Hi,  I'm Heather - I'm the owner of First Coast Weddings and Events.  Next month,  our company is celebrating our 20th anniversary,  and I'd like to take a few minutes to share a little bit of our story.

In 2001, I was working as the Catering Sales Manager at a local country club after moving to Jacksonville from Orlando. I could probably count on one hand the number of wedding planners in Jacksonville at the time - and I'm proud to say that some of those planners are still in the area, and still in the industry!

I always had the desire to own my own business. When I was in college, I earned a minor in Business Administration, which gave me a background in marketing, finance, accounting, etc. As I got to know some of the wedding planners I worked with at the country club, I was excited by how much time and guidance they got to give their clients. As a Catering Sales Manager, my schedule was very full with not only private events but club events too. I wanted to be more involved in my clients' events!

I spent some time doing some market research and decided to take the leap. But it was a small leap - I was able to move into a part-time role at the club, which gave me some steady income while I was growing my business.

I was honestly pretty shocked when my first client hired me. I had a very basic website (created in MS Publisher, can you believe it?), a business license, and a phone line in my home office. (Yes, we still had landlines back then!) The logo to the right is what they would have seen on my website!

That first couple lived in Boston, and they were planning a wedding at the Marriott Sawgrass. They needed someone local to help them, and I was their girl! Because of my previous job, and my connections through the National Association for Catering and Events (NACE), I had a Rolodex (yep, had one of those back then too) full of contacts.

I wish I had photos from that wedding - and I might somewhere, on a CD-ROM or something. Back then, digital photography was very new, and photographers were still shooting mostly film. But it was a beautiful wedding, and I was confident that this was the career for me.

Over the years, our business has grown to add more planners, coordinators, and interns to our team. We're blessed to have long-term team members like Emma (16 years), Kari (10 years), and Laura (5 years), and they are the heartbeat of First Coast Weddings! I would definitely not be where I am without them.

In some ways, 20 years seems like forever, but in others, it is just the blink of an eye. I can't wait to see what the future holds, not only for us but for all the fabulous couples we have the honor of working with!