Genevieve Roja is a San Francisco native, former community organizer-turned-event planner with 20 years of experience. In 2009, she founded Lily Spruce, a planning company serving rule-breaking Bay Area wedding couples and clients who wanted to add nontraditional spice to their events. Lily Spruce has produced La Cocina’s first-ever Night Market at the historic Alemany Market in San Francisco; Bernal Heights’ Fiesta on the Hill, and Smuin Contemporary Ballet’s annual galas.
In addition to planning over 100 California-based weddings from Boonville to Big Sur, Lily Spruce was most proud of employing women and men of color, serving LGBQTIA+ couples, and working alongside women-led and minority-owned small businesses to produce their events. They were also honored to produce galas and fundraisers for SOMA Pilipinas, The Watershed Project, and Youth Enrichment Strategies, often taking on clients whose missions focused on social change work, environmental protection, and youth.
Prior to her career in events, Genevieve was a sportswriter, an editor at AlterNet, and freelance writer for Hyphen and the Filipino art and fashion book arkiteknik, by Anthony Cruz Legarda and edited by Olivia Ongpin.
In 2023, Genevieve joined Make it Mariko as Event Director, continuing her personal mission to train and lead the next generation of POC event planners. She’s proud to have been a vendor coordinator for Undiscovered Season 1, and staffing manager for Season 6. Now in Season 7, Genevieve is most excited to experience a season from start to finish, squaring away logistics and operations, managing the workforce for the day, and supporting the core team in executing this uniquely Bay event.