Career Area: Event Planner

“Think outside the box and go for it!”  

Dallas Vickers is an event and wedding planner working in Myrtle Beach. She attended Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, but she sought out an internship in Myrtle Beach because of family connections. While event planning can be a high-stress and high-pressure business, Vickers focuses on a healthy work-life balance and the importance of knowing your professional community. 

About

Dallas Vickers is an event and wedding planner working from Myrtle Beach. She attended Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, but she sought out an internship in Myrtle Beach because of family connections. While event planning can be a high-stress and high-pressure business, Vickers focuses on a healthy work-life balance and the importance of knowing your professional community. 

The community surrounding event planning is very tight-knit and people are always willing to help and collaborate. Many people within the even planning world know each other, as many of them have interned for Sarah McCall, the CEO of Stunning and Brilliant Events: “Everyone knows everyone. We all help each other out.” 

Dallas manages many schedules, creates budgets and handles “high emotional and energy events,” such as weddings. She handles this stress is an ever-present process that is done through on the job experience, “I’ve learned a lot about how I handle conflict and how to properly handle conflict.”  

As an event planner, she explains, “our clients want to see that we’re fun people. They want to see that we’re going on vacation and experiencing things and doing creative things.” Dallas says that it is important to find that balance, but it is a personal journey to find it. 

“As long as I’m still learning and growing, this is as good a classroom as any.”

Jamison Mady is the Director of Art Town Development at Artfield’s in Lake City, SC. She’s redefining community growth through creativity and connection.

About

Jamison Mady’s journey to arts leadership began not in galleries, but on stage as a ballet dancer. When she realized she couldn’t physically sustain that path, she pivoted to design, then art history, where she discovered her passion for connecting with the world through artists’ perspectives. A history degree from Francis Marion University and a transformative internship with Artfield’s opened doors she never expected.

What began as an unpaid internship quickly turned into a full-time calling? Jamison fell in love with Artfield’s’ mission and Lake City’s creative potential. A decade later, she’s helped lead its transformation launching artist programs, engaging local students, and driving the development of ACT On Studios and other year-round arts initiatives.

Her defining moment? A wildly ambitious idea to create a mini golf course designed by students across South Carolina. With no budget and a borrowed van, Jamison made it happen bringing people together to experience art playfully and accessibly. “They were viewing artwork, whether they realized it or not,” she says.

For Jamison, success is about expanding access, inviting unlikely audiences, and building trust through art. Her advice to young creatives: stay open. “No connection you make is wasted,” she says. “People are waiting for you just show up and do the work.”

In a state where artists often feel they must leave to succeed, Jamison proves that building something meaningful is not only possible, it’s transformative. Lake City wasn’t on her radar at first. Now, it’s her home, her mission, and her masterpiece in progress.

“The more that you travel, the more you learn.”

Dallas Vickers is an event and wedding planner working from Myrtle Beach. She explores the importance of learning how to deal with stress at work and the role that a healthy work-life balance plays in those stressors. 

About

Dallas Vickers is an event and wedding planner working from Myrtle Beach. She attended Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, but she sought out an internship in Myrtle Beach because of family connections. While event planning can be a high-stress and high-pressure business, Vickers focuses on a healthy work-life balance and the importance of knowing your professional community.

The community surrounding event planning is very tight-knit and people are always willing to help and collaborate. Many people within the even planning world know each other, as many of them have interned for Sarah McCall, the CEO of Stunning and Brilliant Events: “Everyone knows everyone. We all help each other out.”

Dallas manages many schedules, creates budgets and handles “high emotional and energy events,” such as weddings. She handles this stress is an ever-present process that is done through on the job experience, “I’ve learned a lot about how I handle conflict and how to properly handle conflict.”

As an event planner, she explains, “our clients want to see that we’re fun people. They want to see that we’re going on vacation and experiencing things and doing creative things”. Dallas says that it is important to find that balance, but it is a personal journey to find it.