Meet Ingrid Yeh

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ingrid Yeh. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ingrid below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Ingrid with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my story with your readers! It’s an honor. 🙂

I would say I get my work ethic from my mom. 100%. As a single mother of 3 girls, raising us singlehandedly with very little help, while continuing to pursue her career and education—putting herself through grad school, and then doctorate school—all while always putting me and my sisters at the forefront, she really set the standard of what it means to be a hard-working, focused, independent woman with her eyes on the prize to create the best life possible for us. Having her as a role model all my life, it’s hard to not want to embody the same qualities and attributes she continues to exude even to this day. One of my biggest motivations behind anything I do is making her proud.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

On both a personal and professional level, I’m always intentional about leveling up. I’m learning to fine tune the perfect balance between being proud of where I currently am and all I’ve accomplished, while keeping a growth mindset and still striving for more.

One of my favorite things about being a wedding planner is getting to learn firsthand how weddings and other special life occasions are celebrated differently cross-culturally. As a multicultural wedding planner, one of my main focuses is incorporating my love for traveling and learning different cultures into helping my clients plan, design, and coordinate elaborate events that celebrate their cultural heritage in a meaningful way that feels special and unique to them. Having my company based in Southern California for the past 15 years, I’m so fortunate to experience a rich variety of cultures in my work on a regular basis. It’s such a privilege to learn about couples’ important cultural customs in order to help them celebrate them on their special day. Just within this past year, I’ve been so blessed to plan spectacular weddings that incorporated Vietnamese, Armenian, Persian, Japanese, Jewish, Guatemalan, Mexican, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Salvadoran, Singaporean-Chinese, and Scottish traditions. I consider that such an incredible honor and privilege!

I’m also a proud ally of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s so important and deeply personal for me to create an inviting safe space that feels welcoming and inclusive for couples of all identities and orientations who are looking for support while planning something as special as their wedding day. In such a precarious time in which our sense of security and the protection of our personal rights seem to waver from one day to the next, being openly inclusive within my business is my way of doing my small part to protect our fundamental right to marry whoever we love and choose.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

My interpersonal nature—being very much a people person and thriving on others’ energy—has allowed me to personally connect with everyone I work with and build many meaningful relationships over the years. My grit and passion—being a very intrinsically motivated person towards anything I set my mind and heart to—has enabled me to keep it pushing and continue growing, learning, and evolving both professionally and personally despite the challenges and growing pains of being an entrepreneur. My assertive drive—being a very go-getter/make-sh*t-happen type of person—allows me to go all out for each and every client who puts their trust in me to plan out every detail of their grand vision and coordinate a flawless celebration for them and all their loved ones.

As far as advice I’d give to those starting off: “Do it with passion, or not at all.” Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart, and without passion, enthusiasm, and heart to back you, your journey will be a hell of a lot more challenging and far less rewarding.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

Learning to trust and lean on others has always been a personal challenge of mine—one that I’ve been much more intentional about overcoming as I’ve been growing and scaling my business. In the past couple years, I’ve been learning to outsource and delegate more, while investing in growing and training my team to take on more responsibilities. Having built this business from the ground up on my own for the majority of 15 years, it’s been challenging to trust others to help me handle things that have become so deep engrained as “my job” to do.

At the same time, it’s been extremely rewarding. To now be in the position to mentor others and impart my knowledge and years of experience onto those willing to learn from me has been a series of humbling full-circle moments that remind me of how far I’ve come in my journey. I’m proud to see my team’s growth before my very eyes, and in turn, they’ve all helped me grow so much too. While I’m extremely selective in my vetting process, I can confidently say I have such a solid team and network of support that I can rely on, which allows me to move forward even more boldly in my journey.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Personal photo: KEA Studios
Photo 1: Promani Weddings
Photo 2: New Ending Productions
Photo 3: SLDR Media
Photo 4: Jake Fosmire Photo
Photo 5: Michael D Foto
Photo 6: Pauline Cornu
Photo 7: Jamie Lee Photography
Photo 8: J Wiley Photography

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