Conversations with Stephanie Shaul

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Shaul.

Hi Stephanie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve always been the girl who loved weddings and who planned all of the parties and events, so it’s only natural that I’m now a wedding planner and have been for almost eight years now! It’s funny, though, that I never considered wedding planning as a career until a bit later into my 20s. I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2009 with a double major in Psychology and Sociology, and I fully intended to go to grad school a few years later for social work or counseling. I moved to Washington, DC right after college and spent six years living and working in our nation’s capital – and I loved it! I planned events for several organizations throughout college, so it was only natural that my love of serving others, organization and design, and planning events came to fruition in my first job out of college. I was the national conference planner for the US Department of Education and learned quickly what it was like to plan national, full-scale events with large budgets for thousands of federal employees.

I also worked (and volunteered) for several years as a program manager for a mentoring and literacy non-profit in Washington, DC for inner-city elementary school students. During those years, I attended 33 weddings in 3 years and was a bridesmaid numerous times! To make a long story fairly concise, I realized my deep love of weddings, of event management and logistics, evolved into a designer and stylist, and launched Stephanie Shaul Events (formerly Stephanie Scholl Events, my maiden name) in January 2014. I moved to Raleigh, NC in 2015 when I took Stephanie Shaul Events full-time, and I’ve never looked back! This business of mine is the culmination of my talents and heart, and I can’t imagine doing anything else. I adore serving engaged couples wholeheartedly and loving them well throughout their entire engagement and wedding day, and I feel like wedding planning brings together everything I am best at to plan, design, and style weddings with beautiful details, meaningful design, and a joyful, seamless process and experience!

I married my incredible husband Rob in April of 2017, and it was absolutely the best day of our lives (and yes, I planned and designed every bit of it and loved doing so!). As perfect and joyful as our wedding day was, marriage is truly just that much better. I know how important it was for us to have a marriage more beautiful than our wedding, and that’s what I want each and every one of my couples to experience, too!

Being a fairly recent bride and newlywed has tremendously impacted and shaped my business and how I serve my couples. I know our wedding vendors went above and beyond throughout our engagement and on our wedding day, which is something I’ll never forget and am forever grateful for. And that’s precisely the kind of care, attention, expertise, and love I always want to ensure my couples experience from start to finish (and beyond)! For the last eight years, it’s been my biggest joy and honor to plan and design weddings for the most incredible couples imaginable, to be surrounded by love and beauty on a daily basis, to have the pleasure of creating alongside the most talented creative partners in the wedding industry, and to have clients turn into dear friends. I’m able to use the talents and passions that I’ve been blessed with to serve others wisely and generously, to spread as much love, joy, and beauty as possible, and to celebrate legacy, love, and marriage.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Overall, it’s been such a wonderful and rewarding experience being an entrepreneur and the owner and planner/designer behind Stephanie Shaul Events. There have been many, many highs and a few harder moments and circumstances, like the pandemic tremendously impacting so many small business owners and those who work in live events. 2020 was definitely a year of learning, continuous adapting, dealing with incredible obstacles as bravely and resolutely, being flexible and working hard, and trying to come out of all of this as best as possible.

Over the years, especially as my business has developed and thrived, I’ve learned that it’s best for me to lean into what I’m innately best at and to be okay with sticking to my own lane. I try so, so hard to not compare myself to other wedding planners and designers and to just do what is best for me and for our family. This isn’t always the most popular or trendy thing, and it’s definitely not always the easiest thing to do, but it’s best for my heart and for us, I firmly believe. I try to create and plan from my heart, to lean into what I’m best at, and do not try to keep up with what everyone else is doing just for the sake of it. I think it’s okay to say no, and I do this regularly in various capacities. In my heart and also in my business model, I don’t want to be the biggest and most popular wedding planner in the world or in the south, which may be an unpopular thing to say — but something I’m passionate about for my business. I want to be the very, very best wedding planner and designer I can be to my couples and to my future clients and to serve them wholeheartedly with everything that I have. But I don’t want my business to grow beyond my control or where I feel stretched too thin and am unable to serve my clients at my absolute best — the most important thing in my business. I believe my clients are hiring me for me — for what I bring to the table, for who I am/my personality and heart, and for my specific, unique planning and design skills. It’s okay (and great!) to evolve over time.

For me, this means that I no longer do flowers for weddings (once upon a time, I did all the flowers for several weddings), as it’s too much time, expense, and too few hours in a day to be the wedding planner, designer, styling, and florist as a business of one. I’d rather work with one of the many incredible florists out there! I also do not offer month-of or partial planning anymore (far and away one of my wisest business decisions ever). I have learned over time that full-scale wedding planning, design, and styling is my forte and what I’m best at — and what I love the most. I love looking back and seeing just how much my business has developed and grown (or even scaled back, in some ways) to make room for what matters most for me and how I can serve my clients to the best of my abilities. I am thankful for the freedom and flexibility of owning and running my own business, as I am able to choose what works best for us. And I have gained so much wisdom from mistakes I’ve made, trajectories I’ve changed, and ways I’ve grown (and am still growing) over the past seven years!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The heart and mission of Stephanie Shaul Events is to plan unforgettable, elevated, joyful weddings married with beautiful, meaningful, timeless details and design that perfectly captures your love story. I believe in serving and loving my couples well throughout their entire engagement, on their wedding day, and as they begin married life. I am rooted in legacy and strong marriages, kindness and joy, serving others wholeheartedly, and grace-filled love. With an elevated, refined approach to planning weddings, a penchant for fresh, bespoke, meaningful design, a calm and joyful demeanor, and over a decade of event planning experience, I will bring your dream wedding day to life in a seamless, cohesive manner that’s nothing short of exceptional and unabashedly celebratory!

My heart for strong marriages runs deep, and marriage is a definite pillar of my business. As much as I adore weddings and my job as a wedding planner, I know that there is so much more than just this one day. Marriage is what matters. A lifetime of love (messy, joyful, challenging, and full of grace!) is what the focus truly is and should be. I want my couples, my friends, and my husband and myself to have marriages so much more beautiful than our wedding days. I want engagements to be filled with marriage planning and big dreams and deep conversations – not just wedding planning. I want you to know that there is so much more to come after your wedding day! That’s why I do the work that I do: so that my couples can focus more on their upcoming marriage than just on wedding planning and so that their engagement season is joy-filled and not stress-filled.

I joyfully work with my couples from the beginning of the wedding planning process to make their dream wedding vision a reality and to authentically, intentionally tell their love story. I get to know my couples, their story, and what’s most important to them as I kick off the comprehensive planning and design process, curate their ideal team of vendors and talent, design every aspect of their wedding for a personalized, cohesive, and heartfelt celebration, and meticulously plan every little detail and over-arching logistic. With a heart for marriage and unending love, I bring to life their dream wedding days that are as joyful, meaningful, stunning, and love-filled as they’ve always dreamt it would be!

My passion is in the details and in fresh, beautiful, meaningful design, and that’s precisely where wedding and event magic happens. Wedding planning can be a stressful and overwhelming process, and I want to take all of the worry and stress off of my couples so that they can fully enjoy their engagement and joyfully prepare for marriage. My expertise, logistical planning, and creative eye for design allow them and their families to thoroughly enjoy the wedding planning process and their wedding day.

I want every design that I create to be inspiring and something that hasn’t been seen over and over again. I get to create (keyword: create!) something from scratch that is somehow fresh and inspiring yet still timeless. I’m not a trendy person nor a trendy designer, and as a designer, I also want to be the one inspiring others creatively and to think outside the box. I get asked a lot, and I’m often so inspired by nature (color palettes, textures, and more), architecture and home/interior design, and travel (new cities, landscapes, and vibes of a particular place). I try so, so hard not to look within the wedding industry (and definitely not from Pinterest!) for inspiration, as my goal is to design something original and unique. Above all else, meaningful details that reflect the couple are my favorite kind of details! Layering textures, palettes, and design elements is also key. I don’t want my designs to feel flat, and there’s so many ways to creatively add some unexpected, personalized, and memorable touches in.

I always want to design from my heart, so more often than not, it means creating and designing something that represents and reflects the heart of Stephanie Shaul Events and my brand – and, at the same time, reflects my couple and who THEY are even more. Over the last many years, I feel like my style and my designs are easy to spot and have evolved into a signature style. I love when my friends, family, and other wedding vendors and partners say “oh that’s definitely a Stephanie Shaul Events wedding or design!” So much of my design work for an event like this is to wholly embrace my brand and my heart while also doing something unexpected, unique, and memorable. I think the weddings I’ve planned and designed over the years are romantic, clean, colorful, beautiful, timeless, fresh, meaningful, joyful, layered, and elegant, and I always want to embrace what sets me apart as me while still creating and designing in new, challenging, inspiring ways!

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Oh this is a fun question! One of the most vivid, favorite memories from my childhood is from the 1996 Olympics! My sister and I grew up in Atlanta and lived there during the 96 Olympics, and this was such a memorable, vivid time filled with so much excitement and incredible memories that are so clear to this day. From getting to hold the Olympic torch to seeing our city pulse with the excited energy of the Olympics to getting to attend so many events over the weeks (tennis, marathons, cycling, gymnastics, and more!), it was such a special time in my life and in our family!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stephanieshaul.com/
• Instagram: @stephanieshaul
• Facebook: @stephanieshaulevents

Image Credits
Adelyn Boling Photography Ally and Bobby Photography Kelsey Nelson Photography Anagram Photo