Luxury picnic planners share top tips to create stunning setup

How three luxury picnic planners across the country have created new businesses.

April 27, 2021, 8:56 AM

Upscale picnics are taking over TikTok and social media feeds with luxurious outdoor setups complete with gourmet bites, billowing décor, flowers and fluffy pillowsl

A few of the small business owners who have tapped into the glamorous outdoor-party market spoke to "Good Morning America" and shared tips to plan your own now that picnic weather is upon us.

Jocelyn Chin and Coco Chan, co-founders of the Bay Area-based Picnic n' Chill, are two picnic-focused entrepreneurs who first used it as an opportunity to celebrate milestone moments with friends during the pandemic.

When one of Chin's videos of a swanky picnic went viral on TikTok, she said the business ramped up and they have been able to charge up to $3,000 for a single event.

"I didn't think this was gonna happen," she said. "We’ve got so many bookings and inquiries, just all at one time. And that’s when I was like, 'OK this is happening. This is serious.'"

For Miranda Bass, a Corpus Christi event planner, the sudden changes and cancellations in her business during the pandemic prompted her full time pivot.

"I was starting picnic planning business as just doing something on the side, but now it’s become my full-time job," she said of Pretty Picnics Corpus Christi. "In the beginning, my first couple of weeks, I was doing about one to two picnics -- now I’m up to anywhere between 10 to 12 picnics per week."

Min Kim told "GMA" she began to rethink her social media marketing career during the pandemic and quit her Los Angeles day job to pursue her passion for event planning.

"I've never been this happy [with] what I'm doing. I think it's just a new kind of spark in my life where I'm just like, I should have just done something like this from the beginning," the Picnic Pleasure owner said.

How to Step Up Your Own Picnic Game

All of the planners told "GMA" that the most important thing to bring to a picnic is good friends. As long as you’re safe, add some delicious, easy-to-eat foods and a good vibe.

Location

Bass suggested people "find a place and location that you love, that you would want to gather with people around."

Fine foods

"Charcuterie is just a picnic staple food right now," Kim said, adding that people can bring champagne glasses for both alcoholic beverages or another sparkling drink.

Florals

Chin and Chan suggest to bring a bouquet of flowers "to kind of spice things up, make things a little bit more -- unique and different from your everyday picnic."