Now I'm Really Grown Up

It finally happened, the moment I've worked for basically my entire life; I was offered my first entry-level position today.

When you think about it, this is really the reason people go to high school, go to college and beyond. Moving out and getting my first real "big girl job" as I've been calling it has been my goal for as long as I can remember, and I can't believe things are finally falling into place. My risky move of coming to New York without full time employment, my six internships (five of which were unpaid), my exhausting months of working three jobs to support myself, everything is paying off.

I can't even put into words how exciting it is to be truly independent from my parents. Although I've been paying my rent and basically handling everything on my own since I moved to New York, they've been there for me to fall back on and I definitely have had to on a few occasions along the way. Being the great parents that they are, I know they'll always be there for me to fall back on, but I finally feel like I won't have to for the first time.

Another thing that's exciting to realize is that I'll never again be an intern. I've been fortunate enough, through college and after graduating, to have had six amazing internships with great companies that I've been able to learn so much from. There comes a point however, where you just feel ready for the responsibility of a full time job and I've reached that point.

So it goes, another new chapter of my life begins on Tuesday... can't wait to see how this one turns out!

Another New Chapter

Once again, I've fallen off the face of the blogosphere for a bit. I feel like I go through these phases where I update daily and have all sorts of things to write about and then there are weeks where I just can't managed to post a single thing. This time I'm not lacking material, I've just been way too busy to post. Between planning a best friend's birthday, saying goodbye to other friends leaving the city after the summer, and making the transition to a new job (!!) I've been swamped.

Yep, you read right: I'm starting work at a new company this week. Tomorrow will be the last day of my wonderful Peppercom internship and I start at Parasol on Wednesday. I'm sad to say bye to everyone at Peppercom but excited for a new challenge and the next chapter of my career. I'll keep you all posted once I get going with this new job!

Never a Dull Moment

A few days ago, I was asked (as I often am) what exactly I like about public relations. For some reason this is always a hard question to answer, not because I don't know what I like about it but I guess it's just kind of hard to articulate. 

When I first applied to the PR major in UGA's Grady College of Journalism, I have to admit I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I remember some mention in a class of event planning as a career, which I thought was the coolest thing you could do for a job, and after doing some research PR seemed like the logical path to get me there. However, I still didn't know what exactly public relations was. I'd taken marketing classes for my business major, and don't think I really grasped the difference between the two industries. 

The farther I got in my classes, the more I fell in love with the field of public relations. I love the writing, the pitching (as much as anyone can actually love pitching) and all of the opportunities to be creative. I also love the constant interaction with people. I'm really fascinated by people and the way they communicate, so figuring out how to get a client in the public spotlight is so interesting to me.

The one thing I heard over and over about PR, which remains my favorite aspect of a career in this area, is that there is no typical day and there is no such thing as "9 to 5." My worst nightmare would be to go to a job and do the same exact thing every single day without any sort of excitement or variety. This is the opposite of PR. Just this summer I've had so many fun, random experiences from painting baseballs for a giveaway to writing for a newsletter, posting to the company blog to researching why people prefer a certain franchise over competitors. Aside from a few daily monitors, I go in to work every morning having absolutely no idea what to expect from the day - and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Never Stop Learning

When I first started this blog, I was in college and wrote a lot about my internships and what I was learning in class. I realize lately it has evolved into more of a "Life in New York" diary since I've been so caught up in exploring my new city.  However, just because I'm out of college doesn't mean I'm not still learning about PR - that's what interning is all about (not that it should stop after that)! One of the things I love about my particular internship is the emphasis on our professional growth, which was apparent today in our pitching and writing workshop. 

Of course we're all busy, interns and account executives alike, but it was nice for people to take time out of their day to teach us a thing or two. There were a few key points that really stuck out to me from our workshop that I wanted to talk about and think all people in PR should know.

First, a great quote from our writing workshop:

Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. - Mark Twain

This perfectly articulates the difference between PR writing and creative writing. In PR, we need to say the most we can in the least amount of words. We need to be able to get our point across quickly and effectively to our specific audience, not spend extra time (and words) with superfluous descriptions.

Next, my favorite takeaway from the pitching workshop:

Put yourself in the mindset that when you call to pitch to an editor or reporter, talking to you will be the highlight of their day. Thinking positive will come through in your voice and they will be much more receptive to your pitch.

I love this. There are very few people I know in PR that truly enjoy pitching, even though it's a big part of the job. This silly little tip honestly works though! Pitching is so much easier when you just relax and talk to a reporter like a real person. Be casual, have fun with it. Sure, you'll get the reporters that are still very formal and short, but in general people are much more receptive if you come across as someone they could get along with. 

I won't bore you with all of my notes (even though I still need to type them up for my "intern guide book" - a great idea from one of our intern coordinators), but I just wanted to share those two main points. I think it's easy to assume that once you're out of college, the learning stops there. I'll admit, it did feel weird taking notes from a powerpoint presentation (and I've only been out of school for two months!). I truly enjoyed it, as anyone does when they're learning about a subject they really care about. It's so much easier and more fun to learn about things you're passionate about from successful people in that industry than to sit through a boring lecture on a topic you couldn't care less about in college.

There IS Such a Thing As Life After College

I realized as I was posting my "picture of the day" that an entire month has passed since I graduated from college.  I can't believe how fast that month has gone by, and I really can't believe how smooth the transition has been.

For your four (or five or six, depending on who you are...) years of college, all you ever hear is, "These are the best years of your life! It's downhill from here!" Of course I loved college, and my four years in Athens were incredible.  I had a blast, met so many wonderful people and got a great education to prepare me for where I am now.  However, I truly dreaded the responsibilities of adult life because that's what I was supposed to do.  Its ingrained in your head as a college student that this is the only time you'll have true freedom, and you should want to stay a college student forever.

I have to admit, being a college graduate isn't so bad.  I'm living in a great city that I fall more and more in love with every day, I'm enjoying my internship and I'm meeting interesting new people everywhere I turn.  I even kind of enjoy the "adult" responsibilities of going to bed early on weeknights and keeping up with paying my own bills because it gives me a sense of accomplishment.  Sure, I still go out with my friends and have fun on the weekends but I'm easily settling into a routine and loving it. 

Last summer, I remember one of my co-workers telling me that she actually had more fun in her first few years out of college than she did in college.  I laughed at this silly statement at the time, but I'm actually starting to understand what she's talking about.  

Takeover of Twitter

When I first joined Twitter back in September, I had no idea what I was getting into.  I was participating in UGA's Connect Conference which featured a "social media boot camp" and many influential speakers from the world of public relations and social media.  One of the first things everyone did was set up a Twitter account, and although I had never heard of it I quickly got the hang of it and was live tweeting the conference in no time.  And so the obsession began...

It took me a few months to really get into it, but once I started following all of my PR friends (they seemed to be the only people who knew about it) from classes I got hooked.  It was an easy way to communicate with everyone and as addicting as Facebook.  I also started following PR professionals and news services, thus turning Twitter into an educational tool as much as anything.  But while Twitter became immensely popular with the PR people I knew, my "normal" friends still had no idea what it was.  I can't begin to tell you how many times I had to explain Twitter, and even once I did I usually got blank stares or questions along the line of... "so what's the point?".  

Fast-forward to now, almost a year later.  My "normal" friends from other majors have started popping up on Twitter.  It's all over the news.  I'm even doing Twitter searches at work as part of a daily monitor.  When did Twitter become cool? My friends that didn't understand it three months ago and thought it was weird/"stalkerish" are now jumping on the bandwagon! It's funny to see these social media trends evolve, and it's even funnier to tell my previously skeptical friends, "I told you so!"

A year ago, Facebook was the hottest thing in social media with people my age, and started the "stalker" element that Twitter has continued.  Everyone has had the experience of starting to tell their friend something they did over the weekend, only to be cut off by "I know, I saw your pictures on Facebook."  Now it's not so much this as, "Yea, I saw your Tweet about that." Is Twitter becoming more popular than Facebook?

According to this article on TechCrunch, Facebook is still "worth" much more than Twitter, and therefore has a bigger following and more popularity.  However, I can't help but wonder if in a year from now Facebook will be long gone (like Livejournal... anyone remember that craze?) and Twitter will still be around.

Week 1, Accomplished

Good news first... now that I have Internet in my apartment, I can finally start posting more frequently than once a week when I go to a coffee shop that has free wifi! 

So I finished my first week of the internship, and it was great. It was a short week because we started on Tuesday, and Friday was a half day because we have "summer Fridays" where we get out early every other Friday (assuming our work is done for the day).  I'm working on some really cool accounts and they're all very different which is exactly what I had hoped for! No day is the same, and there's so much work to be done so I've been very busy.  To top it off, everyone is so nice and helpful! It's obvious that everyone in the office gets along very well, and they have a lot of fun social events (that interns are included in) so there's so much fun stuff to do.

I've been thinking of a lot of things I want to write about, so check back soon and there should be some good posts coming up!

Home Sweet Home

Here I am again, borrowing Internet from Gregory's Coffee... just 5 more days until my cable and Internet get hooked up!  Aside from my lack of cable though, my apartment is really coming together.  I'm making a trip out to Ikea (my first time, I'm very excited about it) on Wednesday to get some more furniture but I'm finally done unpacking and decorating!  My parents have been asking for pictures, so I figured this would be the best place to post them.  They're a little blurry since they're from my iPhone, but they're better than nothing...

The "bedroom" ... okay, so it's a studio but I still like to pretend there are separate rooms.

The "dining room" / table that made me cry because it had to be taken apart to fit through my front door.

The "living room" ... I'm planning to put a dresser between the windows, put my TV on top of it, and have a couch across from it. 

Kitchen.

Little pieces of Athens in the kitchen (go dawgs!).

More UGA stuff...

So that's pretty much it! It probably looks bigger than it is because of all the different wall shots, but I'm okay with it being tiny and I love it.  Having pictures of all my friends and family definitely makes it feel like home, so I'm happy! 

Tomorrow is my first day of my internship at Peppercom, I'm so excited to get started and meet everyone! Everyone I've talked to and met so far that works there has been so friendly and nice, and I know I'm going to love it.  I'll report back after my first week/whenever I have a reliable Internet connection next!

I Want To Be A Part Of It... New York, New York

Finally, I've found reliable Internet access (thank you, Gregory's Coffee) so I can make my official first NYC post. Up until now, I've been using my iPhone for everything Internet related (how did I survive without it again?) but there are just some things that work better on a laptop... (iPhone sidenote: the Google app, specifically the "local" feature has become my new best friend to find everything in my neighborhood).

So here I am, finally living in the city I've dreamed about living in since the moment I left last summer. After a hectic travel day (read: my flight was delayed 3 hours), I finally got here Wednesday afternoon. Fortunately my super was able to let the delivery guy in with my bed so I wasn't stuck sleeping on hardwood since I missed the delivery time. I didn't have the energy to accomplish much, so I just picked up some basics for my cat, got takeout for myself, and got to bed early.

Yesterday was my first big productive day. I went to Bed Bath & Beyond and bought kitchen stuff, curtains, and random things I needed for my apartment. I shipped a lot of my things, but I figured it would be easier to re-buy a lot of the kitchen stuff rather than shipping it and risking it breaking. Only in New York does Bed Bath & Beyond have a built-in cafe and doorman, so I was able to survive the trip thanks to a large iced coffee and the helpful man who carried my things out to a cab. I also set up my gas and electric, and called to schedule the activation of my cable and Internet (couldn't get an appointment until a week from now, hence the coffee shop excursion). Last night I got my first big shipment of things from UPS, and the rest of it came today. I've spent the last 24 hours unpacking, hanging shelves, and making my apartment home. It's amazing the difference little things like curtains and pictures can make!

Needless to say, it's been a crazy couple of days. I know I've made a lot of progress but my apartment is still a disaster (I posted a few pictures on my other blog, click here to see them). I've had to call my parents with all kinds of random questions, but other than that I'm proud of myself for doing this on my own. My mom wanted to come help me but I insisted that I had to do this on my own. I had a brief moment in the kitchen section of Bed Bath & Beyond where I regretted that decision, but I know I'll be happy when it's all done and I can say I did it by myself. I even hung my curtains, shelves, and some frames with a borrowed power drill!

I'm looking forward to starting my internship on Tuesday, but I'm glad I have this time to get my apartment all set up and how I want it before I have to get into the work routine. I should probably get back home and keep working on unpacking, but more to come (and better pictures) soon!

It's Always Something

Whenever I'm stressed out about school, work, or life in general I always feel better if I call my mom to vent.  Today was one of those stressful days, and after about 15 minutes of my ranting and frantically listing everything I need to get done in the next few weeks, she said something that really got me thinking.

She pointed out that as soon as I make it through graduation, it'll just be on to the next huge life changing event: finding an apartment. And then on to the next: moving 800 miles away.  And then on to the next: starting a new internship.  And then who knows what?  The point was, as soon as you get through one stressful event, it's already time to tackle another.  Don't get me wrong, these are all exciting things that I'm stressed out about in a good way.  I just have a lot to think about and my mind is going a thousand different directions and it seems like it's never going to end! 

This made me think about how I can cope better with my stress. What kind of life would it be to constantly be anxious about what is coming next?  I need to enjoy each thing for what it is, and not rush through these huge milestones just so I can reach the next.  In the next few weeks, I'm going to make a serious effort to relax and enjoy being a college student.  After that, I'll move on to the details of my move to NYC.  I just need to remind myself to take things one day at a time, one event at a time, and relax and have fun while doing it.  

More "Great" and Less "Unknown"

A few days ago, I wrote about embracing my uncertain future.  After much anxiety about what direction my life would go after college, I finally decided to just go with the flow and stop freaking out about everything.

Well, you know how when you're waiting on food at a restaurant, it always seems to come faster if you leave the table to go to the restroom or something?  Well, this apparently applies to waiting on internships as well.  Four days after I adopted my new carefree outlook on life, I got the phone call I've been dreaming of for months!  

Finally, when people ask me what I'm doing after graduation I don't have to stare blankly at them or mumble something about the economy and the tight job market.  I will be able to tell them that I will be moving to New York in the end of May and interning with Peppercom for the summer!  I couldn't be more excited, and now I have so much to figure out and plan in the next month and a half.   

Embracing the Great Unknown

For the first time in my entire life, I don't have a plan. Throughout high school, I always had a comfortable routine - a balance between school work, part-time jobs, riding my horse, and track practice.  By my junior year, I started looking at colleges and quickly decided I wanted to go to UGA.  I got accepted and finalized my enrollment by December of my senior year.  I knew where I would be after high school while many of my other friends continued to fill out applications and go on campus visits.

Aside from picking up a second degree, I have stuck with my original major that I declared in my freshman year of college.  While many of my friends have changed their majors and signed up for the "five year plan," I have done what I needed to do to graduate in four years with a dual major in Business Management and Public Relations.  I have spent my summers working, studying abroad and interning.  I have done everything I could over the last four years to prepare for the next step after college.

Now that I'm a little over a month from graduation, I have no idea what that next step will be.  Like the majority of my peers, I have no job lined up yet.  I haven't looked for apartments in the city I hope to move to.  I haven't figured out how I'm going to move my entire life to a new city.  This is a strange feeling for me... I'm used to having all the answers to such pressing questions, but for once, I don't.  

I've been going through phases where I panic, start looking for more jobs and internships to apply for, look at apartments on craigslist, and research moving companies.  But I've realized there's really no use.  I have leads with several companies, and all I can do is wait for their responses.  I can't rush my future, I just have to know that things will fall into place.  So I'm waiting patiently, enjoying the last few weeks of college, and embracing my unknown future for the first time in my life.

Epting Update

I realized over the weekend that it's been awhile since I posted anything about my internship at Epting Events, so now seemed like a good time for an update!

We're getting very close to being done with the wedding style book, and I'm so excited to see how it turns out.  It has taken a little bit longer than expected because a few of the girls stopped working on the project, so we had to re-assign the themes.  I'm now working on Beach Casual, Global Chic, Nature Inspired, and part of Contemporary.  We also changed the layouts of our divider pages so they would look more like the inspiration boards on popular wedding websites like The Knot and Style Me Pretty.  Here are a few of my new dividers:

We should be finishing everything up in the next few weeks, which will give us time to run everything by our bosses and order the book before I graduate! We've come a long way on this project and it will be so cool to see the finished product.

On a side note, Epting Events just started a blog so check that out for more wedding pictures and information.

How are YOU differentiating yourself in the job market?

Tomorrow, I will be participating in a podcast discussing the difficulties upcoming graduates are facing in the job market, and how to differentiate yourself.  The conversation will be hosted by Peppercom's Co Founder Steve Cody and COO Ted Birkhahn, and I will be among one of a group of senior PR students answering questions.

(For those of you who aren't familiar with Peppercom, it's a PR agency which offers global communications services with offices in New York, London, Chicago and San Francisco. It was also ranked by the Holmes Report as one of the nation's best places to work for three consecutive years, which is why I'm hoping to intern there this summer!)

I've been thinking a lot over the last few days about what advice I can give my fellow upcoming graduates.  With the media constantly in our faces about how bad the economy is and how impossible it's going to be to find a job when we graduate, it's hard to stay positive about our future! We've all worked hard through college, we have internship experience, and we're almost done earning our degrees... so now what?

No matter how bad things get, the fact of the matter is - there are still jobs out there.  You just need to be able to differentiate yourself and prove to potential employers why you are the best one for the position.  Competition is fiercer than ever, but rather than getting discouraged and resigning yourself to move home with mom and dad in a few weeks - do something about it! 

Here is some of my humble advice, based on personal experience and recommendations I've gotten from professors and fellow students:

• Use your network! HR departments get hundreds of resumes and cover letters a day, why should they read yours?  Talk to professors, other students, family friends - see if anyone has any connections that might be useful to you.  This may sound like you're just using people, but based on my experience people are more than happy to help if they can.
  
• Do your research.  If there is a company you're interested in working for, know them inside and out.  Read their blog, follow them on Twitter, find out everything you can about them.  Being knowledgeable about a company will set you apart from other candidates when applying for a job.
• Be proactive. After living and interning in NYC last summer, I knew it was where I wanted to be after graduation.  So, in December, I flew up for a few days for informational interviews with a few companies I researched and was interested in.  Just showing your face and talking with someone shows your interest and can teach you a lot about a company, more than you could ever learn from their website.
• Be open-minded.  Don't just look at big agencies, research smaller companies and internal communications positions.  There are a lot of opportunities in public relations, so look outside your comfort zone to find other jobs than you had imagined you would be looking for.  
• Intern! By now, we all should have internship experience, but you can never have too much.  There's nothing wrong with interning after graduation, and you never know where your connections with a company may lead you.  
• Immerse yourself in the industry and keep up with the trends. There is so much to learn about public relations outside the classroom, it's almost intimidating.  Spend time every day reading relevant news articles, follow the latest social media trends.  I learn so much every day just by clicking through links on my Twitter feed.  There are so many knowledgeable professionals out there with great information, so follow them!

Hopefully some of this has been helpful.  I'm really looking forward to hearing what other seniors have to say, and am so honored to be participating in this! I'll post links once the podcast is finished.

I'd also love any feedback on what you are doing to differentiate yourself, or just any thoughts in general on this topic!

Internship Update

By Monday, we're planning to each have finished our respective divider pages (one for each of the themes in the style book).   The two themes I chose to work on were "Beach Casual" and "Global Chic".  Here are my first drafts of the divider pages:

The whole purpose of the book is for brides to flip through and get ideas for their own weddings.  It will be divided up into seven themes, but obviously images can be used from more than one theme as inspiration.  The above divider pages will just be sort of an introduction to the theme, and then the following pages will be more elaborate as far as flowers, table settings, lighting, and decor.  I'm excited to see the rest of the girls' work and get it all put together! 

I'm really enjoying the graphic design aspect of this internship.  I haven't had a chance to do a project like this since the Graphic Communication class I took a few years ago, and it's a fun change of pace.  

More updates soon on the rest of the pages...

Fun with InDesign

I recently acquired all the newest Adobe programs to use for my internship.  After much back-and-forth on how we would do the layouts, we've decided to use InDesign and then upload the finished images to Snapfish.  I've been playing around with the programs to practice (aka procrastinating, because doing my own projects is more fun).

Anyway, I thought I'd post the image I just finished.  The quote is from a travel ad I saw once and fell in love with, and the pictures are from some of the different places I've traveled to (study abroad and just with friends).  I'm thinking about printing a poster from Walgreens.com to hang up in my room...

It looks pretty small, and would have taken forever to upload it at full quality but I was able to upload a bigger version on TwitPic. What do yall think?

Buying an Internship?

As a tangent to my post about being optimistic despite the state of our current economy, I read an editorial in my school paper (based on this article in the Wall Street Journal) that literally made me sick.  If you have yet to read the original article, Buying Your Kid an Internship, please take a minute to right now.

Based on the article, parents who are concerned about the job outlook for their kids are now paying for-profit companies to place them in unpaid internships.  Other parents are buying internships at charity auctions.  

One girl paid $8,000 for a sports marketing internship in NYC after unsuccessfully applying to 25 other internships.  CharityBuzz.com, a fundraising website, sold a music-industry internship for $12,000.  

Is this seriously happening?

What happened to working hard in school, paying your dues (NOT literally), and earning an internship based on your own merits?  When I said students should be prepared to do anything to set themselves apart to future employers, this is pretty much the opposite of what I meant.

Aside from how ridiculous the concept itself is, has anyone stopped to think that behavior like this is exactly why we're in a recession?  Spending the last bit of your savings (or taking out a loan? I really hope that's not happening) to place them in an unpaid position is just making things worse in the long run, not better. 

Update on Life

I've realized I become kind of MIA over the weekend as far as this blog goes, but I guess it's just because I have so much going on right now... here's a little update on life (this is as much for me as anything so I can get my life in order).

Classes are going well, it's about that time for the first round of exams - I have two this week.  So far I'm still really liking all the classes I signed up for, which is nice for my last semester.  We're getting going on our research for Campaigns, so hopefully I'll have an update soon of the direction that is headed.

My internship is awesome, we have so much flexibility which is a nice challenge.  Starting Wednesday, we're going to meet on campus so we can use InDesign or Photoshop to make some of the pages for our style book. 

I've been working a lot and basically saving every penny I earn for life after graduation.  If all goes according to plan, I'll have some kind of income post-May, but it's always good to have savings put away (I have an interview on a week - cross your fingers for me!).

On a completely random tangent, Spring Break is 32 days away and I've managed to stick to my work out plan so far, which is great news.

And yea, that's my life in a nutshell.  Nothing all too exciting to report, just keeping busy and happy :)

Epting: Day 2

I just got home from my second day at Epting, and I feel like I have more of a grip on how we're going to tackle our project.  It's kind of hard since there are actually five of us (I initially thought there would be three) working together on the style book project and not everyone is in the office at the same time, but once we get everything delegated I think it will run smoothly.

As I mentioned in my last post, we are re-designing the style books for weddings, and will probably eventually move on to other events.  We decided the best method to create the book would be to use Shutterfly, which allows you to digitally create your own scrapbooks and charges one flat rate to print the whole book.  This way all of the interns can access one account and we won't get caught up in software complications or anything like that.  We prepared a budget for the project, and got to work on discussing our thoughts for the book.  

We discussed categories and decided on seven broad wedding categories.  There are endless lists of wedding themes on blogs and in magazines, but we came up with: Traditional Elegance, Contemporary, Vintage, Romantic, Beach, Cultural Beauty, and Nature Inspired.  These will probably change before the final project is completed, but they were what we initially came up with.  Then we divided the themes into decor, lighting, furniture, table settings, and floral.  From here, we will be creating layouts and selecting pictures which fit into each of the themes and categories.  

We've certainly got our work cut out for us, but now that we have a work plan and budget I'm really excited to get started!  More updates to come...

First Day at Epting Events

So yesterday was my first day as an intern at Epting Events, and it was pretty much what I thought it would be - overwhelming!  First days are always scary, you're bombarded with so much information and meet so many people - there's no way to remember everything! 

The coolest part was definitely touring the building.  From the lobby, you would think it's just a small office with a few conference rooms for client meetings... this couldn't be farther from the truth.  Epting is unique in that they do almost everything in-house (they don't have to work with millions of vendors) - they have a floral department, catering, decorations, furniture & place settings - you name it, it's probably in their massive warehouse.  I could have easily spent hours walking around, looking at all of the cool lights, flowers, and decorations.  We also met other interns and event coordinators along the way, and everyone was super nice.  

Then we got to work on our main project.  I will be working with two other interns on re-organizing style books to show to clients.  This sounds like a small project, but it's really not. Our first part of the project will be wedding-specific, and then as time allows we will move on to other kinds of events.  Yesterday we spent hours going through wedding style books and magazines searching for inspiration for the books and making notes about different themes and seasons.  I'll admit it, I've never been one of those girls who dreamed about all the little details of her wedding... until now.  It's addictive! The flowers, the lights, the food, it's all so fun and extravagant!  I think I'll get to work on planning my wedding now... no, I don't have a boyfriend, but that's just a minor detail.

While this project will be my biggest focus, I will get to assist the event coordinators with anything they may need around the office.  I also plan to attend as many events as possible to see how the final products turn out.  Overall, I'm really excited about the experience and just can't wait to soak up as much information as possible about this industry.