I’ve gotten the question more than once… “So, how did you become a wedding designer/planner?”
Well, the short answer is on my website. I started planning events and doing graphic design at my first job in college (I worked there for all 4 years, and it was also a HUGE training ground for my academic advising job… you just never know!). I was the event coordinator for our student council. I was a marketing assistant at a multinational accounting firm. I was in charge of galas and other special events for a local nonprofit.
But I realized last week that there’s an even longer answer than that. It goes back a lot farther.
I was the kid who would always plan everything out. Oh, not my life – I didn’t even think about my wedding day until I got engaged (I think I was afraid I’d jinx it), I’ve never had my future kids’ names picked out, I didn’t know what my career would ultimately be (and, really, it’s always evolving, so I still don’t). But the little things. What I’d wear to school. What I’d play with after I finished my homework. What I’d sing for the next talent show.
More importantly, I was the plan-ahead-er for family trips. I’d be all packed up and ready to go the week before we left, offering to help my parents pack their bags. They always packed the morning of our flight and it would kill me to see them rushing. I hated rushing. I still do. All that stress just seems totally unnecessary.
When we’d make plans to go to Disneyland, I’d lay out all of my clothes and pack my little backpack the night before. I would include a snack and a sweater and a change of socks (sometimes a whole change of clothes) and a book for the car ride there. I’d bounce out of bed at sunrise, ready to get dressed, eat breakfast, and go. I wanted to get to the park as soon as it opened at 8:00, and we only lived about an hour away. My parents were slow to wake up (even slower to a plan-ahead-er like me) and we usually wouldn’t leave the house until after 10. Again, it killed me. Every time. Not necessarily because we were getting there late. Because it was so easily avoided through good planning. Don’t laugh – I’m serious!
Likewise, my family’s vacation planning style was very last-second too. Typically my parents would decide that they wanted to go on vacation just a few weeks (or days!) before they wanted to leave. Sifting through airline prices with travel agents (this was pre-internet, of course!) translated into lots of hours lost. And while it was possible to get a killer deal every once in a while, typically my parents would pay much, much more for their tickets than if they’d have purchased them earlier (I witnessed this firsthand, once I was old enough, when the tickets they bought to Ireland cost more than twice as much as those to Italy, just one year later, because they were bought within a month of our leaving the country).
Now, I adore my parents – and there’s not a single thing wrong with not being a plan-ahead-er… Unless you’re me at age seven. I’ve learned to relax my stringent planning, especially since I married a last-minute-er (instead of packing the morning of a trip, he packs right before we leave the house!). But I still believe that good planning can help you to avoid stress, lateness, and extra time and expense. And who wants to have stress, lateness, lost time, or extra expenses? Ever?
Oh. And… Once a Wedding Diva, always a Wedding Diva. Observe.
Yes. That’s me! 🙂
Anyway, this wasn’t groundbreaking news… But I thought it might give you some perspective into why I do what I do. And why I love it. Because it’s in my personality!
Events by Elisa 