About Kelly Paskey-Butler, Owner of Expanded Events

 

“An event and wedding planner??? What made you get into that?”

This is a question that I hear often. Unlike most Event and Wedding Planners, I did not end up in this industry by default. It was most certainly by design.

My love for events started back in 1986, when I was 15-years-old and got my first job as a hostess in a family coffee shop. Serving guests and helping to “create an experience” was a goal that was drilled into me from the beginning. I learned, at the age of 15, exactly what I wanted to do with my career. I worked my way through High School and College in the food service industry as a hostess, expeditor, server, banquet server, bartender, catering manager, banquet captain, trainer as well as restaurant assistant manager.

I received my AA degree (with an emphasis in interior design) from Saddleback Junior College, and while attending Saddleback, I was the captain of the Speech and Debate Team, and earned a National Championship Title.

In 1996, I earned my BA degree from the School of Communications at California State University, Fullerton. The Communications degree touched upon all aspects of Mass Media and Marketing, but my emphasis was in Event Promotions. At Cal. State Fullerton I was a member of the AAF team (American Advertising Federation), a member of Kappa Tau Alpha (honor society for Communications), and upon graduation I received the “Outstanding Scholarly Achievement” award as well as the “Professional Promise” award from the School of Communications.

My first job after College was at an Investment Banking Firm in Orange County. I planned all the IPO closing parties, corporate mixers and employee incentive events. I also worked on extensive travel and hotel arrangements for out of state clients.

From there, I moved onto South Coast Plaza working exclusively with Anton Segerstrom in coordinating all of the events that surrounded the “Crystal Court” expansion project.

When the temporary South Coast Plaza project came to a close, Mr. Segerstrom referred me to the Orange County Performing Arts Center where I became the Special Events Coordinator working in the Development Department. I coordinated all cast parties, donor incentive events, donor recognition events, guilds/support group events and Board of Directors events. In addition, I was also the coordinator for the 25th and 26th annual “Candlelight Concert”. These $2,500.00-a-plate galas were the highest-grossing fund-raising events in Orange County’s History. Each year that I coordinated the event we raised over $1.3 million, and netted over $1 million.

In 1999 I accepted the Sales Manager Position at Soiree Catering & Special Events. This is where I learned the innermost workings of an event. I booked more weddings in my first summer at Soiree than the company had done in years. I seemed to have a natural flare for working with Brides, as well as the patience, passion and panache. By the end of my second summer at Soiree Catering I had Brides and other Wedding Planners wanting to hire me as a coordinator – not as a caterer. And thus, Expanded Events was born in the Fall of 2001.

In 2005 the opportunity to become the Wedding Director for the Good Shepherd Chapel at Concordia University, Irvine became available.

I now work from my home in Aliso Viejo and I get to not only take care of my son (Blake) and husband (Morgan), but also get to continue with my event planning passion.

At last count I have over 1,100 events “under my belt” – about 500 of which are weddings. I consider myself so blessed to be doing what I love to do. There’s nothing I love more that creating smiles and memories. Events and especially weddings allow me to utilize my God-given talents and sprinkle fairy dust all over people’s lives. It feels good, even if it’s just for a day, to make someone’s world a little better.