My brides often ask me how I got into wedding planning. Here’s my story:

I was an actress for a long time. I graduated from Carnegie Mellon and worked non-stop from minute I got to New York. It was a crazy, fast-paced lifestyle and I loved it. I was on Broadway, and I traveled a lot with national tours and regional theatre.

When I met my husband, I’d been in show business for 20 years. I started to crave something different. Something bigger than just me. I wanted a real solid home—and a family.

We got engaged, and hired a wedding planner to arrange our wedding.

Then I fired her.

Why? Because with 6 weeks until the big day—nothing was done. Not even a florist had been secured. How could this planner be so unprepared? How could I have let this happen?

My mom and I did everything in a weekend. It was like a recon mission, and we tackled it. We planned a nearly perfect wedding, with only 6 weeks left.

The day was beautiful—but there were certain instances where I wish we had someone guiding us. I wish we made a little speech, but we didn’t have anybody reminding us. And what about the presents? We hadn’t planned a way to bring them home.

That’s where a planner would have been helpful.

And this is when I got the wedding bug.

I started spending time at the Wedding Library, learning everything I could about weddings, reading books, and looking at portfolios for photographers, florists, caterers, invitation makers, and musicians.

Soon, they hired me as a wedding planner. It was intense, and the experience I gained was incredible.

A few years later, I moved to New Jersey with my husband and worked at Vera Wang. During that time, I got to know New Jersey, tracked down the best vendors, made relationships at the most sophisticated venues—and decided to go for it. I started my own wedding planning business, An Affair to Remember.

I’ve been a wedding planner for 10 years, and I love it immensely. Weddings are like really good Broadway productions, only the actors are real people, the emotion is real, and so is the joy.

When I fired my wedding planner, it was devastating. But it gave me the motivation and direction to find my calling. To the wedding planner who I fired all those years ago … I couldn’t be more grateful.

Until next time…

It might sound silly, but I believe that planning weddings is a calling. I didn’t exactly wake up one day and hear a voice, Eileen, you should plan weddings, but I did feel it, intensely. I just knew it was a place where I could fit my skills and make a difference in a couple’s life. What is more amazing than two people uniting together in marriage and starting a life together? As many weddings as I’ve planned, I still realize and cherish the significance of these moments, and feel lucky to be involved in helping them happen … smoothly … beautifully … and seamlessly.

Through my job, I have the ability to help remove a bride’s stress so that she can be fully present for her marriage—the truly special promise—where she and her husband-to-be stand up in front of friends and family to make an extraordinary legal, and soulful commitment. This moment should be at the forefront. This is why I plan weddings … So the bride can be fully immersed in this amazing moment—instead of worrying about logistics, wondering if the photographer knows which angle you want him to be shooting from, or diffusing the argument between Aunt Jean and cousin Patty.

This is why I plan weddings.

This is also why I’m starting this blog.

I want to share my experience, tips, and insight, and give brides a view into who I am as a person, and how I work. Choosing someone to plan your wedding is a very personal decision, and I think it should be based on capability and experience, as well as approach.

I’d like to put myself into this blog, so that when you read, it helps you get to know me. For me, weddings aren’t just a business, they are tremendously meaningful. I truly consider it a privilege to help my brides really experience their magnificent matrimony, and enable them to enter into marriage without worrying about the details of the wedding day.

I look forward to sharing with you through this blog. If there are any topics you would like me to cover, please let me know.

Until next time…