Meet Sarah Blessinger | Owner & Lead Planner – Kindred Weddings and Events

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Blessinger and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
You’ll hear many wedding planners say they started their business after having a great time planning their own wedding. My story is quite the opposite.

We didn’t know what we didn’t know going into wedding planning, but we truly thought we could do things on our own. This meant relying on friends and family to fill the gaps when we didn’t hire a professional wedding vendor. This only put a strain on our relationships and the decision-making process (as a recovering people pleaser this was especially difficult for me).

I remember at the end of our wedding day breaking down and crying in the hotel room because all of the stress had completely built up inside of me for weeks – maybe even months. I look back and feel like the process of planning our wedding was one fraught with so much stress and overwhelm. No one should feel like that on their wedding day – a day that is supposed to be filled with so much love and joy.

I started planning weddings because I did not enjoy the wedding planning process or journey, and wanted to help other couples avoid having that experience be a part of their story.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Here at Kindred Weddings and Events, we work alongside introverted engaged couples helping them confidently make decisions to intentionally invest their resources, providing them and their guests with a joyful marriage celebration through intimate weddings. Marriage is the reason I work in the wedding industry. I don’t do it for that one special wedding day, I do it for every day that follows after ‘I do!’

We strive to put happy and healthy relationships back in the driver’s seat of wedding planning, by creating spaces with purpose and vision that look beyond the wedding day throughout your marriage. By investing in a solid wedding planning foundation that defines your vision and expectations, I help my clients get their time back. This allows them to focus on what matters most to them and prioritize time with their loved ones.

The biggest evolution of my business happened only 2 years in. I was still working at my 9-5 job, constantly hustling in my free time to grow my wedding planning business. And after only 2 years, I was starting to fall into burnout. I knew that I still had a chance to change this experience for myself, so I decided to turn to the data.

I started compiling all of the past year’s weddings into a report card of sorts. I did a deep dive into the good and the bad, what I learned, and how I grew to get an idea of what was truly fueling me. When I stepped back I could see the connecting thread. All of my favorite weddings were smaller and more intimate. This allowed the couples to feel comfortable and confident, not just on the wedding day itself, but throughout the planning process.

So I took a gamble and decided to niche down to serving clients who are looking to plan intimate weddings with 100 guests or less. Focusing on a very specific type of wedding day allowed me to prioritize the style of weddings that fuel me, and have opened up amazing doors of connection with my ideal clients.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
No shame in admitting I am biased, but I would stick to The Valley. Typical Los Angeles tourist locations, while full of so much fun and excitement, aren’t really my jam.

I would recommend visiting a botanical garden, like Descanso Gardens to take in the seasonal flowers and the thoughtfully curated art exhibits. Getting outdoors is crucial for health and wellness, and I find it also opens me up creatively when I connect with the world around me.

For food, I would recommend cozy brunch spots like Aroma Coffee & Tea or Vivian’s Millenium Cafe and patio dining at Firefly for dinner.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Along the way of starting and growing my business, many friends and family members allowed me to learn on the go by planning and/or coordinating their weddings. This experience was foundational and tantamount to getting my feet wet in this business.

I also want to shout out the amazing industry support I found in Planner Life Academy and Sara Does SEO. Both of whom shared invaluable resources and guidance in growing my business into what it is today.

Website: https://kindredweddingsandevents.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kindredwedevents/

Image Credits
Angelica Marie Photography, Lisa Leanne Photography, Wedding Sidekicks Photography, Kami Arant Photography, Vanessa Todd Photography