Why Wellness and Weddings?
In 2018 I sat mentoring a group of 6 women creatives and photographers from the USA. We had gathered at one of my favorite Parisian cafes that I cycled to and brought them all a picnic gift bag full of french food, Parisian fresh baguette, wine, cheese, and the likes. We were going to talk about slowing down as an art form, wellness in our lives and how to keep creative curiosty for our work.
Wholehearted Wellness and Weddings
I know from my years of working as a luxury wedding planner, I was lucky to have clients who held a conscious reverence for life and the ritual of marriage. For appreciating the small “everyday” things but love the finer details in celebrating life’s “big moments”. My present clients, like myself, now know what it means to be well, live sustainably, and to have a “slow lifestyle”… but this was not always the case.
If you’ve made it to this page its no accident, you probably are also thinking about another way of getting married that is less stressful, intimate, even more meaningful and or seeking to add more heart to your creative professional life.
The woman I am now is probably the woman (or man you are) today too. We crave a wholesome life and experiences that focus on our core values of divine love, beauty, and kindness.
Less stress and more Joie de vivre!
As we sat and there at the cafe, everyone stated to nod and jot notes. Because even though we knew an elopement was not for everyone – we all agreed that joie de vivre was – or as Brene Brown puts it a wholehearted life is what we all want.
I said to them I know this is not a typical setting for a workshop. Here for the first time, I also shared publicly and vulnerably that I wanted to infuse my worlds of wellness, storytelling, and weddings but that I did not yet know how, but that I knew WHY.
The WHY
Why I explained is the most important thing for a creative or I’d say for any human, we seek meaning in our lives and we seek abundance, joy, ease beauty, and love.
Yet the wedding industry had come to be one of the most stressful experiences for many couples and professionals!
Coming from a unconventional background – having a Masters in marketing, then journalism, then mixing event planning – I saw that we all seek authentic connections and really just ways to live our best lives.
Literally the day that should be the happiest of our lives is making us go into deep stress, insurmountable overwhelm, and many times debt.
A SAFE SPACE for all forms of love
13 years ago I eloped too! We did it because we both are very intimate and we simply wanted a beautiful wedding where we didn’t have to worry about 200 people, for us that was a lot of pressure mixing two countries and culture.
Fast forward to 6 years ago when I started to plan weddings, in addition to continuing my travel writing; here I realized the 2 worlds have much in common!
Both are universes of love.
Love via romantic relationships ( I like to use the term spiritual partnership). Love via self-discovery, travel, joie de vivre, and food.
I also realized that in the wedding world no one was addressing ways to take better care of ourselves and our couples; before, during, and after the wedding.
mmm… mais pourquoi?
I became obsessed in exploring this new “why” but it took me some time to get to the “how”
I had put this on the back burner as I did extensive research and carried on being a working mom, event planner, and travel writer. Then the pandemic hit and I said now is the time.
We are all forced to slow down. Gaia is asking us to treat her and ourselves with more love. And as a wedding planner and spiritual practitioner, I have lots of tips to share about love!
Now in 2020 is time to provide more space and tools at the intersection to bring more harmony in our lives before and after the wedding.
Elope in Paris is dedicated to the wholesome experience of love: self-care, spiritual relationships, elopements, and the rituals we do before, during, and after our wedding day.
Yanique Francis