WeddingDay Pro Spotlight: Lauren Krempec, Burns Special Events

The décor at your ceremony and reception help bring your vision to life. Your guests should be transported into the story of you and your future spouse the minute they enter your venue. Knowing that, you should be able to work with a rental and design company to find exactly what you’re looking for and collaborate with the professionals to curate the entire design for your vision.

Burns Special Events offers so much more than just décor rentals. With floral design, event planning services, graphic design and day-of coordination, their team specializes in keeping up with the latest trends and styles in the industry! We got a chance to speak with Lauren Krempec, Event Specialist & Coordinator at Burns Special Events, to learn more about what makes the experience at Burns so special.

 

What inspired your business?

"Burns is family-owned and has been in business for over 100 years! It has evolved from a filling station and paint store in the early 1900s, to adding tool and costume rentals and finally event rentals in the late 80s. Burns now operates out of a 100,000-square-foot building in Mishawaka and employs up to 50 people during our busy season!"

 

Give us an overview of your services. What makes your business unique?

"What makes us unique is that we are no longer just a rental business. We are a full-service event company that is the first of its kind for our area. We have the largest variety of rentals in Michiana, a certified floral department, wedding and event planning services, graphic design services, and day-of coordinators. Weddings that utilize all of our services are called Burns Signature Weddings!" 

 

Tell us about your experience and skills.

"The event industry is ever-changing, and we make sure our team is educated and trained to keep up with the latest trends. Our Event Specialists annually attend national conferences where they have classes and attend conventions to see what new additions to add to our rentals and services for the year." 

 

What do you wish to accomplish with your customers? What can a couple look forward to when using your services? 

"Every wedding couple is placed with one of our talented Event Specialists that they will work with, from engagement until the honeymoon. Our goal is to take as much stress away from the couple as possible while guiding them through everything they need to know and many things they didn’t know they would need to know!" 

Tell us about your favorite part of your job.

"One of our favorite parts of the job is when we get to take our couples into one of our interactive design studios within the showroom! Here we get to learn more about the couple and what kind of vibe/style they are wanting for their wedding, and start to design mock-ups using our rental items!"

 

What do you love about the industry you work in? 

"The event Industry is full of such creative and inspiring people, and our community has so many amazingly talented vendors who we love working with! There is nothing better than getting to be creative and being able to share that creativity with your coworkers and clients!" 

 

What’s the most common question you get from couples? What’s your answer to it? 

"The most common question would have to be 'what wedding packages do we offer,' and our answer to that is, we don’t! Every wedding is unique and every couple is unique, so we build everything from the ground up with our couples!" 

 

What are the best tips you have for couples using your services? Any other words of wisdom to share?

"Couples can use as many or as few of our services as they need! We have couples that only need a ceremony arch or ceiling treatment, while others go all in for a Burns Signature Wedding experience! Our words of wisdom would be to stay true to who you are as a couple and add in personalized touches! Also, don’t procrastinate as things will book up faster than you think!"

 

Take a moment to brag about something you’re proud of!

"What many don’t realize is just how much we give back to our community. Every time you use one of our services, you are also helping us give back! Our owners, Brian and Amanda were named the Mishawaka Business Association’s Persons of the Year last month for all that they do to give back to the community!"

How do you calm the nerves of anxious customers? What steps do you take to help eliminate their stress?

"The main way for couples to alleviate that anxiety is to hire experienced vendors that you can trust. We try our best to build relationships with our couples throughout the planning process. Our couples have their Event Specialist’s email, cell phone number and office number so they can always have a way to contact us with any and every question they may have. We want our couples to know we have their backs and will guide them along through every step."

 

Are there any trends you’re seeing with wedding rentals? What are some of your most popular rentals?

"We love that couples are getting braver with mixing in different colors, patterns, materials and textures into their designs! Lately, our Boxwood Wall rental options have been very popular with our couples. We have tall backdrop walls that look great with neon signs and seating charts, champagne walls to wow your guests with, and short walls that work great at sectioning off different areas within your event space!"

 

What are your future goals for your business? How do you see it growing in the future?

"Thanks to the overwhelming support of our customers, our business has grown exponentially over the past five years. We have recently been working on adding more customization options for our couples. Custom seating charts, table signs, menu cards and signage are all new options for our couples!"

 

 

are you a bride or groom-to-be?

We'd love to plan with you on weddingday-online.com. Let's get started!

 
are you a wedding extraordinaire?

Join WeddingDay Magazine in inspiring brides by partnering with us! See how here.