PHOENIX — OK! Magazine has dubbed Phoenix-based Stylish Events by Lisa as 2023's number one wedding planner in the world.
Owner and lead planner Lisa Foster said her beginnings started humble and more as a hobby.
Her friends and family would ask her to plan bridal showers and baby showers because they thought she was organized and had a knack for it.
"Someone was just like, 'Why are you not doing this for a living?'" Foster said.
She turned it into a living, and now with 12 years of industry experience and a whole team alongside her, they're seeing global success.
"We do events all over the Valley, we also go up north to Sedona, Flagstaff," she said. "We also travel out of state and we'll go out of country as well."
Her team has even handled weddings for some Arizona Diamondbacks players.
In the article, OK! Magazine wrote, in part, "her weddings set themselves apart in their individuality," also noting the "landmark" weddings she's created for LGBTQ couples since legalization in 2015.
"I think it's our diversity," Foster said. "We don't just do weddings and we don't just do a certain type of wedding."
She also said it's her team's resilience that's led them to this point.
"Surviving COVID was a challenge for all of us, but the ones that came out, we were just like, wow, we made it through," she said. "Then, we hit the major boom after COVID."
Another twist among all the turns has been what kind of weddings people are looking for these days.
A new study from Thriving Center of Psychology found 73 percent of young adults find it too expensive to get married in our current economy.
Foster is noticing a change too.
"After COVID, it was go big or go home. Everyone wanted huge celebrations, which made sense," she said. So many people couldn't see each other. Now that we're past that and now with the current kind of economy, the micro weddings are coming back."
Pivots aside, the unexpected honor to come from it all, she said, has been overwhelming.
"To get something on a national level is something you can't mentally prep for," she said. "The excitement just keeps going."
The Stylish Events by Lisa’s team plans a variety of events including weddings, social gatherings, corporate and destination events, photoshoots and non-profit galas. On average, the company produces between 36 and 50 events a year.
Foster encourages individuals interested in choosing her as their wedding planner to book as soon as they can. Wedding season runs from September to May in Phoenix.
