Guest Post: Emilee at Emilee's Health Food Journey

**As of today, hubs and I are officialy on vacay! As you're reading this, we're most likely driving to Miami to catch our cruise. I have some ah-mazing ladies lined up this week to guest blog for me while we are away; hope you all enjoy!**

My first guest blogger is the lovely Emilee! Emilee was the wedding designer for our wedding last year. She is so sweet and has great ideas and we were able to keep in touch once I started following her blog. Thanks to her, I'm getting my first (small) taste at wedding set-ups and all the hard, but fun work it really is.

Hi Newlywed Nichole readers! I’m Emilee at Emilee’s Health Food Journey. I am the wedding designer/planner at Cross Creek Ranch where Nichole got married. I had a blast working with Nichole and Jason, and I remember thinking, I could be friends with this girl. Yay! It turns out that I got to be :)

I thought I would share my journey on how I came to be a wedding designer/planner. It all started about 11 years ago when I became obsessed with every HGTV show. I wanted to become an interior decorator without the price tag of design school. A friend of mine hooked me up with an interior decorator and I volunteered my time as an apprentice in order to learn the trade. I don’t even recall how exactly I was financially able to work for free, but I managed, and it wasn’t long until I was able to create a salary for myself.

The business took off and my mentor bought a 10 acre ranch that has come to be the Cross Creek Ranch wedding venue. The property was beautiful and I wanted to get married there. In fact, I was one of the very first people to get married there. (I consider that wedding job training, btw ;) )

I worked with my mentor for 5 years and had a blast decorating homes, until the market went south and interior decorators were no longer in demand. After that I finished school and worked briefly as a high end RV designer.

Not long after, weddings really started to take off, and I found my way back to the ranch and joined the team as the wedding designer. I absolutely love my job!!! I had to follow my heart and my dreams, make some financial sacrifices, and find a good mentor. And now I find myself in a very happy blessed place in my life.

{Some of my work}

And I’m loving having Nichole work side by side with me doing wedding set ups. Now she knows how hard it is ;)