I've always loved to celebrate.
Some people aren't big on gifts, or their own birthdays, or making a fuss, but I think life is all about celebrations—celebrations of milestones, of the people in our lives, of our accomplishments, and perhaps most importantly—of love.
I founded Pretty Planner Weddings & Events as a vehicle for celebrating the beautiful moments and the cherished details that make each of my clients who they are. This might seem like a novel concept, but drawing out who a person is can be a pretty serious challenge. Case in point— myself.
At some point during law school, I became really, really worried that I had lost track of who I was. I worried that law wasn't creative enough for me, and wouldn't lead me to the types of people or the lifestyle I wanted. I worried that I wouldn't be able to travel and experience the world with such crazy hours and insane pressures. I worried about never having time to write or read or have meaningful relationships. Ultimately, I worried that I wouldn't be happy. All typical quarter-life-crisis concerns of course, but they were relentless.
It was a relatively normal day during a relatively dull class when I stumbled upon a spread by Elizabeth Messina, a wedding photographer renowned for her dreamy, ethereal imagery. I felt immediately connected to her work, and more of myself than I'd felt in a long time as I perused through her images. Though the reaction was strange, it was what I needed. I decided to go with it.
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| Photo Credit: Elizabeth Messina |
Many women become fascinated by weddings because they're fascinated with getting married. Fair enough. I think somewhere inside, if you're a woman, there is pressure to find your person and celebrate that. However, my then-boyfriend Adam and I had no such plans, nor was there any pressure for us to make any. We were both young and focused on getting through law school. The fact that weddings had no relevance to my own life, oddly enough, meant nothing to me.
I allowed my initial, gut reaction to Elizabeth's work to inspire me, and resolved to make time for myself, each day, to luxuriate in images of beauty, of celebrations, and of happiness.
During classes I would spend hours poring over wedding and design blogs, saving gorgeous images to my desktop, and making little lists of projects—"you must do this when you have time!" scrolled in margins and hidden in legal pads. I became preoccupied (a very loose term) with the concept of celebrations as stories, and telling the stories of other beings through the beautiful details that make them who they are.
Soon, the images completely took over my desktop. I turned to categorizing them in a document, ushering each image where it belonged during Civil Procedure class, or creating lists of the vendors that contributed to their beauty during Constitutional Law. By the time law school was over and it was time to start studying for the dreaded Bar Exam, my innocent little document had reached over 1,000 pages.
Just like that, the simple joy of a creative outlet and escape from the pressures of law school had become a passion.
Moving forward, this blog will be dedicated to that passion— to love stories, to the beauty of details, and to chronicling the journey we must all make... from living the life we believe we should live, to living the life that makes us happiest and brings us the closest to who we are. That, dear reader, is a journey worth celebrating.
xx,
The Pretty Planner
