E.46 Behind The Scenes Of A Top Wedding Planner with Yodit Gebreyes

 

Welcome to this week's talk show episode:

If you are interested in being a wedding planner or starting your own event business, then join us for episode 46. Top wedding planner, Yodit Gebreyes will be sharing the behind-the-scenes of her event planning business, the hurdles along the way and the gifts of following your heart.

Award Winning Event Planner, Yodit Gebreyes has a passion for making her client's dreams become a reality. With over a decade of experience, her kind, outgoing personality and ability to make her clients relax is what has garnered her a stellar reputation. 

With her Ethiopian family roots, Yodit launched Favored by Yodit Events & Designs with the objective of designing stylish, seamless, multicultural weddings and events to fill the void in the market. Yodit and her talented team are best known for their creative ideas, impeccable attention to detail and ability to bring the best out of vendors to make sure everything runs smoothly and turns out beautiful.

Yodit and her one-of-a-kind work have been featured in various premiere wedding, lifestyle & entertainment publications like VOGUE, Brides, People, Martha Stewart Weddings, The Knot, Washingtonian Weddings, Munaluchi Brides and many more.

Listen in as Yodit shares - how to land your next magazine feature.

 

 

 Yodit was introduced to the world of event planning at a very young age. Her Ethiopian culture was a big influence. Her parents would throw a lot of parties at the house where she grew up and she would help in organizing the events, setting up games and food stations.

In college she was very active in different organizations and Yodit naturally gravitated to being in charge of the events, planning and promotions that resulted in Yodit and her friends starting their own promotion company called ‘Talk Of D.C.’ which was very successful for 7 years. This experience allowed Yodit to make valuable connections with the industry where she learned the art of events.

For Yodit, events are all about people and creating an experience that they will remember.

After working in corporate events and nightclubs, Yodit and her mother decided to change directions in their careers and start a new venture of opening a food truck, unknownst to her at the time, Yodit was running from her true passion and purpose as an event planner into an idea that never got off the ground. 

This was a pivotal time in Yodit's career. 

Following the food truck failure, a friend reached out to her and asked if she could plan her wedding. Shortly after, Yodit’s career took off.

Yodit feels that much of her success has stemmed from amazing relationships, doing the work and being introduced to great mentors. Yodit also explains that social media is 60% of her business exposure along with publication exposure and referrals. 

Although Yodit has been extremely successful, that does not mean it did not come with hurdles!

The biggest hurdle for Yodit was that there weren’t many wedding planners within the Ethiopian community, meaning that Yodit had to educate the community on the importance of hiring a wedding planner. 

That process opened the doors to doing weddings for many other cultures as well.

Here are Yodit’s tips for how to get published!

• Study the publication market and to learn what that publication specializes in. 
• Know their deadlines for submitting photos and what that particular magazine likes to see in the submitted photos. 
• Know the types of trends the magazine is looking for.
• “Work on your key relationships with editors of the magazines and build a media strategy from the beginning.
• Look to find networking events on Instagram and social media in order to network with publishers. 
• Most importantly, Yodit would advise to not dwell when someone says no, if things do not go right, it is not the end of the world, it is sometimes a blessing in disguise. 

Realize your value and let your light shine bright and do not let naysayers get in your way of success. Just go for it no matter what.

You can find out more about Yodit, her business and services on her website, instagram or facebook.

 

 

 Try this week's recipe for delicious French Crepes!

 

No summer event is complete without something cool and elegant to wear.

This week's style guide is complete with a summer chiffon skirt and white tank top.