About

HELLO AND THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY WEDDING BLOG!

Before you begin reading all of my affordable wedding tips, I wanted to provide you with a brief overview of my education and experience. Hopefully, by telling you a bit about myself, you will gain some confidence and validity in all of the great information that I have written in my blog posts.

WHAT I WANT TO BE WHEN I GROW UP

I will start my story back in my college days. While trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I “grew up”, I had changed my major so many times that my counselor recommended that I take a career survey. Not only to help match my skill sets with a career, but also so that I could declare a major and graduate in an appropriate amount of time.

After taking the survey, the results showed my number one career match was teaching. Although I would love summers off, I knew that I didn’t have the patience to handle a classroom full of kids all day, three-quarters of the year. The second match was an event or wedding planner. This immediately caught my interest, as I’ve always been extremely organized and have always been the “party planner” out of my family and friends.

GEARING UP FOR GRADUATION

I had completed all of the necessary courses but before I could graduate, my university required that I fulfill an internship. So, during my last semester I interned at WPVI-ABC Channel 6 in Philadelphia. I wasn’t overly thrilled about working for free, or about some of the tasks that I was given, but overall this was an invaluable experience for me. I was able to help plan and execute the Thanksgiving Day parade, which was hectic and stressful but at the same time SO much fun.

It was after that experience that I confirmed my decision to become an event planner.

MY FIRST “REAL” JOB

I finally graduated from Rowan University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications, specializing in Public Relations & Advertising (not many schools, if any, had a major for event and/or wedding planning back then). The following week, I started my first “real” job as a Marketing Communications Coordinator at Checkpoint Systems, Inc., a worldwide leading security systems company. In this role, I handled everything from creating the company newsletter to lead management to setting up client visits.

My main responsibility though, was to coordinate all of the company’s tradeshows in the U.S (which in my busiest year came to 200+ including national and regional shows). With most of the national tradeshows, I would organize side events for our current and prospective customers, which was my favorite part of the job! The side events ranged from cocktail hours to dinner banquets to golf tournaments.

TIME FOR A CHANGE

I was eventually promoted to Associate Marketing Manager but after 5+ years I decided it was time for a change. I wanted a position that focused solely on meeting and event planning, so I left Checkpoint to work as a Meeting Manager in the business travel department of American Express.

In this position, I planned all aspects of training programs, executive meetings and incentive trips worldwide, ranging from 75 – 3000+ people. I was able to travel to some beautiful locations around the world, meet some great people, and gain a ton of experience while working for a Fortune 500 company. Not many people can say that they truly enjoy their job, but I did.

Unfortunately, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Due to the current economy, my position was displaced. I have to say that I wasn’t totally shocked, as my work load had almost diminished, but it was the first time that I had ever been laid off in my life.

NOW WHAT

I was filled with a mix of emotions… upset, scared, but also slightly happy. I failed to mention above, that during my time with Amex, my boyfriend and I had gotten engaged and our wedding was just two months from my last day of work. By that time, I had already done all of my research and had contracted all of my vendors, but it gave me all of the time in the world to wrap up all of the last minute odds & ends. Lucky me, as that can be a very stressful time for the bride-to-be.

I enjoyed every minute of my wedding planning, as well as every minute of my wedding day. The entire day was so amazing and went so smoothly. The honeymoon came and went, way too quickly, then back to reality. It was time to find a job but what company, in this economy, is planning a meeting and/or event? Unfortunately not many, if any, so now what?

MY WEDDING BLOG

I found myself unemployed with lots of time on my hands. Rather than struggle to find a new job in what was (and still is) a chaotic economy, I decided to focus my attention on what I love – event planning and weddings – and created NO Knows Weddings.  My blog is here to help make your wedding day the ultimate event in your life!

To learn more about why I started my wedding blog, make sure to check out my first post titled “Hello and Welcome to NO Knows Weddings!“.

Happy Planning!
-Nicole