Madeline Duarte-Canahui conceived of the idea for a full-service luxury event decoration business as a 20-year-old following the birth of her daughter.
“I couldn’t find someone that could create the vision that I had for what I wanted to do for her,” Duarte-Canahui recalled of organizing baby showers and birthdays. “So, I ended up having to do it myself.”
Today, the 23-year-old Duarte-Canahui is convinced that everybody deserves to be able to realize the party of their dreams. To that end, she is expanding her business Endless Creativity with a store at 7 Wall St. in Norwalk that is slated to open this month.
Duarte-Canahui acknowledged absorbing a greater understanding of her skills and talents in pursuit of her business dreams.
“I was 20 years old, so I couldn’t afford a big professional,” she said. “Being young, I didn’t have a choice but to do it myself. I initially got into the business because I wanted to be able to be that person who can help you out because you don’t have a lot of money but want a nice decoration.”
However, as she began to understand the sheer amount of work that went into the business, she gained new perspective. She learned that apart from a handful of equipment the only thing she could take from one party to the next was the knowledge she gained. Each job started from scratch ”“ planning, decorating, ordering and coordinating dozens of elements to come together with limited access to the venue.
“I understand now, being behind the scenes, why it costs so much, and why it’s not possible to do all this for a low price,” Duarte-Canahui admitted. “A lot of people have made comments to me like ‘You’re going to create your competition’ and things like that. I just feel like there’s enough business in this world for everybody.”
“I know how it feels to do so much research and have to start from nothing, to not have $600 and say, ‘I’m just going to have to do it myself,” Duarte-Canahui added. “I want to still be able to serve that side of the community, and those people are not going to be my clients anyways.”
Duarte-Canahui recruited her husband Danny Alvarenga in the business, using his experience with woodwork to provide custom signs spelling out the names of those celebrating birthdays, blessings, graduations, or any other event.
Her new Norwalk store, formerly The Apricot Bar, is a two-story space. Though Duarte-Canahui is still finalizing the layout, she intends to provide a photo studio and planning services on the first floor with sales of party goods on the second. She hopes to offer classes about aspects of party planning, including instructions in her signature balloon art.
For Duarte-Canahui, the most exciting aspect of the store is the photo studio.
“People do photo shoots for their birthdays, cake smashes are a top hit,” she said. “I did it for my son, and then people asked for it. It’s a great use of some of our props, because maybe somebody doesn’t want to have a whole party, but they want to have a memory, so we’re really all about creating memories.”
