Adapting Your Wedding Business to the Changing Climate with Jamie Chang
What does climate change have to do with your wedding business? More than you think.
In this episode of Mind Your Wedding Business, Kevin sits down with Jamie Chang, destination wedding planner and founder of Mango Muse Events, to talk about what it means to future-proof your business in the face of a changing climate. From orange skies to overheated team members, Jamie shares her firsthand experiences with extreme weather and why it’s time for wedding professionals to rethink how we plan, protect, and show up for our clients, our teams, and the planet.
Together, they explore the business case for sustainability, the health realities of working in extreme heat, and the simple swaps that can reduce your impact while improving your client experience.
Highlights:
- What climate change really looks like in weddings today
- Why adapting to extreme weather starts with internal business audits
- Small shifts that reduce your carbon footprint and boost efficiency
- How to care for your team’s health and safety onsite
- The surprising link between sustainability and long-term resilience
- What younger generations expect and why vendors can’t ignore it
- Ways to start making climate-conscious choices
- How to stand out by aligning your business values with your operations
- Why “pretty and sustainable” is the new gold standard
Whether you’re a planner, florist, rental company, or DJ, this conversation will challenge you to think beyond the timeline—and embrace change as a tool for growth, impact, and a better future for everyone in the industry.
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Transcript
All right, folks, welcome to another episode of Mind Your Wedding Business. I'm here with Jamie Chang. She's going to be talking to us about some interesting weather stuff. So I'm kind of interested to get into it. But Jamie, before we jump into that, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how we got you here today?
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, first of all, I'm super excited to be here. So thank you so much for having me. I'm Jamie Chang. I am the owner, the CEO, the lead planner, all the things at Mango. Yes, I am also the janitor. I am also the cook. am also all the things at Mango Muse Events. I started this company over 16 years ago now, which sounds a little crazy when I say it out loud, but.
Kevin Dennis (:⁓ it's my pleasure.
The janitor? Are you the janitor too?
You
Jamie Chang (:has gone super fast and super slow all at the same time. We do specifically destination weddings all over the world, all over the country, and that's our clientele. We focus a lot on personal, meaningful, personalized weddings where it reflects the couple, what they love, their values, and what's important to them.
when it comes to celebrating their wedding day.
Kevin Dennis (:love it. All right, so we're going to be here talking about adapting your wedding business to the changing climate. And we're talking about weather. So I want to make sure you you are clear on that. But so when did you start thinking about climate change and how it could impact the wedding industry and what like really pushed this topic to kind of the forefront for you?
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, it's always sort of been there for me, just sort of lingering back here. I think one of the big turning points, and you might ⁓ be able to relate to this, seeing as you're also sort of in the Bay Area, was, you know, in 2020, when we had that crazy orange sky, and it just is from all the wildfires. Yeah, for those who don't know, it was from all the wildfires.
Kevin Dennis (:Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
The end.
Jamie Chang (:and it would just look like the apocalypse had arrived. And it was for days, it was scary. Obviously there was lots of smoke in the air associated with it. And I think perhaps for the first real time, it sort of like hit me in the face that this climate change is, I wasn't a disbeliever before. I was always concerned, but I think when it hits you personally,
Kevin Dennis (:It really did. Yeah. And it was for days. It went on forever.
Jamie Chang (:at home in front of your face, which I think for many people now, they've experienced something where they've sort of come face to face with the fact that things are changing for real. Like it's not just an idea, right? A hypothetical thing that scientists talk about. It's real, it's here and it's not going away. I think that was sort of one of the bigger triggers for me. And then I just started to think about it in the sense of what I do personally.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Jamie Chang (:kind of not really even the industry as a whole, just me and my events and the fact that I do do destination weddings, which I love, I love them. But if we're being very honest, there is a huge climate impact from destination weddings, specifically more so than say hometown weddings, ⁓ purely because of the travel aspect. So that sort of... ⁓
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:hurts me is because this is what I do and this is what I love. But it's also I understand the impact we're having in not a good way on the climate, on the earth, on our fellow human beings and plants and animals, et cetera. And so that ⁓ it just it gets you thinking about what maybe you want to change or need to change or how we collectively as an industry.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:also need to make some changes.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah. All right. So what are some of the most visible ways you're seeing climate change affect the wedding and events today? You know, like from weather to logistics.
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, I mean, I think weather is a great place to start. I think that's the thing we can we can see, right? We can feel. once once again, I think we all we've all experienced something right. Whether that's. Even if it's just purely super intense heat, that's something I think almost everybody has experienced wherever they are, right? Like, you know, varying degrees of what what their version of intense heat is, but it's it's hotter.
Kevin Dennis (:Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:It's just plain hotter than it was before. the heat waves, right, like here in the Bay, like the heat waves get longer and they're worse. The temperatures are higher. They don't come down as fast. I think everyone's sort of experienced that. But then there's, you know, there's wildfires. Once again, here in California, there's flooding as we've experienced, or unfortunately, Texas has just experienced. ⁓ There's hurricanes, right, which...
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:Hurricanes are not new and wildfires aren't new, but everything's become bigger and more destructive and lasting longer. all of that, think we've some, wherever you live, you've experienced something, whether that's tornadoes or, you know, have drought even just plain drought, how that affects things like crops and stuff.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah, we went through the drought in California for a while, a long time. And my wife and I were just in Hawaii and we saw like someone driving down the road with those big tanks of water on the back of their car. I'm like, remember when everyone was driving around our town and you were able to go get recycled water just to water your plants. you know, so yeah, we've experienced all that kind of crazy stuff. So.
And then I was going to say too is I was in Orlando ⁓ just about a month ago for software training for the software that we use for our business. And ⁓ I got on my phone like a severe weather alert. And I'm like, okay. It's gonna thunderstorms. And I'm like, okay. And I was like, well, it says it's going to happen in an hour. So I ran over because it was my last night there to grab my wife a caramel apple from Disney.
the Disney area to bring home on the airplane for as a good husband. Right. Well, no, I was an idiot because I, I, they literally got four and a half inches of rain in like a short. There was water. mean, I was on the freeway driving back to my hotel doing like 20 miles an hour, just trying to follow the person in front of me going, what the hell? know, so again, it's more like, I think it goes to you that more intense, more, you know, it's
Jamie Chang (:of you!
Kevin Dennis (:crazy. And then I was talking. then I went to dinner that night talking to ⁓ the waitress and she said, Yeah, this is how it is now. And she goes, I don't know why people even go to the theme parks here in the summer because come about 234 o'clock, you're going to get rain, you know, and they usually shut the parks down. So yeah.
Jamie Chang (:It's
crazy, right? Like the changes we're experiencing and things aren't as, things are more unpredictable, right? Like it can come suddenly or something changes or what you thought you like understood about the seasonal patterns are not the case. Like you were just talking about this, right? How it's a lot cooler here in the Bay area this summer than it.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:has been and is normally. I'm not going to complain, but it's also a little weird. And so guess my point is, all of those different things are hard to plan for because the year is different now. It's not necessarily what it was historically. Every year is different. Every year is different. so I think the question is, how do you plan for that, which is
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah, it is a little strange.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:The answer is that it's hard, but it affects everything, right? It affects the venue you choose. It affects the location you pick. Do you remember before we never had to think about planning around wildfires, like wildfire season, right? That wasn't even something you thought about, but now it is, right? Because if something were to happen and there's smoke, I mean, obviously, if you're in danger, the wedding's canceled, but...
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
No.
No. Yeah.
You are yeah.
Jamie Chang (:If you're close enough where it's that's not the case, but you're dealing with high levels of like, you know, carcinogenic smoke or, you know, people trying to evacuate or what have you, that's going to play into your wedding as well. Right. And what what's happening and how that happens and if it can happen and your guests and all the logistics that go into that. So it's sort of that that weather, I would say, is the starting point that that sort of affects everything else.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah, it's in so we are in the wedding industry here in the Bay Area where we go year round with weddings. So it's like I have friends that are outside of the, you know, of the California area and they, you know, they have seasons, you know, like, like example right now in Arizona, weddings are not happening because it's a million degrees. And, know, so yeah, and so they they go more winter time, you know, and then other places where it snows lot people.
Jamie Chang (:It's too hot. It's just too hot.
Kevin Dennis (:the wedding slow down because it's harder to have a wedding in those type of conditions. So it is getting more harder to predict these type of things. you know, it.
Jamie Chang (:It is, and
then if it's harder to predict, it's harder to plan, right?
Kevin Dennis (:Well,
yeah, it really is. It always cracks me up because my couples will go, I'm going to go a year before my wedding date to my wedding venue and see what the weather's like. I'm like, you can't do that anymore because it's, know. No? Yeah, but it's, yeah.
Jamie Chang (:You're like, you can, but take it with a grain of salt, because who
knows what it's going to actually be like on your day.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah, I agree. So, all right. Well, how can wedding professionals start like future proofing their business against extreme weather or like supply chain disruptions because of weather, all that kind of stuff?
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, I think a good place to start, and this is kind of what I would recommend for sort of any company really, is just taking a look at your internal processes. So everything like start to finish. And it's actually it's a really good audit also just for yourself, for efficiency sake, right? For pricing, all the things, right? Like taking some time to really look at your like start to finish of what that really looks like of
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:not just your client process, but sort of how you run your business, the ⁓ vendors you use that maybe you get materials from or software from or whatever, right? You have these different people you work with to help make your business run. And the question is, is are you utilizing perhaps the best options for you? And that's different for everyone, right?
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:We're all small businesses. We all function a little differently, but really like we're not, we're not millionaires. Like we don't have, we're not, we're not big companies that have lots of capital, like just hanging out in our mattresses. We don't work that way. Right. And so we do have to be careful as well. Right. So that we're ⁓ making thoughtful and ⁓ maybe not words, not accurate, sort of this business decisions that make sense.
for us from a profit standpoint, right? To support our employees, to support the brand we're trying to create, all those things. And so I do think starting there and taking a look, like kind of in a fine tooth comb way, sort of how you do things and what that means from a either supplier standpoint or even an efficiency standpoint. Like there's a lot of things with regards to
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:like reducing your climate impact that really are like win. I call them like win, win, win, win situations like multiple wins where you're also being more efficient and maybe you're also saving on costs and maybe you're also thinking about, you know, when you switch to this supplier versus that supplier, this one's perhaps more local. And thus, if there's a problem, they're nearby or they're local in the sense of you're supporting
Kevin Dennis (:Mmm.
Jamie Chang (:community nearby you, Or within your community. That's kind of awesome too. Like there's, who doesn't love doing that? It's, you you're lifting your whole community by your purchases, right? I do think we all have a lot of purchasing power that we don't think about. And as a business as well, right? Like not just as an individual, but as a business, like where we put our money and who we, where we like kind of.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:things from or get things from or work with those relationships we're supporting in some shape or form, right? And so how we decide to do that, where we decide to do that is it matters too. But I do think there's a, to go back to my previous point, I do think there are win-win situations where you can... Yeah, so if you think about, and this is something really small, okay, but...
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
I was going to ask, what are some win-win situations that...
Okay.
Jamie Chang (:If
you think about sort of your that process of with your client, right? What does that look like? Is there ⁓ do you do still do like some form of like a paper proposal, a paper contract, right? Every I mean, we're not going to we can't. I don't think I can actually. I mean, sure, someone could. I don't think I could actually calculate like what's the cost of that one piece of paper. But it's more of this idea of
Kevin Dennis (:Hmm.
Jamie Chang (:If you switched to all electronic, which at this point, I hopefully most people have, but I'm sure there some who aren't. And if you switch to that, what does that mean? That means that you're not printing, right? You're not storing. You have a digital copy that you can always reference. They can reference it. You don't have to have a printer, right? Potentially. There's like trickle effects.
And then from a client standpoint, right, it's a it's sort of expected at this point. So it's also you're meeting expectations of clients and what they want to receive and how they want to take care of, say, for example, a contract or paying for a deposit, for example, as well. Thinking about those kinds of pieces is is partially efficiency. It's partially how you're working with a client, but from a climate aspect, right?
you've eliminated paper and potentially even the need of a printer. And that's kind of big, right? If you think collectively over the course of years of potential clients and clients, that could be substantial. And it's just small, right? But...
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, that was one of, yeah, and
I was going to say in COVID, we were already, pre-COVID, we were going through that process of going, you know, figuring out how to go completely paperless. And then that was, we had nothing to do in COVID and we figured it out. You know, we still have printers here just in case. Every once in a while, we'll have a client that comes in and we'll ask for a paper print of their estimator, you know, and I'm like, sure. And, you know, but like we,
You know, we used to go through reams of paper a month, you know, and then now you are not really like boxes, cases of paper every month. And, know, now it's like I buy them and it's like maybe like a whole case will last me almost a year. Yeah, yeah, it really is. It really is. So, yeah.
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, it's kind of amazing, right? And then there's ink, right? So
you still have the printer, but now maybe you don't need to always be upgrading the printer, right? The same old printer's good, because you don't use it that often. And you don't need to buy ink, ink every month or whatever. ⁓ That makes a difference.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yep. Good old reliable. ⁓
yeah, big does, it really does. All right, so what role does sustainability play in building a more climate resistant business?
Jamie Chang (:So I think it's important to think about the actual word sustainability, because I know for many it's associated with climate and with climate change and creating a more climate friendly wedding, for example, a climate friendly business. But I think it's also important to remember that the definition behind it is really just to be able to maintain something at a certain level. Right? So you want...
Kevin Dennis (:OK.
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:Right? If we're using that definition, you want a sustainable business, right? We want something that lasts, that can continue, that can weather, you know, I'm being punny here, but weather the storm, right? ⁓ Both literally and figuratively, right? I would count COVID as a huge storm that we all went through and
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
I was... Yeah.
yeah?
Jamie Chang (:making it to the end of that, I think is a huge success on any business that got through it and survived. Like that's a big storm. But I think that idea of being able to maintain a business and the business that you are trying to create and you stand behind and has, like emanates the values that you care about.
I think that's important to any business owner, right? mean, unless your goal is to sell your business or you're done, let's say, for example, you're just you've decided to move on to something else. That's that's what we want. We want our business to survive and thrive and to be to maintain that level. Right. Whatever that level is that we're aiming for. And everyone is different. But that's that's the goal. So I think
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:starting there and thinking about it like that first, before we get into the climate side is important because that piece will always be important, right? You always want that for your business. And so then you translate that from that standpoint to the idea of how can sustainability or being more sustainable also help you be more resilient, right?
Kevin Dennis (:Okay.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:It's the two actually kind of go hand in hand. Like if you can create a business where, once again, like you're thinking through that process of what you're doing, how you're doing it. And I think that includes also like, it's not just the operations ends of things. It's also your employees, right? And how you're treating them.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:And I can talk about a specific incidence here, but I think that all of that relates to how resilient as a business you are to things that change, to things that throw at you, whether that's a weather thing, whether that's ⁓ a lovely tariffs, whether that's, you know, any other kind of supply chain disruption, which to be really honest is very related to climate in a lot of cases. And obviously,
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm
Jamie Chang (:politics, but we'll shove that to the side for a moment. ⁓ But that all plays into it and how expensive something becomes or whether you can even get something anymore from a certain place, right? That will all play into, that does all play into sort of climate change and the issues we're facing. But if you can adapt as a company and
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah. Yes, please.
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:Once again, kind of think through how you do things, who you work with, ⁓ how you approach things, how that gets built into say your pricing, but also your operations, then you can kind of flow a little more, right, with changes that happen. ⁓ One thing I feel like a lot of, you going kind of back to the whole intense heat thing, one thing I've been thinking a lot about, which,
⁓ perhaps you have as well, is this idea behind, you know, we were so used to operating in a certain way. And I think that's the case for a lot of businesses, right? Like it works, we're good. Like once again, sustainable, right? Yeah. And I think that that makes sense in a lot of cases, but as the weather, you know, the physical weather, but just the climate of the world, as that shifts, like you have to shift too, right? And
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah. Ain't broke, don't fix it.
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:One thing I've been seeing, ⁓ which I think is not something that gets talked about a lot, is sort of the health or thinking about the health of the, you know, the our team members, the vendors that are on site at a wedding in the sense of like the environment. So I've literally been at weddings where
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:we have like a rental team on site and there's a guy who's like has to lie down because it's so hot that like he can't function anymore. Like he's about to pass out. And so, you know, we're like, yes, please like lie down in the shade, drink some water, like take your time. But I think there's, it's different now where you sort of have to build that in that like taking care of yourself.
taking care of your team because it's different now. It's harder, honestly, than it was.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Well, something that we had to start doing is ⁓ we send out our guys with ice chests with with liquids and we're trying to plan in breaks. We're trying to plan all that stuff and take that into account into the overall setup, which so we don't run into that instance that you used to that you described. And I remember it. Remember we were coming out of Covid and it was
Jamie Chang (:Exactly.
Kevin Dennis (:We're still having the heat and the fires that you were talking about and trying to get all these wonderful weddings that got canceled, get them all done. But it was really, really hot and I looked over at the photographer and she was turning gray. Her lips were gray and I'm like, girl, and it's someone I knew. was like, you're not right, something's wrong. We sat her down, we got water on, tried to hydrate her. We even went to this far as called her husband.
Thankfully, she had a second shooter that was continuing to go and I kind of helped her behind the scenes. And then we ⁓ went and got one of our vans and put her in the van, turn on the air conditioning as high. We were trying to do whatever we could because, and then she ended up coming through it, but it was like the craziest 45 minutes. was like, well, it all happened during cocktail hour, but she was standing out there in the extreme heat during the ceremony and was not.
thinking about herself, she was just on get, you know, get her done mode. And yeah, it was crazy. I'll never, I'll never forget. Just I'll never, cause I see her all the time and her like her lips were gray. Like I was like, what is, and I'm not a medical person and anything to do with medical blood, anything I, I, I freak out. I can't handle it. Yeah. I
Jamie Chang (:Yes.
I'm totally the same.
Kevin Dennis (:But it's funny because I'll talk to people in the medical world. They're like, how do you deal with brides? I'm like, give me a crazy bride any day of the week. I'm happy, but I can't. minute there's, yep, and blood and any, yep, I can't do any of that stuff.
Jamie Chang (:Yeah. Keep me away from the needles.
Same. No, it's
true. And we're so used to, I think as businesses and specifically wedding businesses, right? We're so used to just going and we're just on and we know we have to be on because you can't go back in time, right? You can't change something. ⁓ wait, sorry. Walk down the aisle again. Like that is not happening, right? And so we know we have to be on and we are on.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah
Not the movies. Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:The results of that too is we definitely, and I am guilty of this too, we failed to take care of ourselves in that process, like even just drinking water and eating something. It's like, no, I have to get this done, right? We're behind schedule and it's important that this happens this time so that this person come in and do this, et cetera, et cetera. And so you just go, you're just going for like 12 hours. And if...
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:you're not careful, right? You can end up in that situation. I've certainly been there too, where there are moments I'm like, okay, ooh, like I need five. Like I just need to sit in a chair, somewhere cool, drink some water, because like I can tell, like my head's starting to not feel so great.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah. Drink some water. Yep.
starting to see stars, you're trying,
yeah, yeah, you're like, this is not right.
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, you're starting to hallucinate a little bit, you know? It's not, I'm just joking, but it's one of those things where you're so used to going. And I think a lot of us are that way, that it's, there for our clients, right? And so we push it. We push it harder, I think, maybe any other industry in this sense. and, that there's, as a result, right? There's some health things as well. So I love that you like,
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:thought about that and brought that into your business because I do think there's not all businesses have where they've built that. And to some degree, maybe that means more staff. Maybe that means, ⁓ and thus, you know, the cost of something goes up so that you can bring in that extra staff and they can switch out, right? Well, this team takes a little break or this person takes a little break while this person takes over. It's necessary though, because it's a health thing.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:Right?
It's a, you want us to be at our best. And so in order to do that, this is what we need. And I'm not sure all clients understand that, but I try to explain that to people because it's, we're professionals and we're here to help, you know, execute this amazing day for you, but we need to be at our best. And in order to do that, right, that this is what we need.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah, help me help you.
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, right. I mean, it just
it will result in a better, a better event. You'll be happier, we'll be happier. It'll be, you know, just a happier, a happier day.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
I love it. right. So many couples, especially ⁓ younger generations, are increasingly concerned about climate, sustainability. How can vendors reflect those values in a meaningful way?
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, so I think this question is twofold, right? There's like the marketing side. So the face you're sharing with the world. ⁓ But then there's also like, once again, like the business side. And I do think the most effective way is when those two things come together. So what you're doing in your business is what you're projecting out to the world. So, you know, we'll take...
Kevin Dennis (:Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Jamie Chang (:Take your example, right? We've built in processes to protect our team so that they're at their top level and thus they're gonna do their best for you, right? Like those two things align as opposed to just talking about sustainability in a general sense but not necessarily enacting that in your business in some shape or form. And no one has to be perfect. That's not,
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:It's kind of impossible. And while that would be lovely, it's not the reality, right? It's about what you can do. ⁓ It's sort of progress, not perfection, right? It's what you can do in the steps you're trying to take, even if you haven't been able to take them yet, right? Maybe that will take time. Maybe you need another year to sort of figure it out before you make any change. That's okay. I think it's just, it's a matter of being thoughtful about it. And so I think,
Kevin Dennis (:I'm
Yeah. Mm hmm.
Jamie Chang (:reflecting that to your clients and to this younger generation, which I do think are rightfully concerned. It's concerning. And this is the, you know, being super honest, like this is the future they're inheriting. This is the world they're inheriting and their children, perhaps maybe more importantly. And so they're concerned and they should be. And so to align with that, you should be concerned too, because
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah.
Hehehehehe
Jamie Chang (:It's gonna
affect your business. I do think honestly at some point if you're not doing things to be more sustainable or to think about weddings in a more sustainable way, you're gonna be left behind. Because you're just not gonna align with what clients care about in the end. know, like what matters and like at our core kind of idea that as a business, right, you need to...
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:You need to adapt once again. And that will make you more resilient as well. If you can think about, once again, just sort of think about your business and the changes that maybe you can, or maybe you're fantastic. Like maybe your audit is awesome and you've done a lot of things already and maybe you just want to tweak this one area bothers you and you want to try and work on that. That's great, right? Every bit I think makes a difference. And it's sort of about collective change.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Hmm.
Jamie Chang (:Like once again,
you or I personally, our businesses, we're not going to make that much of a difference. Just me, just you. But for all doing things, that collectively, right? And once again, with every wedding we touch. So I also think it's about you as a business, ⁓ but it's also about how you interact with your clients and the kinds of decisions they make. Once again, collectively, right? If they can make five more sustainable choices, that's
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Jamie Chang (:Five more sustainable choices, right? And if every client did that, as in every business did that, right? It builds. It builds.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's a
good way, I think, of looking at it, because you might be like, well, if I just do one thing, how does that help? But it's looking at it as a whole. If we all start going that way, then that's when you're going to see the impact.
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, yeah, it's hard. I'm going to be super honest. It's hard to tackle this as a person, as a small business, because you feel very small. And honestly, we are, right? We're just one person. But if you think about it beyond that, right, beyond just the me, just my business, but the clients I touch and the vendors I work with, and then, you know, it's like a little spiderweb, right? It grows and it grows and then...
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:Collectively, as an industry, I think we can make a lot of change. And in a good way, right? That benefits us as a business, but benefits the client, benefits weddings, like win, win, win, really.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah, that's a way. All So what advice do you have for vendors who want to be more like eco conscious but are unsure where to even start?
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, it's ⁓ I would say once again, start start with taking a look at your internal business and sort of your processes. I think that's a good place to begin. You may not know what is more eco-friendly or eco-conscious, like what decision would be versus another, in which case there's a lot of information out there in the world. mean, you know, the Internet, ⁓ which can help you. But I also think there are ⁓ there are other event professionals
Kevin Dennis (:Okay.
Jamie Chang (:who are doing things in really interesting and cool ways to tackle this problem for their own business, right? Whether that's a rental company, whether that's a florist, whether that's DJ, whether that's a planner, there are different ways to do this. And so talking, I think, with your community as well and seeing what others are doing is a way to learn as well. ⁓ Because...
we can learn from each other, right? And everyone's doing something potentially a little different than how you're doing it and understanding sort of how they're doing it and what they're doing and why they decided to go this route, right? And what they've seen from it, like all those sorts of things can help you as a business to decide, okay, yeah, maybe I should look into switching the vans I use or I should look into changing the
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah, we really can.
Hmm.
Jamie Chang (:the way I process payments, I don't know. Or I should look into how I store images. Those pieces, every business is different, right? And we're all in different sort of verticals, if you will. And what we need and how we do things is slightly different, but you can take things from other companies, whether or not they're in the same, they also are a planner or they're also a florist.
You can take those pieces and use them in the way that makes sense for you and your business. And maybe even also play into sort of the kinds of businesses that you recommend or ⁓ work with more because you appreciate how they work through their process and the steps they're taking.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm.
It's funny you say that, but I think also too maybe is look outside of our industry as well. And what are other industries doing? Cause it, you know, that's another place. One of the, you know, like cause our company, you know, fantasy sound, we do a lot of lighting and stuff, but during the week we do business meetings for corporate. And the best thing is I love teching those events because they'll bring in a speaker to talk to the group. And even though it has nothing to do with me, I can always find something that, that, that.
Jamie Chang (:For sure.
Kevin Dennis (:persons teaching them and ⁓ to grow and build and bring back to my business that will be impactful. I'm like, it's free education and I get paid to do it. That's the best part of it. But if you think about it, we can all be doing that too. It's just look outside of our industry, look outside everywhere and how can we all be tackling this together.
Jamie Chang (:Totally, that's a great point. I think we have adjacent, right? Or even like you said, something maybe totally different that has nothing to do with weddings. ⁓ Or it's something more adjacent, right? Like if you're, I don't know, you're a rental company and you do a lot of pipe and drape, looking a little bit to the fashion industry, right? And what they might be doing with fabrics or what have you, right?
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:There's a lot of different businesses that are working and doing cool things out there that, for example, there's a company that I came across who does ⁓ packaging for businesses. So things like ⁓ retail, you know, you need to package up your, But they focus on the physical materials that you need to pack. And so they've found...
Kevin Dennis (:Hmm. That's big business. Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:⁓ or they're working with a company who uses like algae ink. So it's, you know, there's no petroleum, like it's way more green. ⁓ And it's, you know, it's kind of cool. Like if you haven't ever heard of algae ink or, ⁓ you know, there's this sort of other businesses, like you said, that are doing very cool things out there that, you know, a catering company could look at or whomever.
Kevin Dennis (:Hmm.
Yeah.
Even
Yeah, but even
look at someone like Apple. Apple is a good example of they're constantly pushing the envelope to make their stuff more sustainable and their packaging and how they're constantly changing things. So it's like even looking at a big company to get ideas would go a long way, I think, as well.
Jamie Chang (:think you can glean things from lots of places. ⁓ It's going to take a little bit time, right? It's going to take a little bit of research, but that's part of you sort of adapting your business to make changes or be more resilient or be more efficient or all the things, right? The win-win-wins that can kind of all come together to also just feel really good because when you make these changes, it will help.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I agree.
Jamie Chang (:It will help your business, it will help the world. And that's kind of awesome. Not gonna lie.
Kevin Dennis (:All right, Jamie, we're
getting ready to wrap up. But before we do, I wanted to ask you this last question. So in what ways can an embracing climate adaptation actually help a business grow or make them stand out in the saturated market?
Jamie Chang (:Yeah.
So I do think there's not a lot of companies that are actually talking about this, talking about sustainability in a really, in a bigger way beyond just ⁓ look at the. Yeah, right. Right. And honestly, like, I don't know how much clients are going to care about paperless. Right. ⁓ But I think if you're comfortable talking about it.
Kevin Dennis (:Okay.
We've gone paperless, you know, or yeah.
Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:and the things you're doing as a business or the things, maybe even more importantly, things you care about, like as a person, because really we're small businesses and yes, it's a brand, but it all stems from us, right? The owner, the founder, the team, like that all plays into who or who and what this business is, what we stand for. And I think sharing that.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:with your realm, whether that's ⁓ social media and clients and talking about it, or if it's just with colleagues as well. Like getting, kind of just sharing that and how you feel about it and the things you care about and the things you're looking into or the things you're working on or the things you've changed. I think just purely talking about it is a big deal because it's not talked about.
And it should be. And I think being on the forefront of that will help you to stand out. You'll be different, right, than the rest of the group who, you know, is just focused on making things pretty, right? Or it's, and pretty is important, right? But if you can also do pretty and sustainable, like that's kind of awesome. So I think talking about it.
Kevin Dennis (:Hmm.
Jamie Chang (:is a way, even if it's just on your social media or just on your blog, like just starting that is a way to show people and people meaning lots of people, right? Your potential clients, your clients, your past clients, your ⁓ colleagues and friends and family, et cetera, like that becomes known.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Jamie Chang (:that that's A, something you care about, but B, something you're trying to do something about. And that's, I think that's a big deal.
Kevin Dennis (:Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I agree. All right, well, I can't thank you enough. I'll be honest with you, I went into this going, I don't know how we're going to talk for 40 minutes about it. But here we are. We're at the 40 minute mark. So anyway, I can't thank you enough because I think it's just going to make everyone think. that's what I think a lot of us need to be, is just think about it. And if we go with the approach that we're
If we do a little bit here and Jamie's doing a little bit there and then that, you know, vendor, a rental company, B everyone, and then we're all it, that's where the impact and that's where we have the biggest impact when it's all said and done. So yeah. Yeah.
Jamie Chang (:Yeah, and I do think it's a win-win. It
can help your business and help the world and help your clients. that's like, who doesn't want all those things? Yeah.
Kevin Dennis (:Yeah.
That is a win-win.
Agreed. All right.
So Jamie, how can we contact you and how can we find you?
Jamie Chang (:⁓ You can find me on all the socials. I'm most active on Instagram. But check me out at Mango Muse events. That's where we are sort of everywhere. And come and check out the blog. I write frequently. I talk a lot about sustainability. If that's something that you're interested in as a business or as a couple, ⁓ you can use a lot of those tips as well to get you started.
Kevin Dennis (:I love it.
And then ⁓ Jamie will have all that information in ⁓ Jamie's information in our show notes and you'll be able to get in touch with her as well. So Jamie, thank you so much. I really appreciate you being here. Of course. All right. Bye.
Jamie Chang (:Thank you so much for having me. It's been awesome.
Bye.
