A lot goes into Riding Tandem, from social media posts to our newsletters. It all couldn't be done without our amazing staff and group of interns! We’re excited for you to get to know them as they each bring their own set of skills to the team!
BOSS BABES
Meet Carlie Gonzalez! Unless you are new here, Carlie should be a familiar face! Carlie is the woman that started it all. She is a full-time therapist and a full-time wedding planner. Talk about a boss babe! Her favorite things are buttered popcorn, ice cream, and americanos - with homemade whipped cream. She is a PNW native from Port Orchard, WA. She moved to Arizona and has lived all over! Carlie started planning weddings for her friends a few years ago, then decided to make her own business out of it. Wedding planning is something she is very passionate about, so she had to make it her thing! Something Carlie loves about wedding planning is that she is doing something that brings people together. Carlie has a heart of gold, and she knows a thing or two about running a business!
Meet Sarah Richert! Sarah is our latest wedding planner hire on the team! What started as a one-woman show turned into a dynamic duo when Sarah came on! She is currently taking all of the 2022 bookings, and she is so excited about it! When talking to her about how she feels to be a wedding planner, she describes it as surreal. This is something that she has only dreamed of doing, and now that dream has become her reality! Sarah also works full time for a new hotel in Downtown Phoenix. Sarah graduated from Grand Canyon University in the midst of the pandemic in April 2020. When she is not working at the hotel or Riding Tandem, Sarah enjoys hanging out with her friends and eating at Postino Central!
Meet Sidney Roth! Sidney graduated from Grand Canyon University in 2020 with a degree in Entrepreneurial Studies! She started as a business babe for Riding Tandem in 2019, and now is the social team leader! Sidney moved back to her home state, Alaska, with her husband at the beginning of 2020. It is a challenge for her to work from a different state, but she is loving being back home! Sidney now works with us virtually. When Sidney is not working on Riding Tandem things, she is either working on her self-owned social media agency (Forge Media) or recording podcasts for The Elevation Podcast! Sidney is a total business babe, and she knows how to navigate her way around social media!
SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM
Meet Jourdan Snyder! Jourdan is the face behind all of our Instagram stories! She creates all of the content you see on our stories every day, including wedding day content, behind the scenes, highlights, and much more! She searches for trending wedding inspiration and shares relationship resources for all of you! Jourdan is not a first-timer at Riding Tandem, and you may recognize her face from last summer's interns! She is also the one responding to all of the DM's. Jourdan was born and raised in Colorado, and is a current Grand Canyon University student. She will be graduating this spring with Business Administration and a minor in Marketing on her degree! She worked at the campus coffee shop, GCBC for over a year and loved it! Jourdan has an amazing eye for fashion- you'll never see her in a bad fit!
Meet Meliah Dirkson! Meliah is the face behind our Instagram reels and TikTok videos. You'll find her recording all of our fun times at work and weddings! In her spare time, Meliah enjoys going on hikes and drinking iced coffee! She is currently working at Grand Canyon University as an admissions counselor. In addition to that, Meliah is a professional cheerleading competition judge during parts of the year! Meliah was a cheerleader throughout her high school and college days. In the past, she has enjoyed doing volunteer work for her church and school! Meliah always has a smile on her face, and is a very professional young woman. We live for the new reels and TikTok content she makes!
Meet Sophie Finnigan! Sophie is the gal that constructs all of the Instagram captions and does the graphics for our social media and shop icons- which only makes sense with her attending Grand Canyon University for Graphic Design and Advertising! Sophie is a senior and will be graduating this spring! She is local to the rainy Washington state. Sophie is in love with doing spin classes, finding new coffee shops, and going to local farmers markets! For the past 3 years Sophie has worked for the GCU Lope Shop's ambassador team and currently manages it! Her dream career is to work as either an event planner or graphic designer. Our team always raves about her adorable jewelry, and she brings such joy to Riding Tandem!
ONLINE MARKETING TEAM
Meet Olivia Fargason! Olivia is the Blog Specialist for Riding Tandem. Her duties include writing + constructing the blog posts every week. She was born and raised in Southern Oregon. Olivia is a freshman at Grand Canyon University, majoring in Communications with a minor in Graphic Design and Advertising. In her free time, Olivia enjoys drawing, going to the pool, and learning new songs on her piano. She is a total animal lover, and has 3 dogs at home! Her dream job is to run her own event planning business! She loves this internship because working with Carlie has taught her so much about being able to run a business, something that is Olivia’s ultimate career goal!
Meet Jordan Franzoy! Jordan is the one creating and sending out the weekly emails. Each week she puts tons of effort into creating the best exclusive content for you! Jordan not only writes the weekly newsletters, but she creates free downloads for the email subscribers as well. She fills them with quality wedding and behind the scenes content to help brides get the most out of their wedding day. In her free time, Jordan enjoys journaling, going to brunch with her friends, and shopping. She is currently a junior at Grand Canyon University studying Entrepreneurial Studies. Although she is not quite sure about her future, she thinks that owning a wedding venue would be a very fun project!
Meet Allie Mikkelsen! Allie is our girl for Pinterest! She spends the time finding great wedding content and making some graphics for you all to enjoy on Pinterest. When she isn't doing this, she enjoys reading a good book, hammocking in the sun, and spending quality time with friends! Something interesting about Allie is she likes to keep her apartment and car at 85 degrees- all year round. She is an Arizona native, and ended up at Grand Canyon University as a Hospitality Management major. Allie has two hairless cats at home, and is a total animal lover! Allie is the kind of girl that lights up any room she enters. She has been such a great addition to the team!
BUSINESS BABES
Meet Sequoia Ayers! She works as a business babe for Riding Tandem. She does the behind the scenes parts alongside Alyssa running a business. Sequoia will help Carlie with all of the things that are essential to keep Riding Tandem thriving! She also designs wedding planning guides. Sequoia is a student at Grand Canyon University, majoring in Entrepreneurial Studies. Her career dream is to own her own wedding venue! When Sequoia stumbles upon some free time, you will find her hiking, rock climbing, painting, or hanging with friends! She is currently part of an archery team and absolutely adores it! Sequoia also volunteers in hospitality at her church, and has been a game director for the children's AWANA clubs and Vacation Bible School.
Meet Alyssa Weise! Alyssa is one of two of the business babes for Riding Tandem. She is a busy gal, and does so much for the team! Some of her duties include helping to maintain vendor relationships, organizing online systems, building wedding guides for couples, and lending a hand on wedding day-of coordination. She currently works full time at the beloved Dutch Bros. as an employee lead + trainer. She also volunteers as a missionary coordinator for a non-profit located out of Zambia called Trail Missions. Alyssa + her hubby have summer plans to lead a team there this summer! Something Alyssa is passionate about is public speaking. She would love to make a career out of it, but for now is starting small with events like church panels. Alyssa puts her A-game into everything she does, and we are here for it!
This spring’s interns are such a gift! We all have so much fun together, and have made so many unexpected friendships with each other. We adore working for Carlie and Sarah! If you want to keep up with our interns, make sure to follow our Instagram page and keep an eye out for our intern features! These super fun photos were all captured by Olivia Gunnell- who was a trooper for shooting with us in the pouring rain!
Are you interested in becoming an intern for Riding Tandem? Be on the lookout, our summer 2021 intern applications will open soon! Learn more about the internship responsibilities and positions here.
Interested in some great wedding planning tips? Click here to visit our online shop!
Photographer | Olivia Gunnell
