Sarah-Pete Petersen
Director of Events
With over 24 years of experience in the hospitality, wedding, and event industries, Sarah-Pete brings a diverse background to our team! After studying Vocal Performance and Entertainment Law at JMU, Sarah-Pete quickly grew her wedding planning career in the luxury hotel market in her hometown of Virginia Beach. In 2007, she became an event planner organizing international conferences for the Department of Defense and WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam veteran associations.
Sarah Pete moved to Washington, D.C. to work as a Wedding & Conference Manager at the historic Willard InterContinental Hotel in 2010. During her time in D.C., she helped raise over $1 million fundraising for the nonprofit Food & Friends, went back to school for a degree in Organizational Management, ran a local makers market and several art studios, and launched or created the event departments at several popular event venues including The Loft at 600 F and Malmaison.
Before becoming endorsed as a Humanist Celebrant in early 2020, she owned and operated her planning & design company, Sincerely Pete Events, for 6 years. During that time her designs and weddings were published in such places as Martha Stewart & Inside Weddings. She was honored to design and style the 2019 Pantone x WeddingWire’s Wedding Colors of the Year, to be a featured contributor numerous times in the International Weddings Trend Report, and to be named one of the Rising Tide Society’s Top 20 Wedding Professionals on the Rise in 2018.
She moved to Richmond, Virginia, in March of 2022 after a stint on an old farm in Charlottesville, Virginia, and 12 years in Washington, D.C. There was a time she couldn’t keep a plant alive, but since moving to the country, now self-identifies as a farmer and is continuously planting seeds, experimenting, and has made full meals from the food she’s grown in her gardens.
Newport, RI, was the land of her birth, and she was born ready to go sailing. As the child of a Navy dad who has always lived on the coast, she’s still adjusting to the mountains and countryside in Central Virginia, noting the beach is just a couple of hours away!
