Our August cover star, Billy Folchetti, is an event planner and European luxury travel specialist living between New York and Lake Como; he frequently travels to exotic destinations on behalf of clients while organising their events. Recent locations Paris, the South of France, the Amalfi Coast, Sardinia, Tuscany and Mexico. Billy is on the CITY & BEACH LIFESTYLE ‘TOP 10 INTERNATIONAL EVENT DESIGNERS 2024’ list under the category of ‘CONTEMPORARY ICONS’ and has been featured in People magazine, US Weekly, Page Six, Wedded Wonderland, Brides, Vanity Fair Italia, Style Me Pretty, The Wed, Martha Stewart, InStyle and Grace Ormonde. Here we discuss Billy’s past projects and future ambitions in an incredibly inspiring interview…
Weddings are my main my ‘bread and butter’, however we curate events in a myriad of lifestyle industries including art, fashion, charity and society; my team sits between Florence, Paris, New York and Miami…”
Billy Folchetti
C&B: “Billy, we met just as you were working on a major celebrity wedding in Mexico City; how long have you been in the events business and how did you start your illustrious career?”
BF: “My first job in the events business was when I was seventeen and I’m now thirty-six so it’s been a minute! Originally, I started as an intern in hospitality events in New York at a time when celebrity endorsement and product placement were in their hay-day. From there I popped in and out of the industry until 2012 when I truly began planning weddings in a serious fashion…”
C&B: “Did you find your knowledge in celebrity events supported your wedding planning service? Or how did you gain your experience in that very specialised area?”
BF: “I’m proudly self-taught through years of trials, tribulations, and failure which has given me the experience needed to execute successful events. I’ve always been a hard worker and through my younger years I did the lot – bartending, waitering, retail, receptionist at a hair salon, personal assistant, junior publicist, airbrush tanner, you name it! What’s fascinating to me now is how the various skills honed from those experiences all culminate in event planning – whether it be understanding customer service or what proper service from the wait staff should be, to an understanding of wine, or even where my bride should get a spray tan (laughs), etc…”
Video credit: Zen Film Works
C&B: “Well, it’s true what Steve Jobs said – you can only connect the dots looking backward! So all that past experience has brought you to where you are today… incredible. As well as skills in organisation, wedding planners must also have the ability to bring in the business in the first place – how do you go about doing that aspect of the business?”
BF: “I attract my clients by being true to myself; I don’t believe in ‘norms’, or titles or having to act or be a certain way for any reason, especially because of whatever career you’re in. A lot of people are surprised when I say “I plan weddings”, they don’t expect the fashion-forward guy with tatts to be the wedding planner in the space – event planner maybe, but not weddings. I take major pride in that, and many times, especially in the wedding space, clients are relieved; hence my moniker, ‘the anti-wedding planner’…”
My personal appearance and lifestyle paint a picture that suggests I’m different as an individual – and my clients can be confident that characteristic is also true of my work…”
Billy Folchetti
C&B: “It’s so important to have a unique, memorable style that sets you apart in any business and you’re definitely unique, Billy – in the most positive of ways! Talking of memories, what has been your most memorable project so far, and why?”
BF: “This is such a hard question to answer… I’ve been in this business a long time and there have been so, so many milestones. I can remember booking my first wedding ever in Paris and I was SO excited – amazing for me because I’m still very close with that couple and have watched their family expand and grow, which is an honour for life. Another standout occasion was my first wedding at the Shangri La in Paris – it was the first time a client really allowed me to do what I wanted from the creative side, so not only did I plan the hundred-plus person wedding, I also did the flowers. I am proud of that event because stylistically it could have been yesterday or tomorrow…so classic. Other landmark projects include: a Marie Claire cover story photoshoot I planned in the desert surrounding Marrakech; my first wedding on Lake Como; my first wedding in the UK; the first event in Dubai, which was a birthday…the list of memorable occasions really goes on. Notably, my most recent – the one you mentioned before – was having the honour to plan the actors Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup’s wedding in CDMX in partnership with Jeronimo Gaxiola…”
C&B: “A fantastic series of ‘firsts’, Billy! Which are your favourite locations at home and overseas?”
BF: “Marrakech, Lake Como, Amalfi Coast, Sardinia, Tuscany, Paris, Provence, Cote d’Azur, NYC, LA, Miami to name a few!”
C&B: “All these places you’ve just mentioned have the most amazing backdrops – whether spectacular baronial castles, or palazzos, or oceans, or skyscrapers or deserts. When you’re organising events overseas, what are the biggest challenges – is it the travel or finding the right location or staff or vendors…?”
BF: “Let me be real; the clients are the biggest challenge. Potentially shocking, but true, most people may not want to say that, but I will. I’m lucky that the majority of mine have been amazing but I’ve also had a few absolute nightmare scenarios – if I may, this is the part where I will give some advice – you’re hiring a planner/professional for a reason, consider our notes and remember why you hired us in the first place…”
C&B: “Gosh, how stressful! No wonder brides often turn into ‘bridezilla’ just before their Big Day! I’m sure you’re a genius at calming the whole thing down – nerves of steel required! Given the perfect ‘happy couple’ or event clients, what would you say would be your dream project?”
BF: “I have a few – and here they are in no specific order! No. 1: A Reality TV show: following the true nit and grit of creative business and also the emerging creatives – I consider myself still emerging and I know so many who are – we all have, or have had, some incredible mountains to climb and the behind-the-scenes of the final finished creative product is an incredibly deep – and sometimes twisted – process full of emotion. Trust me, I’ve got good stories to tell…”
C&B: “Wow, Billy – that would be riveting; definitely you should look into having that produced… with you as star, of course!”
My words of advice? Work hard, never give up; rest when it pours, because you’ll need your energy for when the sun shines again – and it always does. My Dad always says in the hard times: “Boy, look down at your feet. They point forward, in front of you, for a reason, it’s ‘gunna’ be OK”. I love his words, and want to share it with those who may need to hear it – that message has gotten me through so many times where I thought ‘this is the end’…”
Billy Folchetti
BF: “My second dream would to be the founder of a Creative Talent Agency: The five year plan is to develop and build an agency that reps new creative talent across myriad creative spaces. Think: modelling agency but more than just models – we creatives need a platform and a stage and oftentimes never find it because of visibility. I hope to change that one day – did I just summarise the plot of the reality show?! (laughs)”
C&B: “Yes, that would be brilliant! I know there are a few agencies for top creatives such as hairdressers and interior designers but yours sounds like it would be filling a hole in the market…”
BF: “My third dream is to one day own a space that is the ‘absolute everything’ atmosphere and experience for events – I feel like I have been to so many different event spaces at this point and even the best always have some sort of limitation or ‘hidden problem’; I feel like I could probably solve that (laughs)…”
C&B: “So agree, Billy – there is generally always an issue – lack of space or lack of a garden or lack of a decent kitchen… it would be great to have an all encompassing event venue, perhaps on Lake Como, which is one of the most magical places in the world…”
BF: “My fourth dream would be to work with clients whose aesthetic, product or values I’m aligned with – Tom Ford, Victoria Beckham, Hermes, Rosewood Hotels, and ANY charity that helps and inspires under-privileged or LGBTQIA+ children or which saves oceans!”
C&B: “Adore all these brands! You should definitely speak to our friend John Caudwell of Caudwell Children on the underprivileged kids charity front – they’ve got their annual MC Butterfly Ball coming up in Monte Carlo in October! Thank you so much for a brilliant interview, Billy, that is going to inspire so many readers and viewers. Do you have any final words for us, or for them, to round off our interview here?”
BF: “Yes! Last, but not least: “Thank you!!!!” to City & Beach Lifestyle for the interview and also to all of you out there who read this feature!”
CONTACT: http://www.luxexbillyfolchetti.com
