“Move that prop behind the stage! The cake stand goes over by the altar!”

Prepping for a wedding is a lot more work than one would think, especially with 16-year-old junior, Emily Gates’ role. Keeping things organized is what she does best, aside from being able to move the objects that even the burliest of men couldn’t move.

Gates works for Townsly Designs, a small but trustworthy event-planning business, deep in the heart of Texas.

“Setting up and keeping things together tends to be my job,” Gates said. “ We just need the basic attributes from the budget to the color scheme, but we also need the more, unusual things like the floorplan. For the most part, we’d ask questions that we never thought we’d ask to anyone.”

Shanda Townsly, the owner and founder of Townsly Designs, works right along with her employees, gathering information on the next event, keeping things in line, and helping with the hands-on projects. While she may be the mastermind behind the curtain, the other workers have a lot on their plates as well. Everything from getting supplies ready to be transformed into pieces of art for the next birthday or wedding.

“Shanda has a lot on her shoulders. She runs practically the whole thing, telling everyone what to do and where to go. Sometimes, and by sometimes I mean most of the time, she can be forgetful; but that’s what I’m there for,” Gates said.

With in-work holiday contests and playing around just as much as working, there’s still pros and cons. Everything from wrong shipments being a huge setback, to drama between co-workers, even the most entertaining of jobs can be stressful.

“The worst of it all is just broken props and co-worker drama,” Gates said. “Other than that, it’s usually really fun. We often hold fun little events of our own, making it so we can do a good job and have fun while doing it.”

Gates’ love for designing and creating started at a relatively early age. At about 3 years old, she started sketching dresses out on paper, eventually being asked to re-organize the living room for her mother. After doing so, she went on for the next 10 to 11 years doing it for fun. When her mom started having trouble keeping up at Townsly Designs, Emily stepped in for something like an internship, before becoming a full-on team member.

“It all started when I was three or four,” Gates said. “My mom and I were sitting down before she decided we’d organize the living room. Not too long after, my aunt asked me to help design her wedding dress. I felt so honoured to be doing that for her, it was then that I actually realized I had a natural talent for this.”

Natural talent or not, inspiration had to come from somewhere, namely her father. Whether working on cars out back, or watching TV together, Gates and her father are almost inseparable. Ideas will come to her when she’s at her best, which most of the time is with her father, even if the norm is mother-daughter relationships to be the ones to thrive. But he doesn’t seem to be the only one who inspires her.

“My Grandpa has always been there for me to support me in anything and everything I do,” Gates said. “The one thing I remember most, is he used to tell me to always do what makes you happy. Because otherwise, what point is there in it?”

With this advice, Gates is already looking toward the future. Whatever she does end up doing as a career, she isn’t too concerned as long as it’s something she enjoys. Gates’ aims to have fun and make others proud of her.

“I’m really looking for any job I can express myself in,” Gates said. “Sure, I’d like to keep going with designing, but as long as I can be my creative and fun self, I don’t really care all that much about what I do as a profession. Being myself comes before getting ‘World’s Best CEO’ as a title.”