Introducing Sunkissed Wishes Travel

Hello Lovely Readers,

Here I go again. Cross Professional Business Services, or Cross Pro Biz, was supposed to be my last company. The one I could retire from. Having a bookkeeping and accounting company seemed the way to go just a couple of months after I became a widow. We were deep into the pandemic, so I researched what I could comfortably do from home. I knew wedding planning was out of the question, but what else was I qualified to do? I went back to school for a year and earned a vocational accounting certificate at my old community college, relearning the basics and diving into new innovations since I last ran a business. However, I really never had a passion for it. I mean, I like the idea of helping women business owners and all that. I was even flirting with the idea of coaching a couple of years ago, but I could never figure out a niche that would work for me. That was then. 

Then, a couple of months ago, I was scrolling through socials, and I saw an ad about the travel business, and I was like, "Oh my God, yes!" I do love to travel, and I have been in the travel/hospitality business for most of my adult life. Being a travel agent/advisor never dawned on me while I was doing the research in the winter of 2021. I mean, we were deep, deep in COVID, and traveling was not on my radar. But the more I thought about it, the more I researched it, the more I realized that yes, this is something that I can get behind and be passionate about. 

I have always loved to travel, but I just haven't done as much recently. What kinda fired me up was taking my son on a cruise in June 2025. The passion was always there, but I just pushed it down. I lost my glimmer. I finally reawakened it, and I have discovered myself again.

After reminding myself how much I love to travel, how I love all things Disney, and how I really enjoy going to places by myself. I have decided to start a new business all over again from scratch, and follow a long-dormant passion of mine, and make a living doing it. I'm super excited about this new venture!

The name of my travel company is Sunkissed Wishes. The idea is based on pursuing sunny{sunkissed} locations with a bit of Disney whimsy. What are your Sunkissed Wishes? It's my first business that is not named after a family member or myself: Me & My Sis Pet Sit {with my sister, obviously}, A Joyeux Day Weddings & Events {used my mom's middle name of Joy}, C & E Catering & Events {last name initials of my husband and me}, Cross Professional Business Services {my last name}.

I am going to niche down since there are so many options in the travel industry. I decided to focus on: planning Disney Vacations along with trips to Florida & California, plus warm and tropical places in the US, Caribbean, Mexico & Europe, especially island locations.

My ideal clients are solo women and Disney adults. I might full circle it and add honeymoons/destination weddings, but that's a whole market in itself.

In the meantime, I'll be chasing those Sunkissed Wishes...

Stay sunny🌞

Caricture via Chat GPT!

I'm back

Hi lovely readers,

I would like to reintroduce myself. I'm Stephanie Cross, a solo parent, and empty-nester. I currently have a bookkeeping & accounting company, Cross Professional Business Services LLC that I officially started in October 2021. More on that later.

This is my first post since my 5th Anniversary post on April 24, 2010. A Joyeux Blog was about all things weddings in and around Southern California. I had a some regular features: Beverage Monday, Venues of the Southland and Traditions & Superstitions. I might continue with Beverage Monday because it was fun looking for themed drinks. Since I'm no longer a wedding planner I do not get to see many venues anymore so I'll retire that. You can find the ones I featured under the venue tag. Although I've been kicking around an idea for a regular feature on the museums around Southern California. I have been to almost all of them...

Anyways, I shut down my wedding planning business, A Joyeux Day Weddings & Events at the end of 2010. My son was getting to the point where I needed to be with him {drive} to various activities. My husband's career was taking off, and since we were in the same industry, someone needed to be home with our son. 

I also went back to school. I started and stopped going so many times I lost count. I really hated sitting in a classroom. Then by 2010, schools were offering online classes. Finally, technology caught up and I could go to school while sitting at home at my desk, and continue being a stay-at-home mom that has time to volunteer.

I went to a community college for a couple of years and then transferred to an university that offered a Bachelor of Arts degree completely online. Win-win for me! My major was Business Administration. I had already had opened one business, and almost started another one, so I thought that was the best track for me.

About that, my current business is the basically my fourth business. The first time I thought of being a business owner I was in my mid 30's. I was back living with my parents, and my older sister and her son lived there, too. She was, and is really into animals, so I though about starting a pet sitting business with her, Me & My Sis Pet Sit. Now, I had never really thought about being a business owner, none of my immediate family are business owners, so I am not really sure where the initial idea came for this, many years later. I thought that she could be the animal person, and I would take care of the business aspect. When it came to business know-how, I didn't have any at that time. I was a food server and had been doing that for many years. The internet was just taking off, and I was able to do quite a bit of research online. I also took advantage of business classes at the library. We never got it off the ground, and I ended up moving two hours away, taking the knowledge with me. 

My second go around was my wedding business, which this blog was formally named for, A Joyeux Blog. Actually, my wedding planning company was named after my mom. I went with the French spelling of Joyous, because the dot com was taken for A Joyous Day. I officially had it for almost three years, and did weddings on the side without the official name for some time afterwards.

My third attempt was with my husband. I had to write a business plan for an entrepreneur class I was taking, so we followed it and opened a catering & event business. He was the chef, and I did the event planning. We did great for sometime, but only as a side business, he was working as a chef in a sorority house at the time and had weekends off. The company went under and he went back to working weekends, so our little business had to wrap up.

Now, I am the proud of owner of Cross Professional Business Services LLC a bookkeeping & accounting company focused on midlife female entrepreneurs. I am also branching out into helping women start their business.

I started the idea of CrossProBiz in February 2021. In 2019, I was starting to research what would be a viable business to open with my skill set after my son graduated high school in 2022. Then the pandemic happened, and I lost my husband at the end of 2020. I had to figure out what to do while in deep mourning. Fun stuff!! There was a bit of a learning curve since traditional marketing had evolved to mostly social media, and learning what a tech stack is and that, yes I do have one. I gathered all my new found knowledge and a shoestring budget to start Cross Professional Business Services LLC, which I hope is my last business!

Thanks for reading...

A Day in the Life of a Wedding Planner

Today, I am going to start telling you the multi-part story of what one wedding planner {me} did on the day of the wedding at a luxury resort. It was a daytime wedding. The ceremony started at 11am and the reception was over at 4pm. The ceremony and reception were at the same place. The Bride, Groom, wedding party and parents all stayed at the hotel the night before.
6:30am

• Wake-up. Shower & dress, in casual clothes. Say bye to my little boy who woke right as I was leaving.

7:05

• Left home. I wanted to leave at 6:45-7:00 but, oh well.

7:15

• Stop by a fast food drive through. Not sure when I will have time to eat later.

8:05

• Arrive at the venue. Almost missed the off-ramp. I am so not a morning person and thought I was driving to San Diego, oops!

8:10

• Park, go to the bell desk to retrieve the wedding stuff from the Catering Managers office. Too much for one bell cart need to call another bellman.

8:20

• Get to the ceremony & reception site. Everything will be outside today. Photographer’s assistant arrives and we go over to the bride’s dressing room. She has been to this venue before and know the trick to get in without a key. Another photographer calls. She’s on the way. Their original photographer went into labor that day. There is confusion about which photographer is going to be with the bride.

8:35

• Go see my Bride. So beautiful! She’s a bit nervous. Talk with the Maid of Honor. She just had a baby two weeks before the wedding and couldn't make it to the rehearsal the previous night. I gave her a rundown of what she needed to do. Told everybody that they needed to be ready by 9. One of the bridesmaids argued that she couldn't be. OK, not your wedding. Except the bride. The photographer’s assistant was loaning her BMW for the get-away car and the Mother of the Bride wanted to decorate it. So I get them together.

8:45

• Start setting up ceremony & reception. They are within a few feet of each other. Checked in with the Banquet Manager, confirmed floor plan and table set-up. Started putting together their candy bar. Realize I don’t have the glue dots. Go to the Groom’s room. The groomsmen are rocking pink ties. The guys are so very restless. Had them go out to the lobby to wait for their photographer; Call the photographer to let her know that she needs to meet the guys in the lobby. Walked over to the bride's room to get the boutonnieres. The bride's photographer was taking shots of them so I asked her assistant if she could bring them to the lobby when she is done. Go to the lobby to let the guys know what's going on. The go back to the wedding area.

9:05

• Continue the set up. Florist is working on the ceremony area, great. Met the Banquet Captain. She is fantastic and helps me A LOT! plus, she brought me some ice tea. The drink of the gods! She helps me set up Candy Bar. The first person of the string trio arrives. Concerned there isn't enough shade. So ask if we can get another umbrella over where they will be playing.

9:15

• Continue setting up.

9:30

• The DJ arrives. I introduce myself. You email and talk on the phone but you don't always meet the other vendors till wedding day. Hear the the guys yell out the DJ's name as the drive off for their photos.

9:50

• Guestbook Attendants & one of the Ushers arrive. Let them know what their duties are. I also give them a timeline to look over. Get officiant and the trio together so they can discuss the cues for the ceremony. Finish setting up. Cake is there. I didn't even notice it arriving.

Part 2 will be next Tuesday.

Enjoy,