White Plains Small Business Spotlight: Events By SB

Every local business has a story worth sharing with the community. And that’s the belief behind this exciting series — to shine the spotlight on all our favorite local businesses, and to learn a little about the ones we may not know that well.

Business: Events By SB
Owners: Nicole Batiste
Website: www.EventsBySB.com
Address: 7 Scoralick Lane, Valhalla, NY 10595 *HOME OFFICE ADDRESS*

How did you come up with the name? Originally incorporating the business as a boutique wedding planning firm, I decided on the name Something Blue Events - it’s catchy, speaks to the “Old, New, Borrowed, Blue” wedding tradition, and because I liked the idea of using “Blue” in the name - it’s my favorite color! After partnering with my Creative Director, John Shepard, we realized that we were working on many types of events, not just weddings, so we decided to re-brand. Events By SB worked because it incorporated a nod to our start as Something Blue, and it also stood for our last names’ initials (Shepard/Batiste)!

Why start a business in this town? I’ve always loved working in the White Plains / Westchester vicinity, and feel like it’s a perfectly centralized location to our clients who are located in lower and upper Westchester, Rockland, Fairfield, and Putnam County, and of course a quick ride into Manhattan for our city clients.

What business are you in? We are event planners who specialize in crafting unique experiences that celebrate all of life’s important moments. We design, coordinate, “spreadsheet” (yes, it’s a verb!), anticipate, and guide our clients every step of the way through planning an event to ensure that their vision is brought to life and their celebration reflects who they are. We love what we do, and given the client feedback we’ve been receiving since we opened our doors in 2013, we’ll hopefully be doing this for a very long time to come!

What’s the most difficult challenge you’ve faced as a business owner? Turning off. When you love what you do, it’s hard to pick and “start” and “end” time to it. We’ve tried setting strict office hours, but we truly enjoy every moment of our work, so shutting down completely isn’t something we’re wired to do. It’s just a matter of finding a good balance in your life to ensure that you’re not over-doing it. We’re getting there.

What’s been your proudest achievement since opening? Being asked by one of our Manhattan clients, Marriage Equality USA, to plan their Los Angeles event this past February. We loved working with them on their NYC Gala in 2014, and after that event they told us they absolutely needed us in Los Angeles to help with their West-Coast version. We gladly accepted and were happy to expand our client base to the West Coast - but NY will always be home to us.

How does your business give back to the community? We routinely donate our time and services to support events for charities whose missions we feel strongly about. Two of those organizations are The Lustgarten Foundation’s Westchester Pancreatic Cancer Research Walk, which takes place every April in Rye, NY; Gilda’s Club Westchester, a cancer support community based in White Plains, NY. We truly love what we do, and love when we have the opportunity to give back in such a way.

Would you like to see your small business showcased in this series? Email wendy.mitchell@ patch.com.