KATIE HUEBEL

Event Planner Extraordinaire Strives for the “Ultimate Experience”

story by JEANNE REYNOLDS       photos by CHARLOTTE BERKELEY

Katie Huebel might be the perfect example of two halves making more than a whole. She’s forged a decades-long career by tapping into both halves of her mind — her highly organized and detail-conscious left-brain thinking, and her incredibly imaginative and creative right-brain thinking — to produce some of the most beautiful weddings and successful events in Beaufort and beyond.

To Huebel, it’s simple: “If I can think it, I feel like I can do it.”

That can-do attitude led her to found her own company 25 years ago. Since then, she and her team at WED — an acronym for Wedding.Event.Design — have been creating blissful bashes small and large in Charleston, Beaufort, Charlotte, Savannah, and Sea Island, Georgia, and as far afield as New York City and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

When she started WED, Huebel had never owned a business or even really worked in the wedding industry before. Pile on a one-year move due to her husband’s career as a pilot and raising two kids at the time, and her success might seem unlikely at best. But looking back, Huebel says each step on her path paved the way for the next.

PLANTING BEAUFORT ROOTS
The only child of a Marine father and a florist mother, Huebel called Arizona, Japan, Alabama, and California home before the family was stationed in Beaufort. “When I started ninth grade at Beaufort Academy, it was my fifth school in five years,” she recalls. “My dad promised me I would graduate from Beaufort Academy.”

Huebel checked that box and left Beaufort four years later to attend the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Her degrees in marketing and business helped her land a job in Atlanta as a manager in staffing sales. Then, when it became clear her husband was going to get a C-17 pilot spot in the Charleston Air Force Reserves, the pieces began to fall into place for WED.

“I felt the urge to tap into my marketing and creative side,” Huebel says. “My mom was a florist, so I grew up going to events and helping decorate Marine Corps Birthday Balls with her, and I had planned all the events at my sorority during college. I started as more of a wedding consultant, getting the bride down the aisle and handling the reception logistics, and that evolved into a boutique full-service wedding design business.”

Don’t let “boutique” mislead you into thinking small or limited. Huebel estimates her firm has handled at least 1,000 weddings and events over the years, from small family celebrations to very lavish weddings at the five-star resort on Sea Island, Georgia. And while a survey by wedding planning website The Knot calculates the average cost of a wedding in this country at about $28,000 (including the ceremony and reception, but not the honeymoon), Huebel says that number is well on the low side for the Lowcountry. She says WED does “a ton” of events in Charleston and Beaufort but will travel anywhere clients choose as the destination for their events.

“It’s not just about the design. It’s about the experience,” Huebel says. “With event planning, you’re only as good as the vendors you hire, but at the end of the day, I’m a vendor too. No job is too small. You have to have a servant’s heart. We want all the guests to have the ultimate experience. People want to feel special, and they want to be ‘seen.’ The guests are as important as the bride and groom.”

Big or small, the personal touch is key for Huebel. “My favorite events have been those I handled for family or close friends,” she says. “It’s so heartwarming and meaningful. They give me complete freedom to do whatever I want, and it’s a joy to give them their best day ever.”

COMING HOME
That focus on the family has a lot to do with why Huebel is now based in Beaufort rather than Charleston, although her company still maintains a strong presence there. By 2006, with two children under two years old, Huebel and her husband found they needed more support and wanted to be closer to family.

Returning to Beaufort also allowed Huebel to put her creative and organizational skills to work on behalf of some of Beaufort’s flagship organizations — including some near and dear to her heart. While serving on the Beaufort Memorial Hospital Foundation board, she was asked to host the kickoff party for the Foundation’s annual Valentine Ball fundraiser. That event went so well that she was asked to design the ball for the past two years.

“When people see you’re a doer, you get asked to do,” she says with a smile.

Attendees at this year’s ball enjoyed her interpretation of the event’s “A Midsummer’s Night” theme. It was a labor of love for Huebel, who says handling a sizeable themed event with full creative license is one of her favorite assignments.

“It’s a chance to be more creative,” she says. “You exercise a portion of your brain you never knew you had. You might go in with some self-doubt, but you find the ‘you can.’”

DRIVING CHANGE
Huebel’s visionary skills — and community commitment — go beyond designing and developing events. She’s served as board chair for Beaufort Academy for the past four years, where her two older children graduated, and her youngest son is now a fifth grader. Her latest project isn’t a party, but likely will deserve one upon its completion: a $40 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Program that Huebel says will transform the campus and elevate the lives of the school’s students and families.

“We’ll be able to refurbish the entire school,” she says. “It will be transformative, not just for local families but our community and the entire state. Needless to say, I’m all in.”

Huebel says the loan will help pay for a full multipurpose building with a state-of-the-art cafeteria, practice gym, and performance stage; a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) building; a 100-bed dormitory for high school boarding students; a new security system; and new sidewalks and more.

“This project has been a collaborative effort of countless supporters of B.A.,” Huebel says. “It’s been a team effort for sure. We’ve worked countless hours on this project for the past four years. It’s nothing short of scaling Mt. Everest. I wouldn’t change a thing, though. This school matters — it matters not only to our families but also to our community and, now, with this transformative change, our state and beyond. Our future is bright.”

TRANSITION TIME
Huebel’s community involvement aligns with a transition in her professional life: She recently began a “slow sale” process for WED. She says she’s ready for her “second act” and feels her focus will be on consulting. Her shifting focus also allows more time for volunteer work, such as serving as emcee for Dancing with Our Stars, the popular annual fundraiser for the Child Abuse Prevention Association; date nights with her husband at local favorite restaurants; traveling abroad and to their home in the mountains; and fellowship with girlfriends.

“Being a good friend is really important to me,” she says. “There’s such power in us lifting each other up, supporting one another careerwise, mentally, and emotionally.”

“After the pandemic, I realized I have other interests and talents,” Huebel adds. “The things I choose to be involved in now I hope give something back to the community, things that make a difference in someone’s life or on a large scale. I want to feel like I’m giving value.”