This is the social media post that started it all back in 2014.
Can you believe I started as an Event Planner with crippling social anxiety?
I started as an Event Planner back in my teen years. I was great at planning and running parties and events, but I was terrible at attending them.
If I was in charge of an event, I was the life of the party! Mixing, mingling, serving people and stepping into the role of Hostess Extraordinaire! It was a role I had learned to play very early in life as my mother and I loved to entertain.
However, as a guest, I tended to pour myself a beverage, find a comfortable corner and sit there quietly for the duration of the party. I struggled to introduce myself to other guests or start a decent conversation and longed for some kind of socially acceptable activity to make interacting with strangers less daunting.
That's when I thought of doing a video scavenger hunt.
My parents had returned from a cruise where they thoroughly enjoyed doing a Scavenger Hunt. Having never done a hunt myself, I wondered how it might be fun to do as a party.
I loved the fact that the Scavenger Hunt idea helped people to work together and build camaraderie, but it felt too much as if the teams were having separate parties.
Enter the idea of using cell phones to update the Scavenger Hunt idea!
Mobile phones were very accessible and suddenly capable of taking photos and videos. Although mobile technology has drastically improved since that first hunt, we were able to gather after the hunt to watch the distorted photos and grainy videos together on my brother's large flat screen tv. This brought the Scavenger Hunt Party experience full circle as we shared stories of things that happened on the hunt and laughed at the footage together.
Despite technical difficulties, the first Video Scavenger Hunt was a resounding success.
The technology we were working with was still new and I was unfamiliar with most of it, which led to a couple of hiccups through that first party, but at the end of the night, all the guests excitedly shared their enjoyment and inquired about me doing another one.
My next Video Scavenger Hunt was a Wonderland Party that took place in February of 2016. This time, I prepared a presentation to help guests learn the rules of the hunt and we streamlined the media gathering by just plugging the phones into my laptop to download the photos and videos. It wasn't flawless, but definitely an improvement.
After this second hunt, a family friend approached me about hosting more hunts to help her raise money for Relay for Life. Over the next four years, we held four more hunts with all proceeds going to Cancer Research and Assistance.
Then, along came Weddings & Events by Heather in 2020.
I gave into my passion for event planning in 2019 when I began taking Wedding Planning and Event Planning courses at the New York Institute of Art and Design. I quickly aced my courses, earning certifications in both subjects in May of 2020. Upon my graduation, I opened Wedding and Events by Heather.
Due to Covid and Social Distancing guidelines, it was rough finding clients and, in March of 2022, I made the decision to close my business to care for my ailing father.
Then, life completely turned upside down.
Only 2.5 months after closing my business, I sadly lost my father on Mother's Day. This initiated an 8-month-long phase of cleaning out things, remodeling my childhood home, and making the big decision to sell the house I grew up in to relocate to Jacksonville, Florida.
Life is what we make of it.
My loss has taught me how very little time we truly have to do the things we love, and how important it is to make the most of the time we are given. So, with my previous experience in mind, I chose to once again pursue my passion of event planning while taking into consideration how I could reformat and improve my services.
I chose to focus my skills on spreading joy and helping people build memories in the best way I know how. Gone are boring house parties that you forget the next day, and in it's place are new, grand, interactive experiences that you're bound to never forget!
And so, Events With A Twist was born.
With a focus on fun, unique, interactive parties, our first professional offering will be my patented Video Scavenger Hunt! Our Scavenger Hunt will be offered in one of five themes:
Adventure Awaits
Hollywood Premiere Night
Lost in Wonderland
Spy Against Spy
Superhero Supreme
Stay tuned for more from Events With A Twist!
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