02-23-2016
Planner Profile , Jodi Moraru of EVOKE DC
FILED IN: Small Business Spotlight
Posted By: Jamie Kutchman
Please tell us a little about yourself and how you ended up as a wedding planner?
After Ringling Bros. didn’t hire me (not kidding), my step-mother asked me what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I liked planning parties. I had no idea that this was an actual business but luckily I graduated college and my first job was working for Rita Bloom, the matriarch of the DC event planning world. I began in her store, Creative Parties, by learning invitations. 26 years later I still work with them and love taking my clients there for beautiful invitations and other print materials. It’s been a long and wonderful relationship and I have this pioneer woman to thank for opening the doors of the event world to me.
What sets you apart from other planners in the industry?
I love large scale and dramatic productions and the ability to tap into my deep creativity. I excel in putting together the right team for each individual client experience. My years of thoughtful relationships allow me to tap into who and what I know will be the best for my clients. Most of all though, the EVOKE luxury service experience is unparalleled.
Please describe your ideal client.
Trust and communication. If there is trust and communication, then I can create and produce magic for my client and we can all have fun doing so. I value the relationships I have with my clients and most of them have become life-long. It’s a joy.
Please describe your signature style.
Dramatic, sophisticated, elegant and very experiential. A little bling goes a long way.
What’s your favorite way to enhance the guest experience?
I like to say at EVOKE we are like little magical ghosts. We seem to pop up at any given moment to address the needs of the guests. They are never left wandering and wondering what to do, where to go. It’s part of our exceptional service platform.
What’s the best advice you have for brides and grooms to be?
Trust your professionals so you can enjoy the process. Yes, without a doubt, planning a wedding has its stressful moments but if you have the right team in place, there are no issues that cannot be handled and handled well.
Best part of being a planner?
So many things. I love the relationships I’ve created over the years with my industry professionals who are like family to me. I love my clients and getting to know them to ensure their wedding reflects them. I love the flexibility it has given me in raising my family. I work a lot but I also have the ability to be present for my husband and kids. I am home almost every night, and we have dinner together as a family. I can’t think of much more that is as important as that time together.
Most challenging part of being a planner?
Social media can be very challenging but also necessary. Luxury is a service and you can’t see that on Instagram.
Biggest wedding disaster and how you overcame it?
Nothing insurmountable. Always little things that are easily rectified because I work with professionals who are part of the experience for the client and we all come together as a unified team.
Fave celebrity wedding?
I think all my clients are celebrities.
Fave color palette?
I really don’t have one. I love exploring and playing with color or non-color. Right now I am designing a wedding where we are using greenery as “curtains” rather than draping. It’s pretty spectacular. I also have just designed a white on white on white look and the textures keep building upon one another.
Fave spot for a destination wedding?
Portugal has a soft spot in my heart because Jeannette Tavares who is part of the EVOKE team, and an excellent planner herself is getting married there and its spectacular. I love destination weddings because they open up a whole new world of cultures, experiences and teams.
Fave ‘something blue’?
My mom gave me a handkerchief and embroidered our wedding date in blue in it.
Fave floral?
I am loving the all peony runner I am doing for an event. Full, thick and lush from floor end to floor end down a 40’ table. YUMMY!
Fave Insta feed these days?
@evoke_dc of course!
@thegoodquote (feeds my soul)
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