Who We Are

Exhale Events was founded by Malea with a vision to create celebrations marked by intention, beauty, and peace. Rooted in faith and shaped by experience in business, ministry, and event leadership, Exhale Events exists to carry the weight of the details so clients can stay present in the moments that matter most.

While leading a wedding as the planner, Malea worked closely alongside Jess—who was serving as the maid of honor and supporting the execution of the day—and their natural teamwork quickly revealed a shared heart for service and a complementary blend of skills. What began as a solo vision has grown into a trusted team, built on collaboration, excellence, and a deep commitment to creating weddings and events where every detail feels thoughtful and every moment invites you to exhale.

Our Team

Malea Bertsch

Founder & CEO

From a young age, Malea has loved weddings and the beauty of lasting love. Some of her earliest memories include playing dress up at just four years old, creating pretend wedding ceremonies, and dreaming up celebrations long before she knew what event planning was. As she grew older, that love only deepened. A romantic at heart, she was shaped not only by classic love stories in movies and books—The Parent Trap, The Wedding Planner, 27 Dresses, Titanic, and countless others—but also by the real-life examples set before her. Watching her grandparents and parents build marriages rooted in commitment, joy, and faith gave her a deep appreciation for covenant love and the power of choosing one another day after day.

When it came time for college, Malea felt drawn to event planning but chose to pursue a degree in business instead, believing that excellence in experience begins with strong foundations. Her studies gave her a holistic understanding of operations, administration, finances, and leadership—skills that now allow her to approach events with both creativity and clarity. That path led her to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she worked in ministry and discovered the impact thoughtfully designed gatherings can have. In one of her roles, she led large-scale events for a megachurch, overseeing more than 16 events annually with 4,000+ attendees in person and thousands more joining from around the world.

It was during this season that Malea launched her event business and planned her first weddings, pairing her love for romance with her strength in organization and operations. After a season of pause and transition, she returned to Minneapolis with renewed vision and purpose. Exhale Events was born from a desire to partner with people during some of life’s most meaningful moments—serving them with intention, excellence, and care. Grounded in faith and guided by grace, Malea approaches every wedding, church gathering, corporate event, and luxury celebration with the same heart: to carry the weight of the details so her clients can breathe deeply, stay present, and fully enjoy the moment.

Lead Associate Planner

Jess Radford

Jess’ love for wedding and event planning runs deep. As a little girl, she watched her mom and aunties throw together all kinds of grand and special parties for loved ones in their community. She gladly pitched in where she could, coming early and staying late with her parents to help set up and clean up. Later in high school and college, she joined the student council and did much of the same for every school dance and event there was in school.

Since then, there have been birthday parties, weddings, reunions, church events and all kinds of things she’s helped plan with a belief that there’s so much in life to celebrate and it’s really in our best interest to do so. Her values are deeply rooted in service to others, collaboration, excellence, attention to detail, and a focus on the things that really matter, namely, love!

Getting married this year has given her the perspective of what brides and grooms go through to plan their special day and she is passionate now more than ever to help couples getting married move forward with peace, clarity, and excitement!

Our Values

Faith & Worship
Our faith shapes how we lead, serve, and create. We believe every gathering is an opportunity to honor God through excellence, intention, and a heart of worship—whether that’s seen in prayer, preparation, or the way we care for people.

Integrity
We do what we say we will do. Integrity means honoring our commitments, stewarding trust well, and leading every event with professionalism and respect.

Honesty
Clear, thoughtful communication is essential to peace. We value transparency with our clients, vendors, and team so expectations are aligned and decisions are made with confidence.

Excellence
Excellence lives in the details. From planning and logistics to design and execution, we pursue high standards—not for perfection’s sake, but so our clients can experience events that feel seamless and elevated.

Service
At the heart of Exhale Events is a commitment to serve. We lead with humility, collaborate well, and put people first—believing the best events are created when care and intentionality guide every decision.

  • Please see our “Services” menu for a list of all current packages.

  • The earlier the better to give our team as much time as possible to help plan your perfect event! More time planning ensures that we are able to secure all those very special details that will make your event one to remember. Based on the capacity of your event, we recommend these time tables:

    • >200 person capacity (Signature Experience: Full Planning): minimum 4 months notice 

    • >200 person capacity (Refined Experience: Partial Planning): minimum 3 months notice 

    • 50 person capacity (Intimate Experience: Micro Luxury Weddings & Elopements): minimum 2 month notice

    • The Aesthetic Experience (Event Design & Styling):  minimum 2 month notice

    • The Impact Experience (Corporate & Nonprofit Events): minimum 2 month notice


    This is by no means an exhaustive list and we at Exhale Events understand that every affair from celebrations to conferences is unique and will take a nuanced approach to fully realize! Depending on the scale and complexity of your event, there may be situations where we are able to work outside of the timelines listed. We are happy to see what we can do to serve you and make your event special. Please email contact@exhaleevents.org with any questions. Let’s work together!

    Disclaimer: Exhale Events reserves the right to decline inquiries based upon availability in order to honor any existing contracts we may already have, with that in mind, it is in the client’s best interest to inquire as soon as possible.

  • On the day of your event, you should be able to show up confident that all the details are going to work out as planned and focus on what’s really important: your celebration! We are happy to come alongside on that day and offer our expertise to make sure everything flows so smoothly. Hours are based off package purchased as listed:

    • Signature Experience (Full Planning): 12 hours

    • Refined Experience (Partial Planning): 10 hours

    • Intimate Experience (Micro Luxury Weddings & Elopements): 4 hours

    • The Aesthetic Experience (Event Design & Styling): TBD based on scale and details of the event

    • The Impact Experience (Corporate & Nonprofit Events): TBD based on scale and details of the event

  • When you email an inquiry via our Contact page, you can expect to hear back from us within 72 business hours. Client communication emails should expect a response in 1-2 business days for regular communication or same business day for urgent matters. Once a contract is signed, we go over communication cadence and preferences.

  • Absolutely! Most of our meetings will be over zoom but we will be available to travel (travel fees not included in packages) for day-of coordination and any necessary prior set up.


  • In order to ensure that we keep our efforts on our main events of weddings and corporate/nonprofit events, at this time we are not offering other event packages (i.e. bachelorette parties, birthdays, etc). However, this may change in the future so keep in touch and we’ll keep you posted!

  • Exhale Events is based in Minnesota and serves couples and organizations both locally and beyond.

Frequently Asked Questions