NC PANDEMIC PROFILE: Meagan Culkin

MEAGAN CULKIN (Magnolia Collective)

Owner, Lead Planner & Baker

My name's Megan Culkin. I'm the owner of Magnolia Collective. We're a wedding planning and design firm based in eastern North Carolina. We serve primarily North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia markets.

How did you first felt the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on your business? It was a little weird for me, personally, because a lot of our couples tend to be healthcare workers, so I felt like my couples were coming to me early on before the industry was noticing that it was going to affect us. It felt kind of like a Chicken Little the sky is falling scenario.

I was on the way to the Triangle NACE gala last year when one of my brides called to say we've got to reschedule our wedding and I was like, we can't do that right now and that's not something anybody it does. I understand that you're freaked out, but I am going to an event so let's talk about this tomorrow. Tomorrow came and we lost $36,000 in corporate sales. COVID had hit California and so then it was, okay it's coming.

I remember the next day going to a site visit with a rental partner, and we both showed up separately and just sat in our cars. I rolled down my window and asked her: are you okay? and she says, no. Yeah, me neither. And that was just kind of the top of the roller coaster.

Our corporate is very different than weddings. Weddings, they are happy to reschedule; it is their most important day, so they're going to find a way to reschedule. Corporate: they have the revenue, and it was a literally: we're canceling this event. We might do it virtually later; we might never do it again. I don’t know. But we’re canceling.

The way that our contracts are written we’re hourly-based, so they paid out any planning that we had done up to that point, but anything beyond that was a loss. We had these massive events for universities and local venues - things that were really going to be very impactful for that side of our business - and they said: we can't move anything forward. We're really sorry, but we're pulling the plug. It was the largest amount of money I've ever lost in a single day. Ever.

Corporate event losses did kind of soften the blow for weddings in terms of revenue because the wedding cancellations would be two thousand dollars here, two thousand dollars there and that it obviously added up, but we never had twenty brides calling in one day to cancel like we had corporate clients.

On average, approximately how many events did Magnolia Collective coordinate in 2019? In 2019, we did about 32 weddings, and about 15-18 corporate events.

What did 2020 look like for you? In 2020, we were supposed to have 43 weddings and - corporate tends to come to us on a shorter timeline - but in quarter one [of 2020] we had already booked 15 corporate events, so we would have likely ended the year with at least double that number because that side of our business was really growing. 

Instead, no corporate happened for us [in 2020] and, of our 43 weddings, we actually did 18 in some capacity. Some of those weddings were only ten people and they will do something bigger next year but there were only 18 days that we showed up at a wedding in 2020.

Initially, all of our weddings rescheduled, but two of those reschedules ultimately ended up canceling.

One of the frustrating things about last year was that we would have a consultation with a couple, but they were fearful to book [because of COVID].

How does 2021 look for Magnolia Collective so far? Busy. We have 45 weddings right now. 25 of those are new and 20, maybe 19, are postponements from last year. And we’re getting five inquiries a week with most of those are converting.

I haven't had any corporate come back yet. We will get inquiries for a random balloon installation or something, but so many people are working from home; [companies] are maybe doing mailed Christmas bonuses, or they mailed gift boxes; conferences are virtual and staying virtual, and people are kind of preferring that. There's not the same need to spend the money for the coordination at this point.

I think we’ll replace whatever corporate we lost eventually, but we may only do weddings for a while. Then, when corporate comes back, we’ll accommodate those events, too.

Magnolia Collective has several team members; are they contract or employees? And were you able to keep them onboard during the last year? They're all contract. It wasn’t that I had to furlough people or lay people off, I just couldn't give them work. So many of our girls are weekend warriors. Even if they went to school for hospitality management, they either had another job and we're supplementing with us. So, that additional money went away for them. The way that we staffed all of our events last year was need based; the girls who needed the income were the ones on the team versus the ones who had secure salaries elsewhere.

Two team members were supposed to go full-time in April of 2020 but they didn’t. They have since gone on to either work on their own or to do other things. They were planning to be with us full-time, but the vast majority of what we did last year I had to do on my own because of cost. People are paying so much less for things.

Now, we’re gearing up again to probably hire a full-time girl, but she'll be on the admin side. The nature of things and all the logistics of juggling 50 events; I need more hands in the office.

What adjustments did you make to your business practices as a result of all COVID-19 restrictions? I’ve spent the vast majority of my life in my car, driving to consultations and meetings and all the rest of it. I still do that some now, but it is so much more normal for people to do Zoom so I've integrated Zoom meetings into my business practices. That said, if I need to go to a venue, then we will go to a venue. If I need to go to the rental meeting, then we will go to a rental meeting. However, if all we need to have is a thirty-minute conversation, then it is a better use of our time to do that on Zoom rather than me drive an hour to you, meet for thirty minutes and drive an hour back. And it makes more sense and it's easier for people to jump on a quick call in-between their other meetings then it was for them to take a long lunch from the office.

I think that also helps me compartmentalize my schedule a little bit more, too. For example, today's a Raleigh day for me so I am all over the place. But not every day is like that. Monday and Tuesday, I was on Zoom. Tomorrow, I’ll be on the road again. Friday, I'll be back on Zoom.

Also, when we were really in the middle of COVID, virtual meetings were a safety thing. There was no need for us to put anybody else at risk by meeting in-person. When we did start to be able to do weddings, I was getting tested every week but I didn't want to expose that weekend's bride to anything because I went to coffee or met with someone somewhere that was overcrowded.

For the weddings that Magnolia Collective is coordinating, are you requiring or suggesting that people test, provide test results, sign waivers or do temperature checks at an event?

We take the venue's lead; however, we will provide thermometers if, for example, they say ‘we wanted to do this, but the venue doesn't do it’, then we are quick to say we've got thermometers and were happy to put somebody at the door to take care of that.

On the private residence side of things - because we do so many private residence weddings - we act as if we’re the venue that follows all the rules. We would recommend that everybody have health screenings; we will have temperature checks; masks and social distancing. When it's a private residence, we are the next liable professional on-site and we have to make sure that everybody is following the rules and best practices.

Are you anticipating that masks will be around for events until the end of 2021? I think masks are going to be around till at least mid-2022.

I had a conversation with one of our two couples who ultimately decided to cancel and the comment was made that they were gonna wait until October/November 2021 or maybe early 2022 [to have their wedding] so that they don't have to wear masks. I told them, honestly, I really don't think that that you’ll be mask-less by then because we're going to have to go through a season of people being vaccinated and we don't know yet if we’ll need to get vaccinated every year. Is this going to be like the flu? Is it going to be that there's a COVID season? We don’t know.

Plus, we, as an industry, can't afford to do this again and so everyone's going to proceed with caution. I think it’s more realistic to plan to get married in two years if you want to set your sights on no mask-wearing at events. [And, it’s not just at events,] I think we're gonna have to wear masks at the grocery store for a while, too.

What has been the most challenging part of being in the events industry in the last year during COVID-19? I think it's the fact that I'm a planner and I didn't have a road map for what to do. When people would call me, whether they were couples or my staff or vendor friends, I didn't have an answer for them and I always have an answer for them. It might be an answer they don't want to hear but [not having an answer] was the most disconcerting thing for me. I've been in the industry for 15 years, and have had my business for 10 years. I'm very comfortable with: What do you do in a hurricane? what do you do in a snowstorm? We’ve had all of those natural disasters and let me help you through it, right? It was hard to admit that I didn't know. I had to research, make a plan and go about it that way so I could be quick to help people when they called.

Do you feel like the live events industry got the direction and support from local leaders that was necessary? No. No, across the board. Also, I think it was hard because while we primarily work in North Carolina, we work in other states, too. I have to do my job very differently in North Carolina versus Virginia versus South Carolina and when a mandate goes out, I'm looking at a 3 state spread. What does this mean for next weekend's couple? Nothing was consistent, and nobody knew what they didn't know.

It was really, really difficult to not shut down or to have the headspace to say I don't know. Guys, I don't know. I'll try my best to figure it out for you but there was never a guarantee that I would be able to come back with a concrete answer because the rules would change a week later. I think that was really hard and also so polarizing. For example, if you go into a venue that is not enforcing the rules: am I the bad guy? My favorite weddings to work - it doesn't matter what their budget is - it matters who’s in their vendor line up. If we're all on the same team, then that day is going to be great. I felt like a lot of the time we [vendors] weren't all on the same team and that was really hard.  

Do smaller weddings translate to smaller budgets?  I just had this conversation with a couple in Virginia. They downgraded their event - downsized from a 150-person wedding to a 60-person wedding, and the bride commented that she thought they would save all this money but they’re not. And that’s because she still needs to have – realistically - 4-6 people at a table that [pre-pandemic] would seat 8 or she needs to have areas for people to space out and socially distance. Then, there’s the plexiglass guards for the bar; some venues have those in-house but some don’t and if they're required, then that's an added expense, too. In catering, going from buffet to a full plated dinner, or if they’d ordered a a charcuterie display and you can't have that anymore, now you have to have passed appetizers. That’s around a $5-8/person difference in cost of food. It adds up really quickly.

On the one hand, it's easier to show people that you can still have a very beautiful wedding when it's small but at the same time, it's almost forcing people to have a nicer wedding than they planned because it's like: sorry, you've got to have a plated dinner; sorry, you've got to have passed appetizers but, if they didn't budget $10-18,000 for food, then they’re like what are you talking about?!

Are you finding anybody postponing or canceling because they can't afford a wedding anymore? No. Most are trying to wait it out. We have had a lot that have needed to pause on their planning. I had one couple ask to pause their payments because last year they were both furloughed and didn’t know when they were going to be having their wedding, and they didn’t want to cut checks for thousands of dollars before their employers told them they could come back to work. I had that conversation a couple of times and, of course, we work with them because I was working with a catering company doing their marketing and PR for weddings and I got laid off, too. I thought I was going to have an additional revenue stream that now I don't have; I understood.

The thing is, with cancellations, we’ve really tried to remind everyone that the money is gone – non-refundable - so it’s better to reschedule. Postpone, that's fine. Both of our weddings that totally canceled said they’d call when they decide to do something, and I told them they shouldn't be canceling because you're going to have to pay a deposit again. If you know that this is the team you want to work with, then let’s just pause your contract.

Is Magnolia Collective charging any sort of rescheduling fee? The first time, we did not. But, how we’re doing it moving forward is: it’s as if they bought a 5-hour block of our time, which is an a $300 la carte item. I’m not charging them based on reserving a new date. I'm charging them because I'm the one emailing all of these people and rescheduling all of these people so I’m charging them for work and time. Whereas I know other vendors are having to do it because they saved the date, and now you're saving another date, and that’s totally justifiable, too. But because we have other planners on the team - unless they're trying to move from highly sought-after date to another highly sought-after date - most of the time, we have enough people to cover the new date. Plus, their venue is now saying that the couple has to move to a Friday or Sunday, and those are easier days for us.

How has your business improved during this time and in what way? I think my systems have tightened up. People always say that planners fill different buckets. They’re either a logistics planner or a creative planner or a community planner. Logistics is my last thing. I am courage under fire – I was a stage manager in theater - I'm in the moment, this needs to happen. If you tell me to plan out 85 things that could go wrong, then I'm like: can somebody else do that because that's going to be hours of my life that I'm not gonna get back. I've done this for a really long time and I know we're gonna be able to figure it out, whereas, the creative side: the people side - that's my wheelhouse.

However, for a year, I didn't get to do the creative side. I only had to do the side I didn't love: the logistics and I couldn't pay my girls to do all of the things that I don't like to do in the way that I often would. Hey, I have an idea; but I think it would run better if we do this – can you create something for me? That's very much how it always worked and instead, now all that’s got to be me.

I think that everybody - even at the month of coordination level of service - everyone's just going to need a little bit more hand-holding for a while. They know they need a planner now so that's an easier sell, but maybe they can't afford a larger package so we’ve created something for them on the front end to help. The extra hand-holding is something I've been a lot more mindful of because I want them to walk into the day ready to celebrate and enjoy instead of being like, ‘okay let's get this over with’.

What’s one way that you think the industry will improve as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?  I think in the same way that the recession hit and two years later the wedding industry exploded with things [ideas] we had never seen before and people are ready to party. People had time to recognize what they had been without. I think that we're going to see that again.

I think that on our side, as a vendor, we'll have the opportunity to create again and to do the fun things. I think that the people who were maybe more burned out or had been working all the time, they will have a revived energy coming back. I'm excited for that. Everybody got a forced reset; an industry-wide slowdown that no one ever takes.

I’ve seen your beautiful cookies on social media. Talk to me about that project and how that grew in the last year during COVID. Was it an intentional pivot? I was a full-time baker for a college. I baked for a catering company. I helped open a restaurant as a baker so for 5 solid years all I did was bake all day long. I would be there Monday through Friday and would bake whatever they needed for the weekend so that I could go and do weddings on the weekend. So, I really entered the wedding industry as a baker but as things got busier for me with weddings, I stopped doing cakes because it bothered me to drop off a cake at ten o'clock in the morning and it didn’t get cut until six o'clock at night. I would still do some baking here and there for past clients or family, but I didn't really have time. Flash forward to this past year, I was expressing to my dad – who's a chef but now more in restaurants, catering but does restaurant rehabilitation – that it was hard for me because I couldn't go bartend somewhere when I needed to pick up some extra money in a slow season because bars were also closed, and restaurants were not doing things. He looked at me and said ‘yeah, it's too bad that you don't have this completely unused skill set that you literally had a career in’.

I had a lot of experience in it. I was working in commercial kitchens I wasn't just baking out of the house.  I came home from my visit with my dad and was with a group of friends that I'd grown up with and mentioned that he said I should bake cookies or something and they freaked out. It was maybe like two weeks before Halloween [2020] at that time, so I posted [on social media] that I was going to be doing some [baked] stuff again and we sold 400 cookies around Halloween, 600 at Thanksgiving and 2,000 at Christmas.

I always said one of the reasons I stopped baking all of the time was that you need to bake a lot of cupcakes to keep the lights on and it is just so much easier for me to work a 15-hour wedding day and have that pay out versus every day is a 15-hour day and I'm walking away breaking even. But when all I could do was bake, it was paying our rent and it was paying the team that I needed to have to pack and ship. Now, a lot of our new couples are asking us to do cookie favors or dog treats for people or ‘will you be my bridesmaid’ cookies.

I would have always [baked] if people had asked me but I wasn't forced to put it out there. Now, one of the girls who's coming back to our team after being gone for five years, she's also a baker and the reason she's coming back is so that when we're in our busiest [wedding] season we can still always offer the baking side of things. At the time, when I first started, I had the idea to do both [planning + baking], and then thought it was too hard to do cakes and didn’t really look at what else we could do. [The cookies were] a cool pivot; it’s been it's been a good surprise.

Finally, what is one thing that you would like the general public to know about the events industry? I think, collectively, what's been nice is how couples now understand the importance of [planners] being there or parents of those couples now understand the importance of us being there. I was talking to bride this afternoon and she was saying how it's a generational thing and that her dad doesn't understand the importance of having a planner and I told her that before COVID I don't think my dad knew what I did. I think that he thought that I just planned parties but now he knows what I do, and he recognizes that my job is hard. My hope is that there will be a bit more respect for all of the hats that that we [planners] naturally have to wear and an appreciation for these celebrations being more than just another party that they have to go but one they'll get to go to now. In the last year, they've been watching weddings on Zoom and they've missed a lot, so I hope that there will be a revived sense of ‘we're so happy to be here and we're so grateful that you helped make this happen’.