20 Years of Alison Events
We turned 20 this year! Alison Events, and the collective WE, it took to get here (that's you). We're 20. Happy Anniversary to us.
Can we go down memory lane for a moment? Let's look at where we've been, what happened on our journey, and where we're headed. Onward…
This is how it all started:
I was a traveler, all 18 years of me. My adventurous spirit was at college in Colorado where the only degree that seemed to fit my passion (sounded remotely like travel) was Natural Resources and Tourism. There was no hospitality track back then.
Class. Snowboarding. Class. Debauchery. A year in Breckenridge. A year in NZ. Graduation. Now what?
I found an ad in a newspaper—the kind you open—landing me a job behind a desk (something I was sure a Natural Resources and Tourism degree would never ask of me) organizing tours and acting like a grown-up.
In reality, I was living in LA with my sister, paying student loans, broke and drowning.
Through this position, I was recruited about a year later by an events planner who thought she was Kim Cattrall from Sex and the City.
She introduced me to luxury in only a way "Kim" could. The budgets were big and the build-outs were, too. My colleagues were sophisticated event producers. I was moving up.
"Kim" told me, "People will take you more seriously if you wear just the right amount of jewelry and perfume." Message received. I added shoulder pads.
Now, it's the early 2000s and we're having fun! Dotcom was on fire, and so were we.
Screech! Poof. The bubble bursts. I slide backward into crappy event sales.
Thayer, a friend and wedding photographer, tells me about a phenomenon known as "day-of" wedding planning. "You pop in about one month prior to the event date and ensure things go off without a hitch."
I can do that. In less than a year, I had 23 "day-of" weddings, . Thank you, Thayer!
The Bay Area wedding industry had about five big-shot planners, at the time. I rallied and sold myself to each of them, quickly learning they were all jaded, tired of the hustle, and significantly older than me. Therefore, they gave me all their shitty jobs and I ate them up.
My first real wedding was in Tahoe.
Then, Thayer got married in Costa Rica.
Next, Emily gets married in Hawaii.
The truth was, my career choice was less about wedding romance and more about travel romance. I was going to rad places.
At the time, Mary Ellen Murphy was THE destination wedding planner. I found my way in by asking how I could help her. I still live by this advice:
"Make friends with everyone locally. Roll the way they roll. In Mexico, they like to talk about their family, so talk about family. In Italy, they drink as a form of connection, so drink with them. Become part of their culture." —Mary Ellen
It's 2004 and I hire my first assistant. I have help, but I’m still working from my IKEA desk in my studio apartment in San Francisco.
By 2005, I have a full portfolio. With the help of design friends and Thayer's photography, I pitch ME as the destination planner to editors in New York.
I wrote my first book in 2007 and it was published in 2009 by Chronicle Books: Destination Wedding Planner.
In 2010, I got my first feature in Martha Stewart, where I was named THE destination planner—move over Mary Ellen (actually, she had retired by then and handed me great resources).
Mexico was the IT place to get married. And, whatever needed doing, we found a way. I’d pack my suitcase with legal substances that I smuggled across the border, illegally. If we needed pillows, I brought the fabric and had them made. If we needed chairs, I rented them from the rodeo. We always made it happen.
Fun fact: to date, we’ve done 23 weddings in Mexico!
In 2012, my second book, a binder, was published by Chronicle Books, All the Essentials Wedding Planner.
You mentioned these three weddings as stand-outs. We can keep them in timeline form or break them into buckets at the end. Not sure yet. And the copy isn’t great, yet.
The same year, I did one of my favorite weddings in New Buffalo, Michigan. We had the ceremony at the beach house, with the reception and dinner in a Sperry tent on the 5th hole of the golf course. How about the candle-lit entrance? The entire thing was perfect.
Another, within the same family, was new agey, cool, colorful, and so fun. In the forest, a moss-covered couch, hanging chandelier, and live floral labyrinth. Next level.
We held the first-ever wedding on Naoshima, Japan’s art island—sort of a big deal. This was Carlos Ghosn’s daughter’s wedding. Her hair crown weighed a mere 20lbs!
Then, in 2015, I planned a highlight-of-my-career wedding at Hotel du Cap. The hotel was all ours with 300 guests for an event-a-day for three days with musical guests Chris Martin/Coldplay and Paul Anka. The production was a herculean feat, as set-up happened throughout the night in preparation for the next day's event.
The up and up is happening. Alison Events is now being named "Best of" in Vogue, Goop. Martha Stewart. We're on the map!
We rode this wave for years, ushering bride and groom after bride and groom into a lifetime of wedding bliss (and some divorces).
The year COVID hit, we had 18 weddings on the books. Three happened. The rest were canceled or rescheduled.
During this time, I recognized how fleeting moments are. My focus turned to family. My boundaries got firmer to protect the precious time I have with my daughter.
About six months into COVID, we wondered, what are we going to do? Travel agents, yes, let’s add that to our offering. We onboarded with Embark Beyond, a kick-ass travel firm in NYC that taught us all they know. Basically, we’re global luxury experts (as if we weren’t already!), with hundreds of connections in far-flung places, with capabilities in planning, events, and destination travel.
Now, we can plan your week-long 50th birthday party in a sick villa in Mexico or put a killer safari itinerary together for your honeymoon or help you celebrate your 10-year anniversary . The whole package. Let’s travel!
This section represents content we may sprinkle around or put in buckets to break up the timeline.
What Makes Us, Us:
Our team is incredible. The very best there is.
20 years of relationships around the world.
Reputation matters!
No fear. We have people we can reach out to in far-flung places.
We scratch each other’s back.
We’re innately chill. We manage ourselves so we can manage the event.
We love our jobs, meeting people, and learning about cultures.
We don’t step and repeat, because that bores us. We make each experience unique.
Quoted:
“I am who I am because of the people who have supported me. There’s been an army, though nobody gave me a penny. Actually, my grandma bought me my first run of business cards. That's the only money I've been given." —Alison
"I've never advertised. It's all been word of mouth. Your next client is the bridesmaid at this wedding." —Alison
Some Mishaps:
Multiple cakes have slid off their stand because of temperature control issues. We found that flowers hide flaws. Except when the cake hits the floor. Then, we go without a cake.
Twice, I’ve coached brides who haven’t wanted to walk down the aisle.
A few weddings have been called off.
Three times I’ve jumped in as officiant because one was lost, one had a baby, and the other didn’t fit on the client’s plane :)
Once I caught a florist spray-painting flowers behind the scene at a Tulum wedding where the bride insisted her flowers match a chosen Pantone. It worked.
I've learned this:
Be grateful. Thank-you notes go a looong way.
Every family has drama. Don’t take anything personally.
What comes around, goes around. Give back. Share. Lift up others.
If former employees start a business after working with you, that's a compliment.
Let’s pull some numbers:
How many events? Well over 500.
In which locations? 13 countries, 4 continents, and 40 cities around the world.
With how many guests? From 13 (COVID) to 375.
The most important wedding detail: “Great music. Music drives the energy of the space regardless of size and scope.” You heard it here first!
The biggest and brightest thank you to the AE team: Ruth, our Creative Manager, Danielle, our Sr. Production Manager, Lauren, our Studio Manager, Tara, our CFO, and Mr. No No, our office cat.
Let’s do this 2022!
With love and gratitude, Alison and the team