My name is Chiell Ann (it's Shell, like a seashell) ...Founder and Creative Director of Love & Life Events.
 

I didn't grow up dreaming of being a wedding planner. I spent almost a decade building a career first: six years in marketing and sales, a year in recruiting, then five years as the first employee at a beauty startup, where I wore every hat the business needed. Customer service, production, operations, product development. Somewhere in all of that, I kept gravitating toward the event side of the work. Trade shows, launch parties, influencer events. That was where I came alive.
 

The real turning point was my own wedding in 2017. I hired a planner and fully trusted her team with one of the biggest days of my life. It was seamless. It was joyful. And it planted a question I couldn't shake: could I do this for other people?
 

So I tested it, quietly, on the side, while still working my corporate job. My first few weddings were free. I did them for people who trusted me on my word alone, and at the end, every one of them paid me anyway. A generous tip, or the full package cost, because they believed in what I'd given them. That told me everything I needed to know.
 

I took the leap in 2018 and found out I was pregnant two weeks later. I've since built this business through a pandemic, three kids in five years, and every hard season in between. It's taught me that resilience isn't a personality trait. It's a practice you return to, especially on the days you want to quit.
 

Born and raised in Los Angeles and now based in Huntington Beach, I grew up surrounded by cultural diversity that shapes how I approach every celebration. As a Filipino-American with Chinese and Portuguese roots, blending traditions and families feels like second nature. I'm also a mom of three and a wife to my biggest supporter, and managing a full house has only sharpened my calm, solutions-first way of planning.
 

I believe celebrations aren't extras in people's lives. They're some of the rare moments people hold onto, all the way to the end. That's what drives every detail we get right.