Clover Event Co. wedding planners help couples every step of the way, from saying, “Yes!” to cutting the cake.
By Megan Douress
Photography by Haley Richter Photography (haleyrichterphoto.com), One Night Cereus (onenightcereus.com),
Justin Johnson Photography (justinjohnsonphotography.com), Emily Wren Photography (emilywrenweddings.com),
Love Me Do Photography (lovemedophotography.com), and Redfield Photography (redfieldphoto.com)
Caitlin Maloney Kuchemba started her career in weddings at a very young age. When she was about six years old, she played the role of “flower girl.”
“It was the early 90s so I wore one of those big, poofy dresses,” Caitlin, owner of Clover Event Co., said. “I can picture it very vividly in my head. There’s a photo of it on Facebook somewhere!” she laughed.
Approximately 25 years later, Caitlin plays a much bigger role in weddings as the owner of Clover Event Co., which she launched in 2015. She assisted in the planning of Joe Biden’s daughter’s wedding and even planned the wedding of Sarah Zlotnick, the editor of Philadelphia Wedding Magazine, in 2018. While being the flower girl may have introduced her to the idea of weddings, it’s not necessarily what lead her to a successful career as a planner.
“When I was in high school, I was the class secretary,” Caitlin said. “I had to plan all of our school dances so I always handled the ticket sales, the décor, the food — all of the things that went into prom and other dances. In college, I planned fashion shows and I also ran our field hockey events. I was always the one who was put in the position of party planning.”
After graduating from the University of Delaware with a degree in Mass Communications, Caitlin, who quickly realized she was a natural-born planner, dove into the Wedding Planning & Consulting certificate program at Temple University. Three months later, she began assisting weddings on the side while working full-time in marketing and event planning at the Manayunk Development Corporation.
So, why weddings?
“Although I love events — I thrived off of the Manayunk Arts Festival and StrEAT Food Festivals — I find that when you do weddings, you’re a part of this really amazing day for people,” Caitlin explained. “It’s a very emotional thing and I like to connect with people on that level. We get to know our clients so well and we see them at their highs and lows. By the time the wedding is over, everyone is just so happy. It’s really humbling to be a part of it.”
Since Clover Event Co.’s beginnings, the wedding planning company has offered services to couples ranging from day-of coordination, which includes assistance with confirming vendors and running the wedding day timeline; to full service planning and styling, which includes everything from budget management to planning the entire wedding weekend.
On top of bringing additional services to her couples, Caitlin also recently expanded her full-time staff with the addition of lead planners Jesse Lucas and Kellie Strain, two former clients of Clover Event Co. In fact, Kellie was Clover Event Co.’s first client. Since becoming full-time employees of Clover Event Co., Kellie has brought her operational and budgeting skills from her former life in financial services, and Jesse has found wedding planning to be the creative outlet she craved while working behind the scenes in the music industry.
One might question why three brides who are natural-born planners may have hired day-of coordinators for their own wedding days. If you ask any one of them, it’s because there is a serious misconception when it comes to their typical clients.
“Clients who are more Type A need a planner or day-of coordinator because they’re the ones who want their day to go in a very specific way,” Caitlin explained. “Clients that are not so much like that can sometimes get away without having a day-of coordinator because they’re fine with things going not exactly to plan.”
This rings especially true for Clover Event Co. couples, who tend to host more modern weddings in less traditional settings such as industrial spaces, greenhouses, gardens, and even some of Philadelphia’s historical buildings and museums.
“Certainly, our clients like to include some traditional elements, but our clients are more untraditional so we really work with them to make the wedding be specific to them,” Caitlin said. “We talk them through what they want versus what they don’t want, what’s going to work for their family dynamic, what their personal style is, etc.”
“We have our own approach to weddings but every wedding is different,” she continued. “That’s kind of what we pride ourselves in — creating and designing weddings that when people get to the wedding, it doesn’t just feel like another wedding they’ve been to. It’s that couple’s wedding.”
The perfect example of the Clover Event Co. couple is Philadelphia Wedding Magazine editor, Sarah Zlotnick, and her husband, Zach. Caitlin, Jesse, and Kellie worked a double-header the weekend of this one-of-a-kind wedding day held at La Peg, a former pump house turned restaurant and performance space tucked under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Sarah and Zach chose red, pink, black, and white for a super modern look to their day, which also included neon signs, a balloon display, and a ping pong table. Their wedding invitations stated “come hungry and dressed to kill” – and that’s just what their guests did.
“That wedding was just so fun – a lot of dancing, a lot of love, good times, and it ran so smoothly,” Kellie remembered of the summer 2018 wedding.
The Clover Event Co. team all agree that the best part of their jobs is all of the love they get to witness and be a part of during their couples’ wedding days.
“I love love,” Kellie laughed, noting that she cries at every wedding. “I just think about the feeling I had on my own day and how I was so happy to have all of those people under one roof together. It’s amazing. We don’t have enough things we can celebrate like that.”
“You hit all of your bases,” Jesse added. “It’s physical work, it’s emotional work, it’s intellectual work – you get all of it. It’s really wonderful. It keeps us engaged. Because of that emotional aspect, because the work that we do is so personal – for lack of a better term, there is an ‘emotional high’ we get from a job well done. There’s nothing quite like it.”
Clover Event Co.’s weddings have been featured locally in Philadelphia Magazine and Modern Luxury Magazine, and in the national media such as The Knot magazine and blogs like Green Wedding Shoes, Ruffled, 100 Layer Cake, and more.
Though the Clover Event Co. team calls a small room in the back of Pineapple on Main “home,” they have big plans for 2020 including expanding their market to include more weddings outside of the tri-state area. They also recently launched a wedding podcast, so if you’re a recently engaged couple, follow along and take a word of advice from a professional.
“It’s never too early to bring a wedding planner on board!” Caitlin said.
This rings especially true for Clover Event Co. couples, who tend to host more modern weddings in less traditional settings such as industrial spaces, greenhouses, gardens, and even some of Philadelphia’s historical buildings and museums.
“Certainly, our clients like to include some traditional elements, but our clients are more untraditional so we really work with them to make the wedding be specific to them,” Caitlin said. “We talk them through what they want versus what they don’t want, what’s going to work for their family dynamic, what their personal style is, etc.”
“We have our own approach to weddings but every wedding is different,” she continued. “That’s kind of what we pride ourselves in — creating and designing weddings that when people get to the wedding, it doesn’t just feel like another wedding they’ve been to. It’s that couple’s wedding.”
The perfect example of the Clover Event Co. couple is Philadelphia Wedding Magazine editor, Sarah Zlotnick, and her husband, Zach. Caitlin, Jesse, and Kellie worked a double-header the weekend of this one-of-a-kind wedding day held at La Peg, a former pump house turned restaurant and performance space tucked under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Sarah and Zach chose red, pink, black, and white for a super modern look to their day, which also included neon signs, a balloon display, and a ping pong table. Their wedding invitations stated “come hungry and dressed to kill” – and that’s just what their guests did.
“That wedding was just so fun – a lot of dancing, a lot of love, good times, and it ran so smoothly,” Kellie remembered of the summer 2018 wedding.
The Clover Event Co. team all agree that the best part of their jobs is all of the love they get to witness and be a part of during their couples’ wedding days.
“I love love,” Kellie laughed, noting that she cries at every wedding. “I just think about the feeling I had on my own day and how I was so happy to have all of those people under one roof together. It’s amazing. We don’t have enough things we can celebrate like that.”
“You hit all of your bases,” Jesse added. “It’s physical work, it’s emotional work, it’s intellectual work – you get all of it. It’s really wonderful. It keeps us engaged. Because of that emotional aspect, because the work that we do is so personal – for lack of a better term, there is an ‘emotional high’ we get from a job well done. There’s nothing quite like it.”
Clover Event Co.’s weddings have been featured locally in Philadelphia Magazine and Modern Luxury Magazine, and in the national media such as The Knot magazine and blogs like Green Wedding Shoes, Ruffled, 100 Layer Cake, and more.
Though the Clover Event Co. team calls a small room in the back of Pineapple on Main “home,” they have big plans for 2020 including expanding their market to include more weddings outside of the tri-state area. They also recently launched a wedding podcast, so if you’re a recently engaged couple, follow along and take a word of advice from a professional.
“It’s never too early to bring a wedding planner on board!” Caitlin said.