Email: neill@outloudculture.com
Born and raised in a small town in Wisconsin, Trista had dreams of doing big things and starting her own exciting journey out in the world. She attended University of Arizona where her love for event coordination first originated. Her interest in event work stemmed from when she began interning with a company who specialized in event management for a non-profit organization. Her creativity and attention to detail landed her a position within the company. Trista instantly became obsessed with the wedding and event industry and soon after, she created BTS and hasn’t looked back since!
It was over 10 years ago that Trista’s ultimate dream turned into a reality. She created BTS Event Management, launching over 10 years ago in Phoenix, Arizona. The company got its start planning local weddings in Arizona but has since skyrocketed, traveling around the world to beautiful destinations, such as LA, Mexico, Costa Rica, & more, creating the dreamiest day for each wedding couple. Trista and the BTS team are perfect for a couple who wants an unforgettable and unique wedding day, inspiring guests alike!
BTS sets the bar for luxury weddings. What makes BTS unique is that they truly do it all for their couples. They plan, coordinate, and manage wedding as well as design and create the setting weddings take place in. Don’t know what to do for save the dates? Trista has an amazing graphic design team. Having trouble finding the perfect dress? BTS has an in-house bridal stylist for all attire needs. Their specialty- making wedding visions come to life.
Trista puts her heart and soul into planning each wedding, with the goal of blowing her clients’ expectations out of the water. She has dedicated her life to her craft, with many sleepless nights creating cutting edge, unique wedding designs. She truly makes the impossible-possible.
Her why and reason for pursuing this amazing journey is her beautiful kids, a whole decade apart, who keep her on her toes and never allow her to slow down enough to realize that she probably actually does need sleep every now and again.
Although a self-proclaimed workaholic, Trista tries to make time for hobbies. When she’s not planning a wedding, she enjoys weightlifting, boxing, barre and traveling.
Hi Trista, welcome to OLC! For everyone out there in OLC-Land tell us a bit about yourself?
I am a workaholic mother of 3. I have a very blended family with my life partner and his children. Collectively, we have 5 kids who are all very eclectic and unique in their own way. To say my household is a bit of a circus at times is an understatement. Couple that with a high demanding, high pressure career and that about sums up the day to day for me!
So how did you discover your passion for Event Planning and weddings?
This happened almost on accident when I was required to do an internship when I was in college at the University of Arizona. I landed a spot at a non-profit organization doing their events and galas. I got the hang of the tasks rather quickly and my passion for events and weddings snowballed from there.
You have your own company called BTS Event Management, can you tell me how you started the company and what you did to grow it to where it’s at now?
I am a true “started from the bottom, now I’m here” kind of story. I started BTS as a single mom, and recent college graduate, who knew I needed the flexibility to be around for my first-born daughter and hopefully create something that could generate enough revenue so that I could provide anything in the world my daughter needed. I stayed up late, night after night, brainstorming ideas for the business, researching events, and looking up local networking and women’s groups I could join so that I could hopefully rub elbows with the right people that could get me in front of the right clientele. I made networking my full-time job until clients started rolling in. I’m a firm believer that relationships are the number one way to get to where you want to be. Someone has got to crack the door open so you can get inside to the big leagues, so you just have to keep on meeting people and formulating genuine relationships in order to grow.
What’s been the most challenging part of your career?
Oh, just about everything. This isn’t easy. I don’t have a boss or a mentor or a training manual that helps me when I don’t know what to do. I have had to figure everything out as I’m going and that method comes with a lot of bumps, bruises, and hard lessons. Another difficult thing was not having any income until I started generating clientele. That took honestly, about a year and a half or even two years before I started actually having a small flow of money. Going through economic hardships like covid or recessions is also really difficult. I don’t have a huge fortune 500 safety net that continues to spit out paychecks when the economy is tanking. When things are going south in this country, it gets rather scary.
What made you decide to showcase your incredible weddings on TikTok?
If there is one thing I can stress enough to any business owner, it’s that you have to stay current with the times. I keep on getting older, but my brides all stay around that 20-30 age range. I have to stay in touch with what is going on with that generation in order to have a chance of attracting them to me!
You’ve planned events for an array of celebrities, what one stands out to you as the most memorable?
MLB superstar David Price and his beautiful wife, Tiffany. This was one of my first huge destination weddings. We did this out in Maui, HI. We started out planning the wedding in Miami, FL. The bride found out she was expecting during the planning process. This was during the time when Zika was running rampant, and Florida was highly infested with the mosquitos who were spreading the disease. The bride called me and said: “we’re moving the wedding; I need you to find me a place that doesn’t have Zika.” I was beyond stressed but did a ton of research and realized that Hawaii was our best bet. We not only changed the location, but we also moved the date up by 2 whole months. The stress to get the details of this wedding pulled together on time was out of this world. Everything came together incredibly but I will never forget that experience.
You’ve also travelled to many amazing places, what was your favourite place you’ve visited and what did you love about it?
My favorite place was Turks and Caicos. It is such a beautiful island, there is really truly nothing like the color of the water there. I also like it because it is not oversaturated with tourists.
Out of all the celebrities you’ve planned events for, were there any that made you star struck?
No, not at all! To be honest, most of the time, I have no idea who they are. It won’t be until someone else tells me what a huge name I’m working with and then by that time, I’ve usually gotten to know them a bit and feel super comfortable with them. Circling back to the first question, I don’t have a lot of time on my hands between my crazy work schedule and abundance of children, so I often am not familiar with big names in sports or pop culture. Now, if you were to tell me that I had a chance at doing an event or wedding for Drake or Rihanna, I might lose my mind, freeze dead where I’m at, and take a few hours to really conceptualize what is going on lol!
What’s next for you and BTS in 2023?
I am very interested in opening a bridal salon that helps our ladies get all the right services to get ready for their big day. Skincare, lashes, tanning, make up application, etc. I want to really focus on the services that our brides get most, before the wedding, and do them really really well!
Social Media: Instagram | BTS Instagram | TikTokIWebsite | The Aisle Podcast
