For about four years, I tried to start this business and kept stopping myself.
I'd get excited, start taking the steps to make it real, and then hit the same wall every time: I couldn't figure out what I had to add. The Portland wedding scene already had plenty of coordinators. Plenty of planners producing beautiful tablescapes. Plenty of Instagram-perfect moments captured in golden hour light. If that was all I was bringing, I'd just be adding noise to an already saturated market.
So I'd go back to working for someone else. It took a few more years inside the industry before I understood what was actually bothering me. How people get married has changed. How the industry supports them in planning it largely hasn't.
The wedding planning industry runs on three tiers: day-of coordination, partial planning, full planning. Some version of that structure exists at almost every planning company, built on the assumption that every couple's needs are predictable enough to be packaged in advance. That every couple fits neatly into one of three boxes. But a rigid, one-size-fits-all model is a poor match for the way people are choosing to celebrate today.
Weddings have gotten smaller and more intentional. Budgets are spent more deliberately. Couples care less about how the room photographs and more about whether their guests actually had a good time. The planning model that exists was designed for a different era of weddings. I didn't see why I had to replicate it.
Higher Love is built around a simple idea: every couple starts with Essential Coordination, month-of management beginning six weeks before the wedding. That's the foundation. From there, planning support is added only when it's actually needed, billed at a flat hourly rate. You choose what serves you. You only pay for that.
Why pricing is published
I believe pricing should be transparent. You shouldn't have to send an inquiry just to find out if a vendor is in your budget. Your time is valuable and so is your trust. Everything is on the website. A flat hourly rate. A clear foundation. Add-ons you choose yourself. You aren't bound to a package — you build exactly the level of support that makes sense for your wedding and your budget.
After years of circling this industry, waiting to find what I had to add, it turned out to be something simple: tell people what things cost, let them choose what they need, and trust them to make good decisions. That's it. That's Higher Love.