What it is actually like to work with Tracy.

Tracy planned my mother's 75th, my own vow renewal and three Jazz Fest weekends — all without ever raising her voice or sending a single confused email.

I gave her a date, a budget and a guest list. Five months later, my parents had the anniversary they had been politely refusing to plan for themselves.

We were married in my grandmother's garden in Port Allen on a Saturday in October. Tracy ran the day with the calmness of someone who had clearly done this before, several hundred times.

She got us into the sold-out Saturday at Jazz Fest, found a driver who knew his way around Mid-City, and remembered that I prefer rosé to white. That last part is what sold me.

I am the kind of host who needs help admitting I need help. Tracy was patient, blunt where she had to be, and never once made me feel rushed.

The hand-bound memory book she sent after the wedding sits on my coffee table. People ask about it more than the wedding photos.