Today we’d like to introduce you to Stacey Nishimura.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started Stacey Lynn Design in Los Angeles in 2009 after working over 8 years in advertising. I wanted to bring all the knowledge and creativity I acquired from working with large brands such as Kia Motors, ABC, the Academy Awards, to smaller, more personal events. I love to bring out the creativity in my clients and work to achieve a truly unique and personal experience with each event I produce.
In 2015, I moved to Chicago where I began to put down some Stacey Lynn Design roots. For the first 2 years, I still produced weddings in both California and Chicago, but that is slowly migrating to being almost exclusively midwest. I now have to factor in this crazy weather when planning events which is something I never had to deal with in Malibu.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In California, being a wedding planner had it perks. All the venues pretty much require couples to have a planner, and the clients (and budgets) are endless. Also, my clientele had always been on the creative side and truly want to create a unique and personal event. It was a big destination wedding location which allowed me to work with brides from all over the world.
When I first started doing weddings in Chicago, I was petrified! I was getting responses like ” well… what does everyone else do…” “Is it normal to do this” I wanted to shake my couples! The questions should be ” How can we make this different, unique and represent us?” and ” How do we make this memorable?”! Luckily, it wasn’t very long until my tribe of risk-taking, fun loving and eccentric couples found me and I’ve been booking events that make my creative heart full.
Stacey Lynn Design – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I specialize in helping define a wedding style. This isn’t just in the design of a wedding. Is it in the nitty-gritty details of the timeline? Want dancing to go before Dinner? Great. Want to serve brunch food at 8 pm? Awesome Want to do a live tattoo of your wedding rings? And then have an open tattoo bar? Love it. (And I’ve done all of it.)
When couples book me for full service (both the planning aspect and the full creative design) I really try to sit down with my couples and get to know them. I try to know their lifestyle, what they like doing together, where they have traveled, the style of their home, etc. Only then, can I create an event that is TRULY unique and represents all of them (even the tiny details that only they may recognize as being special on the day) I love personalizing every bit of a wedding, from a movie quote printed on a menu, to imported coffee beans for the late night dessert bar.
I believe there are NO rules for weddings. There is no tradition that NEEDS to be followed if it doesn’t make sense to you as a couple. If you can’t have fun with it, what can you have fun with?
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I pulled off the craziest wedding of life in Los Angeles, about a month before I moved to Chicago. Not only was it an industry wedding (let’s just say the entire cast of Anchorman was there) but my timeline to pull this off was about 1/8 of what I would have liked.
This was a CREATIVE wedding. No one has ever challenged me with the phrase ” Jack Black is going to be there… we need to go crazier! ” (I’ve also never had to tell anyone that although unique, the venue, unfortunately, will not allow topless servers wearing animal heads). There were 4 bands and a moving reception where we changed rooms every part of the night. NO flowers (unless you count the unique animal topiary named after the animals from Animal Farm) and ended in a full rave, glowsticks, fog and go-go dancers included.
Would it be my wedding? Nope. Not at all. But man… I would have loved to be a guest at this one.
Ok, I have one more…
One time I was designing a “Gothic Beach” Photo Shoot for a blog. I get these weird mash-ups of design in my head that I just HAVE to see come to life. So, here I am with all of the best vendors in LA putting together this gorgeous (though strange) vision.. when Sandra Lee walks over from a connecting restaurant. She wanted to know the details… loved it so much that she put it in her magazine ( It may have been saved for the Halloween edition when my vision was for a uniquely Spring Day… but very cool regardless and a life moment for sure).
Pricing:
- Partial Planning starts at 3K
- Full Planning + Design starts at 8K
Contact Info:
- Website: staceylynndesign.com
- Email: stacey@staceylynndesign.com
- Instagram: staceylynndesign
- Facebook: facebook.com/staceylynndesign
- Twitter: staceylynn
- Other: weddingwire.com/staceylynndesign
Image Credit:
EPLove, Krista Mason, Micah & Megan, Kristin Rogers
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