Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa King.
Hi Melissa, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
It was at the age of eleven, I was diagnosed with bone cancer. From this experience, my desire to celebrate life big was born! My creativity was what became my escape during the many sedentary hours of chemotherapy and the recovery that followed. I was affectionately known as “the craft girl” on my children’s hospital hall. This reality that life is not only precious and worthy of celebrating every moment but that it can also come with seasons of challenges was taught early for me. I watched our nurses, doctors, and support staff work hard to make our faces light up during what was, or could have been, hard seasons for entire families. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” (Maya Angelou) The way that hospital staff made me feel has made a lasting impression on me and has carried over into every area of my life, including my business. “A simple gesture can leave a lasting impact on another person’s life. Being the light in someone’s darkest moment is one of the most important actions we can take.” (Tanya Rad & Raquelle Stevens – The Sunshine Mind) I may not know now what each client is going through behind their requests for a one-of-a-kind hand-painted denim jacket of their favorite mascot or an over the top event, but “making their face light up” has become my passion and trademark. These creative works are more than a party or a jacket. They are an extension of me with an opportunity to build up and brighten others’ lives along the way while doing what I love.
Fast forward to 2014 when I married my husband, Josh King, at The Cloisters of The Ocean Club in Nassau, Bahamas. We welcomed our first son, Joshua Daniel or “Daniel,” in December of 2015, our middle son, Jacob Gabriel or “Gabriel,” in August of 2018, and now completing our family in July of 2023 with another miracle on the way. We call the suburbs of Atlanta our home along with our fur baby, Duke. Celebrating our families’ milestones in an over the top way has come naturally. It was the requests by others to help with their family’s events and creative projects that encouraged me to since proudly create and grow Melissa King Events and Design.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’ve been told my brain “doesn’t even do simple” when it comes to my over the top imaginative styling. My trademark motivation and reputation is doing whatever it takes to create beautiful events and designs where faces light up of all who see them; however, sometimes this can take all my energy, focus, and time. I have found it a challenge to balance my attention because whatever I’m doing, whether that’s in my role as a mother, being an event planner, or being an artist – it has my all of me. The balance of being “Mom” and an entrepreneur has certainly been my biggest challenge. I take all the hats I wear to heart likely because I work from it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have been sincerely humbled by my clients’ mention of my attention to detail and creativity in every area of design. I do not want just a “gram worthy” aesthetic. My aim is for the personalization in the details to make each client feel thought of, heard, cared for, and celebrated.
When it comes to events, allowing my clients to truly be their own guests is a priority. I understand after planning and executing many events for our own families’ that sometimes the details can pull you from life’s most precious celebrations. As for styling, in both events and with hand-painted denim jackets, executing a design solely with them in mind is where my inspiration is focused. It is personal and I want to create a feeling that they can carry with them far beyond words, denim, or details.
Whether it is celebrating a graduation with a hand-painted denim jacket or just the next team win – or maybe that 1st… or 35th… birthday party – or the mini miracle on the way needs celebrating with the most thoughtful baby shower – or here we are in wedding season with all things bride – I am honored to be asked to be a part of these moments and milestones!
You can find our hosted events and hand-painted denim jackets from our home state of Georgia as far west as Texas to as far East as the beautiful coast of South Carolina!
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The lessons I have learned have been from those intentionally sought after in personal development to those I never saw coming. The lessons that came during business to those I learned at age eleven long before Melissa King Events And Design was thought of. The lessons from my younger years shaped who I am outside, but also in business.
In the years I was having ribs removed and losing an entire head of hair, I would have begun the sport of cheerleading, I had simply thought that I missed out. I realized in years to come after becoming a radiation therapist and now in my business as an event planner and creative, I still get to do what I love and build others up. I do not think that what you love or your life’s purpose has to be separate from your business. My work has an underlying desire to brighten others’ days, be attentive to the heart behind each special request, and a motivation to celebrate everything as if it were the last chance we had to do so. Nothing is too over the top or not worth it in my books! My mother chose to schedule my first chemotherapy treatment around my 12th birthday with the concern that it may be my last. In a short couple of weeks, I went from your normal sixth grader to holding my own CT scan film up in the sunlight shining through between two parking garages telling my mom that “I didn’t have to be a doctor to tell you something was wrong.” I noticed the softball-sized white fuzzy ball in the darkness that should have been the blackness of my chest cavity. As we carried these films to the oncologist straight from my CT scan, I had no idea how quickly a normal middle school life would look very different and maybe end. So with that in mind, if it makes my client feel celebrated, seen, and joy-filled then I’m going for it! I don’t wait to celebrate anymore. I don’t consider, “next time.” Forget waiting for their 80th to get people together or waiting for their graduation to give them their alma mater mascot hand painted jacket – at Melissa King Events and Design, we’re going big just because! We’re going big because life is too precious to celebrate it any other way!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @MelissaKingEventsAndDesign @ThatSouthernBelleMel
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100080027029369
Image Credits
@ThatSouthernBelleMel @MelissaKingEventsAndDesign @RepurposedPhotography
