The Truth behind Wedding Planning

CREATING A BEAUTIFUL EVENT IS NOT ALWAYS A GLAMOROUS JOB. SOMETIMES, IT’S NOT EVEN FUN…

Recently, I had a family friend reach out, looking for any input on breaking into the event industry. We get emails all the time from students who have compatible college majors - looking to become a wedding planner because they have notions that it is fun, exciting, creative, rewarding and easy. Because this was someone I know personally, I was brutally honest in sharing what I know about being an event planner.

I told her that it was dumb tough. I told her that is was physically demanding. I told her that the images of a wedding planners life are deceptive. I told her it is more of a logistics , sales and administrative position than that of a creative. I told her the money is unstable and the job security is wishy-washy. I told her it will be hard to prove your worth. I told her it can be very stressful and very demanding. I told her that her work-life balance will be off kilter and that sometimes she will severely crave a corporate 9-5. I told her it’s hard to stay out of a “wedding planner” whirlpool, where the market is saturated with people who plan and coordinate events. I told her that there are no longer comfortable shoes in this world and she will say goodbye to toenails after executing an amazing event…

I told my friend that wedding planning is the perfect job for a select few. I told her to ask herself what her “why” was?

Why do I want to begin this career opportunity?

Why does it mean something to me?

Why would I stick with it when times are so difficult?

Why is this significant in my world and why will it be of a greater service to those around me?

My “why” revolves around marriage. My heart is for marriages to have the happiest, healthiest and most rewarding life from the start.

Lindsy and I have been hard at work designing and executing almost every element of 2 different styled shoots. Birthed from some marketing theories we are testing out, these shoots were far more demanding both mentally and physically than we anticipated. We had a lot of fun doing them, but when all is said and done, I questioned the worth of it all.

The morning of our shoot(s), my husband woke up with a severe stomach virus. So, I had to take my daughter to work with me. Evelyn is 15 months old and is happy only when eating. I fed her a lot that day because Mamma had work to do. We have footage of untangling macrame with my child on the hip and a banana in her mouth. She threw up that banana all over me at 4pm that day. Lindsy and I tore down a wedding ceremony and then cleaned my child’s sick off me within minutes. By 5pm, I was driving us home and started coming down with the bug myself. I arrived home to a husband that had yet to eat anything that day and only after making chicken soup for us, getting gatorade, giving the sweetie babe a bathy and tucking her in, did this event planner allow herself to rest and get nice and sick herself. So, the moral of this long and disgusting story is this,

“while these event pictures look like a dream come true, behind the scenes there is someone puking all over someone else. And, while our couple never knew of the disruptions to our lives, they still happened right before our big...epic day.”

There are so many unbelievable rewards to being a Nashville Wedding Planner. It is always worth the hard work and sacrifices when seeing the look of awe on our happy couple’s faces. I never want to quit this job. If my friend is supposed to do this, she will be so happy doing it. It does put bread on the table and a spark in our long, chaotic days. My “why” question is always answered with reason and meaning. Love revolves around every corner of planning weddings.