Today we are excited to begin introducing our spring 2012 sponsors {as
we have done prior to our previous events}, starting with our keynote
speaker and design sponsor Mara Marian-Harwood with Events by LMG. Mara
is a brilliant business woman with a substantial marketing and business
background that has skyrocketed her to success in the wedding industry.
We anticipate her presentation to be a valuable nugget of advice and
info to accompany a lovely lunch and networking experience. Without
further ado ... enjoy some visual works orchestrated by Events by LMG
and a little about Mara.I found myself in the wedding industry by accident, really. I wish I had a more romantic story, or something more fluffy like my clients expect but I don't. I originally started school and had big plans to open a PR Firm. I applied for a number of internships and selected what any 21 year-old college gal would pick: a marketing internship with one of the downtown nightclubs. Funny right? It was actually perfect, I learned to bartend and did that on the weekends for extra money and spent my afternoons designing print ads, buying radio spots and working with the promoters to create nightly specials and event themes that would draw a crowd. Did I mention I worked at Nordstrom full time at this time as well? Yep, I worked as a department manager at the downtown Nordstrom until it closed in 2006. When Nordstrom closed, I was offered a gig at the nightclub handling their private corporate event sales. Long story short, this eventually what led me to start my own company which is now "Events by LMG". So many colleagues, vendors and friends told me over and over to start my own company and eventually I did. I picked my company name with the intent of eventually being able to branch off into weddings. ("LMG" is an initialism for "La Mireasa cu Gust", Romanian for "the bride with beautiful taste"). I'm Romanian, so I knew I wanted to incorporate my background and upbringing into my business. Something about Europeans makes us love to eat, love to party and love to host... or maybe that's just my family? Although I had this idea in the back of my head, I didn't have the time to explore the wedding industry and learn what it was all about. Although the same fundamentally, corporate events are completely different from weddings and social events. In 2008 the economy changed, a lot. Suddenly I had a whole bunch of free time that I wasn't sure what to do with. I put it good use, researched wedding vendors and got started. I planned my first (paid) wedding in 2009. It was a slow go, it took me a long time to figure out who my client is (and isn't!) and where to invest my time and money in order to grow my business. Three years later and here I am, busy as can be and weddings now make up 75% of my bottom line each year. I feel growing pains every day but I love what I do. I love my crazy clients and their crazy moms and I especially love making my own schedule, even when that means I work late nights and lots of weekends. More than anything, our local industry is what keeps me going. Without the support of everyone around me, I wouldn't get to work with my crazy clients (or their crazy moms).
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