Katherine Miles Jones joins Megan to talk about her career start in New York City, how she started in the wedding photography business, an amazing and breathtaking engagement shoot at the Rockefeller Center (see image below), the biggest regret of her wedding, the community of vendors and developing friendships with her competition, how she makes clients feel comfortable, her love of photography, how she recharges her batteries, and some crazy wedding stories, including photo shoots with Abraham Lincoln the alpaca (see image below) and Nacho the Donkey. 

“It was a hobby that turned into an obsession that turned into a business.”  That’s how Jared Plummer, the owner of Two Roosters Ice Cream, describes his start in the ice cream business.  He was experimenting and developing crazy concoctions of ice cream flavors in his apartment and bringing them to dinner parties, and then one day he decided to follow his passion.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

This quote, attributed to Maya Angelou, is how Ginny Corbett of Ginny Corbett Photography remembers what’s important on the wedding day. She wants to make sure that her clients are at ease and can take in the memorable moments, so when they look at a picture hanging on the wall from their wedding day, they remember exactly how they felt.

Amanda Scott with A Swanky Affair sat down with Megan to go over the Top Ten wedding planning mistakes couples make.  Both Megan and Amanda are wedding planners in the Triangle area and have seen just about every mistake possible.  In going over them, they get to share some of their stories usually reserved for parties, from both the planning process and the wedding day.

Phil McInnis from 21 Films Videography in Raleigh came on the show to talk about how he has built up his business from just Phil and his wife Jess to a team of 6 filmmakers and editors, what differentiates the 21 Films style of videography from other wedding videographers, what motivates Phil, how to work with other vendors, and of course we get into some crazy stories about people drinking a little too much and being on camera.

Cydney English, owner of The English Garden, has been in the flower business for literally her entire life and runs a florist shop in Raleigh where about 60% of her business is weddings.  She does over 120 weddings per year, and she employs 10-20 people at a time depending on the season. Actually, Cydney and her husband Warren are both third-generation florists.

On this episode, Cydney talks about her life growing up with her dad and grandma as florists, what it was like in the early days of starting her business, trends in the wedding industry, making your wedding personal to you, and what she thinks about competition.

Jenna Parks is the co-owner of Southern Bride and Groom Magazine of the Triangle. Jenna’s mom Donna started the magazine back in 1986, and Jenna came on board in 2010 to advance it into the  digital age.

This episode is with the one and only Joe Bunn from Bunn DJ Company of Raleigh. Joe has been DJing for over 30 years and has built his business up so he now has 15 DJs working with him in Raleigh, plus three other divisions, in Charlotte, Charleston, and Richmond, with multiple DJs at each of those locations  The company has over 1,100 5-star reviews on Wedding Wire.