Welcome to Life in Weddings. I'm Shayna Walker, and I've been a genuine, professional wedding planner since 2004 (and was a hopeless newbie before that).
This soul-bearing narrative on wedding planning as a career, the mistakes we make along with how I personally overcame them and what can be done today to become an even stronger professional is the blog I was never confident enough to write before - and that's probably a good thing. It's taken me almost 7 years to learn exactly how much I didn't (and sometimes still don't) know.
Like every new wedding planner, I came into the industry with "experience" from other jobs. However, even with those skills and a great deal of natural common sense, passion, enthusiasm and motivation - I made lots of mistakes, some of which I'd venture to say you have made too or are making now.
While there is a learning curve to every new job, what a lot of people don't recognize is that a newbie planner's "debut" days are not only the one-shot life changing event of their clients, but the actual professional days of other wedding vendors whose lives are unfairly made more chaotic by inexperience. There are vendors I would like to go back and apologize to - for making their work look less professional because I wasn't ready. It was selfish, and hindsight being 20-20, I would have done many things differently if I'd understood that at the time.
Why am I confessing to being kind of a lousy wedding planner at one time in my career?
A. Because I can.
Thankfully, I avoided doing major harm because the year that I was really green was the same year that my clients knew exactly who I was, and understood my limitations and were all personal friends and family. The only real harm I did was make one caterer's life He** one day by way overstepping my bounds (a story which I will tell you soon) and I've done what I can to atone for that.
My learning curve was steep, but by the time I actually started my business, I made gigantic strides in my education and professional development, and I look back at my years in real business with pride.
B. Because I want to.
Anyone who knows me knows that I love to speak passionately about this business. I believe that it should be a more educated, ethical industry, and I do everything I can to further that movement.
C. Because I should.
People need mentors. I have mine - several of them, and without them I would not have come this far and cannot continue to grow. I believe in passing that on. People who have mentored with me say I'm not awful at it and have encouraged me to continue. If something I say strikes a chord and improves the industry, the entire effort will be worth it.
So, here we are. Day one of a new endeavor. I am excited to be here, and I hope you are too. Welcome to "Life in Weddings".
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