From A Wedding Dress Directory To A Full Service Agency: The Story Behind Engaged Creative
Podcast Episode 15 | The Edit by Engaged Creative
If you have been listening to The Edit for a while, you will know we spend a lot of time talking about marketing strategy, content, campaigns, and all the things in between. But in the first episode back for Season 2, Sophie and I finally sat down to talk about something we have never really touched on before. How this whole thing actually started.
This is the story of Engage Creative. The late nights, the 7am cafe sessions, the zero salaries, the COVID pivot, and the moment we both looked at each other and said: it is now or never.
How Sophie and I Met (And How a Job That Did Not Exist Changed Everything)
I was working at Karen Willis Holmes at the time, doing a bit of everything from marketing, wholesale, and customer service. Sophie was working part time at One Fine Day and wanted to do some PR and marketing work in the bridal space. So naturally, she slid into Karen's inbox asking about a role that did not exist yet.
I happened to be sitting at the interview desk when Sophie walked in. I saw on her resume that she had gone to a school my family also had ties to, and that was our ice breaker. By the end of the interview, we had basically created a role on the spot. Sophie came in two days a week, we sat at desks separated by a bookcase with a gap in it, and one day Aimee spun around and said: "Hey, I have got a business idea. Do you want to talk about it later?"
That was the beginning.
Love Find Co: Our First Business (And Why It Mattered)
It was around 2015. Instagram was barely a thing, and Facebook and blogs were still the content engines for most brands. We had this vision of a wedding directory called Love Find Co that would be the one-stop destination for brides. Bridal designers, boutiques, accessories, hair and makeup. Everything.
But what made us different from the start was how we thought about content. We both came from backgrounds where visual storytelling mattered, and we believed in showing up the way magazines did, with beautiful campaigns and editorials that showcased the brands on the directory in a different, more aspirational way. We would scout locations, style shoots, and create imagery that designers could actually use. It was not just an ad in a magazine. It was a whole creative experience.
And it worked. Designers started asking us to produce their campaigns. Brands like Katie and Cliff from Hera Couture were approaching us about managing their Instagram feeds. Every six weeks, a new campaign. We were learning on the job, booking shoots against brick walls I had spotted on a drive home, and genuinely loving every second of it.
18 Months of Early Mornings Before We Went Live
Here is the thing no one really talks about when it comes to building a business alongside a full-time job: it takes a very long time. From our first conversation to actually making Love Find Co live, it was 18 months. Eighteen. Months.
Every week we would meet at a tiny little cafe called Bread and Circus at 7am. An hour and a half of heads-down work, then straight to our respective jobs by 8:30. We would debrief on the phone on the way home and then action whatever we had decided once we were back at our desks for the night. Not a single dollar of income from any of it. Every cent we made in those early days went straight back into the business: website, branding, photo shoots.
Looking back now, if we have an idea for a new service, it is live in a week. But back then? 18 months. I think the difference is that we were building the foundations of who we were, what we believed in aesthetically and operationally, before we ever went public with it. And those foundations mattered.
Going Full-Time: The Radio Silence Moment
By 2018, about three and a half years after we first started talking about it, we made the decision to go full-time. We had a plan, meticulous as we tend to be, about how we would transition, how much savings we were willing to eat into before we would need to reassess, and what the minimum we needed to earn looked like.
Then we sent everything out. And nothing. Radio silence. I genuinely said to my partner that I might need to go back and work at Coles. I was riddled with anxiety. Sophie felt the same. We both sat with that silence and quietly started wondering if we had made a massive mistake.
But then week two hit. We followed up. And suddenly, everyone replied. Within the space of those two weeks, we had six months of work booked. Six months. From nothing to full. And just like that, we were running.
COVID: The Year That Could Have Broken Us (But Did Not)
We had just started a six-month business mentoring program. Done the in-person retreat, written the one-page business plan, listed the stretch goals. I had a job ad ready to go for our first hire. And then COVID happened.
We put the hiring on hold immediately. We halved all our retainer rates to make sure we could hold onto every client, even if it meant zero profit. We kept one message consistent to every single person we worked with: you have to keep your marketing going. You have to stay visible. And they listened. We lost one client, a small Pinterest service. Everyone else stayed.
Being a two-person team during COVID was genuinely an advantage. We could make decisions fast, pivot without red tape, and protect the people who worked with us. It is one of those chapters that sounds scary in retrospect, but honestly? We have had harder years since.
What We Wish We Had Known (Getting Honest for a Second)
When people ask me what I wish I had known at the start, I go pretty deep pretty quickly.
For me, it is this: what you put your time and energy into will flourish. It genuinely can't not. At the time I was in therapy dealing with anxiety around going full-time, and what I most wanted was someone to just tell me it would all work out. I know now that is not something someone can hand you. But I also know that intention and consistent effort compound in a way that eventually becomes undeniable.
For Sophie, it is boundaries. Starting a business means being across everything, and there is a version of that control that feels necessary because for a long time, it is. But there is a point where releasing that control, trusting your team, giving the business room to breathe and grow without your hands on every single lever, that is when things really open up.
I think my boys have been a big part of that for us as well. Before I had kids, we were like, it is fine. But having children forced us to implement boundaries and build systems that allowed the team to flourish, because we both became so time poor. And actually, some of the best things we have built operationally came out of that necessity.
Where We Are Now (And Where We Are Headed)
Engage Creative has grown into something I am genuinely proud of. A strong team, clear services, really intentional ways of working. We have a marketing agency and a sales agency that work hand in hand, because your marketing directly influences your sales and vice versa. We are increasingly working with clients across both spaces, which is the work I love most.
In five years? I want bigger, chunkier clients. The multi-service offering, properly scaled. The same quality of work at greater depth. And a team that keeps getting stronger.
But more than anything, I want long-term, happy clients. That is the thing I am most proud of and the thing I am most focused on building toward.
One Piece of Advice for Wedding Vendors Starting Out
Take the calculated risk. Look at it from a numbers perspective, look at the outcome, and then back yourself. What you put your time and energy into, consistently and intentionally, will move the needle.
I know this because we spent years being inconsistent with our own marketing. The moment we handed it to Elise on our team and treated Engage Creative like a proper client, things shifted. Immediately.
You don't have to do everything at once. But you do have to start.
Listen to the Full Episode
Want to hear the full story? Episode 15 of The Edit is out now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Season 2 is here and we are just getting started.
Follow Engaged Creative:
Instagram: @engaged_creative
Website: www.engagedcreative.com.au
Podcast: Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
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