Wrapping up 2020 and Looking into 2021 with Katherine Frost
By Bustld Pro Team | Dec 29 2020
There’s still a lot of unknowns for couples when it comes to weddings in 2021 but at least they have the lessons we learned in 2020 and new trends to look forward to. To chat through some of those lessons learned and things that engaged couples can be on the lookout for in 2021, we talked with wedding expert, Katherine Frost.
Bustld: How did you get started in the wedding industry? How did your business come to be?
Katherine: I actually started working for a destination management company, so I worked a lot with the corporate traffic that would come into Denver doing events as large as 3000 people and I also did some work all the way up into some of our mountain towns. And so, it was really fun but there was something missing, that personal connection that I was really getting with clients and so, I really wanted to get into the wedding industry. And so, I started working with couples and their families and bringing those dream weddings to reality. So it was a dream come true for me too.
Bustld: Why particularly weddings?
Katherine: You know, I really liked working in our mountain towns in Colorado, I loved working in Vail and Beaver Creek, and they seem to lend themselves more to the wedding clients anyways instead of corporate. Who wants the beautiful backdrop for an awards dinner when you can do it for a wedding! I just loved all the different scenes I was able to use versus corporate in a ballroom.
Bustld:What was your experience for 2020 as it came to weddings.
Katherine: Well, now that I’ve moved more to a tech platform and supporting wedding planners and people planning their own events, I got to watch 2020 from a distance. I was supposed to have some events earlier in the year and they kept being pushed back and, eventually, were canceled and I was just like, “Wow, this year has been so crazy.” But we’re really looking forward to 2021 for everybody. I think that it’s going to be a lot of last minute planning which will be a new challenge for all of our planners out there but we’ll all be able to get those dream venues that we never thought we could get or usually have to wait a year and a half, two, maybe even three years to get. So I think it’s going to be a fun, unique challenge for 2021.
Bustld: Is there anything that you’ve seen as some key lessons four couples as they’re planning?
Katherine: I think if you fall in love with something, whether it’s a dress, or shoes, or anything, I think now is the time to start jumping on those things. Before, I feel like we were able to kind of wait and keep it up on our Pinterest pages, and send it to everybody and be like “what do you think?”. I think, now, if you fall in love with something instantly, you just need to book it, or you need to buy it. It needs to be one of those more instant things now because we don’t know when it’s going to come back or how long it’s going to take to get.
Bustld: We’ve been talking a lot about elopements, and micro-weddings, and small weddings; what do you think on all of these, are they here to stay, are they a trend that we’ll see into 2021 and beyond?
Katherine: I think we will see this trend continue for 2021 and, probably, into 2022. Since there were so many weddings pushed back from 2020 hoping to happen in 2021 at some point, you know, we have almost four million people now that are engaged couples trying to fight for those same wedding spots. So, that’s why I’m really kind of encouraging more of the elopements. But now is the time that you can have that excuse, right, you can have the “Oh, Corona just happened, we needed to downsize everything”. So, you don’t have to have the massive wedding that some of these families want for the couples.
Bustld: So, what else do you think we’ll see in 2021 as far as wedding trends?
Katherine: I actually think we’re going to see the big shift of people staying more at home. So, I feel like for the last five or six years, a lot of people were going for the destination weddings, we had to all travel if we were bridesmaids or groomsmen. It was a lot of stress for those wedding parties and for the families to be traveling that much. But I think people are going to start staying at home more. We’ve already been at home, I know that people want to start traveling again but with all of the uncertainties still with traveling, with the vaccine, do we have to have it to travel, do we not, I think a lot of people are going to start staying more in their own states or just a little bit closer to home than they were before.
Bustld: How do you think couples are going to plan differently in 2021 besides rushing to buy all the things that they want quickly?
Katherine: I think that there’s going to have to be some way to streamline everything. Since they will be planning more last-minute, they’re going to be gathering all these items, they’re going to need to find apps, or software items like ORO to be able to streamline that whole process, we’re going to need to be able to organize everything better than we did before.
Bustld: How can they use tech platforms like yours to do that, to keep themselves organized more instantly?
Katherine: So there are different platforms out there, it kind of depends on what everybody is looking for and what their needs are, but with ORO, you’re able to track your budget which is always really important for everybody. You’re able to send that to mom and dad and be like, hey, this is where we’re at with all of our different budgets, this is when everything is due, and everyone is able to see it all from their app, they’re able to see it online, so it just keeps everybody in that internet realm and staying organized that way.
Bustld: What about the couples who legally got married this year, do you think they’ll plan to do a second party next year?
Katherine: A lot of my sister’s friends did end up getting married and so, now, they’re having the big receptions in the locations that they wanted next year. So, it’s nice that maybe we won’t have to sit through the hour, hour and a half ceremony anymore and we’ll just get to the fun part, right. Where’s the open bar?
Bustld: So what kind of trends do you think we’ll see at these receptions?
Katherine: I think we’re going to see people going more theme-y than they ever have before. I think we’re going to see more of, like, these are the signature cocktails because we’ve now had almost a year to be able to figure out what that mixed cocktail is that we all really like. We’re going to have more dance parties and I think people are going to be, maybe, joking about the masks because, hopefully, by the time we can start seeing these weddings come online again, we won’t have to be wearing these while we’re at social events anymore but even if we do, I think people are going to start encouraging people to decorate them. I think people are going to start adding a little bit more fun instead of keeping it kind of formal for the weddings.
Bustld: Tell us your number one lesson for 2020 couples and the things you’re most excited about for 2021 weddings.
Katherine: I am most excited to see how these last-minute weddings come together and what they’re able to accomplish with their budgets or with their locations and the caterers that they’re able to snag in those last month or two right before the wedding. And, you know, I think, lessons learned, I think we are no longer going to be waiting, playing the waiting game with everything. I’m really excited that couples are going to have to start taking more charge and they’re going to have to start booking things and going for it and really just pulling the trigger on what they really want out of their weddings. And so, I’m excited to see that moving forward into 2021.
About Our Guest
Katherine has spent more than 10 years as a luxury and premiere event planner based in Denver. After noticing technology was lacking to help event professionals, Katherine developed and launched ORO, an all-in-one platform to plan and manage events.
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https://bustld.com/articles/wrapping-up-2020-and-looking-into-2021-with-katherine-frost
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