Meet Emily Gray

We were lucky to catch up with Emily Gray recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Emily , great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.

Taking risks had been something I never really did earlier in life. It took a lot of self reflection, therapy and life experiences to develop the confidence to bet on myself and my happiness. I think I had to burn out completely to be able to light a small flame of change! That’s where the magic of just starting, just trying and doing it scared came from.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I got the idea for my business kind of on accident. I have always been in the events industry and was a wedding coordinator for several years. I knew I always wanted to start a business but I didn’t know really in what capacity. I was actually looking into an idea for a picnic style event I could host with my friends several years before I circled back and decided to make it into a business. After a long bout of burnout, feeling creativity stifled, and going through a bit of a personal journey I tore it down to be able to rebuild. In 2021 I completely uprooted. I moved to Charleston SC, started a picnics business from scratch and worked really hard to start gaining inventory and networking!

I wanted to start with something manageable with just me and unique to anything I had seen before. What I think is so special about what I do is that it’s so intimate, personalized and I get to be a part of helping people celebrate what life has to offer.

What are some things you could celebrate with a luxury picnic you ask?
There is such a wide variety! Team bonding event, baby shower, bridal brunch, anniversaries, proposal, girls night, gender reveal, birthdays, backyard movie night & more!

I just last weekend I had an 18th birthday celebration hosted by her dad and an 85th birthday brunch hosted by her granddaughter. The wonderful thing about living is we have free will as to what we celebrate!

The nice thing is it is such a wide expanse of what I can do and I can create special occasions for just 2 people all the way up to 50!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I would say my background in coordinating make me qualified to help guide people to what they need for a specific event. I have always been a creative person. It runs deep in my family and in college I studied fine arts and event management.

Advice I would give to someone just starting out would be to just get started. Don’t overthink everything too much and delay getting your hands dirty. A lot of what you will learn will be from actually doing. I am still learning everyday. Failing at something is inevitable and you learn from it and get better.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

I have been very fortunate to have been able to work with so many amazing clients! My ideal client is someone who is open minded, trusting, communicative and likes to have fun with the process! Everyone is different and it’s an honor to be able create with so many different unique people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Picnicsbyemily.con
• Instagram: @picnics_by_emily
• Facebook: Picnics by Emily

Image Credits

Taylordafforn Photography