Baker Proud Summer 2019 - 6

BAKER PROUD | Summer 2019

Dreaming big
to plan big days
Jena Dick, '08, achieved her dream job through a winding path. She
was born in Lawrence, and later her family moved to Baldwin City. After
graduating from Baldwin High School, she attended Baker University.
"I was one of those high school students that didn't think Baker would
be the thing for me," Dick said "but it turned out to be great."
Attending Baker on a music and tennis scholarship, she had decided to
study music. During her sophomore year, however, she changed her plan.
"I didn't know what I was going to do with a degree in music," Dick
said. "It's pretty much performance and education as my options,
and I knew education wasn't what I wanted to do. Also, I decided
I didn't want to be a starving artist."
She instead changed her major to business management
and minored in music.
"I grew up in an entrepreneurial family, so it was just
something that was in my mind," Dick said. "We'd sit
down at the table at night, and sometimes my brother and
I would have new ideas and inventions, things like that. I
knew there was that side of me, and that side is what drew
me to business."
After graduating, Dick moved to San Diego for half of a
year before moving back to Lawrence. She started working in
a purchasing role in her father's company, Custom
Mobile Equipment, but her real passion was in event coordination, which she provided in a volunteer capacity for the Lumberyard Arts Center in Baldwin City.
"On top of that, I was doing whatever I could, like planning friends'
weddings," she said. "I knew that was something that interested me, even
when I was in college."
When event coordinating on top of her full-time job became too much,
she decided to combine the two.
"I realized Lawrence didn't have a bridal store," Dick said. "As I started
looking into it more, Topeka didn't either. Smaller, surrounding towns, of
course, didn't have one either. The next closest bridal boutique was up in
Kansas City. So, I started doing my market research and then decided to
open a bridal shop and do wedding coordinating from there."
J.Lynn Bridal opened on Iowa street in 2013. Two years later, it moved
to its current location in downtown Lawrence on Massachusetts Street.
"Being downtown has just been incredible," Dick said. "I was able to cut
back huge on paying for extra advertising. I have to consider my front windows to be the majority of my advertising."
Dick credits Baker for giving her the tools she needed to achieve this
dream.
"I had a lot of friends end up going to KU, and going to KU is fantastic.
It's a wonderful school, but you miss out, I think, on those connections you
get at a school like Baker. I mean, I switched majors, and it was such an
easy transition. Even though I switched majors, and I dropped my scholarship for music, I still wanted to be done in four years. Baker helped me
with all of that."

Baker Proud Summer 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baker Proud Summer 2019