The Honeydew Hustle: Amberly Nardo

Her job as a fundraiser is mission critical at the university. When she’s not working or doing musical theater, she plans her wedding, which oftentimes consists of wrangling wedding vendors to respond on time.

• career: Professional fundraiser for UNC Chapel Hill (LinkedIn)
• free time: musical theater — “I become a different person when I’m performing” (Twitter)
• wedding planning tidbit: “I didn’t want to take time off of work to take wedding vendor calls, but my only alternative was to wake up at 7am and do it.”

What do you do for a living, and why?

I am a fundraiser for UNC Chapel Hill. It’s not a career path you really major in in college or prepare for. It’s exciting because there’s a visible impact on organizations and you get to create close relationships with donors and hear their amazing stories.

I fell into it through working at a nonprofit in college called Best Buddies International. Working in a nonprofit, it becomes quickly obvious how critical fundraising is.

What are you passionate about outside of work?

My biggest passion is performing — I’ve been in different singing and acting groups and did a lot of musical theater growing up. I have a cousin who lives close to the university and she’d come to see my performances on campus.

She’d pull me aside and joke that I become a different person when I’m performing. I’m an extroverted introvert — put me in a room and I will never be the first person to speak up. But when you make the room dark and give me a microphone, I will definitely be the first person to sing.

Other stuff in my free time…ah yes I just got into spinning recently.

What’re your career goals?

I’m excited to say that I hit one of my really big goals which was getting a job in fundraising for UNC. One of my big goals was to give back to my university in some way — I’m in my mid-20s, so I’m not in a position to be a major donor yet!!

Biggest wedding stressors

• Vendor response turnaround time
• Feeling like I’m behind on booking vendors (florist, hair & makeup)
• Waking up at 7am to take vendor calls, to account for time difference & work hours

What do you think of wedding planning?

It’s a LOT of work. I feel like you don’t truly understand how much it takes until you actually have to sit down and do it. It’s changed now that I’ve moved back to the area where I’m planning the wedding. Starting off, planning my wedding from across the country was VERY complicated. Even with simple things as setting up calls with vendors — the time difference was a hassle. I didn’t want to take time off of work to take calls, but my only alternative was to wake up at 7am and do it.

Even with simple things as setting up calls with vendors — the time difference was a hassle. I didn’t want to take time off of work to take call, but my only alternative was to wake up at 7am to take.

Many vendors aren’t technologically adept! Every time I contact a florist, I send them a google doc with what I want, with pictures, and they still want to get on the phone to talk through the spreadsheet. There are so many vendors that don’t need to have phone calls who just do it anyway. It’s a waste of time on both sides.

Tell us a fun fact about your engagement!

We were back in town to watch the UNC basketball game. He proposed in the middle of campus, right next to a tour group of prospective students. The local news happened to be there to cover a story and also captured the proposal!

We’re featuring stories of amazing women in business, education, medicine, and tech for whom wedding planning is just one of many priorities in their life. Why? We don’t see enough stories highlighting the fact that women have lives and goals before they get engaged and continue to pursue these goals in parallel to wedding planning.

Check out Honeydew if this sounds like you!