March 27, 2017

Meet Summer Smith of In Summer Parties in Los Angeles

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Summer Smith.

Summer, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
One of my closest friends was working for a similar company and would tell me all about her day at work. The whole idea seemed very appealing to me and I decided that I wanted in on making little girl’s dreams come true and give them the best parties out of all their friends. I noticed that many of the companies over charge for their parties so I wanted to make it more affordable so more families can enjoy this small luxury and have a party they would be talking about for years to come. It started with buying some costumes online and taking pictures of that same friend in all of the outfits to get our name out there; no one wants to book a company without pictures. Next I had to recruit a couple other friends who could sing and were great with children to send off to the parties when we had multiple ones booked at the same time. I didn’t want to stop at just sending characters to events though, because some families want more options. So I decided to add a few other services such as face painters, beauticians, photographers, and even video calls from characters for families that don’t want to go all out for every party or signed photographs because pictures are the perfect keepsakes. Eventually, I would like to expand and be able to offer every need a family would want for their party from tables and chairs, bounce houses, decorations, and catering; that might take a while though. I also would like to have an online store too but I’m just taking things one step at a time and work on expanding our character choices for the time being.

A few people have asked about the name and why I chose it. Well, with my name being Summer and there being the song “In Summer” sung by a happy little snowman, I thought it was a clever name that would be easy to remember and not easily confused with any other party company.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has mostly been smooth, just time consuming. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on photo shoots, creating websites and profiles all across social medias, altering costumes, styling wigs, and working with new ideas all while running the business. The biggest struggle would be trying to start a business when no one I know has ever done it before. Sometimes people get help from their families who are very business oriented or have degrees in just the thing, but starting from scratch with only the help of the internet has been a difficult feat.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the In Summer Parties story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a party planning company due to my dreams of expanding into such where you can just call us and we take care of everything you can think of. As of right now, and what will never change, we specialize in characters. That was the initial dream and initial draw of creating this business and will always remain the center of our operation. We are known for having the lowest prices, nearly half the price of some of our competitors, without compromising on quality. All of our outfits and wigs are designed very close to how the story depicts them and made out of quality materials. We also offer a wide array to keep everyone entertained at each event no matter their age. During an event, it is standard to include face painting, professional singing along with a story, and activities tailored to each character along with everything you would think a character visit would be such as taking pictures, interacting with the children, and themed phrasing. I’m very proud that we can run such a wonderful operation with a small staff because it ensures you will always get the best performers. It is much harder to find 100 amazing people than 10 and we would never hire an unqualified performer because we would never want to send one out. We are set apart by our close attention to detail and our variety of options for your event (we also have been hired for parades and other public events due to our versatility), but the most noteworthy difference is that we value the integrity of our characters above all else. We will never post the names or faces of our performers nor pictures/videos when we are not fully in costume or character because you will always be getting a 100% representation of the character you invited and do not want to spoil the magic for anyone, young or old.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Hopefully by 10 years, we will be able to have expanded and created more bases to cover a larger area of California or be able to include different states. Mostly, the direction we are heading is to keep growing, adding more offerings and products which I mentioned in one of the other questions such as adding a store with In Summer Parties merchandise and adding everything one would need to have every aspect of an event covered. I’m sure that we will have opportunities never thought of before within the next 5-10 years and it’s important to seize every one of those and see where it takes us.

Pricing:

$120 per character per hour (can be booked by the half hour starting with a 1 hour minimum)
$100 per hour for photographers, face painters, and beauticians ($80 per hour as an add on)
Travel fee of $1 per mile from our headquarters (first 15 miles free of charge)

Contact Info: