I recently had a mentoring session with a planner who lives outside of America and expresses that she felt like she started her business on the wrong foot. She had a passion for organizing things and she thought to herself she should become a planner. While she was right to follow her passion, she soon realized there was a lot she didn't quite know. 

During our time together I enjoyed learning about why she started and the vision of the type of planner and events she wants to do in the future. Our session was fulfilling for me because I got to see areas where she needed help and offer her advice and pointed her to tools to help her start over and reset. 

I realize it's unnerving to think you started something and realize you had no clue what you were getting into. This was why before I started out as a planner I took some courses on my own to ensure I was prepared for the road ahead and even at that, I still had my fair share of struggle. 

Most people have...

It has been quite some time since I wrote a blog post. I can tell you a lot has been happening behind the scenes, personally and professionally. The business I founded RAE Affairs has taken a couple of different turns as I have been working on reshuffling the team and restructuring leadership. I knew it was going to take a lot but phewwwwww, I did not expect the number of curves and turns it took. 

Isn't that like the job of a planner? One minute you think you have everything planned out and the next minute you realize you have to go back to the drawing board. I have been back there a few times and while I am now navigating new leadership for the business I feel like I am charting the right course. 

In the midst of the busyness, I haven't given up on my love for teaching. Teaching other people how to achieve their dreams is wired into my DNA. Seeing others thrive in their passion is a beautiful feeling I can't explain. While I have been structuring and...

What if you could create your wedding day timelines in half the time?

How many hours would that save you over the course of a year? And how could you use all those saved hours to build your business?

If you're excited by the idea of saving hours on your timelines, then I want to invite you to join an upcoming FREE Webinar: How to Create Your Wedding Day Timelines in Half the Time.

This 60-minute webinar will take place on Tuesday, June 21st, at 12pm Eastern Standard Time, and you can reserve your seat HERE.

If you've ever felt like timelines are a tedious part of your job... or if you've ever wished for a faster, easier, stress-free way to create your timelines... then this Webinar is for you!

When you attend this FREE webinar, you're going to:
- Discover how to create your wedding day timelines in half the time it currently takes.
- Learn 3 powerful ways to build more trust and earn more praise from your clients and vendors.
- Gain confidence and eliminate stress when you...

So, it’s Saturday and you don’t have a wedding, what should you be doing? Well honestly you can do whatever you like….for some reason TI’s song “you can have whatever you like” just broke out in my head, I was a TI fan years ago  I digress. 

On a serious note, you can do whatever, rest, sleep, spend time with family, really anything. But what I don’t want you to do is spend countless hours on IG looking at stories all weekend of other events happening while not working on your event. 

Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for having some down time and seeing what others are doing but I get a lot of comments from new planners who inundate themselves with hours on social media of watching other people’s events and then they start comparing themselves and getting discouraged about their own businesses. Instead, I suggest you channel that energy and time of looking on IG all day to working on your business. 

It has been said you can’t go far alone. Steve Jobs said it well “Great things in business are never done by one person.” As a wedding planner, you are an integral part of putting everything together; however, no matter how good you are, you need all the vendors, you need your team, you need others around you to create the final product of a successful wedding. 

As a business owner, you have to be willing to collaborate with other vendors not simply as “vendors” doing a job but as creative partners bringing their genius to make your event a success. When you see them as creative partners, you value more what they bring to the table and you treat them differently because your mind makes the shift that you are all in this together.  

I have been working on some awesome collaborations and partnerships this year to help serve the community of planners I mentor; one collaboration, in particular, is to help you be more effective in your...

They say change is a part of life, and phew this year has been full of them. Change is hard, it challenges you, it gets you out of your comfort zone and it causes you to grow. You get to a place where you realize the change is necessary, and no matter how uncertain the future is, you have to take the new road, however unsure, however afraid, you have to be willing to take the path; the road not taken.

I have spent the last few months in deep work personally while still having private sessions and working one on one with emerging wedding planners through my mentorship program. I welcome the change and embrace it and I am walking into the new chapters ahead with so much optimism and hope.

While growing your business you will experience a lot of change, especially in those first 1-5 years, change will be part of the process. You have to be flexible as you continue this journey as a wedding planner, you have to plan for change, accommodate it and find ways to allow the change to make...

Have you ever wondered if “loving what you do” is a criteria for success? I’ve been thinking a lot lately, so if I made $200,000 thousand dollars and I did not love what I did but it was a means to an end and all my bills were paid will that be "success"? I guess in a sense yes depending on your yardstick of measurement. From a financial standpoint absolutely but the question still remains do you have to love what you do to be successful?

In some professions, this might not apply as much but for the path we are choosing to take as planners, it is important to love what you do to be successful. This idea of success is not only what you define personally as "success" but as planners loving what you do is also the yardstick for what will keep you long term as a planner and also what will help you grow in spite of the bumps on the road.

The path of being a planner has its ups and downs; it's sleepless nights and never-ending tasks and you wear many hats so why else...

I’m I really meant to do this? This is a question you might find yourself asking constantly when you are thinking about starting out as a wedding planner. I want to first say that doubt is very normal. However, doubt can limit you from starting, it can keep you stuck in the same place and you only live out your dreams in your mind but never bring it to reality.

You might feel you don’t have all it takes but you will never know until you try, and the only way to try is to start from where you are. Look at the resources available to you and around you and ask yourself what you can do with these resources? It could be that you register for one of our workshops, or you sign up for a webinar or course. Or you could reach out to event planners in your area to volunteer.

Whatever you do, remember that sometimes the picture is not fully painted and you have to start from where you are and all the lines will start to fall in place.

I get asked this question often. People wonder if they need to get a degree or if there is such a thing as a bachelor’s degree in wedding planning? The honest answer is no, you don’t need to get a degree to be a wedding planner. However, I will be clear to say you do need to get training.

Just like with any new field, you might have an interest in, you have to ensure you get adequate training and education. Wedding planning is no different, although you might have a passion for it and know some basic information there you need to ensure you have undergone training and education in order to become a wedding planner.

My philosophy is this, a wedding is one of the most significant days of a person’s life and a huge financial investment for them; you should never approach it lackadaisically. To be a wedding planner, you are paid as the “expert” to plan and execute the wedding, if you haven’t gotten the training, skills, education, and...

  This subject I will answer carefully because this one can be tricky. The short answer is yes; however, I will follow it quickly with a note that money cannot and should not be your main goal when you start out. If you are considering becoming a wedding planner and you are doing it simply for the money it will be easy to fall off.

Will you make money from this over time, yes! If you, do it right and plan it out well, you will make money from it but I will be honest with you it is a journey. You have to become a wedding planner out of your love to serve people because it is a service business and serving and helping your customers has to be your driving force. You have to have the gift for administration, organization, and planning in order to thrive at the job but you have to be willing to serve people.

Money will come but it cannot be your motivation, in the first step of my course for new wedding planners I stress the importance of determining your “why”...