We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sabrina Branderhorst-Rogers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sabrina below.

Sabrina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

The name of my company, BR Weddings and Events, was actually my husband’s idea. When we got married I hyphenated my last name instead of just taking his because my maiden name has so much history behind it. I’m also the last person to have my maiden name on my paternal grandfather’s side. That’s where the BR comes in, Branderhorst-Rogers. It’s very uniquely mine and it’s a name that makes me proud to have.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Sabrina. I’m 26, married to my high school sweetheart, with two cats and a Guinea pig. My husband and I have known each other since we were about 12 and have been best friends since. We went to middle school, high school, community college, and university together. While we were going to community college he proposed, we were 19 years old, with the understanding that we would graduate from college before we got married. While attending the University of Oregon together, we also planned our wedding. This was my first taste of the wedding industry. Lucky for me, the venue we booked was looking for summer help and I applied. I got the job and kick started a dream I didn’t know I had.
I worked with the venue for 4 summers, being trained on all things Wedding including set up, take down, tending the bar, and then how to be a coordinator. My boss then told me I needed to start my own business because I had “it”, whatever “it” was.
My business will officially be 1 year old February 1st of 2023. I found a passion in weddings and tell every single one of my clients that I do what I do, and I put in as much effort as I do, because to me there is no better gift than giving somebody their perfect day. I am 100% invest in every single one of my events. I become your biggest fan throughout the process and make sure you get everything you want and more. I can almost guarantee you will have a hard time finding someone as dedicated, driven, and attentive as me when it comes to weddings and events. I put everything I have into every single event to make sure it’s exactly what the client wants.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I can honestly say that most of my life has been a pivot. I grew up in a divorced family, my older brother passed away when I was 5, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, and I played multiple sports. As I got older I packed my time with sports, friends, and my now husband. When I got into college, my life got crazier. I got engaged, moved away from my hometown for university, was a full time student, working two part time jobs, and planning my wedding. I got married in April of 2020, two weeks after the world shut down. I went from a wedding with 130 people attending to 5 people, including my husband and I, in my aunts back yard live streaming my wedding.
Now, almost three years later, not much has changed. I work full time at my local community center, managing the kitchen and our Meals on Wheels program, I run BR Weddings and Events, and I’m a full time college student pursuing my masters degree. Every day brings a new challenge and a new perspective.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One major lesson I had to unlearn was you don’t actually have to use your college degree to make your life better. I was told growing up I had to get a college degree to be successful. So I went to college and got a degree in Business and Economics, which I hated, because I was told that’s what I was supposed to do. When I graduated, I was told I had to go use my degree, so I got an office job, which I hated. After doing that for a year, I was done. I had been working weddings for four years and I loved it. My husband pushed me to follow my dream, so I quit my office job, found a job that worked with the schedule I wanted for my business, and started my own company planning and coordinating weddings and other events.
Some may argue that I’m using my degree because it’s in business, but I can promise you I’m not. I spent most of my time at university taking history, policy, media, and creative writing classes, not business ones.
You do not need to use your degree to have a successful life, and nobody should tell you otherwise.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.brweddingsandevents.com
• Instagram: @brweddingsandevents
• Facebook: BR Weddings and Events

Image Credits
Mackenzie Hughes Photos