January 2012. The Do-Over

“It wasn’t that day that I’d pictured since I was a little girl. I was in so much pain.” Patrice Johnson, from Prairieville, is describing her wedding day three years ago, that was ruined by a debilitating migraine headache.

“I’ve been having migraines for over fifteen years. On my wedding day I woke up and started having symptoms. Migraines don’t care that it’s your wedding day,” she recalls vividly. “That day I was going through the motions, trying to be the Southern Belle even though I was dying inside.”

Flash forward three years and Johnson was watching television one afternoon and saw a contest advertised by the National Headache Foundation. The contest, called “Rewrite Your Day,” offered a chance for people who’d had a major event in their lives ruined by a migraine, to have a “do-over.” So she sent in her story. “I never thought I would win,” she recalls. “So when I got a call a few months later I was so elated.” Especially since Johnson’s do-over would be orchestrated by “event planner to the stars,” Mindy Weiss.

Weiss has planned events for celebrities including Jessica Simpson, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, Kimberly Williams and Brad Paisley, Nicole Richie and Joel Madden.
“She does a lot of events for the celebrities I like,” said Johnson, “To have the chance even to speak with her…I was floored.”
Speak with her she did, at first over the phone where Weiss questioned Patrice about here favorite colors and flowers.
“After that I got a box in the mail. She sent a wedding gown.” And the re-write had begun.

On December 14, 2011, Patrice and her husband renewed their vows at Mount Hope Plantation, with a ceremony and reception that took its cues from all the things Patrice had shared with Weiss, including a bold pink and purple color scheme that reflected Johnson’s favorite flower—The Stargazer Lily.
And by the way, Johnson worked closely with her doctor to ensure that there would be no migraine that day.

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