Whoever said starting a second career would be easy was surely mistaken and clearly did not dare to venture out on this journey themselves.
I started down the path to become an event planner about two years ago and I can honestly say nothing about this has been easy!! But what's that old saying..
Nothing worth having is easy.
However I must say it has been very exciting and super challenging. I'm definitely enjoying every minute of it (Well most days) !!!
I have worked as a production manager in the apparel and home textiles industry for over 10 years ( I am still working in this field full time) and although I enjoy it I came to realize that it is definitely not my passion. Every few years I would think to myself Is this it?, What's next for me? and I never came to a conclusion so I continued to chug along in my production management career. I thought I would never figure out what my true passion was.
It wasn't until I planned a family trip to Spain that my mother pointed out that she never realized how much I enjoyed planning pretty much any & everything. My family was very impressed with the 14 day itinerary I put together after thoroughly researching best places to stay, eat, and daily must sees. I decided on 4 major cities in Spain; Madrid, Valencia, Seville and Malaga. I then booked everyone’s flights, train tickets, hotels, and excursions. All they had to do was show up and enjoy. I've always enjoyed being the planner, for family trips, birthday and dinner parties and I often book trips at least a year an advance.
I finally decided to take the first step in my event planning journey and enrolled in an Event Planning and Management course at the Event Leadership Institute and loved every minute of it. I started connecting with professionals in the event industry and volunteering at different non-profit events. I now have a few event planners that I work with on a freelance basis. I help them to execute their event on the day of and make sure everything runs smoothly.
It was after working an event which is usually a 10-14 hour day of hard work (standing on your feet), coming home back hurting, sweating, exhausted and still loving every minute and wanting to learn everything possible about event planning that I knew I found my passion!!! I am still learning and definitely not an expert but I know a heck of a lot more than I did two years ago. My intention with starting this blog is to hopefully help someone that was in my shoes two years ago. I've met a lot of awesome event planners that have helped me and welcomed me with open arms. I am so so grateful for that. On the flip side I've also met some event professionals that couldn't be bothered. But hey that's life and I've decided to not let them get to me. We all have to start somewhere and we weren't born experts in our field.
I plan to write about helpful tips and advice for new event planners like me that are trying to figure out how to get started or gain experience in event planning. As well as helpful tips and information related to event planning that would be useful for newly engaged couples, busy women (and men) that do not have a clue where to start or how to go about planning there celebrations or just simply people that don’t enjoy planning. My goal is to alleviate the stress that planning an event can sometimes cause. These are often momentous occasions spent with family and friends and you should be able to enjoy the event and let me worry about all of the details coming together.
All that matters is that I took the first step and continue to take one step every day. Ironically this is the one thing that I’ve done without a plan but that’s what makes it both scary and exciting. Take a leap and don’t look back!!
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