Folks We Love with Rhiannon Swan, wedding and events planner
Tell us a little bit about your journey and how you’ve come to arrive here.
It’s an ongoing journey, always evolving! I am currently on maternity leave as my youngest Harriet has just turned 4 months old, so currently I am Mum Mum and Mum. Normally as well as being a Mum, I work in Events (mostly weddings) for a group of gorgeous venues: The Boathouse Group, based on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
When I was getting married almost 9 years ago, I fell in love with planning the big day so was lucky to start a career in this field straight after my honeymoon with a company that was new and exciting. I have almost been married 9 years, and working for The Boathouse for 2 weeks short of that. The days are fun, challenging, adventurous, exciting, and special. And in between all of that, we have had 3 girls, which is equally fun, challenging, adventurous, exciting, special and possibly exhausting!
Who’s in your family? Ages? Names?
Theres me – Rhiannon (34), my husband Cameron (33), and our 3 mini’s, our girls – Willow 6 years, London 2.5 years (a total two-nager) and Harriet who is just 4 months.
How did you choose your kids names?
Willow was just the name we always liked and wanted before having kids, so that was easy!
London, interestingly, was at the suggestion of my Mum. I loved it, but took Cameron a while to be convinced. We still get many a confused face questioning her name. I even had one stranger in the street say “you have to be kidding me?”. Clearly not everyone likes it. Her name does not have any association with the actual city of London. We just liked it.
I love Hattie, so Harriet it was! We had ‘Harriet’ in mind for London also, and when I gave birth to London my best friend was in the maternity ward with us, we couldn’t decide, so asked her to pick one.
We never had set boys names for any of the kids! We just couldn’t decide, lucky we ended up with girls each time!
Location?
North Curl Curl, Sydney
Occupation?
Wedding and Events Planner + Director
What’s on your manifest board?
To stay happy, be calm, enjoy every second of every day, appreciate how lucky we are in this country, stay true to yourself and be the best person you possibly can be
I am a Dr Phil fan, ha!, and live by the notion that we, as parents, are here to prepare our children for the next level of life. So do it well.
My mental vision board consists of making time to do more fun things with the kids, starting to paint (something I have always wanted to do), get our new house built eventually and build my little side project up as it gets no attention at the moment, and travel more with just the 5 of us.
Tell us some of your most loved ways to spend the day with your clan?
The beach, dancing, colouring in, scooting, movie watching, holidays, coffee out and about! Anything together is good!
What are some silly/fun things that the kids do or say?
Willow at a younger age was very funny and we started labelling her funny comments as “Willowisms”. My favourite when she was two and a half was when I handed her a glass of water, to which she said…”mmmm, delicious, champagne…”. She is also said the other day “oh mummy you like a daisy and smell like roses”.
London is very charismatic, my favourite is when we comment on her behaviour as every reply is “no I’m not, I’m London, big girl”. Expect she can’t say London, it sounds more like Onion. She can’t pronounce her L’s. Currently everything is “NO way Jose”…
When you were a teenager what did you dream of? Do things look different?
I think I wanted to be a vet – what? So opposite to anything I have become as I am terrible with sickness, blood, anything! And we don’t even have a pet. I always wanted to be a Mum, married with 3 kids. How lucky am I?!
What are some things you really believe in?
Life is an echo. I believe what you give out, is what you get back.
Be kind, try and have a calm presence, be void of jealousy, be friendly, helpful, loving, inspiring to those around you and have a little fun.
We are given one life, its precious, be appreciative and live it well.
Where do your passions lie?
I’m passionate about bringing up our children in a happy environment, working hard, and being a good human.
Has your relationship with your other half changed since having kids?
Yes and No!
Yes because sometimes we forget each others names and what we look like (not really but it feels like it!), life has changed so much since having kids. It’s tiring and wonderful at the same time. And no, because we are still the same people, who sometimes lose it laughing so much together over the silliest thing. That’s tiredness and the old us rolled into one.
What are some of your favorite life lessons you’ve grown to love? (even if learning them at the time was hard)
To not worry about what everyone else thinks, believe in yourself more than believing in what they think of you. I didn’t start off with much confidence, but think I have made up for this. You can only do the best you can do. Don’t be so hard on yourself. We often say at home ‘calm your farm’…
What do you wish you could’ve told yourself when you were a teenager?
Don’t worry! Its fine. It will all be fine. Be yourself.
What do you find most challenging about being somebody’s parent?
I recently did a course, a room of 400 people. Just before the lunch break the speaker asked the women to stay in the room as he wanted to talk to us on our own. No men. He locked the doors, and said ‘I get it’. What he got was that we all held guilt. Not the men. Just the women, us Mums. The private chat went for 10 minutes, and had all 19 women crying by the end as he knew. I also want to make sure I am being the Mum that the girls always aspire to be, a role model. That’s hard somedays.
What do you want your kids to learn about the world?
To be brave amongst the chaos, to be happy amongst the sadness, to dream big and that we all came into the world the same way, so we all deserve fair treatment + opportunities.
What are 4 things you can’t live without as a parent?
Cuddles + Kisses
Love
Coffee
Wine
…sometimes not it that order!
Rhiannon Swan is a mumma of 3 girls, head of events for The Boathouse Group in Sydney and full time day dreamer. Born and raised on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, proud perhaps too much of this, and in turn has become part of the growing group “insular peninsular”. With a BA in Business and major in Marketing, the biggest achievement of uni days was meeting my husband. Now with 3 kids, Willow 6, London 2.5 and Harriet 5 months, the girls keep them on their toes at all times. In her spare time she is planning their new house build. She loves coffee (perhaps wine more!), pinteresting, beach days, reading home magazines, giggle fits with her girls, travelling to places with history or that has a story, and art. Rhiannon is Instagram obsessed, admits her kids have a better wardrobe than herself, perhaps watches TV too much and has to have the volume on the radio at an even number.