Interview with Beth Helmstetter Events

Beth Helmstetter Events is an event planning company that is dedicated to giving brides and grooms a custom wedding experience that is not only focused on the couple but also an unforgettable experience for the guests.  The company has been involved with planning both intimate affairs and huge wedding bashes.  Whichever type of wedding is being planned, it is always a collaboration between the planners and engaged couple resulting in a completely unique and custom experience.

Image Credit: Beth Helmstetter Events

How long have you been in business?
Beth Helmstetter Events has been in business for 5 years.

What inspired you to start your business?
After working as a wedding planner for years in the hotel industry, I became frustrated at how limited I was in helping my couples. I worked closely with each couple but at the end of the day, I still represented the hotel. I wanted to work closer with my couples to help them really personalize the day and ultimately represent all of their wants and needs.

Tell us why you think your business is successful.
Our clients come to us for our aesthetic and overall event philosophy. We don’t think bigger or more expensive necessarily means better. Our clients love us because we encourage them to be themselves rather than encouraging them to follow arbitrary rules that may not be relevant to them as a couple.

What makes your business unique?
We specialize in intimate and approachable weddings. Often this means we are traveling around the world to help plan weddings of 30 people or less and sometimes it means we are planning huge bashes for 300 or more here in Los Angeles. But no matter what, we try to make every guest feel like they are part of something amazing!

Is there a particular niche you target?
We target couples who believe in the art of entertaining. Most of our couples are more concerned with hosting an unforgettable event and creating a new experience for their guests rather than planning an event that is 100% focused on the couple and ignores the comfort and needs of their guests.

How do you help couples customize their weddings?
After a collaborative meeting, listening, and reviewing the client’s vision for the day, we develop design boards for each part of the wedding day from the attire, ceremony setup, lighting, dinner, etc. Once we have a full understanding of the couple’s style, we help them develop the best team for the day to implement their style. From there we collaborate on all of the details to ensure the overall vision is cohesive.

At what point in the planning process do you typically work with couples?
We are a full planning firm and typically start working with couples at the beginning of the planning process. Many of our couples have a venue in mind, but that is usually as far as they have gotten in the process.

Take a look at some photos from weddings planned by Beth Helmstetter Events to see the wide variety of their planning endeavors …

Photo Credit: Jose Villa Photo

Photo Credit: Manuele Photography

Photo Credit: Meg Perotti

Photo Credit: A&C Photography

Photo Credit: Jose Villa Photo

Photo Credit: Jonathan Canlas

Photo Credit: Steve Steinhardt