The New Girls in Town!

Its a New Year and Soirees is trying some new things, such as two new addition! Cureton Gannon and Kelsey Sue Matheny became part of the Soirees team at the beginning of this year. With 6 month under their belt, they wanted to share their ups, downs and all-arounds:


Cureton

I have always enjoyed planning and facilitating events, but I never thought I would choose it as a career or learn so much about myself in the process. Since joining the Soirées team in early August 2014, I have helped plan more than 10-15 weddings. As a graduate with a Bachelors in Public Relations from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, I never really saw myself in the wedding planning business. However, after interning and working full-time for several agencies, I feel like I have found a home.

Not only are the clients and ladies I work with so wonderful, I love the aspect that I come in every day and not know what to expect. I’ve learned about floor plan designs, GOBOs and other foreign words that are event lingo. Being a public relations practitioner I knew that more went into planning an event than the attendees would ever realize, but I was skeptical that it would be much more than the average events I had planned in the past. Well Soirées has proved me wrong and I have found a new appreciation and understanding for the event “behind-the-scenes.” I have always been drawn to details within an event, whether it be a birthday or a wedding extravaganza. However, now each event takes on a life of its own. Each party or wedding has its own message to give its guests and as a coordinator I have the distinct privilege of being able to create it. I cannot wait to see how I am able to grow in this career. It is not about the ideas, it is all about making the ideas come to life.


Kelsey Sue

Chattanooga has been my home-base for most of my life. I love this city, but never thought I would be pursing my dreams here in this awesome town. I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina while I was in high school and college, then decided that Chattanooga is where I call home. Event and wedding planning has always been a passion and dream of mine. During those years, my friends and family were wonderful and encouraged me to make it happen.

After I moved back to the Scenic City and had been living here for 10 months, the opportunity to pursue my dreams presented itself and I reached out to Soirées for an internship. It turned out that they were hiring for their winter season. I knew then that this was the way that the Lord was blessing me with my career. I was hired in August and have learned and enjoyed more and more aspects of event coordination. Being a part of one of the most memorable days of a client’s life and making every little detail come together on their wedding day, birthday or corporate event is truly the best feeling I could possibly have.