The unexpected childhood activity that predicted my career path

The thing that I used to role-play became how I’ve made my living.

[Images: Getty Images]

“And a cascade of lace here, here, and here.” I thwacked my pen against the notepad to emphasize each word while my cousin nodded vigorously. At 8 and 10, we carefully reviewed our wedding dress designs as if our big days were just moments away. While our parents prepped dinner, we rehearsed our grand bridal entry in painstaking detail.

I’m probably not the only person who had this fantasy when I was little, but what I didn’t realize was just how that role-play would translate into the career that I have right now. It all started with my own elopement in 2021, and the subsequent blow-out bash a year later. My husband and I juggled countless chaotic spreadsheets, email chains, invoices, journals, and Post-its.

I felt overwhelmed by the lack of tools to orchestrate this complex logistical feat, and I realized that I could make a living by fixing this chaos.

My unconventional career path

What I loved about weddings were the systems and the operational aspect. But in addition to planning a wedding, it took me a few jobs to understand that. The summer after I graduated from college, I worked as a tutor for middle and high school kids while I looked for a full-time job. Just days in, it became clear that the tutoring company was in full operational shambles. I started mapping out a plan to transition the company to electronic records, using homework assignments and practice flashcards.

My next job was at a boutique marketing firm. A few months on the job, I realized it was on the scrappier end of the spectrum than I initially expected. Soon, the quirky operational novelties I had loved at first were starting to make me itch. I started to scheme to make things more efficient again.  

My next role allowed my skills to find a true home. I was leading a team of operations specialists at the unicorn startup, Carta. This experience would end up being crucial to my wedding planning business that I’d later start.

Doing my best work in chaos

The refrain that continued in my mind over the many months of wedding planning was, ‘Why is this so hard?’ When about 2.5 million people get married in the United States every year, it felt like I (and every engaged person I knew) had to reinvent the wheel while undergoing a deeply frustrating and time-consuming exercise.

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