Meet Sarah Kowarski | Luxury Wedding and Special Events Planner and Producer

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

Hi Sarah, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Coming from families with successful entrepreneurial professions, I felt inspired to listen to my inner voice and become an expert in my craft as a luxury wedding and special events planner and producer. I learned from their experiences and to this day, I still actively pursue continuing education in my industry to make sure that my clients find my concierge event planning program as necessary and relevant as it should be with current demands.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
What sets my business apart from others is that I offer Concierge Event Planning and Production for luxury clients. This means that from the moment you become one of our concierge clients, you have full access to us and our professional network of luxury professionals and producers — This includes designers, florists, architects, culinary experts, entertainment and audio visual experts, beauty experts, fine art photography, cinematography, film-making, content creation, premiere venue locations that often require our relationship to host your event there… We provide a seamless client journey from onboarding, venue selection, design, vendor selection, guest experience planning to event execution.

Just like our client experience, we treat our vendor relationships similarly. Vendors receive calendar invitations, questionnaires, recommendations, referrals and priority response time from us.

I am most excited to create incredible and unique experiences for my clients, their guests and my vendors. When people appreciate what I give to them, it makes me so happy!

Getting to where I am at now requires trust, faith, patience, persistence, problem-solving and a constant balance between recognizing what the business needs and what I need. In order to stay authentic and fresh, my team and I maintain an open dialogue with our clients and vendors to hear what they are experiencing from their point of view. Every experience provides perspective – as a team, we share and discuss feedback while keeping an active pulse on relevant information regarding similar events in our industry.

Automating workflows and operational logistics has helped tremendously reduce response time and improve the quality of our concierge event planning service to our clients. Less clicks, more solutions. Our clients not only have direct access to us via text, email and phone, they also can self-plan or check in on their event plans by using our private planning platforms hosted by our Company. We really strive to make this experience feel human-first with the complements of relevant technology that is available to us.

I have also learned to say “NO” to projects or requests that do not align with the business direction or my values as the lead planner and producer. As a result, the business works more seamlessly and for the right clients.

I want the world to know that my brand is for those who appreciate an elevated and completely custom-made, personalized event experience. Become part of our inner circle and let us provide you with this deserving experience time after time.

Like yours, my story continues… I invite you all to follow along on Instagram and let me know how my team and I can be part of your next incredible event.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Visiting Palm Beach with me is a vacation, just saying.

We would hit the beach, poolside cabanas, grab lunch at Buccan Sandwich shop and go for a leisurely and beautiful bike ride via Brightbike along the intracoastal and throughout Palm Beach Island.

For restaurant experiences, we would dine at Buccan, Imoto, Pink Steak, Seafood Bar at the Breakers, Leila, Pizza Al Fresco, Honor Bar, Rivales, Palm Beach Grill, Renato’s and Sushi by Bou.

For coffee shops, we would sip and shop at Main Street by the Breakers, Chik Monk and Johan’s Joe.

For gluten-free and dietary friendly sweets, we would indulge at Meraki.

For cocktails and social experiences, we would hug and hang with my friends at 123 Datura, Four Palm Beach, Bradleys, Avocado Grill, The Ben, Rivales, Lynoras and Spazio.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to my inner circle — family, friends and friendors!

Starting with my family of successful entrepreneurs (from both sides!), their advice while overcoming some of my more challenging seasons has been critical to claiming my authority as a young yet professional expert in my industry. I have to give a special shoutout to my mom — she trusted me and saw me as a rising teen-preneur who was eager to work, learn and provide exceptional event experiences for many of her contacts who ultimately became clients of mine for several years. She drove me (and my staff!) to events I planned and produced — because I did not have a driver’s license yet! She made sure I felt informed and supported when I had to have constructive conversations especially about finances with clients and performance with staff. She gave me opportunities to learn and grow my business, helped me balance my books and made sure I was consistently a well-regarded young business professional in our Northern Virginia community, hirable for special events like birthdays, galas, showers, bachelorettes, religious gatherings, networking functions, fundraisers, bar and bat mitzvahs and intimate weddings.

My dear friends who check in on me from time to time; they engage with my social media posts, offer feedback and perspective, and are always rooting for me — ever since I started doing this at 14 years old.

My professional “friendors” (vendors) who continue to amaze me as we all evolve and grow together — we support each other, challenge each other and are always looking to elevate the event experience for our clients and our vendor team. My friendors are kind, responsible, reliable, consistent, responsive, professional and are truly experts at executing their craft in luxury weddings and events. They make the planning and production experience so much more seamless, fun and special because we all work together and support each other!

I am currently reading “Unreasonablle Hospitality” by Will Guidara. A fine art wedding photographer friendor of mine recommended this to me and I am enjoying the heck out of it! I relate to this story about how a small-town co-founder of the now Michelin three-star 11 Madison Park went from a low-ranking restaurant to one of the world’s best culinary and hospitality experiences today. He discusses how any business can be a hospitality business, and while wedding and event planning is a hospitality business, the principles of success that resonate the most with my client offering include — constantly reinventing and reimagining designs and guest experiences that transform traditional into unbelievable and “never seen before”, collaboration with all participating vendors to challenge ourselves and absolutely “WOW” our clients, and to always stay humble when reflecting on our achievements by recognizing the details and people who helped us get there.

Website: www.palmbeacheventplanner.com

Instagram: @palmbeacheventplanner

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-kowarski/

Image Credits
Sophia Pav Photography Pav Weddings Party Artistry Fabuluxe Events Makayla Casey Photography