Williamsurg Wedding Design must get several dozen inquiries every year about jobs, internships and mentorships. I try to answer all of them, but I don't consider too many seriously. When a position is up for discussion, often times the list of requirements that we have for our representatives is scary or unpleasant sounding enough to drive off event the candidates who sound most suitable.
And for some "lucky" people, polite persistance and respect pay off. Ali is one of those people.
Ali is a local high school senior who contacted me at the end of the last school year to see if I could offer a mentorship. Instead of just telling her how disturbingly "not fun" this job can be, I had her meet with the expert: my long-time intern Jess who has regularly spent her summer completing various academic programs by serving as an assistant at Williamsburg Wedding Design. Jess met with Ali first, telling her the truth about the "glamorous" parts of the job, and even giving her an accurate (I hope) account of what a pain I can be to work with. Then I met with Ali to reiterate that I'm an ogre, and grill her about her intentions. Having passed that phase, I gave Ali every opportunity to opt out of the experience.
To her credit, Ali stayed with it, and now she is the latest Williamsburg Wedding Design mentoree. I gave Ali the opportunity to describe herself:
My name is Ali and I am a senior this year. I have two sisters and one brother so my house is always hectic with kids running in and out. I love my friends and family and am very active in my church. I like hanging out with friends, listening to music and as I say i like to "get creative". I have a passion for buttons, I actually enjoy looking through my collection of 1,700 plus buttons, just for fun! My friends say I'm domestic, I like to cook, but love to bake cakes, cookies... anything with chocolate. At the beginning of my senior year i was tasked to look into an internship to count as one of my classes. I immediately started thinking of things I enjoy. Right away I knew I should try something along the lines of event planning, people have always told me I'm good at planning birthday parties, hangouts etc. After doing some research I realized that my love of weddings, love and everything that goes along with it would go hand in hand with event planning, which brought me to wedding planning. I am hoping to learn more about this field of work so that I will be able to see all aspects of it's spectrum while experimenting with things that I enjoy doing!
Despite Ali's youthful enthusiasm, she has demonstrated to me a true interest in event planning, and the maturity to work in a non-traditional work environment with occasional high stress, and lots of crazy idiosyncracies. I am delighted to be working with Ali, and I can't wait to see where she takes her career after this.
Welcome Ali!
