Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Scurlock.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I fell into wedding planning almost by accident. I was working at a church, running the website, building the bulletin, handling anyone who walked through the doors. One day a couple came in wanting to marry in the chapel, but because English wasn’t their first language, the coordinator told the pastor she couldn’t take it on. A few days later, the pastor asked what I was doing next Saturday. Nothing, I said. “Then help them plan their wedding.”
I don’t speak Spanish. They didn’t speak much English. We got through it on smiling, nodding, and a lot of pointing. On the wedding day, I played music off a small speaker and watched them exchange chocolates, spices, and rope in their unity ceremony — I didn’t understand the words, but I understood exactly what it meant. They didn’t have much money, but they tipped me anyway, and I was over the moon. I was hooked.
I planned more weddings for the church, and eventually couples started asking me to help them get married elsewhere — that was really the start of Purple Door Planning, around 2014-2015, with my oldest daughter beside me running the soundboard.
Then COVID hit and my church hours dropped. I remember crying on the couch, trying to figure out how to make money, when I heard something tell me: just do weddings. So I got certified, then Master Certified. I built my own website and social media, practiced on pretend clients until they became real ones, and filed the LLC.
What that first couple taught me still holds — every wedding, from multicultural to same-sex to a murder-mystery theme to three couples we planned virtually from Alaska, gets built around who the couple actually is.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Honestly, it hasn’t been a straight line, but the biggest struggle wasn’t a dramatic setback — it was realizing I couldn’t keep doing everything myself. For a long time I was the one at every event, every rehearsal, every late-night detail check, and that works until it doesn’t. Recognizing that I needed help — and that asking for it wasn’t a failure — was harder than it sounds. I was blessed to bring on Jordan and Alexis, and once I did, I realized how much I’d been limiting the business by trying to hold every piece of it myself.
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?
Purple Door Planning is a full-service wedding and event planning company based in the Memphis area, serving couples across Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. We handle everything from first consultation to the last dance — vendor coordination, timelines, day-of logistics, all of it — so our couples get to actually be present at their own wedding instead of managing it.
What we specialize in is range. We’ve planned Nigerian weddings, Korean weddings, same-sex weddings, a murder-mystery-themed wedding, classic Southern weddings, and HBCU galas. We don’t have a signature aesthetic we push on every couple — we build each wedding around who they are, not around a Pinterest board we like. I hold the Master Certified Wedding Planner credential, the highest in the industry, and we’ve coordinated over 300 events since I founded PDP in 2020.
One thing that sets us apart: I don’t market this as a “luxury” brand. Every couple brings their own version of luxury to their day, and I’d rather let the work and the credentials speak for that than slap a word on it that doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. What I’m proudest of, brand-wise, is that couples come to us specifically because we’re known for personal, hands-on planning — not a cookie-cutter package.
We’re growing our team so more couples can get that same level of care — Alexis and Jordan, our lead planners, now run full events independently, which means we can take on more without losing the personal touch that built this business in the first place.
If there’s one thing I want readers to know, it’s this: We Plan. You Celebrate.
Pricing:
- We customize each clients services
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.purpledoorplanning.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purpledoorplanning
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/purpledoorplanning
