Meet Hope LaVine | Bridal Fashion Influencer & Content Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hope LaVine and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hope, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I think risk is necessary for growth. Some of the best things in my life have happened as a result of taking a risk. I think risks are moments where we take a chance on ourselves and truly believe that this may be hard or scary but it could also be great.

When I graduated college in May of 2018, I knew I was destined to get out of my small beach town. Its a great place to live, beautiful in fact, but I knew it would always be there. There was something really safe about the idea of staying in my hometown after college, and the safety scared me. I knew that at 21, if I didn’t move somewhere new, I’d likely be in Florida for the foreseeable future. The thing with risk is it’s a lot easier when you’re younger. As a young adult, there are few things to be responsible for. I was only responsible for myself, which is much easier than being responsible for a house, spouse, or children.

I’ve always been kind of skeptical. As a child, I wouldn’t believe a single thing I was told, and had to see for myself. A great example is my mother telling me that the stove is hot and I would hurt myself if I touched it. Naturally I have to touch it to know that it was actually hot. My whole life has looked like this. Learn by experience, not vocally, or visually. So I knew the best way to continue to learn post grad would be through risk.

Leading up to college graduation I applied to jobs in New York, in Los Angeles, and in Atlanta. I had a degree in Marketing and Sales Management, multiple marketing internships under my belt, a college marketing club presidency’s and 4 years experience working as a bridal stylist at my local bridal salon.

I was offered a job at Bridals by Lori from TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta. I accepted, the only stipulation was that I had to move to Atlanta and start my job in 9 days. I was so excited. Now my family around me was completely nervous. Understandable through, they couldn’t ‘t feel how I felt so called to go to atlanta. Everything in me was saying that this was the right decision. All my family knew was that I had no community or support system in atlanta. I actually only knew 1 person in the whole state. This worried my family because of a doctors diagnoses a few months prior stating I had clinical depression and high functioning anxiety. I had never been so low in my life just a few months prior. But the idea of atlanta gave me so much hope for the future and had me so excited. A risk nonetheless.

A decision had never felt more right though. 7 days later, I was crashing on that one friends couch in Atlanta. The moment that my family dropped me off and I rolled my suitcase up the hill to this apartment complex, I felt like I was really stepping into where I was supposed to be. I only had like $500 to my name so it was $5 lean cuisine meals for the foreseeable future but I couldn’t have been more excited for this time in my life.

The next 2 years that I spent in Atlanta were the best of my life. Everything had a snowball affect because of that move.
I met my boyfriend (3.5 years together) who then introduced me to my best friends, who introduced me to church, and to creative freelance work. The time that I lived in Atlanta I met the most amazing people I’ve ever encountered. People that inspired me, taught me so much, and offered abundant amounts of kindness and generosity.

I worked at Bridals by Lori for 1 year, and I then left to use my marketing and sales degree at IBM. About 9 months into the job at IBM, the pandemic hits and a few months later my team is laid off. I found myself at a crossroads. Do I continue working a corporate job, or do I try something I secretly have always wanted to do but never had the guts to try?
That night my boyfriend and I brainstormed things I’m good at and cross referenced them with things that I enjoy. We landed on the intersection of bridal fashion blog and marketing.

The next day, I made a blog, started posting til toks, and just started creating content around bridal fashion. I had no clue what I was doing but it was really exciting. I was also surrounded by so many creative friends also taking leaps at the time. Like my roomate Katie, who lost her sales job and started pursuing a career in art, something she too has always wanted but wasn’t given the time or freedom to do so until a pandemic lay off.

During this time in my life I had no choice but to try. I told myself if I wasn’t seeing some type of traction or result in 3-6 months, I would get a job.

I didn’t need to. Things were working! In 3 months time I had 50k on tik tok and was moving to Los Angeles with my boyfriend and two of my best friends. We were all in creative fields and could work for ourselves. We all wanted to take a risk and move across the country. It was a risk worth taking to potentially learn more, meet more people, and grow in our creative industries.

And so we have. Los Angeles has been such a great place for what I do in Bridal Fashion Content Creation/Influencing. Today I have 225K followers on tik tok, 28k on Instagram, and an email list of 20k. I have been able to collaborate with some of my favorite wedding dress designers whom I have looked up to for years. I never could’ve imagined a bridal salon job I got when I was 17 would manifest into a career of trying on wedding dresses, giving bridal fashion opinions and advice on the internet. I truly have the most fun job ever and I don’t know how it ever would’ve come to be without a little risk.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
What I specialize in is bridal fashion. Different designers, their price points, who they fit, where to buy them, what aesthetic they are, etc. I also love analyzing different trends and sharing emerging designs for my followers! I like to share designers and outfits that I love and people really enjoy it. Occasionally I’ll share other recommendations as well like what to wear as a wedding guest, bridal hairstyles I like, honeymoon outfit ideas, etc. It’s really anything that fits into the wedding fashion ecosystem. I do this on Tik Tok primarily with my 225k followers.

I think what sets me apart from others is my level of education in bridal fashion. I think anyone can get online and share their opinion, but it’s another thing to share an educated opinion and offers a little more of a “why.”

Because I studied marketing and sales management in college, I think I am able to see a bigger picture of how my social media channels work together big picture and kind of maximize opportunities online.

I’m really proud of the online community I’ve built. It is one thing to give your opinions and tips online, and it’s another for people to listen and follow. I’ve read a lot of marketing books and one of my favorites that talks about this is “tribes” by Seth Godin.

I think what I am most excited about when it comes to have a social media following of 97 % females that love bridal fashion is that a lot are brides, or soon to be brides. I love that I can help brides on a. super large scale. You know I loved my 5 years working one on one with brides in a bridal salon and I loved the connecting I made in a fitting room. But the fact I can do that on a massive scale today and potentially help many people is so so cool to me. All I’ve ever wanted to do is impact people in a positive way or leave someone feeling better than they were before. I want to help women feel beautiful and confident on their wedding day and have fun while trying wedding dresses on. I hope that comes across my platform when people watch my content.

One of the challenging things about being a content creator or working in any creative field is the creative ruts. Not feeling like you can create on certain days, but feeling like you have so much to create other days. It really abs and flows which is not the best for consistency. I can also have trouble taking my job seriously sometimes because I am my own boss. The only person affected negatively by not doing my job is me. There is so much discipline required to work as a creative that I never would’ve guesses by just looking at the creative industry. You also really have to want it or love to succeed because of this.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love all things food! I was so excited moving from a smaller city to get to atlanta and learn bigger cities have better food. I absolutely love Antico’s or Fellinis for pizza. An açaí bowl from playa bowl on a hot summer day is the perfect treat after a stroll on the belt line. Places like O-ku, Barcelona wine bar, and Pure are my favorite for a fun dinner with friends.

If I had a friend or family visiting in town we would always hit Piedmont park and ponce city market for some exploring.

I feel like coffee shops in atlanta are truly one of a kind. The people you meet, are just so great. I love connecting with friends at east pole. But, I actually met all of my best friends in atlanta at passion city church.

Atlanta just has the best people in general. I could never get over the kindness of everyone, mixed with the cool work everyone was doing. I think when I came to atlanta I was most excited about being surrounded by creatives working on projects that interested me in careers I never knew existed.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to shoutout the owner of first bridal salon I worked at, Renee Bingham Cunningham. Renee and I have known each other since I was 9 years old. Renee was a family friend. She owned Renee’s bridal and special occasions. A store my mom and I would request because my mom needed a lot of evening gowns for various events in town. I knew at a very young age that I loved fashion. In fact at 9 years old I approached Renee and said “I’m going to be a fashion designer one day.” And she said that I could work for her when I was older. I showed her my sketched of evening gowns and she was very sweet to encourage me. Well when I graduated high school at 17, I got a Facebook message that she has a position for me at the bridal salon. I interviewed and then started about a week later. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into though.

Working bridal was shockingly hard work. I shadowed Renee for months before I worked with brides on my own. It was truly intimidating work trying to help women 5-20 years older that me find their wedding dress. I was just a kid. Who would take my advice or listen to my opinions about bridal fashion?

It really wore me out too. I even tried to quit a few months in and Renee encouraged me “you never quit on a bad day.” Advice that has stuck with me for years. And advice that helped me push through to wear I am today. If I would’ve quit just a few months into bridal, my life would look so different today. I have been in bridal for 7+ year thanks to Renee! She taught em to sew, sell, design, manage, and so many life lessons that I did not learn during college.

Without Renee’s belief in me I wouldn’t be where I am today. She helped my love for bridal fashion become what it is today. Before working with Renee, I had no idea bridal fashion was a thing or an option for me.

I am forever grateful for my relationship with her and to have her as a mentor and friend.

Website: https://www.hopelavine.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopelavine/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hope-lavine/

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@hopelavine

Image Credits
Professional photos by Garrett Loabugh (photos named GL- …)