Meet Hayley Schmelzer | Party Company Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hayley Schmelzer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hayley, what do you attribute your success to?
For our company the biggest factor behind our success has been creating a family feel within our team of employees. I have found that treating people with respect and by fostering a sense of belonging you can create a team of people who think of their work as more than “just a job”. I try very hard to create an environment that is fun, where people feel they can contribute their ideas, where they feel they are not only listened to but heard. Of course there can be some difficulties that come with blurring the lines between friendship and business, but I find that you can never go wrong with making work feel like a place people WANT to show up to.

And when people LOVE what they do, it transcends to success for your business. Customers/clients can FEEL when something is built out of love and not just. desire to take their money. When employees feel taken care of, they make clients feel the same way. I think it is a big part of what sets us apart as a company from others in our industry. Our team members rarely leave, unless they’ve simply outgrown what we do. Many of our employees are still performing nearly a decade after opening, and I think it is because its too hard to let go of, its a family and a place where they belong. Even when they age out of performing they want to stick around in leadership roles because the thought of moving on is unappealing.

I am proud of the family we have created, and proud of the fact that our team treats our clients with the same love and respect. It has helped us to create something so beautiful within our community and also has helped us to see nearly everything we do or are a part of in a positive light.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I officially opened Wish Upon a Star Events, a character party and entertainment company, in October 2013. I have a birthday in January and always wished as a kid that there were more things for kids with winter birthdays to do in our area. I could tell we were in desperate need of more childrens entertainment within our community and I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to bring a bit of magic to our area. We offer characters for birthday parties and community events and we truly pride ourselves on creating magical experiences where parents do not have to lift a finger, where they can sit back and relax and enjoy their little ones as they make memories to last a life time

I started with just one character that I took to a friends daughters birthday party, and them slowly built a business by word of mouth. We added a few more characters as they became requested, re-investing the funds we were bringing in to make sure we were offering not only the characters people wanted but the quality they deserved. It wasn’t long before we started exploring the idea of offering events in addition to parties and this opened up a whole new avenue for us.

We started to outgrow my little home and I knew it was time for us to consider opening a venue space of our own for parties. We opened our own party facility, with a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears invested into getting it ready, in 2015. We took a huge risk and invested a lot of capital to really ramp up everything we offered. For four years we hosted parties every single weekend in our space, hosted our own ticketed events and continued to partner with the community and we grew and grew.

Unfortunately in 2020 when the pandemic hit we had to close our venue space. It was a very difficult time because it felt like the pandemic was deciding the course of our business for us, rather than me making a decision I was ready for. I had actually been contemplating closing our physical location for a while, because no matter how much we grew it seemed our overhead would grow too. We never wanted to price people out of our services but we were having a hard time making any profit. I had become a mom and it was becoming more difficult to run a business that was a labor of love but didnt return anything financially, so we had been considering going back to our earlier model of doing parties at people’s homes or off-site locations. But I wasn’t fully ready to make that change yet, and being forced to close because we were not an essential business really took the wind out of my sails. We had to close our venue space prematurely and with little warning, we could not afford to continue to pay rent on a space where we were not being allowed to work. We tried doing virtual. offerings but it fell flat as people got tired of online things. Eventually I decided to close Wish all together, because I didn’t really see an end in site where we would be able to go back to in person things. It was devastating for myself and my team, we sold everything off and I felt a bit empty when it was all said and done.

Over the next year or two as things started to slowly return to normal I started recognizing how much I missed what we did. We started bringing princesses back to photoshoots, offering birthdays for people we knew, and exploring together as a team how we could safely return to community events and parties. Thankfully many of my team members were thrilled to jump back in, and so at the beginning of 2022 we officially re-opened under the same name and with primarily the same business model as before – without a physical location.

I have learned a lot over the years, but especially during that time when we were closed. With our re-opening I have given myself permission as an owner to set better boundaries between our company and our clients. We only take parties two weekends a month now, in an effort to make sure our employees (who are mostly young college students) are able to enjoy their own families a few weekends each month. It turns out that the pandemic and our closure helped me to re-evaluate our business and re-open in a way that has worked out better for all of us, and the community seems on board with these changes.

I think the most important thing to know about Wish Upon a Star Events is that we have a commitment to quality, excellence and magic. We feel a sense of responsibility to make sure that we accurately portray the characters we send to parties and events. Our performers put in an immense amount of time for training on their makeup, acting and costume application. We also spend thousands of dollars on each costume/wig/accessories to make sure that our clients truly are getting the best of the best. This is not a company where we slap on a halloween costume and call it good. And while this means we don’t turn the biggest profit, we are are happy knowing that we are offering something so extra special to a community that really needs it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
As I am reading these questions I am wondering if perhaps you might have had the wrong company. I feel so bad for not noticing before that the name was Shoutout Miami and that there might potential be a company in your area with our name? we do serve just our local area in about a 50 miles radius of where we live in Washington state. We are located in Spokane, WA so I am worried my answers to this question might not be what your readers are looking for! With that said:

Spokane is known for its abundance of recreation. When friends come from out of town I always want to make sure they see all of the natural, beautiful areas we have to explore. From Lake Coeur d’Alene just over the boarder, to hiking at mount Spokane, to visiting u-lick farms at Greenbluff – there is no shortage of outdoor fun to be had. We have a wonderful food scene here too, so checking out some of our local eats is always a must!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
It is really hard for me to narrow this down because there are really 3 big entities that have helped me to get our company to where it is today.

My parents: They have supported me from day 1. My mom helped me make my very first mermaid costume for our company, let me leave wigs and wig supplies all over her house, helped out at all of my earlier events, trained me to be a better photographer. She has been my sounding board for a decade, giving incredible advice and lending a listening ear when I need to vent or work out an idea. My dad has helped me to figure myself out financially, has taught me to be a better book keeper and helped me with taxes many years (which we all know is one of the most stressful parts of owning a small business). They have never made me feel like my business was meaningless and I am so grateful for their support and cheerleading over the years.

My husband: Who has supported me from the day we met (which also happened to be the year after we opened). He helped financially back the opening of our physical location years ago, has assisted with more event set up and events than I care to count. Has gone along with my crazy whims, theme park trips for research, put up with dresses and wigs and glitter strewn all over our home. He has embraced our team members like family, helping with a whole host of personal things from fixing their cars to helping them move. It’s not always roses, and I know being the sounding board for stressful things can be difficult, I am grateful for his support and of this being the voice of reason when I get a little too carried away with my dreams.

Our team: Our company simply couldn’t be what it has been or is today without each person who has been a part of our team over the years. Some have stayed for 10 years, others have only been with us for short seasons, but each one has left an impact on myself, the team and our community. They dedicate so much of their personal time, brain space and their emotions to this job. They show up even when things are not so good in regular life, they make magic on days they don’t particularly feel like having a smile on their faces. They are the backbone of what we do, the true magic makers.

Website: www.wishuponastar-events.com

Instagram: wish_upon_a_star_events

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wishuponastarspokane

Image Credits
@two_luhns_photography