Yesterday marked the 12 year anniversary of Carolina Charm!

YES — 12 YEARS!

If you’ve been following along since the beginning, WOW and THANK YOU! I never anticipated this space to grow into what it is today and I feel so unbelievably grateful for this community.

So how did it all begin?

Well, back in 2011, Matt was spending his nights learning how to open his own law firm, The Law Office of Matthew T. Marcellino. It was a LOT of work and we would spend countless hours on the couch together on our laptops side by side.

While he was busy researching software, hardware, and equipment, building a website, searching for office space, furniture, and staff, marketing, and so much more, I decided to create Carolina Charm as a way to share and connect with my family and friends back home in Florida, document wedding planning, and share the food we were eating.

We were drowning in student loans, had very little savings, and ate SO many egg sandwiches for dinner. We didn’t know it at the time, but on that brown Cindy Crawford couch, we were both launching businesses that a decade later would grow into something bigger than we could have ever imagined.

Through blogging, I’ve met and made some of my very best friends (in real life!), shared 368 Five on Friday posts, received some incredible opportunities, learned SO much about photography, editing, SEO, bookkeeping, negotiating partnerships, and running a business.

I’ve built an amazing team through lots of trial and error, launched my own product, and last year I was able to leave my corporate job to focus on Carolina Charm full-time!

It’s been such a wild and wonderful (unexpected) adventure, and one that has blessed our family in many ways.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here and for reading along.

Over the past decade, this tiny corner of the internet has been a place for me to celebrate some of the happiest moments and seasons of our life — our engagement/wedding/newlywed bliss years, bringing our babies into this world and watching them grow, climbing the corporate ladder, navigating motherhood, learning how to balance our home, and so much more.

It’s also been a place of deep connection. I’ve grieved with many of you over the loss of parents and unexpected medical diagnoses, connected with many women going through the double mastectomy journey, and so much more.

If you’re new here, I thought it would be fun to re-share 12 fun facts about me! If you’ve been following along for a while, you may know a lot of these things about me already, let’s see…

12 Things You May Not Know About Me

1. I’m 4’11” tall and I’ve never colored my hair before — a natural redhead! When I was younger, I would get so mad at my mom for not letting me color my hair with “sun in” (a true 80s kid) with the rest of my friends and siblings.
2. I broke my left arm and my left hip in a rollerblading accident in middle school. And I still love to rollerblade to this day.
3. Board and card games (paired with a margarita) are my love language.
4. I had a prophylactic double mastectomy in 2015. You can read more about that here.
5. I’m a former distance runner, certified scuba diver, lacrosse player, and surfer. Those days are gone. Currently loving tennis, mahjong, and strength training.
6. I love to camp — the more primitive the better.
7. I have good handwriting and love writing in mostly cursive.
8. Nothing makes me happier than gathering people together in my home.
9. I don’t know how to whistle. Or do a cartwheel. 
10. French fries are my favorite food. And tequila is my favorite spirit (I’ve been working on my collection).
11. I’m really good at loading the dishwasher and selecting the exact size Tupperware container needed for whatever I’m storing.
12. My favorite jobs have been wilderness camp counselor and blogging (which I left my corporate job to focus on full time in 2022)!

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