Inspiring Conversations with Sofi Melvin of Philosofi Celebrations

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sofi Melvin.

Hi Sofi, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in a St. Louis suburb with an entrepreneurial spirit and a love of planning birthday parties. After graduating high school, I moved to Colorado to attend the University of Northern Colorado where I fell in love with higher education and college recruitment. After working as a student ambassador and orientation leader throughout my college career, I was offered a full-time job as a college admission counselor to recruit students within the state and across the Midwest. My passion for events grew as I planned and orchestrated travel, campus visits, and recruitment events.

Time went on and my boyfriend at the time and I decided that we wanted to live closer to family (aka less than 16 hours away) and eventually landed on Kansas City. As much as I loved college recruitment, I couldn’t see myself working at a university that wasn’t my alma mater. I took about fifteen different aptitude tests and all of them included one specific job- wedding/event planner.

Fast forward through a proposal, the start of a pandemic, and a move to KC; I was working remotely for UNC while spending all of my free time learning everything I could about the wedding industry. I was listening to podcasts, attending summits, and working through a certification course. In July of 2020, I left my full-time job, and in September of 2020 Philosofi Celebrations officially launched.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Starting a business in the middle of a pandemic definitely wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done. Between events not happening to confusion around what truly is safe to three years of engaged couples trying to get married in the same year, the wedding industry has gone through a lot lately. I’m lucky enough to have an incredible support system that will never let me give up on myself.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Philosofi Celebrations is a wedding planning company that helps big-hearted couples plan and manage personal and intentional weddings so that they can focus on what truly matters- their love story and the people who got them there. Our main goal is to make sure that our couples can spend their time and energy on the people they love rather than the logistics of their wedding day. I take the most pride in knowing that everything we do goes back to ensuring that the couples we interact with feel loved, supported, and taken care of during a time of life that can honestly be quite stressful.

We offer full-service wedding planning, partial wedding planning, and wedding management (some folks call this day-of coordination), and we are available for other wedding and non-wedding event planning services by request.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I think COVID impacted weddings in quite a few ways that will have lasting impacts. When it comes to the size of weddings, I think micro weddings will stay in the mainstream wedding world- couples will take a typical 100-person wedding budget and focus it in on the 20 closest people in their lives to create more intentional and elaborate experiences. I also predict that there will be more shorter engagements in the coming years. We’ve learned that life can be completely flipped upside down in an instant, and I think many couples won’t want to wait more than a year to get married once they’ve finally made that decision. Lastly, I think (and hope) that the wedding industry continues to focus on diversity and inclusion. Things are getting better every year, but we still have a lot of work to do to ensure ALL couples feel loved and celebrated on their wedding planning journey.

Pricing:

• Full-Service Wedding Planning is 4200.
• Wedding Management (sometimes called Day-of Coordination) is 1200.
• Partial Wedding Planning is 2400.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: philosoficelebrations.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/philosofi.celebrations
• Facebook: facebook.com/philosofi.celebrations
• Other: theaisleguide.com/pro/philosofi-celebrations

Image Credits
Jana Marie Photography E. Golden Moments Photography