and not our event, you know?
Shawn Grindle (10:07)
Yeah.
That’s something I’ve noticed recently too, is like it seems like everybody’s trying to do the opposite of what the traditional thing, or like somebody’s trying to do something they’ve never seen or maybe they saw on TikTok, like, you know, just a lot of uniqueness. So every wedding I feel like they’re like, oh, we’re gonna do this thing. And I’m like, okay, I don’t know what that is, but all right, we’re gonna do it. I did a wedding once where I had to MC a flip cup tournament.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (10:40)
That’s all.
Shawn Grindle (10:41)
on the dance floor. Like they were like, we’re gonna do a flip cup tournament before the dance party. And they were like, can you MC it? And I was like, sure, I’ve never done that. I was like, I’ll figure this out. It actually ended up being really fun. But, and there was beer all over the floor and then they had to mop it up before people could dance. It was a band.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (10:44)
Wow.
Yeah.
Yes, the logistics that’s where my brain is. It’s like, oh my God, you have a table. Top’s just gonna set it out. Who’s gonna clean it up? How are you gonna move to the next? Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (11:04)
Right.
Yeah, they unfortunately did not have a wedding planner at their event, which we all don’t advise doing, because then I end up being in charge of things and that’s just a disaster. And they didn’t think about that. So I was like, we were about to dance and I was like, there’s a puddle on the floor. This is an accident waiting to happen. So word to me wise, get a wedding planner. Speaking of which, so let me ask you this. When you say,
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (11:19)
I’m sorry.
Thank you.
Shawn Grindle (11:36)
a newly engaged couple, what’s your big piece of advice right out the gate? You would say to your friends, family, whoever just got engaged, this is
what you should do first.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (11:45)
Yes, you’re like, okay, first and foremost, I mean, everyone’s like, Oh, I just, you know, go hire people. But I’m like, you can’t find a venue until you know how many people you’re going to have. So start writing your guest list. And then you can’t go shopping venues until you know how much money you have in your bank to spend. So figure out your budget. And that might mean an awkward conversation with mom or mother-in-law and figure out who’s contributing here. And once you have that like guest count and budget, then you can go start going shopping.
Shawn Grindle (12:01)
Thanks for watching!
Mm-hmm.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (12:12)
But don’t pick your date yet. But yeah, I don’t know if you want to add. Yeah, as far as first, that’s the perfect first, I’d say. Advice for your wedding planning journey, though, definitely important to hire professionals and not just any random guy or friend that you know. We like to try and avoid frienders, as we call them, friends who become frienders, because you just don’t get…
Shawn Grindle (12:34)
So.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (12:39)
that customer service or that professionalism that you get when you have professionals working. We have certainly noticed that when you have a good set of vendors, the wedding goes much smoothly. There’s so much more fun being had and a lot less stress and like hiccups or power failures, things like that.
Shawn Grindle (12:53)
Yes, you’re honestly the first one I’ve talked to that has said that and I’ve been waiting for it because that is, there’s never, ever been a time where it worked. Like, at least not at any wedding I’ve been a part of, like there’s never been a time at work. Something’s always gone wrong because that person was like, I don’t know what to do. I’m like, yeah, you hired Uncle Joe to run the bar. You know, he’s been drinking since one. You know.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (13:11)
Yeah!
Yeah, I don’t think he does. He does, oh my God. And he’s joining the party and all of a sudden he’s not even there anymore and you’re like, why are people pouring their own drinks? Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (13:20)
Yeah.
Right, then it becomes mayhem. So that is exactly right. And yeah, that stuff is always something that irks me.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (13:30)
In the end, I always tell people, in the end, your family and friends, they want to celebrate you guys, they want to party. Let them do that. This is work for us, it is fun for you. So you can’t really wear both hats. We’ve tried as friends doing weddings and it’s just too hard. So we’d step back and be guests and then we get someone else to do the work. So even in our…
Shawn Grindle (13:43)
Sure.
And you want your friends to be guests. You want them to be guests. You don’t want them to work, you know? I almost did it at my wedding. I’m glad I didn’t. Ha ha ha.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (13:53)
Right. Yeah. So.
Yeah, it’s like, oh, you want to save a couple bucks, but like, then your guests are going to be sacrificing their good time and they just want to celebrate too.
Shawn Grindle (14:04)
Right, yeah. So now that I’m looking into some fun stuff, because this is what I always, I wanna get into some stories, some things you’ve seen. So I got three questions. The first one, let’s start with this, because you kind of, I hope you already didn’t say it with the Darth Vader thing, because that’s pretty unique. But what’s the most like unique thing you’ve ever seen at a wedding? Like something that stands out other than the Darth Vader, because you already touched on that. Something you’ve never seen before and you might never see again, that was just so unique to this couple or whatever.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (14:28)
Uhhh f-
Yeah, I think maybe it’s just the nerd inside me that but like this one bride entered her ceremony Like when she the bride walked on the aisle to the Jurassic Park themed set movie soundtrack. Oh, I was crying I was like, this is so epic. Um, so use your movie soundtrack. Actually, I think the groom walked into the Darth Vader Yeah thing and the bride walked into the Jurassic Park soundtrack Like find out what it means something to you and use it. You don’t have to walk down the aisle the
Shawn Grindle (14:54)
Yep.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (15:00)
Canon and D
Shawn Grindle (15:02)
Be sure.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (15:03)
Yeah, what’s another unique one? We actually rented out an entire cargo ship for an event and it was a very casual wedding. There was, it was a same sex couple. So they wanted something unique and they just loved the cargo ship that they found to rent. So it’s actually the one near the Iowa there. I forget what it was called. But yeah, we had a little treasure hunt on the ship and then they had food stations and we even had our caterer like bring their whole.
Kitchen. Kitchen onto the ship with the big crane and stuff. It was really fun. That was definitely one for the books that I’ll never forget. And I’m sure we’ve got tons of other stories and trying to think of what else. Let’s see. Yeah, I always love like choreographed dances too and surprise dances, whether the groom’s doing it for the bride or the bride’s doing it for the groom, or they do it together for everybody. Or I have seen some amazing father daughter dances. I had like the father daughter do the whole
Shawn Grindle (15:35)
Yeah.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (16:01)
We don’t talk about Bruno. Like, we went to the movie. They did it together. Dang! That was like two years ago, and that was like really big. I’m sure Sean would appreciate song mashups. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (16:03)
Hahaha! Wow!
Definitely, definitely in my wheelhouse. I love a good first dance. I love when that stuff happens, both the dances.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (16:19)
It’s amazing the energy that you feel when they start busting out some choreographed moods and all just the vibes. It’s just unbeatable. And honestly, people are always like, oh, my body is going to be so boring. There’s nothing exciting going on. I was like, you are the excitement. You are the energy. You guys and your guests, you don’t realize how much of the decor and the energy is coming from the guests and from you. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (16:39)
Yeah, that’s the way I was. And I, you know, I wanted to tell you real quick. I don’t want to talk too much about my own thing because I like to talk to you guys, but the Jurassic Park theme remind me, I almost did that at our wedding because I’m a big Jurassic Park nerd, like dinosaur nerd. And have you guys been to Reptacular Animal Ranch up in Sylmar? There’s a, yeah. So that’s where I got married. And I actually had them on the podcast a couple weeks back and we were talking about it and they have all these animals.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (16:58)
No, but I’ve heard of it.
Shawn Grindle (17:07)
and they have this camel that you can ride down the aisle. And I had talked to my now wife and I was like, she was actually the one who suggested, she’s like, should I come down on a camel to the Jurassic Park theme? And I was like, yeah, we should do that. And then we continued to talk about it and she was like, I don’t know, the dress will get that, like we ended up logistically being like, let’s not do this. It’s not, it’s a bit, it’s funny, but I don’t know. It’s, it could.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (17:10)
Yeah.
Ha!
Shawn Grindle (17:33)
It could not be that great. How do I get off the camel? There was just a lot of like, you know.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (17:36)
Yeah, yeah, the candles are pretty high up there. I don’t blame you from kind of mixing that like a very
Shawn Grindle (17:41)
Yeah. And I was like, I was like, let’s think this through and see what we always try to say, like, what could the disaster be, you know, because
anything that yeah.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (17:52)
What’s going to keep us off of YouTube?
Shawn Grindle (17:54)
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. So I try to beat it to the punch. Speaking of things going wrong, what’s the craziest thing you’ve seen gone wrong? Like something you were like, oh no, this is not good.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (17:58)
That’s.
So I have quite a few stories. The one that comes to my mind first every time is this really sweet young couple. They came from a distance from Riverside to go to a spot in Long Beach and at the rehearsal dinner, I had just gone home from rehearsal dinner because they had brought everything in a U-Haul to the hotel they were getting married at. And they went out to get something after the rehearsal dinner and the trailer was gone, it was stolen. So all of their…
Shawn Grindle (18:33)
Somebody stole it?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (18:34)
Somebody stole the trailer of all their wedding decor, their centerpieces, their chair covers, their candy station, everything was gone. Luckily she still had her dress and her bouquet because she wouldn’t let that go, thank goodness. And we had to deal with a lot of tears over the night and in the morning, kind of letting them know like we’re still gonna get married. They almost wanted to cancel the whole thing. I said, no, you still have guests coming. You still have food, you still have a venue, you still have…
us, you know, there’s still a cake coming that you have a bride and a groom and you still have a marriage license. Like this, there’s no, the wedding is still going, even though you don’t have all the decor. And I even was telling you, like, don’t let people know like they have no idea what it was supposed to look like. We had our, because the venue had a hiccup about the cameras in the parking lot. They actually pulled a bunch of their vendors. We pulled a couple of our vendors and overnight we had new chair covers. We had actual flowers, not flowers. We had a candy station. We had, you know,
Shawn Grindle (19:26)
Wow.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (19:29)
All sorts of stuff that got pulled together within 24 hours. And it was a beautiful, beautiful wedding. And I think the little, they were small people, but they were also very young. I think that young couple realized that it’s more about the love and what they’re celebrating than about the items that are there, that they created. So I think we all kind of learned some fun lessons there, but we all pulled it through and it was beautiful. And the mom was super grateful that we were there to kind of guide them. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (19:43)
Right.
Yeah, that’s kind of when the wedding planners also become like part therapists at this point. Like we need to calm you down. We need to, it’s gonna be okay. You know, we’re there.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (20:03)
It’s gonna be okay. You’re still gonna get her married. It’s gonna be fine. Yeah. The mom was very into the details on that one because she was a super young bride. So there was a lot of tears. But yeah, we were definitely therapists that day. Yeah. I mean, there’s all things that go wrong. I mean, we always help with like, I’ve seen such long speeches and stuff too, or you know, people go on for like 20 minutes, you know, you’re just like, oh my gosh. So we always tell people like…
Shawn Grindle (20:06)
Yeah.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (20:30)
you know, two minutes or less, and if you get lost or you don’t know what you’re doing anymore, because you have too much to drink already, and you’re like, how do I end this? I might just raise your glass and say, cheers, and everyone will follow. And so I’ve done it too. I’ve been in the back of the room, and there’s a drunk guy up there trying to figure out what he’s saying, and he’s like, I can tell, he’s like, I don’t know what to do now. So I’m in the back of the room, I’m like, cheers, and then he’s like, oh yeah, and then he wrapped up his speech, but you know, you gotta do, I mean, we’ve hemmed and bustled dresses with safety pins and.
double-sided tape if we need to, just things that just, they don’t get figured out and we’ve got to fill in some gap. That’s what we do. Yeah, we’re just on the fly. We use our emergency kit a lot and that’s what it’s there for.
Shawn Grindle (21:08)
Yeah. What’s in the emergency kit? Like, I just, as a side note, I’m curious. What’s, I see all the wedding planners have them. Like, what’s, what’s like the main, what’s in there? It’s like Mary Poppins, like pulling things out of
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (21:15)
Yes. Yeah, we have. Yes. We have, it’s like a rolling luggage set and a couple of the pieces unroll. And there’s everything from deodorant to Advil and Tylenol to duct tape and masking tape and extension cords. And we also have a whole steamer. And we have a sound system, like a little battery-powered speaker because we actually have had a wedding where the power went out. And so we pulled that speaker out and we were able to continue the dancing.
Shawn Grindle (21:19)
a bag.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (21:44)
battery powered for until the power came back on. So you never know. Yeah. And we have backup equipment. There’s an extra card box sitting behind us. This is our radios, which we use anyways, but you know, we have extra decor. If something happens to your sign or like, oh, I was supposed to bring in and I left it at home. Like, hey, I have signage. I have cards. I have money bags. I have extra draping. I have extra flowers. I have like all kinds of motives. Like we’ll just.
Shawn Grindle (21:48)
That’s smart.
Wow.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (22:10)
put it stuff out that we have, don’t worry. We have garters in there. I have a garter, yeah, exactly. We have cake cutting sets and yeah. And the most useful probably the scissors, sorry. Oh yeah, number one tool.
Shawn Grindle (22:16)
So much stuff, so much stuff. I always wonder if it’s in those bags, because I see them.
What’s, scissors, yeah, scissors are big. Gotta have the scissors. But I always laugh, because I know there’s so much stuff in those bags when I see wedding planners have them, but they don’t always look like huge bags. It’s like the amount of stuff that I’d see in a giant suitcase, but then it’s like a small bag, and they’re like, literally, it reminds me of Mary Poppins pulling out an umbrella from this small bag. I’m like, what happened? How did that get there?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (22:27)
Now that’s on you.
Totally, it fits, it all fits in there. Yep, yep. There’s always more stuff in my car that’s not in the little rolling luggage, you know, in case that like there’s something bigger that we need to pull out of the car, then we will go to the trunk of wonders.
Shawn Grindle (22:49)
It’s magic, the magic of wedding planning.
Right, right. Yeah. So, okay. So miss it. Yeah. So that’s, that’s definitely a bit of a stressful mishap that happened, but let me ask you this too. Uh, this is the one I always love. Uh, because obviously like, I’m with you on speeches. Like as somebody who has to MC and deal with all that, like there was nothing worse. My, I don’t know what your guys’ record was, but there was one father of the bride speech that pushed 36 minutes.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (23:25)
I think there was like a 20 minute one and he was like, you guys get comfortable, this speech is 20 minutes long. And dad paid for things, so we’ll let him do it. And actually he did a really well full rounded speech. And so actually he did fairly well considering, but like we were aware like he was gonna go on that long and he did.
Shawn Grindle (23:25)
Yeah.
Ugh.
It’s long. It’s, and that always makes me uncomfortable. But that’s what I was gonna ask is like, speeches aside, what’s the cringiest thing at weddings? Like what’s the thing you’re like, oh please don’t do this. It never works. It’s so uncomfortable. I hate when people do it.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (23:56)
Yeah. I mean, we try to like knock out some of the cringy stuff before the wedding happens. But we have like worked with weddings that are what we like the day of weddings essentially, like we come into that. We don’t get to change their plans. We just get to know their plans and try to run them. I mean, I can give them a thumbs up. This is gonna be weird or do it this way. But so I mean, things happen like, like
Shawn Grindle (24:07)
Yeah.
Right.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (24:20)
When people want to do their first dance, I’m always suggesting like do your first dance first because everyone’s staring at you, the excitement’s there. Everyone wants to take a picture with you. Everyone wants to stare at you for five minutes. They all want to talk to you. So it kind of gets it all out of their system while you do the first dance right as you enter the room. And then you can sit down and then everyone just kind of just relaxes into it. And if you do, I had a couple that did a first dance like an hour and a half later, and it was just like they were coming out of the bathroom. They were already sweaty. Everyone already talked to them already. And it was just like not a special moment anymore.
Yeah, it’s important to like let us help you make that timeline make sense, you know, don’t go against the grain when we ask when we say we do it this way, it’s usually because of the reason and so That was there’s another thing I wanted to add What’s a cringe-worthy things? Oh, yeah, the core wise. Oh, no, sorry. Okay, cut off all that junk, but Cringe for these stuff. So we definitely another thing that bothers me all the time is when brides do not get their dress bustled Or they don’t have it
Shawn Grindle (25:11)
Yeah, yeah.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (25:19)
properly and they’re constantly stepping on it. They can’t even walk through it. They’re dragging their train or holding on to the little the little hanger that’s supposed to be you know for hanging up the dress not for you holding it all night. We don’t want to look at the underside of your dress. We want to look at your dress. So get it bustled so you can maneuver around your guests properly. Get it the right hem length so that you’re not tripping on it all day. Please you know you’re you want to enjoy your event not sit there trying to figure out how to walk across the room and being you know scared to move. So that
Shawn Grindle (25:45)
Yeah.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (25:49)
I mean there’s some visual things we’re not we’re not like the you know Coordinator that’s gonna be like you have to cover that wall It’s really ugly like you have to spend the money to do it otherwise like it’s not gonna work like you can keep an ugly Well, it’s totally fine But like you know there’s things to do that you know you know just don’t mix white with ivory like it don’t be Like they’re not the same color if you’re gonna go all white go all white you can go all ivory go all ivory Then you can’t mix them up Otherwise it like it looks classy the white little things like super bright next to the dingy you know ivory so yeah, but yeah
Little things. Some other little things. That’s okay.
Shawn Grindle (26:19)
Yeah. I love that timeline. That’s my favorite thing too, by the way, the dances right after the entrance. I always think that’s the best way to go. Like.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (26:27)
Yeah, it always surprises me when people are like, oh no, we want to do it later. I’m like, no.
Shawn Grindle (26:32)
I don’t mind if people wanna do like the other dances later, like if they do like the father, daughter, mother, son. Sometimes I’m kinda like, okay, we can do that and then go into the dance party. But like your dance, like just do it. You’re right there. Everybody just cheered for you. Like that, what better moment? It’s awkward if you just sit down. It’s awkward. You’re like, okay, well, thanks guys. I’m gonna sit and eat my pasta now. You know, it always is weird.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (26:46)
Yeah, like, you’re still learning. Exactly.
Yeah, right. Right, and it’s always hard, because I always, yeah, there was one that had like a cultural thing where they liked to party before dinner, and I was just like, I don’t get this, you know? And they pushed and pushed, and they wanted a full hour of dancing before dinner even started. And it was fun for a little bit, but then they’re like, there were people that were like, when is dinner? You know, they come up to me and say, when’s dinner?
Shawn Grindle (27:04)
Uh-huh.
Right.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (27:17)
I said, I’m so sorry, they’ll be very soon. They just wanted to get a little dancing in. You know, it’s like, and I’m apologizing to these guests because that’s what the Brighton group did, you know? And I’m sorry, we’re getting to dinner as soon as we can, but that’s, you know, we gotta do what they want, you know?
Shawn Grindle (27:23)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, the guests don’t know you got to go with what the what the clients want. So but that’s why you know, it’s always good to like, listen to people that do this all the time. Because I even when I plan my wedding, it was like I had all these ideas. And looking back on it, I mean, I wasn’t even really working weddings at much at that point. Now I’m like, I can’t believe I thought that was ever a good idea. You know, I’ve learned that you don’t know until you know, you know. So speaking of just things at weddings, so I think
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (27:56)
Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (28:01)
My question to kind of wrap this all up is as far as the wedding day goes, what are your guys’s favorite parts? And least favorite parts, like favorite and least. Like what do you like, what do
you don’t like?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (28:12)
I think our favorite part, I mean, my favorite part is when we get to send the bride down the aisle, fluff her chain and send her down the aisle. Just thinking about it gets me like, oh, it’s just too exciting. It’s too magical of a moment to be a part of. I don’t even have to know them. I’m like, I turn around and I’m like… Because there’s a lot that relates to that moment. Like getting the bride out of the hotel room, getting the hair and makeup done, there’s a lot of effort that goes into just getting to that moment.
Shawn Grindle (28:33)
Yeah.
Right.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (28:41)
That moment is like the beginning of the wedding, but it’s like the middle of the day where we’re finding like, here we go, you know? We’re off the cliff. Go! We did it. We got her down the aisle. That was the hard part. And then, yeah, my other, the other favorite moment for me is just the grand entrance, which is just another culminating moment of like, they are into the reception, you know? Like, let’s go. I get like, I get chills all the way down when I, you know, and we do, we like to do the both doors at the same time, each of us at a door, you know, that’s like twin power.
Shawn Grindle (28:46)
We’re off. We’re off.
Yeah, that’s cool.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (29:11)
It’s super magical and that’s one of our, I’m already getting chills in the back of my head right now from that. It’s fun. But least favorite is probably just trying to get them out of the darn hotel rooms and the getting ready spot. Like it’s like, get out, everyone get yourself and go. Like we’re hair and makeup’s done, out. You know, like that to me is always makes me like, I get anxiety because I’m just like waiting for that moment where they’re like, out. Let’s go. Yeah. Yeah, time to go.
Shawn Grindle (29:23)
Mm.
We gotta move. We got a big day ahead of us. Come on, guys.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (29:40)
Yeah, when they get all they all particular over one little curl I’m like you guys don’t understand that curls not gonna stay there in that way for six more hours So can we just move on you know, it’s gonna do what’s gonna do. Let’s go Yeah, I think yeah with my least Worst favorite moment of the day would probably be trying to Trying to delay something because a vendor is not
Shawn Grindle (29:45)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (30:08)
doing their job correctly or trying to cover up for a vendor that’s not doing their job properly. And you just, you have to decide whether like, you know, whether the bride and groom even need to know or if you can cover it up. But like, you can get away with covering things up. Like I had a couple and the next day that she was just like, wait, I was looking at the pictures and I noticed there was no floral at the ceremony when I walked down. But I didn’t, I didn’t notice until I looked at the pictures and I was just like, yeah, the aisle entrance. And I was like, oh yeah.
Shawn Grindle (30:20)
Right.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (30:37)
I know it wasn’t there because and I was like you want you want to know why it was okay. Well your florist was two hours late and I started going through it she’s like what and I was like so she was oh she was in the back of the other room that the venue let her have doing the flowers while your ceremony was going on like she wasn’t even supposed to have that space that’s like a rentable room that we just happen to have available that she was using to put the flowers together two hours late and of course she didn’t make it on time.
Shawn Grindle (30:43)
Right, but they don’t know at the time.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (31:05)
But the bride never knew about it till the next day when she was looking back and I was like, wait. And I was like, yeah. But I knew about that. I knew about that the whole time. Yeah, our team actually helped finish the floorwork cause we put out the candelabras and lit the candles for them and all this stuff. Just because we got to get the show going, let’s go. We’ll do what we have to.
Shawn Grindle (31:20)
Yeah, I love that. Yeah, exactly. Whatever you got to do to make it happen. And this is a, because you kind of mentioned this and I’m just curious. So you guys do a lot of weddings, you see a lot of weddings. You guys, you guys still get emotional when you see people like get
married?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (31:33)
Oh my gosh, yes. I’m like, every time, like trying to.
Shawn Grindle (31:35)
Yeah, me too. I’m bad at it. I’m, I’m like a sensitive Sally. My wife’s like, you don’t even know these people. Like a lot of times, I don’t meet them till the day of I don’t have like a couple months journey with them, like, I’ll book it and then I’ll talk to them the week of and then we’ll do the thing. And I still just like the good ones, the awkward ones. I’m like, I’m good. But like the good ones, the good ones. I’m like,
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (31:55)
Yeah, it changed after I became a mom too, because I now I cannot watch a father daughter or mother son dance. I have to go do something else because I get like super emotional because I have a son and a daughter. I’m like, Oh my gosh, someday, you know? Yeah, it definitely hits you.
Shawn Grindle (32:05)
Right.
Sure. Exactly. Yeah, my wife will just turn to me and be like, cause we work weddings together sometimes, she’ll be like, you don’t even know them. And I’m just like, I don’t know, they’re in love, it’s cute. You know, like, yeah. Yeah. Especially the vowels, if there’s really good vowels, like, and they wrote their own vowels and it’s really good, that gets me. I’m like, oh, that was good, you know.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (32:22)
Like, come on, we cry in romantic movies. What’s the difference? It’s right here, living color. This is real love. Yeah, absolutely.
Shawn Grindle (32:38)
And I love seeing that’s probably that’s probably my favorite part is just the vows. When I like when people write their own vows, I don’t like, uh, I think that’s just really special. Um, yeah, exactly.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (32:38)
Yeah.
The more personal touches you can put on it, the better. The guests will remember that. Yeah, and I want to say, too, having a wedding coordinator right there who’s been through all that many, many times, there’s certain moments where I remind them what they’re doing and I help them connect to what’s happening. And I feel like they’re surprised by it when I say things that helps them do that. And I just.
hope that it helps them really remember the experience of getting married. Things like, okay, you’re about to walk down the aisle, okay, so don’t forget to look for Ryan and make eye contact with him. This is the first time he’s gonna see you, like letting him know, okay, and then I’ll be with him, I’ll be like, okay, this is your last moment as her fiance. You’re ready to be a husband? And he’s just like, my God. I try to walk them through the experience because this is not just a production. This is your-
wedding. So just from that of that and staying calm and keeping that romance and like, you know, you know, marking it as it goes, we’re right there. So we get to help them through it. Help them feel all the feels.
Shawn Grindle (33:48)
Yeah, that’s that that’s fun. That’s fine. Are you guys still? I know we’re a little over time here, but are you guys still? Do you guys maintain contact with any of your clients or is it usually kind of do you have some that you’re like, are these were really cool clients where we still keep in touch for us?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (34:03)
There’s so many. I’m so grateful for social media because I can follow because I honestly I’m getting emotional I went at weddings over sometimes. I’m like almost in tears. I’m like we’ve worked together for a year Now you guys just gonna go off
Shawn Grindle (34:06)
Yeah.
Right. My kids are all grown up.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (34:19)
Oh, and we had a couple just celebrate their 10 year anniversary and we were just messaging each other old pictures like, remember? And now they have like three kids and I feel like I’m slightly responsible for their happiness and marriage so they have three kids. I don’t know. Like they’re partially. But it’s an honor to be a part of everybody’s wedding and we do get to make friends. Our last bride or one of our last couple brides this last year on her survey to us afterwards. Can we be best friends?
Shawn Grindle (34:31)
Yeah.
Ha!
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (34:48)
Yes, of course.
Shawn Grindle (34:49)
Well, that’s good. That’s good. That’s good because that’s what you want. I mean, your vendors are gonna be at your wedding. You want to like them as people, you know, cause they’re gonna be there. So that’s good.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (35:01)
Yeah. So many referrals from past brides. That’s a great way to stay in touch too. Yeah.
Shawn Grindle (35:04)
Great, great. Well, listen, I don’t really have anything else. Is there anything else you guys wanna say or mention before we hop off here?
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (35:13)
I just, let’s see. Things to DIY, we didn’t talk about that. Or this. Things not to DIY. We were making lists. Okay. Yeah, advice for brides. I know you’re all trying to cut corners and find budget savers, but I mean, things to DIY that are fine, like favors and invitations, programs and signage and all that stuff. Maybe you’re a fishy and we can walk him through it.
Shawn Grindle (35:17)
Things to DIY, I’m curious what… Things not to DIY. Please, go ahead, let’s talk about it, because I don’t know.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (35:42)
But, or like the rehearsal dinner, DIY some stuff there. Like get pizza or make your dinner by hand there. But don’t DIY your flowers on your wedding day. Fresh flowers. Do not DIY fresh flowers. They take a lot of time and effort moving them and keeping them refrigerated and fresh. People don’t realize that’s all last minute and you can’t do your hair and makeup and do flowers at the same time. Yeah, it doesn’t.
Shawn Grindle (35:57)
Sure.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (36:05)
You can’t DIY your DJ, you can’t DIY your catering, you can’t DIY your coordination. Someone has to coordinate it. So you know, but I think that those are all the things. Don’t try and DIY your appetizers. I know it sounds really easy. You could just buy a tray of food at Costco and set it out. I was like, well, who’s going to set it out? And is that really what you wanted to look like? I was going to stay cold. How is it going to be frozen? Frigerated. Where am I going to get it from? Who’s going to drop it off? Who’s going to pick it up and get it here? Like, you know, there’s all these logistics that it just is not
Shawn Grindle (36:28)
Right.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (36:33)
worth it.
Shawn Grindle (36:34)
Yeah, that’s definitely good advice. That’s definitely good advice, I like that. Yeah, anything else you guys wanted to mention? Let people know.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (36:34)
Yeah. So, yep. And then what else? Okay. So, yeah. So, yep.
Yeah, just I want to and what makes us unique as like a wedding planning company. We are twins. Obviously, we have like that twin telepathy. I makes us a really great team, but we do have. Yeah, we do have assistance that help us out. We have our team on radio. Yeah, we can, you know, coordinate things through walls from across the venue, from the we could put things through walls and across the venue. Or even if like something is going on in the kitchen and I need the delay from the DJ, like we’re fixing things as it’s happening.
Shawn Grindle (36:48)
Yeah.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (37:13)
And so we’re really good at like logistics, coordination, and details are so important to us. We plan out like who’s taking what home, like when the vendors are arriving and coming, and if somebody’s missing, we’re already making phone calls. We have it all ready to go. Anyways, we’re more into like the logistics and the coordination versus like creating a massive decor. And you know, if you have decor, we’re more than happy to help you make it happen and set it out or do what you need to do. But as far as like our…
Shawn Grindle (37:32)
Right
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (37:39)
Bread and butter is logistics and coordination and just all those little details that someone has to take care of. Yeah, like if you have a Pinterest picture, you’re like, I want my wedding to look like this. I can tell you who you meet on your team and how much that might cost to put together or how you can cut corners or move decor from this place to that place and where it’s gonna count and help you cut corners and be budget conscious. Like we’re very into all that. So that’s what we do that makes us unique and makes us the double knot. We help you tie the knot with a double knot without doing a lot. Oh, I messed up.
Shawn Grindle (37:51)
Right.
Yeah.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (38:09)
I got this. It goes, we have to tie the knot without doing a lot with the double knot. Yeah, there you go.
Shawn Grindle (38:14)
I like that. I like that. That’s that’s catchy. That’s a good. That’s a good slogan there. Um, yeah, I love it. Yeah. So anything else you guys want to mention? Obviously, we’ll link to like all your guys’s stuff and the socials and all that fun stuff so people know where to find you. Um, but yeah, I mean, this has been great. I can’t think you guys enough for chat with me. I love hearing people’s stories and advice because you know, a lot of people don’t know and they don’t know all the behind the scenes stuff of what happens at weddings. And it is a journey for sure. But uh,
Sometimes you won’t even know until the next day when you see the picture.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (38:44)
Rete.
And actually, some of our rides to this day still have no idea what happened at their
Shawn Grindle (38:51)
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I know, I know brides and grooms that definitely don’t know some stuff going down. I’m like, we’re never going to tell them. We’ll just, it’ll be fine. I’m sure there’s stuff that I haven’t in mind that I don’t know about. I don’t want to.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (39:02)
All right. And that’s what I tell couples too in there. Like, I don’t know, do I need a coordinator or not? I was like, well, read our five star reviews, 100% five star reviews for 15, 16 years, and just realize that next level of expert and coordination.
When you look back at your wedding, all you’re gonna remember is, oh my God, it was amazing. Oh, you remember this amazing part. Oh, that was so much fun. If you ask anybody who didn’t have a coordinator, when they look back on their wedding, they say things like, oh, it was so exhausting. Oh my God, the flowers was late. And all these things just come to them. It’s all negative. And
Shawn Grindle (39:35)
Yep.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (39:35)
it’s just like, which experience do you wanna keep for the rest of your life? Mic drop.
Shawn Grindle (39:40)
Yep, exactly, exactly. Boom! There’s no better way to end it than right there. That’s the mic drop right there.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (39:49)
I would never do that, Sean, just you know.
Shawn Grindle (39:51)
Yeah, don’t do that. That’s as a, as a person who runs the sound, please don’t ever drop the mic. Last piece of advice. Don’t drop the mic. Please don’t drop my mic. They are not cheap. Um, cool. Uh, yeah. Thank you guys so much. Uh, we’ll, we’ll be in touch. You guys have a great rest of your day and, um, yeah, thanks for doing this. And, uh, we’ll let everybody know where to find you. Thanks. You too.
Leah and Linsey of The Double Knot (40:07)
It’s here.
You’re all right. You too, Shawn. Have a good one. Good to see you.
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