Our shoot was a smashing success! I was exhausted come Monday morning but it was more than worth it. I can't say enough great things about our awesome cast and our FANTASTIC crew!! I'm just incredibly grateful.

Here are a few production stills shot by our photographer Ralphy Sierra. Click on the thumbnail you want to see.

For more pics please visit our Diary of A Wedding Planner fan page on facebook.

...all the time and all the time God is good!"

If you grew up in a church you've no doubtedly repeated this mantra many times before. It's only fitting that I start today's post with this phrase because this week has proven to me, once again, how good He really is. So onto the good news...

1. We made our budget for Diary of A Wedding Planner! Woooooooooo-Hooooooooo!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who put in something to help us raise the last few hundred dollars we needed to make this project come together. We had a quick table read last night and are ready to rock & roll bright and early {I'm talking 6:45am} tomorrow morning. Surprisingly I'm not nervous at all. I have a lot of faith in our crew and am so glad that all of the actors we wanted were both available and happy to be a part of this.

2. I got a survival job! Ok to backtrack...a few days ago we found out that our health insurance premium was $814 per month, double what we were expecting, even for a family of 4 that is RIDICULOUS seeing as how it's an HMO and not a PPO. This realization could not have come at a worse time and it was causing me to worry, a lot! Then I remembered hearing someone say that Worry and Faith cannot exist in the same place so I had to make a choice about whether I was going to worry about it or give it to God and have faith that He'd work it out. That day I decided to pray about it and since my family believes in tithing I made up my mind not to worry anymore, period. Later that same day a friend of mine randomly called and I mentioned to him that I was looking for a job. He called me back a few hours later and told me his boss was hiring immediately and would give me a call shortly. His boss called within the hour and offered me a full-time job with decent pay that...wait for it...works at NIGHT!!! I'll be logging & transcribing television shows for a production company {which I have no idea how to do but I'll learn} and I start on Monday. :-) Best part is, my days will be free to audition- when I'm not asleep of course.

3. I booked the lead role for the student film I auditioned for! It's such a meaty, tragic role so I am looking forward to diving into it.

4. On a more personal note, my beautiful young cousin was robbed at gunpoint recently while working at her job. While I hate that she had to experience such a scary thing, I am so grateful that she wasn't harmed in any way. This is what I am most thankful for this week- I love you Shakey!!

That about wraps it up for today's post. Hopefully, whether you believe in God or not, you have something to be grateful for this week as well.

We are just 5 days away from shooting the pilot episode of Diary of A Wedding Planner and I couldn't be more excited!! We have a great cast in place {decided not to have callbacks after all} and a professional crew as well. This Thursday we'll be having a table read so that everyone can have a chance to meet beforehand and we can ensure we're all on the same page before we begin.

We've almost made our budget so if you {or someone you know} still wants to help, feel free to do so by clicking the paypal button below.

Didn’t really want to post this but since the point of this blog is to share both the good and the bad that comes with this journey, here it is…

Now that we’re in our own apartment, money is tighter than it’s ever been. So much so actually, that I couldn’t do the fitness program I signed up for. Why you ask?

• Well daycare for the 2 week program would’ve run me about $200 {and that’s a bargain!}
• Parking another $20 at the meters or $50 if I actually parked in their garage
• The extra gas would’ve been somewhere around another $60 - $75 as the gym was in West Hollywood and I still have to pick up my son from school every day in Long Beach {didn’t want to move him this late in the school year}

So all in all we were looking at a total of $280 - $325. To many people that’s not a lot of money, but when you’re watching every dollar that comes in and goes out, believe me, it is. When I originally submitted for this we were still living with my grandmother so this wasn’t even a consideration at the time but it is now. And I felt so ashamed that I didn’t even want to tell the cd the truth about why I couldn’t go through with it- I just left it at “unexpected circumstances.” Epic Fail.

I feel like such a loser who doesn’t take her fitness seriously at all since this is the third fitness program I’ve started and stopped. First one- car trouble, Second one- just wasn’t feeling it, This one- finances. Stephen told me not to sign up for anymore until we’re able to afford daycare on a daily basis rather than just the drop-in situation we have now. He’s right. Which is why I’m looking for a survival job. Yes I’m a Wedding Coordinator but it will take awhile before I build up my clientele out here and I need extra money NOW. Our basic bills are covered thanks to the stability of the hubs but if want to watch cable, have the internet, take acting classes, attend cd workshops, schedule coffee and lunch with industry folks, attend networking events, and so on & so forth, I gotta bring in some extra paper. I signed up with The Friedman Agency, a temporary agency that caters to the entertainment industry, but they offer mainly daytime work which means I’d have to pay someone to pick up my son from school each day since kindergarteners get out so early. I wouldn’t mind doing that for a permanent position but I can’t afford that if I’m only working a temp assignment as the pick-up service operates on a weekly basis. So using the temp agency is out for now but perhaps when Jayden is out of school I’ll go that route. Besides, a night job is preferred so that I can still go on auditions during the day, take my oldest to school, spend time with the little one, etc. I’ve been scouring craigslist applying for a plethora of positions- event planning, admin work, office managing and of course the #1 actor job in LA: serving. I even thought about go-go dancing as I love to dance and it would be a fantastic workout {two birds with one stone} but Stephen quickly ixnayed that idea, LOL! Guess I can’t blame in. Hopefully someone bites though, and I don’t really care who that is, as long as they can offer me a paycheck, a sane work environment and a steady number of hours, I’ll be happy.

P.S.- the fine folks of the Running Twister very graciously allowed me to keep their product so I’m gonna learn how to use this thing one way or another.

That's what they called me yesterday at the commercial shoot. This is the 3rd project I've worked on where they've commented on how I nailed the copy in one take- makes me feel FANTASTIC!!

Today's agenda: Student film audition followed by a long casting session for Diary of A Wedding Planner. I'm looking forward to auditioning as this is another dramatic role {yes, more please!} but the challenging thing is that it's a very emotional scene, bursts of tears and all, that I have to do at 9am this morning. Oh well, gotta do what you gotta do right?

Afterwards, to the fun stuff! I can't wait to see the auditions we have scheduled today. I actually woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach, quite nervous, because I want everything to go as smooth as possible. I feel like I'm the one auditioning here!

Decided to do a vlog while leaving the ABC Building...
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Stop by my Backstage: Unscripted blog to read about how my Who Wants To Be A Millionaire audition turned out while I was there. Lots of fun! If only the money were real.

AUDITION TRACKER
April brought me 2 bookings {infomercial & commercial} and 1 callback {webseries} so I'm happy with that. I've already told ya'll about the infomercial but the other two are new. The commercial was booked off of pictures on LA Casting. It's called 75 Words Project and it's a commercial that's all about spreading the love of Christ. We shoot Friday night and I couldn't be more thrilled to help spread the Good News in a fun way like this. The webseries, on the other hand, is at the opposite end of the spectrum and is a far cry from what I normally go out for. This is the character's breakdown:


Iesha: Post-rape victim intent on getting revenge with her best friend on the guy who raped her. Attractive, seductive & vindictive. (Dreadlocks preferred for this role but we base talent over hairstyle)


Well I certainly don't have dreadlocks so I'm glad that was just a preference because I got the call today that it's between one other girl and myself. The CD said I "blew it out the water"- who doesn't love to hear that? There won't actually be a callback though, the Executive Producer will just be making a selection between the two of us so fingers crossed. *And though there's not an actual CB, knowing that I have a 50/50 chance now makes it ok for me to list it as one on my audition tracker. Gotta keep score of every victory I can, no matter how small.


CLASSES & WORKSHOPS
Sadly, none. And I have a feeling it'll probably be like this for the month of May too. It's not that I don't want to take classes but I need more time & money and right now BOTH of those things are being spent on my webseries. Which leads me to...


DIARY OF A WEDDING PLANNER
I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about the progress that we've made. A few weeks ago I was kinda bummed because one of my producers and I had creative differences and decided to part ways. At first I felt like, what am I gonna do now? I don't know anything about producing. I don't know where to begin with location scouting or putting together a shooting schedule or even assembling a professional crew. But it turned out to be such a blessing in disguise! Now I have a ROCKSTAR team who is making sure we go from A to Z with no stone unturned. We're now ready to cast and will be holding our first casting session this Saturday and I can't wait! This project has really taken shape in ways I couldn't have even imagined and I am so incredibly excited and grateful. More updates to come!

I do!

I'll be auditioning for the gameshow this afternoon. I'm not the best when it comes to trivia but what I lack in trivia knowledge I make up for in enthusiasm! We'll see how it goes...