Boss Ladies | Carrie Moe of Type A Society

Photos c/o Josh Gruetzmacher

I'm stoked to introduce you to a real boss lady from the Wedding and Event Design world, Carrie Moe from Type A Society! She and I have worked on multiple shoots together and she's been instrumental as I have been working towards growing my styling business. I am so grateful to this woman who is always willing to share her knowledge and experience with me. She has a HUGE heart for people and it really shows in everything she creates. I hope you guys enjoy getting behind the scenes with this sweet peach of a woman.

XO,

Em

How I got started

I first started with this business way back in 2007, when my husband, after he saw me do 17 weddings one summer for free told me I was crazy and needed to start doing weddings as a career. I think he was excited about the possibility of actually making money! With my husband's kind encouragement to really take my passion for weddings seriously, I went to work interning for a wedding planner in the Washington D.C. area. I worked strictly for an administrative planner with no design involved and while I loved it, I soon found my creative side was not being fostered. This lead me to work for a florist to cultivate and feed my creative side. In 2009, I officially jumped off the cliff on my own and opened up Fleurish Events which did well on the east coast. In 2013, Veronica Rogers came on board and Kelly Moore followed her shortly in 2014. With three girls now, I changed our name to Type A Society and we started doing event bi-coastally and branded out into things like styling for magazines and commercial campaigns for wedding related products. Soon after we re-branded we started getting a larger audience than we had previously and started to travel internationally for different styling gigs. Hooray! What a year it has been!  I hope to become a well rounded artist one of these days...possibly when I am old and grey and 85 I will sit back and say I have finally "arrived", but until then I want to soak up everything thing I can possibly learn. I have taken art classes, sewing classes, cooking classes, language classes, photography classes and have a desire to go back to school one day to get a masters in Fine Art. So that's the long and the short of it!

The dumbest thing I ever did when I was starting out was

Saying yes to decorating for a party that involved making 32 topiaries made out of ugly round glass Christmas ornaments, with led battery lights stuck in them. I hated the look of them, and so I left them to the last minute! I didn't sleep that whole night while I was up making them. The glass kept breaking and the lights kept coming undone and  sticking out all over the place, plus they were top heavy so they kept falling over. It was a mess! My lesson learned from this was never say "yes" to a project that doesn't match your aesthetic...even if you need the money! Your heart will never be in it and your client won't be into you by the time it's all over anyway. Just say no!

If I was an emoji I would be the

the one with the smiley face that is grinning and all. I love how this face shows the "Ahh!! What is happening! I am totally scared poop-less", but also the  "I'm still really excited about this!". I would also be the girl with her hand up in the air pumping because, well I high five people a lot.

My last meal on earth would be

My mom's good old fashioned chicken and dumplings with all the gluten to make any celiac person end up in the ER, and with enough butter to cause a heart attack from just one bite! They are SO good and I can't eat them anymore because I am totally allergic to gluten but hey, I will always savor the memories.

I can’t stand when other people

Jaywalk when the crosswalk is not even 20 feet away. I don't understand why they can't just use the crosswalk!! Drives me nuts!

Are you more like your mom or dad?

I am a happy medium of both my mom and dad. My mom is a Type A very organized, canned everything in her pantry, homeschooled us, baked her own bread, sewed our clothes and cut our hair type of gal. If she doesn't know how to do it, she learns how and does it. My dad was an easy going personality with very laid back vibes. He had the best laugh and sense of humor ever. I still remember him throwing his head back after a good conversation and laughing so hard you could see his gold crowns on his back molars. Yeah...it was the BEST belly laugh ever. I laugh a lot and am very easy going in many ways...I never make my bed, dishes are in my sink often and I like to say no to work sometimes to hang out on the couch with my son and husband. BUT I am very Type A when it comes to details and work..when placing things or combining colors I am totally a snob about what i think looks best. Ha!

Growing up I really wanted to be

A professional model and a nurse. Funny how I never did both but certainly work with models a lot and let me tell you,I am very happy being a stylist.

My biggest guilty pleasure is 

Coffee and flourless chocolate cake. I have been known to eat flourless chocolate cake for breakfast lunch and dinner and one time I ate the whole cake in a day and a half. Shhhhh...don't tell anyone!

One thing people don’t know about me

I have jumped out of a moving vehicle and did two full cartwheels and lots of spins from the force of me hitting the ground. Oh goodness, what teenagers do sometimes. I walked away with no broken bones and only a small scrap. But yeah, never do it even though it looks fun.

Most likely to

Be found in my PJs behind my computer at 12:00 am while I'm gathering inspiration for my next photo shoot.

My spirit animal is a ... 

Just to show you how Type A I am...I had to take a test that showed me my spirit animal, which was revealed to me as a tiger. I don't known if I should be horrified or happy with this? I was hoping to be a peacock or something lovely like a white swan.

Coffee or Tea? 

Coffee, coffee, coffee, and more coffee.

Top of my bucket list is to

There are so many things! Currently, the top one is to be featured in Vogue!

Night owl or early bird? 

Night owl, most definitely! Come all of you crazy morning people (like my husband) what is go great about waking up before the sun? I see no pleasure in it. The party is always at night people!

The item of clothing that makes me feel like a boss is 

Despite the fact that I work alongside people who wear Chanel, my outfits usually are thrifted. I am a very practical stylist with a budget and I have found some amazing consignment stores in LA and DC where I usually buy all of my clothes for the year. I walk out with bags and bags since  it's my one big shopping spree. My go to outfit is my white Theory waiter dress shirt, my brown Anthropologie heel boots, and my vintage tweed skirt.