Today we’d like to introduce you to Abby Kruvi.
Hi Abby, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My path to event planning actually started long before I ever called myself an event planner. I grew up with a musical theatre background and have always loved bringing people together – whether that meant creating community, meeting new people, or being the person who was inevitably planning something for whatever group I was involved in. I’ve always loved the combination of creativity, people, and making something happen.
While getting my Master’s in Social Work, I was focused on inclusive youth programming when I had the opportunity to help plan a Broadway-themed gala. I completely fell in love with it. It brought together so many things I loved: creativity, storytelling, logistics, fundraising, and, most importantly, creating an experience that brought people together. I realized pretty quickly that maybe I could do all of that for a living.
I shifted my focus in school toward fundraising and special events and somehow just kept landing in the event world. Since then, I’ve worked in Washington, DC, San Diego, and now back home in St. Louis, and I’ve had the chance to dabble in just about every kind of event – from large-scale festivals and nonprofit galas to weddings, mitzvahs, corporate events, and intimate gatherings. I’ve worked alongside countless planners, vendors, committees, volunteers, and teams, learning something from every experience.
Eventually, I started Event Your Vision because I wanted to bring all of those experiences together in my own way. I love taking someone’s big idea – or sometimes just a vague “I want this to feel really special” and figuring out how to make it real. I love the creative problem-solving, the tiny details, the controlled chaos, and especially the moment when everything comes together and people are simply enjoying themselves.
I joke that I do really “social” work. My MSW background probably explains a lot about why I approach events the way I do: I care deeply about making people feel included, creating connection, and understanding what matters to the people in the room. At the end of the day, that’s what I love most about events. I’m not just creating something that looks beautiful – I’m creating an experience that feels meaningful, memorable, and uniquely yours.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, and honestly, I’m not sure I’d want it to be. I officially kicked off Event Your Vision in 2018 while working full-time and preparing to move to San Diego for love. I was starting from scratch in a new city and had to figure out how to get my name out there, build relationships, and convince people to take a chance on me.
A lot of that came down to good old-fashioned hustle. I relied heavily on word of mouth, reached out to planners just to introduce myself and say, “I’m here, I’m eager, and I’m available,” and was willing to say yes to just about any event opportunity. And I mean any opportunity. At one point, I worked a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift overseeing an outdoor ballroom being built from the ground up for a wedding. It was one event, one very long night, and a pretty good reminder that event planning is not always glamorous!
There was definitely a lot of “fake it until you become it.” I taught myself a lot, asked a million questions, made mistakes, learned from some incredible planners and vendors, and slowly built the confidence that comes from realizing, over and over again, that you can figure things out.
There were stressful moments and plenty of work that wasn’t necessarily fulfilling, but I said yes because I knew I needed the experience. Sometimes you have to take the job that teaches you something before you can get to the job that feels like exactly what you want to be doing. That hustle helped me build the experience and confidence to become the planner I am today.
And I’m still learning. The industry is constantly changing, there are always new trends and ideas to keep up with, and every event brings a new challenge. I think that’s actually one of the things I love most about this work: I’m never going to know everything, and I’m never going to stop figuring things out.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Event Your Vision is an event planning and production company, but I’ve always thought of what I do as a little more than just “event planning.” I help people take an idea, sometimes a very clear vision and sometimes just a feeling they want to create, and turn it into an experience that people actually remember.
I work across a pretty wide range of events, including weddings, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, nonprofit events, community festivals, corporate gatherings, and smaller, more intimate celebrations. I love that variety. I can be working on a 4,000-person festival one week and an intimate dinner the next. The scale changes, but the goal is always the same: figure out what matters to the people behind the event and build something that feels uniquely theirs.
I’m probably best known for being the person who can see both the big picture and the tiny details. I love the creative side – coming up with unexpected touches, figuring out how to make an experience feel different, and thinking about what guests will actually experience from the moment they arrive. But I also genuinely love the logistics. Give me a complicated timeline, a million moving pieces, five vendors who all need something at the same time, and a problem that needs solving immediately, and I’m probably in my happy place.
What sets me apart is that I’m not interested in creating events that simply look beautiful. I want them to feel like the people they’re celebrating. I care a lot about making events inclusive, thoughtful, and welcoming, and I think my background in social work plays into that. I’m always thinking about who is in the room, how they’ll experience the event, and whether there are ways to make people feel more connected.
I’m proud of a lot of the large-scale events I’ve had the opportunity to produce, but I’m probably most proud of the business I’ve built and the trust people have placed in me. Someone can hand me a huge, complicated event with a lot of moving parts and say, “We trust you to figure it out,” and that still feels pretty incredible.
Ultimately, I think what I’m known for is making things happen, and happen kindly. I bring the ideas, the organization, the problem-solving, and – when necessary – a very calm presence in the middle of total chaos. And I genuinely love what I do. That combination is what makes Event Your Vision feel like me.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I’ve definitely taken some big risks in building Event Your Vision. The biggest one has probably been choosing, more than once, to leave the security of a full-time job and go back to trusting myself and my business. There’s something really vulnerable about saying, “I believe I can make this work,” especially when you’re not just responsible for yourself. I’ve had to trust that I can build a business that is both fulfilling to me and financially meaningful for my family.
I’ve learned that risk-taking requires a lot of trust – trust in yourself, trust in your abilities, and sometimes trust that you’ll figure things out along the way. It also requires a really strong support system. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have people in my life who have encouraged me to take those leaps, even when they came with uncertainty.
And now, as a mom, risk can look a little different. Sometimes it means saying yes to an event months in advance when I have no idea what life with my kids will look like at that point or what they might need from me. There’s always a little voice asking, “Can you really do all of this?” And I’ve had to learn to trust that I can. I can be a kickass mom and a kickass event planner at the same time.
I think that’s ultimately how I approach risk: I don’t take risks just for the sake of taking them. I take them when I believe strongly enough in what I’m building that staying comfortable feels less worthwhile than seeing what I’m capable of. And then I trust myself to figure out the rest.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.eventyourvision.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-kruvi/
