Wedding Industry Insider

Sara Mack is a wedding planner with a big personality. Here's how she balances the spotlight of social media marketing with an authentic client experience.

If you look at Sara Mack’s Instagram page, you’ll see it for yourself. It’s not a gallery of picture-perfect images. It’s a collection of real-life snippets. How she shows up at weddings, the way it feels to be one of her couples, what it’s like to be a wedding planner.

But then the comment came in: “Yeah, I'm gonna pass. You're making this about you, not them.”

Today, Sara joins Eddie to talk about how to grow your wedding planning business and your confidence as you show up authentically. We'll hear how Sara has handled vulnerability, rejection, balance, and a unique passion for gathering people together.

What can wedding planners learn from DJs? Mary Nisi got into her groove as a wedding DJ decades ago, and now she has business lessons that any pro can take to the dance floor. 

If you’ve ever wanted to get into the mind of a (great) wedding DJ, you’ll want to listen to this week’s Wedding Industry Insider. We’re talking about fun stuff like song choices along with the nitty-gritty details that make a wedding business so successful. 

Plus, Mary gives the lowdown on burnout and the rare reasons she steps into the DJ booth these days. 

Mary Nisi is the founder and president of Toast & Jam DJs. She’s also the DJ behind Hot Flash Dance, a “punctual party for rowdy women.” In addition to her roles as a DJ and entrepreneur, she also produces the “All Up in My Lady Business” podcast, which makes this the perfect crossover for wedding planners who love a good dance party. 

You’ll come for the tunes and stay for the business advice, because Mary’s got some “un-fun and un-sexy” lessons you can apply to your wedding planning career right now. 

It’s been a long time since we talked about core values on Wedding Industry Insider. But now that we’ve talked with Mary Nisi, we can’t believe we’ve skipped over this incredibly important aspect of entrepreneurship. 

Join Mary as she talks about the non-negotiables that make decision making easy. She’ll share the process you can follow for creating your core values plus some examples to jump-start your brainstorming session. 

Mary Nisi knows there are no shortcuts in business, but that doesn’t mean you have to grind through every task. 

Once you find out what you need, and why you need it, you can hire the right people to get your business to the next level. This could be associate hires, legal advice, or contract work. And it could be the key to getting out of the “start-up” phase of your business. 

And her biggest lesson of who-not-how: your friends are not the who. Mary’s got some good reasons why you shouldn’t hire your friends for the jobs that matter. 

Here’s something we wedding planners can relate to, especially those of us who have been in the industry for several years. Eventually, Mary got tired of the long nights and realized she didn’t want to work in-person at weddings anymore. 

So tune in, because Mary shared some of her hiring woes and how she set up her business to run without her constant, hands-on care. And hear about how Mary’s latest project put her back behind the turntable (and a chance for Chicago-based women entrepreneurs to join in on Mary’s dance parties). 

Mary is an open book of business advice, as though she’s eager for other women entrepreneurs to find success without burnout. 

She’s also a lot of fun to talk to. Mary’s delivering on fun wedding stories, including a cocktail hour inspired by Home Depot shopping trips, the terrible songs that inspired her to DJ weddings, and the vibes she hopes her team brings to every event. 

Our conversation with Mary comes full circle, as she shares her honest take on core values, and why we definitely needed to bring this topic to the Wedding Industry table sooner. 

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>

To hear our full interview with Mary, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen!

We want to say a special thank you to Mary for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community.

Mary faced the music and found success through a recession, Covid, another recession, and her own personal trials. We hope this interview inspires you to dance to your own beat and find your groove as a wedding planner. 

The post WII 203 – Don’t Hire Your Friends: DJ Mary Nisi’s Rules for Wedding Planners appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

Delegating, taking on big bookings, firing clients, networking. These are all some of the biggest fears wedding planners face. Laura Detwiler tells us how to defeat these horrors.

Are you marketing harder when your wedding business actually has a sales problem?Katie Lyth reveals where you may be losing clients and losing money.

What makes an incredible wedding day timeline? When we first set out to create a wedding planning software, we quickly learned that it takes a lot of heart and hard work. And thanks to some of the industry’s kindest and caring pros, we’re celebrating 13 years of Timeline Genius. 

We’re also celebrating 200 episodes of Wedding Industry Insider. That’s right: the 13th birthday of our company aligned serendipitously with the 200th episode of our podcast, and we knew we needed to do something big for it all. 

For many successful wedding planners, Timeline Genius is a part of their daily workflow. It’s where they settle in to do planning. It’s where they set their teams up for productive work. It’s where they map out wedding days that reflect their expertise. 

And many of them tune into the Wedding Industry Insider Podcast. It’s here where we break down the business side of wedding planning with full-length interviews and actionable advice. Experts join us every episode to talk about the grind and grit it takes to have a career in weddings. 

These are interviews for wedding pros who are ready to take notes, who want to learn from people who have reached their goals. Success leaves clues, and we’re mapping out the paths that wedding insiders have taken toward their successes. 

And if you’re new to the podcast, you’ve just discovered a treasure trove of industry-leading education. Take a look through our catalog and find a theme that fits where you are in your business journey. We’ve got episodes about marketing, branding, technology and systems, productivity and balance. You can hear about how wedding planners build additional income streams and how they’ve grown their teams. 

This week, we’re reflecting on all of it. Thirteen years of Timeline Genius. 200 episodes of Wedding Industry Insider. Thousands of wedding planners who have found encouragement, productivity, balance, and community through it all. 

And such an important week called for some important guests. So we called in some of the people who made it all possible. This week, we have five brand new interviews from some of our most treasured podcast guests and most influential supporters.

Here’s who is joining us this week for exciting updates, thoughtful reflection, and encouragement for all planners who are working toward their own milestones:

Brooke Richie-Babbage: a social impact strategist and coach who had the idea to help wedding planners strengthen their work through technology. 

Brigid Horne-Nestor: the owner of I-Do Weddings & Events, who gave Eddie the idea for a timeline software for wedding planners. 

Nora Sheils: co-founder of Rock Paper Coin and owner of Bridal Bliss. She was an early advisor as we developed Timeline Genius, and she was our first annual subscriber. 

Laurie Hartwell: founder & CEO of the Certified Wedding Planner Society, which helps us reach wedding planners with education and certification courses. Laurie provides fantastic feedback for Timeline Genius features and works to create a better wedding industry for all wedding planners. 

Terrica: wedding business strategist and educator who partners with Timeline Genius for free masterclasses, educational events, and inspirational support. 

When Eddie Babbage first set out to start a new company, he was looking for a way to help. And his wife, who had recently taken on most of their wedding planning, pointed him in a specific direction. 

Go help wedding planners. 

Now, Brooke Richie-Babbage is joining us to tell the entire story as someone who was in the thick of it all: feeling the weight of the risk, riding the waves of entrepreneurship, and feeling the joy of solving problems. 

It’s fun to hear Eddie and Brooke talk about their marriage and how it was shaped alongside tech startups, big investments, and a desire to help people. 

Thirteen years ago, Brigid Horne-Nestor sat down with Eddie hoping he’d be able to make software that supported her as a wedding planner. And just before they ended their meeting, Brigid chimed in with a quick addition that laid the groundwork for Timeline Genius: 

What about something that solved the time-consuming and complicated nature of wedding timelines? 

They’re telling the full story during their interview, and showcasing how 13 years can transform a business alongside our lives. 

Brigid also reveals something that surprised her about the early days of Timeline Genius, and gives her take on seeing wedding day timelines as property. What you hear might change the way you look at “competitors” in the industry. 

Nora Sheils invested her time, money, and energy in Timeline Genius before the company even had a name. As our first annual subscriber, Nora saw the promise of the company, and the potential of her own company if she spent less time building timelines and more time building her business. 

We hope this mini interview gets you excited for the potential you can unlock if you stop losing hours to wedding timelines. After all, Nora has grown her wedding planning company by leaps and bounds AND she co-founded Rock Paper Coin, another beloved wedding technology company that helps wedding planners work better. 

Remember: You can get 60% off a Rock Paper Coin subscription with the promo code TG

You know all the new features Timeline Genius releases? Those ideas come from wedding planners who speak up and share their wildest wishes with us. And many of them came from Laurie Hartwell. 

Laurie joins us from the Certified Wedding Planner Society to talk about how she helps planners master the skills and systems to grow their businesses. 

We’re so grateful for all of Laurie’s support over the years and appreciate the ways she strengthens the entire industry. 

We’ve interviewed 200 wedding pros for our podcast, and certain pieces of advice endure through the years. Embrace your unique self; find your community; we’re all better when our industry is better. 

And Terrica embodies all of this with abundance, as a wedding planner, as a wedding educator, as an entrepreneur, as a Timeline Genius supporter, and as a friend. 

You’ll want to stick around for Terrica’s interview, because she’s sharing her key to success, which just may be the key to our success at Timeline Genius too. 

“We talk so much in our industry about networking and finding your ideal client,” Terrica says. “Find your ideal collaborator, your ideal partner, your ideal circle, because that is going to bring you so much more peace and money and support and just strength than all of those other things will.”

To hear our full interviews with Brooke, Brigid, Nora, Laurie, and Terrica, you can press the play button above. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen!

We want to say a special thank you to these wonderful pros for sharing these insights with our Timeline Genius community. And thank you to everyone who has joined us for an interview on Wedding Industry Insider. 

Timeline Genius was built out of a desire to serve others and solve problems through technology. Our hope is that you’ll find ways to help others, solve problems, and find abundance in your career as a wedding planner.

The post WII 200 – Timeline Insiders and the Wedding Planning Software that Changed Everything appeared first on Timeline Genius Blog.

She takes 8pm phone calls, turns away vendors with slow response times, and earns five figures per wedding. Here's how Vanessa Domenech grew her business.

In this episode:

How a career as a belly dancer and Bollywood-style dancer prepared Vanessa for the world of event planning

Try Timeline Genius free at timelinegenius.com/insider

Joe Rogers built his business planning weddings for gay couples who had no template to follow. Then a call from a straight bride shifted everything.

During this great interview, Joe shares what it was like to come out as gay while starting his wedding planning business. He also talks about shifting his ideal client persona to include straight couples. Then, we get into advertising, and Joe reveals a controversial decision that he's standing by (even if he can't say for sure that it paid off).

All this and more on this week's brand new interview.

We're rebroadcasting one of our earliest and most popular interviews. David Tutera talks about sales and pricing, burnout and failure, and how he found so much success as a wedding planner. During his sit-down with Eddie, David is so grounded and honest, and his advice is timeless. Listen in to hear David Tutera's full story. 

Chelsea Brooke started her wedding planning business with 3 followers and no events to showcase. Here's the roadmap she took to success.

Wedding planners: How can you work creatively and serve your clients when the day-to-day operations take up all your time and energy? Katie Hendricks of Masterfully Managed shares step-by-step systems that free up time and get you back to the work you love.