You know no one can control Mother Nature, including me.

I had taken a truckload of items from the Williams family two days earlier to refurbish and “flip” in order to cover the cost of their themed dream and there was NO WAY that I was planning to destroy my business reputation or, the possibility of “hitting a lick” by making a profit of the items by canceling a scheduled event that took months to plan on a budget- returning the treasures taken from the Williams family that Cindy and I had already began stripping, staining, sealing and repairing simply because an incoming storm was quickly approaching- had me “putting the dash on it!”

The morning of the wedding that had previously been planned at a stunning park in Granbury, rolling thunderstorms forced me into making a quick venue change within hours of the scheduled event and, being one to not allow ANYTHING to destroy this event, I called in a favor to my dear and trusted friend, Rudy Smedley after trying to find a workable solution to a stressful problem for Lisa and Terry Williams.

Our Mini Me’s the little Pawners, Maryssa and Makenna Mahaney were also involved in this wedding as flower girls and, like everyone else, jumped in making bows and decorations to transform the karate studio.

Rudy was already providing music for this event with his Double Eagle Band and certainly had issues about the possibility of band equipment getting damaged outdoors and graciously (although wondering if a wedding at his business would “look” okay) agreed to hand over his building while I quickly rallied everyone including our husbands to turn a gym with mats, punching bags and karate equipment into a wedding venue.

With a “we can do this” attitude everything that could go wrong for me did when I realized the table cloths I had purchased didn’t for the tables and the chair covers wouldn’t work because my hilarious sidekick, Cindy Daniel didn’t notice there was a difference between table sizes or chairs!

You see, normally I would have personally handled the issue of rental equipment on my own but, Cindy “found a great deal” at an area liquor store and “saved me some money” buy renting 10 foot tables and 50 garden chairs not realizing my table clothes were for 6 ft tables and indoor chairs.

I try to never let my sister know when I’m stressed and she often assumes I’m giving her a “stink eye” when I’m trying to solve an issue- this event would leave me digging through trash cans to find a lost guest book while the clock seemed to be running towards my doom of the perfect wedding!

A table collapsed out of the blue and while fashioning the table cloths to fit (awkwardly with duct tape and scissors) it became apparent that every time I checked on my previously stunning wedding cake, it looked worse! This caused me much anxiety coupled with every thing else going off the cliff on a “crazy train.” You see, while no one else suspected the numerous pitfalls and emergencies who attended this wedding, the fact is that I burst into tears every time a family member came to me with yet another “new crisis.” Our little Pawners jumped in to fluff bows and my daughter in law, Stephanie Hafele along with my son, Robert Hafele were busy helping Ann Alexander and my brother in law, Steve Daniel along with Virginia Malone try to work quickly to transform the venue to my usual “high standards.”

My vision for perfection would (as usual) be more challenging than I had first thought and with a very narrow window, I called in my husband when it was realized that the champagne AND the crystal gift goblets had been left behind at my home 25 minutes away!

Getting this job done with my usual flair would prove the biggest challenge I had ever experienced in three years and hundreds of weddings and events.

In fact, I broke into tears not once but several times when (yet another) unexpected issue would cause me to pull a solution from my ass on a ticking time clock running down to the event time.

Under the gun and having no fun, I yet again pulled off the trickiest last minute change I have ever undertaken because Failure Was NOT an option!

Taking trades to make dreams come true for families involves all sorts of unexpected drama but at the end of the day, my commitment to exceed expectations for families will not be deterred by weather, wrong sized tables and even flower petals that my dog peed on!

Resting peacefully and planning my next event, I am the Wedding Warrior and thankful for my talented team of family members who help me continue to move forward to the future.

Special thanks to Rudy Smedley’s Self Defense Studio in Willow Park, Texas and the Double Eagle Band who committed their time and their talents to make a 50s themed wedding a reality along with the Pawning Planners.IMG_3774-0.JPG

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