Wedding Planner Profile: Mad Bash Group
Updated June 2023 to add that Lynzie sold Pop Up Chapel in 2023 and now manages Mad Bash across the globe from Australia.
PHOTO BY AMRITA SINGH PHOTOGRAPHY
There’s multi-talented and then there’s my friend Lynzie Kent.
If you’re in the wedding industry —or searching bright and bold wedding decor on Pinterest— chances are you’ve seen the amazing work of her and her team.
Lynzie is so creative and talented, I’d run out of breath listing her many resume entries. To sum it up, she’s a powerhouse triple-threat and one hell of a creative entrepreneur.
You might even recognize her from TV, host of Post My Party and Crazy Beautiful Weddings (on Makeful) or most recently on her Dragon’s Den pitch. The dragons chose not to invest in Lynzie’s latest business, The Pop-Up Chapel Co., but it continues to thrive and grow.
I admire her for her work, and especially her honesty and fearless personality —which you can get a taste of on her podcast.
Read more in her interview below:
What was your career path leading up to launching your first business, Love By Lynzie?
LK: I came into the event industry through music. From the age of 16 I sang lead for event bands that did weddings, resorts, casinos, corporate events and more. I was exposed to the inner workings of events from a young age and became organically passionate about what created a great party. After working for an entertainment company where I had the chance to lead teams, manage live shows and coordinate small events, I began my own entertainment company in 2009 (Electric Blonde Entertainment). We created custom entertainment for corporate events and theme parks. From here, friends began asking me to contribute my knowledge to their weddings and events. I fell in love with the opportunity to meld leadership with visual creativity and to also create exceptional, unforgettable parties.
When did you launch, by the way?
Lk: I officially started Love by Lynzie in 2011 as a side hustle, and was able to go full time in 2013. In 2017, we started The Pop-Up Chapel Co. without even knowing it through LBL, as a fun little one off project that grew into a business of its own shortly after.
What do you love about wedding and event days?
LK: I'm very visually stimulated so I really love seeing the renderings of the design finally come to life filled with actual texture, shape and feeling. Watching the room become complete right before it's touched by guests is my favourite moment. It's so satisfying to build a vision from scratch. I love the camaraderie between the vendors —we're all real lone rangers in this industry so event days are a wonderful moment to create relationships, share jokes, vent about the industry and collaborate in really meaningful moments. On wedding days specifically, I also love bringing my couples into the room for the first time. It's so exciting to watch their faces and eyes light up when they see the space.
Why do you feel couples need planning or coordination?
LK: A couple will likely plan one wedding in their lifetime. We do it every weekend and at this point. Our team has successfully helped hundreds of clients execute their wedding day. We know what makes an excellent party, we know when a quote is strange or overpriced, we know what flowers are in season and which rental companies have which items for your preferred aesthetic. A planner above all will save you hours of research time and hundreds of headaches as we are able to zoom in on what a couple needs immediately, rather than scouring google for it. And if we don't, then we do the scouring for you. When you need your teeth cleaned, you go to an expert —a Dentist. When you plan your wedding, which you are likely going to invest thousands of dollars into, you need to go to the experts as well and protect your investment. In the absolute least, couples need a coordinator for the final weeks leading up to the wedding and on the day of the wedding, unless they'd like to spend 8 hours on their wedding day directing vendors and answering questions, which I'm betting they don't.
Do you have a specialty?
LK: While we're comfortable and knowledgeable enough to execute a plethora of styles, LBL is known for vibrant colour schemes, bold and funky aesthetics, and custom created decor. We love working with our in house graphic designers and fabricators to build pieces for weddings that have never been seen before and that are inspired by quirky tidbits from our couples love stories. I'd say in Toronto and Muskoka, we are the go to team for creative and stylish couples who want to design a wedding that is left of centre. For corporate and branded events, we absolutely specialize in design that is socially shareable. From full scale custom branded activations to conference stage backdrops, we want to create installations that are visually exciting and encourage attendees to put it on the 'gram. On The Pop-Up Chapel side of things, we are the Canadian leaders in the micro elopement marketplace and continue to speak on the emergence, sustainability, affordability and inclusivity of pop-up weddings.
How did you go about building your team? What has that been like?
LK: I brought on my first employee in 2014 and after that it was nearly one fulltime employee added per year. Almost all of my team members began as interns and when I found one whose work ethic, creative style and communication style I loved, I tried to hold on and never let go. At the beginning of the pandemic we were a thriving team of 10. As the pandemic wore on, I lost people either because I had to or because they chose to leave the tumultuous industry in search of something else. Currently, we are a team of 5 operating on bare bones. It's a challenge to build a team. Finding good people, training them and retaining them is hard work. We're so lean right now that it's often hard for me to wear the hiring hat and do the other parts of my job too. For the foreseeable future, the LBL team will remain lean but the PUC team is growing and I anticipate hiring again this spring.
How did you incorporate more design services in to your business?
LK: For me, creativity is what drew me to this industry in the first place, so it's so important to me to keep our services design-focused. That has always been one of the main threads in all my strategic business decision making. As we grew, I realized so many skills that we used in weddings could be adjusted and appropriate for corporate events, brand activations, content creations, art direction, graphic design and more. We could really become a creative "agency" rather than just event planners. As we've discovered this, we've defined and processed new services and built these out, offering them first to our most valued clients. In fact, over this year, you'll see some massive changes at LBL (including maybe even a rebrand) where these extended design services will take an even greater front seat in our offerings.
What has been the bright side of COVID and how it effected weddings, or is there any lessons learned that you would like to share after two strange years?
LK: The biggest lesson I learned through COVID and my business was that no matter how hard I tried, I was never going to please everyone. There were some incredibly hard decisions that I had to make during the past two years and they didn't always align with the needs of my team or clients. It has been excruciating dealing with conflicts but I've learned that you have to stay true to the health of the business. While in some cases I could have caved and given in to what someone else wanted or needed, decisions like that would mean that my business would not potentially be still standing and thriving today. I also learned that despite the ever changing world of COVID, short games only lead to stress, burn out and lower profits. At the beginning of the pandemic we offered a lot of pivots that worked and brought in a ton of revenue but these were stop gap solutions that had us grinding. I've committed to playing a long strategic game for year over year growth despite the current surge and I know this is the better strategy for both financial health and our team's mental health.
What trends did you love this last season? Or for next year?
LK: Honestly, the only trend I loved last season was when people chose to get married no matter what. Thank god to those couples for keeping our industry alive.
Was there any education or training after you launched that has been invaluable?
LK: I'm a self taught entrepreneur who leads largely through intuition. However, I don't always get it right and I do often acknowledge when I don't know what I am doing and when I am limited. So, I strongly believe in investing in business coaches and consultants who can take an objective look at your business and help teach you new tools and strategies. I've done this several times in my career and have always benefited from these relationships, seeing internal growth and progress. I also recommend business style conferences like Create & Cultivate or The Atelier Collective. While sometimes you don't learn a ton, you always walk away with great new contacts and inspiration from leaders or entrepreneurs you want to emulate. Also for events, you can go to school sure, but nothing beats on the ground, hands on experience so get out there and shadow or intern. You won't learn how to put out fires until you are in one. And I've put out many.
What would you like new planners to know?
LK: I'd like to apologize to you on behalf of Instagram and Pinterest and Reality TV for sucking you into what you may have thought would be a glamorous and constantly creative career. If you have already committed to the role, I'm sure you have found out by now that it's 10% Emails, 10% social media planning, 10% driving around to venues that your client will inevitably not pick, 10% picking out a bride’s wedgie before she walks down the aisle and 60% lugging boxes of tealight candle holders. Welcome! This industry is hard work and a lot of it is manual and emotional labour that is often invisible. My 6'5", 220 pound jacked husband (praise the lord) even says that he could not hack it. And the constant changes to the industry mean that we don't even know WTF the event industry is going to look like long term. However, if you are still here, then you know that this job will prepare you to be the best problem solver on earth. You will understand the importance that celebration and love plays in our cultural fabric and you will become an architect of joy —your job will build the thing that people dream of doing ALL YEAR. You will hold someone's hand right before the happiest moment of their life or watch as humans make new connections that will change the world, or serve a fine dining meal to someone who has never had one, or witness the most epic Hora of all time. You will watch your ideas come to life in a massive way multiple times a year and sometimes you'll cry over that with joy. It's important work and only the toughest will make it past 40 in the industry. Godspeed.