Name: Annie Lee
Age: 30
Location: New York City
Education: BA in History from University of California, Berkeley
Job Title: Owner and Principal Planner for Daughter of Design
What She Does: It’s the day that so many little girls fantasize about: their wedding day. So you could say that Annie Lee is in the business of making girls’ dreams come true. As Owner and Principal Planner of Daughter of Design, a wedding and event planning company, Annie is responsible for giving her clients the fairytale nuptials they’ve always wanted. Sounds like a tall (if not impossible) order, but over the years Annie has more than met the challenge. Daughter of Design has been voted “Best of Weddings” 2011 by wedding magazine The Knot, and Annie’s soirees have been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Style Me Pretty, InStyle Weddings and People. Annie has also been recognized as a “celebrity entertaining expert” by People, and she shares the pages of Shape magazine with our own Nicole as a fellow member of the “Women in Action” panel.
How She Got Her Gig: The daughter of an interior designer – hence the name “Daughter of Design”—Annie was immersed in the world of decorating from a young age. She also had a knack for anything involving logistics or efficiency, but it wasn’t until she interned for the San Francisco Opera that she had her career epiphany. “After I helped work on the Opening Season Gala, I was sold and knew I wanted a career in events,” says Annie. She immediately started looking for an event planning job, but it was right around the dot com bust when few event planning firms were hiring. Eventually, however, she was hired by a wedding planning company. “Holiday parties might get canceled but weddings go on in good times or bad,” says Annie. “I wasn’t one of those girls that scrapbooked wedding dresses and favor ideas since I was in junior high school but it turned out I was amazing at planning weddings and I really enjoyed it.”
Things Aren’t Always as They Seem: Annie eventually moved to New York City in search of her dream job. “I applied to every event planning company under the Manhattan sun,” she jokes. The closest she could get was working at the Tribeca Film Festival and in the marketing and operations department at ASMALLWORLD, an invitation-only private online community. But there was a silver lining in working those less-than-ideal jobs: “Had I gotten the event job I wanted, I probably would still be there and would never have been prompted to moonlight and start my own company,” says Annie. Three years ago this month, Annie finally built up enough business to go full time with Daughter of Design. Since then, her business has quadrupled and she’s become the go-to wedding planner for super stylish brides-to-be.
Welcome to the Family: According to Annie, wedding planning requires more than thinking about dresses, flowers, and making sure the bride has something borrowed or something blue. “Forty percent of a wedding planner’s job is to be the couple’s confidant, cheerleader and therapist,” says Annie. “By the end of the wedding planning process I really feel like I’ve been adopted into the family. ‘Oh, I know Uncle Kenny will probably say an inappropriate joke for his speech, maybe we should have him speak at the rehearsal’,” she laughs. “It’s always bittersweet when a wedding ends and you know the project is over and you’re thrilled to see it all come together but then you realize your daily emails and calls are probably going to end, too. I feel like Mary Poppins leaving at the end—my work here is done.”
Network, Network, Network: Annie can’t emphasize the importance of networking enough. A chance encounter with a woman on a plane landed her one of her biggest, most impressive gigs—an Oscar party at Mr. Chow Beverly Hills. “You just never know who might know someone or work somewhere that connects you to the next big thing in your career,” says Annie. She also reminds us that first impressions are crucial: “How you carry and present yourself is incredibly important so that people feel like the caliber of your work will be as meticulous.” In other words, always look your best!
The Importance of Finding Balance: The most important lesson that Annie’s learned for herself can be summed up in the famous saying, “The man who works for himself works for a slave driver.” She’s worked tirelessly to make Daughter of Design an industry leader, and even says herself that she wants to be the “P. Diddy of the event planning world and create an empire.” All of this has come at a cost, however: “I’ve been pushing myself to the brink of exhaustion for the past few years. If I keep this up, I’m going to burn out and start feeling miserable in the job that I love,” says Annie. “I’m trying to bring more balance to my life. My career is definitely a big part of my identity but I don’t want it to be the only thing about who I am.”
When Her Own Dreams Came True: Annie spends the majority of her time making dream weddings a reality, but she’s had some movie-worthy moments of her own during the process. “Last year we did a wedding at the San Francisco Opera. I started my event career there and used to daydream about how beautiful it’d be to do a wedding there,” says Annie. “It was a full circle moment for me and an honor since they only allow a very select amount of weddings there each year.”
This Job's For You if: You’re extremely detail-oriented and organized. “When I look at resumes I don’t necessarily look for prior experience in the field but more so a certain skill set. Do you worry and always play out the worst case scenarios? Do you have high standards and are motivated to correct imperfections? Are you resourceful? Do you feel fulfillment from seeing others enjoy themselves? Do you like making people feel taken care of? Do you have the patience of a saint?” says Annie. But even Annie, whose sometimes really does seem like a superhuman Mary Poppins, has moments where she sits back and almost can’t believe what she’s achieved: “To think that in three years I’ve built this company from just me working nights out of my apartment to a full-fledged staff, regular press mentions, brides pounding down my door… I’ve just been so well-received and fortunate.”
