Today we’d like to introduce you to Yana Melant
Yana, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My journey to events and a balloon business started in 2016, when I met my future husband and moved to the beautiful city of Austin from Saint Petersburg, Russia. When I lived in Russia, I always helped friends with different events, weddings and anniversaries over the years, but it was just a hobby that I enjoyed a lot.
In Austin my first experience in events was planning our own wedding. We found a beautiful venue, but I soon realized that I must do a lot of research on rental companies, caterers, different vendors and services. During that process, I met a lot of amazing people who helped make our special day so beautiful and memorable, it was a fairytale. I did all the flower arrangements for the wedding with my best friend, a well-known florist from Saint Petersburg, and it inspired me so much that I wanted to learn more.
In the summer of 2017, I went to the Benz School of Floral Design at Texas A&M University and received my Floral Design Certification. Around the same time, I got hired by my first clients and in addition to flowers, I offered to plan and coordinate their wedding. They trusted me and were very happy with the services I was able to provide and the way their special day turned out. It made me realize that it’s very convenient when you have only one place, one person to contact who can offer “all-inclusive” event services. That’s how I came up with my business plan to start MY Party ATX. I expanded my inventory with rental items, started offering table set ups, backdrops, popcorn and snack carts, grazing tables/charcuterie boards & photo zones. I also coordinated with; photographers, catering companies, bakers to offer the all-inclusive party experience. It became popular for home events, anniversaries, bridal showers, baby showers, micro weddings and kids birthdays.
I knew I needed one more additional service to my business, and it was balloons. So, I worked closely with my friend who is a very talented balloon artist and learned all there is to know about balloons. Since then, balloons have become a big part of our services and my life!
In 2018 I had to slow down on work because we welcomed our first child, a baby boy, and I became a full-time mom. I wanted to be there for my family and fully enjoy motherhood as much as possible. In 2019 I was only able to do small projects that didn’t take too much time away from being a mom and that’s how I came up with the idea of hosting workshops. I loved the atmosphere of my workshops, where 8-10 women get together for 2-3 hours to create something unique that they were able to take home with them. These workshops included; Fall and Christmas wreath workshops, floral centerpieces, mini-Christmas trees made from yarn and bouquets made from berries, vegetables and flowers. Each of these workshops were amazing, and it was mostly moms who were able to leave the house and their daily routine for a few hours; enjoy a drink and charcuterie board, share stories and create some art pieces together. I always had positive feedback from the workshops, it was very popular and made me realize that I was doing the right thing for myself and other moms that just needed a little break.
2020 was an uneasy time for all of us as the Covid pandemic changed all the plans, the service event industry was pretty much non-existent during this time. It was my strong belief that it’s very important to always follow your dreams and, in those moments, I continued creating wreathes, imagining different themed events to host and believed that it will be over one day. 2021 kept us busy because in addition to the ongoing pandemic we welcomed our daughter into the family, and that took all my time. I was now a full-time mom of 2 and didn’t have much time to work.
For our daughter’s 1st birthday, we threw a “Baby Shark” themed party for her at our house with lots of kid’s activities, full table set ups, grazing tables and a custom photo zone. This made me realize how much I missed my work, events, workshops and seeing happy customers. It was time to try to get back to work from a big break! I started combining all-inclusive events and workshops into one. Bridal showers and parties now included a flower cart where guests (with some guidance) made their own flower arrangements and were able to take it home as appreciation gift from the host. Children’s parties included balloon twisting services, where everyone made their own balloon animal, and they were very excited about it!
I felt that I needed my own space; a place where I would be able to meet my customers, present all the ideas to them, offer them a cup of coffee or tea and plan their unique party, away from our home. At the same time, the only professional balloon retail store in the Austin area decided to move out of town and I knew balloon artists in our area were losing this opportunity to shop in person. I took a risk and decided to try the retail store along with the event services I was already offering. This was not only for me, but for the balloon artist community as well. I found a space for rent and recruited my family and friends to help me get it ready; we changed the flooring, painted the walls, hung shelves and the peg boards on the wall that would hold the balloons. I then filled the store with bags and bags of professional balloons in all different colors and sizes. In February of 2024 I opened the MY Party ATX shop with retail balloon store. It was amazing to see all the colleagues from the events industry I had worked with over the years come see the space and they had so many kind words. These are the people who are supporting me every day in this journey! Every day I meet new and amazing balloon artists, some of whom work 2 jobs and do balloon events on the weekends or moms who are raising kids and doing events on the side. This is not just a store, it’s a place where together we can discuss their projects and find the best solution for each of their upcoming parties and events!
When my kids come to the store, it’s like paradise to them because of all of the balloons. I also have a balloon wall feature in my store where customers can come take pictures with (or without) your kids, free of charge. It’s become one of the favorite features in the store. Since the store has been open, I’m still doing events and in September I am starting up hosting workshops again. New additions would be balloon workshops for beginners and workshops for moms who want to do “DIY balloon decorations” for their kids’ parties. Additionally, my store offers helium custom balloon bouquets and “to go” balloon arrangements.
Here I am in July of 2024, very happy and cannot be thankful enough to everyone in my life that has helped me on this journey, especially to my husband who never said “no” to any of my ideas! He’s always supportive of everything I come up with and says, “I think its great idea! Do it!”. For me, this is the most important thing to have family support. I always believed in fairytales and now I feel like I’m living in one!
My message is to always believe in yourself and never give up. Always follow your dreams and do what makes you really happy.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My biggest challenge has been finding the perfect balance between being a mom, wife and running a business. To me it was very important to always be there for my family, but I also knew I had to have something for myself and to build my career.
I’m sure lots of mothers will understand, especially on the day of your event when one of the kids will get sick, your child is running fever and unfortunately you have to leave because you have no other choice, the event has to happen! At some point I think to myself; “why I am not there with them?”, but at the same time this job makes me happy, gives me confidence in my own way. I think to many women it’s a very important aspect of life, having these goals and a sense of purpose and accomplishment. So finding this balance will always be my biggest challenge.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Walk in store with professional balloons ( Tuftex, Sempertex, Kalisan along with helium rental)
Retail balloon store with helium bouquets, balloon arrangements and “grab and go” garland
All-inclusive parties (planning, table set ups, backdrops, popcorn and snack carts, grazing tables/charcuterie boards & photo zones, photographers, catering companies, bakers, coordinating)
Workshops ( Fall and Christmas wreath workshops, floral centerpieces, mini-Christmas trees made from yarn and bouquets made from berries, vegetables and flowers, balloons for beginners)
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I grew up in a big family with lots of cousins, aunts and uncles around from both sides of our family. My parents always seemed to be the ones hosting the big parties in our family; Birthdays, New Years, Anniversaries and many more. It was parties of 30 plus people with just the relatives, even more when friends and neighbors attended. As a kid I always remembered this atmosphere with great food, amazing people and a lot of laughs. My mom was decorating the house and dining table with beautiful and elegant centerpieces and a full table set-up with dinnerware, flatware, glassware and linens.
My husband and I continue this tradition. We both love to host parties and it’s always at least 40-50 guests. As you can see it was always a big part of my life that I enjoyed growing up and was able to turn this hobby into my occupation. And this is one of the greatest gifts in my life!
Pricing:
- 25$/ft of organic balloon garland
- 120$ balloon arangments
- 5.55$-31.25$ professional balloons
- 140$/workshop
- from 380$/grazing tables
Contact Info:
