Weekend trips to the coast. Warm evening breezes. Flowers and greenery in full blossom. You don’t need Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson to realize what time of the year it is. That’s right, it’s Wedding Season.
I was fortunate enough to have attended six weddings throughout this summer. Three were with family, and the other three were through close friends. Given my summer internship in New York City, I was lucky that all six were located in the Northeast. It allowed me to see my family, based in Connecticut, on multiple occasions and to be reunited with my Partner who remained in Chicago for the summer.
Of course, with so many weddings came certain sacrifices. I was able to attend the vast majority of the social events planned by my summer employer, but I did have to miss a few happy hours and an ever so popular Sunday brunch. Still, the sacrifices I made pale in comparison when speaking to my peers who not only attended weddings during the summer, but also planned for their own!
Chris Eng is one Booth friend who got married early in August. The summer was certainly a busy one for Chris—working through valuations, investment strategy, and market research at ForgePoint Capital while ironing out details on seating, wedding invites, etc. Fortunately, he was transparent while recruiting, so the firm not only allowed him to set his last day as the Wednesday prior to the wedding, but even arranged a wedding gift and card before he left.
Chris and his wife, Wynne, were married in Oxford, Mississippi, a small town 1.5 hours away from Memphis. Distance (and/or sleep) has never mattered much to Boothies, as many of their close friends made the trip to join in the festivities. As Chris told me, “It definitely says something about the strong bonds that form in business school… in really what has been a short amount of time.”
Melanie Smith is another Booth student who was juggling wedding planning throughout her first year and summer internship at Apple. According to Melanie, “While picking out a wedding dress is definitely more fun than studying for the GMAT, there are still some high stress moments.” Lucky for her, she had a lot of help along the way.
Melanie has kept the greater Booth community in mind throughout most of her wedding planning. She brought along some “Boothie girlfriends” to a boutique wedding dress shop in Lincoln Park to help take pictures and provide input. Her friends even knew to bring along some champagne, Melanie being one of Booth’s Wine Club Co-Chairs.
Fellow Boothie Andrea Mazzocco will be serving as day-of coordinator during the wedding, a role Andrea has taken on multiple times in the past. The two worked together on planning last year’s Winter Formal at the Field Museum. Clearly Melanie took note of Andrea’s impressive organization and project management skills.
Though remaining flexible with her fiancé, Tim, Melanie made it clear that the wedding and honeymoon could not interfere with midterms, finals, or ski trip. “Our honeymoon will start 3 days after I return from ski-trip,” she confidently proclaimed to me earlier this summer. Now that is commitment.
