Celebrity Wedding Planner Marcy Blum Turned Fun Into a Million-Dollar Business

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Messy Parts with Maryam Banikarim

Episode: Celebrity Wedding Planner Marcy Blum Turned Fun Into a Million-Dollar Business

Date: November 24, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this candid and energetic episode, Maryam Banikarim talks with legendary celebrity event and wedding planner Marcy Blum. Blum, known for creating unforgettable, fun events for stars like Kevin Bacon, LeBron James, and Billy Joel, opens up about her unconventional path to the top, the messy realities of building a business, and the secrets behind turning fun into a unique, million-dollar differentiator. The conversation traverses Blum’s Bronx childhood, professional pivots, early struggles, the gendered challenges she faced, and her philosophies on business, networking, money, and success.

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Major Discussion Points & Key Insights

1. Roots: Bronx Beginnings and a Love for Theater (01:41–03:38)

• Early Aspirations: Marcy discusses her childhood desire to attend performing arts school, choosing it over a more conventional route, and her parents’ confusion.
  • “I knew I wanted to act at that point...there was no question that's where I wanted to go.” (Marcy Blum, 02:03)
• Performing Arts School Experience: Lived out the "Fame" high school dream—described as fun, wild, full of creative types.
  • “It was exactly as you see in the movie Fame. We smoked dope and danced in the cafeteria.” (Marcy Blum, 02:24)
• Transition Away From Acting: Participated in street theater, but by late teens, she moved on.

2. A Commune, Setbacks, and the Value of Messiness (04:02–06:39)

• Counterculture Leap: At 16, Marcy co-founded a commune in Vermont with friends, seeking belonging and independence (04:02–04:39).
• Failure, Reflection, and Mental Health: After the commune dissolved, Marcy returned home and spent a year isolated, openly calling it a “messy” and depressive time.
  • “It's never as bad as you think it is...I really thought life was over at 16, 18.” (Marcy Blum, 05:25)

3. Discovering Passion for Food & Culinary School Trailblazing (06:48–11:35)

• Food as Salvation: With encouragement from family, she enrolled in Cordon Bleu in Paris, despite hesitance and ongoing depression.
• First Wave of Women: Attended the Culinary Institute of America as one of the first female students.
  • “There were no women. First class of women? Yeah. 50 of us.” (Marcy Blum, 09:35)
• Sexism in the Kitchen: Faced blatant gender discrimination—including being told jobs weren’t available to women.
  • “We don't hire women. I mean, they may still not hire women, but they wouldn't put it in writing.” (Marcy Blum, 11:04)

4. Building a Career: Serendipity, Networking, and the Path to Events (11:58–13:18)

• Eclectic Early Jobs: Worked as a sous chef, teacher, and consultant, feeling lost and dissatisfied.
• The Power of Connections: Key career breaks came from her brother, a New York Times journalist, and political connections—especially with Ed Koch.
  • “Nobody wanted to mess with Ed [Koch]. So he hired me as a food consultant.” (Marcy Blum, 12:16)

5. Perseverance, Imposter Syndrome & Finding the ‘Fun’ Niche (13:18–15:56)

• Grit in Unhappy Jobs: Stuck with difficult positions to prove her reliability to herself.
• Battling Imposter Syndrome: Even after being honored for her achievements, Marcy felt out of place.
  • “If imposter syndrome were fatal, I would have died today.” (Marcy Blum, 14:46)
• Transition to Event Planning: Personal experiences (like her own DIY wedding) revealed the need for professional planners, sparking her business idea.

6. Starting the Business and Learning to Value Yourself (17:53–23:18)

• Tony Robbins Influence: Principles from Robbins—specifically, not repeating patterns that bring only pain—inspired her leap to entrepreneurship.
  • “Do what you’ve always done, you’re going to get what you’ve always gotten.” (Marcy Blum, 18:05)
• Weddings as a Differentiator: Realized there was a unique market need for wedding planning specifically (19:04).
• Financial Lessons: Admitted it took 25 years to find true profitability. Relied on friends’ tough love to overhaul her pricing model from flat fees to a percentage of total spend.
  • “There's 10 of us... I've been doing, you know, 5 million, $20 million weddings. So, makes a big difference. I have a house.” (Marcy Blum, 21:49)

7. Women & Money: Charging What You’re Worth (22:00–23:51)

• Industry Standard: Most planners now charge 15–20% of total event spend; distinction between herself (sometimes drawing a line on what to charge for) and male colleagues.
  • “Most of the guys in the business charge their full percentage...I think it's piggy.” (Marcy Blum, 22:58)

8. Generational Differences & Managing a Team (23:55–25:26)

• Team Building: Discusses managing a mix of full-timers and permalancers, noting she pays well because she expects a lot.
• Gen Z Observations: Notes young people’s connections to grandparents and a focus on inclusivity in events.

9. Marcy’s Unique Selling Point: Fun (25:26–26:45)

• Reputation as ‘Queen of Fun’: Colleagues acknowledge her events are legendary for joy, vibrancy, and surprise.
  • “You're known as the queen of fun. Like, nobody can sell against you because my parties are fun.” (Marcy Blum, 25:47)
• Why Parties Fail: Many planners obsess over perfection but neglect guest experience—Marcy zeroes in on making everyone feel seen and delighted.

10. Business Wisdom: Success, Marketing, and Staying Relevant (26:45–30:19)

• Defining Success: Contentment with home, family, and health; not being sick, loving her husband.
• Client Focus: Keeps the guest experience at the center, often pushing back on clients’ personal biases.
• Staying Current: Stays curious and active, despite feeling her age with trends and new music.
  • “I think I'm chronologically damaged. I really still think I'm like, maybe 28. And I go out a lot. I read a lot...” (Marcy Blum, 30:19)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Industry Reputation (00:00–00:34):
  • “You’re known as the queen of fun. Nobody can sell against you because my parties are fun…not everyone’s parties are fun.” — Marcy Blum, 00:01
• On Why Other Events Fall Flat:
  • “They’re more concerned about the perfect napkin than where guests are getting their next drink or…dancing on the tables.” — Marcy Blum, 00:16
• On Gender Barriers:
  • “We don’t hire women. I mean, they may still not hire women, but they wouldn’t put it in writing.” — Marcy Blum, 11:04
• On Financial Transformation:
  • “If you do what you’ve always done, you’re going to get what you’ve always gotten.” — Marcy Blum (Tony Robbins principle), 18:05
• On Fees and Values:
  • “I think it's piggy.” — Marcy Blum (re: charging percentage on high artist fees), 22:58
• On Networking and Asking for Help:
  • “I thought it was unseemly to be as pushy as I should have been…nobody cared.” — Marcy Blum, 17:02
  • “You have to bring something to the table.” — Marcy Blum, 33:01

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Topic | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------|-----------------| | Childhood, Acting, Performing Arts School | 01:41–03:38 | | Commune in Vermont, Setbacks, Reflection | 04:02–06:39 | | Culinary School, Sexism, Early Career | 06:48–11:35 | | Entering Events, Early Networking | 11:58–13:18 | | Imposter Syndrome and Resilience | 13:36–15:56 | | Starting Marcy’s Business | 17:53–19:56 | | Money Lessons, Charging What You’re Worth | 21:10–23:51 | | Gen Z and Team Management | 23:55–25:26 | | The Power of Fun in Events | 25:26–26:45 | | Defining Success, Marketing Philosophy | 26:45–30:19 | | Rapid Fire/Personal Insights | 30:41–34:17 |

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Rapid-Fire Session (30:41–34:17)

• Curiosity and Relevance: Maintains youthful spirit and interest in trends.
• Messiest Moment: A year of panic attacks and personal struggle post-commune.
• Bad Career Advice: Interning with a planner won’t teach true event skills—learn a facet of the business instead.
• Coping with Crisis of Confidence: “Xanax.” (31:24)
• When She Last Cried: Previously day, reflecting on her husband’s health (31:36).
• One Thing Never to Do Again: “Acid.” (32:02)
• Best Way to Reach Out for Advice: Be specific, bring value, and don’t expect a generic “pick your brain” session.

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Takeaways & Tips

• Success isn’t linear or tidy—it’s full of “messy parts.”
• Differentiation is crucial: Marcy’s focus on fun set her apart in a crowded market.
• Owning your value (and learning to charge it) is a journey, especially for women.
• Networking pays off, but so does thinking about value in relationships, not just extraction.
• Transparency, candidness, and authenticity are strengths in a client-based business.
• Younger generations bring new values and expectations—listening and adapting is key.

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Marcy’s parting wisdom:
“You have to bring something to the table…It is a quid pro quo, you don’t just get to walk into someone’s office and take up their time if you have no connection.” (33:22)

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Host’s Sign-off:
Stay tuned for more honest, vulnerable conversations about the messy parts behind extraordinary careers.

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For listeners:
If you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends and leave a review to keep the real talk—and the invaluable career lessons—coming!

Transcript

[Marcie Blum]

Three or four people, including these two young people, came over to me and said, you know, you're known as the queen of fun. Like, nobody can sell against you. Nobody can sell against you because my parties are fun. And I know it would seem obvious, but not everyone's parties are fun.

[Interviewer]

Why not?

[Marcie Blum]

Because they suck.

[Interviewer]

What does that mean?

[Marcie Blum]

They're more concerned about the perfect napkin than where the guests are getting their next drink or who's taking the coat or something bizarre and surprising like, you know, dancing on the tables.

[Interviewer]

Today on the messy parts. We're having on celebrity wedding planner Marcie Blum. She's been at it for 35 years, having done events for Kevin Bacon, LeBron James, Billy Joel, and many billionaires who she can't mention due to NDAs. Now you're going to want to listen to the whole conversation. She's a straight shooter. She's going to tell you how to ask people for advice who you might be afraid to ask advice from. She's going to tell you how to make fun your differential advantage, and she's also going to tell you how to get through that job that might not be so much fun. Listen till the end. You're going to want to tell your friends, subscribe, and also, of course, always drop us a review. Marcie, thank you so much for agreeing to. Come on. I like to start sort of at the beginning because I think, you know, how we got here is a little bit about how we started. And I know that you grew up in the Bronx. Yes, I do. So I wanted to just get a sense of what you were like back then, because, you know, I was struck by the fact that you wanted to go to performing arts school so much so that you didn't do well on your Riverdale exam. And I thought, like, what would that have been like if I'd done that?

[Marcie Blum]

In my home was a different era. How old are you?

[Interviewer]

About 56 or 7?

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah, this is 1968. 70. It was a very different time.

[Interviewer]

But it shows a strength of character or of will that you.

[Marcie Blum]

That's not how my parents would have put it, but, yes, thank you for putting it so eloquently.

[Interviewer]

But it's the truth, right, that you had so much.

[Marcie Blum]

I. I knew I wanted to act at that point, and I had been taking acting lessons at, you know, American Academy and all sorts of other places since I was little bitty. So when I realized that there was a performing arts school, there was no question that's where I wanted to go.

[Interviewer]

You end up going to performing Arts school. Because your first love was acting. And what was that like?

[Marcie Blum]

It was great. It was exactly as you see in the movie Fame. We smoked dope and danced in the cafeteria. Really fascinating bunch of people. Students and teachers. And in those days, you know, now it's merged with music and art. But in those days, there was a music and art school and performing arts. Now it's Fiorella LaGuardia High School, the performing arts, and it's at Lincoln Center. But this was on 46th Street.

[Interviewer]

My daughter went to LaGuardia and I remember calling once to ask a question, and the Fame music came on and I was like, I'm ready to dance on the cafeteria tables. Because I also was a. You know, we grew up with fame. So you. But you didn't really go into acting when you finished?

[Marcie Blum]

I did some street Theater at 14 years old, which is insane. And then some street theater when we moved to Vermont. But that was. I was over it by then.

[Interviewer]

Natasha also went. And then she did not pursue that, actually, when she.

[Marcie Blum]

What is she doing?

[Interviewer]

She actually now works for a prisoner firm in their film department. So using some of her culture, I.

[Marcie Blum]

Mean, the people in events in general, the larger world of event planning, production, whatever, an enormous amount came out of theater.

[Interviewer]

Why is that?

[Marcie Blum]

Well, you know, there's working on something, get it up and open and then, you know, have a defined time to do it. And you don't get a lot of time to rehearse once, you know, once it's happening. And I think people in my business tend to be very dramatic, for better, for worse.

[Interviewer]

And you put on a show.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah, basically.

[Interviewer]

So you leave high school and join a commune in Vermont. This was.

[Marcie Blum]

No, we started a commune. I didn't join.

[Interviewer]

Oh, okay. This is even better. Because I've always. I always thought that would be kind of amazing. As a kid who was always looking for belonging, like a commune seemed amazing.

[Marcie Blum]

So about. I think there were about 15 or 16 of us. I'd have to. And we all put in whatever money we had, and my boyfriend's father, parents gave us five grand, and we bought a farm in Marshfield, Vermont.

[Interviewer]

How did that work? Like, well, what does that mean?

[Marcie Blum]

Well, I mean, I was 16. Most of my friends were like, you know, 16, 17. My boyfriend was 19. We had no idea what we were doing. We just didn't want to be here.

[Interviewer]

And so when it didn't work out, you moved back home?

[Marcie Blum]

Not immediately. I, you know, sat in a room for a year, but then I moved back home.

[Interviewer]

Well, I'm interested in the sitting in a room for you.

[Marcie Blum]

Oh, but I'm not going to tell you about that.

[Interviewer]

Well, you don't have to go into intricate details.

[Marcie Blum]

You read my memoir when it comes.

[Interviewer]

Out, well, you can definitely put me up for a pre order. I just find so many people are particularly. This younger generation is either looking for permission or when they hit sort of these various bumps where they don't know what they want to do or they want to try something different, get kind of stuck. Both of us have had experiences where you pursue something, it doesn't work out. Is there a lesson in how you picked yourself back up in that moment?

[Marcie Blum]

It's so much more complicated than that. Not that you're being simplistic. I'm just saying the way I think about it, because I don't think in retrospect, I should have been living with my boyfriend at 16. You know, probably wasn't a great idea. There were so many things that were going on in all of us. You know, we were crazy. And for our, you know, middle class, predominantly Jewish parents, you know, it was like we had been abducted by aliens. You know, there was. I mean, now if your kid was smoking dope upstairs, you'd know it. They had no idea because we were the first. So they would, like, they didn't know what hit them. You know, I went on a cruise with my parents and my junior year of high school, and then I came back and started drawing flowers on my face and wearing tablecloths to school. And, you know, they really were like, in a state of shock, all of our parents. It's never as bad as you think it is. Like, I mean, I really thought life was over at 16, 18. By then I had already. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And so you move back home after that period?

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And I think I read you watched a lot of tv.

[Marcie Blum]

A lot of times I said, you.

[Interviewer]

Know, TV was amazing. I still think it's amazing.

[Marcie Blum]

Let's Make a Deal. It was fabulous.

[Interviewer]

And so you're watching TV and you decide somehow, okay, acting wasn't for you. You tried your hand at the commune. I mean, I kind of love this because people think like, oh, we all know what we want to do. People probably think like, you want.

[Marcie Blum]

I always say that to people all the time. Especially now that everyone's going to live to 150. You can have gazillion careers.

[Interviewer]

So how did you then discover that food was your passion?

[Marcie Blum]

My mother was a great cook. She was a great cook. She was a great hostess. We were raised with Julia Child the television pulled up to the kitchen. My mother cooking. She was really good. My grandmother was really good, and so I always liked it. And my brother and his girlfriend were living in Paris. My brother's a writer, and his first girlfriend, he was writing his first book. And she called me one day and said, your parents are losing their minds. You have to do something. Why don't you apply to Cordon Ballon and come live with us? So I was not going, but I thought I'd shut everybody up and apply. I applied. I mean, it wasn't hard to get into anything. I think you could apply for the check. But I. They, you know, took the check, and I was like, oh, shit, now I have to go.

[Interviewer]

Well, with that comes going to Paris.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. So not so bad.

[Marcie Blum]

And, well, except that I wanted to stay in my room and watch let's Make a Deal. I was not up for going to Paris at all. It was. I did not want to do anything. I was really. I did not want to do anything.

[Interviewer]

Do you think you were depressed?

[Marcie Blum]

Are you being facetious?

[Interviewer]

No, I'm being serious.

[Marcie Blum]

I didn't know I was. Clinically, I was a mess.

[Interviewer]

I'm going to pause on that for a second, because oftentimes when we're depressed, it's actually hard to get out of that state. Right. I mean, I, as a parent who's had kids who've had all kinds of things in their life, I also think.

[Marcie Blum]

I mean, in those days, my therapist was very Freudian and certainly didn't believe in, you know, any medication or pharmaceuticals or anything, which would have made a big difference, because I was usually. Or at least in my experience, anxiety and depression are, you know, lovers. So you're anxious and depressed, and you just don't want to do anything to upset yourself. And let's Make a Deal was about as much excitement as I could take at that point.

[Interviewer]

And yet you found your way to Cordon Bleu in Paris.

[Marcie Blum]

I mean, I was very lucky because my mother was extraordinary, and she was like, you know, you're doing this. And I mean, Cordon Bleu is really, you know, sort of housewifery. Learning how to cook haute cuisine so you could bag a husband was probably more what they had in mind. It's not what I had in mind, but I don't think it was. You know, I just thought, whatever, I have to do something. I'll do that.

[Interviewer]

What happened after that?

[Marcie Blum]

Well, I came back. Back to New York, and I had realized that I really liked it. And I took in Those days we would call housewife cooking classes. And I took just about every single one you could take. I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I just took tons of classes. And there's a lovely gentleman named John Clancy who was the chef for the Foods of the World cookbooks. I don't know if you remember the time. My foods, there's like a series of hundred more than that. And I took his classes and we became very good friends. And he was very, very talented. Extraordinary man. He said, you should consider doing this professionally. So he wrote a letter to CIA and I was like, okay, I don't know what I'm doing, so fine, let's try that.

[Interviewer]

And was CIA filled with housewives?

[Marcie Blum]

No, there were no women.

[Interviewer]

No women at all.

[Marcie Blum]

First class of women? Yeah.

[Interviewer]

50.

[Marcie Blum]

50 of us. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And so what was that like?

[Marcie Blum]

Bizarre. You know, I lived off campus, I was 23 and. But when we went, it was, you know, my parents friends thought I was going to like an auto mechanic school. It was not a sexy thing to be going to cooking school. It was a ridiculous.

[Interviewer]

And all the guys network changed that.

[Marcie Blum]

Honestly, it was a combo. Yeah. And then I mean all the guys in my class were in like they were there on a GI scholarship. I mean, you know, and there are a lot of well known chefs from David Burke to Bobby, I think to a lot of well known chefs who were. I mean, I got an award from school like three years ago and they were teasing. Cause we called it the Fuck Up Awards. Cause all of us were up there going, well, I didn't know what I was doing. Roy Choi, who used to be a drug dealer, we got the award the same day. We were like, let's see what happens. You know, the CIA saved us.

[Interviewer]

The CIA. There's so many acronyms that now mean different.

[Marcie Blum]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

So anyway, you're one of 50 women. And one of the things I find happens often when we go into these rooms where we're the only or the few is that you sort of have to conform to like to fit in, to just get the education right. So that you're not standing out. Was it like that there?

[Marcie Blum]

I mean, the chefs definitely didn't want women there. I mean, when a chef would say to me, come sit on my lap and discuss your grade, I wasn't like shocked. And I didn't punch him. I was like, this, this is where it goes. This is how it happens. Right.

[Interviewer]

So I'd say I had that experience in the 80s and I wasn't shocked.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah, we're I was like, okay, so.

[Interviewer]

You graduate and it's very difficult to get a job again.

[Marcie Blum]

I still didn't know what I wanted to do really. I mean, I had delusions of grander aside from anything else. But I, I had applied to Lutece, but I got a letter back, which I have to find one of these days, cuz people keep asking about it, that just said, you know, your grades are wonderful, blah, blah, blah, blah. We don't hire women. I mean, they may still not hire women, but they wouldn't. Put it in writing.

[Interviewer]

Put it in writing, right. So you end up at a golf, at a golf club.

[Marcie Blum]

I was a sous chef at the Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Larchmont.

[Interviewer]

I know Quaker Ridge.

[Marcie Blum]

Yes, a lot of people know and.

[Interviewer]

I bet were you. What were you cooking at Quaker Ridge?

[Marcie Blum]

I was a sous chef. So, you know, you'd have these stupid country club lunches where you'd have to do 4,000 burgers or you'd have lobster night or you'd have to clean soft shell crabs and that. It was, you know, it wasn't very glamorous cooking.

[Interviewer]

Lutess.

[Marcie Blum]

No, it was definitely not Lutece.

[Interviewer]

How do you find your way to events?

[Marcie Blum]

I was working as I was teaching cooking, I was teaching at Gimbel's. Once a week I was consulting for a couple of restaurants. People I knew, I worked at Maxwell's Plum as the gar manger, which was really the parsley lady. They just let me throw parsley on the plates. And then my brother, who was writing for the New York Times at the time, he was the head investigative journalist. My brother and my now ex husband were equally good friends with Ed Koch, who was councilman then. It was before he was mayor. And they were all out having lunch with Ed and said, how's more? I see. My brother said, miserable. She hates her job. And Peter Ashkenazi. Now my ex husband, who was sitting at lunch too, said, oh, I'm opening a bunch of restaurants. And Ed said, so hire her. So he did. So, you know, because nobody wanted to mess with Ed. So he hired me as a food consultant. And then we opened a place called the U.S. steakhouse on 51st Street. And years later he bought Luchow's. But we were already married by then. We had a whole bunch of restaurants and I hired a lot of kids from CIA. I hired the chefs, I did the menus, we did a lot of private parties. And then we used to do. When Ed became mayor, we did catering at Gracie Mansion and then People started asking me, can you do things outside of where you're working? And you know, I think I was 26, so I could do anything. I was like, of course.

[Interviewer]

I actually had two questions for you that relate to that. One is that nowadays kids take jobs and they're not happy. They don't even have to be kids. Adults take jobs. Many people take jobs and they're not happy. And you kept being able to just move forward. Right. And also, you don't seem to have suffered from imposter syndrome.

[Marcie Blum]

Oh, Jesus. I went to school, CIA two weeks ago, and they decided to build a walk of fame, like based on the Hollywood Stars walk. And big deal. They got a zillion dollars of donations, including some students. And there were 10 of us who got the first stars. Nine really fabulous, well known chefs. And me, I couldn't stop laughing all day. I was like, if my parents were watching this, they must be roaring because I was such a screw up. The fact that they. I don't know what they were thinking. I guess they needed more females, whatever. But it was Susan Fennegar, Sarah Moulton, you know, Dean Feary, Larry Forgioni. I mean, we all know each other. I was like, I am definitely should not be getting a star on this same walk of fame. So I was talking about imposter syndrome.

[Interviewer]

You invented wedding planning.

[Marcie Blum]

I don't know about that. But anyways, that's something to give someone a star for. It was just, you know, vis a vis these other people. I was like. And I said to one of my girlfriends, I was like, if imposter syndrome were fatal, I would have died today. Because then that was exactly. Even just standing there with them, I was like, this is hilarious, you know.

[Interviewer]

Well, I'm gonna stop you because as somebody who's been a chief marketing officer, who's ran big events, I know how complicated events are. And you've done events for people who are celebrities. LeBron James, I go on Kevin Bacon. Not easy. People, stars. I mean, amazing in their own right. Right? Not necessarily easy. So this is such an interesting moment because I would definitely think you're worthy of a star.

[Marcie Blum]

You see that? And I will you that I'm a better marketer than I am at anything else. So there you go.

[Interviewer]

I know we never feel like we're successful. I don't know what it is. And yet here you are. This is amazing.

[Marcie Blum]

I think, you know, if you're a certain type of person, if you're raised in a certain type of household, you know, there is perhaps a Time in your life when you don't want to be a self fulfilling prophecy. So you're like, you know, jobs that you would hate, that maybe I would quit now in a second. I wanted to prove to myself that I could actually stick with something, even if it wasn't what I had in mind, you know. So I dragged my ass up to Larchmont because I just wasn't gonna miss work. Cause I was so used to not doing anything. I think I wanted to prove to myself that I could at least.

[Interviewer]

You weren't gonna quit.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

So you start doing events and first of all, I think Stephen Pollan is who introduced you to Kevin Bacon, correct? Stephen Pollan. I knew because I was at Macmillan as a book publisher. I've had like 60 jobs. He had this book called Life Scripts. And so that's how I got to know him. And he also. He was everybody's lawyer. But he was such a character.

[Marcie Blum]

He was very eccentric, interesting. And you know how he knew Kevin? His daughter Tracy, who's Michael J. Fox's wife, had lived with Kevin for a year. And when they broke up, Stephen and Kevin stayed friends. And then. So when Kevin met Kira, he introduced me to them.

[Interviewer]

Super connected family. And one of the things I wondered is that, you know, social media capital is a thing. Right. So Stephen Paul knew lots of people. He would, if you were his client, he would introduce you to people. Is there a lesson we can extrapolate from? Sort of. Because relationships clearly played a big part.

[Marcie Blum]

In your life, you know, and not as big a part of it as they should have. And I don't think I was as exploitive as I should have been.

[Interviewer]

Interesting word. Do you think you should have done it more?

[Marcie Blum]

No question.

[Interviewer]

What does that mean?

[Marcie Blum]

I thought it was unseemly to be as pushy as I should have been.

[Interviewer]

Because nobody who wanted to see a.

[Marcie Blum]

Needy perhaps, but nobody cared. I mean, you could have done it. Because I see people doing it all the time and nobody seems to care. Other piece of that is, I mean, there's a lot of people in my business who are extremely successful. You know, there's a whole coterie of this, you know, certain type of person who is a party planner or whatever. And I never fit that mold either. What does that mean? Well, I mean, you know, a lot of people went to Riverdale Country School and then they all went to Penn. Gazillions of people on the Upper east side, they're all party planners. They all went to Penn. Darcy Miller kinds of people who, you know, Worked for Martha Stewart and then handed out jobs right and left, and not to me. I was always a little.

[Interviewer]

An outsider out there.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah, very much so.

[Interviewer]

So then you basically start getting asked to do events.

[Marcie Blum]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

And you start your business. What made you do that?

[Marcie Blum]

Probably Tony Robbins. You know anything about Tony Robbins?

[Interviewer]

Are you being serious?

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah, not Tony Robbins.

[Interviewer]

You went to the seminar.

[Marcie Blum]

I went to lots of seminars. I did a lot, you know, and I absolutely hated what I was doing. I hated working in the restaurants for Peter. Totally. I didn't know what I was doing. Once again. And Tony, one of his most basic principles, and the ones that actually make sense and not that they all do, is. Well, it's two things. One, if you, you know, do what you've always done, you're going to get what you've always gotten. And also, you know, people ordinarily, they are motivated not by going towards pleasure, but by avoiding pain. You know, it hit me and I was like, whatever I do, I can't be as miserable as I am doing this. So I put an ad in New York magazine to do.

[Interviewer]

To start the business.

[Marcie Blum]

To plan weddings. To plan weddings.

[Interviewer]

Well, why weddings?

[Marcie Blum]

I can't remember. There must have been. Somebody must have asked me to do something and.

[Interviewer]

And did.

[Marcie Blum]

I know it was parties at the beginning, but the ad was weddings. Because I realized that that was the thing that was going to, you know, seduce myself.

[Interviewer]

Why did you realize that?

[Marcie Blum]

When you're in the business. When you're in restaurant business and everything. No, you know, there's a ton of people doing parties and things, but weddings was a very specific thing. People needed help.

[Interviewer]

And was the first wedding. Kevin.

[Marcie Blum]

And then Peter and I had gotten married, and I was like, this is a disaster. People really need to help someone because this is horrible.

[Interviewer]

Wait, what does that mean?

[Marcie Blum]

No, I mean, doing it yourself is horrible.

[Interviewer]

Oh, doing it yourself.

[Marcie Blum]

And I thought I invented it, which I did not. But I thought I invented it. I was like, what a clever idea.

[Interviewer]

So where'd you get married?

[Marcie Blum]

Wave Hill. And Ed was mayor, and he basically gave us the keys. And I had, you know, I'm from Riverdale. The first place I ever got high was Wave Hill. So it's like, how perfect. All my friends came and cooked. We had the restaurants. We borrowed china from the Cote Basque. We borrowed, you know, the silver from some other place. We bought a bunch, tons of stuff from our own restaurants.

[Interviewer]

In fact, your wedding was the inspiration for wedding planning in some ways.

[Marcie Blum]

In some ways, yes.

[Interviewer]

Did you do. Was the first wedding you did Kevin.

[Marcie Blum]

And no, no. Although he keeps saying that. I keep correcting because I just did Kira's 60th birthday and he introduced me as like we were her first gig. I said, no, you weren't. Was 37. You're 38 years ago now. But it was in the first year and it was definitely my first celebrity. And he wasn't really a celebrity then.

[Interviewer]

And that put like a real marker for you on the board.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah, I guess. And then writing again, the years are almost up there. But when I, you know. Writing Weddings for Dummies. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Because that was a big book.

[Marcie Blum]

Well, in those days, they actually paid for those books. I mean, now, as you would know.

[Interviewer]

I like, I said I did the. I did the idiot's guys.

[Marcie Blum]

I mean, they paid me like 60 grand. I said, which is a lot of money for, you know, that kind of book. And. And I got residuals. I was.

[Interviewer]

Because it was a big deal, super helpful. Those books. You start your own business. And you know what I love is like, it was just never linear. Right. I mean, people look from the outside and they must think like, oh, but, well, the kids.

[Marcie Blum]

I mean, I was at a dinner party for planners last night and there were like 18 of us at all different stages. Most of us are doing very expensive events now. And there were two women there who had written a business plan in a business school for this, which I thought was the funniest thing ever. I was like, oh. I was like, oh, you should read my business plan where it's on the back of a napkin maybe.

[Interviewer]

That's interesting because here you are at an event with people of different ages. What's the big difference, you see, between like, sort of the experience you had. I had.

[Marcie Blum]

And then they're making money right off the bat. It took me about 25 years, which is certainly.

[Interviewer]

Really?

[Marcie Blum]

Oh, yeah. What if you don't do anything but.

[Interviewer]

Over the 25 years to be better at the money.

[Marcie Blum]

I had two very good friends in the business who were very businesslike 13, 14 years ago. They both, you know, bullied me because I was charging flat fees and now nobody is. But in those days, that was the, the industry standard. And they were like, you're going to starve to death if you keep doing this. So we switched to percentage the total spend.

[Interviewer]

Total spend, yeah.

[Marcie Blum]

So. And I've been doing, you know, 5 million, $20 million weddings. So makes a big difference. I have a house.

[Interviewer]

But so what did you learn about that? Because that's a big lesson for women. I find that we often Give away the things we do, not really valuing it.

[Marcie Blum]

We're also, generally speaking, much more apt to make a compromise. And this was the conversation at dinner last night. Most of us charge 20%. Now, between 15 and 20%. We were discussing what happens when a client hires a headliner like Maroon 5 or I charge my company. There's 10 of us. I charge a production fee, usually somewhere around 50 grand, to do the green room, produce, whatever, make the connections. Most of the guys in the business charge their full percentage on that. Meaning. So, like, ELTON John is 5, 5, 5, 5 million 500.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah. GAGA is about the same. I mean, you know, we. We all make inquiries all the time. So that means they're making, you know, 20%. They take the full percentage.

[Interviewer]

Why don't you do that?

[Marcie Blum]

Because I think it's piggy.

[Interviewer]

So you have values like you.

[Marcie Blum]

Actually, I don't know about that, but I.

[Interviewer]

You're not sure?

[Marcie Blum]

I draw the line somewhere. Yeah, I think it's. Yes. I mean, part of it's cause I think it's piggy. Part of it is cause I don't. I am. Yes, needy. I like my clients to like me, and I think they're, you know, and I'd like them to come back, and I think, you know.

[Interviewer]

Do you think they don't come back for the people who take the full percentage? Yeah, I do.

[Marcie Blum]

I'm not sure.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I know we all want to be liked.

[Marcie Blum]

It's a curse, you know, but it's also. I mean, nobody's in our business, my business, who doesn't like to be like. There are people who have, you know, lesser addictions to it, but certainly, yeah.

[Interviewer]

It goes back to the acting.

[Marcie Blum]

Well, it's also selling. I am selling every single day. And these people are gonna spend a year, year and a half with me or for a 70th birthday, at least six months with me. And they have to like us or not only they're not gonna spend money. They're, you know, they're just not gonna do it.

[Interviewer]

You have 10 people on your team. You manage people of different ages. I mean, 10.

[Marcie Blum]

I already have four full time. Yeah, I have four full time, and I have. I have five full time now. And I have, you know, five that are permalancers. Permalancers.

[Interviewer]

And then you obviously flex for production and things like that. What are you seeing with sort of younger generations? And how can we be helpful? Because, you know, there's this trope that, like, younger people are, you know, lazy or.

[Marcie Blum]

I wouldn't doubt that. No, I say, I look, I don't have kids.

[Interviewer]

But you have employees.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah. And so, you know, I was on a panel two weeks ago for something that. With a talking about Gen Z. And I was the first person to speak, which I thought was bizarre. But I said the two things that I have noticed in relation to planning a wedding. They're very involved with their grandparents and they want to make sure that, like, they're going to do it in somewhere they can get the grandparents to. And one after the other, each and every one. That's one of the first things come out of their mouth, which I thought was interesting.

[Interviewer]

They want to be connected to their grandparents.

[Marcie Blum]

Interesting family. Yeah. And as far as, you know, the people who work for me, I pay a lot. And I pay a lot because I don't like to be aggravated. I don't want to hear them bitching all the time. And I pay a lot. My clients expect a lot. A lot, a lot. We're working for the, you know, the 1/10 of the 1%. All our clients, with rare exception, billionaires. If they're not billionaires, they're almost billionaires. They, you know, have no patience. So I expect a lot. And so I pay for it. And that seems to work. Yeah, if I were paying less, I think it'd be a lot more difficult.

[Interviewer]

One of the things I think about is that one, in some ways you said something interesting about the events that you throw on, which is that you're not so much going for perfect, although I'm sure you are going for perfect as well, which is that when the event goes well, people feel seen like it's the details and that sense of, you know, the experience more so than like the perfect napkin. Even though I'm sure you also have perfect napkins.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah, but. But, you know, I. I would take one of the most gratifying things that's. That's happened to me in many, many years at this dinner last night. And there's a couple of women there who I've known a long time. And then there were people I've known, you know, only a couple years. Cause they're new in the business and I still lose jobs. Then we all lose jobs to each other. It's very. But three or four people, including these two young people, came over to me and said, you know, you're known as the queen of fun. Like, nobody can sell against you. Nobody can sell against you because my parties are fun. And I know it would seem obvious, but not everyone's parties are Fun?

[Interviewer]

Why not?

[Marcie Blum]

Because they suck.

[Interviewer]

What does that mean?

[Marcie Blum]

They're more concerned about the perfect napkin than where the guests are getting their next drink or who's taking the code or something bizarre and surprising like, you know, dancing on the tables. One of my dear friends, her parties are exquisite, maybe the most beautiful in the business. And she's always saying to me, just sell the fun. Because what she is selling is something completely else. And her client is definitely not my client.

[Interviewer]

What is your definition of success?

[Marcie Blum]

Waking up and going, okay, this is okay, you know, I like this house. Nobody's sick. I love my husband at the moment. I love my friends at the moment.

[Interviewer]

Does that come and go? Is that why you say at the moment?

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah. No. People are very difficult. And if I'm worked for a second job for a very well known billionaire this summer, when I had no patience for anyone, not even my animals. So I usually have endless patience for it.

[Interviewer]

And then you ask yourself, is it worth it?

[Marcie Blum]

Well, you know, made a lot of money, so yeah, it was worth it. You have to like, look at them and go, mortgage payment or new bathroom or, you know, in your head.

[Interviewer]

But those are good tricks. So like when you're in a well.

[Marcie Blum]

You'D never sit through a meeting with any of these people on the line.

[Interviewer]

I like that trick.

[Marcie Blum]

Which is why you don't want to have drinks with them.

[Interviewer]

You're like, okay, this job will get me X.

[Marcie Blum]

Absolutely.

[Interviewer]

One of the things that we started a couple years ago, probably four years ago, is we do this thing called the longest table, which you may not have heard of, but basically we rent tables and chairs and we place them out here on 21st street and we invite neighbors to have potluck as a way just to have neighbors get to know each other. And this year we did it. And over 2,000 people came.

[Marcie Blum]

Seriously?

[Interviewer]

Yeah. We started it coming out of COVID because we thought we need to know our neighbors. Not only when you need Lysol wipes, like, shouldn't we just know our neighbors? And it's been this incredibly joyous thing that's really changed our experience of Chelsea.

[Marcie Blum]

Amazing.

[Interviewer]

We've been here for over 20 years and now, you know, 50 of them will have happened over the course of the year in the U.S. but the thing that's amazing about it, right? I think I told you as a C suite executive, you're always worried about perfect. You're managing down is it's completely grassroots and you learn grace and trust and you don't worry about perfect. What you worry about is people having inclusive experience. Like, people show up and say, I didn't make a reservation. And you say, there's always room at the table. Or, you know what? I didn't bring the right food. And it's like, it's not about the food. Although of course people bring amazing food. And I think that's what you're describing when you're describing fun.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah, that's definitely part of it. And then there's also. You get clients who. We just. We did a wedding, a five day wedding at Adair Manor in the spring. And I love these people. They're fabulous. And we took over the manor where everyone was staying and we sort of did. I mean, I'm sure you knew about Sleep no More, right?

[Interviewer]

Yeah, the show that you walk around the house.

[Marcie Blum]

And I was like, let's do an homage to Sleep no More. Not that it was gonna be Lady Macbeth and Rebecca, but we just, we put different things in each room. I had like leprechauns in the close with boxes and boxes of lucky charms, which was hilarious because you can't get them in Ireland anymore because they're toxic. It was like an inside joke. So we had leprechauns handing out tons of lucky charms. And you'd go up to another room and the baker was in there, like, screaming at. It was just great. It was like living theater. That was the welcome party. I was like, nobody wants to sit in a dress and three nights in a row. And there was like, it's not fun. People want to have fun and it's their vacation. Also. They're taking off, you know, certain amount of days to go to Ireland, like, let's do something fun. And it was.

[Interviewer]

You are a marketer because you put the consumer being the guest sort of at the center of your story.

[Marcie Blum]

I mean, that's what we sell. We sell. You're hiring us and you're the host. But if your guests aren't happy, you're not going to be very happy at the end of the day, even if you think you are. You know, people come in and say, no mushrooms. I hate mushrooms. I was like, well, you know, I don't give a shit what you hate. Like, you know, talk about what the majority of people want want. You're hosting a party.

[Interviewer]

You're. You're forever. And a marketer.

[Marcie Blum]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay, I'm going to ask you sort of faster questions, right? Rapid fire. How do you stay curious and relevant?

[Marcie Blum]

I think I'm chronologically damaged. I really still think I'm like, maybe 28. And I go out a lot. I read a lot of, you know, things and everything that I do, I think of how it would relate to an event. And I'm always shocked now, you know, being an old hippie, I'm kind of shocked at all the things that, like a new band or something I don't know about is really like painful.

[Interviewer]

Your messiest moment. On a scale of 1 to 10, what would it have been? What number and what would it have been?

[Marcie Blum]

I suffered. I mean, I had terrible panic attacks when I first re. Emerged, so I don't know if it's one specific moment, but basically reemerged, you know, from my parents apartment. So it was kind of a. It was just a generally messy year.

[Interviewer]

What do you think's a career myth that you think is a waste of time?

[Marcie Blum]

I would say that people who decide they want to be an event planner and go work for or apprentice for or act as an intern for an event planner is not the smartest thing to do. You'd be much smarter if you'd go work for an interior designer or a caterer or one of the gazillion facets that make up this business. And you'd be bringing much more to the table when you go work.

[Interviewer]

What would you tell someone who's having a crisis in confidence?

[Marcie Blum]

Xanax.

[Interviewer]

Do they still give that.

[Marcie Blum]

Oh, yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay. When was the last time you cried?

[Marcie Blum]

What time is it?

[Interviewer]

That's what everybody says. Yesterday.

[Marcie Blum]

My wonderful, my darling husband, who's 20 years younger than I am, who is just wonderful, wonderful. We've been together a million years, actually, is going to need a kidney very soon. He had a transplant 20 years ago out of nowhere, and now he's going to need another one. And I read something in People magazine yesterday this Some young athlete died from kidney disease and I just started crying. So that was yesterday.

[Interviewer]

Oh, okay. One thing you'd never do again.

[Marcie Blum]

Acid.

[Interviewer]

They're very specific. My final question is really just about this issue of reaching out to people, right? Because we could all be better at reaching out without being obnoxious or pushy, right? So I think a lot of people have anxiety about that. And yet that ask can make all the difference. They ask for help or they ask for connection.

[Marcie Blum]

I could show you 30 emails in the past month about I'd love to pick your brain. I was like, well, guess what, you know, no, I'm not Mother Teresa, but if you came with, you know, I just read blah, blah, blah, and I was wondering what you thought about that or I have a specific question. I have a client, I have someone who's reached out to me and they want this, this, this and this. And I don't know how to charge. That is something I'm happy to do because I can help you. It's not amorphous. You know, I'll get on the phone with you. I'll spend an hour on the phone with you going, well, you know, how many people is it? Blah, blah, blah, you know, that I feel. But this. How did you. You know, I don't want to have to repeat my life story 800 times all the time. And I don't. And I don't think it bears a lot of relevance. I don't think it's Aesop's fable. You have to bring something to the table. And when photographers and people like that ask me constantly, how do we get to work for you? I said, send me a gig and I'll always reciprocate.

[Interviewer]

I think value exchange. I think, like, there has to be value.

[Marcie Blum]

And again, talk about Gen Z. I mean, they really, you know, I hate to use that word, entitled, because I would imagine I'm. I mean, I grew up in an apartment in Riverdale where, you know, I was shocked when I found out we weren't rich. So I'm pretty entitled. But I think they don't understand that it is a, you know, quid pro quo that, like, you don't just get to walk into someone's office and take up their time if you have no connection. And of course, you know, I have lots of friends and my friends have kids or they have cousins or whatever who all want to think they want to be an event planner. So those people I have to have time for, but otherwise, no.

[Interviewer]

We said before we started the interview, as we were doing research, we were going to love you because you were going to be straightforward and you have fully delivered.

[Marcie Blum]

Why, thank you. I love it. I don't know even how to be disingenuous. Well, that's not true. I'm really disingenuous with clients, but with real people and, well, we all have.

[Interviewer]

Clients to be disingenuous about it.

[Marcie Blum]

Otherwise you have to tell them what it's going to cost the beginning and then that would be it. It would never, you know.

[Interviewer]

Well, thank you so much. I very much appreciate you coming on. Thank you for listening all the way to the end. The bonus is we're going to ask you to tell 10 friends, share, and of course, drop a review. The more you do that, the better guests we're going to get, and they're going to share their messy parts, which only helps all of us. So. So we're digging into the mess behind success. We're going to demystify that, give you tips that you can use, and also remind all of us that we're not in this journey alone.