Grace L.P. Beason is the Founder and President of Grace Leisure Events, LLC. After graduating from Kenyon College with a degree in Art History in 1998, Grace began her career at the internationally-renowned Christie’s auction house in London. In early 1999 she moved to New York City to pursue event planning. Her first job was at The Knot, Inc., the nation’s leading multi-media wedding resource, where she acted both as Event Coordinator and Associate Editor of The Knot Weddings Magazine. Later she moved on to Susan Bell Special Events, where she planned large-scale fundraisers for organizations such as the Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center, one of the world’s premier cancer centers, and City Harvest, the world’s first non-profit food rescue program. Grace continued her career as a Wedding and Event Planner for celebrity planner Marcy Blum, the author of Wedding Kit For Dummies and Wedding Planning For Dummies, who has twice been named “Best Wedding Planner” by New York Magazine.

Notable events in Grace’s career include planning her first destination wedding at a castle in England for a Taiwanese family at the age of just 25, and working alongside Marcy Blum at Billy Joel’s 2004 wedding at his Long Island home. Grace has collaborated with Ms. Blum on several articles about wedding planning for Modern Bride magazine.

Grace moved to North Carolina in January of 2004 to accept a job as an Event Planner at the award-winning Catering Company of Chapel Hill. There she coordinated events for organizations including Duke University, UNC, and the North Carolina Preservation Society, as well as weddings and social events in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and Greensboro.

Grace has been featured locally in Wake Living magazine, The Bride’s Book, The Knot North Carolina, Durham Magazine and Chapel Hill Magazine, and nationally in Modern Bride and Elegant Bride magazines. In 2009 she was featured nationally on TV on the CW Network’s wedding reality show, Hitched or Ditched. She was also awarded "Best Wedding" of 2009 by the Triangle chapter of NACE.

Grace is a member of the exclusive Little Black Book of select national wedding vendors on the award-winning wedding blog, Style Me Pretty. She is on the board of directors of the Triangle chapter of the National Association of Catering Executives and is the founder of L'Orage, a group that hosts affordable philanthropic events to bring awareness and funding to small and emerging non-profits in Durham.

Grace has a passion for planning parties and is committed to making the experience stress-free, enjoyable, and unforgettable for her clients. Let the planning begin!

*Photo of Grace taken by Ken Luallen Photography