Who is Melissa Simone?

This week, I planned to do a blog about selecting and executing another wedding theme, and then it dawned on me. We have been engaged in writing these blogs, and even before the blog, planning events and weddings, without a formal introduction. I am basically a phantom that is heard, but like the photo below is not really seen or known by my blogging audience.

So allow me this moment to introduce myself.

I am Melissa Simone McLeod, the person behind Melissa Simone Events. I am an attorney-at-law by profession, having been called to the Jamaican Bar since 2012, with a passion for expressing myself creatively through well-organized and well-executed events.

Many find the combination of being an attorney-at-law and a wedding/event planner to be a bit strange. Truth is, it is.

In trying to reconcile the decision to do the two, people often joke that I help people to plan their weddings, and will then turn around and help them with their divorce. As funny as that is, I don't practice divorce law, and want nothing to do with a couple's divorce.

However, despite the difficulty with trying to reconcile the two, and despite the fact that both are demanding, time-consuming and difficult to balance in their own individual right, I have come to the realization that BOTH career paths are my calling.

Last year I took a leap of faith and decided that despite the difficulty I am going to fully pursue both. Unlike finding that one true love, I decided that there is no need for me to choose just one. I have enough life and passion to do both. I MUST do both. And at that point, I started to take intentional steps to live out both my passions fully.

Truth is, wedding/event planning is something I have been doing long before law, and continued to do even while doing law. For example, in or around 2007 I was part of a team that planned Style Week Jamaica, a week of events put on by modelling agency Saints International to celebrate local Jamaican designers and to expose Jamaica to some international designer flair. More recently, I chaired the sub-committee of the Jamaican Bar Association which plans the Bar Association's Annual Banquet, as well as its parties and sports days.

Outside of those events I have been a part of over the years, my guilty pleasure is binge watching episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress" and "Four Weddings", and browsing Pinterest for decor ideas. Every time I explore my island home Jamaica, and go to a new location, one of the first things I think of is how awesome it would be as a wedding venue, and I immediately start to visualize how to make that happen! I truly love love, and love weddings. I therefore took steps to become a certified wedding planner.

The need to do wedding/event planning is therefore ever present and undeniable. I look forward to delving deeper into that passion by helping more couples, individuals, businesses or other organizations envision and execute their perfect events!

For more information and to get help to envision and execute that perfect event, contact us at Melissa Simone:

Call us: (876) 832-1978

Email us: melissasimoneevents@gmail.com

DM us on Instagram: @melissasimoneevents