Meet Jennie Wiegand

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennie Wiegand. 

Hi Jennie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
Following my undergraduate graduation, I began a career at one of the Big Three automotive companies. In 2008 when the industry started to decline, I left that company and was searching for another job. I had loved planning my own 2005 wedding, and my husband knew that I always wanted to try wedding & event planning. While searching for other automotive jobs, my husband Phil pushed me to instead try opening a planning business. One day I came home from work, and he gave me a piece of paper showing that he had purchased beautifuldayplanning.com for me. It was the kick that I needed, and I began Beautiful Day Planning in January 2009. I went to school for a wedding planner certification and dedicated my time to getting BDP off of the ground. To be honest, at first, I didn’t expect BDP to become what it has today; our first child was born in 2010, our second in 2012, and I always pictured myself going back to a corporate position once they started school. However, BDP exploded, and I realized that planning weddings & events is truly what I am meant to do with my life. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I was “fortunate” that I began BDP during the economic downturn of 2009. As funny as that sounds, I think starting in a down market actually helped me because I gained experience slowly and was able to grow the business as the economy grew and recovered. So, growing the business ended up being a fairly natural progression, starting with just me and adding more staff as our business and weddings picked up. 

So overall, it was fairly smoothly – until Covid. 2020 was an insanely difficult year to be in our industry, not only because we couldn’t work but even more so because we were trying to be emotionally supportive to all of our couples. I was on phone calls with crying brides nearly daily, and in all honesty, it was emotionally draining – you feel so badly for these couples, but there is so little we could do to help them, and we had no more answers than anyone else did at that time. We ended up helping 57 weddings move from 2020 to 2021 and 2022 and were very relieved when we got to start working mostly normally in 2021 (although we still have 2 rescheduled weddings yet to occur!) 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
BDP specializes in the planning & coordination of unique and beautiful weddings and events. Our services range from month-of coordination to full-service planning and everything in between. Most of our clients each year are planning weddings, but we also do a good amount of both personal and corporate events. We love the chance to be able to work with all different types of clients, different budgets, different designs, and decor. It makes the job fun, and we love working with our clients. 

I’m most proud of my team. When I started, I thought BDP would be only me. A couple of years in my amazing “right-hand man,” Nicole, joined them team as an assistant. Soon it became apparent that we needed another me – so Nicole started handling her own clients – which resulted in us needing more assistants. As the business has grown, we have added more coordinators, assistants and even take on 1-2 summer interns each year. All of our team are professional, fun, well-organized individuals that are able to execute these events so well, and I couldn’t do it without any of them!! 

I think what sets us apart from a lot of other planners is that we don’t focus on one style but rather love working with different styles, and colors, and vibes. We pride ourselves on not being tied to one particular look but instead being able to translate our talents and expertise to create weddings and events that look vastly different from one another. 

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love the life and movement of our city – that you can find people walking, hanging out, grabbing a drink or food with a friend. The city feels a live, and I love being a small part of that. 

Contact Info:

• Website: beautifuldayplanning.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beautifuldayplanning_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeautifulDayPlanningLLC/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/beautifuldaymi/_created/

Image Credits
Erika Christine
JLB Wedding
J+N Studios
Jessica kobeissi
JIll Devries
Love Flora Fauna
Visual Narrative