Covesa Kelly Events, Chatting with the Experts

Photo Credit – Stephen Midgett

Planning a wedding is one of the most beautiful and exciting times in your life.

But the sometimes less talked about reality is that it can also be really, really overwhelming and quite stressful. Especially when you’re working full time and trying to manage your regular life. I’m a huge believer in allowing the expert to be the expert, and one of the things I love doing is asking wedding industry experts to give you their view and help on the wedding planning process. So today I’ve asked my friend Covesa of Covesa Kelly Events to talk to me about wedding planning and hopefully give you some great ideas on what you need to know on a somewhat misunderstood topic. 🙂 Here is our chat:

Covesa! I’m so excited to hear from you, I know you have so much to offer our brides. First off tell us a little about who you are and how you serve your couples? 

Hi there! I’m so excited to share the details of our available services with you. So, I started my company back in 2008, after I got married. After my wedding, I was a little disappointed with the level of services I’d received and thought I could offer a higher level of service to couples who were getting married. I hate to sound cliche but I really had a hard time finding wedding businesses that showcased black brides. I felt like for the amount of money I’d spent, I should have been able to find ways to represent my personal style at my wedding. Then, I thought to myself, well why don’t you offer it to couples coming after you? And here we are!

I love that! It’s actually a HUGE problem within the wedding industry with the level of underrepresentation that exists. It’s awesome that you jumped in to be a part of the change that needs to happen. I mean, who would want to be planning the most important day of their lives and not seeing anything that represents who they are or how they look? Do you only serve black brides or a mix or brides? 

Of course not, “All Brides Matter” 😉

Haha That made me laugh! So can I ask, what would you say is the biggest misconception when people think of what a wedding planner does? 

I would say 2 things; 1. That we are planning your wedding without your input. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We are here to take the ideas and dreams in your head and bring them to life! We provide insight on what goes into planning and executing a wedding. I tell people all the time,  “you don’t know what you don’t know”. And number 2. would be that we are your personal assistants. We are not. We are here to help, but we’re not “the help”. The wedding planner is not there to fetch your shoes from the car or hold your dress in the bathroom – you have bridesmaids for that. We are truly there to help orchestrate and execute your wedding agenda.

Why should someone hire a wedding planner? 

The wedding industry is a multi BILLION dollar industry. There are many businesses and services out there to choose from when it comes to utilizing resources on your big day. Help is needed to weed down the options to embody the values you hold dear. That’s where the network wedding planners have worked hard to cultivate comes in.

I love that so much, values are something we’re HUGE on here and I couldn’t agree more. There are vendors that you will flat out NOT be a good fit with and if you’ve never planned a wedding before it might be hard to see that without a guide. Love it. Slight change of topic… You wrote a book! Tell me about that! 

Yes! The Wedding Planner Without a Planner book came from a place of wanting to share information with people who truly need it. I get it – everyone doesn’t understand the value that hiring a wedding planner can add to their wedding planning experience.  Everyone can’t fit a wedding planner into their budget, but to quote myself “Hiring a wedding planner is often considered a luxury service, but it is actually a demand for a higher level of service for your wedding planning experience.”

So, I wrapped up the information that I felt was important for brides.  I really put some meat and potatoes in there, tossed a little of my carefree personality around for some extra flava and pulled in some amazing help to polish it up and wallah – a book! And honestly, I love it. I love love love it!

Haha that’s so great, I especially appreciate that you just quoted yourself there! How can brides find your book? 

Visit my website at https://www.covesakellyevents.com/book. You can also find it on Amazon.

Awesome. What is the number one piece of advice you tell couples when they are first engaged? 

To have an honest conversation with each other about wedding aspirations are. Take family and friends out of the equation and LISTEN to each other. There will probably need to be some compromise on each side, but LISTEN to each other’s wants and their absolute deal breakers and use them as your guide. The rest of it will work it’s way out!

I love this. I tell couples something very similar actually. It can get really muddy after a while but if you can just get those priorities figured out right at the beginning everything else will sort of fall away pretty easily.

Every bride has a budget where they are comfortable, what would you tell a bride who’s just starting out and trying to figure out how to spend that budget well? 

Create a list of everything you both want and prioritize that list. Assign costs to each item and reassess it.  You will be surprised at what’s important and what’s not when it’s taking you over your budget. It will take some time, but the priority list and budget will start to meet in the middle.

Is there anything you’d like to educate brides on as they’re dreaming of their wedding and hiring a Cleveland wedding planner?

Weddings are expensive. I have found that everyone is surprised at what weddings cost, it doesn’t matter if you’re on a shoestring budget or a platinum wedding budget – the sticker shock is REAL!

If you haven’t already, consider hiring a wedding planner. They can help you manage your budget against your wedding expectations. There are some outstanding planners in the Cleveland area and I strongly recommend finding one that makes you feel comfortable and confident in their ability to help you pull together a great celebration.

Do you have any stand-out I’m-so-thankful-I-do-this moment stories?

I’m such a sucker for love. When I hear the vows, I always feel my heartstrings tug tight and appreciate that I am afforded the opportunity to watch two people start on a new journey in love together.

I so relate to that. I think I cry at most weddings. It’s just such a special series of moments.

Thank you Covesa so much for being willing to help our couples make great choices as they’re planning their weddings. I hope this was helpful for you all as you’re planning your weddings.