I share the following news with the fullest of hearts!

In 2020 we will no longer be taking on planning and execution contracts.

With the exception of one final full service wedding in June that we are joyfully seeing through to completion, this chapter in my life and business will be coming to a close. I will no longer identify professionally as a wedding planner and as such will now explain my work to others in different ways. Beautifully different ways.

Phew!

As expected, I have many emotions even after almost two wedding seasons of feeling the nudge to move on to different things and privately pondering this move. And perhaps you, too have a few questions about this transition so I hope to answer them here. In no particular order here are a few bits and pieces.

ONE: Wedding planning has greatly served me and my team for just about a decade. Wow! There were many times throughout my career that I told others (and myself) I couldn’t imagine ever doing anything differently for a career, and I smile now because I know well how much life and our hearts can change despite our thinking it will not.

Wedding planning has been wonderfully life-giving, special, and fulfilling. I’ve gotten to flex creative muscles in exciting ways, take exciting trips, and be a big part of people’s intimate lives. I am very grateful to the clients we have served along with their families, friends, and guests. It’s been the ride of a lifetime.

TWO: Wedding planning requires a great deal of physical effort and mental space to carry both the tangible and emotional things our clients expect us to. This role has been a great honor and often times I feel like my role has far exceed that of merely a ‘planner’. It’s been a lot of hard work admittedly, but certainly a privilege because it’s been a job firmly built on trust and relationships. The expectations though, and partially the ones self-placed, reached a point where I no longer felt I had enough bandwidth to serve in the way I felt clients deserved. Being a mother to little children is also a hard job but one that’s very fleeting and tender. So when I look at my life in five or 15 years from now I want it to include sweet memories of summers with my family and not summers where I was in meetings and churches and venues checking off lists and running floorplans. I would say this isn’t a personal thing but it really is and comes down to me making a very hard decision that ultimately gets me and my family to where we want to most be. Saying no to one thing leaves space to say yes to another.

THREE: My competitive spirit is a beast and one I have to tame often. But perhaps in my years of child-rearing and raising little people (which has required a certain level of stamina and flexibility that’s hard to articulate) I’ve lessened my grip a little and really started to believe there is something for everyone. The world is both a big and small place. Small in the sense that it’s wise to always be nice, trust me, but big in a way that there truly is enough to go around. To the next generation of logistically gifted planners and selfless coordinators who lead teams of vendors to serve couples getting married, I hand my baton to you. You’ve got this. It’s my hope that I can leave the wedding planning space stronger than it was when I first started this journey 10 years ago. The best is yet to come and I am confident in the next generation of women and men who will trail blaze the planning sphere and make magic happen just as we have.

FOUR: When I looked at my life both in 2017 when we desired to have more children, in 2018 when our Ev was born, and then throughout this last year when we navigated a lot of personal obstacles and heartaches, it became increasingly clear how valuable time is and how big of a blessing it is that I have the luxury of choosing how I spend mine. I’m lucky to be in a circle of people who value goal-setting, intentional living, and positive thinking because it’s allowed me to get very honest (errrrr, uncomfortable) with my own decisions, choices, and thoughts. Wedding planning was starting to take up a large chunk of my time each working day, and week, and one that didn’t feel like a valuable trade off in the big picture. I say this not to take away from the fulfilling work I did, because it was very rewarding, but to illustrate that long term this wasn’t a position that felt suitable or sustainable for me.

FIVE: Which leads to this thought; when I peeled back the layers to what felt like it could go and in it’s place, what DID feel sustainable, what did bring me joy and fulfillment, and what could result in small financial gain (three important parts of making this leap) I was left with three core areas of business:

1. Floral design

2. Writing and blogging

3. Artisan soap making

And when I jumped in deeper to uncovering how these three areas might be woven together, how it is they could make sense to me and to others because they felt so distant from one another, I embarked on a journey that felt vulnerable, uncomfortable, painful and hard, but also freeing, transformative, beautiful and peaceful. I learned that it wasn’t ever really about the planning of weddings. It’s been about so much more.

It’s been about RELATIONSHIPS.

And BEAUTY.

And INTENTIONALITY.

And in working with my hands to create beautiful things, string along heartfelt words whether they are reflective of my experiences or opinions, and to love well on others, it is here, at the intersection of heart and task, that I feel most alive. That I feel I can best put to use the gifts God has blessed me with. This is where I can, and do, feel peaceful and like I am actively building a legacy for my family. And that’s what I most hope for in this life of mine.

. . . .

To the clients we have served over the last decade, thank you will never been enough. To the vendors we’ve led and worked with, we look forward to working with you in new capacities as we move ahead as a floral design-only studio. To S&P our June 2020 couple, we are beyond ready to make your event the sweetest finale of all! To the new clients we serve through our floral services and soaps, this is an exciting new trajectory! To the freelancers who have worked with us, sweet Betsi, my Andrew, and Jodi, my greatest joys have been in the laughter and tears we’ve shared as a result of the highs and lows we’ve gone through together; all in the name of creating magic.

On Monday I share more on where RBC is headed next! I hope you’ll join me and toast to a new decade, and a new adventure.

The best is yet to come.

With love, Rhiannon