Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Ochs.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Prior to launching Alice & Apricot, I was working full-time as a radiation therapist at a cancer center here in Dallas. When I wasn’t treating patients, I was planning events for the hospital for fun. People kept telling me that I was really good at it and asked if they could hire me for other events. At the time, I was truly just doing it for fun and never even considered getting paid to do it. Then, one of my friends, Sarah, approached me to help coordinate her wedding in Colorado. I had never done a wedding prior besides my own, but she was willing to take a leap of faith and hire me. And her wedding was the start of my career. Quickly after returning to Dallas, I registered my LLC and began to take on clients as they came. It wasn’t until about a year into starting my company that I actually quit my job at the hospital and went full-time as a wedding and event planner!
We definitely did not become a highly sought out luxury events design firm overnight. I started as a one-man show, doing mostly weddings for couples we knew from church. As my portfolio began to expand and word of mouth traveled, by the second year, we were getting outside inquiries. It was not long after that I began to truly find my niche – event design stole my heart! Now, five years into business, I have two amazing women on my team, and we work together to create unique one-of-a-kind events all over Texas. We push the envelope, test the limits, and redefine the norm in the industry. We specialize in creating luxury, out-of-the-box experiences that your guests will never forget!
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest growing pain I think we witnessed within our brand happened honestly this year. I began to hire other planners under my brand and have employees on the payroll, and that was a whole new ballgame. As a creative, the business side of how to structure a company was both foreign to me and not something I wanted to spend my time on. I just wanted to create pretty things. However, I was finally at a place in my business that I could not take all the work on my own, and I had to bring in more hands to continue to be efficient for my clients and give all of them the attention they deserved. It was definitely a scary step for me. Not only because I had to learn a lot from lawyers and business professionals on how to do this well but because I had to trust someone besides myself with my brand. This brand is my baby – I have put sweat and tears into making it what it is today. It was really important to me that I bring on the right people to help me continue to grow it as I envisioned. Learning to trust and relinquish control is something I’m still working on today, but I truly am thankful that I have two girls that love my brand as much as I do.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Most people don’t realize there is a difference between a Wedding Planner and a Wedding Designer. Our firm specializes in both. Wedding planners are the project managers. They handle all the logistics for your wedding day, including vendor contracts, vendor referrals, and checklists. A wedding designer handles all things aesthetic in relation to your event. A lot of planners are not also designers. However, we are a part of the rare and unique few that can conceptualize an event and then bring it to life. Our firm works closely together using each of our unique giftings to help guide you in the planning process and create an experience for you and your guests. We love to create unique one-of-a-kind luxury events. We love to test the “norms” of our industry. My niche is clients who like to break the rules and be creatively different from everything you see on Pinterest. We like to mix textures and colors that no one would ever think to use. Nothing makes us more excited than starting with a concept and then seeing our renderings come to life. We are known as one of the top up-and-coming luxury event designers in our industry. We have a fire and hunger within us to continue to break the ceiling of what others dream up.
I think what I am most proud of at this point in my career is the fact that we are where we are in such a short period of time. At first, I would tell you, we got lucky. But now, as we continue to win clients over other amazingly talented designers in our area, I can confidently say that it is because we are good at what we do, and we continue to prove it every single event we create.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Always get event insurance! It also reminded me why I love what I do. Even though plans changed, and we had to come up with new plans on the fly, we were still able to cater to all of our clients during those times. We had weddings in hallways, backyards, and on zoom. Vendors were working together and doing whatever we could to help all the couples whose dreams of their weddings were destroyed due to the pandemic. It was a good reminder that no matter how hard you work to plan for every situation, there is always something unexpected. 99% of our job is problem-solving. We have to be flexible and create solutions at the flip of a dime.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.aliceandapricot.com
- Instagram: @aliceandapricot
Image Credits
Bradford Martens
Lyndi Ruth Photography
Kaley from Kansas
