Jacqueline Smith-Bennett & Mylah Martin-Davis
The mother-daughter pair of Jacqueline Smith-Bennett and Mylah Martin-Davis found themselves in the wedding planning business nearly 25 years ago after a less-than-stellar experience leading up to Smith-Bennett’s own wedding.
The wedding planner they hired wasn’t living up to expectations, and the two “ended up planning her entire wedding on very short notice, and we got very positive feedback,” Martin-Davis said.
At the time, both women were working in other fields and were able to leverage their skills in management and planning, as well as their business contacts, to take the leap into working for themselves.
Through Great Celebrations, the pair takes a holistic approach to celebrating life’s milestones, including weddings, baby-namings, new home blessings and memorials. They focus on the ceremonial aspects that some people may gloss over, especially when it comes to weddings.
“People tend to focus on the party aspects of a wedding,” Martin-Davis said. “But people are missing out on the ceremony aspects, the more meaningful parts.”
A new client relationship typically begins with an interview to learn about their wants and needs and to determine how Great Celebrations can develop a meaningful ceremony.
“We share what we can do for them, and they share what they are looking for,” Smith-Bennett said. “(We ask) ‘is this someone who can appreciate what we have to offer?’”
When planning a wedding ceremony, for example, the focus is on the couple, their values and their history together.
“We’re interested in getting at the truth of who the couple is and where their story has begun and how they got to where they are now,” Smith-Bennett said. “We’re drawing out a story.”
Incorporating a couple’s unique love story into their wedding ceremony can take many forms.
For one couple, it involved taking clippings from a plant that had special meaning to them and creating a vine, which was used as a garland during their ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, the couple’s mothers placed the garland in front of the newlyweds, and then they stepped over it, symbolizing their entry into a new life together.
Another couple wanted to incorporate their love of fitness into their vow renewal. So, the ceremony included weights, flexibility bands and water to symbolize qualities of a successful marriage.
“We look for things that are very meaningful to the couple,” Smith-Bennett said. “That’s the entire goal.”
The most fulfilling feedback they receive is when guests, especially people who don’t know the couple very well, say they know them better after the ceremony, Martin-Davis said.
“Especially people like ‘plus-ones’ or distant relatives, people feel like they know the couple better afterward,” she said. “They know their background and love story.”
Great Celebrations designs both religious and non-religious ceremonies. Smith-Bennett holds several officiating credentials, including Certified Life-Cycle and Wedding Celebrant from the Celebrant Foundation & Institute and Ordained Modern Minister from the Universal Brotherhood Movement. For couples that choose someone else to officiate their wedding, Great Celebrations can provide support by writing a script or vows to incorporate the couple’s vision into the ceremony.
In addition to the ceremonial aspects of a celebration, the pair sometimes uses their background in dance to help bring events to life. Martin-Davis danced from childhood through her college years and later taught dance at a local studio. She uses that experience to choreograph first dances for couples and to discuss the unique attributes that each person contributes to the relationship.
“It’s something more memorable than just swaying on the floor,” she said. “We talk a lot about what each individual is bringing to that union.”
Their special mother-daughter relationship helps them bring an extra level of service to their clients, they say.
“We share a lot in common that helps us serve others at a higher level,” Smith-Bennett said. “As a family business, you want to see your family succeed. We bring that family feel to our interaction with other people.”
For more information about Great Celebrations, visit www.greatcelebrations.net.
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