Conversations with Amanda Piper

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Piper.

Hi Amanda, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
This is what I tell my clients… I never set out to own my own business but life takes you in its own direction sometimes! I wouldn’t change a thing now. I have spent 25 years working in live event management… from nonprofit fundraising (raising $11mil in my time), to live television production (think on-air telethons and Mardi Gras coverage) to higher education (think NCAA National Championship Football Week events).

About 10 years ago my 14 year daughter was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. Our world was rocked. We moved into the 7th floor of Children’s Hospital, and I had to quit my job. Thankfully, I had so much family support. But I wanted to work, so I figured I could start planning some birthday parties at the hospital. That led to a few people trusting me with their weddings, which led to more weddings! Colorado has an amazingly vibrant wedding industry, with more than 40,000 weddings a year.

After the first year and my daughter was cleared of cancer, nobody was going to hire me…. we were still at the hospital several times a month for checkups and procedures. So I just kept planning weddings. It worked for us; I could make my own schedule, be at the doctor’s appointments, and be there when my daughter needed me. Being a mom is the most important job in the world, and it should be a priority.

After she was more independent and the hospital visits slowed down I suppose I could have gone back to work, but I was loving my business. I didn’t want to go back to corporate America! So I set out to become an entrepreneur and teach myself all kinds of business skills I didn’t know. The community is amazing and has been so supportive and helpful. And my daughter is healthy and in college now. That’s a blessing!

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s not always been smooth, but it’s been so much fun. My biggest challenge is always finances because my brain is creative, not financial. I’ve learned the most about billing and business taxes. I struggled early on, knowing how to select the clients who were my ideal client.

I took some classes on onboarding and interviewing clients so that we get the best match and that has been really helpful. As business owners, we should always have the right to choose clients that are the best fit for our brand, business model, and goals. In the end, everyone will be happy if we have a good match.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
In my business, I am branded as an “elegant mountain wedding planner.” Most of my weddings are up in the mountains, and about 60% of my business is in Estes Park. Half of my clients are from out of state, coming up to the mountains for their destination wedding.

When I work with brides and grooms, I’m very detail-oriented, so we work hard to find little meaningful ways to showcase their personalities and favorite moments in their relationship and honor their families (and often their four-legged kids). A lot of people think a Wedding Planner is for the elite, and I hope we can dispel that thought…. everyone needs a wedding planner at some level. It’s like buying a house without a realtor… you can do it, but it really is hard and there’s a lot of things that can go wrong.

Many of my clients want to “plan their own wedding,” but they hire me to advise, recommend, refer, help with contract negotiation, and give them options that they can choose from. In the end, they have planned their own wedding, but we’ve covered all the bases and made it seamless and correct. The last thing anyone wants is a disaster on their wedding day.

When you hire a professional planner, you just don’t have the kinds of disasters you read about in magazines… it may rain, and we have to pivot…. but even then, you’ve got a pro to take over those moments. I love seeing a project from start to finish, and seeing the joy in my clients when they get to truly be present on their wedding day rather than working so hard.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
The wedding industry changes with the economy, as this is all disposable income. Of course, my industry tanked with COVID-19, and all social atmospheres stopped. That was rough. And then we came back strong with piling in the wedding “holdovers” and the “engagement boom” that happened when people were stuck inside with each other for a year.

Right now, we are in the middle of an engagement gap, so we have actually lost about 1 million engagements internationally in 2023….. the other set of people who were locked inside during Covid didn’t get out and meet folks, so now we see lower engagements. 2024 is set to be a comeback year, almost getting back up to pre-covid engagement numbers.

If our economy turns into a recession… I suspect we may see not fewer engagements but less spending on the wedding day. We may see smaller gatherings, weekend destination weddings for a group of 30, rather than a full 200-person epic gala wedding. We may see more elopements and what we call “micro weddings”…. those groups of 20 or less. I don’t think people will stop getting married…. so the industry will change the way we do business in some ways to meet the needs of engaged couples.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theeventtroupe.com
• Instagram: @theeventtroupe
• Facebook: @theeventtroupe

Image Credits
Jamie Beth Photography, PJ Van Schalkwyk Photography, Homeland Photography, Wanderlight Photography, and Bridget Doer Photography