Happy Plannerversary!

The Plannery is officially one year old today! I want to thank the DC area wedding industry for being so bafflingly rad. When I moved here from Brooklyn I had no sense of the DC wedding community, how long it would take me to make connections and get new clients, whether this venture would even work. But I was immediately blown away by how friendly the wedding vendors were (and continue to be). I honestly never thought that within the short span of a year I'd actually FEEL like I was a part of a greater (and awesome) community - so thank you, thank you!

I want to thank the DC area engaged folks for (whew!) proving me right in wanting a wedding planner and coordinator who is down-to-earth and has a sense of humor. I took a big risk in my marketing - but at the end of the day felt it was best to truly be me and I hoped potential clients would see and understand that. It's been so wonderful to get such positive feedback on my website and my services. And I'm so glad I didn't scare too many people away with the fact that I get sh*t done!

I want to thank Maryland for passing their marriage equality laws shortly after I moved here. Having both DC and Maryland support same-sex marriage meant a lot to me personally and professionally - and it means I get to work with fantastic clients who are super-psyched about getting married (and don't take that privilege for granted). Now get your sh*t together, VA.

I want to thank my friends, family, and especially my husband, for being so garsh-darned supportive. Running bios, web design, pricing, and marketing ideas by you all helped make this happen. And I'm incredibly lucky to have a husband who wanted me to really give it my all - really do this 100% to see what was possible and see how The Plannery could grow (not to mention, he came up with the name so he wins).

Long story short, THANK YOU.

The Plannery still has tons of ways it needs to and can grow and expand. I'm really only getting started. But I'm proud of this first year and how far my little Plannery has come. Looking forward to many more years!

brights and stripes

We celebrated my mother-in-law’s birthday the Saturday before we left on vacation with a small dinner party hosted at our house. It was just us, my Mom and Dad-in-law and another great couple who are old friends of the family. Since we were in the midst of vacation prepping, I didn’t have a ton of time to plan the dinner party (for shame!) - but I thought I’d prove how you can quickly, cheaply, and easily turn a dinner into a celebration! My husband was doing the cooking (of course. and thank god) - and I asked him to pick up some flowers at Whole Foods while he was doing his shopping. We did a quick run to Target and I bought some crepe paper balls to hang from the chandelier. Not ashamed to say, I'm pretty sure they were $4.00

I made a rough flower arrangement from the flowers he brought home (the two extra stems I ended up snipping off right towards the bloom and putting in votive holders!).

We rolled out an old runner my Mom made for our wedding (I always love me some stripes - check out my Pinterest page if you don’t believe me), added some colorful napkins, and voila! Colorful, celebratory and ready for a birthday.

With the ridiculously tasty meal my husband prepared and some great wine, and we were ready to roll. We feasted on surf and turf: Lamb porterhouse with fresh pickles, roasted carrot with garlic butter mint glaze, pan roasted shrimp with thyme and lemon, and creamed spinach with nutmeg cayenne and mint from his new iSi whipping siphon.

Happy birthday, indeed.