Sherrill Kinsler Gilford and Rachel Wood bring over 30 years of experience to the event world. Sherrill and Rachel are both owners of RSVP Events of San Diego, a full service event design company which specializes in weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, corporate and non-profit events. Their experience ranges from small intimate events for 10 people to large scale corporate events and expos for over 5,000 people with everything in between.
Sherrill holds a certificate in Meeting and Special Event Planning, is a certified Bridal Consultant and Co-Founder of BESA, The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Event Services Association. She started her career working for a Fortune 500 Company, planning meetings, special events, and expos, and has been aweing clients with her events ever since. When she is not busy planning awesome events, she’s working on new and innovative event ideas. She is the creator and original producer of San Diego’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah Expo and Showcase. Sherrill and her husband (Scott) enjoy spending time together with their dogs (Spencer & Monte) and traveling the globe.
Rachel was a student at San Diego State University in 2004 when she began interning with Sherrill. While in college, Sherrill mentored Rachel and taught the business to her, inside and out. Rachel graduated from SDSU in 2008 with a Bachelor Degree in Hospitality & Tourism Management, with an emphasis in Special Event & Convention Management. Rachel worked at an upscale, boutique hotel in the seaside town of La Jolla and managed all of the hotel's wedding and social events. Events are Rachel's passion -- but so is helping others -- so she left the hotel world and entered into the non-profit world and planned major fundraising events. She now serves as a Gala Chair for Home of Guiding Hands, which raises money for infants, adolescents, and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities. When Rachel isn't planning events, you can find her hanging out with her two daughters (Madelyn & Emily) and husband (Jesse) at a local park or San Diego attraction.
Sherrill and Rachel stay quite active in the Special Events industry. Sherrill has taught Hospitality classes at a local community college and is an annual speaker at the Special Event Convention. Both frequently attend seminars and workshops to stay current in the industry and ahead of the trends, and belong to multiple special event associations. Sherrill and Rachel have been working with together for over a decade so it was a natural transition to become come partners and thus, RSVP Events was created.