Most people know, hiring a lawyer the day before trial doesn’t bode well. The same is true for event planning. In both instances, hiring a professional early on produces better results. Not only to build trust, but to benefit from the years of experience learned by the expert! For Edelina Rose, founder and owner of Event Details by Edelina, it is no different. With nearly twenty years in the event planning industry, Edelina started in 1999 interning for a local event planning company out of Fairfax. A few short years later, the owner decided to sell and left the remaining parts for Edelina. In 2003, Event Details by Edelina was born. Ever since, she has been on call late at night for reassurance, answering questions, and giving guidance to soon-to-be-brides, and more. For her, every event is personal. Especially weddings. Unlike most coordinators who direct and manage, Edelina takes pride in being a consultant that isn’t afraid to put in the work and get her hands dirty. Short a bartender? Down one server? No problem. As the demand for non-traditional weddings grows, so do the demands of non-traditional planning. For Edelina, this means having an on-hand team that works with her to get things from point A to point B. “It’s one thing to have everything you need [chairs, food, drinks, etc.], but who’s going to set it up? Two-hundred chairs is a lot [for one person].” It’s details like these that Edelina gets excited about seeing through. Even something just as simple as reminding upcoming newlyweds to get their rings cleaned the day before. Or having a few cars to stay behind to help clean up. All lessons learned from past events. In fact, it’s one of the many things Edelina loves about her work: learning something new. The melting pot of the NOVA/DC area lends itself to working with many different cultural nuances from wearing two dresses to helping introverts through the nightmare of center stage attention. That said, regardless of background, almost everyone forgets the total number of hours that actually go into a single event. This means finding a balance between cost and work load and factoring in unexpected “what-ifs”. In one such event, a torrential downpour required over two hundred chairs be moved under cover in minutes, which affected the entire run of events. Luckily, Edelina reworked and moved up cocktail hour. The result? Short of knowing that things were running behind due to weather, guests were dry and happily drinking. Edelina’s advice to entrepreneurs starting out? “[Running a business] really does take every bit of care, time, effort and everything else that you can think of to put into it. You really have to want it. [And that] requires effort.” You can learn more about Edelina and request a consultation at www.eventdetailsbyedelina.com
