What I want to be when I grow up

Oh what I would give to be a fab event/wedding planner a la David Tutera. I dabbled in wedding coordination years ago for a whole week. I thought it was an ideal job as a wedding coordinator's assistant on a cruise ship but I couldn't stand being a minion to the drunkards and white trash brides. My first wedding was a complete diaster as I was supposed to meet the entire wedding party in the lobby of a ship the size of a city. I had no sign, no idea who was in this wedding and being my first day, no clear idea of how to round up 30 people out of 3,000! I somehow rangled together the party *who were still drunk from the previous night's bachlor/bachlorette parties* and ushered them to the wedding lounge. The lounge was hideous, dark, smelly, not one stitch of wedding decor, or flowers and the wedding party all wore t-shirts and jean shorts. I was morrtified! This is really how this couple wanted to seal their love? It only got worse, the bride lost the groom's ring and it was my duty to search for it 5 minutes before the nuptials in the tiny, windowless stateroom *literally going through a stranger's luggage was no fun*. I was not the hero that morning and everyone looked at me as if I lost the ring. It was the most awkward day of my life and I had 3 more weddings to go before 5pm. The kicker for my resignation *as if I needed more incentive* was the office of the church I was working for was in Bel Air and the cruise ship was in San Pedro harbor. Those from LA know that is as far as you could possibly drive within Los Angeles county *64 miles round trip!!* not including the excruiating traffic to and from each location. I envisioned myself as Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner, wearing an earpiece, fluffing wedding gown trains on yachts or the veranda of the Four Seasons. Not holding the hair of bridesmaids as they barf from sea sickness and begging the mother of the groom to not smoke inside the cruise ship. Well, that put me off the idea of planning anything for a long time but after almost a year of planning our baby shower the bug has bitten me once again. I have lots of friends who seek my advice when it comes to weddings, Halloween parties and birthday ideas. I have a binder full of vendor's business cards, I frequent the wholesale flower mart for my parties and I drool over party/wedding blogs inspiration *Once Wed and Snippet & Ink are my obsession* Problem is, I am in full-time Mommy mode so it will be a few years before I could devote the time to starting a biz. I also am picky about my *would-be* clientele, ok I'll just say it, I need folks with a big budget. I know the wealthier people are harder to please but I would be wasting my time planning an event at Party City prices. Even a low-budget event can have some chic-ness to it.