I met her at church years ago, back when I was doing bespoke wedding stationery and art. I had just had my second child. She wasn’t married yet, but she and her now-husband were engaged.

At the time, I did creative projects and writing for our women’s ministry. We crossed paths in that season and it was the kind of connection that happens in community, where you know someone’s heart before you know all the details of their life.

When she asked me to design their wedding stationery, I said yes.

Creating Something Beautiful Together

It was a blending of two different cultures. Two families, two stories, coming together in one celebration. The creative work required attention to both: honoring what each brought and finding the visual language that could hold them both.

The wedding suite turned out to be one of the most beautiful I’d ever been part of. And the wedding itself reflected that same intentionality. It wasn’t just pretty. It was so meaningful to their families.

After the wedding, they relocated to Dallas. Started their family and began building their life.

When Trust Spans a Decade

Years passed and life moved forward for both of us. She had two small kids by the time she reached out about relocating back to Houston.

Her husband’s company had assigned them a relocation agent and it wasn’t going well.

I don’t know all the details of what wasn’t working, but I know the feeling: when the person helping you doesn’t quite understand what you need, when the process feels transactional instead of personal, or when you’re trying to make one of the biggest decisions of your life and it just doesn’t feel right.

After one conversation – talking through my process, how I could help, and what they could expect – they hired me.

A decade after designing their wedding stationery, I was helping them find a home.

What They Needed

With two small kids and plans to homeschool, location mattered. They needed space – not just square footage, but the right kind of space. Room for learning at home. Room for out-of-town family to visit and stay comfortably.

They needed a neighborhood with community. Proximity to good activities and friends because those things matter for relationships, extracurriculars, and the life that happens around education.

And they needed to feel confident in the decision, even from a distance. They were relocating from Dallas, which meant they couldn’t be here for every showing, every walkthrough or each small detail. They needed someone they could trust to see what they would see and care about what they would care about.

I sent videos. Neighborhood information. Context that went beyond listings. I tried to give them eyes on the ground so they could make informed decisions from where they were.

When What You Want Isn’t Listed

What they were searching for wasn’t on the market. At least, not publicly.

So I reached out to agent colleagues. Asked around. Made calls. Sometimes the right home isn’t waiting to be discovered, it has to be uncovered.

We found it. Off-market. The perfect home.

It needed a few repairs, but the seller agreed to take care of them before closing. The terms worked. The timeline worked. And most importantly, the home worked.

The Life They’ve Built

Neighbors. Community. Activities close by for the things homeschooling doesn’t cover. A home with the space they needed, in the location that made sense for this season of their lives.

The relocation, which had felt stressful and uncertain under the previous agent, ended well. They trusted me with another significant milestone, and I’m so grateful I got to be part of that.

What a Decade Teaches

When she first reached out, it had been years since we’d worked together. Different careers. Different seasons of life. She had kids now. I wasn’t designing wedding stationery anymore.

But the trust was still there.

That’s what I’m most grateful for: not just that she hired me, but that the foundation we’d built years ago, in a completely different context, held. That she knew I would care about the details. That I would show up with the same intentionality I’d brought to her wedding suite. That I would see her, not just as a transaction, but as someone whose life and family mattered.

Real estate, like wedding stationery, is ultimately about transitions. About marking moments. About helping people step into the next chapter with clarity and confidence.

And sometimes, the greatest gift is getting to walk alongside someone through more than one of those chapters.

Full Circle

She asked me to design her wedding stationery when she was engaged, blending two cultures into one beautiful celebration.

A decade later, she asked me to help her family find a home as they relocated back to Houston, blending their needs and hopes into one right decision.

Both times, the work was about more than the product. It was about the intangible things that matter most. About paying attention to the details that make something personal. About creating space for what comes next.

I’m grateful for the trust that spans different careers and over a decade of life. For clients who become friends. For the reminder that this work, whether it’s designing an invitation or finding a home, is always, always about people.

---

Home matters. The greatest honor is being trusted to help someone find it – more than once, across more than one season.