Born in Waco, raised all over the South and Southwest, I now call Austin my home. I know, roll your eyes — I’m the transplant you all wish would just take my big Yukon to another traffic lane. But my husband is an Austin native and that counts for something, right? His parents still live in the house he grew up in, ten minutes away, and taco dates with granddad are a regular. Can you blame me for choosing this life?

By day, I run Heavenly Day Events as a wedding planner and recovering workaholic. Before you gather in a circle with excitement, anticipating stories of tidy experiences with beautiful flowers and amazing food, let me tell you one thing: it’s 90% grunt work and only 10% glamorous. Regardless, I cannot tell you how much I truly love my clients, vendor friends and opportunities afforded to me through being an entrepreneur. Don’t get me wrong, being an entrepreneur has quite possibly come with some of the biggest sacrifices in my life and I find that I’m terribly misunderstood by others as one that works out, has coffee dates all day and makes money doing it. Try again.

By night, I like to call myself a wife to John (the biggest team player I know) and Unicorn Mom to Ford (March 2014) and Annie (March 2016) but if you’ve missed the meme, I’ll share the gist. A Unicorn Mom is a mother who is not perfect, enjoys alcohol, has a sense of humor and couldn’t care less what you think. Basically, I’m the award-winning party planner that runs to the dollar store the night before my kids’ birthday parties and comes home with primary color décor and a sense of relief that “at least I didn’t forget.”

I feel like I should pause for moment and speak about my pets. Remember when they used to be the sole focus of our Instagram accounts? And they were perfectly behaved because they enjoyed long jogs and every social outing you can imagine? So let the record state that I did not forget Lucy (white lab), Bailey (mutt Beagle) and Loco, our beta fish that I affectionately named as a reflection of our season in life. There is nothing I love more than changing the fish water once a week.

My husband says that I have picked favorites with our kids, Annie being my obsession. But guys, she has the most luscious cheeks and thighs that beg to be squeezed. She’s also the happiest baby in the world with huge baby deer eyes that are rarely seen because she is always smiling. My son, bless him, turns everything into a gun, is sticky, can’t keep his hair combed over (death to me), has smelly feet, zero aim and loves Star Wars. I don’t have favorites, dear husband, but one of them talks back and the other doesn’t. Though, just so we are clear, I love everything about that little boy and all of his boy grossness. He makes me laugh and when I find him in precarious situations, rather than maturely parenting him through his peril, I race to find my phone to take a picture.

In a perfect world, I would have a million hours for Austin Life Care, Syrian refugees (Looking to help locally? Please contact me!) and speaking against sexual assault. But in my actual world, I do the best I can to make every effort towards impact in those areas, even if just through simple conversation with friends. Collectively, my work, my family and my various passions have taken me on a journey that I hope includes writing and speaking with a specific focus on engagement, marriage and healthy relationships in general. Even though, I’ll be the first to say that there are plenty of days that I get it wrong and all I can share is “what not to do”.

I look forward to this upcoming year with all of you AMB mommas! Thank you for having me.

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