Woohoo! The new website is live and I’m thrilled to finally be able to share it with you!
-Jessica
I started Uptown Events 8 years ago truthfully without much of an idea of ‘who or what’ I wanted Uptown to be. I loved my job helping couples with wedding planning at the two event venues I had worked at prior, and I had a general idea of what I wanted to be like as a planner, but didn’t have a firm standing on what made Uptown special.
Fast forward a couple years, after having a destination wedding of my own, and planning our honeymoon to Thailand, I realized my passion for travel planning. And I thought how perfect it was to ‘marry’ wedding planning with travel planning. So while operating Uptown, I began working for a luxury travel agency learning the ropes of travel advising. The following year I molded the company into Uptown Events & Travel, focusing on couples planning destination weddings in Austin, TX and honeymoon planning.
This worked well for the first couple of years, but as time went on, and the travel side of the business grew, I realized the need to separate the two. But with 2020 starting out as our best year yet, and a very busy schedule between weddings & travel (plus taking care of my two babies at this point) I didn’t have the time to split the two.
In comes the coronavirus and well… you know how that turned out. All of our Spring weddings either postponed or cancelled (remember many of our couples don’t live here!) and the same situation for all of my travel clients. So that left me with some time on my hands, and in true Jessica fashion, I filled that time with a project.
In June I put my head down and pumped out a new brand for the travel business- J.Upton Travel. I spent a whole week with my head in my computer designing a new logo and building out the website. There’s more on that, but that’s for another story 😉 Now with the travel brand launched and out on it’s own,
…it was time to give Uptown a new look that focused specifically on our wedding planning and design services.
I began working with Kelly at Pink Champagne Designs on a logo refresh for Uptown Events (drop the ‘travel’). Kelly was very transparent about her process, and strategic about her designs. We went through a few rounds of modifications and edits; she gave suggestions and insight about how we could use the logo in different formats for various platforms. Kelly made the process seamless and simple.
I then began working with Justin at WP Advantage. Justin had helped me through a pickle with the old Uptown website, so I already knew his strong skill set, and it was an easy decision to pick him for the new website design. We began discussions with what designs I liked vs. didn’t like, and what I definitely wanted to incorporate in the new site. Justin was very patient with me and all of my requests. He wasn’t afraid to hop on the phone to discuss through his design strategy and make suggestions along the way. It was super important to me to have a website that was not only beautiful, but functional and easy to navigate.
And to add a pretty fresh face to the whole project, I asked my dear friend and photographer, Anastasia Strate to photograph the team. We did a fun photo shoot with our team, complete with new head shots and branding images. Anastasia did a phenomenal job guiding us through the shoot. My RBF (if you don’t know, google it 😉 ) only made an appearance in a few photos, as she made us laugh and feel super comfortable.
With the brand refresh, I wanted to focus on two primary objectives- 1) highlight our strengths as wedding designers & logistics experts and 2) showcase the two biggest assets to Uptown Events, which are Amanda Kennedy & Jamie Martin.
Amanda & Jamie are two of the best wedding planners in Austin, TX. Their dedication to our clients and desire to be the best at their craft is truly remarkable. I’m incredibly grateful to have them as a dynamic duo at Uptown Events. Amanda has been with me for 4 years now and she is one of the most loyal people I know. She works incredibly hard for our couples and has such a sweet, comforting nature.
Jamie joined Uptown just a few short months ago and has hopped right in perfectly. Her bubbly personality is infectious and her intuitive nature serves her quite well in the role of wedding planner. I could not have asked for a better team!
So without further ado, please join me in celebrating the new Uptown Events! I can’t wait to hear what you think, and please drop Amanda and Jamie a line congratulating them as well, as this whole thing wouldn’t be possible without them.
Instagram: @uptownevents_jamie | @amanda_uptownevents
Cheers! -Jessica
Read here to learn more about Amanda Kennedy & Jamie Martin.
