Pistons & Prosecco

Interview with Nikki Whited, Owner of East West Vintage Rentals

December 22, 2020 Bryce Bjornson / Nikki Whited Season 1
Pistons & Prosecco
Interview with Nikki Whited, Owner of East West Vintage Rentals
Show Notes Transcript

Nikki has such a cool vintage rental business and also has a great space that she rents out for rehearsal dinners, birthday parties, and more!

https://www.eastwestvintagerentals.com/

Bryce Bjornson :

Hey everyone, you're listening to pistons in Prosecco, a podcast dedicated to showcasing the awesome wedding vendors and providing a behind the scenes look at the wedding industry. I'm your host, Bryce Bjornson, owner of Jax 47 Mobile bars, we create a better experience for your guests by serving delicious drinks on draft with style. Today we have Nikki Whited with East West vintage rentals. Nikki, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.

Nikki Whited :

Hey, thanks for having me.

Bryce Bjornson :

So one of the first questions I like to ask is, what's your favorite beverage?

Nikki Whited :

Well, now that the weather has turned cold a little bit, um, red wine.

Unknown Speaker :

That's my go to.

Bryce Bjornson :

I'm a very seasonal drinker. So I told Yes. Yeah. Is it like, you know, once the equinox hits, you're like, boom, put away the whites and let's get switched to red.

Nikki Whited :

Exactly. It is like, it is like clockwork, yes. I was like, last week, I was drinking some whites. And then, you know, the weather started cooling. And I'm like, I need my read. Your body started signaling to the read time. Yeah, I don't even want anything to do with white wine anymore.

Bryce Bjornson :

I feel like I'm like that way with certain cocktails. You know, anything that has like bourbon or apple cider in it? I'm like, that's a fall drink for me. You know, it's our heels, right? Whereas in the summertime, I love making you know, like watermelon. habanero Margarita is or, like bright and spicy and fruity. Yeah, so I get it. I totally get it. So, Nikki, how, like, I just don't understand how people get started in all the businesses that they take. I'm always curious to hear their stories, especially in the way in history because it happens to be an accident half the time. With rentals, like I'm just kind of picturing I could see you like collecting a few really cool vintage sofas and then being like, oh, why don't I rent these out? But tell me, how did you get started?

Nikki Whited :

What sort of I come from a long line of vintage hoarders. And I've been collecting vintage stuff since I was a teenager. And after I had my first child, this was like in 2012. I was I was a graphic designer before. I was a business owner. And after I had my first baby, I was sort of looking for a change. It was just ready for a change. And I had come across other people renting out vintage items for weddings. And I was like, Are you kidding me? That's like a job. I think I'm born to do this. Like I already have half the stuff in my house anyway, like, Yes, I can go find vintage China and then rent it to people and, and East West was born. match made in heaven. Really. I was like, Oh my gosh, I love it. And I've always loved events. I've always been involved in like putting on events and in my 20s I did wedding flowers. And yeah, when I came across

Bryce Bjornson :

in the industry then say what you already had experience in the wedding industry.

Nikki Whited :

Yeah, I did. I did. I did. I was doing all of my friend's wedding flowers. And you know, in my 20s when everybody was getting married, my roommate and I we did all of our our friend's weddings. Nice. Nice. Yeah. So East West was born.

Bryce Bjornson :

And you got the name from your location in Asheville? Is that correct? I did was

Nikki Whited :

where the east side of West Asheville and we were we were on the side of town when nobody else was on this side of town. How long

Bryce Bjornson :

have you been in that space for?

Unknown Speaker :

I've been

Nikki Whited :

using the space that I'm in since 2013.

Bryce Bjornson :

Oh, so yeah. Seven years? Yeah. Yeah, it's it's been East West vintage rentals. That whole time.

Nikki Whited :

For the most part, yeah. The space that is now East West used to be like a church slash community space. Um, that was only that for maybe like a year ish. And that's how I was able to, I was able to use the building to store my my vintage collection that was growing.

Bryce Bjornson :

I see. Okay, now, you took it over. And then I took it over. Got it. Got it. Yeah. You just recently expanded again, from what I hear.

Unknown Speaker :

I did, but that's supposed to be what what's new, what's, what's my next

Bryce Bjornson :

step? Alright, we'll talk about that later then. So Nikki, you've been doing For for seven years now. Yeah, you know, you've, you've been through, I'm sure a lot of weddings and seen a lot of things, what's your kind of biggest challenge in this industry? Whether it's being a business owner, whether it's being a vintage rental company owner, you know, what

Nikki Whited :

the challenges for me are like, like, my own personal challenges, like, How do you stay organized with all your stuff, and, and have systems that work well, so that you can streamline the weekends and your stuff and make everything run smoothly? That's where my challenges come in, because I'm not naturally an organized person. And you have to be to do what we do. And so it's just, I'm constantly at war with myself.

Bryce Bjornson :

Man, you just Yeah, he's definitely struck a chord in me, because that's something that I think about a lot. And I recently hired an assistant so that she could just get my ass in line. Yeah, I mean, I'm just not good at holding myself accountable for developing systems and processes. And I thought, you know, the only way I'm going to move forward is by having someone else there. And I didn't want to spend, you know, two grand a month on a coach or whatever. Like, I didn't want to have it be external. I was like, No, I think having someone inside would be good, but luckily, is a situation where she could only she can work part time for me, and be happy with that, you know, given her situation, so. So I totally agree. And I think it's, it's super important, because, you know, it's not like other businesses where we, we can be late, or we can be, we can delay, you know, like, we have to execute on the day of at the right time, or else the event doesn't happen as it should for sure. So it's not like other things where it's like, oh, you know, the dry cleaning is a couple days late, or the, you know, you're doing a logo for someone, and it's a week late or whatever. It's that we have to be on time and have everything there. You know, like it. Yeah, yeah. I yeah, yeah, I totally agree. So So what are you doing now to actively improve your systems and processes? Are you like reading any business books? Are you taking any courses or classes or

Nikki Whited :

fully, I have my husband to help me, he and I do this together now. And he is more organized than I am. And God bless the man. I mean, he puts up with a lot from me, because I've just constantly just bringing in bags of stuff that I've acquired and was like, Oh, my God, lady. So he he is currently taking on the complete reorganization of our back storage area. So that we can, we can function?

Bryce Bjornson :

Yeah, because you have a lot of items to deliver, you know, it's like, I have my stuff. I thought my stuff is complicated. I just deliver one truck with six kegs. Sure, you might be delivering, you know, 150 pieces of glassware, plus three couches, plus this and

Nikki Whited :

50 brass candlesticks, and then like, you know, 100 China plates and the silverware and it's just,

Bryce Bjornson :

whoo. Yeah, that's a lot. A lot. So so your husband, what's the name again? I met him a couple teams. Steve, the Yeah, Steve. I've seen I know. We. We did the Ferris wheel wedding together. So I saw y'all there. And I'm sure I've seen him at some networking. Yeah. Party. is sorry. Are y'all both full time at useless to get we are now have another he doesn't have another gig.

Nikki Whited :

He doesn't know he used to. He was in social work for a long time. Yeah. And got burnt out in that field as many wonderful social workers do. And he came on Yeah, he's, he's, we're both full time at East West. And he's my delivery guy and my logistics guy and my handyman and, okay, my dishwasher. I mean, he's, you know,

Bryce Bjornson :

I love that. I mean, I think that's, you know, they say there's something to a couple being in business together. Yeah. That strengthens the relationship. Yeah. And if you can make it in that it's a strong bond, I would think. Yeah, you know,

Nikki Whited :

yeah, it's a fun we're having fun. We definitely have our challenges working together. But it's more fun than it's then not.

Bryce Bjornson :

Well, it's not like you're sitting in an office together. Like having Oh, yeah, you together all Okies probably other places like you. He's delivering and you're talking to her? Sure. Right, sir. See that being a good balance in this industry? Where is it? They're like my parents who are divorced. They were both like they had their CPA firm. So they were like in the same office. All Yeah,

Unknown Speaker :

right.

Bryce Bjornson :

I just I don't know. That would be tough. But, you know, a good synergy is awesome. And I'm I didn't know that either side. He was helping out that one day. So

Unknown Speaker :

now, man, he's helping out every day.

Bryce Bjornson :

That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. So let's see. So, Nikki, I asked you about the challenges? You know, it seems like you've got some things to figure out internally. What about, what about what you love about your business? What are some things that you've really enjoyed? Throughout the years doing?

Nikki Whited :

Yeah, well, I mean, the fact that in my job description, I have to go and acquire vintage inventory. Like, thrift shopping is my job. Yeah, I think that's one of my favorite things about my job. It's the shopping and the acquiring of all the fun things. Also, like we were talking about, my husband gets to work with me. So it's fun that we are kind of creating a family business and our kids come over all the I mean, they're either at our house or at our space. And it's been that way since they were babies, and

Unknown Speaker :

it's fun that we're just a

Unknown Speaker :

little little family business over here.

Bryce Bjornson :

They'll really be able to help out. Right? Yeah, I

Nikki Whited :

know, My son has. He's almost 10. And so he's, he's, he's learning some things and my daughter, she'll, she'll dust all the shelves for me, you know, little things like that. So,

Bryce Bjornson :

okay, it's a lot of fun. You can tell me if you don't want to answer but do you pay them?

Nikki Whited :

My, yeah, I have to bribe them. Like, you know, I don't pay much though. If show like, like just a whole shelf and like, keep you $1 that's a lot of money to her.

Bryce Bjornson :

For sure. Six, you know, like, Oh, yeah. That'll that'll add up. That'll be coming car someday.

Unknown Speaker :

Yeah, yeah.

Bryce Bjornson :

So Nikki, you've lived in Nashville For how long?

Nikki Whited :

Oh, my gosh, I've lived here for 23 years.

Bryce Bjornson :

Better than I am. Where'd you move from?

Nikki Whited :

Um, I moved from Charlotte, North Carolina. I've moved to Asheville to go to college. So I came here in 1997 to go to UNC. And I never left.

Bryce Bjornson :

What did you major in over there?

Unknown Speaker :

I was an art major.

Bryce Bjornson :

Okay, so that's Yeah, that acts are very important. Do?

Nikki Whited :

Yeah, I've always, I've always had the creative bent.

Bryce Bjornson :

But you never thought you'd be in the wedding industry?

Nikki Whited :

Well, funny enough. You know, when I was when I was an art major at umca. I learned pretty early on that fine art was not really where my talents were, um, it was just the most creative field that I can major in at UNC at the time. And it was toward the end. Like my senior year, I was really getting into, like, put I just loved events and gathering people together and hosting parties and doing flowers. And I really saw myself going into the wedding industry, I would tell people, I'm like, yeah, I'm an art major. But I think I'm going to probably be like an event planner. And that's really where my interest grew is just toward events, and gathering people, and weddings. And I remember, in my early 20s, like, even as I was exiting college, my friends, and I would dream about like, wouldn't it be cool if we all had businesses on Haywood road, which was still just developing at that point? Like there was only a few businesses on Haywood road at that point? And I was like, it'd be so cool if I had like an event venue on Haywood road. And I'm like saying this when I'm 24. Wow. And it's really cool that that is actually I actually do you have an event venue on Haywood road?

Unknown Speaker :

Yeah, all these years.

Bryce Bjornson :

You need to you need to be one of those testimonials for the what is it the power of the secret or the secret or what? What are those, like? One of those books that talks about willing things into the universe? Yeah, you could be you could do that. I can see you know. So you did? Yeah, that's interesting, because a lot of people I talk to are like, yeah, I never thought it'd be in the wedding industry, you know, never even crossed my mind and the same thing. was the case for me. So you're, you're in college actually thought that is pretty amazing. But you said that you were thinking more along the side of the planner realm is that just simply because you didn't know that?

Nikki Whited :

Yeah, I didn't know like, honestly, oh my, if you had told me back then like Nikki, you are gonna have an event venue that is going to be full of vintage treasures that you have sourced from all over and you get to rent them out to people and do wedding flowers. I would have been like, what that job is like a real thing. That's, that's like it was made for me. Yeah, I never believed it. I mean,

Bryce Bjornson :

I don't think like one of my, I don't mean to be negative, Nancy, but one of my frustrations with the educational system is they don't really teach you to like dream of your dream job. All you think of is see like in your immediate reality. So for me, I was like, Alright, I can be a football coach, or best basketball coach. That's like, jobs that I see that I would be interested in. Right? Yeah, you know, 10 year old Bryce is a lot different from 32 year old Bryce. But, you know, I think a lot of people kids don't realize the, the the crazy jobs that are out there. I mean, you could go, like, I didn't know, you could get paid to make so much money fishing salmon up in Alaska, you know, like, that's got some people's full time jobs only for a few months out of the year. Like, and for me, like I'm, you know, I drive vintage trucks around pouring drinks off the side of these trucks like that. They don't teach that in school. So, um, I yeah, I don't know, I just, I think that maybe I should send a link to this podcast to all the teachers in the in like high school. Like in tell your tell your students that there's a whole big world out there. I mean, you could be a travel agent for luxury properties in Mexico, you could be, you know, yeah, manufacture leather goods for people, you know, like, I mean, it's just, it's

Nikki Whited :

true. But you know, think about, like, when I was a kid, I don't know if this job specifically how I'm doing it existed. And so just think about jobs that you can create for yourself. Yeah. In the future, you know, like, as technologies change and interest change, and the world changes. They're their jobs, waiting to be created.

Bryce Bjornson :

Totally. Yeah, you're right. And you're, you did it?

Unknown Speaker :

I did. I mean,

Bryce Bjornson :

yeah. Did you start any other businesses? I mean, you talked about the flower, you know, doing some flowers in your 20s. Did you have any other business before this? Or was this kind of your first real business baby,

Nikki Whited :

this is my first real business I've I come from an entrepreneurial family, my parents owned retail shops growing up when I was when I was young, and I did not grow up watching my parents, like go to a traditional job, like my mom and my dad did a business together. They worked from home and then grew it into, you know, like five different retail shops and the Tennessee area. I lived in Knoxville when I was a kid. Um, so that's I grew up entrepreneurial. And as a kid, I always had a really hard time pinpointing what I wanted to do, I didn't have a really strong sense of who I was going to be when I grew up. And I just knew that I was creative. I enjoyed interior, like interior design could have been a thing, or just anything in Korea, that allowed creativity and atmosphere and gathering people together. I just knew all of that was important to me. But, you know, I didn't know what to do with that. And so when I went to college, like I was saying, art was the only field that seemed to fit somewhat of my interest, but it didn't fully fit it. And then out of school, I did do I did flowers on the side, I did graphic design, both for a company and then just on my own, I would develop logos for people. Um,

Unknown Speaker :

I feel like I've always had a side hustle.

Bryce Bjornson :

Yeah, like, first time you invested in some property or you know, space, I guess. And really, when Yeah,

Nikki Whited :

but even but it really did just kind of start as a kind of a hobby like I, I did it not fully knowing like, is this thing gonna even really take off? And is this going to be anything like maybe this is just another kind of hobby that I'm pursuing, you know, that would only be a part time thing. I was still when I when I started. I was still doing graphic design and graphic design, or what for

Bryce Bjornson :

another company, or were you at

Nikki Whited :

that point, I think when I started Did the business I think I was just a freelance designer. Okay, yeah, because I was also a, um, I had had my first child. And then the year, I found the year of my sister, my sister and I started the company. I found that I was pregnant with my second. So, you know, just growing a little family and growing a little business and

Unknown Speaker :

just kind of

Unknown Speaker :

doing it.

Unknown Speaker :

Yeah, yeah. Well, it's like, no real goal, just doing it.

Bryce Bjornson :

I think some people, you know, say that you shouldn't have this big old business plan before you start a business and all that. And I just, I couldn't do it. I if I had done a business plan, I wouldn't have started the business.

Nikki Whited :

It's true. Same for me. I mean, I, I think for me, I kind of have to just fall into things and make it work. Yeah, as I go, and let it develop into what it should be. Because you can really overthink a lot of things and talk yourself out of things and never do anything.

Bryce Bjornson :

Exactly. Do it. idea of the paralysis analysis or analysis? Yeah. You know, yeah, at all. And you're like, Oh, wait, that would go wrong. And this would go wrong, you know, and I just think experiential learning is the best way to move forward and test things out, you know, and see, for sure, that's, you know. So, Nikki, I want to get back a little bit to the technical side of your business. When someone reaches out to you and says, Hey, we like your stuff, we want to book you as a vintage rental company does that I feel like I could go two different ways. Either they trust you to kind of bring the right things and put it where you think you should. And then I could also see those 3d models, with, you know, sofas being arranged via click on their computer. So can you tell us a little more about how that process look?

Nikki Whited :

Yeah, we're not that high tech yet to do a 3d model for anybody. Um, but the way it generally works is people will look at our website, and it does have a good portion of our inventory on there. Like I said, I like to shop a lot and buy things. And so I can't keep up with the pictures of what I'm buying, and the inventory online. But people can look online and kind of get a sense of what we have. And they can email me a list of things they'd like for their wedding. And then I can put a contract together for them based on that, or they can set appointments and come in and see the stuff. And then we set up a contract and send it over to them. It's usually one of those two things,

Bryce Bjornson :

they can come in and check everything out. Uh huh. And people typically get all their rental stuff from you, or they get maybe a few couches from you, and something else from someone else, you know, like they kind of peace.

Nikki Whited :

I mean, I feel like classic event rental is involved in almost every wedding in Nashville on some level, just because they almost have to be like, you know, if you're getting a tent, you're not going to get a tent for me. And we don't do linens. So if you want napkins or tablecloths, you're going to have to get them from classic or another company. But it's just really a mix. I know that oftentimes people will maybe just get a sofa set from us, and then they get all of their tableware from classic. Sometimes people just get all the tableware from us and the farm tables from us, but they get their chairs from classic. It's just a mix all the time. Yeah, yeah.

Bryce Bjornson :

Interesting. Yeah. I always wonder about how that, how everyone interacts with the rentals, you know, because for me, it's usually I'm the only bar provider, you know, there's been a couple weddings where there's been another bar, but usually, it's like, I'm doing all that. So with rentals, it seems like you do kind of piecemeal because a lot of vintage places don't carry the big, like, either they don't carry volume or they don't carry tense or, you know, they don't share

Unknown Speaker :

her. Yeah, I just think

Nikki Whited :

to pull off a cohesive event. You You do have to have a mix. Yeah, you know, but I know that we have there have been several weddings where we are just the only rental company on site. You know, it just depends on depends on the wedding.

Bryce Bjornson :

Exactly. So you started about seven years ago, and your main focus was kind of weddings in the beginning. Is that right?

Nikki Whited :

It always was weddings just because in other parts of life. I don't see people renting this stuff.

Bryce Bjornson :

You know, like you don't really need a Victorian sofa and lounge set for a birthday. Yeah, I would certainly rent to your birthday. But most people don't. You know, the break. Yeah, the breakdown of events like I've done maybe Three or four birthday parties, you know, or booked three or four, whereas I booked 80 to 90 wedding receptions or you know, the ratio is so different. So it's kind of just by our by the function of the International, you know?

Nikki Whited :

Sure. And honestly, you know, when I started, I think I got my start when the weddings were on the rise in Nashville, because what what Asheville has not always been the wedding destination it is now I'm back in my early 20s. Like when my friends were getting married, we did not have these men, as many options is where we're going to get married. There were like four venues to choose from. Wow. And that was it. And like, so the wedding scene was not huge here. But I think when I got started as when the wedding industry was on the rise, and so I just was able to kind of ride that the wave, which was really great. And I think it was part of the reason why I've been so successful.

Bryce Bjornson :

Yeah. It's it didn't seem to pick up what like in the mid 2010. You know, 2015?

Unknown Speaker :

For sure. Yeah.

Bryce Bjornson :

I mean, I only started two and a half years ago. But that seemed to be kind of like a lot of venue vendors. We're starting a couple years ago as well. Since then, I've just seen many venues pop up and other businesses

Nikki Whited :

and it's wild. It is wild. I mean, my gosh, like, we had the option of like, you could have a wedding at the Renaissance ballroom or on Broadway downtown. That was the cool space because that was the only like, downtown event space. Yeah, um, there was like, I think Claxton farm was running then. And then, I mean, maybe one other one, but that was pretty much it. Like there were there was not a lot to choose from. Now, there's like on Haywood road, there's like three or four? Oh, yeah. It's just like, and like, you know, how many barns are our wedding venues now? And

Unknown Speaker :

it's great. It's great. Well, given

Bryce Bjornson :

all the that's gone on in Nashville with weddings and the industry, what advice would you give to couples who are looking to tie the knot in the area?

Nikki Whited :

Like, oh, I would say just get some good vendors. Which I have to say we have a lot of good vendors in town. I really, I feel very proud of our wedding community. I don't think that people can go wrong to wrong, you know, like, there's so many great people to choose from. And I think if they can just get some good wedding vendors who can help steer them in the right direction? I think they'll be great.

Bryce Bjornson :

Yeah. I agree. vendors are what make it all happen. Yeah, I mean, so finding people that are a good fit for you, I think is really important. That's something that I talk a lot about on the podcast is finding folks that you vibe with because if you vibe with them, they'll likely vibe with your guests and the guests or, you know, the guest experiences somewhat dependent on the vendors, right, the ones that are not with them, like it's your business is different from mine, because our our staff has a lot of interaction with the guests, right?

Nikki Whited :

You do I know.

Bryce Bjornson :

But for you more about that working with the clients and making sure that you and the client really vibe together because there's a lot just like with a planner that's going to go back and forth.

Nikki Whited :

Yeah, I know I am envious of you guys that get to actually be at the wedding and get to see the whole thing like that's one that's one part of my job that I do wish I could be there to see it all unfold because we just will drop the stuff off, set it up, leave before any action happens. And then we come back after it's all over and like take it away and I do love I love a good wedding. I love it all but we don't get to see it all.

Bryce Bjornson :

Hey, do you and Steve look good and suspenders you can be you know, some bartenders

Nikki Whited :

we can Yeah, I love I'd love to I would love to do that just to interact with the with the wedding people cuz I miss it. I do miss that.

Bryce Bjornson :

Yeah, it is it is a fun aspect of it. It's it's interesting you say that because I feel not as connected to the couple as like the photographer. Oh, like you see the top photographers getting like notes from their couples,

Unknown Speaker :

you know, right.

Bryce Bjornson :

Love you and like going out Yeah. You know when they're in town all this stuff and right. I'm friendly with my couples but I don't develop that intimate connection that the photographer does sure you that you interact with the couples but you'd never see the actual wedding. So it's really interesting to think about the different vendors, their level of interaction with the

Nikki Whited :

chair we all have that we do all have different relationships with our couples.

Bryce Bjornson :

Yeah, exactly. Have you noticed that most of your couples are local? Or they destination couples come in from? Florida or New York? Yeah,

Nikki Whited :

I mean, we have a lot of we have a lot of destination, folks. Um, but maybe it's half and half. Yeah. Don't quote me on that. Because I don't know. I mean,

Bryce Bjornson :

podcast, but I won't. Yeah, I think that i think that's about where I'm at. I've actually started to go into my, like, master list of projects and note, you know, local or destination just just because it's good to know for me, like, Where are people coming? And it's, it's really interesting to see a lot of people come from Florida.

Unknown Speaker :

Yeah, we hear

Nikki Whited :

a lot from Florida. I feel like a lot from just other parts of North Carolina.

Bryce Bjornson :

Yeah, Raleigh, a lot of Raleigh and Charlotte. What else? You know, not a lot of people like from Virginia though. Yeah, maybe not. Maybe not. That's it's usually they're like, like Asheville is kind of like middle it's like midway between their venues or there's not their venues there. their houses like let's say the the groom's family lives in Ohio. And yeah, the other groom or the bride's family lives in Florida. You know, like, yeah, Asheville is like a middle midway point. For a lot of folks. That's true.

Nikki Whited :

It's that or I have had brides where like, they either as a couple lived here together and then have moved away, but they wanted to get married in Nashville, or one of them lived here at one point and they wanted to

Bryce Bjornson :

come back here. A lot of summer camps. So camp Pinnacle camp. tonawanda. Camp marywood camp. Yeah, there's lots of camps that

Nikki Whited :

I know. I love those camp weddings.

Bryce Bjornson :

Oh, me, too. I yeah. What did I Oh, I interviewed Sheila morass. Uh huh. The other day, and she's been listening. She's a big listener of the podcast, so she knows how much I love summer camp, wedding venues. And she told me that she actually got married at a summer camp in Asheville. Ah, yeah, I was like, that's so sweet. Like she

Nikki Whited :

How long ago was that? When When did she do that? Oh, well.

Bryce Bjornson :

1520 years ago, maybe.

Nikki Whited :

Okay, cuz it wasn't a it was that was not all the rage back then. That was a very unique wedding in

Bryce Bjornson :

your scalp? Is that now? Yeah. I feel like all the New York millennial couples are like wanting to do camp. Yeah. Which I love. As I said, it's

Nikki Whited :

so fun. It's such a good idea, though. Because you get all the people you love in one spot and get to just like camp it up with them.

Bryce Bjornson :

Exactly. And you know, one thing that a couple did that got me to summer camp is they back rented out the lodging to their friends and family. Yeah, so I don't affordable rate. Because if you get a hotel in Nashville, it's 150 a night 250.

Nikki Whited :

Who knows what if you're doing it in October? It's more than that.

Bryce Bjornson :

So we did is I think they back rented maybe for like 200 a person for the whole weekend. You know, yeah. On a Saturday, Sunday or 30. You know, and so it made sense for both parties. And it helps bring down the total cost of the wedding. As you know, the average wedding is like $23,000. So try to try to make that trying to if you know, if you're trying to shrink the total spend. That could be a good, good idea. But my favorite part about it is the activities and the being together through the whole weekend.

Unknown Speaker :

Yes. Oh,

Bryce Bjornson :

I agree. One couple that reached out to me. At who's getting married at Camp Pinnacle, was thinking about actually having a wedding on Friday night, so that they could have the whole day Saturday to have fun.

Nikki Whited :

Oh, that's a fun idea. I

Bryce Bjornson :

thought if you think about it, people get in on Friday night, right? So they're getting in at you know, 3456 o'clock. So there's no activities really Friday night, but you could have a wedding. Saturday, if you do have the wedding at three, four or five, six o'clock. You're going to have to everyone's going to clean up by one. Yeah. So by Friday, you kind of take advantage of that day when I was coming in. But you also make room for Saturday and Sunday is like entirely activity filled days, which is cool and fun. Did you So did you get married in in the area?

Nikki Whited :

I did. I did. So I got married 13 years ago. That'd be 14 in February. And

Unknown Speaker :

I

Nikki Whited :

knew enough about weddings to know I did not want to have to plan a full on wedding. Um, I didn't want to spend the money that it would take to do it and just the stress of it. So I got married at Sombra. Oh The top restaurant Yeah, I was back 14 years ago that was that was the hot that was the hot restaurant in town. And I wanted it to feel like we were doing like a destination wedding in a different country. And I wanted it to be pretty intimate. And I didn't want to have to worry too much about the decor or trying to transform a space because the atmosphere would was really important to me. And I knew that I would have to do a lot

Bryce Bjornson :

to address. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I think you know, doing in a restaurant makes a lot of sense. because everything's

Nikki Whited :

oh my gosh, 80 people. We had a flamenco band, we had all the best food that that sombras could offer all the the red wine was flowing. Like, it was amazing. I would do it, I would still I would do it again. I love it.

Bryce Bjornson :

What time of the year was it?

Nikki Whited :

February. Okay, which by the way, I really encourage thinking about having an offseason wedding, because your anniversary like our anniversary is February 25. It's a great time of year because it can be a little chilly. But sometimes it's not. But nothing is happening in the world. In fact, at the end of February, like you can go travel and it's pretty affordable. And you know, you're not bumping up against holidays or other.

Bryce Bjornson :

Other wedding like

Nikki Whited :

busy other weddings are busy times a year where it's just hard to do anything. And I do I guess another tip I would give other couples is like think about your like, long term like what do you want your anniversary to look like? Because if you have your anniversary, on Memorial Day, or you know other other holidays, it's always going to be kind of competing with other things. But if you can do it in an off time, like February is our month, and there's like nothing happening in February.

Bryce Bjornson :

That's a good point. Yeah, I didn't think about that. You know, as I mentioned, before we got on the podcast, I have five weddings booked for May 22 of next year. And imagine Yeah, I mean, that's it's gonna be a big weekend for not only me, but for all the couples getting married in Nashville. And yeah, you're competing with lodging, right? That's another thing. Your guests are competing with? How many other what how many thousands of people like it's not, oh, my God,

Nikki Whited :

I get why they do it. Because you get you know, it's like, you get an extra. If you do it on a holiday, your guests get an extra day off of work. And it makes sense to like, yeah, you know, for the travel portion, but I just encourage people to think long term, like you're gonna have that adversary date for a long time.

Bryce Bjornson :

Well, I have two Halloween weddings this year. Yeah. Like I get really into Halloween. They're like, no, not really just a Saturday in October. I'm like,

Nikki Whited :

that's right. ahead. thinking ahead.

Bryce Bjornson :

I just find it. Yeah, it's your right off season. My assistants getting married in late February. So I'm looking forward to that because there's an I'm not I've not the

Nikki Whited :

best, the best. And oftentimes, like, since there's not a lot going on, you can you can maybe get like offseason deals with some of your vendors. I don't know, that's as much of a thing now because honestly Asheville doesn't have a season that's not busy. Like we're kind of busy around now. But back 14 years ago, you know, yeah,

Bryce Bjornson :

I mean, I would I would give an offseason discount I think yeah, there's I mean, we're not I'm pretty much shut down from December to sure March because

Nikki Whited :

most of us are, you know, there's not a lot happening. So I don't want to speak for all vendors that that you could get an offseason discount but some vendors would offer an offseason discount

Bryce Bjornson :

totally AMS just availability wise to right. Yeah. So you know, the my bookings are already, like, I'm already fully booked for a few weekends in 2021. And if you really want a certain vendor going with offseason would allow you to get them or the venue. I've had people. I just talked to one of my couples, they're getting married on Tuesday. Mm hmm. Monday, because that's all the venue had available because of all Yeah, well. So if you're doing offseason, it's much more likely that you can do a Saturday in February and not have a lot of competition. So right. Well, Nikki, what else do you have in the works for the future? I know that in the beginning, but now what's going on for you in regards to expansion You said you're about seven years in. So I love that you've been successful for that many years and love to hear what you have in the works for the future.

Nikki Whited :

Yeah. So because of COVID bid. Our next door neighbor was villagers, which is an awesome urban homestead shop that's been in West Asheville for, I think, a decade. And maybe not quite but almost a decade, they've decided to move online their shop online. And so the space beside us became available during quarantine. And we weren't really looking to expand but the opportunity presented itself. And so now we have an additional space right next door to our old space. And it's expanded our storage in the back, which is really great and helping with organization. And we now have this beautiful, like 900 square foot, maybe thousand square foot space, that's all bright white. And we are offering smaller events in here and we are looking toward building some micro wedding packages.

Bryce Bjornson :

So going a little a little harder on the venue side of things

Nikki Whited :

a little bit. I mean, we do currently we, you know, when we're allowed to gather more than 10 and 20 people inside a space, we we do offer our vintage warehouse for gatherings of 50. And under is what we have been doing all these years. And so I wouldn't say in the past, full on weddings are a good fit for us just because we have a warehouse full of beautiful vintage items that can maybe be hard to have a full on wedding around. But we were a great spot from rehearsal dinners and gathering parties and you know, baby showers and bridal showers and that kind of thing. But with our new space, it'll be a great spot for bridal showers and

Unknown Speaker :

smaller,

Nikki Whited :

smaller showers like that. But um, yeah, we're gonna try and hit like the 10 person. 12 person. Micro wedding in here.

Bryce Bjornson :

Yeah. Well, that's a trend. I mean, as we've we've noticed a lot of events have become much smaller. Yeah. And you charge by the hour there, right. Or we do. Yeah. Yeah. And I know I've been to a party there it was smash events. Annual party. Yeah. Party.

Nikki Whited :

Yeah.

Bryce Bjornson :

I actually brought my truck to that.

Unknown Speaker :

I remember. It's fun.

Bryce Bjornson :

Wow, that's a long I was almost two years ago.

Nikki Whited :

I know. I know, a lot has happened in those two years. Okay, that was

Bryce Bjornson :

so. So I love that you're expanding. moving, moving forward with things. That's great. Is there anything else that you want to share with our listeners about either your business or weddings or Nashville or anything else that you think is relevant to the podcast?

Nikki Whited :

In this? I don't know. I don't know what what else, but I want to share?

Bryce Bjornson :

Um, maybe? Yeah, I mean, we talked a little bit about advice for couples with the vendors. But any other tips you have about Asheville specifically because it's not Charleston? And it's not Charlotte, you know, like, it's a different beast of a wedding market? Mm hmm. So, you know, for me, like, for example, I tell people, hey, if all your guests are coming from Florida and don't know what a mountain is, and then they all rent cars and try and drive over when it's rainy. You know what I like? That that's kind of Yeah, talk to people maybe about but

Nikki Whited :

I know I just say like, plan ahead. I I don't know if it's I don't know if it's just because of the times we're living in right now. But I think for some reason, so many people like it is September, late, like mid September right now. I've had so many people contacting me about their October wedding for this year. Like, what, like three weeks out? What do I What are we talking about? Um, there's a lot of last minute stuff, which is fine. I guess I'm just more surprised by it than anything, because it's never, I've never experienced that. Yeah, really. But I guess maybe a tip I would say too is since we're all sort of scrambling to find new dates for our clients from 2020 for their new 2021 date. I would say any person who is looking to book something in 2021 not to wait too long because our slot all of our slots are filling up fast. Yeah, and we're not going to have as much availability maybe as we've had in the past because a lot of us aren't our years already. Pretty cool because it was all of our 2020 people.

Bryce Bjornson :

Exactly. And yeah. You said that people have been reaching out for October I had someone reach out for next weekend. Yeah, for four days. I'm like what? Like, yeah, we need to work. And so I called them. They didn't pick up and I'm like, All right. Well, I sent him an email and they scheduled a call for tomorrow. Yeah. Oh, my. So the calls on Wednesday the weddings on Saturday. I'm like, I don't know how I'm gonna help you. But we'll jump on the phone. I mean,

Nikki Whited :

we'll do what we can we will do what we can. Yeah, we are here to help and we will do what we can. But my goodness, exactly.

Bryce Bjornson :

Well, I'm so glad that you know, you're moving forward with everything. And I love I love the expansion, and can't wait to see the space when you're done with it. Maybe I can have a birthday party there. Maybe.

Unknown Speaker :

When's your birthday?

Bryce Bjornson :

It was in June, June 6.

Nikki Whited :

I wasn't able to come.

Bryce Bjornson :

Oh, yeah, that's okay. I yeah, I might because that we just had a little space a little outside gathering.

Nikki Whited :

I know I wanted to, I can't remember why I couldn't. But I want

Bryce Bjornson :

to do some bit. I want to do like live music, both trucks outpour in different beverages, not three now. But having two tracks out. I want to have, like, just be a really fun party to invite all my couples past and present, and future. And then all the wedding vendors that I know and just have it be a really fun time.

Nikki Whited :

Maybe maybe a wedding venue with a lot of property might want to sponsor that. Maybe, maybe turn it into a like a, you know, a wedding industry.

Bryce Bjornson :

Yeah, there is. There's um, you know, there there was an annual Asheville wedding industry party.

Nikki Whited :

I know. I'm sad. We don't get to go

Bryce Bjornson :

that hasn't. Yeah, that hasn't happened. And

Nikki Whited :

I miss all that. I miss all all the winning people. I just haven't seen it very many people.

Bryce Bjornson :

We haven't done any networking since. I mean, there's nothing even in the wintertime before all this, like now. So yeah, because

Nikki Whited :

we were we were all just sort of gearing up like okay,

Unknown Speaker :

we're gonna get geared up for our spring.

Bryce Bjornson :

That's half the reason why I started this podcast because it was March and I'm like, I don't even see anyone.

Nikki Whited :

No, I'm glad you did. It's such a good, it's just it makes sense. I'm glad you did it.

Bryce Bjornson :

Yeah. It's been fun and it's uh, I hope that you know, people find it useful. I've had a couple wedding planners who have been on it actually get business from it. So you know, I try and remind people that who do join it's like, Hey, you could get business off of it. So it's fun for me to learn about the industries talk more about weddings and such and I just feel like having a more informed clientele is better for all of us. So for sure that the resource for for couples but also just for other vendors to get to know each other through the podcast, you know, it was a fun fun thing as well. So

Nikki Whited :

Oh, well then maybe you should you'll you could you could tag your birth down to it but you could have like a podcast

Unknown Speaker :

like party like you know

Unknown Speaker :

at the

Bryce Bjornson :

word record like group or

Unknown Speaker :

all party No, it'd be it'd

Nikki Whited :

be an in person party like you know with your two tracks and then you could maybe have your other people who've been on and then we could all

Bryce Bjornson :

all agreed then on

Unknown Speaker :

Yeah, well, party. Yeah, I'm done. I miss

Unknown Speaker :

everybody I want to gather with people again.

Bryce Bjornson :

Oh, yeah. Maybe Yeah. To parties next year is what I'm gonna shoot for. So

Nikki Whited :

they fun,

Bryce Bjornson :

Mickey thank you so much for being on pistols and Prosecco I for having seen you in person sometime. Until then, you know, have I hope you have a great fall season. As I said, this will be published in December. So thanks again. Nikki, have a great day. Talk to

Unknown Speaker :

you, too.