how wedding planning became my dream

Oh HEY! Nice to e-meet you, thats how were meeting people today right? My name is Charissa and i’m about to be your new wedding planning bestie! Let me dive right in and tell you a little about how we got here.

By now i’m sure you’ve read the “Say Hey” page and may have some questions, i’m going to skip all the boring details and get right to the good stuff.

wedding planning “WEDDINGS” IN HER NEIGHBORS DRIVEWAY

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Wedding planning for me started pretty early on, I grew up in a very small town and was fortunate enough to live next door to 3 sisters one of which was my age and my best friend. Growing up in the 90’s/00’s we spent most of our time outside. It was down their very long driveway that we would throw (in our opinion) the most EPIC fairytale weddings. We would alternate playing the bride and flower-girl while forcing our younger sisters to play the ‘less desired’ roles like groom and officiant. We would pick their moms Forsythia (sorry Brenda) and scatter it as we walked, wearing the latest in “bridal fashion” and probably our tenth outfits of the day we would spend hours planning our perfect big day. This is where I would later draw my love of the backyard do it yourself wedding from.

“THE MECCA OF THE BRIDAL INDUSTRY”

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In college I spent a semester at Kleinfeld Bridal. How? Well, by working smarter not harder, I was able to use an internship as a course credit. I quickly learned that “Internship” in NYC meant unpaid work. I decided if i was going to provide free work it better be brag worthy.

Sitting on my couch i made a list of 10 places I would like to say I worked. I scoured the internet to find the emails for the best person to ask about an internship at each company. I couldn’t even tell you the rabbit hole i went down for Kleinfeld. A quick email later I was sitting in the OG ‘Say Yes To The Dress’ room. I was in an interview with the one and only Joan. A few months later I was spending 3 days a week working at Kleinfeld.

I learned all about the bridal industry, the dresses, fabrics, and fits. What is and isn’t realistic when it comes to timelines. Kleinfeld is where i fell in love with weddings. It was some of the longest days. My body ached, and I saw first hand how cut throat the working world is. I got to experience so many once in a lifetime moments. Each helped to guide my post grad career and pro-pell me into the wedding world.

“SOME PRETTY AMAZING COMPANIES”

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I honestly owe the hookup on my places of employment for my entire corporate career in events to the family I nannied for in college. I was able to connect with three amazing companies, Robb Report, Clio Awards and Getty Images. Each offering me amazing opportunities to wok with and learn from some pretty amazing women in the corporate event world . I worked along side marketing teams, sales teams, and senior leadership to execute everything from holiday parties and educational sales pitches, to international judging events, books launches for world renowned photo journalists and being apart of the Cannes Lions festival. I spent time in countries like France and China, and learned all the ins and outs of everything involved in events large or small. It was truly an amazing experience to work corporate events and such a special industry that will always have a place in my heart.

“SWIPE RIGHT”

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This is a subtile nod to the current dating culture for just about the last decade. From apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge more and more couples have been finding love from the swipe of their finger. I mean ill be the first to admit thats where I met my better half (THANKS HINGE). If you haven’t gathered by now i’m fun bubbly and always down for a good or bad pun. Well after finding out a lot of Simply Loved couples have met on dating apps i found it was only fitting that my Say Hey was my dating profile, after all for the wedding planning process i basically become apart of your relationship.