Wedding and Budget Planning Advice with Expert Brenda Kucinski

Patrice Catan (00:05):

Welcome to Tales from Behind the Veil. I'm Patrice Catan, and I'm an expert in the fashion, bridal and event planning industry for over 40 years.

Leah Haslage (00:17):

And I'm Leah Haslage, Patrice's, producer and sidekick. On today's episode, we have Brenda Kucinski, owner of Socially Artistic, sharing her expertise on how to plan your big day.

Patrice Catan (00:29):

I have a special guest with me today. It's Brenda Kucinski. She runs Socially Artistic, which is an event planning business.

Patrice Catan (00:38):

Brenda started with me at Catan Fashions, worked many, many years in the bridal industry, and together we invented Socially Artistic.

Patrice Catan (00:50):

She's one of the best in the industry as far as an event planner. Why? She was in the trenches. She saw what was going on, she understood what an event planner really means, and she comes in all sorts of packages. Everybody has a budget. We know they have a budget, and sometimes she just doesn't fit the budget. Well, let her fit it for you to give you the care that you need to plan a wedding.

Patrice Catan (01:24):

I am here talking about the clothing side of the bridal business and how important it is to be connected with the right people for a stress-free wedding.

Patrice Catan (01:37):

So, without saying anymore, I'm going to introduce you to Brenda, and we're going to discuss back and forth. I guess, Brenda, what I'd like to do is tell the audience how you got started, what you do, and why you do it.

Brenda Kucinski (01:55):

Well, first of all, Patrice, thank you for having me. This is just an honor to be back with Patrice as it is. We've been kind of disconnected for a few years now and I'm kind of excited to be back with you. We were quite the team.

Patrice Catan (02:08):

Yes, we were. And we got in a lot of trouble, and that's okay too.

Brenda Kucinski (02:12):

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Patrice Catan (02:13):

But in getting in trouble, Brenda, like you will tell the audience, we also learned as we went.

Brenda Kucinski (02:19):

Absolutely. Absolutely. I pretty much started in the bridal industry, or loved the bridal industry when I was very young. Actually, my very first job — I don't know if Patrice, if you even knew this, one of my very first jobs in high school, it was the first job, I worked for a caterer.

Patrice Catan (02:36):

Oh God.

Brenda Kucinski (02:37):

I worked for Quality Catering.

Patrice Catan (02:39):

Oh Lord.

Brenda Kucinski (02:39):

Back in the day.

Patrice Catan (02:41):

Quality Catering is wonderful. They're gone now.

Brenda Kucinski (02:43):

They're gone now.

Patrice Catan (02:44):

God bless them. But you were at Quality? Nope. That I didn't know.

Brenda Kucinski (02:48):

And I actually was in the pastry department there and made wedding cakes, which was kind of-

Patrice Catan (02:53):

That's great.

Leah Haslage (02:53):

That's awesome.

Patrice Catan (02:54):

You can imagine what the cake looked like. Okay.

Brenda Kucinski (02:57):

So, that was back whenever we had fountains and big bridges and all of that type of thing. Went on from there and actually went into fashion school and all of my projects were always wedding gowns. They were always something to do with weddings, something to do with weddings.

Brenda Kucinski (03:14):

Ended up, did not like to sew. I just did not like to sew. So, designing or being a pattern maker was not going to be my thing. Ended up working in bridal at Higbee's, the old Higbee company.

Patrice Catan (03:27):

The Crystal Room.

Brenda Kucinski (03:27):

Yep, yep. Absolutely loved it. Continued in the bridal industry for a little while. Kind of took a turn and went on into talent scouting. And at one time my husband was like, "You need to find something more that you love to do." And that's how I ended up with Patrice.

Patrice Catan (03:44):

Yeah, that was a disaster.

Brenda Kucinski (03:45):

I came, I entered. I was like, "I still love weddings." I was doing events and the talent scouting kind of thing, but weddings was my thing. Brides were my thing. And I remember coming to interview with Patrice and it was at the Bridal Express store.

Patrice Catan (04:03):

Oh, God.

Brenda Kucinski (04:03):

And I went in, I interviewed, I left, and I got a call before I even got home.

Patrice Catan (04:10):

That's me.

Brenda Kucinski (04:12):

And the next thing I knew I was over at Bridal Express with her, working with brides, which is what I absolutely still love to do. When I took that little detour. The one thing that I kept going back to is I enjoyed working with brides. And so, Patrice let me come on board with her.

Patrice Catan (04:31):

Oh yeah. I let her, don't worry. And she had what it took to be not only a bridal consultant, but a manager. We worked together. At that point we had two locations, the plantation across the street, and we built an adjacent building on the other side of the street to house all durations and the mother's department and custom headpieces. Back then we did custom headpieces.

Brenda Kucinski (05:02):

Oh, yeah. Yeah. It was a huge thing.

Patrice Catan (05:02):

Everything was made to order.

Brenda Kucinski (05:05):

It was a big thing.

Patrice Catan (05:05):

We had over 21 seamstresses. We had seven designers in the headpiece industry, and we were going back and forth across the street, like New York City, until one day-

Brenda Kucinski (05:17):

Absolutely.

Patrice Catan (05:17):

My father came and he goes, "What are you doing?" And I said, "I'm taking this rack across Pearl Road." He goes, "No, you're not." He said, "No, no, we're going to remodel the Strongsville location and that building is going to be sold. You are going to get hit by a car. What do you think you're doing?"

Patrice Catan (05:39):

I said, "Well, it feels like I'm in New York." I said, "When you first brought me to Strongsville, there was chickens flying across the street. I really didn't know where I was going and you wanted me to build a craft industry, which I helped you with, but oh my God, it was a nightmare."

Patrice Catan (05:56):

So consequently, Brenda and I have probably worked over the past 30 years together, maybe even more.

Brenda Kucinski (06:04):

Yeah. Yeah.

Patrice Catan (06:04):

I can't count.

Brenda Kucinski (06:06):

Yeah, it's been years.

Patrice Catan (06:06):

She can tell you some of the crazy things we did. Jumping out of trucks, doing the lighting of the chandelier.

Brenda Kucinski (06:14):

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes.

Patrice Catan (06:17):

Yeah. And that was quite funny.

Brenda Kucinski (06:19):

Yeah. Patrice's such a visionary. And the thing I used to tell people all the time, I'm more the logistics person. I'm the person that makes it happen. She was the one that would come up with some ideas and she'd go, "Okay, what do we got to do and make this happen?"

Brenda Kucinski (06:34):

And the cool thing about Patrice is she never stopped. And I started to realize that I was addicted to that.

Patrice Catan (06:43):

She was. We were both addicted, and we were out of our mind.

Brenda Kucinski (06:48):

Yeah. And so, she would come and bring me ideas and my job was to figure out the logistics and see how we can make it happen. But the cool thing about Patrice was if it was a little bit off and I couldn't make it work, she was okay with it. She was like, "Okay, well we'll just turn it upside down and make it work."

Patrice Catan (07:11):

That's exactly correct. Give them a little insight of some of the projects we did that were really funny but taught you the ins and outs to be so defining when you do event planning. Defining is a good word, because there is no room for a mistake.

Brenda Kucinski (07:34):

Details was definitely your thing.

Patrice Catan (07:36):

That's right.

Brenda Kucinski (07:37):

And you definitely — even just the experience of the dress.

Patrice Catan (07:41):

Yes.

Brenda Kucinski (07:42):

We used to do tours with people, and they were always amazed at the store, at the experience, what the dress went through from the time the girl selected that dress to the time it went home with that girl a couple of days before their wedding.

Brenda Kucinski (07:56):

And the one thing that you instilled in us was the details along the process.

Patrice Catan (08:01):

Correct.

Brenda Kucinski (08:02):

And it was something that we would even kind of get a little softened on and you would be, "No, it's this way, this way, this way, this way." And it definitely taught me to follow from A to Z, this is the process you go through.

Brenda Kucinski (08:20):

And this morning I was thinking about one of the crazy fashion shows, because the one thing that I did do was a lot of fashion shows for Patrice.

Patrice Catan (08:29):

We did a lot.

Brenda Kucinski (08:31):

And a lot of amazing events. But one particular one was, we really wanted to do something out of the box. And we kept coming up with ideas and she kept saying, "No, no, it's not passing and it's not passing."

Brenda Kucinski (08:42):

And I remember it was a big couture show that we were doing, and we had decided to open the show in all black versus everybody expects a wedding gown to be the first gown out the door and that kind of thing. And we decided to go all black.

Brenda Kucinski (08:59):

And so, bigger is better kind of thing. Sometimes more is not better, bigger is better. And we had everybody in these huge tiaras and Patrice walked over and took the tiara off the model and flipped it upside down and put it on her head and said, "There, now you're ready to go." And believe it or not, that's exactly how we ran the show. And it was a hit.

Patrice Catan (09:24):

Yeah, it usually was. We always had some drama. We did one at The Playhouse with the late Janet McCue.

Brenda Kucinski (09:32):

Oh yeah, yeah.

Patrice Catan (09:33):

And she was a mainstay with us.

Brenda Kucinski (09:37):

Yes.

Patrice Catan (09:37):

That really gave us the boost that we needed to be one of the number one salons in the United States. She thought we were funny, and she thought that we had creativity, but she never knew what was coming in front of her with us.

Brenda Kucinski (09:55):

And that was a regular thing.

Patrice Catan (09:57):

Right. Now tell the people, the clients, the bridal, how to have a stress-free wedding with you. The reason for a event planner, what is the need from A to Z and why is it necessary? Even if they can only have a corner of you, why this is so important to have a stress-free wedding and in the ultimate end of it, probably pay less money.

Brenda Kucinski (10:28):

Oh, absolutely. They usually save money being stress-free because then people go on buying frenzies and buying things that they don't necessarily need.

Patrice Catan (10:36):

Correct.

Brenda Kucinski (10:37):

And we all see that because they start to worry closer to the wedding date, "Oh, well maybe I need this, or I need that." And they don't necessarily need all those things. And a planner can help them through this process.

Brenda Kucinski (10:50):

Like you said, whenever you started, there's all these different packages and all these different things, but people think, some of these brides think, "I can't afford a wedding planner." And sometimes it's better that you do try to make that wedding planner work because you almost can't afford not to have somebody there on the day of.

Brenda Kucinski (11:05):

You may not be able to have a full planner who can be with you the entire time. And a lot of brides don't want that. There's so many things at their fingertips today to help them plan their wedding. But that's not always the right things to plan the wedding.

Patrice Catan (11:18):

Correct.

Brenda Kucinski (11:18):

And a planner can be there to help them and guide them along the way. There's full planning where the planner is actually with them holding their hand through the entire thing. Then there's something called a little bit more like partial planning. Every planner calls it a little bit different.

Brenda Kucinski (11:33):

But partial planning is somebody whose ... the bride and groomer creative. They want to be involved, they want to pick their vendors, they want to be a part of all this, but they've never planned an event this big, this much money, this much involvement. So, they need somebody to kind of help them along the way.

Brenda Kucinski (11:48):

And then you have something, as you know, I'm not a big fan of day of.

Patrice Catan (11:53):

We know.

Brenda Kucinski (11:56):

Just surely don't believe-

Patrice Catan (11:57):

Now wait a minute, Brenda, let's interject something here. You stuck me with some day ofs, because you overbooked, and you know what I did? I quit.

Brenda Kucinski (12:07):

She did.

Patrice Catan (12:08):

I said, "I am not doing this ever again."

Leah Haslage (12:11):

Stress why it's important to not have a day of and make sure you have someone more in advance.

Brenda Kucinski (12:16):

Well, you know what it is, it's like I now call mine finishing touches and maybe I'm not involved in the entire planning, but what's important is the planner can't really know your vision showing up at the last minute and know everything.

Brenda Kucinski (12:33):

And so, now this planner's got to keep coming to you through the entire day. And the idea for a planner is so you can go off and enjoy your friends and family and be able to release and enjoy every moment you can for the entire day.

Brenda Kucinski (12:47):

And so, if that planner has to keep coming back to you because they're not sure what's going on or whatever the details may be. If they get involved a little bit earlier, let's say 30 days is kind of what I call it, finishing touches, they're bringing kind of the whole package together. They have an opportunity to do timelines and bring the photographer's timeline together, the DJ's timeline together, the caterer's timeline together and merge it all into one timeline, so everybody's on the same page.

Brenda Kucinski (13:15):

And then that way when the day happens, the bride can feel comfortable that this planner, this person that's speaking for her throughout the day has her vision. And that is just so important, I believe.

Leah Haslage (13:30):

I was going to say, I'm so glad that you brought up earlier about how trying to budget having a full-time planner from the beginning because it'll actually save you money. Because I learned that firsthand. I thought I didn't have a budget for it, and I was deep into the process. I thought I knew what I was doing and then I had a meltdown, and I was like, "I cannot produce my wedding." And I ended up paying for a month out and day of.

Brenda Kucinski (13:53):

And it works.

Leah Haslage (13:54):

And it helped so much more, and I would've saved money in the long run had I gone and done a full, because I did end up buying stuff I probably didn't need.

Brenda Kucinski (14:02):

Right, right.

Leah Haslage (14:02):

And all these headaches and not knowing all the vendors like I thought I would and what's the best deal? Like-

Brenda Kucinski (14:07):

Right.

Leah Haslage (14:08):

I could have had better in less money, if I would. Yeah.

Brenda Kucinski (14:11):

And you do. In the long run, you do spend less money even though when they see this big number that's given to them, but they don't realize every time they go to the store and they pick up 10 of something or 25 or something, or if you have a hundred people, you got to buy a hundred of something. It adds up. And some of that stuff's not necessary.

Brenda Kucinski (14:31):

It's funny that you said that about the 30 days, because I remembered this morning a wedding that the father had called me, and this was when I was at Catan's.

Patrice Catan (14:41):

Oh, of course.

Brenda Kucinski (14:42):

The father had called me, and he calls me and he's like very stern, just very to the point, he calls, he starts almost interviewing me across on the phone and I guess I answered all the questions correctly. And he said, "My daughter doesn't even know I'm calling you, but last night she was crying so bad that I can't take seeing my daughter like this."

Brenda Kucinski (15:10):

And a lot of planners will help people through this process. And it was just mom's trying to help, the new mother-in-law to be's trying to help. Everybody's trying to help, but nobody's getting the girl's vision and things are just really a mess.

Brenda Kucinski (15:24):

And he says, "She doesn't even know I'm calling you, but I'm going to go ahead and hire you without her even knowing." And I said, "I really need to talk to her because it's got to be a good fit for her to feel comfortable. If you want to do the best thing for her, putting another person in the mix is not going to be the good thing."

Leah Haslage (15:41):

Yeah. There's already so many cooks in the kitchen.

Brenda Kucinski (15:42):

So many cooks in the kitchen. Exactly. He immediately hired me, showed up at the doorway within an hour to sign an agreement and everything. And the bride shows up in my office, she goes, "I don't even know why I'm here." And we kind of walked her through everything, talked her through everything.

Brenda Kucinski (16:02):

And the funny thing, at the very end of the whole thing, the dad walks up to me and says, "You were the absolute best check I wrote for the wedding."

Patrice Catan (16:10):

That's correct. And we found that a lot of times. Right Brenda? When we had the salon as far as the garments were concerned, we were handling in the salon.

Brenda Kucinski (16:23):

Oh absolutely.

Patrice Catan (16:24):

Now with myself retiring from the retail division of bridal, which I sorely miss, now that's almost in the lap of the event planner.

Brenda Kucinski (16:37):

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Patrice Catan (16:40):

Unless I adjacently take on clients that I do nothing but the garment. Okay.

Brenda Kucinski (16:45):

Right.

Patrice Catan (16:46):

So, with that being said, again, that's another problem in the industry. We today, nationally have a health problem and the health problem is also infiltrating into the bridal industry. And you have to be careful where you go, what you do, that these people are qualified to follow through with what you're doing.

Brenda Kucinski (17:13):

Oh, absolutely.

Patrice Catan (17:14):

I have a client right now, and you'll interject what I'm saying. I took her and we got a wedding gown, and I'm not going to tell you where because it's not professional. And I finally called and said, "Where's the gown? It's been seven months. What are we doing here?" Which is about the time for a gown right now.

Brenda Kucinski (17:38):

Oh, these days, absolutely. I'm having brides absolutely taking that kind of time.

Patrice Catan (17:41):

Yeah. I would say what are you finding? I'm finding six to eight months.

Brenda Kucinski (17:45):

Yep. That's exactly where I'm at. And it's not surprising if it's right on the eighth month when it comes in the door.

Patrice Catan (17:50):

Exactly. And we have to be way ahead of time, just like with the event side to understand what's coming next and what do we do if there's a hitch in the middle.

Brenda Kucinski (18:02):

Yeah.

Patrice Catan (18:03):

And that's where you shine. And that's where I shined when there was a hitch, we always smoothed it over and figured it out.

Brenda Kucinski (18:11):

Absolutely.

Patrice Catan (18:13):

But in today's market, you have to be educated to understand this, you have to know the ins and outs of the business. Now, I was given three stories on this gown, and I don't know which story's correct. This is not acceptable today.

Brenda Kucinski (18:29):

Wow.

Patrice Catan (18:29):

And this is why girls get very stressed with the shipping problems. And it's probably the same. Tell me, isn't it the same in the catering industry with the food and the pricing and all?

Brenda Kucinski (18:43):

Oh, pricing's all the way across the board.

Patrice Catan (18:46):

Correct, correct.

Brenda Kucinski (18:46):

All the way across the … the flower industry has been insane.

Leah Haslage (18:52):

And now eggs are expensive, so just think that's going to factor into your cake cost.

Brenda Kucinski (18:55):

Absolutely. Just all the way across the board. It's just been the costs of everything and goes back to shipping, flowers are shipped.

Patrice Catan (19:06):

Well, flowers are shipped.

Brenda Kucinski (19:06):

You know what I mean? It's a perishable kind of thing.

Patrice Catan (19:09):

Correct.

Brenda Kucinski (19:09):

The same thing, perishable with the caterers. They're kind of on the hot seat whenever they get their counts, their food counts and what they got to do to be able to keep everything on budget for them as well.

Patrice Catan (19:20):

Correct.

Brenda Kucinski (19:21):

And I think it's all the way across the board. There is no one particular area that maybe it's not, for a wedding. And weddings in general have just become — there's so many moving parts to a wedding today, and the cost has just changed so much on weddings.

Brenda Kucinski (19:40):

But you can still have an amazing event. What people forget is they can still do an event for a reasonable price.

Patrice Catan (19:46):

That's correct. It's how you approach it. Give me an example, when a girl is on a budget, what's your best way of approaching it?

Brenda Kucinski (19:54):

Well, it really depends on where the budget is and what they want to do. What I usually tell them to do is let's find out what's important to you. What's important? Is it that you have the most amazing dress? What is the most important thing to you is, "Oh, food's not a big deal, just as long as everybody eats. I'm good with it, but I want everybody to really have a great meal and I want to look the best."

Brenda Kucinski (20:20):

Is it because I want to have a huge bridal party because I just want all my friends around me? And so, once we figure out what's important to them and we stick to those things that are important to them, that kind of relieves some of the stress and maybe some of the other things that are not as important, we don't need to spend as much on. But just to make sure that we've checked those boxes and make sure that we've given them something for that day.

Brenda Kucinski (20:42):

Some people just, they really are just all about, it really … where it should be is all about the couple. It's all about them together joining as a couple and if that's what's important to them or is it that family's around, so now they're doing all these family tables, these big, large family tables because they want family all to be having dinner together. Or they're doing meal choices where they're doing either a little bit different on how their meals are coming out to make it a little bit more family.

Brenda Kucinski (21:14):

I have seen where the girls are definitely getting more involved and wearing two dresses.

Patrice Catan (21:20):

Well, that started several years ago.

Brenda Kucinski (21:23):

A while ago. But it's almost becoming almost a standard. Like we put it in the timeline, their dress change, what they're doing and change to something that's a little bit more cocktail.

Patrice Catan (21:33):

Well, I think that's very interesting. And I think it gives it a little bit of punch. What do you say, Leah? You've been through this.

Leah Haslage (21:41):

Yeah. I contemplated this, the two dress, but I ended up going with a high-low.

Brenda Kucinski (21:46):

Did you?

Leah Haslage (21:47):

So, it was already a fun dancing dress because I can't do fuss and I got married at a brewery, so like a ball gown wouldn't have fit. But-

Brenda Kucinski (21:56):

So, you were already having that little fun.

Leah Haslage (21:57):

Yeah. I'm on the fence about the two-dress thing. On one hand I love a good Diana Ross costume change moment. I'm all for it. Bring it. Do you.

Leah Haslage (22:06):

But the other hand, you only have this one day.

Brenda Kucinski (22:10):

Oh, absolutely.

Leah Haslage (22:10):

To wear this one dress that is such a statement, you're never going to have that moment, hopefully again, you know?

Brenda Kucinski (22:18):

Right.

Leah Haslage (22:19):

And so, why change out of it and it's expensive for a lot of people too. Some people spend — like my dress was $140 on sale.

Brenda Kucinski (22:28):

Okay. But see, it still worked.

Leah Haslage (22:30):

Yeah.

Brenda Kucinski (22:30):

But I have a question. Did you wear a veil?

Leah Haslage (22:33):

I did and I never thought I would.

Brenda Kucinski (22:35):

Okay.

Leah Haslage (22:35):

I never thought I would, I was always the anti-veil for myself, but I also thought I'd get married barefoot on a beach. You know what I mean? But I was like, "You know what, I'm never going to have that moment again."

Brenda Kucinski (22:45):

That's exactly-

Leah Haslage (22:46):

So, I got a veil.

Brenda Kucinski (22:47):

To me, that's the thing that they should never give up.

Patrice Catan (22:49):

Thank you very much, Brenda. Because how many times do we argue with a girl?

Leah Haslage (22:54):

I became pro veil.

Brenda Kucinski (22:54):

I'm telling you-

Leah Haslage (22:56):

And being back with Patrice, I'm even more pro veil again.

Patrice Catan (22:58):

Yes. Tradition is important.

Brenda Kucinski (23:02):

Absolutely.

Patrice Catan (23:03):

I think Brenda today, they've missed that. They've missed tradition. Now, I'm not saying everything is for everybody, but there's a few little things that should be done as tradition. When are you going to wear a veil again?

Brenda Kucinski (23:19):

Exactly. That's the thing that I don't like them to give up.

Patrice Catan (23:21):

And the other thing, and I know you do this, which really bugs me, but as they're walking down the aisle, could they please put their bouquet below their waist? I don't know what they're doing, but the bouquet is not the focal point.

Brenda Kucinski (23:39):

Oh, absolutely.

Leah Haslage (23:40):

Or your hands. Right, Patrice?

Patrice Catan (23:41):

Right. And I keep telling the girls, when you order a bouquet, make sure it fits the bone structure of your body and the type of dress you have. It's to be carried to the side. This in the middle is awful. All I see is this big round ball. I don't even see your head.

Brenda Kucinski (24:04):

She says, here comes the bouquet.

Leah Haslage (24:07):

In some cases it can be, especially when the big floral trend happened where it was like the huge overwhelming-

Brenda Kucinski (24:11):

Oh yeah.

Patrice Catan (24:12):

Yeah.

Leah Haslage (24:12):

Where it envelops the bride almost.

Patrice Catan (24:14):

Well, it does. And you can still do that if you put it off to the side. That style is from the 1920s to the 1950s.

Brenda Kucinski (24:24):

Oh yeah.

Patrice Catan (24:24):

Was the lawn all the way down to the bottom. It trailed. We have done those. And they are gorgeous. As long as they're executed.

Brenda Kucinski (24:33):

Carried properly.

Patrice Catan (24:34):

They got to be carried. How many times did I yell in the-

Brenda Kucinski (24:37):

Carried properly. Carried properly.

Patrice Catan (24:40):

And then she'd go, "It's okay. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it." And I go, "Get that away from her."

Brenda Kucinski (24:45):

Well, and just before you walk down the aisle, the bride is so focused on other things that they automatically kind of bring their hand up, versus keeping it down. But yes. Yeah, I agree with her. It needs to stay down because it needs to be in its place.

[Music Playing]

Leah Haslage (25:19):

I have a retail question for you both. What do you think of the whole, I don't want to say fast fashion, but like other companies like BHLDN and Lulus, J. Crew was doing it for a while, doing their take on bridal. A little bit more of an affordable, under $1,200.

Brenda Kucinski (25:36):

Yeah. I don't have anything anything … if it's the right dress and the right style and all of that for the bride, I think the people who do bridal on a regular basis and Patrice could probably speak more than me.

Patrice Catan (25:52):

No, go ahead and speak.

Brenda Kucinski (25:53):

You know what I mean? They do bridal on a regular basis, know what a bride needs. So, how it could be altered properly, how all the beads or whatever it is that's on them, bridal companies do bridal well, so just-

Patrice Catan (26:09):

Is a good answer Brenda. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not their business. Did you ever notice department stores have tried bridal for many, many years, years ago they worked, today they don't. Why? Because you really have to know the industry. It's very time consuming. It's a profession all its own.

Patrice Catan (26:30):

And a lot of times when you're in an environment of a department store or a brand name store that sells everything, it becomes part of their inventory. And it is a priority, but it isn't.

Brenda Kucinski (26:45):

Right.

Patrice Catan (26:45):

And that's where the problem comes in. When you own a bridal company, you're equipped and you know the system of what the girl needs, why she needs it, when the gown will come in and how it can be altered. And this is very intricate.

Patrice Catan (27:04):

And again, right now we're writing articles in VOWS Magazine for the retailer industry because education for the consultants is extremely important. You have to know what you're talking about when you're dealing with a bride.

Patrice Catan (27:27):

It's like Brenda, she had a minute way, and I would just walk out of the room because I didn't have the patience she had, of turning a bride around that was hostile on everything she was saying. And she would calm them down. I don't know what I would've done. So, I just left.

Patrice Catan (27:48):

Give them another funny story. What would be a funny story?

Brenda Kucinski (27:53):

I'm trying, there's so many.

Patrice Catan (27:55):

How about Chris Kirkpatrick in Florida when we almost died?

Brenda Kucinski (28:01):

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know what, the weather is what really kind of gave us our challenges there was the weather.

Patrice Catan (28:08):

No, no. It was the 10,000 roses that we needed buckets for. And we had to go to Home Depot.

Brenda Kucinski (28:14):

And we did, and we went to Home Depot, and we purchased over a hundred blue buckets and there was buckets everywhere. We actually had an entire secondary ballroom where we had pre-staged everything because of course the night before that wedding, there was another big event in the room that we needed to be in. So, we didn't get possession of the room until in the middle of the night.

Patrice Catan (28:40):

It was unbelievable. And then it rained and tell them what happened when it rained.

Brenda Kucinski (28:46):

Just everything. Besides the fact that it rained, and one thing, Patrice was adamant that we were still going to do this event outside, everything was planned for it outside. The bride really wanted an outside event. And in this beautiful Italian kind of Italy kind of feel, Portofino kind of feel. And Patrice was very adamant that it was going to stay that way. And so, everyone is out there in the rain.

Patrice Catan (29:15):

In the rain.

Brenda Kucinski (29:15):

Setting this all up in just hopes that the clouds were going to open up.

Patrice Catan (29:20):

They did.

Brenda Kucinski (29:21):

And to be able to let us have the event. And we did. We did. Which was-

Patrice Catan (29:26):

We were soaked.

Brenda Kucinski (29:26):

Which was amazing.

Patrice Catan (29:29):

I had a towel on my head, and you called me a nun.

Brenda Kucinski (29:32):

I did. I did.

Patrice Catan (29:33):

She said, "What are you doing?" I said, "Well, I'm soaked."

Brenda Kucinski (29:39):

She was just more than soaked. She was literally sloshing as she walked.

Patrice Catan (29:43):

But I think the point I'm trying to make with this is an educated event planner is going to do this. They're going to do this to give the girl what she needs. This is why they're so important.

Brenda Kucinski (29:58):

Oh, absolutely. I was just thinking of another quick one Leah, where we were hired for a day of basically, still always got involved the last two weeks of planning.

Patrice Catan (30:11):

Oh, yeah.

Brenda Kucinski (30:11):

And I was going through all the details for a particular wedding, and I just started seeing all these red flags and I literally had to call the parents and let them know that they never ordered chairs for their guests.

Leah Haslage (30:26):

Oh no.

Patrice Catan (30:26):

They were going to sit on the floor.

Brenda Kucinski (30:27):

They were ready. Said, "We're all good to go, Brenda. There's not much to do. Here's everything." And I said, "Well, just let me kind of sift through it, see what's happening." They were literally missing chairs. There was no chairs.

Brenda Kucinski (30:41):

They thought somebody else had gotten them or somebody else. And I kept saying, "I'm not trying to get a red flag going up here, but this is what I do. I comb through these things before we get to the day of the wedding." And there was no chairs ordered for any of their guests.

Leah Haslage (30:55):

Oh my gosh.

Brenda Kucinski (30:56):

And we were at a venue where everything had to come in, so there wasn't even the chair in the building that we could have had a guest sit on.

Brenda Kucinski (31:03):

Those are like the things that can happen, because the bride probably spoke to somebody and thought they got ordered, but they never got ordered. And those things happened in the store all the time where a bride would think that she talked to her bridesmaid, thought her bridesmaid went and ordered the dress and never ordered the dress. And those type of things. But that's-

Leah Haslage (31:24):

I'm sure some people assume the venue just provides it too. Not every venue does.

Brenda Kucinski (31:27):

Right, right. And I'll tell you the one thing that I would say, to save on budget. I know that was something that we had talked about before, but if they pick a venue … and right now there's a lot of inclusive venues where they bring, like you said, it already has the chairs, it already has the tables.

Brenda Kucinski (31:45):

And a lot of these venues have what they call a borrowed room where they already have vessels and things like that for you to put your flowers in, that you can use that are there, that's a great way to save money. If you pick a venue where you can do the ceremony, you can do the reception and they already have the vessels or centerpieces and things like that that you can utilize.

Brenda Kucinski (32:04):

But if you pick a venue, and there's nothing wrong with picking a venue that you've got to bring everything in. It's just, it's a little bit more details. And those are ones that definitely a planner is hugely helpful.

Leah Haslage (32:15):

And definitely adds up.

Brenda Kucinski (32:16):

Yes, yes. No different than a backyard tent wedding that everybody thinks it's-

Leah Haslage (32:20):

No, no.

Patrice Catan (32:21):

That can be good, and it can be a problem.

Brenda Kucinski (32:24):

Absolutely.

Leah Haslage (32:25):

A question for you both, for couples out there, what should they be looking for when they're trying to figure out who's a pro and who's an amateur? How do you assess? Because you might hear a name and think that they're great, but really, they're not that great. How do you find someone in your area that's going to work with your budget and give you great quality?

Brenda Kucinski (32:48):

That's a tough one. That's a tough one. Because this industry, especially on — not so much in the wedding gowns. Wedding gowns, if they're selling and doing the wedding gowns or designing the wedding gowns or whatever, they're committed. This is their full-time thing. This is what they do.

Brenda Kucinski (33:03):

But when you get to some of your other vendors that, maybe it's the DJ or maybe it's the photographer or something like that, that does it as a side gig, that doesn't mean that they're not a pro at what they do.

Brenda Kucinski (33:18):

But it really comes to people with experience who has done it. I hate to say it, seen a thing or two, but seen things know what to do on a reaction. That's one thing Patrice always was like, "We've already been there. We've done this before. We know what to do." It's kind of like an SOS kind of thing if something happens. And that's what's important with that vendor to know what to do.

Brenda Kucinski (33:45):

We had a wedding a couple of years ago, I think that the power went out in the venue and didn't really know why the power went out, but the DJ we had on staff was a pro, and he was able to move the wedding outside.

Brenda Kucinski (34:03):

We went outside, it was in the summer, thank goodness. And we literally danced under the stars because he was able to put it on a battery pack and be able to run the music outside. We were able to just have everybody leave their meals where they were and let's just move it out.

Brenda Kucinski (34:19):

But by having a planner on staff to know what to do and know what questions to ask, we were able to keep the party going and didn't miss a beat.

Patrice Catan (34:27):

I agree Brenda, and we've talked about this before, but really an event planner that's very educated like you are, that's seen it all from the gown down to down the aisle and the reception. It's not the time for a bride to have to control what's going on at her wedding or even her parents.

Patrice Catan (34:52):

And it's like anything in life, you need education. And education comes from like we did working from the bottom up, understanding the problems and having an answer to everything that's going on.

Patrice Catan (35:11):

And this is what made Socially Artistic special. And when I retired in 2016 from my store in Strongsville, Brenda took over Socially Artistic and it's now her company.

Patrice Catan (35:28):

Now you have to remember something. I was very well known in the industry. I was well known to follow through with what I did. Did I make mistakes? Not on purpose. Could there be slight problems you have to take care of? Yes. But we never missed a gown.

Brenda Kucinski (35:48):

Nope.

Patrice Catan (35:48):

In 35, 40 years, never, over 60,000 brides. And that wasn't including prom garments, bridesmaids, mothers and children's. We did it all.

Patrice Catan (36:02):

So, the point I'm trying to make is she would be the only person I would sell the event business to. Why? Because of her education and her precise techniques of A, how to talk to people, how to execute the problem and how to keep them happy through the whole event.

Patrice Catan (36:23):

Now Brenda, give them the name of your company again and your phone number or whatever you need to do. And if you don't catch it, then please go online, send me any question, anything, and I will answer you. Please ask me questions on anything we're discussing on these podcasts. Go ahead, Brenda.

Brenda Kucinski (36:46):

Oh, Patrice, thank you so much for everything. And actually, the name of the company is Socially Artistic, which Patrice herself is the one who named the company many years prior to me taking over the company, which was such an honor that she was willing to pass something on to me or just in keeping it going.

Brenda Kucinski (37:06):

And Socially Artistic. It's sociallyartistic.com. And the number is (440) 527-1697. And thank you once again Patrice, for even believing in me and teaching me so much along the way.

Patrice Catan (37:23):

Well, I think we teach each other, it's like anything in life. You surround yourself with good people like I did. I not only educated myself in the process, but I helped other people, but they also helped me.

Patrice Catan (37:40):

Without good people around you, you're no good. So, it doesn't matter what I know. It's what everybody around me, right Leah?

Leah Haslage (37:49):

Absolutely. Totally agree with that.

Patrice Catan (37:51):

Of course. Thank you, Leah, for again, asking us questions. Leah was with me in bridal many years ago and she loved it. But she ran away from it. And she went into podcasting.

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Patrice Catan (38:06):

So, we'd like to give Leah a round of applause also for her putting up with me. And for Brenda, putting up with me over all these years. And we are still connected, and we still will be. Thank you. Have a great day. Please bring your questions in. We want to hear them.

Leah Haslage (38:26):

This has been a production of Evergreen Podcasts. A special thank you to Frank Bird and the production team, producer Leah Haslage, that's me and audio engineer Dave Douglas.