:: Are you the Wedding Planner? ::
I have been waiting and wanting to write this post for a very long time. After a walk with Matty and my neighbor Amy this morning with the sun bursting through and the leaves on the trees filling in, I couldn't think of a better day than today to finally write it.
In the past, towards the end of a wedding that I was working a guest or two will come up to me and ask "Are you the wedding planner?" and that question always caught me off guard. My typical response was a stammered "uhh, ye-, um sort of, something like that". In my mind and my heart I couldn't bring myself to say that I was indeed the wedding planner. It was part that I was dumbfounded that my business was as successful as it was and the other part that I was still working full time at my day job which couldn't be further from wedding planning. I knew that about an hour or so after that kind guest asked me if I was the wedding planner that the last dance of the wedding would come and go and I would have to wake up Monday morning, get a coffee and chug along at a day job that I fell out of love with. Following my dream would be on hold until the following weekend when I got to live it up again.
In the book Quitter by Jon Acuff given to me by friend and inspiration (and wedding photographer) Ashley of Ashley Therese Photography as a "you could make this happen" gift the author Jon Acuff compared himself to a Clark Kent of sorts, where he would change his clothes in airport bathrooms after walking off a red eye from a speaking event all weekend to report to his day job on Monday morning. I read that over and over again because I totally got it. You see, when I was at a wedding I came alive, I was alert without coffee, I was beyond words excited, I would dance in the shadows with tired feet and there was truly no greater sense of happiness, outside of being with my family and friends. Working one on one with my couples to design their wedding, make the most out of their budgets and truly relieve their stress so that they could enjoy their one and only wedding was so rewarding. Without sounding like I have a Texas sized ego the gratitude expressed by my clients during the planning and after the wedding made me feel like some kind of hero. Watching my couples live up their day, dance like no one is watching, commit themselves to each other, and especially the expression on my bride's face when I tell her that it's time to walk down the aisle makes my heart swell beyond my rib cage capacity- and I'm big boned!
After last wedding season, I knew that I couldn't handle the workload of the business and working full time, nor could I handle the emotional roller coaster being caught between my day job and my dream job any longer. Nick and I made a plan to financially prepare ourselves, met with my BFPF (best financial planner forever) Frank the tank from Bulldog Financial who ultimately ran the numbers and said with a few less trips to Marshalls and Home Goods that yes, this is possible.
I am excited to say today that I am three weeks into being a full time wedding planner. Which is something that I dreamed to type, to say and to live and here it is and I couldn't be happier or more content. I feel like I am finally living in today, not tomorrow, not next week, just today, which if you haven't tried it, you should. I don't wait for 4:30 pm, I don't wait for Friday to live, for Sunday to dread, literally every single day is amazing and I eat, sleep and breath the pile of yellow folders on my desk. My dream has become real life.
At a wedding a couple of weeks ago at The Inn at Longshore for one of my many amazing couples, one of their guests caught me and ask "Are you the wedding planner?" and without a stammer, a stutter, a mumble, or an explanation, I said "As a matter of fact I am!" and I could tell you truthfully that there are truly no words to describe the feeling I had after that conversation. Here's a sneak peek of their walk down the aisle from the phenom Robert Norman Photography:
Photo Credit: Robert Norman Photography
Thank you to my hub-ster for eing the best friend, support system and patient man a gal could ask for and thank you to all who were copied on my initial announcement email sent a couple weeks ago. That would be another 60 pages or so of thank you's. I'm very fortunate to be so enriched in love by family and friends.
ok, enough emotional stuff - I have a story board to make.
Until next time,