"Of late, many people have asked me how I got into the wedding business & more specifically how did I become a Wedding Coach. So here is my story about how I found my place in the very exciting, fun & extremely hard working environment that is the wedding & event industry.
On leaving school at 18, I had no idea about what I was going to do with my life, so I did what many people do & I started waitressing. Not very glamorous I know, but it turned out that I was really good at it & was very good with people, so I started working in some great restaurants (including the one on top of Table Mountain in Cape Town - you really cannot get a better office view in the world!) & started making some really good money. Not long after, I found myself on a plane to Europe, where once again, waitressing earned me enough for me to travel around & have some wonderful life experiences.
At the age of 22, I returned to Cape Town, South Africa & joined an overland company as a tour guide. This was an amazing job as I got to travel extensively through Africa (when it was still relatively safe to do so) & to meet people from all over the world. I learned how to cook amazing gourmet meals in the bush, using a gas burner & an open fire & how to plan events & tours for groups of very diverse people.
At the age of 25, after the death of my father, I returned to Cape Town & got a job as a manager of a beautiful B&B in Noordhoek. The B&B had a great function room & we hosted many weddings, events & conferences there, this was my first real taste of wedding planning & I loved it!
For the next 7 years in South Africa, I did all sorts of things within the event industry, including owning my own restaurant with function facilities, consulting to wedding & event venues on how to better their wedding & event facilities & services, consulting to event companies on risk management for events (this was for mega events with 30,000+ spectators), I sat on all sorts of boards & committees, establishing & writing best practice procedures for the event industry & I also contracted to venues as a wedding consultant. All of this gave me a very varied & in-depth knowledge of the event industry.
I also backed up my experience with a Conference, Event & Exhibition Diploma followed by a Diploma in Project Management.
In 2004 I started planning my own wedding (& even though I had so much experience within the wedding industry) I bought every bridal magazine out there & searched every wedding website I could find. What did come as quite a surprise to me, was that there were no books available, written specifically for the South African Bride. So I decided to write a wedding planning book for South African couples. After about a year of research & writing, I sent my manuscript off to a few publishers & after 3 rejections, I received a call from Penguin Books who said they would love to publish the book! So in May 2007 Tying the Knot, A South African Brides Survival Guide was published.
The sad/happy part of this chapter in my career, was that by this time I was living in Auckland, having emigrated here in 2006. The sad part was leaving my beloved South Africa & all my friends, but the happy part was starting a new & exciting life in a new country as a soon to be new Mum!
Towards the end of 2008, my baby boy, Tyler, was now 18 months old & I was itching to get back into the wedding & event industry. So, in partnership with my Mum Barbara, we opened The Celebration Studio in Parnell; this way I could be very active within the industry, but not have to commit to working evenings & weekends (which is very much the life of a wedding planner).
With all the brides that were coming into the studio, I started to realise that there was a need to help teach New Zealand brides how to plan their own weddings & that was how the Wedding Coach was born.
So I now find myself at 35, doing a job I absolutely love, meeting wonderful people & helping to turn dreams into reality. I am a very lucky girl indeed!"
"Of late, many people have asked me how I got into the wedding business & more specifically how did I become a Wedding Coach. So here is my story about how I found my place in the very exciting, fun & extremely hard working environment that is the wedding & event industry.