Today we’d like to introduce you to Leedra & Kasia Yang
Hi Leedra & Kasia, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In the summer of 2021 we were just coming out of the pandemic and Leedra had her wedding that summer also. As people were craving social interactions but with social distancing and outdoor activities, luxury picnics were becoming popular. Leedra had been planning her wedding for a year and a half at this point and had gained a significant amount of skills in event planning, working with vendors, and bringing her vision to life. Along with these skills she found herself thoroughly enjoying planning her wedding with little to no help. The creative side of styling and creating such a large event gave her the confidence and excitement to start something small. One day as Leedra was scrolling past luxury picnics that were popping up all over big cities like LA and NYC she texted her sisters and said “we could totally do this”, Kasia, the oldest sister quickly responded and from there the idea became a reality. Kasia and Leedra formed Kollective Luxury Picnics in the summer of 2021 but quickly pivoted to Kollective Luxury Events as we grew. We found our skills and interests in the business was more than just luxury picnics and wanted our name to reflect that also. We quickly introduced balloon backdrop services into our business and now have added services from rentals to event draping to full on event styling and planning.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As mentioned earlier we have added a lot of other services to our business and have grown since we started in the summer of 2021. Being a small women owned business, challenges we have faced has more so to do with the logistics of running a business rather than the passion and joy of creating these events, which has never wavered. From learning new skills of running the financial side of business to marketing and consistently meeting our clients needs, it has been a balancing act but one we have loved continuing to learn how to do.
We’ve been impressed with Kollective Luxury Events, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our name Kollective Luxury Events came from the first letters of name: Kasia and Leedra. From there we took the K and L and created a name that would reflect both of us and what we bring to the table. You can see us often referring our business to KL Events as well. We are a sister duo who both love creating beautiful backdrops and events that meets our clients visions. Kasia definitely brings a skill of creating detailed backdrops and visions that meet our clients needs and wants while Leedra often sees the bigger vision of an event and can plan the logistics accordingly. We have grown to specialize in balloon backdrops but now offer much more than that and invite all our past, present and future clients to utilize the services we offer. These services go from event rentals, florals, small balloon backdrops for a birthday or baby shower to large corporate or wedding events that requires full styling and working with multiple vendors to bring the event to life. We like to think that we can help with any event from the smallest part of an event to the largest. Not only are we a small business with big ideas and vision, we want to make beautiful events accessible to all budgets and offer free consultations with anyone who may need any assistance in their next event. We do have a website relaunch coming soon this year which will showcase all our services in detail as well.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Growing up with refugee parents, being first generation Hmong Americans and women of color we often find it hard to associate luck in our life and business as we have had to work for every thing we have. Our parents who are entrepreneurs themselves have taught us that hard work paired with a persistence attitude can bring us “good luck”. We guess bad luck can be associated with not knowing and therefore mistakes happening but again the mentality to be driven and never give up has been instilled in us and allowed us to never waver despite the “bad luck”. But we do strongly believe that everything happens for a reason and with the bad and the good it has shaped and formed us to be where we are today.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kollectiveluxuryevents/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kollectiveluxuryevents
