“How did you get into wedding planning?”
“Did you always want to be a wedding planner?”
I get these types of questions all the time so I figured it would be a great topic to cover for my very first blog post.
I know in previous Instagram posts I talked about how after giving birth to my son I needed to find a creative outlet. That’s one huge part that definitely motivated me to start my own business but there’s another important factor that definitely contributed to this wild dream of mine.
Planning, organizing, designing, socializing, and brainstorming is one of the many skills I hold in my job as a wedding planner and in my personal life. Super cliché but I truly enjoy and love planning all events for my family and friends. Baby showers, surprise parties, Sunday dinners, “YAY! You got a raise!” dinners, engagement parties, weddings, you name it, I am seriously one to celebrate every milestone and accomplishment.
In November 2016, my high school sweetheart, Anthony proposed. I was so happy! Excited! Thrilled! But also so stressed because the first thing I wanted to do was jumpstart the wedding planning process. But how? Where do I start? Who do I call? As it started to sink in that I was finally going to be married I needed a game plan. A flawless game plan. So I grabbed my notepad and pen and relied on Pinterest to help create my wedding vision. Then Pinterest gave me a headache because there were so many expensive wonderful ideas and I was overwhelmed. So I picked the brain of my soon-to-be husband and went over things like the pros/cons of certain venues, catering options, location, everything under the sun, and then that became stressful. There were definitely a lot of arguments but we finally decided and agreed on what we wanted. Which was a low-key and intimate San Francisco City Hall wedding followed by a casual cocktail reception. We solidified all of our designs, plans, and vendors and were ready to have the wedding of our dreams.
In September 2017, just a few days before our wedding day we found out we were pregnant! Holy sh*t. How were we supposed to celebrate with all of our loved ones and keep this big secret? We planned our entire wedding and now just days before celebrating with everyone we find out that we have a little one on the way. My emotions were all over the place! I was so happy and excited but I couldn’t tell if it was because our wedding day was approaching or because I was expecting. I’m pretty sure it was a fair share of both. Once our wedding was over we soaked it all in, we looked at each other, and said, “Did we really just plan our entire wedding? And WTF we’re having a baby!” We were so happy, overjoyed, and proud! All of the stress, tears, and late nights of planning finally paid off. Our hearts felt so full from all of the love, support, and positive feedback we received. We executed one of the most memorable moments of our lives. So I thought to myself, is this something I can do for a living one day? Can I be my own boss? Can I be a wedding planner? Can I be a stay-at-home Mom while running this sort of business? I’ve always dreamed of becoming a wedding planner but was always so scared to take that leap of faith. What if I fail? What if no one books me? All of these fears got to me so I put the idea on the back burner and let that glimmer of hope dwindle.
On May 26, 2018 our sweet son, Carter arrived. And several months after giving birth to him I noticed that my mental health started to decline. I knew I had to change for the better and most importantly for my son and my husband. During those dark days I always reflected on happy memories and often brought myself back to our wedding day. How we planned it from beginning to end. How much fun we had. How much our friends and family still talked about it and that’s when I knew I could totally do this. I can be a wedding planner.
So many of our close friends were getting engaged and I was super excited to celebrate with them. Then they started asking me all of these wedding planning questions like my experience with planning my own wedding, which vendors I booked, who I recommend. These are people who are trusting my advice on how to plan their wedding. Planning my own wedding definitely sparked so much joy in life so since the timing felt right I finally decided to take that leap of faith and launch my business.
October 2018, as time passed and more opportunities surfaced I was finally able to put my skills as a wedding planner to the test. It started with friends, friends of friends, and now to clients who I have never met before, then to clients who’ve found me on their own search, trusting me to plan their special day. So here I am, after a few years of dreaming, a baby later, and a wedding we planned on our own under my belt I overcame my fears and doubts. I am now the owner and lead planner of One Sweet Soirée.