Our Story

Meet Coco

A Journey Home

Courtney — Coco to most people these days. I was born in California to military parents but became a Southern girl almost from the start, raised in the hills of East Tennessee until life — the way it does — started moving me around. I spent my childhood and young adult years planting roots in different Southern states, did a stint abroad as an exchange student, and eventually met a New York boy — a former Marine — who took me back north. I spent 12 years there, far from the South I loved, before the Lord finally opened the door I’d been praying on for years.

But let me back up — because my story really begins at a cabin in North Alabama. My maternal family has gathered there for as long as I can remember — holidays, weddings, funerals, and a potluck on the first Saturday of every month. I had always been a dreamer, but it was walking those grounds at 12 years old that the dream first took shape: the exhilarating pull of dreaming up every last detail of a harvest party I wanted to plan there that fall. It never came to life, but I never forgot that feeling. Something had been awakened.

That dream followed me through every move, every creative detour, every season of searching. It was during my years in New York that I finally began putting language to what I’d always felt — hospitality. Not just planning, but the deep, genuine desire to make people feel truly seen and celebrated. I started building my career there, eventually spending two formative seasons alongside one of the Hamptons’ most respected planners. Those years shaped me — not just as a creative, but as a businesswoman who finally understood what she was called to do.

In March 2023, we sold our home, packed everything into a camper, and spent three months on the open road — the long, intentional way home. We landed in Nashville that June, and that September, Events by Coco Cadeaux was born. The summer my oldest child turned nine — the same age I was when I first left Tennessee — I came back to the South for good. A full circle season, in every sense. After a lifetime of dreaming, searching, and following the Lord through every twist and turn — I am exactly where I’m supposed to be.

Courtney “Coco” Mitterando, Founder of Events by COCO CADEAUX