Kellee Khalil grew up surrounded by entrepreneurs. Her father moved to America with a one-way ticket and an eye on the American dream. His business-minded attitude, paired with the creative influence of her florist mother, set a lifelong example of finding an opportunity and making it work. As a true California girl, she attended USC where her major was entrepreneurial studies. This gave her not only the foundation to become an eventual business owner, but helped solidify the business acumen she had grown up with: “identifying problems and building solutions around it.”

As the Maid of Honor for her sister’s wedding, she found such a problem to solve as she was constantly turning to Google for answers to everyday, commonplace, wedding planning needs. The outdated and unhelpful businesses that comprised the $99 billion dollar wedding industry needed innovation and that’s just what she was going to bring to the table with her company, Loverly.

Over Tito’s vodka sodas, provided by Alphabet City Wine Co., we discussed her take on outside capital (“Sometimes it’s better to sell the dream and get as much money as you can, then you have enough time how to figure out how to execute.”) and how ripe the wedding industry is for an innovative overhaul.