03/30/2023
Truly humbled and honored to receive the Best of North Idaho Wedding Planning Firm award for the 4th year in a row.
I’m kinda in shock. Why?
Well to be quite honest it’s been a difficult few years … not just the challenges of a global pandemic running rampant and ridiculous staffing shortages etc. But challenges that made me question my abilities. Compound that with seeing all the perfectness of social media being posted constantly and well I shut down. I didn’t know what to say or post anymore, frankly I didn’t have a voice nor did I think I had a voice worth listening to.
Where did this come from? I’ve spent the last year in a half seeking that answer. The consistent answer for me came down to this.
The bad, unrealistic, problematic, critical clients and vendors get all the attention. How do I address this without becoming “bad” myself. Planning and Coordination is such a subjective role. It’s not as tangible as producing a product as we are producing more of a feeling. Our time and energy is just sucked into a vacuum of “being not good enough” while our wonderful grateful clients/vendors take the back seat.
They take the back seat because “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” and yet a “bad” client or vendor to me might be perfect for another planner. Along with personality and priorities that are different with each client. Our side of the industry is far more fluid and subjective than others. As planners we take on the responsibility for the entire wedding, all the vendors, and the overall outcome of the wedding.
Think about it … really digest these facts. There are 8760 hours in a year, average life expectancy is 77 years in the US so that’s 674,520 hours in a lifetime.
We spend between 430-650 hours planning 1 wedding celebration that typically lasts for 12 hours.
I’m no math expert but 12 hours out of 674,520 hours in a lifetime is a fraction of a fraction of a percent in time. But is it???
Those hours are memories that last FOREVER! Those hours can shape and mold how a couple work together, how a family interacts together, how long lost friends are reconnected, and how future generations remember that day. You will NEVER invest more Time, Energy, or Money into a single day, Ever! NO PRESSURE!
Our clients come to us not only because of the pretty pictures that look perfect on social media but also to help them navigate a situation they know very little about and want only good memories to follow. How do we do that… TIME and EXPERIENCE.
We pour our heart and souls into every celebration.
There are 2080 full time hours in a year. This equates to about 5 weddings a year for full service planning by 1 planner to not be on full-tilt burn-out mode. And let’s be real, most planners are planning way more than 5 weddings a year. The average salary for a Wedding Planner in the US is $45,000 no matter if they are doing 5 or 25 weddings a year.
New technology helps.
Trusted vendors help.
Good weather helps.
Amazing friends and family help.
Wonderful clients help.
They all help us manage our time and expectations. Trust me when I tell you we have our favorites for a reason.
But where did I go wrong ??? Just me … I let the negative outweigh the positive. I let the bullies take over and stopped enjoining the amazing impact I was having on my wonderful clients.
I let that ugly little voice in my head get louder and louder with each bully that said I Was Not Good Enough. Frankly, I let my wonderful clients down by not being present enough.
You see I don’t get a “do over button”, Ever. With all other industries if they have an “off night” they do it again. Comedians can have a bad set and take the stage an hour later and kill it. A restaurant can be short staffed, post a closed sign on the door, re-open the next weekend with a killer menu and excited patrons ready to eat. A trial lawyer can have the worst court experience of their career and file for an appeal and later win.
WEDDING PLANNERS DON’T GET A DO OVER BUTTON
We don’t get a do over with the hundreds of hours we poured into planning the wedding. And we most certainly don’t get a do over on wedding weekend.
Doesn’t matter if the couple didn’t feel good or love the planning process, if there was a drunk Uncle we knew nothing about, a freak lighting storm that knocked the power out, a baker that baked the wrong cake, a venue that had 5 weddings that weekend instead of 1 and couldn’t keep up, a vendor that just didn’t show up, or God forbid the worst thing that ever could happen… I make a mistake.
We take it all on ourselves, as planners. We don’t have 1 piece we have ALL the pieces of the puzzle!
We do this job and are in this profession because we LOVE it. We have almost an unhealthy obsession with creating something out of nothing that lasts for moments.
Well I LOVE what I do. I truly deeply self-identify with being a wedding and event planner. I love my clients whether they love me or not. Every single one of them has shaped and molded me into the experienced award winning planner that I am. All the good and all the bad went into the making of “me”. I’m grateful of each of those experiences and through it all I’m beyond grateful to be recognized as one of the best.
More than that… I’ve found my voice again. It’s not always going to be perfect but it will always be real.
