The Beginning

The movie The Wedding Planner came out when I was 12. I instantly fell in love with Mary Fiore. Matthew McConaughey wasn't too bad either. But her charm, attention to detail, and always-preparedness overshadowed her pitiful excuse for a life in my 12 year old mind. But even more then falling in love with Mary, I fell in love with her job.

I spent the next 5 years telling anyone who'd listen that I was going to be a wedding planner when I grew up. I planned my Barbies' weddings, I planned my best friends' weddings, and I acted out my own many times through junior high.

Then I came to LSU's freshman orientation and had to pick a major. "Wedding planner" was no where to be found between "Biology" and "Wetland Science". There were so many of us trying to schedule that no one got the chance go to "Oh! Public Relations would be PERFECT!". So in that moment of chaos, I gave up on my dream of wedding planning (certain that it was a silly career that no one actually did), became a sociology major, and decided I'd grow up to be a social worker.

I didn't realize until my junior year that I'd be the worse social worker ever. I have such a heightened sense of empathy that this career path would make me a crazy person. I'd take every case right home with me and probably never sleep. This revelation that social work was not for me was, unfortunately, not accompanied by another revelation of what I should in fact pursue. So I started praying. And honestly, getting back to my roots didn't re-enter my brain until someone decided to take a chance on me.

My friends Stephen and Blythe Picard got married in May of 2010, and they needed a wedding coordinator. As they prayed over who they wanted to entrust their special day to, the Lord placed me, Blake Bollinger, on their hearts. I'll never forget the day Blythe called me and said that they felt led to ask me to run things the day of their wedding. I think I might have cried. (Are we surprised, really?) I instantly accepted, and instead of being filled with the expected nerves and "oh my gosh I'm not going to be able to do this", I felt full of confidence and excitement.

Then the day arrived. If it was possible for me to fall even more in love with wedding planning, I did that day. I thrived off of the high paced, high pressure atmosphere, and by the end of the reception had people asking me for the business card. It was so good to find something that I excelled at, and love.

My next prayer was full of how I could use wedding planning to still point people back to Jesus. I realized that keeping brides from obsessing over invitations and instead keeping their focus on the fact that they're entering a marriage is the way to do it. "You get to marry the man of your dreams. In all honesty, very few people will remember the font on the invitations. But everyone will remember how much you two love each other."

So this is where I stand. I start wedding planning classes in March, and I'm on the internship hunt as we speak. I am so in love with everything weddings and planning, and it was time for an outlet. I'm still not 100% sure what this blog will end up looking like, but it's going to be an adventure for sure!