We got Back into the Swing of Things

Coming back after a break feels weirdly like walking into school mid-year. You’re excited, you’re rusty, and you’re not totally sure where your rhythm went. That’s where I’m at right now, stepping back into podcasting while stepping into a packed wedding season as an officiant in Northeast Pennsylvania, with maternity leave planning in the background and a calendar that suddenly has zero empty space. 

I share what “wedding season” really looks like from the vendor side, including why fall is the true peak here, why spring is a close second, and why July weddings often get skipped. We talk about the whiplash between the slow season and the moment wedding expos hit, when consult calls and last-minute elopement requests stack up fast. If you’re planning a ceremony, work in events, or you’re just curious about the behind-the-scenes pace, this is a real look at how quickly the workload ramps. 

Then we get practical: how I balance quick sign-and-go paperwork ceremonies with longer, more personal wedding ceremonies that need real lead time. I walk through the systems that keep me sane, like a heavily labeled Google Calendar, task timelines for script writing and reminders, and tools like Motion AI to prioritize what actually needs doing first. I also talk about learning to say no, building recovery time, and leaning on a trusted referral network so couples still get someone who can show up fully present. 

If you’re in your own restart season, I hope this gives you momentum and a little calm. Subscribe to The Wedding Where, share the show with a friend who loves weddings, and leave a review so more listeners can find the stories and the planning advice.

Transcript

Slow Season Versus Peak Season

Booking Strategy After COVID

Calendar Systems And Saying No

Small Ceremony Big Meaning

Gratitude, Maternity Leave, Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Wedding Where with Officiating by Amanda. The Wedding Where we are getting back into the swing of things. Hello, everybody, friends, new listeners. Welcome back to The Wedding Wear, a podcast of true wedding tales and sagas and stories, funny, lighthearted, heartfelt, and little, you know, tidbits to take along for your own special day, or maybe you're just someone who likes weddings. Today we are shaking off the cobwebs. This is the wedding where we are getting back into the swing of things. And it's kind of fitting in a few different means. First off, it's been a minute. So not only am I getting back into wedding season and talking about kind of the first weddings of each year as I get back into the mindset and, you know, kind of anticipate, oh, right, that doesn't sound right coming out of my mouth and doing on-the-fly adjustments, but also getting back into podcasting. I took a hot second and okay, I took like five hot seconds. It was much needed. I've got a lot going on with my normal nine to five job. Obviously, we've got a little one coming in the fall, kind of working through all of the wedding craziness. And it was definitely not a quiet time of relaxation. I was at wedding expos, just kind of putting all the pieces together. Got a lot done in the time that I was away. So very happy to be jumping back in. Happy that you all are listening. And my gosh, the listeners have been growing while I was away. So hopefully that trend can continue now that I'm back and there's some more live-ish content. Coming back always feels a little bit like the first day of school. A little awkward, a little exciting. Don't really remember where you left off. Gotta refine the rhythm. And that's true, not just in podcasting, but also in the wedding world. So here we are. We are back at the mic. We are back into the 2026 wedding season. I did one this past Friday. I have four next week. Insane. And by the time May hits, every weekend has at least one wedding, sometimes two. And now that I have a few more partners in my network, as I call them, yeah, every weekend everybody's getting a little more booked up. So if you're one of my vendor partners, officiants in my network, block the timeout in your calendar if you don't want it taken, because I will kick you any and every lead I have. And your schedule could be as full as you want it to be. So back in the day, we always, you know, would hear like, oh, June brides and summer weddings. And we've talked before on this podcast that location-wise, it depends where you really have your peak wedding season. Being in northeast Pennsylvania, the fall is always huge because the leaves, the foliage, the crisper weather without being too, too cold. And then spring is a second favorite. And once those two seasons are taken up with bookings, then the summer gets tapped. But never really July. It's June and it's August. But everyone pretty much stays clear of July weddings just because of the insane amount of heat. So if you work in weddings or really any seasonal industry, you know the feeling of a quiet or slow season. November, December, January is really, and even early February is really where it is in the wedding and efficient world. Things slow down and you go from having multiple weddings in a week and constant emails from like the two-month mark and the one-month and two weeks, you know, kind of everyone on their timeline and trajectory, doing back-to-back weekends to suddenly quiet inboxes because no one is getting married in the next two months. So no reminders need to start up. A few console calls, but a lot less, because people either book nine months to a year in advance for officiants, or they wait till the last minute and they they book, you know, within two months. So nothing really going on. A couple pop-up weddings, mostly elopements, little bits and pieces here. And it's really nice during that time because of the holiday season with Thanksgiving and Christmas and the new year, your life can start to feel normal and you can start to pick up other things that are of value or of interest to you. Like I did with finding out I was pregnant. So you make weekend plans, you say yes without necessarily checking the calendar because you're like, I don't have that many weddings already figured out. You rest, you reset, you breathe, and it is glorious and good. There's definitely moments where you're like, this is boring. Wish I had something more to do, but but you be careful wishing that because it all changes very, very quickly. And that is certainly what March looks like, because a lot of your venues will do their wedding shows then as they kind of prepare for the early part of the wedding season in the spring. And everything happens very, very fast. Suddenly you are at an expo just putting your name out there, and your calendar is filled with console calls from people looking to get married in three, four days to people trying to get married in two, three years. You finally look back at your calendar and you realize that every day has a to-do, not because someone's getting married then, but because they're getting married in about two months. And that's when a lot of the preparations, at least on my end, start to ramp up. Then you look two months in advance to figure out, like, oh, well, if I've got all these to-dos, how many weddings do I have? And you realize May, every weekend is booked. Every single weekend is booked. Everybody has your number. Phone calls definitely increase straight from Google or the website, you know, the hi, I don't know if you can help, but I found your name online and XYZ to kind of put together the pieces for a quick elopement, a local wedding. And it's exciting, but it's also a lot. And so if you're not careful, not only are you not just kind of picking up where you left off, but you are ramped up fast. And that's normally what I was doing. And then again, having to do two months off for baby preparation and our little, our little newborn, which I'm very excited for. It means I can't just go to my default of, oh yeah, I can do that weekend, or oh yeah, I can make two or three weddings work that day. I really am now married to the calendar and going, oh, actually, no, I will be 38 weeks pregnant and it is not smart for me as much as I'd love to can't. So I'm ramped up fast, but there's also different timelines in my head that are making sure that I slow down to really look at and assess what's going on in those situations. And like I said, it's not just the weddings, but I took a little pause in the podcasting realm to I didn't plan to. I really, really didn't. And I I've had some interviews since I've got really, really great content lined up. It just took me a moment to sit down, get everything kind of prepped and prepared. And a lot of do I still know how to do this? Will people still listen? Can I get back into doing this regularly? You know, do I batch it in a month, you know, record four or five episodes and just slow release? And I can, I can do this. It'll look a little different for a little while, maybe forever, but I'm back. And I really just want to thank everyone who's been listening in during the break because that's what's been the key motivation, you know. Every few days I go on to my Buzz Sprout app and it says, Oh, you had five listens, you had 10. Oh my gosh, one day I had 25 listens. And I went, I don't know how that happened. In looking back, it might have been straight from one of the expos because I do talk about the podcast a lot there as a means to help couples, even if they have their efficient set. This is still a really great tool to listen to to give advice for your wedding day. I'm not trying to poach you, have you go with me, say, oh, surely you must need me as your officiant. Not at all. I like to say that this is a podcast for everyone, because you can either just listen to it and laugh, or you can actually get some information from it, or you could use it as you consider me for your officiant. So let's talk about the fun in balancing it all. And I'll say a lot of this has changed over the years. I used to be only a book in advance kind of gal. And then I realized I wasn't taking the most opportunities that I could have, especially with local weddings, to do elopements, to just show up and sign paperwork. COVID really changed all of that, as we've talked about before. I had six weddings set for 2020 that were all booked in advance, formal ceremonies, 15 to an hour in terms of length. And when COVID hit and the world started to scramble, the amount of calls that came in for we just need five minutes at our house. We just need someone to sign the paperwork that's already been issued. Can't you just? And yeah, I felt for them. So I started saying yes more and realized that it's a fun niche to be in. So I really like to balance myself out with having some availability, especially if the couple has flexibility. That's kind of what I say. If you have flexibility with some of your date or timing, I can work to have availability for you. So working out for those elopement and just signing the paperwork, a sign and go kind of ceremony. Yeah, let's book those quick. Let's not book those six months in advance. It makes no sense. And then for the ones that really are lengthier ceremonies, more to the process, I still, yeah, I don't like doing those on the fly or having to bring them together in anything less than two months. Let's plan ahead. Let's block it out. Let's make sure that we have every consideration going into it. So how do I balance? Well, got a few fun things I'll probably give shout-outs to, like my Google Calendar. It is my best friend. If it's not on the calendar, it does not exist. And the calendar is labeled with like consult, pending, booked, post, all sorts of elements to give indicators for how firm or confirmed a wedding is. And then I build out all of my tasks once a wedding is booked. So two months out, one month out, script writing, unity requirement if I'm supposed to be providing the unity element, two-week reminder, night before reminder, when the license is due back, when they've been one month post the wedding. So I might need to follow up to make sure that they got their certified copy of their license, send out the release for the podcast, just all of that stuff. So the calendar is absolutely the best friend in the whole wide world. And I do lean in to a platform called Motion AI to help with some calendaring on my time, because as much as I can build out these tasks, it's a task. I, you know, no one's holding my feet to the fire to get it done. The motion AI does a little bit more to kind of, hey, alert, you gotta do this, or don't do that easy step first. That's actually five steps ahead. You need to do this one first because of how I've built out the project planning. So love both of those very, very much. I've really had to learn, and it's rough because this time last year I did not have a normal nine to five job. And so I did say yes to any and every wedding because I needed the funds. But right now, knowing that it's okay to say no, and that not every weekend is available. Not everything is going to be able to work out. If you have it held for something for breathing, yourself, your family, a friend's, you know, maybe birthday party, honor that versus looking for where the funds are coming from, where the the money might be. It's okay to say no. And thankfully I've built up my network that it's also okay to say, I can't, but I know someone who might. Like there is nothing wrong with being open to passing off a client, a couple, and letting them work with somebody who is going to be able to show up very presently on their day versus knowing that if I was already on my second or third wedding of the weekend, I'm showing up and I might be forgetting some names. Or I might be really rushing in a drive between two spaces and that's not good for anyone and that's not safe for everyone. Which brings into some recovery. If you're in the industry, you know that even one small-sized wedding can be a lot of work, can really take up a lot of brain space. And so not only do you need to make sure you've got a down window to reset from it, you just you gotta build that in. And I've taken two. If I know that I have two weddings, different days, but close to each other, I seek out getting like a hotel room kind of in between the two locations versus the drive back to my house, which at times is two hours, and then the next morning wake up at a crazy time, drive two hours or three hours back out to the further wedding, and do that one where for what a couple has paid in travel costs, I can I can finance a hotel room for a night just to cut some time out from the driving there and back. And finding joy in any wedding, remembering why you said yes. So I've we're in mid-April right now, and I've done two weddings so far this year, which is awesome. It's very common, nice and slow lead in. And I did one yesterday, and the couple really just wanted paperwork signed. They're getting, they're doing a formal ceremony in Jamaica, so they just want it legal in the U.S. And they had their family present. And yeah, I could have just, you know, showed up and said, okay, well, here are your three legal lines. Thank you so much. But I had an extra hand fasting cord in my bag and I like playing up to an audience. And I said yes to this couple because they were very flexible, very available. I was able to do their wedding on the way home from a different event that I was at. Like it is really, really feasible that they made this whole process, and I appreciate that. So I was able to pull out the hand fasting cord and kind of throw it in and say, here's here's what we're gonna do as well. And their happiness made me really remember why I got into this. Will I remember that a month from now when I'm drowning in the weddings? No, no, probably not. But at least for this moment, I remember why I say yes to all of this. The busy season, it's a lot, but it's magical. Couples are super happy. You are part of the once-in-lifetime stories. You get to hear how they found each other, you get to believe in love and happiness again. You get to, again, in my world, look at the silver lining of any issue and go, whoo, more content for the podcast. You definitely get to find a lot of really great gems out of the work that's getting done. And so that's what's going to be keeping me going until I just can't anymore, which right now I've got penned as August 1st when I officially go on maternity leave. No August or September weddings. Insane that I'm crossing off two pretty busy months, but I will need it, my body will need it, my baby will need it, my husband, my family all will need it. So we're gonna be definitely taking that break. And I don't know what podcasts will look like then, but we'll we'll get there when we have to. Before I wrap up, I really just want to say thank you to everyone who's been listening along. When I wrote out this script, I was at 40 countries around the world. It is now 52, 52 countries. I don't have all 50 states yet, but I have 52 countries. And that is something I could have never imagined. So whether you listen while you just drive down the road and you're local to me, or you are across the country and someone recommended this to you, or you live halfway around the world and stumbled upon and somehow like a rambling wedding officiant from Northeast Pennsylvania. Thank you for being here. Thank you for coming back. Thank you for listening in. And thank you for the time and grace while I get back into the swing of things. So welcome back to the weddings, back to the stories, back to the podcast. If you're in your own season of life where you took a break from something and you're getting back into it, whether that is something you do creatively, something that you were trying to learn, something in your work, something in your life, something for your family, just know it doesn't have to be perfect. Start anywhere. The most important thing is that you start. And that's exactly what we are doing here. So thank you all so much. And until next time, this has been Amanda. Thank you for listening to The Wedding Wear with Officiating by Amanda. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and found some inspiration or insight for your own special day. This podcast is hosted on BuzzRout and can be found on all major platforms. If you haven't already, please subscribe, like, comment, and share to help us reach even more listeners who might laugh a little at the wedding wear. For the links referenced in the show, visit Linktree at OfficiatingByAmanda. You can also follow the business on Facebook, WeddingWire, and The Knot to stay up to date on everything going on. If you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast, just send an email to the WeddingWare Podcast at gmail.com. And if you're ready to inquire about officiating services for your own big day, you can reach me at officiatingbyamanda at gmail.com. Thank you so much for tuning in, and until next time, this has been Amanda.