2023 Wedding Season
It all started with a blog post about my dream career, to be an event planner/wedding coordinator. If you’re interested in knowing the full story, you can read it here. This post took a lot of courage, especially sharing it on social media. There was definitely some fear of failure present for me when I posted it but I’m so glad I did!
Last year a long time friend married my husband’s cousin and I had the opportunity to coordinate their wedding. It was a great first wedding to dip my toes into the industry with it being family and at a full service location. The wedding was hosted at the McMenamins Anderson School in Bothell, Wa on March 4. It was really fun having family and friends around and I actually got to sit with my family at dinner! This wedding was the most intimate of the year, the most relaxed, and the one I had the most fun at! We also got to stay in the hotel that night which made for a nice commute after clean up was done.
After my initial blog post Mimi reached out in Aug 2022 and said she might need a design assistant for a few weddings in 2023. I said I’d be interested and she reached back out in April 2023 to start the process. Mimi and I have actually known each other from high school, though neither of us remembers exactly how we know each other! I ended up helping her set up for her mom’s birthday party at Millersylvania State Park on June 3 as a sort of informal interview and the rest is history!
The next was a wedding outdoors in Enumclaw, WA on July 29 outside on a hot day as an assistant for Gather with Mimi. Unfortunately for me, this wedding I exposed to covid a couple of days before so I was in a n95 mask the whole time which made for difficult communication and more sweat. This one had a lot of help from the bride’s friends and family and some paid help, and loads of decorations. I mean loads, like 5 bins of extras that we didn’t even touch! This one I primarily learned how important good vendors are and how unprepared vendors can make the entire day much more difficult.
Probably my favorite wedding of the year was on August 27 at Duke’s restaurant in Seattle. I was an assistant again with Gather with Mimi and the bride and groom were personal friends of Mimi/s. I also ran into a couple of friends from high school which was a fun surprise! It was the most organized and well labeled wedding I’ve run across yet. There were vendors galore, so many fun spaces and it was a full service venue which made the biggest difference. The dessert was a candy bar, there was a balloon arch, a 360 video moment, and a photo booth inside. The sunset was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and it was the most fun dancing I’ve ever seen!
September 9 was my first wedding as coordinator for Gather with Mimi. Technically I started as the assistant but then Mimi became the florist so I became the coordinator. My favorite part about this wedding was that my SIL Ellie came and was my assistant which was the moral support I needed and also made it way more fun. There were a lot of issues with this wedding from missing dinner napkins that I didn’t realize were actually missing until way too late, the venue didn’t have a kitchen or a sink so a groomsman had to scrape all of the plates by hand after the catering company left unannounced, and a lot of miscommunication across the boar.
The November 11 wedding in Inglewood was my first true wedding planning experience. Mimi was gracious enough to mentor me through this first one which was incredibly helpful. The wedding itself was at a church a few minutes down the road and then the reception was at a full service venue. The venue locations mades all of the difference and it made my life as coordinator much easier but it was a bit more complicated for me to have the wedding and the reception at difference places. We had timing issues and miscommunication with some of the vendors so this one I learned that in future weddings I need to insert myself into all of these little conversations before hand. The only hiccup that was my fault was that the flower girl didn’t come to pictures before the wedding so I totally forgot her basket and flowers so Mimi to the rescue! My favorite part of this wedding was that my BIL Bryan and his wife Devyn were the photographers. Having family involved in these helps me have more fun and have an added level of moral support which helps on these long days.
Overall it was a very eventful wedding season and I learned SO much! Going into last year I had no idea I would be working 5 weddings and end up planning one by the end of the year. I’m so proud of myself for posting that first blog post and sharing it to my socials and SO thankful Mimi reached out and offered to let me have a trial run with her and then end up contract hiring me to help with her business’ weddings in 2023. I can’t wait to see what 2024 holds!
