Proud owner of Hannah Marie Events

Today is the 3^rd Tuesday of the month. Today was my last, first day of college. Today I also became the proud business owner of Hannah Marie Events! I woke up this morning with no real feelings about my classes. I stood in the kitchen telling my roommate that I wasn’t happy, sad, nervous, excited or fearful of the classes I was about to walk to. I’m very indifferent about this semester.

There are great things happening right now in this little apartment with my amazing roommate turned friend, her little kitten running around and the coziness of our living room. There are amazing things to look forward to as well when I leave this apartment in May. For instance, the wedding I have with Dear Sweetheart Events a week after graduation, being reunited (almost) full time with my three favorite little people and their parents, a summer with my best friends before they embark on their jobs and further schooling in different areas, being home with my family and I’m sure so much more that I don’t even know about yet!

There are also the not so great things happening now, like rainy days, classes that I’m not 100% psyched about, this tiny town that I have a love/hate relationship with, not being able to be in the presence of some of my good friends from home within 5 minutes and being away from my family. The not so good things to come, that I’m a little apprehensive about are finding a job to give me somewhat of financial stability come this fall, getting accustomed to living at home again for more than a few months at a time (I love my family, but it’s change, ya’ll), not living in this apartment with Rachel because I’ve found a roommate that I connect with and has become a great friend, and not having much of a routine anymore!

This is balance my friends. Something I LOVE and have written about before. A little tidbit of advice from me:

1) there will always be a brighter side even if it takes a few hours, day, weeks, months or even years to see it!

2) Do NOT give up, please keep trying for whatever you’re dreaming of!

3) You CAN do it, don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t!

4) It doesn’t all have to happen at once, I still have a long way to go but the little accomplishments are SO big!

With that, I hope everyone’s rainy Tuesday is going well and if not, tomorrow will! Thank you to all the old, and new friends who have congratulated me today and for following my journey!

Baby Alsop Shower!!

Some of you may have noticed I posted an Instagram yesterday saying I had a surprise coming soon…well, here it is!! For about a month I have been planning a surprise baby shower for Katelyn Alsop. Michael was my youth pastor and Katelyn and Michael have continued to play a very active role in my life. Every winter for the last few years they had a Christmas party for the high school and college students and I always looked forward to it! This year I wanted to do something for them and since Katelyn is pregnant, a baby shower was a perfect idea!

Thanks to Michael we had kept it a secret for about a month while I planned it! I had SO much fun, especially over the last few days getting all the decorations together, baking cupcakes and visualizing how everything would come together. I had the help of Katie, a long time friend, help me come up with cute ideas and fun things to do as well and she helped me set everything up! I was so excited I got to plan an event myself, including colors, theme, food and games! The best part was seeing everything come together and having all the girls and Katelyn and Michael together!

Katelyn and Michael have showed me what true love, caring for others, appreciating life and having a strong relationship with God really looks like. From the moment they walked into our church they wrapped their arms around us and haven’t let go since. Last night, we looked at old pictures from past retreats and mission trips. We laughed, reminisced and brought up how Katelyn would come on the retreats even after shooting a wedding, driving hours alone just to spend a couple hours with us. She would also fly out to some mission trip late after having a wedding to be with the youth for the rest of the trip. Even after a shift in the youth group, growing up, the youth getting older and now being young adults, they are still so present in our lives and role models to me. That is what true dedication and love is and we are forever grateful for her and Michael.

I know they will care for, love, listen to, share with, and teach their little girl the same way they did, and still do with us, making them AMAZING parents. They started off with teenagers and loving them so well, now they get to start over with a little bundle of joy. Katelyn and Michael, I wish you the best and look forward to meeting your precious baby in just a few weeks, she is so blessed already!!

               

December is Here!!

When I think of December, I think of colder air, Christmas music, bright lights, cozy sweaters, sugar cookie and pine scented candles burning, family, comfort foods, Christmas, and tradition. I would like to say as I type this, my Cranberry Frosted candle is burning and a Hallmark Christmas movie is playing in the background but instead, I’m sitting passenger side in Huck’s car as rain steadily falls on our way back to Radford. When I get back to what I imagine will be a freezing apartment, because I turned off the heat before I left, I have to begin laundry, figure out what’s for dinner, do some school work and meet my group for a very long meeting. I will be studying and finishing up final projects over the next week, along with most other college students. There are so many things I want to do before finishing the semester that are competing with the things I have to do. This is will be the week the organization and time management tips from The Creative at Heart mini session will go into full effect.

I have been reading all my favorite creative’s blog posts and Instagram captions, along with having conversations with them about how they are preparing to take most of December off and cramming all their last minute work into the next week or so. I’m trying to have the same work ethic as them, by ensuring I leave a least a few hours of each day to enjoy the new month. This will happen, whether it be in the morning watching the Today Show with Rachel and sipping my coffee, watching a Christmas Movie with Huck in the middle of the week after dinner, taking an extra-long lunch break, or binge watching Desperate Housewives with Rachel before bed, drinking some eggnog.

I am looking forward to spending the rest of December and beginning of January at home with family and friends. I’m hoping to accomplish some big tasks, that will also be fun, relaxing, spend time with my favorite little kids and take in all that December has to offer. To all my creative friends, small business owners and college friends, push through the final weeks and enjoy the rest of the Christmas season!

Kat's Team!!

I want to start by first thanking everyone who has supported me along the way. Everyone who encouraged me, starting with the very first blog post, the very first wedding with the first business I worked for and those who encouraged me and gave me advice. When I was beaten down because of a terrible interview and told I wasn’t cut out for this, there were a few of you who told me they were wrong and I could do anything I wanted to do, thank you for that. When I got negative feedback from my very first blog post and most of you told me not to quit and just keep going, thank you, I have now written 19, this one will make 20. The encouragement I’ve gotten from friends, family and even people I haven’t talked to in years has been so overwhelming.

 I’ve been striving for this dream for over 3 years. The first week of college I started emailing wedding planners in the New River Valley and Richmond area asking for advice and if they needed any extra help, for no charge! I found one company and helped them a few times, I learned a lot, mostly what I wouldn’t do. I had a terrible interview with a woman who was a planner, by the time I got home I was in tears questioning if wedding planning was the path I should be on. My parents, Huck and his parents told me otherwise and to keep trying. There was so much rejection and I was giving up hope on my dream, that was until I met Katelyn Alsop for coffee. She and I have been friends ever since she and Michael came to the church, I’ve been so blessed to have such amazing friends who can inspire, encourage, laugh with and help. Katelyn gave me Kat’s information and from the first email I got in response to Kat, I knew I was going to love learning from her.

Kat was welcoming to me from start. I emailed her to ask her for some advice and what she recommended me to do since I was still in school and had no idea where to start. Not only did she answer my questions but she also told me I could shadow her at a wedding, I was elated. This was two years ago. Since then I have assisted Kat with numerous weddings, a styled shoot, and a conference, but most importantly I have learned so much from her. I’ve learned how to focus on detail, think on my feet, get creative, love deeply, be inspired and so much more. I am beyond grateful for Kat’s friendship and being able to learn from one of the best. Being a part of Kat’s team is something I have wanted but never thought would happen. When I got the phone call from her asking if I would want to be a part of DSE, I was speechless. All I could say was yes over and over, everything was a blur after I got off the phone. I immediately called my parents to tell them and was so happy!!! Since then, I’ve worked a couple weddings with her and the most recent one I was all by myself as soon as the ceremony began!!!

I was so nervous for this but I knew that if Kat trusted me enough to leave it all in my hands I could do it. I was surprised, but it went so well!! I only had to call Kat once and afterward we met back at her house and talked about both of our weddings. It was a long weekend, I was exhausted, drove more than I would have wanted but it was one of the best weekends I’ve ever had. I can’t wait for those weekends to continue and become the new normal.

So thank you, to everyone who helped me, encouraged me, inspired me and let me ramble on about all things weddings and pretty!

Hello Friends!!

Who can confidently say they have this whole “balancing life” thing figured out? My guess is that most of you can’t say you’ve got this. I know I don’t, but I’m working on it!! All our lives we’ve been told it’s “all about balance”. Whether that’s balancing the amount of fruit and veggies compared to carbs and sugar, our work and social life, friends and family, really everything. For me, this past week was a balancing act, one step forward, one step back…thankfully not two steps back!!

I would like to say this week started on Saturday, and yes I do choose when my week starts. Saturday I did my first day-of coordination under Kat’s business, Dear Sweetheart Events! Before you get excited to read all about it, you’ll have to wait, that will be for another day J. Saturday afternoon, I chose last minute to also help Kat the next day to set up for another wedding, this meant getting home later, less sleep and cramming the rest of my Sunday into less hours. It was truly a fantastic weekend, it started off so well! While I was gone, I got an email that my brand new mug, from Chalkfulloflove had been delivered! Monday morning, I went down to my mailbox to discover it wasn’t in my box and I had the wrong key to a parcel box, fast-forward to having the right key and bringing the package up to my room, excitedly opening it and the mug being in 12 different pieces. I was crushed, so upset, but I wasn’t going to let that ruin my day. The owner, is the sweetest and sending me a brand new one! The rest of Monday went just fine and it ended with my roomie and I binge watching our favorite show. Wednesday morning, I woke up to an email from UPS that my 2017 Kate Spade Planner had been delivered to my door!! I was so excited until I realized I’m a light sleeper and no one had knocked on the door. I had to leave for a meeting so I brought the mail key with me to check when I got back. The package wasn’t in my box so naturally I called UPS. After 30 minutes on the phone, I was extremely disappointed with their lack of help and rude customer service, but I didn’t give up. I wrote a note to put on the mailbox and asked all of my neighbors, no one had received my package. My day was beginning to become ruined, until 2 of my best friends came to Radford for dinner and 6 hours of catching up. Thank goodness a few of my friends only go to school 25 minutes away from me!!

We literally spent hours looking at pictures from the past 4 years, catching up on the last 2 weeks, and sharing our future ambitions and dreams! I’m so thankful Amanda and Kate saved the day! Thursday followed with more UPS calling. I wrote them an email, called their headquarters and even tracked down the UPS driver. The driver on Thursday hadn’t delivered to Radford all week, and the driver who did, they couldn’t get in touch with and was just a fill in. I lost hope. My package is currently under investigation and a claim was filed to Kate Spade. I stopped and let UPS be in control, and God be in control of my attitude. Thursday I helped celebrate a friend’s birthday and then my weekend began.

Huck and I decided to skip the dressing up and going out for Halloween this year and I must say I have no regrets. It was a perfect weekend filled with movies, Ghost Adventures, food, football and one step back. I burned my arm, badly, on the pan our buffalo chicken dip was being baked it. OUCH! After that, I was gaining more steps forward, I visited a vineyard with a dear friend and it was to die for (anyone in the Radford/Blacksburg/Christiansburg area needs to check out Whitebarrel Winery)!! The same day, I booked my first bride for MY business!!! Later that day, I booked my first bride under Dear Sweetheart Events!!

So I know it may seem like I just shared all about my week, step by step, but my main point is that things will always get better. Don’t let the little things seem like huge things and let them ruin your day or your week! There will always be something that happens to make it better. For me, the really good ways to end a day are binge watching a show with my roommate and friend, Rachel with her little kitten playing fetch with us in the living room (yes he does play fetch and you can see him in action on his IG: westonthekitty), or watching some on ID or Travel Channel with Huck. I can do both of those on my own, but doing them with people I love makes it so much better! I could have let my broken mug, missing Kate Spade Planner, burn or the stress of the week ruin my week, but I didn’t and you don’t have to either.

I would love to see a community of building each other up and sharing our hard moments so we can jump over those and into embracing the good ones! I just entered into a community of business women supporting each other and couldn’t be more excited. Communities are everything, whether it’s your best friends who know every piece of you, your classmates sharing the same school work struggles or your family who will be there no matter what, cling onto them. It’s all about balance friends, eat a salad for lunch and huge bowl of ice cream for dinner, work your butt off one weekend and veg out the next drinking all the wine and watching all the football you can.

Let’s do this together!!

     

Hope

Hope has been a really big thing recently. I feel like it’s everywhere. Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, blogs, friends, communities or just me in general. Everyone, every day is hoping for something. I’m taking a philosophy class right now and something we’ve talked about is that you aren’t supposed to hope because hope is empty. According to philosophy, we aren’t supposed to hope because that means we are thinking in the future which is also bad because we then fear death…I know, I don’t get it either. I’ve never really understood philosophy or agreed with it, which is because it contradicts Christianity. So, I disagree, hope is everything BUT empty.

This past week, we focused on the topic of hope in my class and a mentor to me started a series within her series. I’m not sure if that is the correct way to refer to it but she has been doing something called a Hope Series for a few years. I’ve been babysitting for her children for 4 years and while doing so, I’ve learned a lot from her and what her series is about. They are heart wrenching, beautiful, happy, sad, hard to read and exciting to read, to me this is hope. She just started, what I referred to as a series within a series. Every day there are parts of stories posted to a Facebook page called Connor’s Hero’s Foundation about children who have had, are currently going through or unfortunately didn’t beat their battle with cancer or another life altering disease. So far, the stories have been posted in parts of 4. I didn’t understand this at first, or really like it because I wanted to read the whole story and know the outcome for the family. Today, I read the first part of a story that could have ended two ways; she could kick cancers butt and be free of the awful disease or she could fight with every ounce of her being and die a fighter. I read the final part of that story later in the afternoon, 4/4 was the start, by the end I had tears running down my face. I don’t know the real reason that the stories of these children and their families are posted in parts but for me it’s because I need to read it slowly and see just how real this is. Kristin, of Kristin Seward Photography (Lens of Hope) has always had a beautiful way of writing these stories and photographing the touching moments. No matter how sad or heartbreaking the story is she gives a sense of hope and shows the hope that was always there. Without hope, children, adults, family and friends who get the news that no one wants to hear, has nothing to live for and no fight in them. That’s why I choose hope.

If cancer hasn’t touched your life personally, I couldn’t be more happy for you. If we aren’t currently hoping for a good diagnosis, we are hoping for something else. Couples hoping to expand their family, a friend or spouse hoping for a raise or job acceptance, students hoping for a good grade on a test or projects, hope for good check-ups, there is always something to hope for.

We have so many social media outlets to share information on, whether it’s good or bad people are more likely to post something that people can read before they are to share it personally with someone. I have over 800 friends on Facebook and I can admit that I would much rather them read my blog posts without me seeing their reactions or hearing their opinions if I were to verbally tell them what my posts say face to face. I see a lot of negative, I know I’m guilty of it as well. I hear of a lot of groups for people facing the same challenges and I want there to be hope within them. Having outlets where we can share out challenges and struggles is an awesome sense of community that everyone should have in their lives. We have groups within our church, our schools, our work group, our friends and family and we have the ability to build each other up, pray for one another and hope with each other.

Sometimes I wonder if I hope too much. Huck always tells me to slow down and keep my goals and ambitions but don’t worry too much. I tell him the same, but I also tell him to hope more and not let the negative cancel out the hope. I have small hopes and big hopes. I hope for a great senior year, good health for my family and friends, the continuation of a happy relationship, and I’m sure there’s more everyday but my big hopes consume more of my thoughts. I hope for more Childhood Cancer Research funds. I hope for a cure for cancer. I hope for a better United States. I hope for terrorism to become a thing of the past. I hope for better education in countries that don’t have the resources. I hope for more hope.

I hope this post gives people more motivation and hope. Realize that the terrible things that are happening in our world are REAL but that doesn’t mean we give up hope. Learn, research and do everything you can to spread the word and increase the hope for these different things. My philosophy book says “hope a little less, love a little more” (Luc Ferry), I want to change that sentence to, “hope a little more, love a lot more.”

If you would like to read these stories or donate to the cause visit Kristin Seward // Lens of Hope and Connor’s Hero’s Foundation on Facebook where you can also donate if you feel so inclined.

Senior Year

Tomorrow will be the first day of my senior year. My senior year. I can’t get over how fast the last 3 years went. I also can’t believe how much I’ve learned and how much has changed in those 3 years. This year is starting off with new hair, a new apartment, a new roommate and a whole list of new classes. To my surprise, that’s not all that is new this year, I also got offered a job! There will be more about that later.

Coming into this year, just last week I wasn’t sure what to expect for this year. I, of course, was hoping for a good outcome and have been trying to be positive about all the new change. I’ve never really been someone who likes school. Occasionally I’ll begin a class that I end up really liking, whether it’s the information or the teacher. I have been fortunate enough to usually have a least one of these classes each semester. I can also say that the last year in college, was definitely not one of the best years of my life like everyone says college will be. College has been difficult, it’s been constant change and it’s had its hardships. Everyone has their own way of getting through each hard week or difficult class, my way is to try to always have something planned to look forward to. For me this is usually a race, wedding, my dad’s band playing, someone’s birthday, seeing a friend or just relaxing with my boyfriend or now, my roommate Rachel.

One of my favorite things to look forward to is helping Kat with weddings on the weekends. I started helping her a little over a year ago and always look forward to when she’s going to ask me to assist her again. Kat has grown to not just be someone I help when I can but also a mentor and role model. Within just a few years she’s become such a successful wedding planner and founder of creative at heart. I am so inspired by her and her compassion and work ethic every time I’m around her. This September I am helping her two weekends in a row and I thought I couldn’t be more excited. It turns out, I definitely can be! Yesterday when I was finishing setting up my room in my apartment, Kat called me to offer me a job with her that will start with the first wedding. I had high hopes for this year, but I never thought this would be the outcome. I could not be more thrilled to work with one of my role models as much as I can while still in school. I feel so blessed to have been introduced to her by the lovely Katelyn Alsop just two years ago.

            When I called to tell my mom, she reminded me of my freshman year when I was emailing every Richmond wedding planner I could find on the internet to help me or give me advice and how I had absolutely no luck. Now, 3 years later I get the privilege to work with such an incredible woman and learn so much from her. I can’t wait to start the journey of my senior year with so much to look forward to. Cheers to senior year!