Our Team

Collier and Day’s peers have long recognized them as leaders, bestowing upon them multiple international and national awards, including honors from National Association of Catering Executives (NACE), the International Special Event Society (ISES) and the International Caterers Association (ICA). In addition, Collier, passed the difficult Certified Special Event Professional (CSEP) test in 2000 has served ISES both nationally and locally in multiple leadership roles and was the 2010 President of the ICA where she currently serves as Immediate Past President.

“We know how to do off-premise catering,” Collier observes. “And we really complement each other as business partners.”

According to Teresa: “Serving wickedly delicious food is rooted in our nature as Southern women. For A Divine Event, our cuisine is Southern inspired and internationally influenced for just the right mischievous mix.”

Hailing from Shreveport with a degree from Louisiana Tech, Robyn moved to Atlanta and spent three years designing high-end kitchens and bathrooms before shifting gears, joining the event staff at The Georgian Terrace hotel. From there she moved to The Piedmont Park Conservancy, managing all of the venues in midtown Atlanta’s signature public park, before moving to sales director positions with Novare Events, then with Restaurant Associates at Woodruff Arts Center.

With a 13-year background in both operations and sales, Robyn understands what it takes to deliver mouth-watering food in an attractive setting, and—most importantly for her clients—how to do it on a budget. So it’s no surprise that, while working for another company, A Divine Event piqued her interest. Here she could serve her corporate clients in budget-friendly fashion, while offering fresh, meticulously prepared, wickedly delicious food.

“For us, it’s going to be about fresh, about sustainability and that there’s a team behind what we do; someone who’s there every step of the way to make sure the event is going well,” she relates. “And we’d put our food up against anybody else’s. Our tastings are the proof of that.”

Collier’s all-encompassing perspective allows him to ensure that each department works smoothly with the next to produce truly divine events… and food that is wickedly delicious.

"When I joined the sales team, I was still uncertain about the direction I wanted to take in terms of my career. When I got to know what inspired our clients and talking to them about how they discovered our company, I began really taking a closer look at our advertisements and websites for our venues. I realized everything was in desperate need of updating and no one was particularly interested in taking that huge project on."

In that moment the methodical, analytical mind that led her to neuromuscular therapy - and the artistic spirit that fuels her photographs - came together and inspired her. From that moment on, Terrell made it her mission to update and improve the company's marketing and visual identity.

"Marketing for me is a blend between art and methodology," she notes. "I'm a thinker, basically, but I've been an artist since I first had a crayon in my hand." After seven years at Magic Moments, overseeing both marketing and sales, A Divine Event brought Terrell in as Marketing Director to help work the same magic through a complete rebranding of the business. "I'm very thankful to be at A Divine Event while the company is going through this exciting process. It's a Marketing persons dream to be able to work on rebranding a company from the ground up and incorporating the amazing ideas we've come up with as a team."

Having been featured on national TV—We tv’s Platinum Weddings, the Style Network’s Whose Wedding is it Anyway? and Lifetime’s Get Married—and in virtually every bridal publication there is, he carved out a successful niche as the owner of a hair and makeup enterprise before happily leaving the ownership role behind to join A Divine Event in March 2011.

“It’s nice getting to turn my computer off at five o’clock on occasion,” he admits, “but I still operate as if I were the business owner; I’ve learned how to serve clients on the front and, and I love being the first person called when someone is planning an event.”

In addition to weddings, Steve helps plan bar mitzvahs, holiday parties, showers, receptions and more. But weddings are where he feels like he really thrives.

“If you’re lucky, you get married one time in your life,” he says. “To be an intricate part of that is something I’m very honored by.”

Chris didn’t wait a moment before launching into her preferred career. Upon graduating from Berry College in Rome, Ga., the Athens native immediately went to work for her alma mater as an event planner. Later she also worked for a local dentist in a similar capacity.

After moving back to her hometown to raise a family, she happened to attend a wedding reception A Divine Event had catered and struck up a conversation. The result was a return to the world of events, acting as the company’s capable smiling face in the Classic City. From blushing brides to tweedy academics, McCommons handles them all with care, while working with the rest of the team to deliver with excellence when the big day comes.

“Living up to our name puts my perfectionism and people-pleasing traits to the test!” she says. “So I take ownership over our Athens events, ensuring we execute flawlessly and strive to not just meet but exceed client expectations.

Every detail matters.”

Upon relocating to Atlanta, Emily joined A Divine Event in December of 2010 as a sales assistant, and she’s about to embark on a new adventure with the company. Her new role—a hybrid of sales support, logistics and planning—often puts her at ground zero as the chief problem solver. Being looked at as a primary source of solutions in the heat of the moment could be a wilting experience, but Emily handles the role with relative ease.

Her secret?

“I equate it to a game of Tetris,” she says. “Where do the pieces fit? Having worked in restaurants and in events, I’m used to handling a lot at once. Even if someone has never planned a party before or hosted an event, I want to put them at ease.”

So she did and hasn’t looked back. Event planning is where she wanted to be for the long term, she decided, and what better place to start than A Divine Event?

As a self-declared “people pleaser,” Taylor is driven by her desire to help others. She would actually rather help others plan their dream day than work on her own.

“Getting to make someone’s special day perfect is a huge privilege. I can’t believe that I get paid to do this,” she says. “How many people get to start their career at their dream job? It’s crazy and fun and high pressure, and I love it.”

“I tried a stint in acting and a few other things, but I would always end up back in the kitchen,” Jason recalls. “I realized that there was probably a reason behind it, and I started to think more seriously about cooking as a career.”

The once-aspiring actor now finds his satisfaction from completing a successful event.

“Our events are so much different than people going to a restaurant to eat,” he relates. “Every event is special to someone. When a bride and groom come up to me at the end of their reception and thank me, that’s my reward.”

Since realizing he belonged in a kitchen and not on a movie set, Jason has channeled his desire for artistic expression into creating special events.

“When I taste our food, I want people to say ‘wow!’ he states. “I want to make sure we go the extra mile and that everything that we cook is wickedly delicious.”

A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu with an extended externship in France, this seasoned globe-trotter is passionate about fresh, seasonal ingredients and hand-crafted regional cooking with international influences from every corner of the world. The menus she designs bear the stamp of her attention to detail and refusal to compromise her standards.

“I’m passionate about this industry,” she affirms. “At a restaurant, the menu is the same, even if it changes seasonally. But special events give you room for creativity. It’s never the same thing—every party is unique.”

Then, having been taught her way around the kitchen by her mother, Campbell heard the siren song of the culinary world (sung softly, since the Internet hadn’t yet arrived.) “I went to the library in my hometown and tried to figure out where you could go to school to learn to cook,” she recalls. “And they just happened to have a reference book there that listed a lot of vocational schools and culinary schools.”

So it was off to the Culinary Arts Institute of Louisiana, just across the state line, and then—upon graduation—to Atlanta, where Campbell’s 15-year career has been wholly devoted to the unpredictable world of catering. “It’s a really big challenge to go off-site, because you can be in the middle of a field, in a tent, and you still have to put on a dinner for 250 people,” she notes.

As the Executive Chef at A Divine Event, Campbell relishes the opportunity and professional challenge of delivering wickedly delicious food in a wide variety of settings. As she puts it, “To me, it means always trying to give people the best quality product we can get, but with a little bit of something they haven’t expected. I like to get things in that people haven’t seen, like lotus root or blue apricots—things that are seasonal that will give the guest a little something extra that they didn’t expect.”  

Through her operational experience, Ashton understands that guests can’t appreciate “wickedly delicious” if something goes wickedly wrong. So this self-confessed “control freak” sweats the details, working on site at many events, solving problems with the cool aplomb of someone who’s done it many times before. Oh, she’s happy to regale you with The Tale Of The Missing Cupcakes or The Time The Truck Blew A Tire because she knows that thanks to quick thinking, those stories have happy endings.

“I never really freak out and go nuts,” she confides. “I always deal with every problem as it comes to me. My brain is set up to analyze and come up with solutions, then figure out which is the best one for our situation.”

She also clearly loves overseeing A Divine Event’s roster of talented part-timers, having been one herself for the better part of seven years. And here, she corrects the record—yes, she works events because she’s a control freak, but she also really digs the camaraderie. “When we’re done with a shift we’ll sit out on the back dock for an hour, talking. It’s family.”

And the family connection continues, with Ashton’s husband working for A Divine Event as well. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. “It’s not a lot of fun to work in a…”—and here she lowers her voice to a whisper—“…corporation. Is that bad to say?”

As Dean jokes, when walking his team through his meticulously drawn flowcharts mapping how to tackle an upcoming event, “four years of graphic design training, and this is the result.”

Instead, the real education for this Pittsburgh native happened on the job, first at Marriott in Jacksonville, Fla. where he began as a server and quickly rose through the ranks, learning to lead others while also memorizing the Marriott playbook, learning the best practices of a hospitality giant. The experience enabled him to shine at Wolfgang Puck Catering at the Georgia Aquarium, his next stop, where he continued to thrive in a corporate environment.

Ultimately, it was the growing reputation of A Divine Event, as well as the opportunity to work in a more familial environment, that drew him here. “My team is amazing,” he notes. “Everybody really cares about what they are doing, and ‘wickedly delicious’ is truly a rallying cry. We want everything to meet that description—starting with the food, but certainly not ending there.”