History of The Community of Charlottesville Wedding & Event Professionals
The CCWEP was started in 2010 by Claire Frances & Jessica Sheffield Bullard. They saw the need for this incredible, talented community of wedding & event professionals to have opportunities to spend time together and get to know each other. In 2015 Jessica stepped away from the CCWEP to devote more time to her growing family. Today’s CCWEP Leaders (with lots of support from our local community of wedding & event professionals) are:
Lisa Skillman Watson
Lisa grew up on a small farm in central New Jersey, surrounded by horse country. Shortly after high school, she moved to Virginia to attend Mary Baldwin College where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees, following which she relocated to Charlottesville where she has called home for the past 18+ years. In 2014 Lisa founded Local Nanny Network, which provided a unique childcare concept aimed at solely providing nannies for weddings and events, for families traveling from out of the area.
The CCWEP provided a tremendous launching point for Lisa and Local Nanny Network, as it introduced her to many people and businesses in the Charlottesville wedding industry through attending the annual holiday party, small group meetups and invaluable educational events.
As she became more active in CCWEP, Lisa began to know the founder of CCWEP, Claire Frances, and volunteered to help in planning events. As COVID hit in 2020, CCWEP and Local Nanny Network were deeply affected causing both to close their doors.
Over the following years, Lisa still felt drawn to CCWEP and the community that it brought together. She saw that there was a hole in the industry as CCWEP helped vendors connect and support each other in many ways. With an aim at building on the legacy that Claire started, Lisa restarted CCWEP in 2023 after a 3 year hiatus, and couldn’t be more excited to get the wedding and event community back together again at their social and educational events to come!
