Three Generations, One Caregiver and a Business Born of Necessity
The story behind Angel of Hearts Weddings and Events
In 2003, I was responsible for three generations of my family. My elderly grandmother was living in assisted living, forty minutes from my home. My mother had suffered a stroke and was living with me. My daughter, who was pregnant and dealing with post traumatic stress following 9/11, was also living with me. And I was running a bridal salon. That meant an hour's commute each way, followed by an eight-to-ten-hour workday. I loved the bridal industry. I knew it. I was good at what I did.
But something had to give. Not because I couldn't handle responsibility. I had been handling responsibility for most of my life. The problem was that the structure of my professional life no longer fit the realities of my personal life. And I needed to do something about it.
Three Generations. One Caregiver.
My grandmother was in assisted living, but that didn't mean her needs were entirely taken care of.
Every Friday, I made the forty-minute trip to see her. I checked her medications, collected her mail, took her shopping, accompanied her to doctors' appointments, and made sure she had what she needed.
And when she was rushed to the hospital, which happened with unsettling regularity, I was the person they called. At home, I was responsible for my mother's care, along with the cooking, cleaning, shopping, and the countless daily responsibilities that come with running a household. My daughter was preparing to become a mother herself while coping with the emotional aftermath of 9/11 Three generations of women, all depending on me in different ways. Meanwhile, I still had to earn a living. I couldn't simply stop working. I needed an income. But I also couldn't continue spending twelve hours a day away from home.I didn't need less responsibility. I needed a different way to manage it. I didn't need to reinvent myself
By 2003, I had spent years working in hospitality and a decade in the bridal industry.
I knew how to organize events, manage clients, work with vendors, anticipate problems, and handle the unexpected. I understood weddings from the inside out, including the parts most people never see.
I had dressed brides on their wedding days. I had worked with families, managed expectations, and navigated the emotions that come with one of life's most significant celebrations. In fact, years earlier, during a bridal appointment, a father had hired me to coordinate his daughter's wedding day. I hadn't been looking for that opportunity. It simply presented itself. Looking back, perhaps that was an early indication of where my career might lead. I didn't set out specifically to become a wedding planner. I wanted to plan events. But wedding planning was beginning to attract attention, with television programs introducing audiences to the profession. I knew of only two other planners in Philadelphia at the time. And I already had the experience. I wasn't starting from scratch. I was taking the skills I had spent years developing and putting them to work in a different way.
No Investors. No Website. No Safety Net.
I didn't have money to invest in a new business. I didn't have a website. Social media wasn't the business tool it is today. What I had was experience, professional relationships, the willingness to do my homework, and confidence in my ability to deliver. I researched. I reached out to people I knew. I worked from home, meeting clients and touring venues as needed. And I took the leap. Not because I was fearless in some grand, heroic sense. But because I knew what I was doing. I had always been a risk taker. I had always thought outside the box. And when life required a change, I had always found a way to pivot. This was another pivot. A significant one, certainly. But a logical one.
My First Client Was a 60 Minutes Producer
My first client came through a colleague who knew a producer for 60 Minutes. The producer was getting married. She was forty, had never been married, had a demanding career, and was a very strong-willed, Type A personality. She had no time to plan a wedding. I had the time, the experience, and the ability to take the responsibility off her shoulders. She hired me immediately. And just like that, Angel of Hearts Weddings and Events had its first client. There was no elaborate marketing campaign. No social media strategy. No paid advertising funnel. There was a professional relationship, a referral, a client with a genuine need, and someone with the experience to meet it. That was how it began. And although weddings became a major part of my business, I never intended to limit myself to them. Over the years, I have planned many different kinds of events. Because the underlying skills aren't exclusive to weddings. They're about understanding people, managing complexity, solving problems, and delivering an experience that accomplishes what it was meant to accomplish.
I Wasn't Afraid. I Was Ready.
People sometimes imagine that starting a business must begin with a dramatic moment of fear and uncertainty. That wasn't my experience. In 2003, I was confident. I knew my industry. I knew my strengths. I knew how to work with people, and I knew I could be good at this. What I didn't know was what the future would bring. If I had possessed a crystal ball and could have seen everything that lay ahead, perhaps I would have been terrified. But I didn't have a crystal ball. I had a family that needed me, a living to earn, and a set of professional skills that gave me an opportunity to change the way I worked. So I did.
What Twenty-Three Years Have Taught Me
I founded Angel of Hearts Weddings and Events because I needed flexibility and financial independence, and because I believed I had something valuable to offer. I wasn't chasing a trend.I wasn't looking for an easy career. And I certainly wasn't under the illusion that owning a business meant working less. I was making a practical decision based on experience, necessity, and opportunity. More than two decades later, the industry has changed enormously. The technology has changed. The expectations have changed. The ways we market ourselves and find clients have changed. But the qualities that made it possible for me to begin haven't changed. Experience. Judgment. Resourcefulness. Relationships. The ability to recognize a problem and find a solution.
I have always believed that when circumstances change, you have a choice. You can keep trying to make the old arrangement work. Or you can take what you know, recognize what you need, and create a different path. In 2003, I didn't start Angel of Hearts Weddings and Events because I had a perfect plan for the future. I started because I knew my strengths, understood my responsibilities, and recognized that it was time to put those strengths to work for myself. Sometimes the most important business decision you make isn't about expanding. It's about knowing when, and how, to pivot.
Wendy HartiganFounder, Angel of Hearts Weddings and Events
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