Today we’d like to introduce you to Keri Ketterer.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Wedding and celebration planning has been my life passion and one that began when I was in teenager working in hospitality and events with my family at our charming inn on Cape Cod. When relatives asked me what I wanted to be when I “grew up,” much to their surprise my response was: “I want to be a wedding planner” time and time again. Rather than purchasing Teen Vogue and Glamour Magazine in high school, I would collect and dog-ear issues of Martha Stewart Weddings, Brides and Southern New England Weddings and keep them in pristine condition on my bookshelves!
When it came time to go off to college, I was adamant that I would find a university that could provide me a path towards my chosen career. I attended Boston University and pursued an education in Event Management where I received my degree in Hospitality, with concentrations in Event Management and Social Media Marketing. While at BU, I had the incredible opportunity to take my education to Walt Disney World where I worked for six months learning the art of “making magic” through celebration, which marked the beginning of my passion for creating weddings with a palpable magic and ethereal quality. After gradating from BU, I spent several years managing events for two luxury and premiere event planners in Massachusetts, where I coordinated over 115+ events from start to finish. During this time, the celebrations I planned ranged from 200 person weddings on private estates to 800 person events at elegant venues with celebrity headliners AND even an intimate 80 person dinner for the President of the United States at the time!
In early 2014, I pursued my dream to its fullest extent and opened Always Yours Events, a wedding planning and design company focused in creating romantic, ethereal and awe-inspiring weddings and celebrations that leave a gorgeous lasting impression. In the last four years, Always Yours Events has become an award winning brand with an expertise in private estate and tented weddings and has traveled all over New England (and recently the South!) to plan and design these milestones for so many incredible couples. Most recently in 2017, AYE Events became the planner for The Bachelor’s Whitney Bischoff and Ricky Angel and was featured in People Magazine on stands worldwide.
Has it been a smooth road?
Every path has it’s bumps and I’ve certainly hit a few along the way, these last nine years as an event planner! But, I do believe that the bumps along the way can transform you and what you learn from them help you determine which path to take when the road splits.
One bump that was absolutely PIVOTAL to my journey was one that came about when I was 22 years old and just about to graduate from Boston University. The School of Hospitality made it a mission to ensure that 98 percent of it’s students accepted job offers before Graduation Day. For students like myself venturing into the event industry, jobs were few and far between in Boston at that time and I spent countless hours researching planning companies, calling to learn about opportunities, emailing my resume and offering to take planners for coffee.
In April before graduation, I was ecstatic to receive a job offer to a prestigious event planning and catering company as an event assistant. But as my first day drew near, the position that was being offered needed to change due to unforeseen circumstances outside the company’s control — my role went from Event Assistant to Front Office Manager. Disheartened, I remember sitting in my living room looking at the new offer, feeling like I had just taken a huge step backwards. And while it might sound strange, I felt a little voice telling me to make a move that would ultimately change my career path for the better. I decided to accept the job offer (because it truly was still a great offer), but put backup plan in place. With a little direction from my entrepreneurial parents, I purchased a domain name for my dreamt up wedding planning business called — you guessed it — Always Yours Events. I purchased the domain name for three years, a thought to myself, “in three years when I receive the renewal notice for this domain name, I’ll make a decision to stay or leave to pursue Always Yours Events.”
I started my new job with zeal, was promoted to Event Assistant in two months, then became an Event Producer. In 2014, I a received an email from a bride asking me to help her plan her wedding as a consultant. I accepted and that recommendation led to more recommendations. In 2015, I took a giant leap and became the full time owner and planner of Always Your Events. A couple of days later, I received a renewal notice for the Always Yours Events domain.
Like I mentioned, sometimes the bumps in the road can be transformative.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
The AYE Mission:
As a celebration brand and company, the Always Yours Events mission is to create remarkable, ethereal and awe-inspiring weddings that leave a gorgeous lasting impression.
The AYE Approach
At AYE, we specialize in full-service planning and design of weddings and celebrations, with an expertise in private estate and tented weddings. Our approach is above all a couple-centric one. Through extraordinary attention to a couple’s desires and detail as well as storytelling, we take a couple’s wedding vision and fully expand it into a romantic and distinctive celebration.
Weddings have many moving parts and complexities and AYE’s comprehensive services ensure that every logistic is handled for you and every detail is cohesive to your wedding design. From helping you to carefully select, book and manage your venue and dream vendor team, to creating a fully customized design presentation and stunning visual mock ups, to creating a detailed wedding timeline and floor plan, to comprehensive wedding day management, AYE offers a completely thorough planning experience that results in a seamlessly executed Wedding Day.
The AYE Aesthetic
We focus on creating designs that are love-inspired and revolving around the couple, which paves the way for a romantic one-of-a-kind celebration. Magical celebrations and milestones with a certain je nais se quois are our speciality. We meticulously design with personalized details and original concepts and the end result is a remarkable and exceptionally designed celebration that “wows” — a celebration you’ll never forget.
Elements we love include: lush and romantic bouquets, rose petal send offs, outside the box escort card displays, soft and feminine linens, hand drawn crests and monograms, personalized French market basket welcome bags, sentimental ceremonies, floral installations, hospitable touches for guests at every turn… and the element of surprise!
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Not only is Boston filled with stunning and iconic wedding venues, but the wedding market also expands outwards from the city. The North Shore, the South Shore and the Greater Boston areas are all within such close proximity to the city that it is very feasible for a wedding planner and designer based in Boston to offer their services in all of these locations! And with such a large community of wedding vendors based in Boston, a new planner would very easily be able to meet with a plethora of like-minded vendors and wedding professionals and build new friendships and working relationships.
The Boston wedding sphere is a bit saturated and so one thing I would recommend to aspiring wedding professionals and business owners, would be to utilize social media as much as possible to promote your business and expand your reach in the region! Research Boston hashtags and use geolocations when sharing your work on Instagram, Facebook and more!
And, while this is a given no matter where you’re located, in Boston networking is key. Attend professional events, magazine issue launches, open houses and more to fully experience the community!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alwaysyoursevents.com
- Email: keri@alwaysyoursevents.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alwaysyoursevents/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alwaysyoursevents/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AYEvents_Keri
Image Credit:
Elizabeth Laduca Photography, Jenny Moloney Photography
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
