For Your Defining Moments, Start Here

Some of the guests on Make Your Wedding a Highlight, I've had the pleasure of being a part of an event team with. Some I haven't, yet, but hope to soon. This week's guest was Heather Archdeacon-Willams,  the owner of Defining Moments Weddings & Events. She also happened to be the wedding coordinator for the best wedding I've ever been to: my own :). I haven't been able to be a part of an event team with her yet just because our schedules never quite lined up but I was so excited that I got to chat with her (as well as gush about her to her).

The conversation included Disney magic, Heather's wanderlust. But, drawing from her 15 years of wedding planning experience in the 30A area, Heather shares insight on where to focus first so that way you avoid heartache or difficult decisions later on in the wedding planning process.

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The intro and outro for this Highlight Weddings & Events Podcast was edited and produced by DropHouse Voiceover Production Studio and Tony Tee Neto, Voiceover Artist & Audio Producer. For more info on branding elements, editing, and post-production services, visit http://drophouse.com.

The song used for the intro and outro for this episode is Crush by https://audiohub.com License: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Transcript

 DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:00:29] Well, hello everyone again. Thanks for checking out the podcast. My name is DJ Josh with Highlight Weddings and Events, and I have the most awesome wedding planner that I haven't actually worked with yet because our schedules haven't lined up. Her name is Heather Archdeacon-Williams from Defining Moments.

How you doing today, Heather? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:00:48] I'm doing well, Josh. How are you doing? 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:00:49] I am doing great. Other than the impending hurricane that is looming in the Gulf again for like the 10th time. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:00:59] Exactly. We're going to pray for a western move, but obviously hope it doesn't destruct anything in that direction.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:01:07] Yeah.

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:01:08] But hopefully spares us a little bit after the last month we've had. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:01:11] I would rather it just disappear.

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:01:13] I know. Me too.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:01:13] That would be the best outcome possible. And, to give the listeners a little bit of background, the reason why I know that Heather is so awesome is because you were my, and my wife's, wedding coordinator way, way back in the day. It'll be almost seven years in December, actually. Yes.

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:01:32] Coming up in December. Exactly, absolutely. Such an honor to work with you and Rhoda. I adore the two of you. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:01:38] We truly appreciated all of the hard work that you did, but most listeners may not know who you are, so would you mind introducing yourself to the listeners who you are and how did you get to this point in your career? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:01:50] Sure. Well, my name is Heather Archdeacon-Williams, like Josh said, and I'm the owner of Defining Moments Weddings and Events. And that's been a long time in the making. I graduated from Florida State University over in Tallahassee. And, I actually got into special events kind of in a roundabout way. I have a degree in mass media communications, but I did my entire senior year of college working for Disney in their college program.

So I started out there in entertainment and was a parade dancer at the Magic Kingdom. Everyone has to work the line position. And then went into my professional title. I was based out of Animal Kingdom and I worked in guest relations. And I was a manager assistant for main entrance operations for the park.

One of the things that they help oversee there are corporate events in the evening. Big companies like GE, Apple, they can actually buy it the parks overnight. So, big corporate events will actually close down the park, maybe between like 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM for private corporate functions. And, being a starving college student to earn extra hours and pick up some extra time, I started working for those corporate events and special events overnight. And it really got me excited about the special event industry and decided I was going to change my trajectory that I had originally planned on and really focus on that. 

In the meantime as part of guest relations, I was scheduling VIP tours that had come through our park. So working in that coordination and detail side of it, but also seeing the events actualizing in the special events overnight, just got me excited about the industry. 

After I graduated, I moved back to Tallahassee and I was based out of the school of theater but worked for the fine arts for the city. So everything from theater to dance, orchestra, opera, doing ticketing, in-house management, and special events for the fine arts in the city. And then after a few years, I absolutely loved everything about it, but I kind of hit my ceiling as far as I could go in that job, applied for a job with the town of Seaside to be an event coordinator there. Which was in my mind, just a pipe dream and a long time shot. I wanted to break into weddings, but had no clue how, and applied for the job on a whim just never thinking I was going to hear anything.   Then a few days later got the call to come over and interview. I got the job, packed up my entire life, not knowing a single person, moved over to this area, and that was in the spring of 2005. 

  Worked my way up for the first couple of years and became the Director of Weddings and Special Events for the town of Seaside, was the main lead wedding planner there and worked there for seven years. And then left to start my own company, just to really broaden my own horizons and take that next step for me, personally. And I have been in business now for eight and a half years in the area as Defining Moments Weddings and Events. So I absolutely love it. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:04:42] That's awesome. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:04:43] Yeah. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:04:43] How do you think working at Disney impacted your mindset when it comes to events? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:04:48] Oh my gosh. I think that it by far changed me as a person and really set me on the path for professionalism.

It's just that nobody does it better than them. I'm one of the biggest voices of having worked for them and having come up through their college program and their training program. Every single detail and aspect of a guest experience is taken to the nth degree of show and professionalism. And they train their cast members from day one to really buy into that mindset and believe in it truly for what they put out there. And I honestly believe that it really gave me the framework for moving forward professionally in the professional business world. And I owe so much to them, from my management team and my mentors that I had there for really setting me up for success. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:05:41] I've only been to Disney a few times, but every time it's a wow experience.

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:05:46] It still is for me too. Everyone always asks me that. You know, "Is the magic lost, because you've worked there? Everything is behind the scenes for you." But there's just the suspension of disbelief. Not everyone is cut out to work there. And I think you know like within the first couple of days, whether you are or not. But that magic is truly not lost on me. I've kind of created that in my husband as well. And, he liked Disney just fine, but he's now become a big Disney fan as well. And my family and everyone, and I think it's very contagious. 

There's that revert back to having that childlike mindset and everything. And it is a suspension of disbelief, but I think that we can all embrace that. A lot of people, I think, think Disney's just for children and that's not true at all, you know? And it just kind of crosses all age demographics if you want it to. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:06:31] You can find some parallels to being involved with weddings as well because I think you have to kind of get into character, if that makes sense. Or like be willing to, "It's not just another wedding. It's Caitlin and Josh's wedding," or like be able to internalize it, so you feel as excited as the couple. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:06:52] Oh my gosh. Absolutely. And that's something that, honestly, Josh, I tell my clients and I truly do believe that. This is their one shot at that perfect day for them. And I may work with 25 different clients in a year, but when it comes to that specific couple that I'm working with, I want to be as excited about their event as they are because I'm not looking at this of, "Oh, this is the 400th wedding that I planned. Or this is the third one this month or whatever." It is that one day for the two of them, and I think that they deserve to have it treated to that level. And I want to be as present in it and create that specific day for them. Cause it is such a life-defining moment. 

It's an emotional day. It's a financial impact to the couple as well, and, obviously, as a vendor team, want to be as excited about that specific day as they do to and treat each individual couple, that they're the most important couple that we'll work with that year.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:07:45] Absolutely. So for you specifically, what excites you about being a part of the wedding event team either working with the vendor side, or with the couples, or both? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:07:54] Oh my gosh. I think it's both. From a vendor standpoint, we have such a tight-knit vendor group here in the area in a way that we kind of champion each other and we all work with one another.

I always find it very funny when, you know, if, I'm already booked for a date and I'll refer several other wedding planners who are friends and colleagues of mine in the industry and couples are always surprised saying, "I can't believe that you would recommend someone else," you know? And, I'm so shocked when they say that because obviously if I can't give them what they're looking for, or I'm already booked for the date, I would love to be able to keep that business here in the South Walton-Destin area and be a voice for a fellow vendor and hope that they do the same in return. Because, I don't think I'm being biased, I think we have some of the best wedding vendors here in the area. 

And it's such a collaborative process throughout the entire wedding planning process that putting ego aside and everything like that, we all have to work together so much. So I think we all try to make the most of it. And I think a lot of us are all friends too, which is great. So I love that standpoint of it just the camaraderie of it. 

And then from the actual client-side of it, it is being in it on the wedding days. It's the 10 to 14 hours from setup in the morning to break down. 90 to nothing with your hair on fire. And, time just moves at warp speed. And there's all the different moving parts and pieces. 

Some of these couples, we've been working with for as long as 18 months and just watching that all come together in the culmination of it. Seeing them and their guests and their family members react to that. That's pretty rewarding in itself. 

I know we're not curing cancer or doing anything like that, but I love the fact that we are a part of such a special day in their life that, years from now, maybe they'll think back when they're looking back at their pictures and one of our names will come up in conversation about a wedding vendor that they remember. And that's the ultimate compliment. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:09:45] To be honest, both myself and Rhoda will probably never forget you just because... 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:09:49] Aw, y'all are so sweet. I feel the same about y'all.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:09:52] Aw, thanks. But I'll just kind of go into what happened at our wedding. I wrote a blog about it, but I want to gush about you to you. The first thing is there was a chance of rain. Like it kind of sprinkled a little bit, and I remember about an hour out, you were like, "Hey, do you want to stay outside?" Cause we were at Tops'l.

The cool thing about that space is they had three different outdoor venues that you could have the ceremony set up and also the really cool indoor venue with the rafters and all that kind of stuff. I think Rhoda was pretty adamant about having the ceremony outside. So we went ahead with that and, in that, oh, actually before then, we didn't even realize that our photo booth had not shown up. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:10:32] Correct. In 15 and a half years, Josh, of doing this job, I can honestly say it's probably two times that that has ever happened And I mean, it's just watching a nightmare unfold behind the scenes. Which obviously you don't want to make the clients, you don't want to stress them out and make that aware of it. It's just think on your feet as fast as you can and make something happen. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:10:51] Yeah. Well, I've learned that with weddings, you're going to experience things that you've never experienced before at any event. But the cool thing is, neither of us knew, one, the photo booth didn't show up and, two, that it was actually a replacement. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:11:04] That is correct. Yep. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:11:05] And, that just speaks to the fact of how much stuff goes on during the wedding. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:11:11] Behind the scenes. Yeah. You know, it's almost to a point that jokingly, I would never actually say this, but you'd say to a couple, at the end of the night, when we set them off and it's all hugs and kisses and everybody's on that emotional high and everything, it's like, "Call me in two weeks when you get back from your honeymoon and we'll tell you what really happened behind the scenes."

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:11:28] No, and that's something else I enjoy, too, is if stuff doesn't necessarily go how it was planned. It's a source of pride for me to take the situation that you're currently in and just make it look like that was what was supposed to happen anyway. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:11:44] Exactly.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:11:44] Within weddings, themselves, that's where we really provide value is taking the stress away from the couple and their guests. Because if things happen and they know, "Oh, that's not supposed to happen," then there's that lack of ease to where they're like, "Oh, wait, something else might happen." If you guard the couple and their guests and just let them enjoy the night, that's kind of the thankless part of the job but it's still so rewarding. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:12:10] Exactly. That is the thankless side of it. But I feel the graciousness if at the end of the day, a mother of a bride or the bride and groom or the maid of honor, or whoever can say, "Oh my gosh. It was so wonderful. It went by in a flash. Everything was perfect. And I didn't have to worry about anything." That's the compliment. That's our goal: to have them be able to feel like they are a guest at their own event. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:12:33] Speaking of couples specifically, how can couples working with you make their experience a highlight? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:12:39] I think that honestly, the most important thing is really trusting in your vendor team. It's a collaborative process, the entire thing. And being able to live in the moment for couples on their wedding day, for me is one of the most important things for them. And right before I send a bride down the aisle, right before we open that door, we send her down the beach access, I always remind them to take a deep breath and live in the moment and be present because it's going to go by so fast.

Being able to turn over a little bit of that control to your vendor team and trust in them that you booked everyone for a reason, the recommendations were given on a couple's preferences and styles and budgets and personality types,  really trusting in your vendors to be advocates for you and to be there for you to create this day so that they can be guests at their own event and to truly be present on the day. 

Because after all is said and done, they're going to have the photos afterwards and the memories that go along with that. And so you want them to be able to just relish in everything that happened that day. It's so emotional and it can be so stressful, but to be able to just put their mind at ease and let it go and to really trust in us to create what we've planned so hard for. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:13:59] I truly think that's super important. And that goes back to just allowing them to be in the moment and not worry about, "Oh, does that person know what they're doing?" And feeling like they need to check on you. That's a really, big important thing for me too.

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:14:16] Absolutely. That trust has to be there. And I think that's really important to couples that are looking for wedding vendors. Keep in mind, people like your photographers. As a bride or a groom, you're going to spend the most time on your wedding day, probably with your photographer. So you should like them.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:14:31] Yes.

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:14:31] And not just their work. And the same goes for all wedding vendors. And I'm sure you get this too, being a DJ, you're going to help set that tone so heavily for the reception and for that party. If you're not getting a good feel from that person on your initial interaction or phone call, just because a friend recommended them, or just because you saw something online that you liked about it, really talk to those people ahead of time. 

And that's part of the job that I do is to help get through that on the initial side to help pair people with personalities that are going to work well for couples. Because not every vendor is for every couple and that's okay. That's why there's so many different options. But yeah, there's that trust that goes along with that that you want to have that comfort level from day one to know that you've been placed in great hands and everybody's seeing eye to eye and it's so collaborative. And it's going to give you exactly what you were wanting as the end result. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:15:23] What are some common questions that couples will either ask or some questions that they should be aware of to ask or think about whether they're just starting wedding planning or as they're going through the wedding planning process? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:15:37] Especially within this area, I think that time of year, time of day, and weather play so heavily into a couple's decisions. So the first thing that I always do when couples have a date in mind is immediately go ahead and pull the sunset time for that date. And it's something that they might not think of if they're coming from Atlanta or Nashville or someplace like that. The sun probably sets a little bit later there. If you get married after the first weekend in November here over the winter months, once time has changed, unless you're going to do a first look for photography and sometimes couples don't want to, that's is gonna be a deal-breaker for them. You may have to get me it's 3:30 in the afternoon because the sun will set by 4:45 in the afternoon.

So it's something that, before they start putting down deposits on a venue just because it's available and they fell in love with it, think about that. Is it a deal-breaker for you that you're going to have to see each other for photos ahead of time to be able to get those beautiful photos and the sunset pictures, especially if it's an outdoor venue, so we can still have daylight? Or do we want to maybe reconsider that date and move it later into the following spring or bump it up to September, October, maybe?  That's such an important aspect from the get-go. 

Another element is time of year.    The most common question that I get for summer weddings is, A) "Is it going to be hot?" The answer is, "It's going to be hotter than you can imagine in July or August." B) "Is it going to rain?" And, unfortunately, it probably is because it tends to sprinkle at some point at three o'clock every afternoon. And "Should I be worried about storms?" 

And it is something to consider, but for example, like a teacher. I was in that situation, I'm married to a teacher. So the timeframe between my career and his of when we could get married really put us into the summer months and it wasn't ideal for us for late June. It wasn't what we were thinking, but we didn't want to wait a whole year to get married. So we planned for indoor/outdoor concepts that gave us a rain back up or some sort of climate-controlled venue that could accommodate air conditioning. Cause all of our guests were coming from the North, so they might not be used to the kind of weather that we get down here.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:17:43] Yeah. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:17:44] So I think that those are some of the most important things. It's just because this area with wedding venues is so heavily dictated by the landscape and how beautiful everything is here. You're dealing with a lot of factors that are out of our control. So having a plan B from the start and really getting those not sexy details about what time the sun's going to be setting on your wedding day, get those out of the way up front, so you can really make a value decision on what time of the year and what time of the day and what location you want to choose for your venue.  That really starts everything off. Once you have that date and the venue and your guest count, those are pretty much the three basic foundations for couples to begin that process.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:18:25] Definitely.   And another thing you mentioned, or while you were talking, I thought of is, I know, for instance, in Atlanta, they have multiple weddings at venues throughout the day. There was a wedding that Rhoda's best friend had. They got married, I think it was around one o'clock. And they had a morning and an evening one. This was when I was like, first in weddings here. And I'm like, "That's crazy!" Cause most venues only have one event a day.  

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:18:52] That's why I always caution couples against like I said, they have the date and they have the perfect venue that they've always dreamed about. And so they just go ahead and put a deposit down and then they call me or another wedding planner. And at that point, we have to have the hard conversations about those kinds of things. Time of day, other vendors, things here in this area. We have a 10 o'clock noise ordinance for all outdoor events, which they might not be used to. You know in bigger cities events can go until one or two in the morning.  

And most importantly with that is I always caution couples. Even though everything is perfect. Maybe we can try and get a courtesy hold for a couple of days while we get all of our ducks in a row. Biggest thing playing into that obviously is budget. Is that specific venue going to work for your budget? And if it's dicey, well, we might have to make some concessions in other places. So let's get the plan in place first and then let's start moving forward with the contracts and the deposits at that point. But don't get into a situation that you can't get out of, especially with nonrefundable deposits, because it can start you off on a bad path in that case. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:19:52] Unfortunately, that's the whole buyer's remorse thing. And then it's this, then it puts a big, dark cloud over the entire process. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:20:00] Exactly. You want to start off on a positive note and move forward from there. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:20:05] So basically what you're saying is you should talk to a coordinator first before you move toward the venue. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:20:10] It definitely is helpful. It's one of those situations that a wedding planner or a coordinator can help set you up for those questions: exactly what you said. Things that you might not have thought of. 

I get so many couples that call me that apologize to me in that first, 30 minutes to an hour call about, "I'm sorry. I'm asking so many questions and I'm asking stupid questions." And I always tell them, "No, you're not. You probably have not done this before. You're asking all of the right questions and you should be asking questions. So don't feel like you're monopolizing someone's time. That's what we're here for. So please help us help you and utilizing that properly. And we're going to try to set you up on the right path, moving forward. Cause this should be fun." It should be a fun process. It shouldn't be a stressful daunting one that you just regret. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:20:53] Another value that working with the coordinator specifically. For instance, I grew up in this area. I relocated cause I was in the Air Force. So I was out of the area for about six years, but I came back and actually worked at Sandestin a couple of years before we got married. And I would have never thought of Tops'l. That would have never registered in my mind unless you had brought it up. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:21:15] I came originally from Atlanta. This is definitely the smallest place that I've ever lived in, but that was something I was so surprised about when I first started working in events here.

Obviously, I was specifically in Seaside, and we handled all of the planning and coordination for the venues in the town. But we'd have clients all the time that wanted to do a rehearsal dinner outside of town or something so we would help make recommendations for other places. 

And I was so surprised to find out that in the off-season, restaurants in the area will shut down for the evening and let you do a full buyout of the location. And there's certain, very specific times of the year in funky, fun venues that people might not know about. And it might be something that you've never even considered before. And that's something that we know about.

If you want to try to get what you're looking for, but it's not working for budget or it's not working for date, it's not just resorts or communities that do weddings, there's other places. That's part of our job is to help refer those different places and maybe get you thinking about and excited about an option you had never even considered and didn't even know existed. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:22:18] Definitely. All right. So since this year has been wacky and crazy, and COVID 19 has touched everybody's life. How has it impacted you both personally and business-wise? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:22:34] Uh,  well, business-wise, it has just kind of been a whirlwind. I can honestly say I've never seen anything like this when it first began in having an impact to the travel and tourism industry. We've seen a lot with the oil spill and the recessions and things like that, but like the big impact of specifically travel and tourism. The closest thing I could relate it to was September 11th that I had worked through and seen.

So it was definitely, I know everyone's kind of using that word and were probably sick of it, but it's so unprecedented. And, unfortunately, it was the beginning of March, which here on the coast, that kind of kicks off spring wedding season. In addition to travel for spring break, it kicks off spring wedding season.

So we didn't really have time to think and think about it coming. We went from zero to 60 in pretty much 48 hours, I think. And all had to kind of react, so it's been tough with cancellations and postponements and just having to go side by side with your clients to work through that with them.

It's been heartbreaking for some couples and we feel it for them. We truly do. We don't want them to have to postpone their wedding or have to tell half of their guests that they can no longer come. But I think the most important thing is to really kind of figure out what it is. There's no guide map that's like: you take step one and then you take step two and then you take step three. I mean everything has been so unique to each individual client, to their wishes, to their family's ability to travel and their guests and what they're looking for in their events. 

And I have had clients that have done a full cancellation that just decided to get married in their backyard back home in Kansas City with 10 people, to clients that have postponed into 2021 or into now the spring weddings, that now canceled that are happening in the fall that are postponed into here to others that have just chosen to truly downsize their wedding here. Continue on on the date they had planned. Everything the same as they had planned, but we're just going to make it smaller. Instead of 180 people, it's going to be 70. So there hasn't been a lot of consistency, but that's okay. But it's been a tough little ride. So 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:24:38] Yeah, I remember, I still remember when the first major press conference happened or the first day where you had like the five different press conferences happening every hour. And I was like, "Oh, no. This is the worst day ever." It was just so much to take. And I think the hard part with how it's been happening is it's not like September 11th, where it's a single event. It's been a marathon of different things happening and different guidelines. And "Oh, now we're doing this thing and that thing," 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:25:11] So many unknowns that it's constantly changing. At some points, I had clients whose weddings were the ones that were two to three weeks away, we were trying to give priority to start with versus ones who were three or four months away. But I felt so terrible back in March and April for the girls who had events that were taking place in September and October because I could talk to them every single day and tell them "I don't have any new information for you today, but I could in six hours or I could in six weeks. We're just kind of at the mercy of everything else going on. And we're getting our information as fast as we can. And of course, you're going to be my first call, but right now I just have to put you in a holding pattern because I just don't know how to answer your questions because the information and the updates are changing on a daily basis at this point." But, we just kind of have to take it, literally, day by day at that. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:26:01] Well I think that's the best approach to take anything because you never want to give somebody erroneous information. Because then they'll start to lay plans based off of that, and then you have to come back and be like, "Oh, no. It's changed again," kind of thing. And it's just it's never, it's not a good situation for anybody. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:26:17] I know other planner friends who had clients move their date three different times to end up then canceling. That's just heartbreaking to have to go through that. That's just an emotional roller coaster that no one wants to have to be a part of.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:26:29] Okay. Well, now that we've gotten to know Heather, the wedding professional, would you mind answering a few fun, personal questions?

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:26:38] Oh, sure. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:26:39] Since you worked at Disney if you could be any Disney princess, who would you be?

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:26:47] Oh my gosh, Disney princess? Um, Belle. Belle is like one of my favorite Disney princesses. Yeah. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:26:52] Why?

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:26:52] I think she's smart and intelligent and she's okay being a little bit different. And she is okay being the heroine of her own story and she's kind of a badass. I like that a lot. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:27:04] Nice. Alright. What did you want to be when you grew up? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:27:08] Oh, gosh. Um, as a child, I wanted to be in The Olympics.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:27:13] Ok. What sport? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:27:14] I was a figure skater. I was a figure skater competitively for like 15 years. Yeah. I started when I was like three and competed all through early high school. And then I taught a little bit in college. So like all through elementary school, I wanted to be in the Olympics. Um, and I wanted to win a gold medal in figure skating.

But realistically, my father was in radio, so I grew up in that world. One of my first jobs was working for his radio station for live remote broadcast and things like that. I was a mass-media communications major. As I started getting into middle school and high school, I thought that I would probably go into some element of media, whether that be television or radio, not necessarily broadcasting. I was open to that. But just kind of being within that media realm. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:28:04] Okay. That's very cool. Since we are both wedding professionals, what is your favorite cake? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:28:11] Oh, my favorite cake? You mean from a specific person or specific flavor? 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:28:15] No, just type of cake. For instance, my favorite cake is Black Forest Cake. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:28:19] Okay. I think it would probably have to be Italian cream cake. I's pretty good. And we have a bakery here in the area that will also whip caramel into the pastry cream as a filling for it. And that is probably one of my absolute favorite wedding cake flavors. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:28:36] What bakery does that, so I can go get a piece? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:28:39] That is Chef Heidi McAnulla with Bake My Day. She's awesome. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:28:43] Okay.

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:28:43] Yeah. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:28:44] All right. I'm going to have to go. I'll surprise Rhoda with it, probably split it. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:28:48] It's so good. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:28:49] Where is your happy place? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:28:51] Oh my goodness. Um, that's a hard one. I guess my happy place is traveling no matter where it is. Whether it's local. Whether it's domestic, international. I love just being able to explore. And I like experiencing new things and I love being a part of, a local culture and just kind of embracing it when you're there. Everything from the food to the entertainment, to the theatrics, everything.

So for me, I love when I finally get a chance to take some time off and truly just go on vacation. I have that wanderlust gene that I love to travel and it just kind of puts me at ease. But I also suffer from the fact that I think because I am a planner and type A, I want to experience everything while I'm at a location.

So I'm not one of these people that can go sit on a beach for seven days and just decompress with a book and the water and the sound of the waves. I want to be doing it all and seeing it all. I'm one of those people that comes home from a vacation needing a vacation from my vacation.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:29:53] Yeah. Rhoda is very much that. She needs everything planned out, and I'm kind of the opposite. It was very interesting when our relationship was first starting to form. When we would go to her parents, I basically knew the things that were going to happen each day I was there. She was like, "Oh, we're going to do this and we're going to do this and we're going to do this."

And then when we would go visit my family, she'd be like, "So what are we doing today?" And I'm like, "I don't know. We'll figure it out." And it would kind of make her go a little crazy cause she wants to do all the things. I think she's an Enneagram type seven? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:30:28] Okay. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:30:29] So she's very much like, "Hey, I want to experience everything!" And we actually had a trip plan to Scandinavia this year en route to going back to Hungary, to be a part of summer English camp, which unfortunately that got canceled because of COVID. 

What was your favorite trip that you went on? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:30:51] Oh my goodness. Well, I'm in the same boat as you. My husband and I had a two-week trip planned to Italy from the central to South of Italy down to Sicily, the Almafi Coast, and everything for June of this year. So obviously that was canceled. Things kind of been put on the back burner. So we're just itching to try to reschedule that as quickly as we can. But that doesn't seem any time in the near, near future. 

But I think, gosh, I want to say it was about five years ago. We went out to Napa Valley and San Francisco. They couldn't have been any more different from each other, but I just loved everything about just those two West Coast cities. I mean it was fantastic and amazing food too. So, yeah. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:31:32] I think my favorite one that Rhoda and I've been on, we went to Santorini. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:31:37] Oh my gosh. That's on my bucket list. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:31:39] Either at the end of March or May. It was like right before high season. And we did the hike from Fia to Io.

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:31:46] Oh, wow. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:31:47] It's a pretty lengthy hike, but we got to the top looking over Io right as the sun was setting. So it was just so cool.

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:31:55] Oh, how beautiful.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:31:56] Yeah, just the blue and white on the ocean and it wasn't too hot, thankfully, cause there wasn't much AC or there are no trees on the island. It's kind of surreal, but it was just very picturesque and it just really, really cool to experience. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:32:13] Yeah, Greece is on my bucket list as well. And so when we were planning the Italy trip, our travel agent was talking to us about it. And she was like, I think if you go to the Amalfi Coast, it'll satisfy that want in you for at least a little bit for Santorini. So that was my concession. I was like, I think so too. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:32:28] We took a ferry from Athens to Santorini. The ferry runs from Athens to like two islands, including Mykonos and then Santorini. I think there's another one after that. But it's only like a two-hour ferry ride, so it's really accessible. If you wanted to go visit Athens for a little bit and then take the ferry, you could probably do it in a week's time because Athens was really cool, too.

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:32:52] See, that's going to be next on the list. We already have like because everything travel-wise has been put on hold and at one point we didn't think we could go to Italy, but maybe could go to someplace else. At one point we were looking at Iceland. We were looking at the Canadian Rockies. Then we started looking at Germany and Spain and France and everything there. So now I have just this list of trips that I think it's going to take me for 10 years to try to go on every single one of them. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:33:17] Yeah. But I mean, that's a good goal to shoot for though. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:33:20] Exactly. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:33:21] All right, Heather. Well, thank you for stopping by and coming on the podcast. 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:33:26] Oh, my pleasure, Josh.

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:33:27] I have one final question for you. Where can couples reach out to you to find out more information about you? 

Heather Archdeacon-Williams: [00:33:34] Sure. The best way is probably online at our website. It's definingmomentsbyheather.com or you can find us on social media @DMweddings30A. 

DJ Josh Woeckener: [00:33:46] Well, here's to the couples that are planning their weddings. And here's to making those weddings a highlight