ST PETER — On Friday night a shuttle bus picked up Jody Swanson at her home, stopped to pick up the rest of the 10 people who worked the busy tax season at J.L. Swanson Chtd., a Mankato-based accounting firm, and took them out for a celebratory night on the town. At the end of the evening, the bus dropped everyone safely back at their homes.

And Swanson, the firm’s managing shareholder who was herself knee deep in Schedule Cs and Form 1040s until Tuesday, didn’t have to worry about any of it.

Instead, she called upon Gayla Rodning, who runs a party-planning business called Gala by Gayla out of her St. Peter home.

“When you’re a small business, it can be hard for the owner to handle all the details of planning a party and then be able to enjoy it yourself,” Swanson said. “It takes away a lot of pressure to have someone else do it.”

For Rodning, however, the pressure is a pleasure. “Whatever someone asks for, I can do it,” she said. “Part of the thrill of this for me is the kill — finding exactly the right fit, exactly the right detail. Like if someone wants white doves with black spots for their wedding. There’s a lot of joy in finding those for that person.”

Rodning’s business, which she started about five years ago, grew out of her lifelong love of planning parties. As a child, she once rounded up a group of neighbors to surprise her parents at 5:30 a.m. on their anniversary. And as a mother, she’s found great pleasure throwing themed birthday and holiday parties for her two sons.

“I guess I’ve always just had a knack for it,” she said. “Then some of my girlfriends started calling, asking me to help them with their parties. And that’s really all it took to blossom into this.”

Now Rodning helps plan weddings, graduation parties, holiday gatherings, corporate functions and more. She’s also started creating custom baskets and boxes for special occasions, including the more than 50 boxes she’ll be delivering for Administrative Professionals Day on Wednesday.

For the boxes and baskets, Rodning charges a flat fee; the administrative assistants packages, which are available in four formats (breakfast, lunch, “all about me” or a combination), range in price from $20 to $50. For customized baskets, she works around whatever budget a client feels comfortable setting.

For events, she charges 15 percent of whatever services she helps arrange. In some cases, all she does is hire a caterer or arrange for the entertainment; all the client pays, then, is a percentage of those services.

“Basically, it’s a percentage of whatever I touch,” she said. “If I don’t handle it, then you don’t pay me for it. There are no hidden costs.”

But there are sometimes pleasant surprises. Like the time she tracked down the perfect wedding-cake shaped truffles from a candy maker in St. Paul — exactly what the bride had hoped for. Or the Minnetonka country club she gained access to for a group of businessmen. And just thinking about the delight on the faces of the administrative assistants receiving her boxes later this week makes it all worthwhile to Rodning.

“People love to be pampered and to feel special. And they love to be surprised,” she said. “That’s why I’m so excited about these boxes; they are going to just die when I bring them in and tell them that this is from your employer, who really appreciates all that you do.”

Rodning herself is quite appreciated as well. Swanson has hired her to handle most of the business’ events in the past few years, from holiday parties to casual gatherings to the big after-tax bash.

“She has such enthusiasm and takes care of the details so well,” Swanson said. “She’s very budget conscious and value conscious — she knows where to look for the best deals. She’s just really fun to work with.”

The work, Rodning says, is fun. Most of it can be handled right from her home, where she makes dozens of phone calls tracking down exactly the right venue, food or product for a party. The fact she can do that on her own time is important to her because she also helps her husband with the bookkeeping for his trucking business.

And, of course, she has her own parties to plan as well. Her oldest son graduates from high school this spring, and she admits feeling a bit of pressure to make his party perfect. But already, she has a few fun tricks up her sleeve to make it special.

The first, she says, are the crock pots of wild game — deer, pheasant and duck — that she’ll set out for friends to sample (her son is an avid hunter). And the second is the life-size cardboard cutouts of her son standing around the party, an idea she stole from the movie “Step Mom.”

“I took seven pictures of him at different stages of his life and had them blown up,” she says. “So next to the table with the crock pots, there will be a picture of him at age 7, holding up his first duck.”

Such original touches have become her hallmark, whether at her own parties or someone else’s. “It’s all about finding an idea,” she said, “and then figuring out how to execute it.”







At A Glance

What

Gala by Gayla, a home-based business in St. Peter

Services

Gayla Rodning plans weddings, graduation parties, holiday gatherings, corporate functions and other events. Rodning also makes custom baskets and boxes for special occasions.

Contact

(507) 931-6902 grodning@hotmail.com