Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Reed.
Amanda, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I graduated with a degree in Interior Design, and worked for a couple of years as a buyer and visual merchandiser for a furniture company, but was unfulfilled. I eventually got my nontraditional certification and started teaching high school – which I really loved, but when we decided it was time to start a family, I conveniently forgot to renew my license and ended up staying home for a couple of years with my first child. I painted and worked on design projects here and there to stay relevant, and happened to run into a friend who had an event planning company. I, of course, offered to help out as needed with events, and after the first few I worked on, I realized I had been bitten – I loved events! We began hatching a plan to rebrand and create another company, focusing on weddings, while she maintained corporate and non-profit events. After a few years of that joint venture, my buyout was complete and Amanda Reed Weddings came to full fruition! It’s been a really crazy journey – I never anticipated that it would grow as it has, but I absolutely love it!
Has it been a smooth road?
I think the biggest struggle in this business is the sheer number of people who plan a pretty wedding for themselves or for a friend and then decide to call themselves a wedding planner. This just dilutes what we do, and makes us have to work that much harder to legitimize what we do. It’s a HARD job, and I think people just envision attending glamorous parties every weekend, with no thought given to how that party came to be. Further challenging what we do is those diva planners who don’t look at their job as part of the team – we all have to be successful in order to execute a successful event, and I take that very seriously, doing anything I can do to help make other vendors’ jobs as easy as possible.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Amanda Reed Weddings is a full-service wedding and special events planning company. I think that title means something different to every single client who enlists us to assist with their event, so we have to be chameleons and adapt to the needs of each client. Some couples need their handheld on every single decision (which we love), and some just need someone to bounce ideas off of and help them make sure they aren’t missing anything or that their idea isn’t too far left field (which we also love). We structure every contract around the client’s needs and desires, and extend that customization to the planning process itself – we take great pride in the fact that we don’t replicate our designs EVER. Each wedding is as unique as the couple planning it! It’s that attention to detail that sets us apart from others, and after the wedding, we often feel like we’ve been through a breakup when we aren’t communicating with our couples as frequently as we were during the process!
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Well, since we aren’t physically located in Dallas, I can’t really speak to this personally – but YES! Dallas is an incredible hub with so much to offer couples and businesses like Amanda Reed Weddings alike. Venues, florists, caterers – the possibilities are absolutely endless! And if it can’t be found here, it can absolutely be brought in!
Pricing:
- Full Scale Wedding Planning starting at $5000
- Limited Month-Of Event Management starting at $3000
Contact Info:
- Website: www.amandareedweddings.com
- Phone: 4794661441
- Email: amanda@amandareedweddings.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/amandareedweddings/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/AmandaReedWeddings/
Image Credit:
Lela + Lyla, Miles Witt Boyer Photographic Collective, Meredith Mashburn Photography, The Hickenloopers, B Creative, Courtney Glaser Photography
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