This into episode share a bit about me and how I will be using my knowledge and experience as a marriage celebrant and PT to help you plan for your wedding. A basic summary – Suzie is a crazy dog lady but she has a lot of great info about how to look and feel awesome for your wedding and how to kick butt when it comes to planning it.

Oh hi, my name is Suzie and welcome to my brand spanking new podcast – your wedding VA

From head to toe planning to party I got you…

Now before I continue, I have to point out that this podcast idea and this intro episode was thought of a while ago, I mean, like the start of this year… I’m currently in Sydney’s lockdown,  wondering where half the year went, I’ve already Marie Kondo’d my cupboards and closets for the 5^th time, it was time for me to pull my finger out and get my podcast recorded.  Here we go.

Ok So what does that title  of this podcast mean… it means that I have done all the hard work for you, I am a little helper in your ear. I’m going to help you look and feel the absolute best you can for your wedding day and to also help navigate  the planning side of your wedding, how to control it and kick arse  at the process so you can actually enjoy your day.

Now you might be asking who the heck are you to do this podcast, well allow me to introduce myself.

I am an authorised marriage celebrant from Sydney, who helps  loved up couples say I do all over the place and  I have also been running my own personal training business since 2008  – I’m a bloody dinosaur terms of the fitness industry’s career- life-expectancy .

 I am the bringer of Joy and Pain. And I love what I do

 I am happily married to Mark my partner in awesomeness and we are fur-parents to our gorgeous GSP Marley, if you follow my socials you will see lots of photos of her, I am unashamedly a crazy dog lady.

 We currently reside in Western Sydney we bought a house so we could get a dog. That’s a  true story, living in an apartment was easy to clean and convenient but there was a dog sized void in my life, so we bought a house.

..and  we are forever ‘working on the house’  we completely gutted our old 60s house a few years back and we’re still doing renovations and can often be found running in and out at our local Bunnings, we should buy shares there. 

 Mark and I have a hard time doing nothing, we dream about it but when we slow down we get bored so we’ll be off on an adventure somewhere whenever we get the opportunity. 

I am surrounded by love, that is a good way to describe me. I have a wonderful family whom I’m very close to and a great bunch of friends, my PT clients are the absolute best and as a celebrant I attract awesome couples – I often get into lengthy discussions about the big topics, like zombie apocalypses, renovations, random movies, Eurovision and of course dogs…  my people find me and I love that!

I bring my love to all that I do and I think it comes back to me.

Ok enough mushy stuff.

On Wednesday the 30^th of December 2020  mark and I were sitting down for our morning coffee half watching the news, a segment recapping the cluster fluff of a year which 2020 was on.  We started chatting off in random tangents about doomsday prepping, cultural appropriation stories, where we wanted to take Marley for a day trip and how nobody ever really liked the strawberry section in Neapolitan ice cream but if you put milo on it, it was ok….all the big topics.

I should remind everyone that the 30^th of December falls in that weird limbo period between Xmas and new years where nobody knows what day it is or who the heck they are or what’s going on.

Bear with me.. 

So we got chatting about how quickly things go main stream, everyone’s got a podcast now. Everyone! 

I said  “you know what, I did things before they got mainstream and I got turned off”.

 2008 was a big year for me, it was my first year as a Personal Trainer, first year running a business for myself and got thrown into a whole new world of the fitness industry. I got into paleo diet – which at the time was such a foreign concept for people, it made me a total social outcast at gatherings, I’m not even joking, loved ones were worried about me and my strange way of eating

 I produced my first podcast which followed me doing the paleo diet and a guide to it, released it via my blog I had started on my very first website whilst being introduced to Crossfit and loving it.

Wow I sound like a wanker, please don’t switch off yet. The point I missed was that I said to Mark hey I did all these things years ago before they got popular. To which he said you have a habit of doing that, you should really stick with things and see where they take you. You give up too quickly.

its true, in the past I had a habit of getting excited and motivated about projects then giving up, like the worm farm I bought and was dedicated to for about 6 months before relinquishing my responsibility for it to my dad… I got over it… all these years later dad still has it and its thriving, or more seriously I have 3 half written novels sitting in a hard drive which I will ‘get back to’ one day which can testify to my point. Maybe  it is time to see things through.  And even listening to myself now, its bloody July, I wrote down this podcast idea in January… whoops there I go again, anyway

So the night before  this deep and meaningful random conversation I had been reading my new book ‘seize the yay’ by Sarah Davidson – love her by the way. 

And in this section I was reading she was talking about self-doubt and how over thinking things  was no good and how you had to take action. It also covered podcasts and how there was a fear of it being a saturated market so why add to it (which is what I thought) but then she pointed out that saturation means there’s an appetite for it – I love that expression, you just have to find your place and have something  worthwhile to say.

So here I am, not overthinking, taking action (even though it took me half a year) and hoping what I say will be  worthwhile.

PS –  there is a whole lot more awesome lessons I learnt from that book, I highly recommend it. 

So what is this podcast about…. 

Well basically  i’ve decided to turn my book ‘Body Transformations for Brides on a Budget’ into a podcast series with a heap more add-ons, info and interviews. 

Oh you didn’t know I had a bridal guide? I’m not surprised, it took me a couple years to put it together, a year to have it produced and I have been so scared of what people think I haven’t promoted it basically at all. Holy crap, I won’t turn this into a ‘journey of self-discovery and self-confidence’ I promise.

I am going to be your wedding va – your virtual bestie who will help you plan and get ready for your big day. 

We cover a plethora of topics – plethora is such a good word – 

Ranging from workout programs, nutrition, photography, stress, goal setting, event planning, how to choose the right outfit, how to survive the actual wedding day, post wedding and a whole lot more. And also, this is not for just ‘brides’ whether you’re a bride, groom or other, this is for everyone. 

Over the years I have trained hundreds of brides through my work as a PT, I saw patterns in what they wanted, what stressed them out, and more so what they needed. So I collected all that info and went even deeper into the planning of a wedding, remembering what it was like when I got married and I packaged it all up in a beautiful, easy to follow and digest self-help DIY book which I basically told next to no one about. 

THEN I thought well hang on I’m a celebrant now too, I have learnt and seen sooo much during my time and I have met some wicked vendors, how can I get all this info and help to people in the easiest way…. Ta da… here I am

I am so happy to share this with you. we’re going to go on a journey together.

 If I can help you in a massive range of areas and have you feeling awesome, then that’s what I will do… and that’s what I’m going to do.

I’m going to chat with experts in their field as if you’re sitting there with us having a chat too, I will take you through workouts as if I’m standing right in front of you, sometimes that means I might forget how to count – what they say about Pt’s is true… and be warned I seem to be training people harder the older I get.

But above all what I will do is treat you like a friend, I’ll tell it to you straight and I’ll help you .

I’m an avid collector of people’s stories both in my career and personally. 

I’m going to ask each guest what’s their ‘why’?  why they chose their profession, what keeps them going… their why?

It only seems fair that I start the ball rolling. I’m not going to say the cliché ‘ I love love and I love weddings… although you will probably find those lines somewhere on my website… I hope not.

My why is… because I want to…. And my goodness that sounds childish when you say it out loud but let me explain

I was drawn to being a celebrant from long ago, receptions are fun but far out I’d get caught up in the actual ceremony part, I loved them… but honestly my only experience with weddings was either at churches or very few civil ceremonies with more mature ladies… and they were lovely ladies… I thought man I’d like to do that maybe I’d get into it when  I retired… I just thought that’s what you do… 

But then I thought nope, screw it, why wait,  I studied the celebrant course in secret and bam, these years later here I am loving everything I do. I get to collect couples stories and celebrate in the most fun way ever! I’ve met so many people and now have so many awesome memories to look back on.

I get to be a part of what for most people is one of the most special events in their lives… it’s an honour, I don’t take it lightly, it’s a real gift being up there in what I call the love bubble and witnessing all the true emotions that happen.

My why is always evolving and its free to do so, but at the heart of it, it’s because I’m drawn to and surrounded by love. 

Pheww let me lighten it up again before I leave you

I’m also a collector of random facts… I love trivia. So every episode I’ll leave you with a piece of random knowledge. 

Here we go… did you know that the moon has moonquakes…. Yep! Just as earth has earthquakes, the moon has—moonquakes. 

They’re Less common and less intense than the shakes that happen here, but they DO happen…

Well there you go… Until next time, yours in love and randomness… see ya!