Friendor Friday – Delight Events with Ashley Minor
After a couple weeks off, I’m back with another Friendor Friday featuring some of my favorite local wedding vendors! This week we’re featuring Ashley Minor, owner and lead planner at Delight Events. Delight is a party and wedding planning company based out of Columbia, MO. Read on to find out more about why Ashley loves what she does!
About Ashley
I’m Ashley, the owner and chaos coordinator at Delight! We are a full service wedding & event planning firm based in Columbia, servicing our entire beautiful state. At Delight, we specialize in one thing in particular: making events fun and stress free. Whether that entails a perfectly choreographed dance on a custom-designed dance floor, an expertly curated dining experience for guests, or an out of this world proposal… We make it happen! Our goal is create delightful occasions that leave our clients with a full heart and amazing memories to last a lifetime!
In the wedding space, we offer Final Stages Planning, Design, and Full Service Planning packages along with some a la carte options so we can best serve our clientele. We really strive to act as personal concierge to our clients because wedding planning is STRESSFUL! No one needs to carry it alone! Outside of Delight, I’m a wife to my hunk of a husband, Scott, a step-momma to three awesome kiddos, and a soon to be momma to my first (and only) baby boy! You’d think that we run a zoo with a dog, two cats, some fish, a snail, and I am seriously considering adding some chickens to the mix and would love to live on a full fledged farm someday! I’m equal parts outdoorsy/athletic and binge watch a movie under fluffy blankets/girly.
What made you want to start your business?
Growing up I was always the go-to party planning girl. From school dances to church functions to social events, I was always leading the pack. It was a natural step for me to start coordinating weddings after I finished a graduate level program for friends and family… that was almost 10 years ago! So, I’ve been in and around the industry in some way or another for the last 10 years.
It wasn’t until my cousin got engaged in 2018 and asked for my help in planning her wedding that I realized how much I REALLY love doing this. I’ve been an entrepreneur for the last 5 years with my husband and this was something that I could have as “my thing”. As a woman and a mother, it’s super important to me to be able to model what going after MY dreams really looks like. The creativity, organization, and level of communication that you have to have to succeed in this industry is really what drew me to take my “side hustle” full time in August 2019 and I haven’t looked back!
Celebrating with people as they step into a new chapter of their lives is such a privilege that I don’t take lightly. While planning a wedding is hard work, it is NOTHING compared to the hard work of marriage 24/7/365! haha! At the heart of Delight is celebration, yes! But more than that, it’s about celebrating two people who are in it for the long haul and are using their wedding day as a definitive moment in time to declare in front of their guests that this is more than just a party. That’s such a beautiful thing to me and I love being a part of it.
What are your favorite things about being a wedding vendor, in general?
The friendships that it’s brought into my life are amazing! The community of wedding vendors in Mid-MO is so supportive, encouraging, and insanely talented and creative. Nothing makes me more giddy on an event day than when vendors show up to do their thing. It’s so fun to watch it all come together!
What do you look forward to the most when meeting a potential client?
These days it’s honestly just getting to see people face to face! Haha! Quarantine made me a little crazy!
But, I most look forward to seeing a couples vibes… who they are, how they interact together, what makes them and their love story unique! Of course it’s fun to talk about all the little details and their overall vision of their wedding, but for me, it’s just fun to be in the presence of two people who are crazy about each other and looking forward to planning the rest of their lives together!
What is your specific process as it relates to planning and wedding days?
Is there a box for “All of the Above”? I really do think I have the best job in the entire world, so it’s really hard for me to choose ONE specific thing but if I have to, waking up on a wedding day there is so much excitement and anticipation for what’s going to happen. Event days are such a blur with all of the set up going on, making sure things go according to a timeline and plan, calming nerves, ensuring people eat a full meal (that’s my biggest piece of advice by the way!)… it’s just crazy! But that’s what I LOVE and thrive in!
If I had to choose, there’s three moments in a wedding day that are my absolute favorite…
- When a dad sees his little girl for the first time in her wedding dress. I will cry EVERY TIME with zero shame.
- When a couple sees each other for the first time going down the aisle. Again, you’ll see me tearing up.
- After all of the formalities of a wedding ceremony and reception are done, you can SEE the couple relax. That’s when you know it’s time to party!!!
What is your favorite service that you provide?
I feel like a wedding planner is equal parts chaos coordinator/friend/counselor… haha! Of course it’s my job to make sure that everything on a wedding day goes as close to “according to plan” as possible, but there’s also so much more to it in the months (or years) leading up to the big day.
Wedding planning can absolutely be stressful, so it’s my duty to take that stress off of a couple logistically but also emotionally. It’s not easy when a bride disagrees with their mom or vice versa! It can be difficult planning around life’s challenges, new jobs, illness of a family member, or just the thought of combining households! There’s nothing like knowing someone has your back, no matter what the outcome is and that’s really what I strive to do for my clients, who ALWAYS become my friends!
If you could plan the wedding for any couple, past or present, who would it be?
Oh my gosh… WHAT!!!!
Living: I definitely think that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s wedding would’ve been a Top 5 moment for sure. What a production and her dress was ALL THE HEART EYES!
Fictional: Jane and Raphael from Jane the Virgin… I would’ve made sure they didn’t end up arriving to their wedding on a public transit bus with Jane having to change in the back! haha!
Thanks so much for your passion and those heartfelt answers, Ashley! I’m so excited to see where your business takes you, and I can only hope that I get the pleasure of working with you more in the future! I can’t wait to see that baby boy!
You can check out more of Ashley’s work and services on her Facebook or Instagram page!
Special thanks to Courtney at Pretty Little Things for the use of her studio space!
Stay tuned for more from my Friendor Friday series! If you’re a wedding professional and would like to be featured, reach out to me through my website or by email at amandamusselmanphotography@gmail.com.
