Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Druckenbrodt.
Katie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My ‘professional’ passion for weddings began in 2011 when I was hired to work at the Houston Bridal Extravaganza. I loved everything wedding related and was hired from there to work in a bridal store. I worked as a bridal consultant while pursuing my business administration degree at The University of Houston. I took an entrepreneurship class there while working in bridal, and knew one day, I would have my own business in the wedding industry.
Once I finished my degree, I took a job in property management, but still found myself missing the wedding world. I was planning my own wedding and once that was finished, I caught myself planning resident functions, family birthday parties, graduation parties, and my manager always referred to me as ‘Ms. Wedding Planner.’
My first daughter, Cora, was born in December 2015 and was diagnosed with a very rare bone marrow failure disorder in March 2016. We basically lived in the hospital through her treatment and it was a very difficult time for us, as her condition was a very severe one. I needed something to look forward to and something to plan to keep positive for her and our family, so I put any downtime I had into planning her first birthday party. Planning her party had given us so much to look forward to when the days in the hospital were long. After her first birthday party, I had several mentors tell me that I needed to plan events professionally.
I had my second daughter, Anna (completely healthy) in October 2017, and in January 2018, I received a call from some good friends who asked if I would want to work from home doing their bookkeeping. They knew I had been working on basic things like making my business cards and my website. They said that I would be able to put more focus on starting my own business. In February 2018, I booked my first wedding and to date, I have ten events booked (not to mention I now have two daughters with birthdays to plan every year!)
I owe this success to people who knew what I should be doing even when I didn’t know it at that moment, my bosses who gave me the incredible opportunity to work from home and start a business I am truly passionate about, and my friends and family who have been nothing but supportive. A special thank you to my Aunt and Uncle. They have also started their wedding based business (Re-Spin Entertainment) from the ground up, and have helped me so much with their own experiences and advice.
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?
There were definitely challenges to get to this point and still some ahead of me that is to be expected. There are nights where I am up until 2 am searching for the perfect cake stand for a client, and then I am up an hour after that because I have two toddlers. Working and creating a business with a family is not easy, but it is incredibly rewarding.
Coordinate with Katie – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Coordinate with Katie is a wedding and event planning business that was born out of my love for events and my extreme attention to detail. I love making lists and lists for my lists. I love thinking about every detail. I love researching and finding vendors and pieces that make an idea come together.
What I love the most is knowing that my client is happy and that they don’t know about 90% of the things I did behind the scenes to make it all come together. They just show up and know that everything has been taken care of, and they can enjoy their event. My business is not centered on getting through an event. It is based on making the process and the event itself as enjoyable as possible.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
In one of my first large events as an official business, I looked at my husband who was helping out and said “I can see us doing this for a long time” and he agreed. There is a point in every event where I am always thankful that this is my job.
Contact Info:
- Website: coordinatewithkatie.com
- Phone: 281.210.4747
- Email: coordinatewithkatie@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coordinatewithkatie/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coordinatewithkatie/
Image Credit:
(Cake with Mask Picture) Credit Love You Studios
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