MEMBER FOCUS: Anna Inn

Recently, we spent an afternoon catching up with Anna Inn, Common House Richmond member and the Lead Event Planner at Glint Events. Read more about her journey from biology to event planning to finding her way to Common House.

On her background

I graduated from VCU in 2016 with a degree in Public Relations, but I actually began as a Bio major. Growing up I never desired to be an event planner, I was just very organized. But I quickly realized Biology was not my path, so I switched into the School of Communications. I had thought I’d end up working in a big PR firm, maybe for a fashion brand, but an internship I needed to graduate changed that. I just did everything. I was like a bathroom attendant one day, I was assisting planners the second day, cleaning the rooms, just you name it, right? I saw every aspect of event planning. And I was like, I think that would be really good at this.

On the many aspects of event planning

I enjoy all of the varied parts because every day is different. Being an event planner is just so so different. But I really do like getting to dip my toes in both the wedding and event planning worlds. And I feel like there’s two sides to it. There’a a very logistical side in dealing with orders and vendors. But there’s also a client facing side that has prepared me to deal with family dynamics and just making sure the day is just what they imagined. The onset of Covid was really difficult, but now I'm like, I can handle it all. Hurricane season? That is a breeze.

So I’ve been at Glint for five years now. We do a handful of corporate events. But I would say like 85% of the events are the planning, design and execution of weddings. We take pride in doing full design and full planning, so we’re with couples every step of the way.

On finding common house.

We had an office in Scott’s Addition prior to the pandemic, but made the switch to remote work, and then eventually to Common House to run our operations.  Our team had done a hardhat tour and seen the space before there were even walls. We saw the renderings and went through our planning knowledge, what it's like to execute a wedding, and how packages can be structured. We assisted in getting Common House wedding ready and then we started our corporate membership. I was so ready to get out of my house, and ready to work among people again. I’m pretty much here every day.

For me, utilizing Common House started off as a co-working space but then coming every day I realized there are really cool, wonderful people here that I’m sure I never would have crossed paths with in my day to day. It is so much more than a place to work, and I just love that so much. Common House is a place that you can just come and feel comfortable and not intimidated, and everyone that works here is very warm and welcoming. I think when I first joined I was like, oh, what’s the deal with this place? But after like day three, I was hooked. I feel like I've met really close friends here that I'll have for years to come.