Though Lara has traveled around the world, the South will always be home. She wears many different (cowboy) hats in her current roles of Editor in Chief and Publisher of Southern Weddings, consultant to top wedding professionals through Lara Casey Reps and Making Brands Happen and she is the founder of the Making Things Happen movement. Lara just had her first baby, Grace Austin!

Emily, SW’s Creative Director, is a Southerner stuck in a Northerner’s body (though she can’t kick her New England love affair!). She enjoys the color pink, is obsessed with china patterns and exploring mundane points of etiquette, and could devour French bread all the livelong day. She loves the ocean. As a “wedding nerd,” she’s a sucker for swirly calligraphy, fluffy garden roses, weddings under the stars, and classic white cakes. She lives in North Carolina with her brilliant fiance and two pretty kitties, and she wants to be Tami Taylor when she grows up.

Whitney has followed her darling boyfriend up North and now resides in the Big Apple. She’s planning on shipping in lots of Southern sweet tea. See her farewell here and here.

Whitney, SW’s former Advertising Director, is a Carolina girl through and through. Born in Raleigh, Whitney attended the University of North Carolina where she majored in public relations. Whitney has a love affair with all things preppy, particularly monograms and J. Crew. She is addicted to Starbucks and wouldn’t mind having a Starbucks open bar at her future wedding. Whitney is an avid traveler and claims the self-appointed title of “World’s Best Macaroon Baker.” Someday she plans to Southern-ize the whole world.

Born in Alaska and raised in Alabama, Marissa is a true Southern girl at heart. She can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon then with her family cheering on the Alabama Crimson Tide. (Roll Tide, y’all!) She’s married to her college sweetheart, Brandon, a bow tie clad professional baseball player. Being a baseball wife has made her no stranger to travel. She can squeeze more than a weeks worth of clothes in one small carry-on, which is quite a feat for this chronic over-packer! Culinarilly challenged, “just add water” mini-muffins are Marissa’s answer to gourmet cooking. She loves of classic wardrobe staples, and anything with a bow on it!

Lucky to be living in the Southern Part of Heaven, and appropriately, where Southern Weddings is located, Nicole started out as a summer intern. Originally a wedding newbie with a well-suppressed love for them, she is now well on her way to filling her laptop’s hard-drive with her favorite wedding inspiration and DIY ideas, along with photos of bookcases and pugs. Nicole is an avid list-maker, color-swatch-collector, and office-supply-lover. She’s Pinterest-obsessed, loves crafting and cooking and can bake a mean pan of apple skillet brownies.

Sierra, SW’s Assistant Art Director, is your typical Southern girl. That is, after age one. (She was born in Massachusetts, so she technically entered this world as a Northerner!) She moved around a lot growing up but primarily grew up in Nashville and was destined to be a true country music fan. She even interned at CMT one summer! She currently joins Whitney and Nicole as a proud Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina studying design. She loves all desserts, sweet tea, fried chicken, bowties, sundresses and cowboy boots. She hopes to be an adorable Southern bride one day!