Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Ebert.
Hi Ashley, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I started Simply Elegant when I was only 23 years old. During that time, I was deciding if I should pursue a license for marriage and family therapy, but life had other plans for me.
In the fall of 2009, my life turned upside-down. My Grandmother, one of the most influential and important people in the world to me, suffered a massive stroke while driving her car.
In the blurred months that followed, she was given a very grim prognosis. I decided to step in and be her primary caregiver. The nursing home where she stayed said there was no way I would be able to handle taking care of her, they said they would hold her room for us for a week, because “they knew we would be back.”
Well, one thing to know about me was when someone tells me I can’t do something… it lights a fire to prove them wrong!
I was her caregiver for almost a year until she passed away in December of 2010. It was certainly the most trying year of my life, but it built within me the grit I needed to be a small business owner.
While I was taking care of her, there were some very dark and difficult times. But the family has always been the most important thing in the world to me. I wondered if instead of being around family in painful situations, I could create an environment for myself where family was at the center, but in a positive, celebratory way.
That’s where weddings came in!
So, I set off to build a business in the wedding industry.
When I started my wedding planning company, The Simply Elegant Group, I was a one-woman operation. My hopes and dreams were to work with 15, maybe 20 couples a year.
I never dreamed that years later, I would grow the business to one of the largest planning companies in the country with a team of over 40 employees, nine locations, and over 4 million dollars in sales.
The team at SEG has executed over 1,500 weddings over the years. We love to help couples avoid feeling overwhelmed and be present with their family and loved ones, not only on their wedding day but throughout the planning process. Because these seasons in our life only come once, having family close and enjoying the process is everything.
It has been an incredible journey so far at Simply Elegant, and all that we have accomplished. I know there are many more exciting milestones we will hit in the next ten years.
But most importantly, I think Grandma would be very proud of all that the team and I have accomplished.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think I have made every mistake possible while building the business! But the beauty in entrepreneurship is that is there isn’t true failure when it comes to what your journey looks like, only lessons that help you learn along the way.
One of the biggest challenges that comes to mind was when the pandemic hit. Not being able to gather in large groups was obviously a devastating blow to the entire industry. Beyond that, in my optimism (well, maybe naive optimism…) I told my team they wouldn’t have to worry about their jobs.
Most people in the wedding industry almost instantly got laid off or furloughed by their employers, and my team was incredibly nervous. Very quickly I made the declaration that NO ONE was getting laid off and that they didn’t need to worry about their jobs, that we were going to make it through this together and do everything we could to help our couples during this time.
I thought that maybe it would last us a few months, 6 months TOPS. Obviously, the effects lasted much longer, almost 2 full years of couples being hesitant to have their weddings made for a very trying time.
But I had given the team my word. No one was losing their job with Simply Elegant.
So, I became obsessed with figuring out how to maintain our cash flow. PPP, ERTC, EIDL loans, the works. Anything I could do to keep my word to my team who I care for so deeply. Hundreds of sleepless nights. Countless hours on hold with the SBA.
I am proud to say, although we are not completely back to our pre-pandemic numbers, we are out of the woods, and I am finally breathing a sigh of relief.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Since 2010, the Simply Elegant Group has been on a mission: to ensure that all couples are able to celebrate their love in a way that they love.
When we first started planning weddings, we learned that far too often, the biggest hesitation couples had in hiring a wedding planner was cost. We saw how some engaged couples endure sleepless nights, unfortunate fights, and a lonesome planning process, while those that invested in our services had a better planning experience, free from stress and overwhelm.
Seeing the difference in planning experiences convinced us that having wedding planning by your side should be an option for ALL couples.
So, we put our heads together to find a way to make that happen.
We found the solution in our Preferred Vendor Program (PVP). To save you money during the planning process, we offer pre-negotiated discounts and incentives from over 400 of the best wedding vendors from across the country. We make no money from these partnerships because none of our vendors can pay to be a part of our list and we do not accept commissions from them.
We thoroughly vet all of our vendors before adding them to our PVP list, and they are solely there because we know they take incredible care of our couples. In exchange for all the amazing referrals we give to our vendor partners, we ask that they in turn do something special for our SEG couples in the form of discounts, upgrades, or free add-ons.
Thousands of dollars in savings takes the obstacle of cost in hiring a wedding planner right off the table so we are able to help any couple that is planning their big day!
Pricing:
- Our Wedding Packages start at $1,500
- Full-Service Packages start at $5,900
Contact Info:
- Email: info@thesimplyelegantgroup.com
- Website: www.thesimplyelegantgroup.com/dallas
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/simplyelegantxo/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simplyelegantxo
- Other: Main Site – www.thesimplyelegantgroup.com
Image Credits
Photography by Lauryn
