Most wedding planners eventually get a request that pushes past "planner" into "theatrical producer." Lauren Hines, Founder and President of HINESMARK AFFAIRS, has one involving a full shadow performance, custom lighting, draping, and actors telling a bride's entire life story before the ceremony even started.

More on that in a moment. First, how a vendor directory turned into a full-service agency producing 40-plus events a year.

She Didn't Start as a Planner. She Started as a Matchmaker.

Hines didn't set out to plan weddings. She set out to fix a specific problem: couples entering the hospitality space had a miserable time finding high-quality, reliable vendors without running all over the city to vet them personally. Her first move was building a digital network that gave couples access to trusted vendors in one place.

The planning business grew out of that network almost by client demand. As she expanded from New York to California, couples kept coming back with the same question: can you just plan the whole thing? The agency that exists today is the direct answer to that question, asked enough times that it became the business model.

Pro tip: if clients keep asking you to do something adjacent to your actual service, that repeated question is market research. Listen to it.

The Pandemic That Became a Turning Point

Hines is candid that the pandemic, not a marketing campaign or a lucky referral, was the real inflection point for her agency. The entire events industry had to pivot fast, and her team became known for navigating weddings during that period with structure, safety, and creativity, work that earned coverage in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Growth accelerated from there. The agency scaled to producing 40-plus events a year, which is when Hines says she knew the business had truly established itself.

Pro tip: the events that force you to rebuild your process under pressure are often the ones that reveal your actual competitive advantage. Document what you learned during your hardest stretch. It usually becomes your best pitch material later.

The Mistake: Saying Yes to Every Hire

Early on, Hines made a mistake common to fast-growing agencies: she said yes to nearly everyone who wanted to join the team, focused on growth over fit. It didn't take long to learn that not everyone aligns with a company's vision or work ethic, no matter how talented they are individually.

That experience taught her to be intentional with hiring. Now she takes the time to build a team that has the right skill set and fits the culture and standards of the agency, a shift she says made a significant difference in how the business operates today.

Pro tip: when evaluating a potential hire, weigh culture fit as seriously as skill. A skilled hire who fights your process daily costs more than a slightly less experienced hire who reinforces it.

Advisors First, Planners Second

From the very first conversation, Hines makes it clear that HINESMARK AFFAIRS isn't just executing a checklist. The team positions itself as advisors, there to guide, protect, and elevate the entire experience rather than simply carry out instructions.

Multiple planners get assigned to each event, giving clients an added layer of support and attention. The goal throughout is a seamless, high-touch experience from the first conversation to the last toast.

Pro tip: if you position yourself as an advisor rather than an order-taker, say so explicitly in your first client conversation. Clients respond differently when they understand you are protecting their interests, not just executing their requests.

When the Florist Found Out the Morning Of

Every planner needs a vendor story, and Hines's involves a couple who made last-minute changes to their floral design without telling the florist. The florist found out the morning of the wedding, which is about as late as a floral emergency can surface.

Because of the relationships Hines had built, she was able to connect the florist with one of her wholesale floral partners immediately. That partner adjusted their schedule and sourced entirely new florals within hours. Without that network, she says, the situation could have gone very differently. Instead, it became a seamless solution nobody outside the vendor team ever noticed.

Pro tip: keep a wholesale or backup vendor relationship in every major category, even ones you rarely use. The day you need a same-morning floral rescue is not the day to be cold-calling.

Differentiating on Feeling, Not Just Looks

Asked how HINESMARK AFFAIRS stands out in a crowded market, Hines points past aesthetics entirely. The differentiator isn't how an event looks. It's how it feels, produced by systems, communication, vendor relationships, and execution all working together.

With over 20 years in the industry, she says she understands what clients need, sometimes before they know it themselves, and pairs that instinct with a reputation for reliability that keeps the agency ahead of competitors chasing the same aesthetic trends.

Pro tip: ask past clients to describe your events in one word. If the words cluster around "beautiful" but never "easy" or "calm," your differentiation is still stuck on aesthetics rather than experience.

The Trend Worth Taking Seriously: Adaptability

Hines's read on the current moment centers on one word: adaptability. The pandemic proved that things can change quickly, and the planners who succeed are the ones who can adjust without losing the integrity of the event. That means staying tuned to clients and the market rather than holding rigidly to a fixed plan.

Pro tip: build one flexible checkpoint into every event timeline, a point where you deliberately ask whether anything about the client's needs has shifted since the plan was locked. Rigidity is invisible until it costs you.

What She Would Change

If Hines could start over, she would focus earlier on securing capital. Building the business from the ground up taught her enormous amounts, but she believes access to resources earlier would have let her scale faster and build infrastructure sooner rather than constructing it reactively as the agency grew.

Pro tip: if you're bootstrapping, map out which infrastructure investments (a real project management system, a dedicated ops hire) you're delaying purely for cash flow reasons. Knowing the list helps you move on it the moment capital becomes available.

Calm, Backup Plans, and Never Handing Clients a Bare Problem

Hines's approach to emergencies starts with staying calm, because planners are meant to be the calm in the storm. Backup plans, Plan B and Plan C, exist because something will always come up. Her process is to quickly assess the situation, build solutions, and communicate clearly with her team first.

If the client needs to be involved, they never hear about a problem without also hearing the solution already in motion. Presenting options rather than raw problems keeps clients feeling supported instead of stressed, which she says is what keeps everything running smoothly even under pressure.

Pro tip: rehearse the habit of pairing every problem you raise with a proposed solution, even in low-stakes moments. It becomes automatic exactly when you need it most.

Designing for Every Sense

Hines's approach to attendee experience is sensory by design. She thinks about how an event looks, feels, sounds, and even smells, because every detail plays a role in how guests actually experience the moment. Everything gets aligned with the client's vision and purpose, so the event doesn't just look beautiful. It feels unforgettable.

Pro tip: walk your next venue with your eyes closed for thirty seconds before the event. What you hear and smell in that moment is what your guests will register first, often before they see anything at all.

The Advice Every Planner Needs: Plan Starts Before Event Day

Hines's tip for every event planner is to take the work seriously and prepare well in advance, because planning doesn't start on event day. It starts in your mind long before that. Plan with intention, lead with accountability, and delegate effectively, treating every event like it's your own.

She's equally direct about the flip side: you can't do everything yourself. Trusting your team, delegating effectively, and putting people in positions where they can succeed is inseparable from good leadership.

Pro tip: if you notice yourself re-checking a delegated task "just to be sure," that's a signal to either train the team member further or clarify your instructions, not a signal to just take the task back.

The Entrance That Became a Broadway Show

Asked for the most unconventional request she's ever pulled off, Hines describes a ceremony entrance built as a full production. Her team designed a shadow performance that told the bride's life story from childhood to adulthood using lighting, draping, and actors. At the end, the drape dropped to reveal the bride and her parents standing at the top of the aisle.

Guests were completely captivated. It's the kind of moment Hines says she loves creating most: something people will genuinely never forget.

About Hopskip

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Planners on Hopskip save 30+ hours per RFP, get cleaner proposals faster, and have all the information they need to make confident venue decisions. The best part? It's free to start for planners. Book a demo today to get started.

Sources

• General industry reporting on wedding and event industry adaptations during and after the COVID-19 pandemic
• Industry commentary on personalization and adaptability trends in event planning