About Here Comes The Guide
Fun Fact: Here Comes The Guide was founded in 1989 out of sheer desperation.
It's true! Our founder, Lynn Broadwell, had just gotten engaged—but she didn't want to settle for the typical church or courthouse ceremony. The trouble was that finding a detailed list of venue options was nearly impossible back then. (This was pre-internet, if you can imagine!) So Lynn decided she’d create the resource she so desperately needed—and with that trailblazing attitude and entrepreneurial spirit, our company was born.
Fast forward to today: We're a tight-knit crew that’s passionate about bringing the very best information to couples planning their wedding. From detailed venue profiles to comprehensive wedding checklists, putting our couple's needs first is at the heart of everything we do.
But here's the kicker: We're not just about promoting fancy venues and jaw-dropping wedding galleries. We believe the most important thing is laying the foundation for a rock-solid marriage.
So take those celebrity wedding posts and luxury event photos in stride. We'll do our best to help keep you grounded.
We're proud to have invented the "local wedding resource" over 35 years ago—and to have blazed our own path as the heart-forward, culture-driven work environment we have today.
We’re Woman-Founded & Women-Led, but welcome all folx with open arms.
Here Comes The Guide has proudly championed women's leadership since its inception. Our entire leadership team is made up of women. We believe it is vital for women to have safe, supportive, and nurturing spaces to thrive. Just as we think the same should be true for every underrepresented group.
We're proud of our roots and our history, which helped us grow into the company you see today. But we also acknowledge that not everyone on our team identifies within traditional gender binaries. That's why we're continually evolving to create an environment that welcomes and celebrates people of all identities and expressions.
No matter who you are, you're welcome to apply. We're all about fostering a culture of connection, inclusion, and acceptance. Because we know our differences make us stronger. We're here to learn from each other, support each other, and grow together.
That's the spirit of empowerment that got us started—and it's what keeps us moving forward as we continue to blaze our own trail.
Want to know more about us?
How we built our dream company.
Meet the Here Comes The Guide team.
Here Are 8 Things Hardly Anyone Knows About Here Comes The Guide
Here Comes The Guide is employee-owned.We're proud to have a corporate structure that underscores our team mentality. We each own stock in our company and are incentivized to make it a success.
We believe that a commission structure fundamentally changes the way a person sells. So at Here Comes The Guide, we've taken that issue off the table and all of our account managers are paid a straight salary. This means we can put our highest priority on what's right for our venue clients and what's best for our website users, rather than on what pays our bills.
True story: Lynn Broadwell, our founder, literally invented the local wedding resource back in 1989 when she couldn't find a wedding venue to suit her needs. She filled a hole in the market with that first edition of the Here Comes The Guide book—and a genre was created.
Publishing our first book about Northern California wedding venues in 1989 means we're in our thirties. (We know, we look so young!) And it means that we existed BEFORE the internet. We'll give you a moment to take that in. You can imagine how delighted we were when, in 1997, we launched the Here Comes The Guide website and were able to reach exponentially more couples than ever before.
Another anomalous trait of Here Comes The Guide is that we were entirely founder-funded. Lynn had to take a second mortgage out on her house to do it, but she paid for her company herself, never accepting any outside investment. That means we create our own destiny and we can hold tight to our values and vision.
Almost a third of the Here Comes The Guide staff has been with the company for more than a decade. Shocking, right? But it's true. In this age of people shifting from job to job, we’re delighted to have this kind of longevity. And the institutional knowledge factor is huge. Very few people know the wedding and events industry better than Here Comes The Guide employees (aka "Hoppies"—our corporate name is Hopscotch Press, Inc.) because they've just been around a long time. We always say, "Once a Hoppy, always a Hoppy." #hoppyforlife
Part of our low turnover rate is because we allow our employees to work from anywhere. That's right—anywhere! So, when members of our team have had to move because of a change in a spouse's job or to be closer to family, they don't have to leave Here Comes The Guide. We love that! But we also love seeing each other's faces, so we get together as an entire team every other year. We do lots of great work during that time, but we also just hang out, talk, cook, eat meals as a group, and play together.
Our hiring process is rigorous, especially compared to other companies in our industry. It takes up to 3 interviews and a barrage of testing to get an offer of employment at Here Comes The Guide. Why do we choose so carefully? Because we know that the people on our team matter more than anything else.
—Meredith Monday Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer
info@herecomestheguide.com
Phone: 510-548-0400
Fax: 510-439-2674
Hopscotch Press, Inc.
21 Orinda Way, Suite C, #428
Orinda, CA 94563