Alison Laesser-Keck
director of events & creative
Alison has produced 350+ weddings, from exquisite al fresco gatherings in private estates to massive weekend to week-long productions in destinations globally. Armed with a degree in counseling and twenty-five years in hospitality, she's a quintessential "people person" and a true left brain/right brain split. In 2008, after a decade in the restaurant and bar industry, she branched out on her own to follow a dream - the rest, as they say, is history. She is a fifth generation Californian and a Bay Area/Santa Barbara native, with strong Pacific Northwest and Midwest roots, and enjoys traveling and celebrating whenever possible.
Favorite travel spot: anywhere new
Bryan Keck
DIRECTOR OF EVENTS & TRAVEL
Bryan has been in hospitality for 25 years, working for a James Beard-award winning restaurateur in Seattle prior to joining forces with Alison in 2011. As the head of operations, he oversees the endless amount of “back of house” logistics involved in global event production and travel management, although his real superpower is how he makes everyone around him feel. He is our team translator, speaking conversational Spanish, Italian and French, and a proud Midwest native whose entire career has involved taking care of people. He loves hockey, the beach, the gym, a solid negroni, and working with his wife (his wife wrote this).
favorite travel spot: roma, always roma
Arielle Clinthorne
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Our right hand gal, Arielle "Ari" joined us seven years ago and we couldn’t imagine life without her. With exquisite taste and an extraordinarily calming presence (clients and their VIP guests have equated her personality to a restorative yoga class), Ari assists us with many facets of production and design and helps us manage our global partnerships. When she’s not planning events, you can often find her scaling mountains and pouring over fashion publications.
favorite travel spot: marrakech, morocco
Our story is a love story.
We met in a bar; more specifically, working in a bar. It was the end of the summer and our lives were headed in different directions (Bryan to San Francisco and Alison to Chicago). The night before he left, as his car was being packed, he told Alison they should be together. He said he wouldn’t go but she, never one to prevent a great adventure, told him he should, as she had a feeling they would find themselves together one day. A long-distance relationship ensued; the first real date on a cross-country road trip moving to be together. That was nineteen years ago this summer.
Since then, we've lived in Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Ann Arbor, San Francisco, and Santa Barbara. We’ve rescued four needy animals. We’ve traveled to a billion countries. Perhaps most impactful of all, we found a mutual passion in running this business together, working with clients all over the world to produce the most magical memories of their lives. We joined forces as business partners fifteen years ago, producing weddings and events first in the US, and then globally, and you can most often find us hopping a plane en route to the next destination on our bucket list. Our union, both personally and professionally, has been the adventure of a lifetime.
Many thanks to NORMAN & BLAKE for documenting us along the way.