How I came up with the idea of becoming a Wedding Designer
To be honest, at first that was not what I had in mind. I was actually rather uncertain about my professional life.
While looking for a profession that could combine my creativity with everyday life, I discovered the profession of wedding designer, which was not yet very well known and therefore not very developed in France.
What was certain, however, was that I wanted to work in an artistic profession. And it was through my research that I arrived at this young profession of wedding designer.
Tell us about your journey before getting started
Oops, this may be long, because above all it is an inner journey and an artistic maturation. So if you have a little time ahead of you, here I go.
Since I was little, I have had my hands in paint. Over the years, I discovered drawing and all the other visual arts techniques on my own, by observing, copying and later imagining.
I grew up in a very open-minded family.
I was therefore able to express all of my creativity and my attraction to beauty through classical dance, piano and drawing for many years, but also through my parents’ example and outlook, as they came from opposite socio-educational backgrounds.
One of them had received a rigorously classical education, while the other was more naturally drawn to the ethnic pop-rock universe of the 1960s and 1970s.
That unusual union was, and still is, for me a great source of openness, love and tolerance.
After high school, I decided to take a foundation year in applied arts. There I discovered new techniques and the possibility of moving toward other schools and professions.
Unfortunately, none of them attracted me, and at twenty it was difficult for me to imagine locking my creativity into the specifications of a client, a boss, a brand or a style.
Enriched by what I had learned, I picked up my brushes again, in my bedroom, and created for myself. In order to secure my future and be able to build the family life I had wanted for so long, from a financial point of view, I studied law and joined a bank.
The years passed, and I developed the artistic side of our daughters and my husband through them.
I then started imagining myself working for and with children, helping them open up their emotions through materials. That is how Art’elier was born in 2010.
But I still did not feel fulfilled. I wanted something else, the ability to customize, transform, imagine worlds and atmospheres.
So I turned toward interior decoration. I began a skills assessment and carried out extensive research for a career change. Little by little, a path toward event decoration, and especially weddings, took shape in front of me when I discovered that a school existed: the International Wedding Institute.
After many efforts to register Art’elier, to put together a funding application I could not complete, to find financing for the program which I did not obtain, and to explain and convince my husband that my project was sound, I began the wedding designer program with IWI in 2016. I completed it with floral art training. That time spent learning, loving all the subjects, which was a change from school, felt suspended in the air. My head was in the clouds, alive with creative excitement, and at last, at thirty-eight, I was revealing myself.
At the end of my training, I changed the commercial name of the agency, which then became Art’elier EVENTS.
What difficulties did you face before getting started and how did you overcome them?
Before getting started, I faced many difficulties of different kinds: family-related, professional, financial, personal and societal.
In truth, with hindsight, I would say that the difficulties mainly came from me and from my own beliefs.
For many years, my husband and I wanted to settle in Brittany, so in 2016 Art’elier EVENTS naturally moved with me to North Finistère, in Plouescat, near Roscoff.
The first years were not devoted to the agency but rather to our settling in, finding our bearings and rhythms.
Then life brought me face to face with myself and I had to take the lead in overcoming my fears, starting with the first lockdown.
I picked up my brushes again, started creating again, grounded myself and worked on my intuition, my energies and my feelings. And I understood that my heart had become closed and dry, and that I no longer knew how to listen to it.
Life resumed in muted colors. I was not in the right place in that job that only paid the bills. I spent a long time ruminating, still thinking I would never make it, looking at Instagram with envy and sadness. I no longer knew what I wanted, who I was, where I wanted to go, how to get there, or why — just emptiness.
To get through that inner tsunami, I began three months of individual coaching, which confronted me with my own monsters, my objections and my beliefs.
Today, I can say it: opening your heart to yourself means giving yourself the possibility to live your dreams.
Today, I believe in it, and I believe in myself.
Tell us about your agency
Art’elier EVENTS is an event decoration agency. It has been based in Plouescat, in North Finistère, since 2017.
I am both its manager and its creative engine, because my head is always bubbling with ideas. I am a colorist, I love unique, unusual and original things, I am visionary and a little bit crazy.
Give me a theme, and the ideas start flying in all directions.
Fortunately, my husband, who helps me in his spare time, is there. He is the logistics and safety brain, and also the designer of large-scale structures.
The agency works with private clients, associations, professionals and companies to create an atmosphere for their events that reflects their personality, their image and their message.
Art’elier EVENTS is also a wedding design agency. Many future brides and grooms contact me because they realize that the decoration of their day is a very important, even crucial point for their union day, and because being a wedding designer is not something you can improvise.
I make it a point of honor for the decoration to be faithful to the soul of my clients.
That is why human exchanges are extremely important to me, and I cannot imagine a bespoke decoration project without a preliminary conversation of at least two hours, of which generally one hour and a half is dedicated to the human side.
You may have understood by now that I work with my heart, my energies and my intuition. I am an inspired decorator.
How has your business developed since it was created?
The agency was created in 2010, while I was still in the Paris region. Up until 2016, I would say I took time to lay the foundations, the framework and the structure. I was under no pressure and I could make and unmake my ideas, concepts, directions and communication.
From 2016, once I was settled in North Finistère, and until 2019, I carried out field studies, identified potential suppliers and partners, and also my direct competitors. I also observed a great deal of what surrounded me, both in terms of infrastructure and population. I absorbed the region, the people and their way of life in order to understand how they experienced celebrations.
Then, at the beginning of 2020 and the lockdown, I developed my communication by creating my website, studying how social networks worked, and creating my professional brochures. I also worked on my management and processing tools so that I could automate my activity as much as possible without being overwhelmed by administration.
Finally, in 2021, I dared.
I dared to talk about my work and my business without apologizing for wanting to be my own boss, without being afraid to sell my creativity and originality, and without believing that I was an impostor in the event industry. At the end of the year, I agreed to decorate a wedding planner’s stand at the Brest wedding fair with an Arthurian legend theme, and that is when everything started to take shape. I connected with people whose values echoed my own, and that is when I finally felt legitimate and in the right place.
And two months ago, I updated my logo and my business cards. I have so many projects to carry the image of Art’elier EVENTS, a wedding and event design agency in North Finistère and beyond.
What do you like most about your profession?
That is a difficult question.
Honestly, I love everything, and if I had to choose, it would certainly be the creative side.
But creativity is always with me, in everything I look at, write or do.
So I would say what I love most is meeting people, talking with them to understand who they are, and creating a universe around them, with their energies and the essence of their soul, so that a moment in their life remains forever engraved in their heart.
A few lovely memories to share
The time when the groom told me at least fifteen times that he loved the decor and that it was even better than he had imagined, even though during our first meeting he had told me it did not matter to him at all.
When I guided one of my future brides through a meditation so that she could overcome her blocks and understand her own paths to happiness.
More generally, the stars in my clients’ eyes, and the bond and trust that develop between us. In a way, I love them all.
What are you most proud of?
Of my personal evolution, and of having understood that my limiting beliefs were my only real obstacles.
My biggest day-to-day difficulty and how I deal with it
Without hesitation, my perfectionism, which often slows me down and sometimes blocks me.
To overcome it, and do not laugh, I clean, tidy and organize. It is one of the ways I clear space in my mind.
What the IWI program brought me
(Sigh)
IWI brought me an enormous amount: theoretical structure, a work framework, references, good humor, technique, solid foundations, know-how, love for the profession, and an opening toward my new life.
Sometimes I regret not being able to take the program again to benefit from all the new things Anne-Marie has put in place.
IWI still brings me things today: being part of the alumni group, following my classmates on social networks, seeing some of them again, discovering Anne-Marie’s reflections and shared thoughts, and randomly meeting students from other cohorts who work in my area.
For me, IWI is a mark of seriousness. It remains a big family to which I will remain faithful, grateful and loyal.