saved by grace

After graduation in May 2008, I moved to Chicago for the summer to work for a public relations firm. Chicago was amazing and my job was very challenging. After the economy took a deep drop in late July, the company went on a hiring freeze. While I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Windy City, I decided I missed my family, my friends and the South in general too much to keep me in the Midwest. I moved back to North Carolina in mid-August.


Before I even packed up my apartment in Chicago, I was reaching out to PR agencies and event planners in North Carolina. One of many long telephone conversations with my mom, lead to my discovery of Grace Beason. I knew the last name because I grew up with her two sister-in-laws. My best gal pals from elementary school had an older brother, and in turn married Grace Leisure Peck. I checked out Grace's web site and was blown away at her experience.



After I settled in to North Carolina, Grace and I got together! Fate would have it that she was looking for some extra help. Since then she has been my mentor in the event planning field.

In December, Grace has an extravagant event planned for a wedding in High Point, NC. As Grace likes to say, she was "if you want to learn to swim, I'll throw you in the deep end!" While she knew that a 500+ wedding wasn't the easiest way to start my wedding planning experience, I couldn't have learned more from it! It was fast-paced, demanding and amazing!

In short, I got to know Grace very quickly as we spent an entire weekend together! I learned so much from her and her other assistant Lindsey. Soaking in all the information the vendors required, how many miniature meetings it took the day before, and all the small organizational efforts it took to make everything become seamless - was mind blowing. I called my mom on my drive back to Durham on Sunday afternoon and told her how much fun I had.

I was so thankful that Grace put faith in me to help her with such a big undertaking. And ever since, I've been excited to see more of her events! Now, I'm learning the ropes between full-service coordinating and day-of coordinating. I'm learning good and bad vendors in town and around the state. I'm learning timing of contracts and when specific aspects of the plan should be nailed down. I'm learning more than I ever thought possible, and this is just the beginning of my time with Grace. Grace has a bundle of weddings in the coming year that she has asked me to help with! YAY!

Grace, her husband Matt and their adorable dog JP are wonderful! I'm so excited to get to know all of them better and the wedding industry of course :) It will be a fun ride!

Check back in for updates on a recent wedding I attended in Raleigh @ the kids museum, Marbles!

xoxo
Katherine