Party starter at home with cocktails, johnnies

CURRENT EVENTS: Stephanie Frazier-Grimm, left, owner  and founder  of Couture Parties and The Confetti Foundation, meets with Mary Lynn  Williams, event manager at the Newport Marriott. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
CURRENT EVENTS: Stephanie Frazier-Grimm, left, owner and founder of Couture Parties and The Confetti Foundation, meets with Mary Lynn Williams, event manager at the Newport Marriott. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

Anyone who’s ever planned a wedding, or a large-scale party, knows it’s typically a lot of work. But for Stephanie Frazier-Grimm, founder of Couture Parties LLC and nonprofit The Confetti Foundation, it’s her full-time job and she loves it.

“I get to create lasting memories for people,” Frazier-Grimm told Providence Business News. “It’s unbelievable, so that’s why I love doing it.”

Frazier-Grimm started her first business, Mama & Bambino, in 2005 between the births of her son, Carter Grimm, 12, and daughter, Ellie Grimm, 8. The company designed gifts and accessories for babies and quickly garnered popularity, as its products were featured in a handful of fashion magazines and even worn on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She sold the business in 2006.

After spending a year at home with her children, Frazier-Grimm’s entrepreneurial spirit drove her again to start a new business. She launched Couture Parties and got her first gig throwing a 100-person cocktail party for the parents of her husband, Paul Grimm.

- Advertisement -

“From there it was all word-of-mouth,” she said.

Couture Parties now does about 60-75 social events in any given year. And it didn’t take long before one of her repeat customers asked Frazier-Grimm to plan a wedding for a granddaughter. Now she does about 10 weddings yearly.

“It’s great. I’m not a sitting-on-my-hands kind of person and I enjoy being busy,” she said.

About 95 percent of her business happens inside the Ocean State. The remaining 5 percent comprises roughly one destination wedding each year, sending her to New York City, Los Angeles, the Caribbean and beyond.

She plans parties and weddings for both Rhode Islanders and out-of-towners who come to the Ocean State for destination weddings. The Knot, an online platform that helps people plan weddings, named Frazier-Grimm “Best of Rhode Island Wedding Planner” three years in a row.

“I have Couture [Parties], my family and my nonprofit, but I’m a mom and wife first,” Frazier-Grimm said. “My husband is so supportive and my kids understand why I’m so busy and I set a lot of boundaries. You have to as a businessperson.”

Beyond her for-profit enterprise, Frazier-Grimm last year launched The Confetti Foundation, a nonprofit that provides birthday materials for children in hospitals.

A friend told Frazier-Grimm about a child in Michigan who was having a birthday party at a hospital, but there were no balloons, cake or other party materials because the hospital didn’t have the capacity to provide it.

“I thought, ‘That’s crazy,’ ” Frazier-Grimm said.

She sat on the idea for a couple of years before launching The Confetti Foundation, which – like her other ventures – has gained popularity.

“The nonprofit is snowballing and our goal is to be in every children’s hospital in the country,” Frazier-Grimm said.

The nonprofit has already provided for 790 birthdays at 80 hospitals in 34 states, according to Grimm-Frazier.

For now, the nonprofit is entirely funded through donations, but Frazier-Grimm says she’s been applying for grants to make it more financially sustainable. She’s also always looking for new opportunities to grow Couture Parties. The business currently employs one full-time employee and interns.

“There’s always room for growth,” she said. “But I’m at a point now where I can be selective and choose which parties I want to do.” •

No posts to display