Hello there! My name is Maddie Schmitz, owner and lead planner of Better Together Planning. I'm a Louisiana native, and no, I did not have a pet alligator growing up. In my free time, I like to travel with my husband, sit on my patio with a wine or coffee, take my fur baby Zinc to the beach, and spend quality time with the friends we've made here in Corpus Christi. My favorite color is purple, my favorite food is Mexican, my favorite drink is Moscow Mule or a Dr. Pepper, and my favorite place to be is in the mountains. I am a type 1 Enneagram, which basically means I'm a perfectionist that likes things to be super organized and detailed. I have very high standards, hate making mistakes, and am very blunt and straight forward, in a loving way of course. I do consider myself fun and outgoing, which is why weddings are a perfect blend for me. Design and details are important, but creating the best day of your life tops it all!
How did I get into wedding planning?
As a little girl, I was always a director. Whether it was with my friends or family, I wanted to be the organizer of the group. Going through school I never knew how that would correlate to a job because I was not the student body class president type or school play director type. I went on to college to begin engineering because I was a very detailed thinker and I liked math. Then in classic freshman-in-college style hated my major and switched to chemistry. At this point, I wanted to be forensic chemist (think CSI). Long story short, I graduated in Chemistry with my minor in mathematics and shortly after married my wonderful husband!
This is where it gets interesting... I LOVED planning my wedding, the challenges, the details, the checklists. It was definitely my jam! But since I'm from good ole Louisiana, I did not know anything about wedding planners or coordinators. I had a really good friend of mine, who was a leader and director like me, stand in as my day of coordinator. I would not have survived without her! Fast forward where now all my friends are starting to get married, and they need help too because not everyone enjoys this process as much as I do. So they starting reaching out one by one because it's TOO much for them, and there blossomed Better Together Planning.
For a while, I worked a nine to five with weddings as my fun side hustle. During my corporate job experience, I fell in love with sales, marketing, and building client relationships. This only validated my drive to become wedding planner full-time, so my side hustle soon turned into my dream job. Now I plan weddings full time and love what I do! They say if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.
Are you planning a wedding? Which of these sounds most like you?
Most of the time when I meet a bride, they fall under 3 categories, and yes every bride is unique so this is more their planning style.
First category is a bride that is overwhelmed with the process, is too overly perfectionist about everything, or is just hands off with the work it takes to get to that wedding day. Sound familiar? This is my full wedding planning client. They want me to take the reins on the grunt work and present them with options to select based on their style and needs. This creates a luxurious engagement season centered around enjoying the experience instead of stressing about the endless todo lists.
The second category is a bride that can handle the back and forth emails, contracts, and sifting through vendor options, BUT design is super important to her. She is either super into design and wants it to be flawless, or she wants that Pinterest worthy wedding and design is not in her wheelhouse. This ringing any bells? These are my design planning clients. I cater the planning experience to focus on the aesthetics and fine details. We cover everything from invitations to place settings to name cards to floral and more.
And the third category is a bride that has wedding planning down. She feels confident in checking all the boxes, but when it comes down to wedding weekend, she wants PEACE. This means no stress, no phone calls, no directing traffic, she wants to be fully present with her friends and family! These are my event management gals.
Maybe you're a little bit of every category. I pride myself in customizing my packages to fit each bride's unique needs. I'd love to chat with you about weddings! Click the link below to fill out the form, so we can set up a call.
Oh my gosh, Maddie, it's so nice to "meet" you! I love how you've given us such a fun and personal introduction to the face behind Better Together Planning.
First off, I'm cracking up at the alligator comment - way to address that Louisiana stereotype head-on! And your fur baby Zinc going to the beach? That sounds absolutely adorable.
I'm totally with you on the Moscow Mule and Dr. Pepper combo - great taste in drinks! And mountains as your favorite place? Seems like the perfect spot for a Type 1 Enneagram to find some peace and order in nature.
Speaking of which, your description of being a perfectionist with high standards sounds like it would translate perfectly into wedding…