“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This quote, attributed to Maya Angelou, is how Ginny Corbett of Ginny Corbett Photography remembers what’s important on the wedding day. She wants to make sure that her clients are at ease and can take in the memorable moments, so when they look at a picture hanging on the wall from their wedding day, they remember exactly how they felt. Ginny sat down...

Amanda Scott with A Swanky Affair sat down with Megan to go over the Top Ten wedding planning mistakes couples make. Both Megan and Amanda are wedding planners in the Triangle area and have seen just about every mistake possible. In going over them, they got to share some of their stories usually reserved for parties, from both the planning process and the wedding day. They top ten wedding planning mistakes are: Then Megan grills Amanda with some personal questions in the lightning round,...

Phil McInnis from 21 Films Videography in Raleigh came on the show to talk about how he has built up his business from just Phil and his wife Jess to a team of 6 filmmakers and editors, what differentiates the 21 Films style of videography from other wedding videographers, what motivates Phil, how to work with other vendors, and of course we get into some crazy stories about people drinking a little too much and being on camera. 21 Films Team Blair + Danny, The Merrimon-Wynne House...

Cydney English, owner of The English Garden, has been in the flower business for literally her entire life and runs a florist shop in Raleigh where about 60% of her business is weddings. She does over 120 weddings per year, and she employs 10-20 people at a time depending on the season. Actually, Cydney and her husband Warren are both third-generation florists. On this episode, Cydney talks about her life growing up with her dad and grandma as florists, what it was like in the early days of...

Jenna Parks is the co-owner of Southern Bride and Groom Magazine of the Triangle. Jenna’s mom Donna started the magazine back in 1986, and Jenna came on board in 2010 to advance it into the digital age. To have any sort of impact in the wedding magazine space – which features some huge names like Martha Stewart, Brides Magazine, Grace Ormonde, Premier Bride, Wedding Style, The Knot, Bridal Guide, and Inside Weddings – a smaller magazine needs to know their local market extremely...

This episode is with the one and only Joe Bunn from Bunn DJ Company of Raleigh. Joe has been DJing for over 30 years and has built his business up so he now has 15 DJs working with him in Raleigh, plus three other divisions, in Charlotte, Charleston, and Richmond, with multiple DJs at each of those locations The company has over 1,100 5-star reviews on Wedding Wire. And Joe just keeps grinding and advancing his career. He now runs a PhDJ workshop where he coaches DJs from all over the...

In the first episode (!) of Weddings for Real, Megan sits down with fellow planner Grace Beason to talk about her career start at The Knot, planning her first weddings with her mentor Marcy Blum, how weddings have evolved over the years, how anyone can say they're a planner with an Instagram account, being a mom while running a business, same sex weddings, advice for breaking into the wedding industry, personalities she wants to work with (assistants, couples, and vendors), and how weddings...

Welcome to the Weddings for Real Podcast, hosted by Megan Gillikin, the owner and lead consultant of A Southern Soiree Wedding and Event Planning. On this podcast, we’re going to talk to wedding professionals about the crazy industry that is weddings. We all have some amazing stories, and we all have some of those, “OMG Is This Really Happening!?!” stories to tell. So Megan interviews other planners, florists, DJs, band members, photographers, videographers, and anyone else in the wedding...