Personalization is becoming a defining feature of modern weddings, as couples move away from familiar formulas and look for ways to make their celebrations feel uniquely theirs. The Knot’s 2026 Real Weddings Study, based on a survey of 10,474 U.S. couples who married in 2025, found that 58% wanted to move beyond conventional wedding traditions in favor of more personal details. Couples now work with an average of 13 vendors, while 59% say economic conditions have influenced their planning choices.
For Joyce Parris, the founder of Elegant Decorations & Rental, these shifting priorities reflect the very needs her business has spent more than a decade addressing: helping people create distinctive celebrations while giving them flexibility over the services they choose and the money they spend.
Parris never initially imagined that decorating would become her profession. For years, she brought her creative touch to gatherings organized by friends and relatives, offering her time and talent without charging anything. She did it because she enjoyed the process and loved helping the people closest to her.
Her perspective changed when a cousin began preparing for her wedding. Parris naturally offered to help, just as she had done on previous occasions. But as the celebration took shape, she began to recognize that her contribution went beyond making a venue look beautiful. She was helping someone navigate the pressure of an important day while creating an experience the family could treasure.
It occurred to her that this kind of support could be valuable to many other people, not just those in her own circle. What had started as a personal gesture could become a service with a much broader purpose.
“I decided I was just going to do it as a business instead of doing it for free,” she says.
That realization marked the beginning of Elegant Decorations & Rental and transformed a long-standing passion into a business venture.
The transition from informal decorating to professional event services came with a learning curve. Parris had to understand the industry, recognize which efforts produced results, and develop a better sense of how to meet clients’ expectations.
“I didn’t know much about the industry, and I put a lot of time and energy in places where I shouldn’t,” she recalls.
Over time, she learned that listening was just as important as having a creative eye. By paying closer attention to what customers envisioned for their events, she became more effective at translating their ideas into reality.
“As I grew and understood it more, I got better and better. I listened more to my clients and gave them what they wanted, and everything fell into place.”
Today, the company is Parris’s full-time occupation. Elegant Decorations & Rental reports that it has handled more than 400 weddings and other events, serving everything from small family celebrations to gatherings with up to 500 guests. Its work has extended beyond Maryland, with the team traveling across the United States and internationally to accommodate clients.
The path into event decorating is relatively accessible, which has helped attract a steady stream of new providers. Parris has seen firsthand how quickly the competitive landscape can change as people discover an interest in decorating and begin offering their services.
“It’s not one of those industries where it takes a whole office,” she says. “People do their own weddings, decide they’re pros at it, and keep going. Some fall out, some keep going. You wake up, and somebody else is doing it.”
In a market where new competitors can appear at any time, Parris has chosen to distinguish her business by giving customers more ways to work with her team.
Some clients want comprehensive support, including planning, coordination, and event design. Others already know what they want and simply need access to the right decorations and equipment. Elegant Decorations & Rental accommodates both approaches, offering items such as furniture, linens, centerpieces, draping, decorative columns, cake stands, and florals for rent.
Customers can select the pieces they need, arrange their own event styling, and have the company retrieve the rentals afterward.
“If you want to do it yourself, you rent the stuff from me and do it yourself, and we come back and pick it up,” Parris explains.
The arrangement offers an alternative for people who want an attractive, professionally equipped event without committing to a full-service package. For couples who have a clear vision and are comfortable managing the details themselves, renting individual items can provide greater control over both the creative process and the budget.
This flexibility is particularly relevant as couples seek celebrations that feel personal while becoming more conscious of their expenses. Rather than forcing every customer into the same service structure, Parris allows people to choose the level of assistance that makes sense for their needs.
Her rental inventory has also helped establish relationships with other event decorators. Instead of viewing every industry professional as a direct rival, she has made her resources available to businesses that need additional pieces for their own projects.
“If they don’t have the items they’re looking for, they can rent them from me,” she says.
By supplying other decorators, Elegant Decorations & Rental serves a wider segment of the event industry. The business can support individual customers planning their own celebrations while also helping fellow professionals fulfill orders when their existing inventory falls short.
Another development Parris has observed this year is an increase in clients who seek assistance close to their event dates. Some begin planning with limited time available, while others attempt to organize everything independently before realizing they need additional support.
“People come at the last minute,” she says. “Sometimes they simply get stuck somewhere and need getting through to the finish line.”
These situations make responsiveness an important part of her business model. Operating within the community she serves, Parris strives to remain accessible to customers who suddenly discover they need essential event supplies.
“People wake up and say, ‘We need some chairs, we need some tables, we need some linens,’ and they can pop in right away and get them,” she says.
That availability can be especially valuable when plans change unexpectedly or a host discovers a missing detail shortly before guests arrive. By offering rental options alongside more comprehensive services, the company can help customers address immediate needs as well as larger planning challenges.
Weddings are only one part of the business. Elegant Decorations & Rental also supports occasions that mark different milestones and transitions throughout life, including baby showers, milestone birthdays, family celebrations, and memorials.
Despite the variety of events it handles, personal recommendations remain one of the company’s main sources of new business. Word of mouth continues to connect Parris with customers who have heard about her work from friends, relatives, or others who have used her services.
Over the years, the team has decorated a diverse range of venues, including ballrooms, parks, beaches, and lodges in Maryland and elsewhere. Each setting provides a different canvas, requiring the team to adapt its approach to the location and the occasion.
Yet the lasting impact of an event is not measured solely by how a room looks or how carefully each decorative element is arranged. It also lives in the experiences those details help create: the anticipation before a wedding ceremony, the emotion of a couple’s first dance, or the quiet attention of guests as the newlyweds enter the room.
These are the moments that remain with people after the decorations have been removed and the venue has returned to its usual state.
In a field where creative talent can quickly develop into a new business, Parris has built her company around more than visual presentation. Her approach combines attentive service, adaptable rental options, practical support, and an understanding that every customer has different expectations and resources.
Whether clients need an experienced team to manage an event from beginning to end or simply want to rent the pieces required to bring their own ideas to life, Elegant Decorations & Rental provides different paths toward the same goal: creating a meaningful celebration.
What began with Parris helping a family member prepare for a wedding has grown into a business serving hundreds of events and extending its reach to both individual customers and fellow decorators. Her story illustrates how a personal passion can develop into a lasting enterprise when it is paired with experience, an understanding of customer needs, and a willingness to adapt.
Ultimately, Parris’s work is about making special occasions more achievable for the people who celebrate them. By giving customers the freedom to plan, style, or do it themselves, she has shaped a business around the idea that a memorable event does not have to follow a standard formula. It simply needs to reflect the people at its heart.
