Real People-Real Stories The Pawning Planners Have Helped Over 600 families In Six Years…

When people submit a trade and their story through this site it is often heartbreaking that they have no family or friends to help them with a wedding or other important event. 

Pulling everything together isn’t easy when you start with nothing.  From the cake trays to the champagne glasses to the bouquets, boutenniers and Centerpieces- I have to figure it out and refurbish trades in order to recover my expenses.  My photography team consists of my son and his wife with my sister assisting in set up and tear down along with entertaining the guests and wedding party.  Often our mini me twins Maryssa and Makenna Mahaney act as flower girls, ring bearers and ushers. 

Having a theme of red, black & white made this wedding a success and by creating the floral designs myself, saved the couple hundreds of dollars.

I’m the only wedding officiant and coordinator that created an inventory to loan to clients because I saw a need and sought to overcome it for my client base at The Pawning Planners.

I’m often interviewed as to why I would expand my business at Texas Twins Events to include bartering through The Pawning Planners but my answer often surprises others.  The reason?  Because I struggled to give my son a beautiful wedding while going through treatment and surgery for thyroid cancer.  Recognizing that I was probably not alone in the struggle, I started Low Cost Wedding And Event Services- Texas Twins Events.  

    
 My floral designs bring beauty to every event and are used for 80% of my clients booked through The Pawning Planners because they are often on a very limited budget and don’t have the money to purchase expensive items for their event.

Overcoming obstacles to give “anyone regardless of their income” took a lot of sacrifice for me but my willingness to do so was a game changer for hundreds of families.

Why my twin sister and I often refer to ourselves as a TwinTeam is because we are twins and we have compensating personalities with separate skill sets often needed while on location.  My sister calls herself the GingerTwin because she is full of humor and I’m serious since I’m the one writing the checks around here and because I’m OCD and always striving for perfection at all of my events. 

       

Coming to an event with our emergency kit is essential to success on location.  From lost or missing bouteniers to pins, duct tape and even a medical kit- we think of everything so our clients don’t have to.  Problems at the 11th hour have taught us to plan ahead in order to overcome issues we’ve ran into in the past even when Texas Twins Events clients had hired an outside vendor to provide the bouquets and boutenniers, on more than 10 occasions, I’ve loaned my own designs to cover floral vendors in order to keep everyone from panicking. 

  
At the wedding above, I wasn’t hired to officiate or orchestrate but came prepared when the mother of the groom told me four bouteniers had been lost and ran to my SUV to find my own designs in order to cover the wedding party.  We had actually been hired to handle the photography but loaned the Centerpieces and helped with the set up because there were not enough volunteers or staff available to address the issue.   

 You would be hard pressed to find another vendor who is willing to go above but that’s what makes my businesses work- being willing to do things that other vendors weren’t was my “niche.”  Being “different” was what made my businesses successful.  Helping others that no one else was willing to help created referrals to The Pawning Planners.  Hearing my story increased sales at Texas Twins Treasures.  People reached out and supported me on social media because they understood my passion, they rejoiced in our successes and laughed with us when we encountered the occasional roadblock.

Involving my entire family in the process?  Why not?  They saw what I was doing and what it meant to these families and jumped on board in my unique journey and offered to help because we recognized the need existed and because we were willing to help anyone even if they had no trade or money to book through Texas Twins Events.

Creating Pawning Planners Apparel and using funds from Texas Twins Treasures covered our clients with nothing to offer.  Are you willing to work for free?  We are.  Some of our families have no money and no trade-these events are sponsored out of my own pockets.  Sponsored clients undergo an Appraisal Appointment to verify and validate their situation and requests.

Going above and beyond requires passion and perseverance…

Wendy M Wortham Visit My Treasure Chest-Texas Twins Treasures!