Travel & Events · The JOAT Journal
My First Big Event: Unofficial, Unpaid & Already Doing the Work
I was doing the work long before I gave it a title.
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Before the invoice
I have been planning events for as long as I can remember.
My birthday parties were always a little over the top. I loved figuring out the theme, the details, what people would notice, and how to make the whole thing feel specific instead of copied from the same setup everyone had already seen.
Before I called it event planning, it was friends’ bachelorette parties, birthday dinners, children’s parties for family, and the person everyone called when they had an idea but no clue how to pull it together.
How it became real work
One party kept turning into the next one.
Nearly all of it grew through word of mouth. Someone saw a setup, heard an idea, or attended something I had helped create. Then another person asked whether I could do the same for them, except completely different.
That is still one of my favorite parts. I do not want every event to look like a package. I want it to look like the person, the reason everyone is gathering, and the amount they actually want to spend.
Swipe to see the full celebration
Bougie on a budget
The budget is not separate from the creative plan.
I love finding the version that feels expensive without spending money simply to say we spent it. Sometimes that means a custom detail. Sometimes it means a coupon, a different source, or knowing which item will not matter once the room is full.
It also means knowing where not to cut. The wrong rental, the wrong timeline, or a vendor nobody follows up with can cost more than the original decision.
What I actually handle
A beautiful idea still needs an owner.
The files have to print correctly. The vendors have to know where to go. The food has to arrive at the right time. The guest flow has to work. The weather needs a backup plan. The budget needs decisions, and every decision creates another follow-up.
I can design and execute many pieces directly. For the rest, I source the right specialists, brief them clearly, and coordinate the team. I do not pretend one person personally fabricates every item in a room. I make sure the right people are doing the right work and that the final result still feels cohesive.
What JOAT can own
Virtual Galentine’s
The client had the girls, the budget, and the vision. JOAT built the rest from a screen away.
A party does not have to be local for the planning to feel hands-on.
The brief was intimate: three friends, a clear budget, a credit card, and a handful of Pinterest references that captured the feeling. From there, I sourced the décor, tabletop pieces, drinks, sweets, favors, and finishing details, ordered everything, and turned the ideas into an actual setup plan.
Because I would not be in the room, execution had to be especially clear. The client received visual direction and a mockup showing where each piece belonged, what to group together, and how to style the space without having to make a new decision every five minutes. She still got the joy of hosting. She just did not have to build the entire plan herself.
Baby shower guidance
Sometimes you do not need a planner. You need a second brain.
This celebration for Collin James was the client’s vision and execution. JOAT’s role was guidance, reassurance, and helping good decisions stop becoming stressful ones.
The client was absolutely the creative lead here. She knew the world she wanted to build and did the work of bringing it to life. I got to be the person she could send the options to, talk through the choices with, and ask, “Am I missing something?” before the next decision became an unnecessary spiral.
That kind of support matters. If you have four beautiful napkins in front of you, the guests are not going to remember whether the winning option had a scalloped edge. They are going to remember how the room felt. The same goes for the venue, the food display, the layout, and every other choice that can quietly consume an entire week when you are planning alone.
As the event came together, I was also on-site to help with the final setup, fine-tune the details, troubleshoot anything that came up, and make sure everything felt polished before guests arrived. Sometimes all that is needed is another set of experienced eyes to notice the little things, handle the last-minute adjustments, and give the host the peace of mind to actually enjoy the moment instead of wondering what they forgot.
Sometimes the best service is not taking over. It is knowing when to confirm the client’s instinct, narrow the field, flag the one thing that really does matter, and tell them they are officially allowed to stop worrying.
Swipe through the complete Collin James baby-shower gallery
Lake Geneva bachelorette
The weekend needed to feel custom before anyone even unpacked.
Margs & Matrimony was built as a cohesive bachelorette story, not a pile of cute objects.
The Lake Geneva weekend pulled together the pieces guests actually remember: the arrival setup, custom tote, welcome details, bar styling, signage, cookies, and the small photo-ready moments that make a rented space feel intentional.
The goal was not to make every detail loud. It was to make every detail belong to the same bride, the same weekend, and the same experience from the first bag drop to the last margarita.
Check out all the events
Different levels of support. Same JOAT brain.
Browse the event stories by how the planning actually worked.