How Did I Get Here?

It’s not the first question brides or mothers of brides ask me, but they invariably ask it:

How did you get started in the wedding business?

The short answer is that it is just how I was made.

The long answer begins like this:

I can remember planning my birthday parties with my mom – always on a budget, by the way! – when I was a very little girl. I think my favorite was the “come as your favorite story book character” party I had when I was about 10. I’m not sure who I was – a princess of some sort. The “gown” was fashioned from a beautiful, lacy peignoir and silky nightgown with hoops made by my daddy from coat hangers, and I wore pink camellias in my hair from the bush that bloomed every year for my birthday. We even made a spice cake that looked like a story book - even then it was all about the details.

Fast forward to high school. My youth group at church consisted of about 3 regulars, but the college and career group was a much larger bunch of perhaps 35 people. Pastor John, my discerning youth pastor, had me pegged from the beginning: even at 16, I was a planner. He gave me the task of planning the sweetheart banquet for the older group. I planned, shopped, created and set up hte room in a pleasing arrangement, cooked (prime rib and twice baked potatoes, with a tomato and broccoli salad, as I remember it,) served and cleaned up the entire event. Once again on a tiny budget. This was the first in a long line of youth group events I would plan and execute.

While away at college, I didn’t have the opportunity to plan much of anything. Instead, I studied Animal Science, including forage crops, where I learned all about the local indigenous plants while collecting samples from the central California hillsides. I still remember things like Amaranthus retroflexus is the Latin name for pigweed. This should have been my cue to jump ship to the Ornamental Horticulture department. I might have found my inner floral designer sooner if I had, and I could hace worked on Cal Poly’s Rose Parade Float.

The other thing I learned at college, that there were very handsome men there, one of these absolutely swept me off my feet with his charm and humor and married me. Which brings me to the next big event I would plan: my wedding.