We love Southern Weddings and that beyond the beautiful weddings, their mission is to remember what the most important part of your dream day is: the marriage. These women celebrate the South and every intentional detail of your special day. We are so excited to be featuring them on our blog in a two-part series. Today, we will be showing you their main office space and introducing you to the lovely women that work together in Chapel Hill, North Carolina! 

Name: Lara Isaacson / SW Position: Founder, Publisher, Editor-in-Chief / Years with SW: 9 / Age: 36

Name: Lisa Kirk / SW Position: Editor / Years with SW: 3 / Age: 25

Name: Emily Thomas / SW Position: Creative Director / Years with SW: 7 / Age: 29 

Name: Nicole Yang / SW Position: Art Director / Years with SW: 6 / Age: 26 

Name: Jess Metcalf / SW Position: Customer Delight & Shop Manager / Years with SW: 6 month / Age: 26

Name: Marissa Kloess / SW Position: Advertising Director / Years with SW: 6 years / Age: 31

Where did you begin with designing the Southern Weddings office – Pinterest, other dream offices for inspiration or did you just decorating? We started with our own brand! Southern Weddings has a distinct aesthetic, and since we share so many behind the scenes photos and videos via Instagram and other social platforms, the look of our office is as much a part of our brand as our logo or website. We want readers to feel welcome and included whenever they see our space! Internally, we wanted a place to work that was inspiring, since so much of our day involves dreaming up content, so we made sure to leave lots of white space and room for personalization.

Take us on a virtual tour through the office! What are the team’s favorite spots or decor? Come on in, y’all! We try to greet everyone who walks through our door with lemonade and biscuits before we sit down to chat. Our office is divided into a few different areas. Lara has a separate, quiet work space to work on writing (like for her upcoming book!) and video content.

Nicole and Jess are in the main section of our office, and Lisa and I are in the “editorial wing,” a little nook off the main room. It’s a tie for our favorite design element between our monogrammed office chairs and the huge cork boards over each of our desks!

Does everyone have assigned work stations or do you tend to work as a group when you’re in the office? How do you stay focused with so many creative, fun women working in one space? One surprising thing visitors to our office often comment on is how quiet it is! There are bursts of chatter and laughter throughout the day, to be sure, but for the most part, we all have our heads down and are working hard. However, collaboration flows naturally, and you can often find one of us pulling up a (bright pink!) exercise ball to someone else’s desk to talk through an upcoming feature or project. Ultimately, we all believe in our mission — to inspire readers to plan meaningful beginnings to married life — so strongly that we all naturally work incredibly hard. Unsurprisingly perhaps, we all use and love the Lara Casey Shop PowerSheets, and keep them on our desks as a constant reminder of our priorities and our to-do lists!

How would you describe the overall aesthetic? What is the color scheme and “vibe”? Light, bright, and happy. Most of our furnishings are white, with pops of on-brand color worked in via our bulletin boards and the Southern Weddings Shop and Lara Casey Shop products dotting our shelves!

If you could add anything to the office (no budget restrictions!), what would it be and why? A peanut M&M machine that never runs out, an office dog, and a fashion closet we could pull from at will!

What is some advice you can give to other entrepreneurs or boss ladies who are trying to create a well-designed space? Almost all of our furniture is from Ikea – it’s the perfect inexpensive base layer! And don’t worry about what you think you “should” have in your office – think about how you actually work, and prioritize things that will help you work even more productively. If you do your best writing curled up on a couch, then make sure you have a loveseat and a lap desk!

 

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