I Built My Wedding Business By Accident

Jessie Khaira didn’t set out to build a wedding business. It started with one decision, one problem, and a moment where she was told no.

In this episode, Jessie shares the real story behind how everything began. From creating chair covers for her own wedding to setting up a 400-person event the day before, this is an unfiltered look at what it actually took to get started. No strategy. No systems. Just figuring it out as she went.

This episode walks through the early mistakes, the pressure, and the lessons that shaped her standards today. It’s a reminder that most businesses don’t start with a plan. They start with action, experience, and learning in real time.

Chapters

00:00 – Why Jessie is sharing her story
01:30 – The moment everything started
03:00 – Setting up her own wedding
05:00 – The reality of DIY and exhaustion
07:00 – A moment that shifted everything
09:00 – Learning logistics the hard way
11:00 – The emotional weight of her job
13:00 – Why she needed something different
14:30 – Turning conversations into bookings
16:00 – Saying yes to everything
17:30 – The pricing mistake that changed her standards
19:00 – Building without a plan
20:30 – The messy phase most people go through

Connect with Jessie

Website: www.jessiekhaira.com

Instagram: @jessiekhaira

If you are planning a South Asian wedding, supporting someone who is, or working in this space as a planner, this podcast was created for you. Hit subscribe and join the conversation as we plan with clarity, confidence, and perspective.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to The Planner's Perspective with Jesse Cara. This is the podcast for wedding planners and couples navigating South Asian weddings and everything that comes with them: culture, family dynamics, money, design, expectations, and the real conversations no one prepares you for. I'm Jesse Cara, a South Asian wedding planner and educator, trusted by couples and families when things get complicated. Here we go beyond timelines and Pinterest boards and talk about what actually happens behind the scenes. If you're a planner stepping into South Asian weddings or a couple who wants to understand the process more deeply, you're in the right place. Let's get into it. Welcome back to the Planner's Perspective. I'm Jessie Cara, award-winning South Asian wedding planner and designer. Today I want to do something a little different because you may have just found this podcast, or maybe you've been listening to it since it came out, and you may be thinking, who is she? Why does what she say matter? Like who gives her the authority? Where is this coming from? And that's fair because I don't think I've ever really sat down and walked you through how my entrepreneurial journey started. And I don't think I'd quite really did an introduction about my past at the beginning of this podcast. So this is not a polished version. This is it's not the version to make everything make sense, but it's the real version of who I am and how I got here. Because really, truly, there was really no plan. Um, I did not start off trying to build what I've now built. There was no strategy. There really was no moment where I decided I was going to build a business and become who I am today. This started from one very simple place. I wanted something for my wedding and I was told it wasn't in the budget. I'm an oldest daughter. We don't take that very well. I wanted cherry corpus for my wedding reception at that time. They were like new to the market, they were expensive for those days, like what was considered an acceptable price. Um, but at that time, they completely transformed the space. They made everything feel elevated and finished and intentional. And I remember being so like told so like just casually that they just weren't an option. But for me, it wasn't just about the chair covers, it was about how I wanted my wedding to feel. So instead of letting it go, I said bet that I decided to do something about it. So I had them made in India, thanks to my parents. And in my head, I thought I thought, okay, I'm gonna start a rental company, I'll rent them out, I'll make my money back, and that'll be it. And that was the extent of the plan. The company was called Elite Trick Covers, and if I'm being honest, I don't think I was building anything long term. I just knew I was told no, and I wanted them, and I was gonna do something to make it happen. I was literally solving a one-time problem. Now, what I didn't think about was everything that came with that decision. I didn't think about setup time, teardown, logistics, labor, timelines, even something as basic as access to the venue. And I learned that the hard way at my very own wedding. The day before my reception, my wedding reception actually was on the same day as was trending back then. But my cousins and I were at the venue setting everything up ourselves. So yeah, this was the Friday I was getting married on the Saturday. Looking back now, I'm actually lucky the venue was available the day before because I hadn't even thought to ask that question in advance. I just assumed it would all work out. Setup ended up taking much longer than I expected. It was our first time doing a setup for 400 people. I had taken on a lot of like the details myself as well. We got gotten the backdrop done, but yeah, I took a lot of it on because like I was working with that budget. So anything that was not in that budget, I was like, okay, I'm just gonna do this. I did a lot of DIY now that I think of it. I even had made these scented champagne flute candles where I had hand placed individual hearts on them. Anyways, what I thought would be like a few hours turned into the entire day. I did not leave the banquet hall until at least 5:30 or 6. And I lived 45 minutes away. Okay. So, like just getting it all done, I was beyond exhausted. And so we set up, had over a 45-minute commute back home. I was luckily going against rush hour traffic, and I remember rushing home and I was already late. Like, I was late from my very own mania. Guests had started to arrive, the caterer had dropped off the food, photo video team was already like set up, ready to go. And I remember I was just like so overwhelmed. And I was feeling guilty that all these people were waiting for me. I was feeling guilty that the photo video team was there already, and you know, they had this strict like this is how much time you're gonna get, anything over and above that is gonna be extra. And I did not want my dad to have to pay more just because of these stupid chair covers. And I was just like very overwhelmed and like just feeling behind. And I tried to push through it, but it just it got to be a lot, and I cry when things are a lot, so I went into my room and I started crying, like I needed to release these moments, and it wasn't one of those like quiet, composed cries. Like I was exhausted, physically, emotionally, like drained, and it all just hit me at once. And I just had spent the entire day setting up for my own reception, and now I was immediately like expected to shift into being present, being the bride, being on while people were waiting for me. And I just went into my room and I started crying. And my mom came and checked on me, and she just kind of looked at me, walked away. And I guess she must have told my dad or my dad came separately. And my dad comes into the room, and he's just like looking at me at first, and I was like, Okay, I'm coming, I'm coming. And he all of a sudden he goes to me, he's like, You don't have to do this. And I'm like, What are you talking about? And he was like, You don't have to get married, like it's not too late. If you don't want to get married, I'll just call the kid or I'll call the guard, and I'll I'll call like the other party and I'll like like just call it off. And I remember looking at him and just saying, No, I'm like, No, I'm dad, I'm just really tired, I'm exhausted. Just give me a minute, like, let me clean my face. Luckily, it was the mic. Like, okay, I didn't even have hair makeup done for my manya, which back then wasn't really the trend. Like, you no one really did. It was your manya, but and I was like, just give me a moment, let me wash my face, I'll come outside and I'll be like, I'll be on. And looking back now as I'm telling this story, I realized what a gift that was to have a dad in the early 2000s say to you and give you that space to walk away. Like, anyone who is like like my age or comes from a family where you just really follow tradition and you do these things, that's a lot. Like, that was such a gift for him to give me that space and permission to walk away when I was already a couple years too late. Like I was, you know, past my prime to get married. But yeah, I didn't need it. And I guess in that moment I didn't process it and really just because just thinking back now, I'm processing it. But yeah, so I wiped my tears and I got ready and I went back out. And that really sums up where I was at that stage in mind. Just keep going, push through, figure it out. Uh, I think that was most of my life actually. Uh so even after the reception, I didn't fully think things through. I just assumed I would go back the next day and take everything down. I didn't confirm anything with the venue. I didn't ask about timelines or strike or expectations. I just thought I'll deal with it tomorrow. And I am gonna say this so nobody like truly judges me. You judge me a little bit, but don't judge me too hard. I was 23, okay? So my frontal lobe was not fully developed. I was 23 doing all this. So the night of our reception, we had our big, you know, grand entrance with the arch, and we were put into our limo and off we went. So yeah, it didn't even cross my mind that I had chair covers there until the next morning waking up, and I remember immediately thinking, the chair covers. So I start calling on my cousins, waking them up, like we gotta go, trying to coordinate how we're gonna get back to the hall. Like, I'm in downtown Vancouver, the venue is now over an hour away, and I'm like trying to figure this out because we gotta go take these chair covers. So I called the venue, and when I called the hall, they're like, they're already gone. I'm like, what do you mean they're gone? And he said, Yeah, we had your family take them down. But yeah, so apparently the venue owner told whoever was left from my husband's side of the family that everything needed to be cleared out. So they took all the chair covers and bagged into the bagged them into these like bright orange um garbage bags the halls provided them, loaded them up into like everyone's cars. This is 400 plus chair covers, okay? And dropped them off at my like in-laws garage that night. And that that was my very first introduction to strike. I didn't even know that was a thing until that moment. And it sounds funny now, but at the time it was just another reminder of just how much I didn't know. Like I just really did not know. They had a party there that day, and so they obviously couldn't keep the chair covers. And around the same time in my life, I was working in recreational therapy. Uh, work, I was working with patients between the ages of 16 and 24 and just did patient confidentiality. I won't give too many details. I know it's been 20 plus years, but I saw a lot. Like I saw a lot, I saw the effects of drugs, I saw the effects of alcohol, I saw the effects of physical abuse. I was working with patients between the ages of 16 and 24. So they weren't too far off from my own age. They, some of the younger ones, were the exact same age as the cousins that I was spending so much time with and who were like literally helping me put up chair covers. And I'm an empath. And what that means is I was not leaving my work at work. Instead, what I would do is cry my entire way home. I just could not fathom that A, what all these patients had encountered and the life they were living, and a lot of it was stupid decisions that kids make. And the rest of it was a lot of them were no longer supported by family. And I just I just I feel like if I say anymore, I'm sharing someone's private information, so I'm just gonna leave it at that. But I carried it with me a lot, like I carried it not only on my drive home, but like after I got home, and I would think about it, and then I would order things to surprise them and take things so they still felt a little normal, like the movies and the music so they could stay on top of trends. And there were many days where I would pull into so my husband and I had lived with his parents, and then we moved out for a little bit, and then we moved back with his parents, and we um moved into this apartment complex thing, and when you like pulled your car in, there was like the place where you placed the code to open the underground garage. I would be so out of it emotionally that I could not even like perceive how much space I had. And I would scrape my side view mirror more times than I cared to share. Like, I yeah, I would do that. I would like scrape the rim of my tire and and just their stories and their struggles and everything they were going through, it was just so heavy. And I didn't realize it at the time because I was doing what I was supposed to do. Like you go to school, you get a job, you work your job. Like that is what you did. And without even realizing it, I was internally looking for something lighter, something where I had more control, where I could create. And it was in those moments that I decided, like maybe giving this chair cover business a little bit more attention is a good idea. And it wasn't because I had this big vision, it was because I needed something differently, different. I needed something where I, when I left work, I wasn't carrying all these emotions. Now, at the same time, I was also doing hair and makeup. So I did some bridal, but mostly like hair and makeup was very different back then. Okay. The all these steps and the highlight and contour, all that fun stuff didn't really exist. But I was doing hair and makeup. So what I would do is when I would be doing someone's hair and makeup, I would get like I would tell them about the chair covers, and that is how while I still had this job, like I started cutting back the hours, but I started trying to pick up more hair and makeup work. And from that hair and makeup work, I was trying to just casually like I would have conversations. I realize it now that I was literally like marketing, but I was just being like, hey, do you need chaircovers for your event? Because I had them available, and there really wasn't any strategy behind it. It was just conversation. It was the conversations I was having with brides or the bride's cousins or the groom's sister. And from there things started to grow, but not in a structured way. Clients would ask if I had centerpieces, so I added centerpieces. Then they'd ask about backdrops, so I added backdrops. And at one point, I was offering hair and makeup services and using that to then pitch, and I wasn't really refining anything, and I wasn't building systems, I was just saying yes to whatever came my way and figuring it out afterwards. I also started attending conferences and investing in training because I knew I didn't know what I was doing, and that's how I ended up adding event coordination, not because I planned it, but because clients needed more and I didn't want to say no. And if I'm being very honest, I didn't think I could say no. And I remember my very first shirt cover booking so clearly. I was doing the bride's makeup. I quoted her a price, and she basically haggled me down to $1.25 a shirt cover by telling me that don't worry about ironing them, just put them on. Okay, $1.25 is nothing. But I just couldn't say no, so you know, went to the venue. We put them on, and I was not happy with how they looked. I could not leave with wrinkled chair covers. So away I went. I went to Home Depot, I bought some uh steamers and extension cords, and I came back and we steamed every single one of those chair covers. The labor alone cost more than what I had charged for the chair covers, and I still had to like go get them cleaned. So I paid out of pocket to do this event. But that moment, like that event set a standard for me. And from that point on, steaming and ironing was not optional. It became the standard. So if anybody did ask me, hey, can you just put them on? The answer was no, because that is like I wouldn't want somebody walking into an event seeing that and being like, who did that? Because they don't realize that the guest or the client is trying to save money. They just see that this vendor put this out. And I think if you're a bride or groom listening to this, please don't ask that. I understand you're trying to like do things that are saving money for you, but they don't always look good. And I can tell you, having wrinkled chair covers was worse than not having any chair covers. And there's a lot of things that happen. People are like, okay, well, I can only afford this, so let me just do this. And sometimes not having it is better than having a half-assed version of it. And as industry professionals, if you're looking listening to this, how you showcase your work matters. And at that time, I wasn't thinking of it, I don't think, from a business perspective, it's just being who I am and the way I was raised and my people-pleasing and perfectionist tendencies, I could just not walk out of that hall without ensuring what I left behind actually looked good. So, like ironing and steaming became the standard. Even though when I purchased those chair covers, I was told they were link wrinkle resistant, they were not, but it is what it is. We ironed a lot, like legit, there was times we would take ironing boards and irons and prep some. So as a team was putting them on, there was people ironing. And when I say we, I mean my mom and my cousins. Okay, I could not run elite chair covers, like mostly because of my mom, but my mom and my cousins, like not even close. And there were times I would take on orders that made absolutely no sense. And my mom would sit there at the sewing machine, like sewing sash after sash after sash. Like I would take an order for 700 sashes for like two days later, and we would and I had to like transform my parents' basement into like my production house. Okay. So we had tables set up in there for cutting and sewing, and we'd buy the fabric, I would cut it, my mom would surge it, and I I didn't say no, and she supported me, and I took on like literally whatever worked in my way. And I honestly thought that's what it meant to build a business. And looking back now, yes, it was chaotic. Um, yes, there were things I would do very differently, but I also know that that phase taught me everything. It taught me how to problem solve, how to take ownership, how to create standards, even though I didn't fully understand what I was building yet. I didn't start with confidence. I built that through experience, through pressure, through moments where I had to figure it out. Because there really was no other option. At least that's what I felt. Like I felt like there was no other option. And if you're listening to this and you feel like you don't have it figured out, like you're all over the place saying yes and learning as you go, I want you to understand that you're not behind. You're in the phase most people don't talk about the messy phase, the figuring it out phase, the phase where you just build the foundation without even realizing it. And if I could go back to that version of myself, I wouldn't tell her to stop. I would just tell her to pay attention because everything she was learning in those moments was building something much bigger than she could see at that time, and telling her to take notes of what was working and what wasn't working, and like telling her to show herself grace. But my story doesn't end there. It's actually where things start to get heavier, and there's so much more, but I'll share that with you in the next episode. If today's episode helped things click or gave you a new perspective, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss what's coming next. This podcast exists to support planners in doing their best work and to help couples feel informed, confident, and prepared as they navigate their very own Celsian wedding. If there's something specific you want me to talk about, an episode idea you'd love to hear, a planning story you want to share, or a question you're sitting with, there's a link in the show notes where you can send it all in. I promise I will read every submission, and many of them will shape future episodes. You can connect with me at www.justycara.com or on Instagram at Justy Cara. If you're ready to navigate Celsius weddings with intention and confidence, I'll see you there. And if this podcast is supporting you in any way, I would truly appreciate you taking a moment to leave a five star review. It helps more planners and couples find these conversations and keep the space growing. Until next time, trust your perspective and plan with clarity.