Sunday, February 8th, TSR recently had the chance to attend a woman empowerment brunch called #UnitedWeBrunch powered by event production company, United We Function. Held at the Tortilla Republic, a beautiful restaurant located in West Hollywood, the event was nothing short of amazing!
Founder/ Head of Events at United We Function, Waverly M. Coleman really knows how to fill a room with inspiration! There were women from all walks of life: songwriters, aspiring models, talent managers, film writers, business owners- some even worked on the new hit television series “Empire” on Fox. Let’s just say we were amongst nothing but excellence that day.
Catered with delicious foods and bottomless mimosas the vibe made you feel as though you were just kicking it with old girlfriends, even though majority of the room met each other for the first time at the brunch.
The guest of honor for the afternoon was the beautiful and notable special events producer and founder of #PowerBrunchLA, Miss Dunnie O.
Originally from Nigeria, but born and raised in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Miss Dunnie O. (who’s real name is Ms. Dunnie B. Onasanya) undoubtedly made a big name for herself in Los Angeles the more unconventional way. A Summa Cum Laude graduate from the prestigious Tuskegee University with a dual major in Business Administration and Sales/Marketing as well as being a proud member of the esteemed sorority Delta Sigma Theta Inc., it seems like Miss Dunnie O. can be considered superwoman!
When asked about how she got started in event planning;
While I was in college, I didn’t know that event planning could be a career or my life. But then again when you’re in student government and sororities, what are you guys planning? Events! So it came really naturally to me and I really enjoyed it. Being student government president, my main thing was to plan homecoming from the biggest things to the smaller things.
But when I moved out here I was working in corporate and I really didn’t like it, I was stuck in a cubicle all day. I would literally go in and it would be light out and I would come back and it would be dark, it was like I was living for the weekend.
So what I did was on the weekend, I would plan events. This is what I did to make friends, I had these HBCU meet up events.
Everyone would ask me well what was your first event and I would tell them it wasn’t really anything big, I would just plan these meet ups just to meet people since I was in L.A. alone and people from my past would hook me up with the people I needed to know. That’s how I was able to do Neicy Nash’s bridal shower. People started trusting me with bigger budgets and it all kind of just became organic from there.
Also recently engaged, Miss Dunnie talked about the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship if you do have a significant other in order to preserve your dreams. Family plays an important role in determination for Miss O. as she says her parents haven’t quite gotten adjusted to her lifestyle.
The only thing that made my parents think that ‘okay maybe she is doing something right’ is when I met Oprah. But I know my parents love me and will support me with anything that I do but I know I won’t get the cheerleader support because of the culture, it’s more of just showing them by doing.
Powered by Cadillac, her #PowerBrunchLA series, began in March 2014 and was created to bring professional men and women with various industry backgrounds between the ages of 21-40 together to network. The red carpeted networking event comes with complimentary bottomless Champagne cocktails and a gourmet buffet. If interested in attending follow Miss Dunnie O on Instagram @missdunnieo and for tickets to attend #PowerBrunchLA on Saturday 3/7 visit www.powerbrunchla.splashthat.com and enter coupon code : (Earlybird ) to save $10 off each ticket purchase!
In her newest venture, she is working on planning a wedding for a very powerful couple. She says it will be her first time planning a wedding but we know it will be beautiful. We just want to know is TSR invited to your wedding? Hook us up Dunnie!
But anyways all in all the event was a success! The woman who made it all happen, Waverly Coleman, has been in the game for almost 10 years. She has done work with FADER, Puma, Captain Morgan, The Weeknd, Converse, and many more. Just know she is a force to be reckoned with!
If you are interested in any of the United We Function events feel free to visit her website at www.unitedwefunction.com and follow her Instagram page @unitedwefunction and @waverlymcoleman.
If you are trying to make it in entrepreneurship, you don’t want to miss out on these events. Funny thing is, it was one of Miss Dunnie O’s events this time last year that inspired the site that now delivers your tea daily, thats right yours truly, The Shade Room. If they were an inspiration to us, we know that they will be an inspiration to you!
TSR STAFF : Debra Oh!! @The_ebony_issue on Instagram and @tsr_ebony_issue on Twitter!!
