When an ex-pat living in England gets engaged to a Welsh fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, the first question everyone asks (after giving their congratulations, of course) is "where are you getting married?". For Bonnie and Huw, they considered getting married closer to their new home in the U.K. and in Texas where most of Bonnie's family resides before deciding on the Florida panhandle where Bonnie's family used to vacation when she was younger.

Promoting and supporting organizations that provide assistance to survivors of domestic abuse has always been important to me. Back in my attorney days, a colleague and I helped a woman obtain a green card through a Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) petition. She was from Africa and brought to the United States as part of an arranged marriage. By the time we had met, she had suffered through two terribly abusive marriages and feared for her life because of one of her exes. It was by far the most eye opening, gut wrenching and yet rewarding work I have ever done.

The holidays have come and gone and if you're anything like me, you might be looking back in horror at all of the food and drink you consumed over the last month and a half. But never fear, I'm back with H&H Weddings to give you a little detox/retox with the next installment of the Color Pop Cocktails series. Meet the Resolution Cocktail, a light and citrus-y beverage to counteract the egg nog.

One of my favorite perks of being an event planner is having the opportunity to collaborate with friendors on styled shoots and other creative projects. So when Kate from H&H Weddings asked me to work with her on creating a year-long series of cocktails, I was ecstatic. We started this little venture by brainstorming the various holidays we wanted to cover (National Doughnut Day, duh!) and then set off to find a dream team of vendors to make it all happen. With the team in place, we holed up at the Octavia & Brown showroom for an entire day in July and knocked out vignette after vignette for 13 total cocktails.

Today, I am beyond excited to present the first cocktail in the Color Pop Cocktails and H&H Sips series, the Martini Navratilova! I hope you love it as much as I do!

One of the reasons that people (including myself) pursue careers as event and wedding planners is because they enjoy helping people and take great pleasure in being able to make others happy. As an attorney, I did as much pro bono legal work as I could get my hands on, and I want to take that same approach as an event planner. So when I saw that Amy Noelle (founder of Sugar Flower Cake Shop) needed help putting together a fundraiser for an organization with which she is heavily involved, Lend a Hand Uganda-USA, I immediately volunteered my services.

Money. Everyone wants it. No one wants to talk about it.

Back in May, I attended Shanna Skidmore Consulting’s Intentional Finance workshop here in NYC. When I first heard about the workshop, it was a no brainer to sign up. In fact, I signed up for the same reason I decided to go through B School this year: I don’t know it all (big thank you to Hilary Rushford for bringing that fact to my attention). What that means is, though I majored in Business Administration in undergrad, since then I have had no formal training on being a small business owner. And when it comes to finances, I knew I could use some help.

Before I started working in the events and wedding industry, I had no idea what a styled shoot was. Even during my own wedding planning experience, I didn’t spend a lot of time on wedding blogs, so the concept of styled shoots and inspiration shoots never stood out to me. Then, when I first started as an event and wedding planner, I realized I didn't have any of my own photos that represented the work I wanted to do. The solution? The styled shoot.

It’s no secret that my wedding was a huge catalyst in my decision to start Color Pop Events. For years I had been dreaming of starting my own business and constantly brainstorming ideas of what that business would look like. I kept coming back to event planning because it was the perfect combination of a creative outlet and a way to keep my OCD muscles in shape. But it wasn’t until my own wedding in August 2012 that I really knew that being an event and wedding planner was THE perfect career for me.

No, not THAT first time, silly. My first time blogging. Geez. I recently mentioned over on Facebook and Instagram that I had professional headshots done in November (and now on my About page) after being hounded about the fact that there weren't any photos of me on my website (other than ones from my wedding). My decision to finally add a blog to my website is a result of similar peer pressure and also the need for a forum to post thoughts and pictures that just really don't belong elsewhere on my site. So welcome to my first blog post! In early January, I participated in the Lovesick Expo in Brooklyn,  a wedding show that prides itself on defying the mainstream. The show is hosted by Lovesick Inc. and Offbeat Bride and caters to couples who are looking for edgier, non-traditional wedding vendors. Perfect place for me, right? I had a wonderful time, met some lovely couples, and made some new vendor friends. One of my favorite ladies, Mikkel of Mikkel Paige Photography, came by and snagged some photos of my super cute booth.   HUGE thanks to some other killer ladies, Juli of Juli Vaughn Designs, who helped come up with the concept for my booth and made my super cute TV (I call it my Muppet TV because of the colors and felt dials), Tracy of Gubba Gumma, who designed my backdrop, and Min of Swallow My Words, who made my dreams come true by creating Color Pop Events custom macarons. Overall, the Lovesick Expo was a fabulous event and I look forward to attending next year!