How To Become A Wedding Planner: An Interview With Angry Cupcakes

It takes a lot to break into the wedding industry – just ask Justina Vasiljevaite.

She’s the owner of Angry Cupcakes, a wedding coordination business that started as a baking hobby.

Six years of hard work later and Justina has made her dreams into reality with a Zyro website.

This is the story of how to become a wedding planner.

I can’t say that it was easy

The wedding industry is tough and I’m only where I am because I never stopped trying to build it for myself.

In school, I wanted to be an interior designer and I went to Denmark to study there but I pretty quickly realized that I didn’t have enough money to live.

On my lonely Friday nights I would bake cupcakes, a lot of cupcakes. 

I bought myself a bucket of flour every single Friday and I bought a lot of interior design magazines. 

Obviously, I couldn’t understand a word of it but I could look at the pictures and dream about my business.

That’s how Angry Cupcakes was born. 

Why Angry Cupcakes...

Well, I mean come on. What was I supposed to call it? Justina’s Kitchen? Who cares about Justina’s Kitchen?

Businesses need character, and if you have character you should use it everywhere you can. 

Okay, honestly though, I guess I never thought that I would be in the wedding business – who wants an Angry Cupcake at a wedding?  

Well. That’s where things get interesting.

Baking just wasn’t enough for me anymore

Once I realized what my skills actually are – that’s when everything changed.

Yes, I am a good baker. Yes, people enjoy what I do. But my real talent? I’m a people person.

I remember, I was driving from my kitchen to a wedding venue and I had all these ideas about extra things I could help with at a wedding.

First it was table decorations, then I was a champagne girl, and six years later I am happy to say that last season was my last one doing any baking.

Now, I’m a fully fledged wedding coordinator.

You have to take your opportunities in life

People liked my baking, and I had a lot of customers but after so many years it just wasn’t interesting.

All I could think was “I’m not growing. I’m not developing.”

It’s one thing to grow your business but it’s another thing to grow your skills and making the switch to wedding coordination opened up so many new doors to me.

Zyro came at the perfect time for me

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Honestly, before Zyro, trying to build a website had always been a bad experience.

I was relying on friends of friends, who had some experience and after five years it all came to nothing. 

Hiring a professional was out of the question – I just didn’t have the budget. 

When you’re asking someone to do something for free you can’t complain but more importantly, you can’t ever get what you really want. 

It always feels like someone else’s project. So when I saw how easy it was to create my website with Zyro I decided, OK, it’s my time. 

Of course it’s scary on day one

If you aren’t a professional every single word seems so confusing. Server? Domain? It sounds like a bad word and you can’t understand it.

Personally, when I can’t understand something I leave it and walk away.

Then I came to Zyro, I took one look and everything just made sense. I knew that I would be able to do it by myself. 

There’s a 30-day money back guarantee so I knew that I had a whole month to make my website work the way I wanted it to. 

And if I’m not successful, I didn’t lose a thing. Then in those 30 days, I did a lot. It was so easy. 

In life, it’s difficult to do your job successfully but building the website for your job? You know that’s no problem, you just drag and drop. 

Audience feedback is the most important thing for me

I’m building my website alone but their insight guides me.

It started because I wanted to know how my audience behaves on the page. So, I’ve been testing out buttons and call-to-actions to see which they like most.

Thankfully, it seems like they want to read more, which is great because I love to write and I have been using my Zyro site to blog. 

My posts are huge, there’s a lot of information and a lot of stories about the business and about my life. 

Obviously, Facebook and Instagram aren’t the best options for that kind of content. 

If I want to grow in this industry people have to really know me, I can’t do that without a website.

Facebook just didn’t offer me enough space to be creative

In my business, people need more than photos to trust you. 

Weddings all have stories and I need to tell those the best way that I can and for that I need a blog.

Those blog articles are part of how I advertise my business and it is really helping me to grow.

If people are interested in what I do they can go to my website and read those posts, I think it always comes across as more professional.

SEO is my next big goal

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I know that I can use SEO to grow my business organically. 

Zyro templates are made to be SEO friendly, and that was part of why I chose Zyro.

At the moment, I don’t know too much about it but I am starting to learn – after all what is the point creating a website if you’re not going to use it to the best of your ability.

I was always that girl that wanted to do it herself. And now, with my website, I decided that I could do that too if I just learn a few more skills.

My Zyro website is linked to Google analytics and I can see clearly how people are using my website. 

So, I’m already tweaking small things based on that information, I’m thinking about the user experience and how I can bring more people in.

My advice, focus on your customers

When I started Angry Cupcakes, I didn’t invest a lot of money because I didn’t have a lot of money, but I invested everything I had in the customer experience.

If a customer buys a cake I will give them a candle. If my package is just a simple white box, I will write a card for them. If they text me, I text them back individually.

When you are just a small business those things can make all the difference. 

It is the kind of thing that can take you from baking cupcakes for your friends in Denmark to owning your own wedding coordination business. You just have to believe in your power to do it.