00. 0 • • 00. 00••00 . 00• • 0 . 00 . 00• • 0 . 0 • • o 000 00. 00 . 00 000 0 . 00 000 0 00 • 0 . 0 . 0 O. 0 . 0 . O. 0 . 0 • . 0 00 0 • • 00 • • 0 00 • • 0 0 00 o 0 . 00 0 0 0 ®f®m©ifU~ cg Wedding planner offers • services pro-bono When [he romantic comedy "The Wedding Planner" premiered in 2001, it fearured Jennifer Lopez as wedding planner Mary Fiore. The movie sported the tag line, "A romantic comedy abom love, destiny and other events you just can't plan for." For many Harding students, planning a wedding while completing college proved incredibly stressful. When college classes and jobs were added into the equation, it was time to call Penny Lighe, executive assistant to [he Institute for Church and Family and a certified bridal consultant and corporate events planner on campus. Light provided her services to Harding couples in need of their own wedding planner at no cost. Before working with college students, Light had her own wedding planning business in Virginia. When she and her husband moved to Searcy a year and a halfago, she brought many of her supplies with her. However, she was not interested in completely starting over with her business. Instead, she searched for new ways to use her planning talents. "I had to find a mission to give back to God that would use the talents I already have, and with so many couples gerring married so young it can be rough to figure out how to pay for a wedding," Light said. A eNN survey found the average wedding to cost close to $30,000. Light helped couples budget by having each of them choose one thing that would add uniqueness to their wedding. "Weddings do have a standard processional to follow, bur if you have one thi ng that is unique to your wedding, people will remember it," Light said. During the time Light had been at Hfrding, she had already helped five couples successfully plan their weddings. She assisted in providing flowers, cateri ng, bakers and almost anything else she had connections with in Searcy. She also took advantage of the new chapel on campus. Light told each couple she worked with there were tw"o things to do that were crucial when planning a wedding. "The first thing (0 do, no maner what, before you talk (0 your parents, is (0 sit down and make a plan," Light said. "The plan should be something that you're both goi ng (0 agree on, because once the plan is set, everything else will go smoothly," Light said. T he second thing Light recommended for every couple was to try and resolve issues in their relations hips before the wedd ing. "If they can figure our how to settle those fights now, they will have a lot less trouble once they get married," Light said This year, Light had the privilege of teaching a class on campus entitled "The Frugal Bride." The class was geared toward engaged couples or people interested in the weddi ng planning business. Light taught cheap, inexpensive ways to make wedding favors and flowers and how to make the weddi ng day one of the happiest days in someone's life. -Katie Dear Penny light, executive assistant to the Institute for Church and Family, adjusts a candle an-angement at her home Sept. 17 in preparation for a wedding. "God blessed me with an ability to listen,counsel and mediate which is more the job of a wedding coordinator than most people think," Light said. -Courtesy of Brooke light leadership 15 •
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc5NA==