Spotlight Friday With Katie Laines of Katie Laines Design & Coordination

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Event Planner Katie Laines, of Katie Laines Design & Coordination. She is mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area but will travel to do weddings.

Wedit: How did you get your start in the Event Planning Industry?

Katie: When I was in college I interned every summer at a week-long conference for writers in New York called Thrillerfest, put on by the organization International Thriller Writers. Eventually, I worked my way up from helping run the day to day on-site event duties to a paid position that planned and organized the event a year in advance. Ever since then I’ve had a knack for planning parties, events and gatherings and ended up with a career in corporate events. It wasn’t until I began to plan my own wedding that I realized there was this whole other “creative” world and beautiful side to events which got my wheels turning. I made the switch to wedding planning specifically in 2017 and haven’t looked back!

Wedit: What is your favorite part of the industry?

Katie: That there are truly no rules. I love that each wedding is different and that with each one, we as vendors have the opportunity to bring the couple’s personalities to the limelight every time. No two relationship is alike, therefore each wedding is unique! It’s so much fun.

Wedit: What are your favorite wedding trends this year?

Katie: Oh gosh! There are too many to count, but if I had to narrow it down for 2019 I’d say personalization on guest details/place settings and non-traditional floral components.

Wedit: What is the biggest change you have seen since the start of your career?

Katie: Confidence. When I first started I won’t lie – I was intimidated. There I was trying to run a new business while getting new clients and learning how to do the books, marketing, making new industry connections and literally just juggling all the things; and I felt scared that I wasn’t coming across as experienced as I knew I was. I would worry about things I had no control over, or worse, would be up worrying all night the night before a wedding that I may have forgotten something super major. But let me be the first to tell you, never once was that worry validated. So, once I let that worry go and stepped up into my own skin (and after having a few years under my belt), I am now confident when walking into any new client meeting, vendor collabs, wedding days, you name it. And while I can never truly turn off that natural “worry” gut-check just before something exciting or new happens, I am so much more confident in my craft and can confidently say that I know I got this!

Wedit: What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

Katie: That you can say no, too. Just because a potential client is knocking at your door and is willing to pay you the big bucks doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for your business. Be sure to vet your clients just as well as they vet you.

Website: www.katielaines.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/kldcevents