Founder, Kristi Amoroso Special Events
www.kristiamoroso.com

The weddings that Kristi Amoroso creates for her clients look like scenes straight out of a bridal magazine – some with high ceilings and chandeliers, others with stunning panoramic ocean views, many with brides who could be models, flowers and table settings that might make Martha Stewart proud.

Amoroso, called a “wedding goddess” by a client as quoted in San Francisco Magazine, left behind the family business to create big production weddings and other special events, and marry her creativity with the flexibility to be a part-time stay-at-home mom.

Dating Lots of Different Careers

“I switched careers a jillion times. I don’t think there’s just one career for people, there’s probably a couple if you’re energetic and passionate about things. I grew up on the Peninsula (near San Francisco) and studied broadcast journalism at USC. My junior year, I studied in Florence and decided I wanted to be in fashion. Then I came back and worked for the Golden State Warriors in marketing. I was testing all these different things to see which one popped out at me the most.”

“My family owns a construction company. My dad has run the company since my grandfather founded it in 1939. So intermittently between other projects, I worked for the company and when I turned 30, I was a project manager. While I enjoyed it and learned a lot about scheduling and production, there was very little that was creative about what I was doing.”

Breaking Up with the Family Biz

“I had to make a decision: Do I want to make a lot of money in my life and run my family’s company, or do I want to follow my passions? I chose to be poor. I told my family that I didn’t want to be involved anymore, which was tricky because I was the one grandchild interested enough to carry on the next generation of the family business.”

Wedding Planning – No Walk in the Park

“I decided I wanted to do event planning, which seemed to me at first like kind of a silly profession. I went to work for another wedding planner and realized how much is involved in planning big production weddings. It’s not as much fluff as I thought.”

Winning Her First Clients

“I was very nervous about going out on my own. I would go out and meet the good caterers, meet the dress designers. I did three jobs for free to develop relationships with vendors and build a client base. I didn’t make any money the first year, which was a luxury I had because my husband was supporting us and we didn’t have children yet.”

Wedding Story #1: Surprise Star Appearance

“I’m not a wedding factory – I want to do a completely different wedding with each client. I love to pull information from the couple that involves their family, their history and where they’re going in the future. One client, who’s a musician, themed her whole wedding around music. As a surprise, her husband had me hire Etta James. She sang ‘At Last’ live as the bride walked down the aisle.”

Wedding Story #2: Bringing Cultures Together

“I did a wonderful wedding with 350 people that very much incorporated the San Francisco Chinese-American culture. It was a large family with five sisters all involved in planning and the details, down to the paper products and the favors and the fabrics. We used imported fabrics. The bride changed into a traditional red dress. We did a tea ceremony.”

Going from “In Business” to “In Hot Demand”

“During my first couple years of business, I thought I was making progress and felt like I had produced successful events, but clients were not beating down my door. I advertised in a nice local bridal magazine and got some responses from that, but realized over the years that (building your client base) happens mostly by word of mouth.”

Marketing Herself

“Ninety percent of my marketing I’ve done on my own. I would get pictures from photographers and submit them to magazines. When you can get an editorial story or a wedding featured in Martha Stewart or Elegant Bride, that’s great. Six months ago I hired a publicist for the first time. She was able to take a lot of the work that I’ve done and get it out there.”

One Web Site. Many Dream Weddings.

“It was a great investment to push my business to the next level. We redid my Web site, made it hip and modern, which is representative of my work. I let people see visuals that are exciting to them. They can see the whole stories of various weddings… a Hawaiian wedding, a country farm wedding or a Chinese wedding.”

Making Money and Time for the Kids

“Now I’ve built up my business enough that I’m happy with the amount of money I make, in proportion to the time I get to spend with my kids (ages 2, 3 and 6). Consistently I make about 100K a year, and I’m thrilled with that because I’m a stay-at- home mom for 50 percent of the year. ”

“I could really grow my business if I decided to hire more employees and take on a lot of work, but I have chosen not to because of my kids. I try not to work in the off-season (mid-October through April) and really cut down on childcare. Then during my busy period, I have sitters more, but I still try to work a 25-30 hour week.”

Balancing Work, Life… and Guilt

“Children want as much as they can from you no matter what. Sometimes I’ll have to leave for a client meeting or wedding and they’ll be hanging on my leg. I feel so bad. Or when I have a wedding… my daughter Stella… I always bring her back something. She loves the paper products, the favors, but she always asks, ‘Why do you have to do this person’s wedding?’ I think it’s important for children to see their mom have her own thing.”

“I live in an historic house in Sonoma built in 1850, and we turned our turned guest house into my office. I’ll schedule my day around things like my picking kids up from school. Having children was my main goal always – I built the business with that as part of the plan and it has worked, more or less.”

Greatest Success

“I can’t tell you how exciting it is to be with the bride when she is getting ready to get married. The reward is the event day. Weddings, graduations, the birth of children – these are key days in a person’s life. I get to experience them over and over again.”

Greatest Challenge

“Strong personalities and a lot of cooks in the kitchen. It’s always the most challenging when you have a couple of point people involved, instead of just the bride and groom. Each year I have more tolerance for the people who are easily disagreeable. Seven years ago they made me cry. In the service industry, you have to learn not to be personally offended if you haven’t satisfied someone. You have to say, ‘I’m sorry you’re disappointed, but let’s see how we can fix this.’”

Words of Advice

“Surround yourself with women who can make you feel better, good girlfriends who give you confidence. It boosts you up to have women around you that you can bounce ideas off of and who tell you that you can do great things.”