Alison Hotchkiss - How ALISON EVENTS became one of Vogue's Top 50 Event Planners in the World
Anne McGinty
Today we have Alison Hotchkiss chatting with us about her journey to becoming one of Vogue's top 50 best wedding planners around the world. Allison is the founder CEO of Alison Events. She is a destination wedding planner, event producer, luxury concierge and now a third-time author of Gorgeous Gatherings, a large format book that showcases some of her most stunning events. She has produced over 500 jaw-dropping events in 15 countries and 29 cities. Her exquisite celebrations have been featured in Vogue Brides, Martha Stewart Weddings, Elle Magazine, Harper's Bazaar and many more.
01:34
Allison, welcome to the show.
Alison Hotchkiss
Thanks so much for having me.
Anne McGinty
So let's start with some of the fun stuff. What are two or three of your most memorable events that you've produced and why.
Alison Hotchkiss
I mean, there's so many memorable events but if I had to nail it down to just a couple, one really favorite project of mine was post COVID. You know, those were the days when we were planning events and then stopped and then kind of replanned them. We did a beautiful wedding for a couple down in Atherton in the family backyard and it's probably one of my most favorite galleries because it's kind of a nice juxtaposition between male and female and connecting to the kind of more romantic side of weddings but also not getting too girly and sweet. It's funny we were just looking at this yesterday with a gal who's redoing our website and I think we tagged it as like sexy I think that was the word we used. But basically it was a couple that was really into really modern and contemporary aesthetic in general. So everything from their home to their style style to the places they like to visit, they were very much in line with kind of a more contemporary aesthetic. So we kind of went like total opposite of traditional wedding design. The look and feel was very black. It was like black on black on black.
02:59
So we have a ceremony that was really pretty and in the center of their garden. But then when they went to dinner they went to a matte black cladded open-air structure. So they dined under this structure that had a black sheer drape. It had black cycle carpet. We used black slate down the table with dripping white candles and beautiful almost like an art installation over the head table with white orchids and dried flowers. We partnered with this really incredible floral designer, amanda with Studio Mondine, and she kind of has this Japanese Ikebana kind of style, like very minimalist aesthetic.
03:38
So it was really fun to create this kind of outdoor dinner party. Essentially that was actually a wedding. So people arrived and they got to see a ceremony. We did a octagonal shaped stage in the middle of their garden with guests chairs in a circle around them and then we cocktailed on another part of their garden and then we're in this beautiful structure we don't call it a tent, really more of a structure and then guests evolved into the dancing structure, which was more of an apex style tent. So we had a higher ceiling with disco balls hanging down and we had a matte black floor that they danced on with a DJ and lounges on either side. I just think aesthetically, like you just don't see black when you see weddings, and I thought that it was really kind of one of my showstoppers Amazing.
Anne McGinty
Okay, so there's one. Can you tell us about another one that is entirely different to that?
Alison Hotchkiss
Yes, Okay, so another one. That's so totally different. We did a wedding in New Buffalo, Michigan. So the client lived in Chicago. New Buffalo is a small coastal on the lake town about an hour from Michigan. This is like over 10 years ago and, funny enough, I know you had Kelsey Shopsky on the show she was working for me at the time. So this is kind of like one of those pieces where, like, the memory bank is full there and so the client owned the golf course where they wanted to have the reception.
04:59
So we did the ceremony in the backyard of this client's home, Very like simple backyard ceremony with the lake in the backdrop. Cocktails were around the lake and then we golf carted 150 people down the street and through the golf course to the fifth hole, which is where we had the reception. So it was kind of this adventure and we had all the drivers had little bow ties on and white shirts, Everyone got a roadie before they got on the golf cart and we were just like constantly shuttling people. So then you get to the fifth hole but you have to kind of go through half of the golf carts to get there and then you were dropped off at the end of the fifth hole and you had to walk down you know 200 feet to enter the the tent. So it's kind of this dramatic entrance with this big sailcloth tent next to a little lake and people had dinner there and and dined and danced and partied and then when they left that tent we put 200 luminary lights on the pathway back down the fifth hole so they had to exit through this beautiful light path back into the golf carts and then back to the shuttle. So it was just like really fun and I think the memorable pieces for me with a lot of these weddings either has to do with like the design and what it looks like or the adventure to get there.
06:14
We had another small elopement wedding that we did during COVID because this client really wanted to get married and you know there were so many rules around who you could travel with and getting tested before you went. So we edited their larger wedding size to a group of 13. And we took them from the Bay Area to Amangiri, which is a property out in Canyon Point, Utah. It's an Amon property and we did three days of really fun activities with both families, like a couple of their closest friends, kept it small and intimate.
06:50
We did a party up on top of the mountain. It was like all these really big boulder-like size rocks that you had to I don't want to say climb up there, because you could easily walk with like a proper shoe on, but we did kind of go down this path at the top of this mountain and had welcome cocktails there with this drummer that the client was really close with. They flew in from Lebanon and he played and it echoed around all the rocks and they had literally like Aperol, Spritz and Negronis on top of this mountain, with this little lounge set up with 13 people and this drummer, and it was just like so spiritual and so intimate. And again, because we were all together them plus the vendors, we all had tested, and so we weren't like in the mask world, we weren't worrying about getting or giving COVID to each other, because we went through all the protocols. So it was nice to be free in a time when you couldn't really be free.
Anne McGinty
They sound amazing.
Alison Hotchkiss
Yeah, it was really it was really incredible. And that was just the first day. And then they had activities and yoga and spa services and nature hikes. And then the wedding day we did in a totally different area of the property and I actually officiated that wedding. So that was really special to me that I got to be a part of that. And then they had an intimate dinner and then again we had a DJ just for 13 people with a saxophone player that we brought in, and it was just like such an epic dance party.
Anne McGinty
They sound like epic experiences, like I just want to go to one of these events and participate.
Alison Hotchkiss
Well, it's funny, it's changed so much. You know I've been doing this I'll be in my 24th year this year of planning events mostly weddings, but we do birthday parties and anniversaries. And you know, when I started a wedding planner just like kind of organized the vendors and put flowers on the table and made sure that everyone showed up on time and put their boutonniere on, and now it's like full immersion experiences. They're weekend long. You know you're taking people afar, into places, and the more adventure, I think, the more people love it. So we have a big role these days.
Anne McGinty
Yes, so how did you originally learn the skills you needed to put on these incredible event productions?
Alison Hotchkiss
I mean when I went to college. I went to school in Colorado and my degree at the time was called natural resources, recreation and tourism. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I just liked snowboarding and having fun and I knew I liked organizing activities and groups, but I didn't even really know what that career was called and even my career coach at the time didn't really know what that was called.
09:34
So when I graduated, this was pre-Google. You know, you open up the paper and you're like what seems fun? And there was an event planning job that was like working with groups of people coming from New Zealand and I actually had studied in New Zealand for a year. So I was like, oh, I know New Zealand and it was coordinating groups and taking them all around Los Angeles. And so I started to do that first out the gate and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed being reconnected back with New Zealanders and I kind of felt like I understood the gate and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed being reconnected back with New Zealanders and I kind of felt like I understood the people and the things that they wanted to learn about and that kind of led me into another event planning job where I really was doing more specific planning and coordinating like airport transfers and activities for corporate groups, and I was doing dine around dinners and I was putting together these big themed parties. So that's kind of like how I got my feet wet and how I moved into weddings was I transferred with a company in Los Angeles, moved up to San Francisco, kind of was chasing a boy at the time but also had an opportunity to work at this other company.
10:42
And I had a friend who was like you know, you might like want to work for wedding planners. Like maybe you should try and do weddings. She was a photographer and she had been shooting for a lot of different wedding planners. And this is when, you know, martha Stewart was like all the rage. That was like you know the height of Martha Stewart days where you would pick up that magazine and like read it cover to cover if you were in the wedding industry.
11:06
And she's like you know, I think people make like a thousand dollars in a day. You should maybe consider doing that on the side. And so I was like, okay, yeah, a thousand dollars a day, like hell, yeah, I'm totally, I'm totally taking this job. So I started to research like who are wedding planners in the Bay Area and like maybe I could just pick up some weekend work. And so I kind of like sent my resume out to all the wedding planners at the time, which there really weren't that many, I'd say, there was maybe like five people that really came up and I went and worked for all of them and I was, I was working for them. I was like this is so much easier than doing corporate events and so much more fun.
Anne McGinty
There's so much more flexibility and I don't know if I would describe it as easy. I mean, you make it look easy.
Alison Hotchkiss
No, it's, it's emotionally not easy, but it felt easier than my corporate job at the time. Now I would say I think corporate jobs are a lot easier than doing weddings, because there's so many more layers now and choices and options. But at the time I was like you know. So I ended up freelancing for a bunch of these planners and they were like old and to me, you know, as a 25 year old old was 40. Okay, and now I'm almost 50, but I was like these old ladies, I could crush them up and down these stairs. I kept thinking how hard is this? But I did realize very quickly that I knew nothing about all the different religions and all the rules and the Emily Post rules and I had to quickly study up and fake it till I made it a little bit too. I didn't know all the answers.
12:42
I remember I was in the car with my mom at one point. Oh, I was on the call with a client. I was like mom, don't talk, you know she's calling about hair and makeup. And my mom looked at me like what the hell? You don't even wear makeup, you don't know anything. I was like I know, I know, I'm just going to tell her. You know, I got her off the ledge and got her in with another hair and makeup. But I remember my mom. She was like, oh my God, you don't know what the hell you're talking about, but like a lot of the times, you don't. In the beginning of what you're doing you're learning, you know.
Anne McGinty
At this point, you were working for these other event planners. When did you decide to just start your own and no longer work for the other planners?
Alison Hotchkiss
Well, it's interesting, at the time that I was working for this corporate event planning company and I was freelancing, it was like right before like the whole dot-com bust. So it happened at the same time where I got laid off from my corporate job. In the meantime I quickly was putting my resume together and telling like every wedding planner I'd worked for and florist and caterer and event managers, like send me leads, like I'll take whatever swag you want, I'll take any leftover anything. So I was taking anything and everything and started to do that. While I was freelancing for the planners, I worked for a florist. I worked for a paper designer. I was like cleaning homes, I was doing whatever I could. I just like a paper designer. I was cleaning homes. I was doing whatever I could. I was like I just don't want to go back to the corporate world. I really would love to make this happen. So I somehow scrapped enough business to make it through the first two years of doing these day of jobs, partial jobs, assisting, dog walking, house cleaning.
Anne McGinty
Amazing. Do you remember what your first client was?
Alison Hotchkiss
Yeah, that was the client I was just telling you about. With the hair and makeup she paid me $500 for like month of or whatever, which now that would be like $5,000. And I wouldn't even touch a day of project at this point. She was using me hard and I didn't know, so I was letting her use me. And she got married in Tahoe. So to me I was like Ooh exciting, it's like a new place and I got to drive up there and check it out. So, yeah, I did her wedding in Tahoe. And then my second wedding I remember very clearly was the photographer, thayer Allison Gowdy, who was like incredibly supportive of me very early on in my career. She referred me to another photographer who was getting married in Kauai, and so I remember doing her wedding and I think I was like pay me 1500, fly me there and my boyfriend and we have a deal. I was doing both Bay Area projects and whatever destination jobs I could get so that I could travel.
Anne McGinty
Really, and how many events are you producing a year now?
Alison Hotchkiss
So, I take on anywhere between like four and six clients a year and that probably represents probably two to four events per client, so I'd say I'm producing 15-20 events a year, but I'm really only working with a small, select group of clients. Whereas when I started my business, I had probably 25 clients and was doing you know about 2-3 events per those. It was crazy! I was just doing as much as I could.
Anne McGinty
That is so interesting! So if someone contacted you today, you wouldn’t necessarily do the work for them?
Alison Hotchkiss
Well, no, I mean, obviously I'm in a very different place than I was 25 years ago. You know, like our fees are, they're high, like our average starting budget 800,000 to a million. So you know, we're not just putting flowers on the table, we're building mini communities and villages and sometimes are working 5 to 10 days before the guests even arrive to create that community. And then we're managing activities all day guest arrival, all the different events, multiple different entertainment. Sometimes we have a headliner, sometimes we have VIPs and we have to deal with security. Sometimes it's planes, trains and automobiles to get there. So the logistics and the stakes are so much higher. So you know, I've got three girls that work for me and we're just working on those six projects all day long.
Anne McGinty
Amazing. So what are the preliminary questions that you will ask to understand what it is that they're wanting to create?
Alison Hotchkiss
Yeah. So we ask probably a lot of similar questions that, like, an interior designer would ask about. You know, okay, you want to design your home and you know how are we going to make this customized and personalized to you. You can unravel a lot related to travel where they've traveled to what countries, towns, cities, islands, where they like to stay. Like you know, you get the Amman junkie person versus somebody who's loyal to like Four Seasons versus somebody who likes more boutique hotels. Where do they like to shop? Who are their style icons? You know, and sometimes the answers are like I don't know and I don't have any of these, you know.
17:56
So we really try, we try and dig into are they buying Gucci and Prada? Or are they going to Zara? Or do they like to mix like a Target with a Suzanne with a Gucci with? You know it's like the high low or are they only going high or like where do they fall on the spectrum? What do they do for fun? Do they have animals? What do they both do for a living?
18:19
You know, sometimes this can help us understand kind of what they might be like to work with attorneys versus stay atat-home, mom versus Google tech executive versus interior designer versus publicist. They all kind of help us understand a little bit about what they might be into. Where do they live, what's the best wedding they ever went to and why? What's one of their favorite parties? Do they have any pet peeves? It's almost like dating. It's like when you first start dating you kind of ask a lot of these random questions but you start to unravel. It's like you kind of know in the first couple minutes if you're connecting, if it's feeling like it might be a right fit, and I'm sure it's the same thing for the client as well. So we ask a lot of those questions, sometimes on the call, sometimes after the call, sometimes it's a follow-up questionnaire to better understand who they are.
Anne McGinty
Once you have an understanding of who they are and the vision that they might have, how do you approach the creative process from there? I mean, what are the next steps? What happens? What's your order of workflow?
Alison Hotchkiss
Yeah, so once we've signed on with a client, our contract's been signed and our deposit has been paid we typically like to start out the gate with a budget, because that's just like the starting point for everything is really having transparency about you know what we think it's going to cost to produce the thing that they want. We usually have that conversation on the phone like, okay, you have this many people and you want to do it here. You know, the last time we worked there, or my understanding is that's a more challenging island to work at, or that country has a lot of rules related to importing, or like we try and break it down on the call, but really like starting off with a budget and then, once we have a budget and sometimes, honestly, we can't create a low to high budget out the gate if we don't know the where, but we might have a preliminary idea. This is roughly what we think you're going to spend At that point. It's really identifying the where, because we can't really get too creative unless we know where it is happening, if it's in Hawaii or in an island versus a desert, versus in a mountain, versus in a backyard.
20:30
There's a lot of fixed things that we have to work around. Are we going to lean into the whole mountain vibe? Are we going for rustic and mountain-like aesthetic or do we want to totally go the opposite? We did this wedding in Jackson Hole and they really wanted an English garden in the mountains. So we had to really identify that and she really had an aversion to anything mountain. She didn't want anything rustic. She really wanted, like, really to lean into something that felt more her and her heritage and her. She had been brought up, her mother was living in London at that time and they had a lot of connection to the garden there. So you know that had its own story. Where we have other clients who are like no, if we're doing it in Hawaii, like I want it to be all about tropical and green and lush and I don't want to fabricate things that don't feel like they're meant to be there. So it's really unraveling. What are those pieces?
Anne McGinty
How does your team stay organized and keep track of all of the pieces when juggling the planning for multiple events all at the same time?
Alison Hotchkiss
I know you would think we'd be using some prolific software, but we don't. We really use like chat group, we use Excel, we use pages, we use end design, we use Word. We really keep our systems fairly simple. Simple. But how it works is we have one person who's in charge of food and beverage and that's like all on them everything related to the items that the guests are eating for their meals food, that's related to activities, presentation of the food, presentation of the cocktails, and she's really kind of managing the look and feel. But that's like her whole primary role and it's a big part managing the look and feel, but that's like her whole primary role and it's a big part of the process. We have another person that's dedicated to running the project and they essentially executive produce the job. So we used to do all of our own design in-house. I designed events for years and years and years and had different creative people working for me who were also doing the design. But as of this year we've actually moved into a new approach where we're going to be partnering with a designer and we'll still executive produce the job but won't be like actually doing the design decks and actually working with a production company to do the renderings, and the reason being is we're just doing such big projects now. It's such a giant amount of work and we feel like the logistics play just as equally, if not a bigger, role than the look and feel of things, that we've kind of decided that we're going to oversee that whole process. But we're not necessarily our future job, which we're really excited about. I feel like it gives the client a better opportunity to have more experience and more opinions and more ideas than just having it come with us.
23:19
So we have one person that's in charge of the project and they're the executive producer and essentially they manage the creative process as well as all the other bits that go into the project. And then we have an event director and she's in charge of all things related, related to budget numbers and when vendors payments are due, and working with the client on the timeline and the production schedule and those sorts of things. And then when we're actually working the weekend of, we may have two, four, eight additional freelancers that can assist. Like we have a concierge division of our company, but they're two gals that have their own business, that live in another city, and when we need the concierge services we bring them on, pay them as freelancers and they manage all things related to activity.
24:00
So, for example, we have a 50th birthday party we just did in Cabo, and we have another one actually coming up in two weeks, and they were primarily responsible for communicating to the 40 to 50 different people that were coming. So, like, what flight are they on, what's their transfer going to look like, what activities they want to participate in, what's their dietary? They answer questions related to what you should wear, what the weather might be, can I get a babysitter, can I get a tea time, and they're kind of dedicated to that. But that's a piece that we don't do in-house because we don't necessarily need it for all of our projects.
Anne McGinty
So that's kind of how it works. This is an incredible operation that you're running. I think bringing on the designers sounds like a great smart move Well again back in the day.
Alison Hotchkiss
I mean I would. Literally there was nothing, there were no rentals I would have to like. We did this wedding in Costa Rica and I literally had to go to the rodeo and rent chairs and tables. There was no linen company, you know that was doing like unique and interesting things. It was all cotton, poly linens and now you can get any type of fabric, anything custom made so easily, and so I understand what it takes to custom build things and create things.
25:12
But now you know there is a lot of resources that are available all over the country and the designer and also to you know a lot of our clients. They don't want the thing that somebody else had. So we're custom building so many things and fabricating dance floors and fabric backdrops, and just the fabrication and customization piece is so much bigger than it ever was, and it's not just tabletop and rentals, it's also tenting. We're like creating custom structures and cladding existing structures to make them pant and color match the bars or the dance floor. It's a different can of worms than it was a long time ago, so it's exciting.
Anne McGinty
I'm so impressed with what you're doing. So can you tell us about one of the most challenging events that you produced? You know?
Alison Hotchkiss
I did this wedding 10 plus years ago in the south of France for a couple who they had about 250 people coming from Hong Kong and the idea was that they would do a small rehearsal dinner, a welcome reception and the wedding, and then the next day the parents were having their 20th wedding anniversary. So big budget, a lot of people. And then they hired Coldplay to perform the headliner for the wedding night, and then the second night for the wedding anniversary was Paul Anka. So we had to not only like get through the first three days, which is already a beast in itself, but then, after Coldplay was over, we basically within 24 hours, had to entirely flip the space. This is at a hotel in the South of France called Hotel Du Cap and it is not an easy hotel to work at.
26:53
We had to flip the space from the Coldplay setup and I don't know if you know much about like headliners and all of their needs related to backline, but it's layered and complicated and you're like but you play guitar and you're also going to have a band, can't you just like use the same equipment? Like? No, you can't, and they have a completely different stage set up and sound system. So we had to break down, like everything related to the entire 24 hours it took us to put together for Coldplay and redo it for Paul and cassette. Then we also had to flip the dining space so that when people came back that were invited to the 20th anniversary it felt like a totally new space. So we joke about it, because we were there for like 14 days and we had like a village, a whole tent set up on their tennis courts that we took over and created essentially like a village for us to be able to work through all of these logistics.
27:49
Now I hired a production company in France to do all the heavy lifting because it was like no way that my little team was going to be able to pull that off. But I learned a lot from that project and, thank God, nothing went wrong. The weather gods came in. I got to meet Chris Martin, who is just a delightful, lovely human. I got to meet Paul Anka, which I remember calling my dad the day before, and I was like who's Paul Anka? He's like started laughing. So that was fun and, yeah, no one got hurt and no one died and everyone went home happy, that's success.
Anne McGinty
So all of these international locations, what do you do about navigating permits and visas as an American business operating in another country?
Alison Hotchkiss
I mean, that is such a fun conversation. Wow, yes, it is a journey, let me say, at the very least, because, as you can imagine, with every foreign country, requirements are different for visas from country to country. Also, the process is very different for the paperwork related to customs and import and exporting. So, for like example, we did a wedding this past year in Anguilla and that was probably the most challenging location I've ever done a wedding at, which seems so silly, because it's like there's what four luxury hotels on the island and a couple other small hotels it's not like that big of an island, but they're just old school. So they like wanted blood work and a urine test for every single staff that was coming in, plus a fee of like a thousand dollars, plus multiple headshots, plus you had to go to your doctor, you had to get a police report, like just like silly things on there. That would be more relevant to somebody who was coming from like another country that was coming to work there permanently.
29:38
But we were obviously there for a wedding, we were only going to be there for five or six days and they just they had the same permit process. So it was such a pain in the ass. And not only that, but it requires a full-time person. So what we had to do for that project is literally have a dedicated person who could manage making sure that the band photographer, videographer, florist, like everyone that was coming in, was filling out the paperwork properly and that the time gap for when things were getting approved was like weeks in advance, and we, like barely made it.
30:11
So there's that process and then there's like Mexico, where I've never filled out any paperwork to do anything to come in and out of that country, because they don't care, they're psyched to get our money. And then there's other places you know that have their own challenges. So what we've learned in the past is to really understand when we're working in a new foreign country, like what requirements are going to be needed in advance of what that's going to cost, and we have a dedicated person that oversees it to move the needle for every vendor that's involved in getting across that finish line.
Anne McGinty
But it sounds like it's never been a total roadblock, like a total no.
Alison Hotchkiss
I mean, yes, correct, there has been. You know if I'm being totally transparent and hopefully I'm not going to get arrested at some point for saying this but there has been a moment where we've been like okay, band, you guys are guests and you will not be. You know, usually it's not good with a band. Let's just say if you're saying the band is a guest, you're like your friends of the bride and groom and you're coming in as friends to perform, you're not being paid and you're a guest at the wedding. So we have had to do that in the past when we just like ran out of time to be able to have everybody come in and it has worked in a small scale. But you know you're kind of paranoid the whole way through because, god forbid, they're like no stop.
Anne McGinty
Chances are they're not going to actually really check and come to the event.
Alison Hotchkiss
And honestly, you know we do also travel with cash. Sometimes money helps in foreign countries if something's giving you a hard time.
31:41
It's funny we did this one wedding this was a long time ago I think I was with Kelsey at the time. We were in Canada and we're like we brought a printer, like chargers, I mean. We had like seven suitcases and all these linens. And this is like, back in the day we didn't really know and we didn't know we needed a car name. We didn't know we needed to like tell them in advance what we're bringing in, the value of each item, so that they knew we were bringing it back out. So the security guy's like he's like looking close at the screen, and he's like is that a printer? We're like, yeah, yeah, are those candles? Yeah, those are candles, is that a? You know? And it was just like listing one item after another. And we were like we're so screwed, he's totally gonna give us a hard time, we're not gonna make it through. And then we got all the like six suitcases through, you know, to go to wherever we're going in Canada for the three days. And he's like, okay, have a nice day. We were like, oh my God. So we did make it.
32:40
I had another wedding I did in Scotland and we had brought all the linens with us and decided we were going to ship them back, right? I don't know why we decided we weren't going to bring them back with us. But you know, bringing like kind of damp, stained, soiled linens with you and your bag is kind of gross. I mean, we've done it a million times. But we shipped the linens back and they got held up in customs because they didn't have the proper paperwork from the hotel that shipped them. They went back. Long story short, three months later the linens got back and that's happened a ton of times. You know, customs doesn't really care, they're just sitting there like I'm going to get this guy. So we've been in trouble a couple of times, unfortunately out of our control.
Anne McGinty
And so, staying in that overseas realm, how do you approach cultural sensitivity and diversity when you are planning these events? Because I would assume, like if you're doing a wedding in Japan or if you're doing one in Scotland, that they have a certain way of doing things or expectations for how the event rolls out.
Alison Hotchkiss
Yeah, japan is tough. We've done a couple weddings in Japan and it is tricky because they're not really no people. So then they're, yes, people, but then they're no people when you get there. So it's, you know, they're very hard rule followers. So that's a tricky one.
34:04
I mean, my solution to working in any foreign country is to hire someone local that speaks the language and understands the culture and customs, and we do that almost every single time we have a project in a different country. They also know, like the pet peeves and the you know, the pros and cons of working at venues and that sort of thing. So that's mostly what we do now is understand that. But you do have to have a sensitivity around. How do they do business?
34:31
When I did that wedding in France, we would sit down and have a conversation over lunch and I thought we were talking business during lunch and they were bringing bottles of rose out. We were in five courses and I was like, guys, we got to get this moving, we got to get to work. And I realized very quickly that, first of all, that's not the way that they do business. They don't talk about business when they're having lunch. Their lunch is their special break in the middle of the day that they take two hours on. So I learned a couple of things. I learned one the middle of the day that they take two hours on. So I learned a couple things. I learned one pull back the reins on talking about all things related to the event ask them about their family, get to know them, make that a time where you can connect with them and also make sure, after you drink those four glasses of wine, that you have a couple of espressos, because you got to get back to work and actually function. So that is one thing I learned in Europe and in Japan, same thing, like they don't talk business during lunch at all.
35:28
And it's another thing that sometimes you learn when you go and sometimes you get some tips in advance. And back in the day when I used to travel, I always got the four doors or the lonely planet guides and I always remember looking at like what are the like 20 words you need to know? Like you need to know how to say hi and thank you and where's the bathroom and excuse me. And so I always try and learn the basics if I don't know that and just kind of the cultural norms like don't chew gum or you know different etiquette around dining and what you say and what fork you use and it's confusing. But I do the best that I can to try and understand how to be more like the way they do it, like in Mexico. You know they take that siesta. That's like real, they're like. You know it's time to relax. It's lunchtime. Don't talk to me about moving that chair right now because I'm on break.
Anne McGinty
It sounds like such a rich experience that you have, just with all the travel and the cultures and then working with different companies all over the place. How do you, personally or as a team, measure the success of one of the events that you produce?
Alison Hotchkiss
Honestly, if people aren't telling us how amazing it was by the end of event, then I think we have a problem. And it's pretty rare that people aren't telling us how amazing it was by the end of event, then I think we have a problem. And it's pretty rare that people aren't like, oh my God, this was so much fun. The bride's like this is my favorite day. The mom's like oh my God, you saved the day. I think if there was a scenario where we weren't getting rave reviews, I would be self-reflecting pretty hard. I mean, we always have a team meeting and reflect back on like what could we have done better? What would we have done different? So we self-reflect internally as a team and sometimes we even have that self-reflection with some of our vendors, our attending vendor, our florist or what have you, because we know that nothing goes perfect by any means. But we know that we pulled it off and there was a ton of shit that went down behind the scenes that the client will never experience. But we might've been like the air conditioning. We had this wedding in Tulsa and literally the air conditioning broke two hours before guests entered into the tent. We were freaking out. Everyone was like dripping sweat. I've never been so disgusting in my life and like somehow we got it to fix and it was cool enough. And you know there's so much stuff that goes behind the scenes. So you know, if no one dies, no one complains, no one gets hurt, no one gets food poisoning, you know those are success rates. But overall, like if people aren't raving to us, then we know we have a problem. So usually people are pretty happy.
38:01
And also, too, we get the final event photos. If you look at our design decks and you look at our final event photos, they should look pretty damn similar. And if they don't, then we know something turned out a little different than we were hoping, which does happen too. Sometimes it turns out better than we were originally hoping. But yeah, I think the measure is in the is, in the thank yous and the gushing of like thank you for being so kind or thank you for managing this. And, and sometimes, clients. You know, because a lot of our clients have traveled the world, they've been to all their other weddings that are really high end and they've experienced so many things, they've kind of seen it all. So sometimes it's hard to impress people. But if somebody was just like thank you for being kind and your staff was really helpful with X. You know, those are all things that really matter to us.
Anne McGinty
And tell us about the book that you have that's coming out.
Alison Hotchkiss
This is my third book with Chronicle. Chronicle is a publishing company based here in San Francisco and it is a coffee table book called Gorgeous Gatherings. It comes out in October and it's a book dedicated to how we designed these events based on the space that it took place in. So it goes from New York City to Tahiti, to Mexico, to Japan, to Santa Ynez. But basically it's not about the couple and it's not about what they wanted per se about like their story.
39:25
The narrative is based around how we came up with the design and the look and feel based on where the event is taking place. So it's a very photo heavy book. It's all images of weddings and events that I've done with Norman and Blake photography, the last like eight years with a couple. There's like two or three new galleries that we shot specifically for the book. So it's like a really fun, beautiful, full bleed, large coffee table book with a lot of inspiration and a lot of ideas around how do you get creative related to tenting, lighting, food and beverage, choosing locations, coming up with creative gifting. It really is all the touch points when planning an event. So I'm really, really proud about it and really excited for it to come out.
Anne McGinty
Oh, that must feel incredible to have the highlights of your work put in print. So I've got two more questions for you. What advice would you give to someone aspiring to become an entrepreneur?
Alison Hotchkiss
Yeah well, I think this advice is helpful. Whether you're an entrepreneur, an event planner or an architect, I think boundaries is something that's incredibly important as an entrepreneur. Like I said, when I first started, I was a baby bird, so I kind of did anything and everything in order to make the client happy and keep the project moving, and I feel like I really compromised my friendships and my relationships and my ability to be present when I wasn't working. Work-life balance was not a priority for me in the beginning and I think about 10 years ago, you know that all kind of changed and then I had my daughter, who's now nine, and I had to have boundaries, you know, and I also had to really instill confidence in my staff and that I have a very educated team of people who are here to help you and it's not my name, might be on the door, but honestly, like they're completely running the ship and they're doing a lot of the heavy lifting and I'm always available if there's questions, but it takes an army to put anything together and being able to say, like my work hours are this and I'm unavailable to talk to you. Say like my work hours are this and I'm unavailable to talk to you, whether it's these two hours or these seven days I'm on vacation.
41:45
You know my colleagues laugh at me because they're like how do you have these boundaries? I'm like if I'm going on vacation with my kid it is like precious. You know that those days are precious and of course, if there is a diehard emergency I'm always available. I mean that phone is practically attached to my body, but I just appreciate that. They understand that I need the space to have to be amazing to them as much as they're going to need my full attention. When it comes week of their wedding, I am like all hands on deck. You can talk to me at two o'clock in the morning. No one ever does that because they learn the boundaries early on. But I just think that that would be my biggest advice and I think you have better workflow too when you also give yourself kind of a set time that you're available and at your best.
Anne McGinty
It can be very tricky. Separating work from life takes practice.
Alison Hotchkiss
Totally. And listen, I'm not perfect at it. I mean, my daughter will be like mom, get off your phone, and I'm like I just have to send this quick text. So it still happens, because you're fully responsible at the end of the day as the entrepreneur. It's all on you unless you have a partner. So there are times when you have to kind of break your own rules, but it's a good practice to start with, even when I had, you know, all the girls were working in the office, which now they're all based all over the place. But you know all the girls were working in the office, which now they're all based all over the place. But you know, we would take an hour lunch and we'd sit down with our brown bag, if you will, and we would shoot the shit and talk about things that weren't related to weddings and try and decompress or go to a yoga class. It was really, it was really nice.
Anne McGinty
So for a closing question, if you could go back and talk to yourself when you were in your early 20s, what would you say?
Alison Hotchkiss
I think the other advice I would give myself. Everyone has some level of drama, whether it's in their family or with their friends. I would just say that you need to have armor on at all times because you cannot take stuff personally that aren't about you. You're just standing in the middle of when that emotion is being felt and when it's being communicated. So I always say, okay, girls, like, put on your armor, or going in for the next three days, everything that comes on bounces off, that's not about you, and just have compassion that it probably has something to do with something else and all you can do is be a sounding board and supportive and try and not take it personally.
Anne McGinty
That's great advice for so many situations when it's just beyond your control and, yes, you have to just not let it impact you.
Alison Hotchkiss
I mean listen, easier said than done, right yeah.
Anne McGinty
Well, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing everything that you know.
Alison Hotchkiss
Oh, Thanks so much. I really enjoyed chatting with you.
Anne McGinty
Thanks again for being here. Today's key takeaways In college and after, it's common not to have a clear career path, and that's okay. Enjoy the journey, gain experience and learn as much as you can. If you're interested in starting an event planning business, get your feet wet by working in all angles of the event world. You can work with photographers, florists, concierge businesses and freelance for several event planners. Ask them to put you on a list to contact if any need arises and jump at the opportunity to help and learn. If you're lacking in the principles of etiquette, learn the Emily Post rules. I'll include a link in the episode notes.
45:15
At the beginning of any new venture. You probably won't really know what you're doing because you're learning. Push yourself, but keep your expectations low, because the first two years can be some of the hardest. Event planning today has morphed into being more than just organizing the vendors and invites. If you want to climb the event planner ranks, expand your offerings with custom curation ranks. Expand your offerings with custom curation more adventure and give guests more reasons to talk about the experience, and this will fuel organic growth of your business.
45:50
Look at the organizational structure of your team to accommodate growth. For an event planner, consider having one person in charge of food and beverage, one person dedicated to running the project and executive producing the event, an event director to handle budget numbers and vendor payments, and a dedicated person to take care of visas and permits for international events. Then you can collaborate with third-party vendors, including designers, freelancers for day of and concierge services, on an as-needed basis. Know your boundaries and set your available work hours and days. Don't compromise your friendships and relationships, and don't forget to be present when you aren't working. Lastly, everyone has some level of drama in their life. Don't take things too personally. Allow irrelevant matters to bounce off and have compassion for others dealing with stress.
