Wedding planners pair up to save on costs

Two years ago, two 20-something Chicagoans, Kara Underwood and Kirstin Martin, didn’t know it, but they both were dreaming of the same thing. They each wanted to run their own company specializing in wedding planning. And they each came to it in their own way.

Underwood had worked as a corporate party planner for some of the top law firms in town, so she knew the vendors, she knew how to handle clients and she knew how to make a party swing. Martin, on the other hand, was trained as a big-league business accountant. She knew spreadsheets inside out, and she knew what it took to keep a business afloat.

Both Underwood and Martin knew that success in the industry has more to do with cash flow and smooth schedules than choosing colors and themes.

“My friends definitely envision me always picking out flowers and beautiful linens,” Underwood says. "That's entirely not the case.”

Like most prudent entrepreneurs, Underwood and Martin each did lots of research before opening. While searching for a location, each noticed that one part of town was teeming with young, single professionals and had no shops catering to brides-to-be. Chicago’s “Western Loop” neighborhood, with its low rents and well-heeled residents, seemed like the perfect spot.

Unfortunately, by an odd and unfortunate coincidence, the two budding businesswomen saw and seized the same opportunity. Underwood’s “Magnificent Milestones” and Martin’s “Smitten Boutique” opened up within a few weeks of each other and just a few blocks apart.

“It’s a part of town full of customers of an age where a lot of their friends are getting married, and we wanted to become their go-to shop for the unique wedding gifts as well as the place to go to plan a wonderful wedding,” Martin says.

Healthy competition
Unfortunately, as soon as they opened their shops, both Underwood and Martin encountered a crisis neither could have foreseen: each other.

“We knew nothing of one another,” laughed Underwood, “so we both had the best idea at the same time.”

“We each thought we had this crazy, unique idea,” Martin agreed. “We were gonna come into this area and be the only gift shop and the only place where people could come and buy invitations.”

It was an awkward accident of geography and timing. And neither of the first-timers was quite sure of what to make of it.

“Just what are the odds that two wedding planners would open up in this neighborhood at the same time!” said Underwood.

Martin was equally caught off-guard but tried to give it a good spin: “Her store over on Fulton was super cute and done very well. And so then you say, ‘All right, well, we have some real competition here,’ but I think you just look at it as a benefit. It draws more people to the area.”

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