Ashley Chicklo is a born and raised Carolina Girl. From an early age, Ashley knew she was destined to plan events. She started out planning summer parties for her friends and surprise birthday parties for her parents. As a college student at The University of South Carolina, Ashley got her first opportunity to plan a major event when she led a team of four other students to produce one of the university's annual golf tournaments. With this experience she was able to secure an internship with the University of South Carolina College of Journalism and Mass Communications, where she planned events for Alumni and continuing education seminars for The Social Security Administration.

After receiving her Bachelor's degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management from the University of South Carolina, Ashley set out to start her career in New York City. She joined the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) and Breeders' Cup Limited as the Sponsorship Coordinator. As the coordinator she produced sponsor hospitality for nationally televised races at the

Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont Stakes and the Breeders' Cup World Championships. Ashley worked closely with high profile clients, including Emirates, Grey Goose, John Deer, Dodge, FedEx and UPS.

In 2006, Ashley joined the International Securities Exchange (ISE), a leading US options exchange. Ashley was soley responsible for all corporate event planning and coordinated up to 150 events a year with budgets ranging up to $1million. She has worked directly with senior executives from clients that include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, E*Trade, Goldman Sachs and Charles Schwab. Ashley planned intimate client dinners, merger celebration events, corporate holiday receptions and everything in between. Ashley's crowning achievement at ISE was the production of the 28th Annual Options Industry Conference in 2010. The conference, which is the premier annual event in the options industry, attracted over 500 attendees. As the conference producer, Ashley was responsible for every detail of planning, from venue selection, contract negotiation, theme, design, food and beverage, to media relations, keynote speaker selection and hotel room block.

While residing in New York, Ashley volunteered as the President of the University of South Carolina Alumni Association of greater New York. She organized social networking events and football game parties, and was responsible for fundraising efforts, website content, database maintence and merchandise.

After becoming engaged in October 2010 and planning every detail of her own wedding in South Carolina, Ashley returned to her southern roots in 2011 and launched Magnolia Events, a full service wedding and event planning firm.