Madalyn Haupts

Responsibilities

At White Willow, they are a planning, coordinating and rental one stop shop. With White Willow doing it all, it takes a lot of prep to prepare for an event. During my internship I helped set up events, tear down events, load and unload trucks, coordinate events, pull decor from the warehouse and deliver items to venues. I was able to do a wide variety of things to get the full experience in event planning. Along with these tasks I also was responsible for communicating with other employees, my supervisor and clients. It is so important in the event field to communicate with others so everyone is on the same page.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment from this internship was gaining experience and coming more confident by the end of my internship. I have had many small successes throughout my internship such as being the head decorator at a wedding, receiving praise from my supervisor, growing closer with other employees and making clients love the work we did as a team. I overall have learned a lot throughout my time at White Willow, such as small things like what different decor is called, how to properly fold napkins, how to make a bouquet and how to create a flower arch. Overall my biggest accomplishment is becoming stronger and more knowledgeable in the event field.

Learning experience

I learned that it is ok to ask questions, its ok to ask for help and it is important to make mistakes. I am someone who is a perfectionist so coming into this internship I struggled with not knowing what I am doing, and I was always afraid to ask questions. I learned quickly though that you have to ask questions and ask for help because they don’t expect you to know everything. I got more confident asking questions and I am glad I did because I learned more by asking instead of guessing. I also learned it is important to make mistakes because that's how I learned hard lessons. For example I broke a few vases, lights and have misplaced items that caused some stress on event days. I learned though to slow down, ask for help and not be afraid to ask questions. I am happy though that those things happened because it was a huge learning curve.

What advice would you give?

My biggest advice is to be yourself and do not be afraid to ask questions. I got over my fear of asking questions I learned a lot more about the event field. I also made fewer mistakes by asking for clarification when I didn’t understand something. The only way you will learn is to ask questions. So as you enter your internship remember it's ok to make mistakes, ask questions and be yourself.