Community Highlights: Meet Yingka Chou of Master Plans Events & Designs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yingka Chou.

Yingka, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My first taste at event planning really began in junior high and high school with a nonprofit leadership program. As I grew older and went from attendee to one of the organizers, I realized how much I enjoyed the technical and creative aspects of putting on an event. Through my years at USC, being busy as much as possible and attending/putting on events was normal. After graduating, thinking I wanted to do marketing (mind you this back in the early 2000s as I date myself) and technology was only becoming a heavy presence in our everyday lives, I worked for Sony, CAA Media and a small boutique music company, realizing that it wasn’t what I loved to do. The event aspect of the marketing always appealed, but the legal and political was not something I enjoyed though knowing it was part of the job.

From there, I left the marketing and entertainment world and dived into hotels, catering and floral/event production. After working a few years in this aspect of hospitality, I had the opportunity to create my own company or continue with a corporate job and do event planning on the side. I took a chance during the bubble of 2009 and walked away from my steady job to pursue Master Plans Events. From there, it’s mostly been an uphill climb for about 5-6 years before social media and industry practices shifted in favor of service professionals.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I would start by saying that anyone who has not struggled or dealt with any bumps along the way in life or business are truly lucky and an anomaly.

As a first-generation Asian/Asian American, events and hospitality isn’t considered a high-earning money maker, stable and title status industry. Despite some of the amazing opportunities and events that come this way, a lot of mindsets and perspectives are constantly being pushed. Back in the early 2000s – 2012, the mentality behind what event and wedding planners did/do were based on financial luxury and capacity. After social media and pop culture “glamified/glorified” events, most of the industry became more standardized but with higher expectations and little room for error.

Event in present day, managing expectations, juggling work-life balance and handling personalities is even more demanding due to the convenience and requirement of replies being instantaneous.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Master Plans Events & Designs is a full-service event and wedding planning studio offering event planning and coordination, design and production and creative services.

We’re known for planning detailed weddings and events, communicating with vendors for details, reviewing and negotiating contracts, designing a space and event from scratch and bringing those visions to life.

There are a couple of factors that set us apart:
– We have multi-lingual planners
– Experienced team members with high-caliber event experience and tools to create an event
– Extremely communative with vendors, venues and clients. We treat each client that signs with us the same regardless of the amount of service requested
– Personalization of information and a lot of reviewing details to ensure every detail impacted is cohesive
– A team of individuals who are passionate about not just the success of the event but that the experience is also on par with the planning process

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I’m fortunate that despite being an immigrant, my parents are not typical “tiger parents” who expected ivy league education or careers. My childhood was definitely colorful with opportunities to travel live abroad in Taiwan during the summers which helped maintain my ability to be multi-lingual artistic in that both my parents are musically and artists rather than focusing on the financial.

The arts definitely play a big role in my life. I’m someone who attends operas, classical concerts (really any musical concert), galleries, museums and if time permits, sketch/paint/draw or play piano. Aside from those, I’m a big fan of anime (dorky and nerdy, I know) and active with outdoor activities (basketball, paddle boarding, swimming).

Contact Info:

• Website: www.master-plans.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/masterplansevents/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MasterPlansEvents
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/masterplansed

Image Credits
Ether & Smith Photography for majority of them except for the one with white florals and black and gold chairs (Christine Skari Photography)