Expert Wedding & Event Planner Leah Weinberg of Color Pop Events sat down with us to discuss her philosophy, upcoming book, and how she manages to provide top-shelf services on the reg.

Our “Imperfect” Interview Audio Transcription:

To help make this Q&A more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who like to read rather than watch videos, we’d love to offer polished show notes. However, Beat Train is still a startup with limited resources. So we’re not there yet.

What we can offer now is these imperfect show notes via the Otter.ai service. The transcription is far from perfect. But hopefully it’s close enough – even with the errors – to give those who aren’t able or inclined to learn from audio interviews a way to participate.

Let’s Begin…

Beat Train 0:11
Welcome, Leah, we have Leah Weinberg from Colourpop events. How are you today? Leo?

Leah Weinberg 0:15
I’m good. Thanks for having me.

Beat Train 0:17
Oh, yes, yes. My pleasure. Um, so, you know, Leah is the founder of Colour Pop events, she’s been, you know, a kind of influence her on the scene for nearly, you know, what about 8 or 10  years or so now?

Leah Weinberg 0:34
almost eight years? Yeah,

Beat Train 0:35
Yeah. And now entering the world of being an author and take it to the next level. So I’d love to just kind of talk about the new book and get help get the word out for that. The wedding roller coaster like, you know, how long has that been in the works for you? What, what inspired you? Obviously, I know that you guys started this, in this in this business with your own planning your own wedding, and the rest was history from there. But why don’t you kind of share with us kind of where you’re coming from?

Leah Weinberg 1:15
yeah, the idea for the book came in 2017. Actually, so I’ve been talking to a small group of people about it for about three and a half years at this point, and kind of I started writing it in 2018 2019, put pen to paper a little bit. But then it wasn’t until 2020, when I didn’t really have any weddings going on, and just found myself with the time and the space to actually write a book. And so the book is written for engaged couples, it’s meant to help them navigate the wedding planning process, or with a focus on the emotional side of wedding planning and understanding behavior, how they can maintain healthy relationships with everyone around them, including themselves during the process. So focusing on you know, doing some inner work to kind of understand what you’re bringing to the table when it comes to planning a wedding and what you want out of a wedding conversations to have with your partner ways to navigate issues and conflict with family members of the wedding party, if you have them, and also just wedding guests in general. So just kind of really running the gamut of everything that couples can, can expect to encounter while planning a wedding.

Beat Train 2:35
Excellent, wonderful. And what’s the official release date?

Leah Weinberg 2:41
April 6th. I’ve had to push it back a little bit. But that’s kind of the beauty of self publishing, that there’s a ton of flexibility in being able to do that. So yeah, I wanted to just make sure that I had enough time to get everything in good shape to do some marketing and promotion for it. And so yeah, I’ve just about little less than a month from today.

Beat Train 3:03
Excellent. And I’m curious, do you have maybe an interesting story that’s either featured in the book, or kind of related to the book that you could share?

Leah Weinberg 3:15
Yeah, the story that really kicked it all off actually is from a wedding, a couple that I was working with in 2017. So it really stemmed from a conversation that I was having with my client who was having an argument with her dad about food being served at the wedding. And just in that moment, kind of helping her navigate what was really going on, because it wasn’t about the food. It was like sort of his reaction to her getting married, and just him feeling certain emotions and not knowing how to really express it. And so it came out as an argument about the food. But in that moment, my goal was to help her number one, understand her dad’s behavior and then also help her to take it less personally. So when you understand why someone is acting the way that they do, you tend to take it, it feels less of a reflection of you and more just like Okay, I understand what’s going on. So I in that moment, I really wanted to kind of bring her a little bit of relief and comfort to know that it wasn’t actually something she had done wrong that was causing this argument.

Beat Train 4:24
Excellent. Excellent. So it sounds like there was a happy ending and they got it they got it resolved.

Leah Weinberg 4:28
Yes, it was fine. They Yes, everybody. The wedding was beautiful. They reconciled very shortly after like having the argument. But it’s still like, you know, arguments are never fun or pleasant and can be significant in the wedding planning process. So knowing how to just get through them and how to work through them in like a positive and productive manner rather than just meeting like anger or frustration with anger and frustration because that will not end well.

Beat Train 5:00
Yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah. Excellent. So, you know, I’m curious, you know, you’re, obviously you’re publishing your book, and you’re helping people to navigate more clearly through this process, you know, just kind of looking forward into the future as the world changes, the world progresses, and the world evolves. And people evolve in their consciousness, and their wedding planning and everything, and everything is in motion and change as kind of a visionary and within this industry, you know, whether related to emotions, or wedding, like the stuff in your book, where do you kind of what evolution do you see happening for people are getting married over the next, say, 1010 years or so or 20 years? How do you how do you see the landscape changing?

Leah Weinberg 5:56
I mean, I think after what we’ve all been through, and 2020, and start the way we’ve started off 2021, I think weddings are going to be a lot more meaningful. So I know, people have said, you know, they think that like this micro wedding trend is going to continue. And I don’t necessarily agree, I think people are going to want to gather with all their loved ones. In large group settings, like obviously, once there’s a comfort level, but I think people are going to want to gather more than ever, ever before. But I think in planning those events in determining who you’re inviting, I think there’s going to be like a higher level of thoughtfulness and meaningfulness to it all and people are going to really think through making sure that the people that are there are important to them, that it’s not just kind of like an obligation invite, and that there is there’s an importance in the significant to those people being there. And then with the wedding itself, just making sure that it you know, doing it for you and your partner to represent you and your partner and kind of not just again, doing it out of obligation or trying to meet other people’s needs, I think people are just going to have a much, much higher level of thoughtfulness and putting together what their wedding and like wedding weekend is going to look like.

Beat Train 7:12
Excellent. And so I’m curious, if we were to take all of the all of the wisdom from the wedding roller coaster, and all of your wisdom that you have as a wedding professional, and we were to distill it down into a single hashtag, what would that hashtag be?

Leah Weinberg 7:33
it’s gonna be #communication.

Beat Train 7:35
Okay,

Leah Weinberg 7:36
so I am a big proponent of just talking it out like people aren’t whenever, I mean, in good times, and bad times, like if you’re happy and you love someone and you appreciate with one, somebody say that out loud, you have to tell them, if you are if there’s like conflict or something brewing with somebody, put it out on the table and talk about it so that you can resolve it like, people aren’t mind reader’s. So for better, for worse, you know, like, people don’t know how much you appreciate them, or how much you mean to them until they tell you and if something’s bothering you, people aren’t going to know until you tell them. So communication is like really key. I think, you know, it’s not going to solve everything. But I feel like in a lot of situations, that’s, that’s where you have to start.

Beat Train 8:29
Excellent. Well, I agree. I agree about the importance of communication. So thanks for reinforcing that. Have in total agreement with you? Excellent. So I have maybe one or two more questions. Yeah. Um, so, you know, in terms of, you know, we have a team of DJs, as you know, and, you know, I’m curious if you maybe have your obviously we all in the end, we have, you know, shared aspiration to help people celebrate and bring color and vibrancy into into people’s lives and help make that a more kind of calm and peaceful process for them. But I’m curious, you know, just in terms of our DJs as a team and their evolution and in their collective evolution and their relationship with wedding planners and brides and grooms and everyone, do you have maybe a piece of piece of wisdom on how our DJs can evolve and take their game to the next level?

Leah Weinberg 9:35
Yeah, I think in that case, it’s another C word. It’s about connection. So how, you know, there’s different levels. And that’s why I think also just not to plug the book but to plug the book.

Beat Train 9:49
Plug away.

Leah Weinberg 9:50
The benefit of the book to vendors is it’s going to give them insight onto what their couples are experiencing. So it’s going to let them connect with their clients on a new level and be able to offer advice and guidance like they never have before. But when vendors are working with other vendors, it’s about the connection and the relationship there and how you interact and just like really feeling like it’s an important relationship that you are investing in. So get like, mutual respect, and again, the communication, but just kind of, you know, a connection is, as humans doing this interesting job this, you know, it I don’t want to say questionable, but like, people in the wedding industry, we are a unique breed of people. So like, when we find each other, it’s about kind of, we have that mutual shared connection. And then when it comes to the clients, you know, it’s about connecting with clients, and figuring out how you want to connect with them and build relationships with them, and meeting them with a lot of empathy and compassion. Because that’s, you know, not every vendor does that with clients or even with other vendors. And so that’s really a way to set yourself apart is how you connect and interact with clients.

Beat Train 11:05
Excellent. Thank you, Leah. I liked what you said about empathy and compassion. I think that’s very important. Yep. Yeah. Excellent. Well, I think that, um, you know, just for the sake of time, I think we’ll probably, you know, wrap this up, I think we, you know, has a lot of good tidbits, you have any closing words of wisdom.

Leah Weinberg 11:24
Not really just that it’s last year was a tough year, this year, starting off a little challenging for all of us. So, everybody, clients and vendors alike, like we’re all in this together, you are not alone. And we will get through it, whatever it looks like. But yeah, just know that, like, what you’re going through is what a lot of people are experiencing right now.

Beat Train 11:49
Excellent. Well, thank you so much, Leah, for for for joining us today. And, you know, wishing you the best with the book release and, you know, wonderful, healthy, fruitful wedding season for you and your clients this year. Knock on wood. Yeah. And certainly, you know, please be in touch if we can ever be a resource.

Leah Weinberg 12:12
Absolutely. Yeah. I appreciate you having me on today. It was great chatting with you.

Beat Train 12:16
Oh, yeah. My pleasure. Okay. Have a great day.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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