53 www.CharlestonWomenPodcast.com | www.ReadCW.com | www.Instagram.com /CharlestonWomen bachelorette party, Meredith Rutland kept running into the same issue over and over. All she could find were cheesy, outdated, trendy themes that were also costly. So, as Charlestonians living in this top destination city, the sisters took matters into their own hands and created Charleston Bachelorette Services. While the duo creates custom themes and bespoke packages tailored to their clients’ desires, they also collaborate with local vendors such as private chefs, bartenders, bakers and transportation and boating companies to provide unforgettable experiences for their brides-to-be and their friends. While Rutland enjoys working directly with the client to plan the events, including decorating and stocking the fridge at local Airbnb’s, Askins’ talents include graphic design, branding, marketing, floral design and researching trends. Charleston Bachelorette Services is already booking out for 2024, so go ahead and lock in your over-the-top bachelorette party by heading to ChsBach.com. SUCCESS TO STARDOM’S DR. JENNIFER HEYWARD CHAMPAGNE AND CEZ CHAMPAGNE You would never know it, but pretty much everywhere you look around Charleston, you’ll see the public relations and marketing work of Dr. Jennifer Heyward Champagne and her wife Cez Champagne, owners and senior publicists of Success to Stardom. While Heyward Champagne runs the STS magazines division of the business, Champagne oversees STS sports. Together, they blend their creative talents to design billboards, press releases, celebrity endorsements, events, websites, signages, menus, banners and product placements for leading hotels, restaurants, local businesses, nonprofits, sporting events and more. The Champagnes can be found attending glamorous events like the BET Awards, New York Fashion Week or the Grammys, or they can be found designing logos and business cards for small businesses right here in Charleston. The best part is that they can uplevel your career or your brand to dizzying heights, and that they’re doing it together. When Billy Lewis Herriott, also known as Lew, passed away tragically in 2015, his daughter Antoinette Marie Herriott-Coaxum battled her grief by coming home from work each night to bake sweet treats to take to her co-workers the next day. As Herriott-Coaxum had just made a large batch of banana pudding, her daughter Desiree Horlback brought it to a potluck at her office and came home to inform her mother that she had sold 15of the desserts. Confused, Herriott-Coaxum said, “But I don’t sell banana pudding.” To which Horlback responded, “Well, now you do.” So, the mother-daughter business Lew’s Heavenly Treats was created, and Herriott-Coaxum triumphed over the grief she was experiencing by creating a legacy in her father’s name. While Herriott-Coaxum is the baker, her visionary daughter runs the social media marketing and creative strategizing side of the bakery located at 3316 Ashley Phosphate Rd. in North Charleston. What sets Lew’s aside from every other local bakery, is that it is also a cake supply store, a staple that was missing in Charleston when the pair were starting their grab-and-go bakery. Inside you’ll find forty flavors of cheesecake, including the best-selling Charleston Chewie Cheesecake. There are also cinnamon rolls, cupcakes and much more. While you’re there, don’t miss picking up that famous banana pudding, which her repeat customers fondly call “liquid gold.” Whether these family-owned, women-run businesses are operating as mother/daughter duos, sisters, cousins, or wives, they are all delivering stellar products or services by meeting the challenges that come with growing a business, while raising up their clientele who in turn help to make what was once a dream their reality. Charleston Women in Business The wife team behind Success to Stardom PR.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjcyNTM1