The party business. My story.

People often ask me, how did you get into event planning? What did you study? How’d you get your feet off the ground?

So I thought it may be interesting to those who ask…to hear my story.

I got a bachelor’s of arts degree from the University of Western Ontario in Economics & Business. I chose this degree because “when I grew up…” I said I wanted to be a trader because traders make a lot of money and I really enjoyed shopping. Yes, this was how my 17 year old brain worked. After graduating university in 1999, I got a job as an assistant to three investment advisors at BMO Nesbitt Burns. I worked there for two years. In the second year of working there, a group of young, really cool guys started working on my floor and they were partiers.

Together with my Toronto friend, Lindsey, We went out every weekend and grew very close and bonded with this crew and their partners. These guys, made working in the stock market, super fun.

Well….after a year of pretty heavy partying, the stock market crashed. And that’s when, the party ended. It became pretty brutal working in that industry and I wanted out. Google was pretty new back then (ugh that sounds so crazy!)…and one day I was playing on the computer and I typed in Fashion + Job + New York. I always had a love for fashion, my father was in the “shmata” business plus I had always dreamed of living in New York (it looked so cool in the movies). So I thought….what the heck. Well wouldn’t ya know it, a Financial Assistant for Kate Spade popped up. I thought…oh heck. Why not give this a try?! So I sent them my resume, and two weeks later, they called me. I thought I was literally going to faint. Kate Spade from the big city calling this little Canadian girl? It couldn’t be.

I was offered the job and within weeks I had packed up my things, said good bye to my friends and family and I moved to New York…with about 3 bucks to my name.

My job at Kate Spade was like a dream. I couldn’t believe I was working there and at the time, Kate Spade was making a huge name for herself all over the world. I had one friend living in New York when I moved there. He had moved to the big city after we graduated for a job with one of the major banks . Three weeks after I settled into the city and my job, we went out for dinner. He told me some of his friends were going to meet up with us after dinner…and one showed up early. Enter, my husband Adam. Pretty hard to believe, I know it.

Less than one year after I moved to New York, September 11th came upon us. My family wanted me home immediately but I made the decision to stay and see what happens. I ended up working in fashion for 10 years between Kate Spade, Club Monaco and J.Crew. All, dreams come true and unique experiences in their own way. I met the most amazing people along the way and partied my way through this New York City life. After three years of dating, Adam and I moved in together and I used to entertain all the time. For friends birthdays, high holiday dinner parties (Rosh Hashanah and Passover), annual holidays, you name it. I would find any excuse to host a party.

After six years of dating, Adam proposed. My visa had run out so we ran to City Hall to tie the knot so I could apply for my green card. Then we had a beautiful wedding in Toronto for our friends and family. I loved the planning process and every detail of bringing our wedding to life. It dawned on me…maybe I’m good at party planning!?

The next year, my mom came up with the name Little Miss Party Planner and I bought the domain so I could build a website. I had a friend who helped me design it and then I started taking on small jobs for friends and friends of friends. Little did I know when coming up with the name and creating the website that I had a bit of SEO magic in place. When you search: Party Planner New York City, you’ll find LMP on the first page of results. That’s a million dollar listing right there.

It was hard planning events while working a full time job but it was also great experience just dabbling in events in my own home and for friends.

Once I got pregnant and gave birth to our first son, Gavin, I took my three months maternity leave and then hired a nanny and went back to work. I cried at my desk every day for two weeks. I did not like the idea of someone else raising my son and my salary at the time was not enough to justify paying a full time nanny. So Adam said, “leave. It’s time to get out of the corporate world and start your own business.”

So, I did!

Soon after leaving J.Crew, my co-worker and very dear friend Michelle decided to leave the corporate world and join me on the party planning venture. We worked together on launching and developing the business for years. Michelle later started a family and moved out of the city and decided to dedicate her time to her children. We are still the closet of friends and continue to talk creative ideas for parties together.

So as you can see, I had no official event planning experience through school or work. It was my life experiences that led me down the path and into this industry and there were so many learning curves along the way.

I have been in the event & party planning business for ten years now and I love what I do. The past ten years have brought me so much joy, incredible clients and the most dedicated team. We’ve been lucky enough to grow Little Miss Party into more than just events, and now I’d say one of my favorite parts of my job is using my hosting & entertaining expertise to create engaging content for brands and here on the Little Miss Party blog.

For those looking to break into the biz, I will advise you, it’s not as easy and glamorous as it looks. Events can be very labor intensive, stressful and not always super profitable (unless your clients are the Kardashians). BUT if you’re creative, calm under pressure, organized and have a passion for partying…the sky’s the limit!

But with that said, I have a vision and have a team of women who work with me, dedicating their working lives to grow our business. We have so many dreams for the company and I am insanely excited about our future because I know we will take Little Miss Party to groundbreaking heights making all of our dreams come true.