April Tam
Co-founder, Event Planner

April Tam’s interest in event planning began at Ithaca College, where she was involved with IC After Dark, an organization that planned late-night events for the campus. Intrigued by a growing industry and the ability to actually get paid for being organized, Tam quickly fell in love with event planning. During college, she interned for Warner Bros. in the Premiere and Special Events departments and served as an intern at Special Occasions under the direction of Lead Event Producers Marianne Weinman Nelson and Heidi Mayne.

Tam spent more than seven years at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce managing its leadership development program, the Southern California Leadership Network (SCLN). She was quickly promoted to the role of Associate Director of Development. During her tenure, Tam focused on managing client relations, programming, budgeting, fundraising, and event management serving more than 1,600+ alumni to increase the participants’ civic engagement and broaden their leadership philosophies. She also helped launch the California Connections program in 2011, a first-of-its-kind statewide executive leadership program.

Spurred by her passion and curiosity, Tam decided to pursue her master's degree in social entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California in 2013. Simultaneously, she took on a role as Associate Director of Reunions for the USC Alumni Association. During her four years, Tam was responsible for overseeing three reunion committees to engage alumni in meeting or exceeding annual fundraising goals. In 2017, she accepted a role at the Marshall School of Business on the annual fund team to focus on membership recruitment, alumni engagement, and board management. Since joining USC, Tam has raised more than $2 million for the university’s historic $6 billion campaign. Her goal is to help donors make an impact through philanthropy.

Despite Tam’s deep love for education and donor relations, planning events has always been at the root of her passion. Tam recently joined forces with friends (and event management professional) she's worked with throughout her career to launch Belles & Whiskey. She is so excited by this venture because, given the collective experience of the team, there are no limits to the types of events that B&W can plan.

WORKING WITH ME

I know it sounds cheesy, but it's 100% true: while I'm proud of the results I deliver, my greatest reward comes from the relationships I forge with clients. I believe that success is built on a foundation of trust, and it's a privilege to be trusted with some of the most important moments in people's lives.

I'm a big believer in open communication every step of the way. My goal is to keep you looped in during the planning process so that when the big day comes, I can do my thing while you relax and enjoy your event. From the first conversation to the final champagne toast, I obsess over all the details so you don't have to.