Meet Abby Gallagher of Blue Orchid Events & Design in Fort Lauderdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Abby Gallagher.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Abby. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
For 5 years I worked in the luxury yachting industry, cruising the world, managing the interior of multi-million dollar private yachts. This included the design and service of their events, dinner parties and theme nights… even breakfasts had a theme! About 1.5 years ago, I finally decided that it was time to go land-based. That’s when I launched Blue Orchid Events & Design. At this point, I had a passion for event planning and a keen eye for detail and high standards for customer service. Even though our clients on board the yachts were extremely high end, luxuriously over the top, and commonly modern, I have a real affinity for rustic, botanical vibes and having a good a good laugh with my clients during the design and planning. This company has attracted the most wonderful brides, and each and every one of them has been a not only a blast to work for but I have really enjoyed the challenge and artistic uniqueness behind each event. Since only my last 1.5 years of being in business, I have been published by multiple wedding blogs and printed magazines. This year I will be branching out to British publications and hope to eventually launch a design studio in the heart of Fort Lauderdale for brides and vendors to meet. Cheers to many more happy years to come!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Honestly, the biggest struggle of launching a business has been purely financial.

Learning the business, tricks of the trade, and growing the business simply took perseverance and passion. However, there were multiple points where I began doubting the sporadic income. I know a lot of business owners have to pick up 2nd jobs, which I ended up having to do. When you have a side hustle to your hustle, you look forward to any chance you can get just to take a breather.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Blue Orchid Events & Design story. Tell us more about the business.
Blue Orchid Events & Design plans, designs, and coordinates weddings and events in Southeast Florida.

We offer full planning packages, partial planning, and day-of coordination. Full planning entails budget assessment, venue bookings, contract reviews, and doing all of the legwork for booking a multitude of vendors specialized to your budget and design needs. Partial planning is when the bride does half the work, and we do half of the work. Day-Of Coordination is our most popular package, basically meaning that people book us to manage their events after they plan the entire thing. We come in about month beforehand, tour the site, study the contracts, spreadsheets, design details, layouts, lists, and customize a master timeline to the day. We are the first ones to arrive and the last ones to leave during the day of an event, sometimes clocking in up to 17 hour days.

I think what really separates us from others, is that we are really proactive, happy people. I know plenty of planners that kind of sit back and direct. I direct the wedding of course but am not afraid to get my hands dirty and sweat it out the day-of. If something needs to be done ASAP, you’ll see me busting butt getting it done myself with a smile on my face and boosting the morale of my team and other vendors alike.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
A huge amount. For example, when I was just starting to do research on the company I would simply inquire about different programs and software. I ran into an awesome startup company called Honeybook. I went on a conference call with a girl from San Francisco, that just happened to know about a networking group for wedding professionals that had a chapter in my area. I decided to check out one of Rising Tide Societies meeting and ended up diving into a world of connections and information that I would have never discovered on my own. I really owe a lot of my success to that group and that random lucky phone call that day.

Pricing:

• Full Planning Package: $4500
• Partial Planning Package: $3000
• Day-Of Coordination: $1200

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blue-orchid-events.com
• Phone: (248) 840-4204
• Email: blueorchided@gmail.com
• Instagram: #blueorchideventdesign
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blueorchideventdesign/

Image Credit:
Sweet Memories Photography
Andrea Harborne Photography
Lara Photography
Revery Weddings
Tracey-Ann Jarrett Photonotions
Zavier D’Angelo

Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.