Speaker Bio: Tara Guerard

Our first speaker introduction is Tara Guerard, Founder and President of Soiree by Tara Guerard.

Recognized as the southeast’s premier event designer, Tara Guérard has earned a national reputation for her exceptional ability to create spectacular settings celebrating life’s most anticipated occasions. Clients across the United States – from celebrity hosts to hometown brides – seek out Tara for her signature southern graciousness infused with a decidedly modern flair.

Since opening the doors of Soirée by Tara Guérard over a decade ago, Tara has been noted as a leading arbiter of entertaining and southern style. In 2005, she was selected as a Top 25 Trendsetter by Modern Bride magazine. Soirée’s work has also been featured by a wide range of media including Elegant Bride, Food & Wine, Martha Stewart Weddings, InStyle Weddings, Southern Accents, Southern Living and Town & Country Weddings, among other prestigious publications. Most recently, Tara was tapped by Martha Stewart and the editors of Martha Stewart Weddings to create a “Gorgeous and Green” Nashville, Tennessee wedding which was highlighted in the magazine and televised on the Style Network.

In addition to her client work with Soirée, Tara is the founder of The Lettered Olive, a line of custom invitations available through exclusive retailers and on the web. She is a sought-after speaker for national forums on floral and event design and has appeared before exclusive audiences at venues including the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, Nashville Lifestyles magazine’s “Bridal Ball” and the Walters Museum in Baltimore, MD, as well as industry programs such as the National Association of Catering Executives’ (NACE) annual meeting and The Special Event.

Tara lives in Charleston, SC with her husband, Russell, their sons, Aiken and Myers and Springer Spaniel, Georgia.

We are very fortunate to be able to have Tara join us for The Academy. She will be teaching a class on Spatial Planning, and will be one of our featured designers in our Design Showcase! For the Spatial Planning class, she will cover topics such as:

-->How to evaluate different spaces and determine the best layout for indoor/outdoor ceremony, cocktails, and dinner
-->How to design unpredictable and unique layouts for weddings and defining the most ideal placements and presentations for the band, bar, dance area, lounge, cake, dessert buffet, large props, etc
-->How to overcome spatial challenges (i.e. low ceilings, small number of guests in a very large room, etc...)
-->How to highlight and mask certain architectural features