Lauren Ditty
Event Manager, Weddings by Hannah/ Manager, Workplace Experience & Engagements, T-Mobile
lauren@weddingsbyhannahkc.com
Number of events in 2025: 10-15
Types of events: Weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, corporate events
Average number of attendees in 2025: 350
What is your role associated with meetings and events?
While I have a full-time job leading a corporate events team for T-Mobile, I also hold on to several wedding clients each year. It’s a source of creativity and keeps me on my toes.
What skills do you think are essential for planning successful meetings and events?
After a decade of weddings and corporate events, I’ve learned success rests on three pillars: clarity, care, and communication.
Clarity: Define purpose, audience, and success metrics before designing anything. Knowing your “win” makes every decision faster and smarter.
Care: Design the guest journey intentionally. Flow, signage, and sensory details turn plans into memories. Make inclusivity, accessibility, and sustainability non-negotiables.
Communication: Build precise timelines and budgets, negotiate contracts for value and risk, and treat vendors as true partners. Lead calmly, delegate clearly, and keep everyone aligned through crisp briefs and decision logs.
What is your philosophy or approach to challenges and unexpected issues?
Pivot. When the unexpected happens, calm is my first tool. Panic is contagious, but so is composure. I triage by priorities: safety, program continuity, and guest experience.
How do you keep up with industry trends, changes, and cutting-edge developments?
I keep one foot on the ballroom floor and the other online, gathering intel from vendors, tastings, industry education, and curated feeds. We watch the coasts closely—they’re usually six to nine months ahead on trends and product drops.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I love the puzzle: turning napkin sketches into seamless run-of-show, wrangling budgets, personalities, and 10 moving parts to move as one.
I live for clean cues, quiet headsets, and the save no one sees. Vendors become bandmates, the timeline our sheet music. The reward is seeing that first look, hearing the final toast and the words that never get old: “This is everything I wanted and more.”
How would you describe your biggest professional success?
My “pinch-me moment” was seeing an event design I led featured in Martha Stewart Weddings. As a lifelong Martha fangirl, I felt like I was getting
a gold star from the industry’s head cheerleader.
Please share an anecdote about a unique or unusual event that you organized.
Early in my career, I had a “Type A” bride who could spot a crooked napkin from 30 feet. Her dream was timed, light-up wristbands hidden
as napkin rings that burst to life at the exact crescendo of the first dance—a mini Taylor Swift moment.
We ran it like a live show: synced cues, mapped tables, tested technology, and set triple backups. I think I aged 10 years that day.
Then it worked perfectly. Two hundred wrists lit up, the room gasped, the couple laughed-cried, and the photographer got the shot. No one saw the spreadsheets and sweat behind the sparkle.
What is the best professional advice you ever received, and what advice would you offer others in the industry?
“If it isn’t in the binder, it’s not happening.” That mantra changed my career. I learned to turn ideas into timelines, scopes, cue sheets, and decision logs, and to communicate it all. Clients stay informed, vendors know their roles, and the event runs exactly as planned.
What do you hope to achieve or look forward to as you plan events in 2026?
I’m chasing higher impact, lower footprint, more goosebumps, less guesswork. Events will be inclusive, accessible, and sustainable by default: beautiful rooms, thoughtful menus, and measured waste. The goal: effortless flow and lasting memories with little waste.
