Episode #26: Launch of Season Two: "Coming Back With Perspective"

Episode Summary

In the Season 2 premiere, host Jennifer Starr returns after a break from the podcast following a full and reflective season in both business and life. She shares insights from stepping back into active wedding planning, celebrating her 20-year wedding anniversary, traveling to Hawaii with her family, and speaking at her daughter’s junior high career day.

This episode focuses on what it means to navigate multiple roles at once—business owner, wedding planner, mother, spouse, and individual—and how intentional pauses can create clarity, rest, and perspective. Jennifer also reflects on burnout, boundaries, trust in client relationships, and the emotional fulfillment of producing weddings.

Key Takeaways

1. Seasons in business and life are necessary
Taking a structured break created space for reflection, clarity, and reset—even if everything on the to-do list did not get fully caught up.

2. Wedding planning is both demanding and deeply meaningful
Returning to hands-on planning reinforced the level of responsibility involved, as well as the importance of trust between planner and client.

3. The balance between stress and fulfillment matters
A sustainable career in events depends on the joy and fulfillment of execution outweighing the stress required to deliver.

4. Multiple roles require intentional separation
Trying to do everything at the same time leads to burnout. Segmenting roles and responsibilities creates more presence and sustainability.

5. Career day provided perspective on influence and encouragement
Speaking to junior high students highlighted the importance of early decisions, exposure to careers, and encouragement to explore diverse professional paths.

6. Family experiences create lasting memories
A 20-year anniversary trip to Hawaii with family reinforced the value of shared experiences and intentional time together.

7. True rest requires full disconnection
A full seven-day break from all work communication showed that stepping away completely can lead to deeper rest than expected.

8. Digital boundaries can improve mental clarity
Tools that limit phone distractions can help create separation between work, life, and constant information overload.

Memorable Quotes

“The high you get from producing an event has to feel greater than the stress on your shoulders.”

“We’re not just one thing at one time—we’re multiple roles, and it’s okay not to do them all at once.”

“The wedding is the event, but it’s not everything around the story.”

Closing Note

Jennifer returns to Season 2 with a refreshed perspective, deeper reflection, and upcoming guest interviews that will continue exploring the realities behind weddings, leadership, and life transitions.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I'm your host, Jennifer Starr, and this is More Than Just a Wedding. The podcast where we celebrate real people, real moments, and respected budgets. Let's make wedding planning feel a little more human.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Welcome, season two of the More Than Just a Wedding Podcast. My name is Jennifer Starr and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me today. Yes, it's true. I can't believe it. We are officially launching season two of the More Than Just a Wedding podcast. After completing 25 episodes in season one, I learned that you could actually segment your podcast through seasons. And at first I thought, hmm, I probably don't need to do that. I can just keep going every week, every week. And then I realized I think a break would be good for so many reasons. Number one, just having, you know, bookends to the podcast itself, having some downtime to be able to really reflect and create the vision and next steps for the future of the podcast. And also just take a little time to step back and produce events to gain more stories to share, quite frankly. And that is exactly what I did during the break. Truthfully, I thought I would come back and have all of my podcast projects all caught up. And that simply has not happened yet, but it will. It will happen in the near future. More importantly, I wanted to show up when I on my last podcast episode, I announced when season two would return. And as a commitment to myself and our listeners, I'm here to be very true to my word. So welcome. Here we are, season two. During this time period, I had a very busy, busy season in that I myself, as the owner, produced two JSTAR weddings for our company. I also participated and gave a presentation for Career Day at my daughter's junior high school. And I celebrated my 20-year wedding anniversary to my husband. And we had an amazing anniversary trip with our family. So I thought I would just kind of break down the happenings of the past couple of weeks and share any valuable information that I think might be helpful to all of you. So here we go. All right. Again, when I'm doing solo podcasts, they're still not incredibly comfortable for me because I'm essentially having a conversation with myself, which is not the most natural flow. So I'm going to give myself permission. I've asked myself questions prior to hopping on camera. I've answered those questions. I'm not going to read my script word by word because that's boring, but I am going to read the questions out loud and answer them for all of you. So, question number one: have I felt grounded, stretched, tired, grateful, or reflective during the season? Honestly, I have felt literally all of those feelings. The last 45 days to two months, um, again, we're very, very busy. I was able to really step into planner mode and had to break a little bit on business owner mode, which you can only do to a certain extent because you have to keep your business fully operating and functioning and so forth. But some of the things, such as marketing, um, certain follow-ups on creative projects, more of our internal checks and balances, I had to pause on a little bit in order to give my full attention to my planning clients. And stepping back on the field into planner mode, whoa, such a good reminder. A good reminder in that it's a lot of work. It is a lot, a lot, a lot of work, a lot of hours, a lot of fine-tuning, a lot of emailing, a lot of puzzle pieces that you're putting together. And mostly it's it's a great deal of responsibility on your shoulders. Thankfully, gratefully, the two beautiful couples I was able to work with, I knew wholeheartedly uh they trusted me. And that is the secret to the planning process, just being able to do the best of my ability, knowing that I had their trust. That's it's literally everything. We talk about it a lot. Um, but I had their trust, which helped. And with that, you know, we come the responsibility is even greater because you've earned the trust and you really want to deliver the experience. So I realized in doing so, yes, it is it's a lot of work and a lot of responsibility. But the flip side of that is this super power feeling that you get at the conclusion of it, knowing that you were able to deliver this just this once-in-a-lifetime experience for this couple and their family. And that is just something that it's it's it's hard to even put words around what that is or what that feels like, but it's the feeling is so incredible. It's this natural high that I always tell our team that high you get from producing an event always has to feel greater than the level of stress on your shoulders. I think if the balance is off and continues to feel off, then it's probably best not to do this work, quite honestly, because you you really have to love it and you have to feel it and you have to be all in. So stepping back on the field was incredible. And again, with this industry, you have to be able to keep up on what's going on, you know, um, being in touch with vendors, being making sure that communication styles are evolving and changing and getting better, knowing that what the latest, you know, color palettes and rental furniture options and just overall design aesthetics uh aesthetics available for our clientele. You have to keep up with all of those things, which is which is good. Um, and then also just be reminded of ensuring that our systems and processes are still running very fluid, like for our company, making sure that not only our lead planner is set up for success, but our support team, our assistant planners, our intern team, they are also supported and able to produce great wedding days. So it was really fun to step back in and I enjoyed working with my couples. I enjoyed being out on the field. I really enjoyed seeing so many of our vendor partners and venue partners, and um ultimately I walk away from both of those experiences. It's just it's such a personal thing that you get to do for these couples. You get a front row seat to all of their loved ones, to their wedding vows, to their, you know, their song choices. You get a front row seat to their love story. And that is just something so sacred and so intimate that you're trusted with that, that it doesn't, it doesn't leave you. It becomes a part of you. And now that the business is, you know, 15 years old, I've seen so many love stories grow over time. I've seen their families grow. I've I've kept in touch with mostly all of our couples, if if they'll let me, if they want to. And it's just really rewarding to kind of watch that love story evolve over time, too. It's it's it's very, very special what we get to do. The other thing I did, which I can't decide what was more intimidating, producing weddings or doing career day at the junior high school for my 13-year-old daughters. Yes, they the students, if I'm remembering this correctly, they were kind of interviewed by the teachers on their parents' various um jobs. And if a student felt that their parent had a job that was maybe a little unusual or interesting, um they were asked to note that. So one of my daughters submitted my name, and the next thing she knows about a couple weeks later, she gets called to the office, and she immediately was, oh my goodness, what did I do wrong? What did I do wrong? And it was because they wanted to ask her permission if it would be okay if they extended an invitation to me, her mom, for career day. To which she said, Yeah, that would be great. She's just grateful she wasn't in trouble for anything. So I got the invitation and I sat with it for a while and I thought, oh my goodness, I want to be really careful with my decision making in this because seventh grade is a very tender, tender age. And I'm realizing it more and more and just really trying to be respectful of it. It's a season of life when your peers' perception of you is so important, and you're still growing your confidence, you're still finding out who you are, you're still just so kind of raw to the world. And I didn't want to put myself in a position where I made my girls feel nervous or uncomfortable or spotlighted too much in any way. So I really, really sat with it and thought with it and ultimately came to the decision. I was asked to do this. I do really love what I do. And if I can encourage and inspire not only my daughters, but their peer group and their classmates, I should, I should do it. So I spent a good amount of time preparing my presentation. And the night before and the day of, I was, I was pretty uh, I don't want to say nervous, but the energy, the uh I was feeling some feelings that morning. Um, I've never been a teacher, I've never taught a class, and all of a sudden that day I was to be giving a presentation to five different junior high classes. So I did it, and um, it it actually turned out to be really, really quite special. I think being able to look into the eyes of these young minds and just kind of offer encouragement and letting them know that career paths are so different for so many people. And if you can choose one that you feel excited about and passionate about, it's something that that is just it's a gift that keeps on giving to your life throughout time. Not to say it's not hard, not to say it's not challenging, not to say, you know, you don't question yourself from time to time, but yeah, I wanted to encourage them to be really thoughtful in the steps they take now and the activities that they participate in now and the friend groups that they're making now, because all of that shapes the future. So it was really, really fun to be able to do that. And the kids were insightful, intelligent. I think the younger generation, the resourcefulness and just their ability to research and utilize technology in positive ways. I think we have a really fantastic group of um young people that are going to be making some big waves here in the future. And that was that was inspiring for me, quite honestly. Um, the other thing that I felt empowered to discuss is it wasn't just about wedding planning or even owning a business. It was about the industry that I work in has so many incredible people in it, layered in different opportunities from lighting to sound, musicians, DJs, floral designers, rental companies, graphic artists, a million more. There's so many opportunities within not just the wedding industry, but the event industry. And I think for me, it's really fun because if you work in the event industry, you enjoy, you're a pretty fun person. I mean, you enjoy it, you get inspired by it, it lights you up. Um, so you're always gonna have a good time when you're hanging out with someone that I think does that professionally. It's it's fun. So it was good to not only encourage, I felt like I could encourage all the kids, not just, you know, the girls or you know, the boys. I felt like all encompassing of uh opportunity for so many people. So oh goodness. And I think too, it was just fun to, you know, as we're busy adults, it's just fun to really take a moment and and think about how your life has had all these, you know, dots along the way of different things that you've done and to be able to connect them and storytell, it's really fun. So I encourage you if you have the opportunity to do that for your community or education um programs, it's it's a good time. It's a good time. I encourage it. Let's see, the other thing, the trip, we went to Hawaii for seven days, and we went to the island of Oahu. Justin and I had honeymooned in Oahu 20 years ago, and we wanted to bring the kids there because we wanted them to experience just something so unique and so different. And obviously, we live in Arizona, so Hawaii is very, very different than what we're used to. And it was so funny because when we talked about our 20-year, we both really simultaneously, wholeheartedly wanted to share it with the kids. And I think some couples might think, well, that should have probably been a trip for just the two of you. And not to say that trips alone aren't important because they absolutely are, but there was this call for both of us. Like we really wanted to make it happen for the family. And so we did it. Justin gets the credit for doing the initial planning. He's the researcher, he, you know, checks out, um, he does all the research of where we should stay and books the room and and figures out the, you know, the um flights and the rental car and all of those things. But then I got to be in charge of the itinerary. So I was able to choose adventure days and relaxation days. And oh my goodness, I can't, I'm still in awe of the amount of fun that we were able to have. It, I think it's still processing all of that, and I just know that the kids are gonna have some really great memories for the rest of their lives from that trip. I mean, I think one of my standout moments was we hiked this waterfall, and it wasn't, you know, it wasn't a a a hike that's like widely just talked about, not one that everybody does. So it wasn't touristy or overpopulated at all. It was really kind of off the beaten trail. And I I on my bucket list, um, I always wanted to see a waterfall, and I haven't, I at the time hadn't been able to do that yet. And there was this beautiful waterfall called Lulumahu Falls. The only um scary part of it was we were there during the Kona storm, and the day we were gonna do the waterfall hike, it the storm, you know, it was raining, but it didn't feel scary. So we thought, what the heck? And as we start this hike, I am realizing that we're sloshing around in mud. I mean, the first 10 minutes in, we already have mud, you know, past our knees, and the rain is not gonna let up. And you get to a certain point where I looked at Justin and I thought, is this like good parenting? Are we gonna get our kids stuck in this tropical jungle, you know, hillside? But we were already, we were already in it. So we decided to keep on going, and the trail wasn't marked very well at all. Like it once in a while you'd see like a little pink tag in the tree, but then you'd see like an orange one. It was very confusing. So we just had to, you know, our phones weren't working, we really couldn't everything was soaked. Um, even if we could get service, like our phones were getting drenched. So we just had to stay the course and kind of calmly navigate this hike. And there was this moment where we turned the corner and this waterfall just appeared, and it was so incredible. It was that moment. Like, yes, this is worth it. And that was probably my highlight of the trip, among so many other wonderful things. But I love um when my family kind of can push themselves to do something that feels really hard but has such an amazing outcome. So much fun doing that. The biggest takeaway that I wanted to share with all of our listeners, because I feel like our listeners are working professionals that have a lot going on in their lives. One thing I did for myself that I really need to continue working on is I signed out of work completely for seven days. No email. I didn't even check it once, no business social media. We have an internal chat group for our team. I signed out of that. Everything. I had previously communicated with two of my incredible team members to have me covered in the ways I would need to be covered during that time. I had communicated to one, I had one couple that hadn't had their wedding yet. I communicated with them ahead of time, tied up everything I could do to get us to a really solid point to allow me to have seven days of off planning. And I knew that they felt good about it. And then I enjoyed the experience. And I tell you that, my friends, because I came back feeling like I hadn't felt more rested probably in 10 years than I did when I came back from that trip. And that just goes to prove that we are inundated with information beyond what our human brains are capable of handling. It's it's too much, it's just it's too much. And I think now that most of us have um a lot of us have like hybrid jobs or virtual jobs or jobs that you know uh can require attention in the evenings, can like in our in our situation, we do events on the weekends, so even having like office hours can be really challenging for people. But when I came back, I didn't miss much. I hadn't seen any news stories, which was probably very healthy. Um there really weren't any client issues, everything was okay. And that was just insightful for me to realize that taking seven days off, my business is still existing, we're still moving forward, everything's gonna be okay. So if I could take seven days off, well, I could definitely take a Saturday off or a Sunday off, or I can check out in the evenings and not feel like I have to attend to everything that comes in. So I'm sharing this with all of you because I know the majority of us struggle with balance in our in our careers, and um it made me feel healthier and so present with my family. And the days felt long and full and just rich with experiences. And I just highly recommend that. One tool that I use, I need to be more consistent with it. It's called a brick. It's a literal brick. I wish I had it up here. Um, you just slide it on the back of your phone and it disables any distracting apps. So for me, like I use my phone for navigation, I use it for music, I use my calculator, I use my banking. I have to be able to text my family. Um, but I don't need the hundreds of other apps that are on that, that are distractions. So the brick is really great. You can just disable those apps, and then when you're ready to log back in to work, you just unbrick it. And um, it's pretty powerful because we essentially can't really live without these devices now, unfortunately. So it's a nice way to be able to segment the need in them. Okay. Let's see, what else did I want to make sure that I talked about? So, in closing, the purpose of this episode was really just to come back and share about the idea of how layered life really is. We're not just one thing at one time, we're multiple things. We're we're special. spouses, we um you know have siblings, we have parents, we're friends, we're we're leaders in our, you know, in our work or volunteer work. We're so many roles. And oftentimes we try to do it all at once. And that can be very draining. So just want to encourage you to know that it's okay not to do everything all at the same time, especially if you're also planning a wedding. Oh my goodness. It's quite healthy to segment those roles, time block those times so that you can enjoy the experience. And in conclusion, I would just want to share again this podcast has never just been about a wedding. It's about everything that happens behind the scenes, the pressure, the trust, the relationships, the growth, the identity shifts, the family moments, the pauses, and that perspective that we gain when we slow down enough to notice it all. And that's why I name this podcast More than Just a Wedding. Because the wedding is the event, but it's not everything around the story. And I think that's true for all of us in our work, our roles, our milestones. They're never just what it looks like on the surface. They're everything that shaped us and what we're carrying and what we're learning and becoming along the way. So thank you. I'm excited to get this podcast launched into season two. I've already conducted some phenomenal interviews and I'm excited to share with you they will be released in the coming weeks. And as always if you have any suggestions for topics or anything you'd like me to deep dive on this podcast, just let me know.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Thank you so much for listening and watching you've been listening to more than just a wedding with Jennifer Starr. If you enjoyed today's episode be sure to follow and share it with a friend. Until next time real people, real moments, respected budgets.