ONE YEAR OF ÉLEVÉ: START WITH WHAT MATTERS. BUILD FROM THERE.
BY AMY PIPHER
One year ago, I turned a dream into a reality. Élevé became a home to the kind of planning experience I wanted to create. A home that felt personal, collaborative, and thoughtful, with a goal to help people make the most of the time they invest in traveling, celebrating, and being with the people who matter to them.
A year of doing this work has only made me even more certain about what matters, both in the way I plan for my clients and in the way I’m building Élevé.
As I look back on the first year and ahead to the next, I keep coming back to the same philosophy: start with what matters, and build from there.
WHAT MATTERED FROM THE BEGINNING
Planning has been a throughline throughout my life. I grew up alongside my planner / caterer mom, DIYing décor and preparing meals for hundreds of people.
In college, that became campus-wide events and conference travel for student organizations. Early in my career, the scale grew again as I organized and implemented conferences that brought together experts, generals, and current and former heads of state. Consulting added another dimension, teaching me how to approach problems, connect information, and prioritize what truly matters so clients can make better decisions.
When I had the opportunity to make a career pivot, I did what any good consultant does: I made a list of where I excelled, what I was passionate about, and where I knew I could make a difference. Élevé grew from there.
From the beginning, I knew I wanted Élevé to be about more than planning a trip or putting together an event. I wanted to understand what my clients actually needed from these experiences—what matters to them, what they enjoy, how they spend their free time, and how they live their everyday life.
I also knew the relationship between Élevé and my clients needed to be a partnership. My job isn't to take over and make every decision. It's to understand where and how my clients want to be involved, where they need me to lean in, and bring the decisions and details together around the experience they truly want.
Because ultimately, it's not about me planning a wedding, a trip, or an event.
It's about me planning your wedding, your trip, your event.
WHAT WE LEARN BY DOING THE WORK
One thing this first year has reinforced for me is that clients don't always need what they think they need when they first reach out.
Someone may come to me thinking they need an itinerary, a list of places to go or even a simple hotel reservation. But planning a great experience is rarely just about where to go. It's thinking through how the pieces fit together—when and how to get there, what to build in, where to leave room, and how each decision shapes the experience as a whole.
There is so much value in listening to understand rather than listening to respond. For one family trip to Italy, the priority was simple: spending meaningful time together as a family. But as we planned, I noticed the mom mentioned seeing the Statue of David several times. They may have felt like passing comments to her, but to me it was a signal that this was something that mattered.
Millions of people see David every year, so I started thinking about how I could make the experience special for her. So in the itinerary, I arranged for the family to visit the museum before it opened, giving them the chance to stand at the foot of the Statue of David almost completely alone—and experience something meaningful together as a family.
Sometimes understanding what someone wants isn't about responding to a list of to do’s people find from a “Top 10 Things to Do When Visiting This City.” It's about listening closely enough to recognize what could make this experience different and meaningful for them, even when they haven't identified it as a priority themselves.
The more I do this work, the more I know that making an experience feel truly personal starts with understanding the person in front of you—and paying close enough attention to recognize what will make it feel like theirs.
WHAT BECAME CLEARER
A year into Élevé, I have a clearer understanding of what makes personalized event and travel planning valuable. It isn't simply taking planning off someone's plate. It's understanding someone well enough to help create an experience that actually fits them.
I've always believed an experience should feel personal, but doing this work has made me think more deeply about what it takes to make that true. It isn't adding a special touch at the end or finding something unique just for the sake of being different. It starts with understanding who I'm planning for, what they care about, what they've loved or disliked in the past, and how they want the experience to feel.
And that understanding builds over time.
The more I know about what my clients love, how they like to travel, how they want to celebrate, where they want to be involved, and where they want me to lean in, the better I can anticipate what will actually matter to them.
That's one of the things that excites me most about where Élevé can go from here. I don't want to approach every experience as if we're starting from scratch. I want to build relationships with my clients that make the planning more personal over time.
A wedding might tell me something about how a couple makes decisions together. A honeymoon might show me how they like to travel. A family trip or milestone celebration might introduce new priorities, traditions, or people into the picture.
Each experience gives me a better understanding of the people I'm planning for—and a stronger foundation for whatever we might plan together next.
WHAT I ENVISION FOR THE FUTURE
As I look toward Élevé's second year, cultivating relationships with my clients is key. I want to keep building on what this first year has made clearer.
Over time, I'd love for Élevé to become a partner clients can return to across the meaningful moments in their lives. A wedding, honeymoon, anniversary trip, baby shower, family vacation, or milestone celebration may look very different, but they're all opportunities to step outside everyday life and make time for something that matters.
My job is to make sure that your time really does matter. To do that, I get to know you. When I start to understand what you love, how you like to travel, what makes an experience feel special to you, and how you want to celebrate, we have something to build from.
I’m sometimes asked why I would want to be a planner when AI has made it faster than ever to put together a plan. But this first year has reinforced something for me: my clients aren’t just looking for a plan. They want the Florentine apartment that sleeps six people and has beds big enough to fit a seven foot-tall traveler–not an easy find in Italy. They want the inside scoop that comes from a colleague’s connection to a wedding venue in Mendoza, Argentina. Someone to call the campground store to request a cabin when the weather suddenly turns. Someone to text when the elevator breaks in Italy with them inside. Someone they trust to lighten the load.
Those moments require more than information. They require judgment, relationships, resourcefulness, and empathy—and this first year has made it even more certain that this is the real value of what I do.
As I move into my second year, I want to be even more intentional about building Élevé around that kind of relationship. The work we've done to refine the brand and website is part of that—making sure the way Élevé shows up reflects the way I actually work and the experience I want to create for my clients. There is still a lot I want to build and I have a much clearer view of what matters to get there.
WHAT I WANT YOU TO TAKE AWAY
A year into Élevé, I keep coming back to something that feels simple but has shaped how I approach this work: start with what matters, and build from there.
For my clients, that means understanding the person before making the recommendation, paying attention to what matters even when it isn't explicitly stated, and creating an experience around the way they actually want to spend their time.
For Élevé, it means building on those relationships and everything I learn along the way.
This first year has made me more certain about the kind of business I want to keep building: one grounded in thoughtful partnership, genuinely personal experiences, and giving people more room for the moments that matter.
That's what I started Élevé to create. One year later, it's what I believe in even more.
