Speaking about Start Happy Finish Happy…

Showcase2014-Recap

In March, I was part of the Speaker’s Spotlight Showcase, the event tag line is, “Live, Learn, Leave Inspired”. I love this kind of thing! A number of really talented speakers speak on a wide range of topics; each is given 20 minutes – (which for a speaker can kind of be a bit stressful! 20 minutes? Do I hit the fun stuff, or the substance? better yet – how can I cover both!) – and there is so much to learn from everyone. It’s awesome!

It was just after the Sochi Olympics so it’s no surprise that that was where my mind was. I had recently written a blog – Start Happy Finish Happy, and  I went from there.

I’m pretty sure that this talk was the start of a new presentation topic for me – it really is fun and ties in a lot of ideas that I’ve been working on for a long time. Here’s a quick clip..

Just Married!

Marnie & Deanah, April 6 2014 - thx to Catherine for an early pic to share here!

thx to Catherine for this early picture to share here!

This is definitely the type of post that should have lots of pictures but I’m going to wait for the good ones!

Sunday April 6th –  was an incredible day. Deanah Shelly and I got married.

It started with a crazy idea way back in December: “Why not have a surprise wedding?!”

I’ve a life philosophy that one should surround herself with talented people and then seek and take their advice as much as possible, so when my good friend Catherine Farqaharson, a fabulous photographer who has been to countless gorgeous weddings, said that she LOVED the idea – the crazy idea of a surprise wedding became a real plan.

This wasn’t to be the “normal” surprise wedding where the guests arrive to what they think will be just a dinner party or just a bbq only to realize that they are at a wedding, but rather the kind where one of the brides(!!) arrives to what she thinks will be just a brunch. I’ll tell you, planning a wedding really isn’t so tough – it’s keeping it as a complete surprise from one of the brides – that’s what adds quite a twist!

Deanah and I have been engaged for over a year and a half – and while we’ve talked about locations, seasons, guest lists, style, form and function… we could never get even close to picking a date. From the day you tell people that you are engaged the next question is always, “When’s the date?”. It was starting to become a sensitive subject for us because everyone asks when? and we continued to have no answer.  West coast? East coast? a destination? Summer? Winter?  With respect to our guests there could be health and accessibility issues – so how do we pick when and where? In trying to please everyone we could not decide on anything.

So I jumped in. I didn’t tell Deanah – but I jumped waaay in. I decided that I would take everything we had talked about and pick a date. Continue reading