An exploration of vision, leadership, and sensitivity through the voices of women redefining the modern wedding experience.
BESTIAL was born from a clear vision. Can you share the story behind its creation and the personal experiences that shaped its foundation?
BESTIAL was born simply under the demand of specific couples in search for designs that truly aligned with their personalities. More is not always better. Our internal processes aim at getting to know our clients in a way they don’t even know themselves and create a design they would have never imagined themselves. We put our customer’s needs first then create accordingly.
Every brand faces defining challenges. What early obstacles shaped BESTIAL’s values and elevated its approach to wedding planning?
BESTIAL came in with a different angle, with bold proposals. It took time for our brand to position itself amongst the top wedding planning and design companies in Colombia. The main obstacles in the early stages were gaining the client’s trust and being able to deliver much more than what they paid for, we always aim for this.
BESTIAL is recognized for its refined aesthetic and thoughtful execution. How did you cultivate a visual language and philosophy that feels both timeless and contemporary?
It took time for us to forge our own identity which is now very present and recognizable amongst our clients and colleagues. Our approach with our clients is bold and very sincere. We speak their language, we treat them as friends in order to make the process as light and easy as possible.
About female leadership, Susy Peláez, women leading a creative and high-pressure industry, how do you define leadership, and how has your perspective influenced the way BESTIAL operates?
Leadership is about putting others first. It’s about treating others with the respect we all deserver and helping each person of our team become a better human being, not just worker. More than a Wedding Planning and Design Company, we like to refer to BESTIAL as a University in which we all learn from others, each other, and our own mistakes. We capitalize on that and improve little by little every day. Our company culture is strong and well defined, people who work in BESTIAL, love working in BESTIAL.
The wedding world is evolving, from sustainability and craftsmanship to technology, new generations with new ideas, and changing client expectations. What advice would you offer to women building their own creative businesses today?
Advice is to always understand a business doesn’t just come from a great idea you woke up to one day. It comes from solving a problem. Make sure you’re obsessed with identifying who has what problem, and then go and solve it for them in the best way possible. Problems to shift so it is key to keep a sharp eye on those changes and quickly adapt. Different tools nowadays help us detect this changes and mutate into what works best and is most efficient.
From the first conversation to the final celebration, what defines BESTIAL’s creative and planning process?
Organized, structured, natural and friendly. Behind the scenes we are obsessed with structure, formats and organizing information. With our customers, it’s a well organized friendly process. We adapt to their personalities, style of communication (emails, calls, text) and make sure they are comfortable during the entire process.
When you first imagined opening your own company, what did success look like? And if you were to reimagine the brand today, what new creative direction would inspire you?
Success looked like doing lots of weddings 🙂 What has changed? We do quality over quantity. BESTIAL does a maximum of 12 weddings a year, this way we can keep our team organized and focused on each couple, giving them our full and well deserved attention. We don’t want our clients to feel like they’re are just part of the pack.
Is there a belief or philosophy that consistently guides your decisions, both creatively and professionally?
Do things right. Do what is right.
Was there a particular wedding or project that marked a turning point in BESTIAL’s evolution and confirmed its voice within the industry?
Yes and no. Although there have been some specific and very challenging weddings that have turned things up a notch internally, every single wedding is a challenge for us and we thrive to learn something from it. Now matter how small or simple a wedding may seem, “There are no easy weddings” we say in our team. We take every wedding very seriously and always learn something from them.
Luxury weddings require both emotion and impeccable execution. How do you balance creativity with structure, logistics, and strategic planning?
In order to deliver excellence in our service and design, we do charge premium prices and this is what our customers receive: premium. Higher budgets allow us to have more wiggle room so we can deliver the best result. No matter how much we plan costs, unexpected things always show up and we absorb some of these extra costs so the customer is not affected.
BESTIAL weddings also feel deeply personal. How do you build trust with your couples and translate their story into an elevated, meaningful experience?
We build trust by having a more intimate relationship with them throughout the process. Fewer couples per year allow us to focus more on each one of them.
How do intuition, empathy, and emotional awareness shape your approach to storytelling and celebration design?
This is a certain degree of intuition and emotional awareness but we also complement emotions with well structured processes that allow us to be both subjective and objective.
What has been one of the most transformative lessons in your journey, and how has it refined your leadership and creative vision?
Focus, patience, improve every day, work from the heart and the results will come.
High-profile and destination weddings often come with heightened expectations. How do you preserve calm, clarity, and creativity under pressure?
This is very true, the more a customer is willing to pay for their wedding day, the higher their expectations naturally. This means we have to constantly learn, adapt and innovate to offer a more premium service and result. Heightened expectations doesn’t necessarily mean more pressure, it just means we need to be better prepared, have a better team and clearer steps along the way. We are very meticulous when it comes to setting clear expectations, frequent follow up meetings, contracts, etc. translates into less chaos and more clarity.
How do you envision the future of weddings and events, and how does your company plan to evolve within that landscape?
It’s hard to tell. We do not necessarily believe in “market trends”. Trends do influence what our couples see online and some things do appeal to them, but we always tell our clients to forget about trends, forget about what is normally done in a wedding. We think out of the box and create their own unique wedding, not what’s going on in social media. Do we get inspiration from others? Of course, all creative processes come from inspirations, whether it’s other wedding designs, architecture, a hotel lobby, a restaurant and nature.
How has your definition of success changed since the early days of BESTIAL?
We don’t think too much about the meaning of what being successful means as far as a company. To us success is expected income obviously, but also having time, health, enjoying our job and having a team that loves working in BESTIAL, a team that feels like they are growing as human beings along our side.
What’s next for? Are there new collaborations, destinations, or creative explorations on the horizon?
We have plans of doing weddings overseas, we’ve made solid contacts in other countries which allow us to execute a wedding in any other landscape, the structure remains the same or very similar at least.
How does cultural identity influence your work, particularly when designing destination weddings for an international clientele?
It does influence very much. We’ve done all types of weddings in which we need to deeply research the couple’s culture and customs. This is all part of getting to know our customer and recreate an experience that matches their dreams: logistics, food, music, décor, lighting, smells, customs, etc. We enjoy this very much, we learn so much from our couples!
In an industry driven by trends and visibility, what does authenticity mean to your team, to BESTIAL as a high-end brand with personality and for women shaping the future of the wedding industry?
As I said before, we are not driven by trends. We do not ignore them, but we are not pushing trends to our clients. Our foundation for design creation is the couple and the possibilities the venue can offer to create the perfect blend. We do get inspiration from outside, but ultimately create something unique for them.
