Happy New Year! Welcome to 2013! It is going to be a great year. My lucky number is 13 and was the number on all of my team jerseys when I was playing soccer and field hockey in my high school years.
On New Years Eve on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, my husband and I attended the wedding of Sara Steele and Paul Morse. It was the most amazing night being a guest but also being the person officiating the wedding (yes, I am an ordained minister and can legally marry people). I met Paul Morse years ago working on a destination wedding in Iowa for a client of mine who worked with Paul at the White House. Paul was a White House photographer for one of our Presidents. We hit it off professionally and have done many weddings together since then and have many more this coming year. And most importantly, Paul and his new wife Sara and I have become friends.
What struck me as so amazing as Sara and Paul counted down the final seconds of 2012 was how lucky and blessed I am to be in the wedding industry and have friends like Sara and Paul and so many others. Some of the most incredible, loving and fun people work in this wild event and wedding business and I feel so honored to have gotten to meet all of these people. I have traveled all over the world planning events and really feel honored to have met and worked with so many incredible individuals that I now call friends.
From attending the Engage Conference (I have attended ten), to planning just under 300 events, I have made true friends in this business. True ones that are not just, “oh we worked together on so and so’s wedding and it was fun”. But people that I laugh with, cry with, text when I see something funny that reminds me of them and most recently, marry.
These friends are people that:
Within minutes are on the internet researching flights to get there to help out when you need it for a big event.
People that no matter how much pain you are in, will sit with you at the hospital telling nurses off and getting you what you need. Oh, and approve any twitter pictures before she posts them. AND make sure you stay off a busted ankle even though you are not good at resting and taking it easy.
People that listen to you when you have the occasional need to vent or buy you dinner or even a cupcake when you need a friend or some sugar.
People that from 900 miles away hear you are sick and have chicken soup delivered right to your house.
People that will laugh with you, cry with you and maybe even get mad and yell at you when you are being stubborn.
People that say to their spouses, “…..Because she needs me”, and get into a car and drive four and a half hours or hop on a plane.
People that when you post something on facebook or twitter saying you need something or have a question, within 10 minutes you have 9 direct messages on twitter, 5 emails and 3 phone calls saying, when do you need me, what can I do?
People that travel 1200 miles to celebrate a milestone birthday in a far away location (and bring a glue gun to boot for décor).
People that push you to be the best that you can possibly be in your business, your marriage and your life.
So as I move past the first week of 2013, (what I am now calling a Great Year), I want to thank each and every one of you I have met along the way of planning celebrations for my clients or attending conferences. THANK YOU for being such incredible and amazing people. 2013 here we come!!!!!!
And thanks to my husband Jon, my Mom and Dad and Grohe (who really does not understand all of this event stuff but is there wagging his tail when I get home after a 13 hour day)!
“Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler”! In the words of Sara and Paul’s wedding theme, “Let the Good Times Roll”!
