Event Planners and Designers

“I love fashion, and I appreciate everything beautiful because I love to surround myself in beauty” Listen in as Andy and his guest, Sofia Crokos, discuss personally connecting with clients, her love of fashion, and creating beautiful events. Sofia is a planner/designer based out of New York City. She has also partnered with The Heritage Collection behind four exclusive private properties in Europe.

Sofia discusses her journey from fashion to planning, where she got her love of everything beautiful and the mentor that gave her the knowledge she needed to plan events. Sofia speaks about being a mentor herself and the joy it brings her. She tells us she lives by connection, and without a link to her clients, she wouldn’t be able to plan their weddings.

Listen as Sofia shares her process for opening the lines of communication with her clients, and why she studies the dynamics of the couple when planning a wedding. Sofia shares a story about the wedding she did for Robert Downy and the catastrophe she had to overcome with only four days until the event.

Are you a seeker and curious about life? Listen as Sofia shares her belief that you need to reinvent and keep up with what really speaks to you. Sofia talks about where she sees herself in five years and her being the U.S. Ambassador for The Heritage Collection properties in Europe.

Sofia has learned, through years of running full throttle, that you have to take time for self-care, or you will burn out. Sofia shares what she did in the year she disconnected from her business, and why she is now ready to connect again. This conversation is a joy to listen to and you don’t want to miss it.

This is a bonus episode featuring my conversation with David Stark, a renowned NYC-based event producer and designer whose team creates events  worldwide for weddings, entertainment, fashion, publishing, arts, media, and for consumer product industries.  We discuss his personal response to dealing with the pandemic as well as how he’s handling it with his business. David talks about what he’s learned from the experience as well as how he’s dealt with reducing the number of employees and how he keeps his current team motivated.

David also gives advice to those of us who don’t have the level of experience he has in dealing with an economic challenge. I believe we’ll all get a lot out of this special appearance with David Stark.

“It’s not about producing a New York wedding in Provence; it’s about producing a Provence wedding in Provence with New York standards.” Listen as Andy, and his guests Matthew Robbins and Luis Otoya discuss their process and dig deep into the creative aspect. They also have an exciting conversation about their use of color and a discussion about their pricing philosophy. 

Matthew has a company called Matthew Robbins Design based in New York City, while Luis has a catering company called Evento & Cocina based in Cartagena. Together, they own Robbins Otoya Destinations, a design and event planning firm that designs and produces destination weddings and events all over the world.

Luis shares meeting Matthew for the first time at a convention, their long-distance relationship, and whether there was any sense of competition between them with their individual companies. Listen as they reveal why they started a business together, what it’s like to work together and be a couple, and how they push each other creatively to be the best they can be.

Matthew and Luis open up and share their process for finding locations and planning events, and how they price their events.  They both share that having jobs, they love, going to incredible places, and making people happy is what success means to them. During this crazy uncertain time in the world, it’s nice to hear about something positive, and fun so push play and get ready to smile. 

“I don’t design; I plan events and manage the timelines.” Listen in as Andy and his guest Sonal Shah discuss how she began her career, and why she chose to niche down to South Asian weddings. They also talk about her position with Marriott and how it helped her become the planner she is today and much more on this episode of The Wedding Biz.

Sonal is a premier South Asian event planner based in New York City, working all over the world. Sonal is known for planning the most elaborate over-the-top weddings. If her medium-sized wedding has four to five hundred guests, can you imagine what her large weddings are like? She works with both Hollywood and Bollywood stars, and has a book out called “The Complete Guide to Planning the Perfect South Asian Wedding.”

Sonal shares the process she has for putting together a team, how she handles the different personalities of each family, and how she keeps the focus on the bride when opinions make things difficult. Sonal speaks about the need to trust the creative partners she uses who also do something different so that nothing ever looks cookie-cutter. Sonal describes the challenges she faces when planning celebrity weddings, as well as interracial ones.

Sonal is young to have accomplished everything she has, and she has much more she is hoping to achieve. She speaks about what she would like to do in the future, how she finds a balance between work and family, and she gives some details about one of her favorite weddings. You will be on the edge of your seat because everything that she says has an energy to it that you don’t want to miss.

Have you ever looked at an event from a thirty thousand foot view, so you could see the big picture? Listen as Andy and his guests Jodi Moraru and Jeannette Tavares discuss this and how event planning has evolved in the last thirty years. Both of these amazing women are individuals who work with Evoke Design & Creative, an Event Planning and Design company that was initially founded by Jodi but was bought by Jeannette years later. Listen as they discuss what that was all about in this episode of The Wedding Biz. 

Jeannette is the President, and Jodi is the Founder and Senior Event Planner based out of Washington, D.C. Although their roles have reversed, they are now individually more successful as well as the company as a whole. Jodi and Jeannette share where they each got their passion for planning events as children, how they met, and why Jodi chose to teach Jeannette the business. Starting as Jodi’s assistant, Jeannette worked her way up to an event planner in a short time, which proved to Jodi that she had the right person for the next step in her exit plan.

Listen as they speak about the process of changing ownership, the anxiety they had about the changes but the strong unity that came out of it. Jodi didn’t sell and leave the company. She stayed to do what she loves which is producing events, while Jeannette has excelled at the operations side of the business while planning as well.

These two women show us what happens when you trust your instincts and know when to make changes. They took a successful business and made it even more prominent by making changes that needed to be made but still keeping the integrity it has always had.