Jacob and I always have a knack for making large, impactful decisions during the summer.
We started dating in the summer of 2014.
We got engaged, went to Europe and started our first adult jobs in the summer of 2016.
We got married, bought a house and got promoted in the summer of 2017...
And now it’s the summer of 2018, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary and our next big decision is in the works.
June 15th, most likely a normal day to the majority of my network of friends and family, was my last day of work at my current job, and the first day of being a full-time entrepreneur.
Talk about a big change.
Goodbye steady paycheck, 8-5 working hours, corporate benefits, free La Croix, company laptop, sales commission and not to mention daily interaction with friends, managers and leadership who are top of their class, intelligent and kind.
Growing up, I always wanted to run my own business, from selling homemade dog treats when I was 8, to running the pool concession stand in the summer, to launching my solo career as a singer/songwriter in high school, I was always itching to do my own thing.
After college and two years in the corporate-world, I knew it was time to take the big step and focus full-time on my company, Weddings By Weaver.
I didn't grow up dreaming of being a wedding planner, but I am sure glad it's my dream now. It wasn't until I was planning my own wedding that I realized that the experience can be pull-your-teeth painful, but also over the moon fulfilling. I was hooked.
I was lucky. I received so much help from my my mom, my in laws, my fiance, and friends and family. But I saw that many of my friends didn’t have the network that I did and were spending way more than they needed to on an event that would last *maybe* 6 hours and were getting way more stressed out than they needed to.
Always a helpful, organized, on-top-of-things leader, I began helping plan other friends weddings, realizing with my husband that there was no such thing as "affordable" wedding consulting. For brides on a budget, hiring a planner wasn't possible.
For a bride planning a $10,000 wedding, the only companies in the business were charging over $2,000 for their coordination services. This was the normal, the average, and completely acceptable. This enforced the idea that wedding planners were only for the rich and all of us “Budget Brides” were not able to book them.
Enter Weddings By Weaver.
A company that cares for brides and their budget. We want to create a day that represents you and your relationship with your fiance, but we also strive to help build a day that will prepare you for the biggest thrill of your life.
I always say, “Plan for a marriage more beautiful than your wedding.” While I L-O-V-E watching the bride walk down the aisle to her groom, the father/daughter dances, and the smooshing of cake in each others faces, I love watching marriages flourish years after the wedding even more.
Between losing loved ones and welcoming in new members of the family, to truly fulfilling the phrase “in sickness and in health” - those are the moments I want to see carried out beautifully. I’ve seen my own parents do this in such a graceful way, and I hope I can do the same for my children.
Here’s a message for the bride, the soon to be engaged, the girls dreaming about their future wedding currently reading this. Instead of getting all freaked out about having the wrong shade of pink for your bouquet, let’s take a second, and remember WHY we are getting married in the first place. Is it because we just want a big day all about us? Because, if so - you already have one of those days - it’s called your birthday.
OR are we getting married because our ‘person’ is someone who makes us more fruitful as a human? Are we better together than we are apart? If that’s the case - then let’s create a day that showcases that to your friends and family and sets you up for a fantastic adventure.
Pardon my sales pitch friends, I’ve been dreaming about this day for a long time and get so excited when I can share my heart behind the business.
Overall, this next adventure is going to be one I look forward to telling my future kids and grandkids about. I’m SO excited to have you join me, so if you’re still reading, join our email list to get updates on our blog posts, freebies, tips and tricks to make sure that we are setting up a day that welcomes you into marriage.
Much love,
Kara