PIC-NIC Perfection

Sponsored Content

We believe togetherness is divine, and we’re on a mission to bring the world back together.

PIC-NIC is a luxury pop-up picnic company. Essentially, you can request a pop-up picnic anywhere you’d like. Customers simply go online to order a picnic service by ‘checking out’ as if they were purchasing something online—just like the Amazon shopping cart. Then, your individual PIC-NIC artist gets right to work. We handle it all for you! We set up the gear, take it down, order flowers, provide the cutlery, create a custom VIP welcome sign, secure food, photography and even offer live music. Think of it as a party in a pinch or an unforgettable anniversary at the touch of a button.

How did PIC-NIC come to be?

We’re living in an age when people are beginning to value experiences over things— ”the experience economy” —and it’s booming. Each year, people spend $61 billion on experiences and that number is projected to grow by nearly 20 percent. You’re probably familiar with some of them—escape rooms, rage rooms, Top Golf, and more.

Prior to launching PIC-NIC, I spent more than 15 years building celebrity brands. I helped build and manage brands like the Aflac duck, restaurant brands for Gordon Ramsay and Bobby Flay, the hotel of Caesars Palace, Nobu Hotel, and so many more.

Then, I had my daughter...at the beginning of the pandemic. I got word that my parent’s marriage crumbled. And I left a company I truly loved. My world stopped. For the first time, I questioned everything. I questioned all notions of success. If our lives are made of puzzle pieces, my entire puzzle was shaken. All the major parts that once fit so perfectly together…all seemed to move at once. Many people talk about how hard the pandemic was...and believe me it was. But if it gave us anything, it gave us all permission to question everything and to live life with abandon. Throughout most of my life, I had tried to give my cares to the Lord, but not my career. That was the one thing I felt I needed to strive for, work for, and build. In pursuing the deepest desires of my heart, I’ve worked tirelessly for nearly two decades and invested hundreds of thousands to attend the best schools to achieve my dreams. But now, there I sat. All of my striving, trying and achieving in pieces—with a new baby. What now?

I wrote my heart’s deepest desires on a sheet of paper, put them in a small jar and lit them on a fire. It was an act of symbolism; I watched as they became ashes before a living God and said a prayer of surrender. “God take it. This piece is finally yours. I just want to follow you. Show me the way. ”Over several days of peaceful quiet, clarity started to come with nudges in my spirit. I asked myself practical questions like, “Well, what has the Lord given you the ability to do?” Build brands, I thought. So, I asked the Lord to show me what to build and fuel what would be pleasing and useful in his sight. I stood with my toes in the water of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida (many of you might know it as Scenic Highway 30-A). I asked, ‘What would life look like if I went all in on Faith?” And PIC-NIC was born.

Our tables offer so much more than the opportunity for beautiful people to take beautiful pictures. We believe our Rambling Tables are opportunities for healing, restoration, and re-connection. After all, there is nothing more human than breaking bread together. And in the end, what do we really have? We have relationships and memories.

Our deepest desire is that these tables would not only be used for pleasant parties, but they would also become an easy invitation platform —to invite that estranged family member back to the table, to have a meal with someone on the other side of the aisle, or expand the diversity of thought, race, and conversation in your circle.

We currently offer services in Atlanta, Savannah, Alys Beach, 30-A, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, Nashville, France, and Lake Geneva, Switzerland. On occasion, we do have customers who request we travel to different states to help them celebrate. We’re really proud of the fact that we are the first international pop-up picnic company. We aspire to become a household name and we’re scaling quickly. Part of our growth is due to our expansion model. We seek people who share similar values and work ethic. Then, we enable them to own and operate a picnic business in their local market, leveraging the PIC-NIC brand. It’s a triple win. We create business owners in the local community, we foster more sales for the local chefs/florists and PIC-NIC receives a small portion to keep fueling our vision. In fact, several of our PIC-NIC market owners are either veterans or military spouses. They are highly capable individuals that may not find comparable work in their local community. We’re always on the lookout for the right market owners to join our team—helping further fuel the PIC-NIC mission.

The brand is whimsical, unabashedly French, and unapologetically maximalist. We are building barefoot luxury at its best. Our brand is layered with deep meaning, and our logo tells the story with rich symbolism. The feather stands for divinity, and if you look closely, you ’ll see three of them, one more prominent than the others. The ropes symbolize our start in Seaside, Florida. The monkey means ‘one who has many friends,’ which is perfect for PIC-NIC. If you look even more closely, he’s holding a fork and a paintbrush. Why the paintbrush you might ask? What I love most about 30A, is that it started as an artist colony. A place for poets and artists. It aligns perfectly with who we are.

Finally, the candles melt as the lights go out, because we believe PIC-NIC will curate conversations that are so meaningful, the lights will go out and the tables will continue to ramble on. Each PIC-NIC is comprised of carefully curated materials from around the world. We have selected pieces from places like Casablanca, Morocco, and Normandy, France. We offset some of the luxurious materials with handcrafted elements to deliver a boho-chic vibe. Not by accident, each of these locations reflect our beliefs. Morocco is a global hub for community trading and Normandy is a hallmark of Freedom—both tenets that ground the very impetus of luxury pop up picnics.

Southern women have been portrayed in movies, music and novels as being strong-minded and unafraid, tough as nails, God-fearing, charming, and hospitable. Perhaps this story attempts to capture some small essence of that: a woman, nearly 40, first baby, and the courage to start all over in a pandemic. More importantly, our greatest hope is that this story reminds you of the strong Southern Woman you are. Feeling a nudge? It’s time for you to get to goin. ’ The most important lesson I’ve learned is that it doesn’t always have to be “faith over fear,” meaning, one choice or nothing at all. Feel the fear. And do it anyway. Ramble on and book your PICNIC at www.pic-nic.com or see more of these on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok: @picdashnic.