Life Conversations with a Twist
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Life Conversations with a Twist
Reimagining Farewell: Celebrating a Life Well-Lived with Lindsey Nickel
“[Death] can happen to anybody anytime. So just have something in place for the loved ones, just to make it smoother and easier for them.” —Lindsey Nickel
Death comes for us all, but how we remember those we've lost can be beautiful and healing. Yet our culture often treats death as a taboo subject, leaving families feeling lost and unprepared. But what if we could transform grief into a celebration that truly honors a life lived?
Lindsey Nickel started as a wedding planner in Napa and discovered a calling in helping families create meaningful goodbye celebrations. With over a decade of event planning experience, she's now helping people reimagine how we say farewell to our loved ones.
Listen as Heather and Lindsey break down the raw, real, and surprisingly hopeful world of celebrating life after loss, covering everything from planning a killer memorial to dealing with grief, understanding end-of-life wishes, and turning a tough moment into a powerful tribute that feels like a big, loving group hug.
Connect with Heather:
Episode Highlights:
01:34 Meet Lindsey: Going on a Sabbatical
07:00 Transitioning to Celebrations of Life
11:44 Navigating Grief and Client Relationships
15:08 Funerals vs Celebrations of Life
18:22 Perspectives on Death, Legacy, and Preparing for End of Life
21:08 Unique Ways of Honoring Loved Ones
24:57 Advice for Families Dealing with Impending Loss
28:47 Resources for End-of-Life Planning
31:52 Death Doulas and Support Services
Connect with Lindsey:
Lindsey Nickel is a seasoned wedding planner based in Napa, California, specializing in creating stylish, low-stress events that leave a lasting impression. With a background in event planning and outdoor adventure, Lindsey founded Lovely Day Events in 2010, bringing her organizational expertise and passion to create unforgettable celebrations. Known for her warm and meticulous approach, she invests deeply in her clients’ special moments, ensuring every detail is thoughtfully executed. When she’s not crafting extraordinary events, Lindsey enjoys traveling, hiking, dining outdoors, and fostering rescue dogs—including her beloved dog, Basil.
Heather Nelson: Hello everyone. Welcome to this week's Life Conversations With a Twist. I have my friend Lindsey Nickel here. I was trying to think about how long we've known each other, but 10 to 12 years?
Lindsey Nickel: Yeah. We met when I first moved to Napa, and I think right around when you were starting at Encore.
Heather Nelson: Okay, yeah. I was there for 12 years, and then I've been gone almost two, so it's crazy. We've known each other for a while. Of course, I met through the events industry, which is how I met most of my guests, and most people in my world. But what's been really cool to watch your journey is you came on as a wedding planner, and you are still doing that. But your business has totally shifted. And now, you're doing more celebrations of life. You and I went on a hike one day. This was like, probably what? A year ago, two years ago now?
Lindsey Nickel: At least, yeah.
Heather Nelson: And we were like, this would be a really cool conversation, because I think weddings are so glamorous, fun and beautiful. There's this other part of life that happens, and you have totally changed how you embrace that. And so I think this will be a great conversation.
Lindsey Nickel: Yeah. I'm really excited to share how I got to this point, what brought it to me? And really, just help people become more comfortable talking about death and celebrations of life, or whatever they feel is appropriate after their loved one or themselves passes.
Heather Nelson: I talked a little bit about who you are, but if you want to give a little background on who you are, your little, where you live? I always say age, because I think sometimes people put perspective on where my guests sit in life.
Lindsey Nickel: So like Heather said, my name is Lindsey Nickel. I live in Napa, and I am actually from the East Bay, so I've been in California almost my whole life. We lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for 10 years, and the weather is just too cold, and winters are too long for somebody from California. So like Heather just mentioned, I moved back here like 12 years ago. Now, I just turned 43 last month. Whoop, whoop.
Heather Nelson: Me too. I'm right there with you, girl.
Lindsey Nickel: Yeah, you're right behind me. So yeah, 40s. That's a whole nother podcast, but it's pretty great. And I am a wedding planner, it is mostly how people know me. I've been planning weddings since 2010. I started in Jackson Hole. And then when I moved to Napa, I expanded to Napa, and so I specialize in destination weddings. A couple years ago, I realized that a lot of people during COVID, what else do I want to be doing as somebody who was turning 40 around during COVID times like, what will the next half of my life look like? What does my next career look like? Anybody who's in weddings knows it's really physically demanding. It's really stressful. It's really long hours so I was starting to think of what the next part of my career will look like.
Heather Nelson: And here you are. One thing I love about watching you as a friend from afar is that you've always kind of just taken risks. Or you've tried different things. I remember during COVID, or maybe it was a little bit before COVID? You did some coaching with potential people who wanted to be wedding planners, and that's something. And then you and your husband have dabbled in lots of businesses, but that's what I love about you. People say all the time you, you try so many things, and you do so many things. But I think you have to try things to figure out what you're passionate about.
Lindsey Nickel: Again, I hope there's a whole other podcast of like, if you have the entrepreneurial spirit, or if you're a serial entrepreneur, you just have to go for it. But you also have to realize when the ship is sinking and shut it down. So that can also be really hard.
Heather Nelson: One thing that I would love to ask you while we're just having this kind of conversation before we dive in is you just took a sabbatical. Talk about that and what made that happen.
Lindsey Nickel: I don't want to come back and talk about that in full depth, but I took the sabbatical, which ended up being more of like a work on another business sabbatical. But the main reason we did the sabbatical was because we saw other people who worked in other industries doing it. We saw friends who were our age, who are professors going on sabbatical, having every single summer off. And teachers have summer off because they work in education. Friends in tech working. And after five years, they got a paid sabbatical. And we were like, hold on, we could do this. And again, I really want to come back and talk about this more like, people can do this. They can talk to their employers. They can make plans. They can negotiate it. I also really want to acknowledge this is a place of extreme privilege to be able to go, take this time off and go to Tahoe. But it doesn't have to be a long period of time. It could be two weeks, three weeks as a staycation. It's just starting the conversation of people needing more of a break in life, I think, especially when they get to our age and points in their career. So that was the main motivation. We didn't want to get burned out. We wanted to keep going. We saw other people doing it, and we were like, let's do this. Let's figure out how. And we saved up for over a year, I would say, to do it.
Heather Nelson: So it was something that you had pre planned ahead of time. You weren't like, okay, in six months where, again, it's usually a financial thing. Why couldn't somebody take one anyways? But how do you plan for that? And you obviously plan for it saving for a year, basically to take the time off.
Lindsey Nickel: You would go back and look, but we saved. I made sure that I still got paid all throughout the sabbatical. I would love to come back and talk about that, and how people can take breaks in life, but also keep things moving. And again, I would go into this more, but the finances actually worked out the same, working half the amount of time. So now, I'm really evaluating, wait a minute, maybe I need to use my time better.
Heather Nelson: I think about it all the time because I do want to change how I'm doing my business. But I can't because I'm constantly going right. To be able to just stop for a minute, and to be able to focus on something, even if it was like,a week, I literally just told myself what I should do.
Lindsey Nickel: A week every quarter.
Heather Nelson: So you plan these beautiful weddings in Sonoma County, and I don't know if this is one of the reasons, but I feel like our industry, or where you sit in the industry is very saturated. There's so many wedding planners in our market for, I mean, we are a luxury destination. People come here to get married, right? What was the point where you're like, okay, I could plan other events, but celebrations of life. Take a part of an event that nobody really thinks about, and turn it into what you're doing now.
Lindsey Nickel: I had the idea a long time ago. In 2016, my grandparents died. I'm happy to go into the details, but we only have 30 minutes. So basically, my grandparents died in 2016 and I was there at the end when my grandmother was dying. My aunt and I watched her die. We were there. She took her final breaths, and they both died within six months of each other. So we became even more interested in the dying process. And was very eye opening as it was literally happening. Like, oh, wow, we know nothing of our culture. I didn't realize this was a broad stroke. Our culture doesn't talk about this, and we were so unprepared. It would be like, oh, you're having a baby tomorrow, and you're reading the pamphlet as they wheel you into the hospital. That's how death basically is in our culture. Again, I realize this is a broad statement. So that was the initial idea. And then I watched my aunt who's a super capable woman, good at planning stuff and organized, closing out their estate, getting their house ready to sell it. And she had to plan these. They had funerals, but she had to plan those. And I was like, there has got to be a better way like this. This is really where we are in society of how things have evolved.
But we had just moved here, so I had this idea in my head. It just always marinated untilCOVID, and everybody's at home like, what am I going to do next? And then it was like 2022, I think, so I had this idea. I've worked with a business coach, and all I did in the beginning was my wedding business page. I had one page that said celebrations of life coming soon. Email me if you want to talk about something. And it was just like a placeholder. Well, I worked with this coach, so I had a bunch of ideas of what I was going to do next, and so we kind of honed in on this idea. And then she told me to go out and research the dying industry. So I went to funeral homes. I talked to people whose family members had died recently. Find out what they wanted to keep doing on their own, what they would have liked help with. Did they need help closing the estate? Did they need help closing out credit cards? Did they need help with all those things? Did they need help with a middle person with the funeral home? A lot of really in depth research, and boiled it down to what people actually wanted was someone to plan the celebration of life for them. And they're like, oh, okay, well, this is serendipitous. So meanwhile, I have this one little page, and this woman emails me and says, I'm a VA for, we'll just call him Bob. I'm a VA for Bob, and Bob's wife just died. We're having a 300 person celebration of life in four weeks, and we need help. And I found you on Google, and here we are.
Heather Nelson: And that was your first.
Lindsey Nickel: That was the first one like, oh, okay, giddy up. Here we go. This has happened.
Heather Nelson: It's like just taking that leaf or just putting it out there to see what sticks. I didn't even think about all the things that happen when somebody passes away, especially at the states and things like that, that nobody wants to plan it. And here's the other thing, and you probably can relate to this. Even people who are planning weddings, this is probably the only event that they have ever planned in their whole entire life, and they probably will be the only one unless they have kids, babies and all that stuff. But I think that people with that are dealing with grief. It's like, this same thing, right? They're like, I don't know how to plan an event. I need support. I don't even know what is needed. Unless you're in the industry, you know what caters to reach out to rental companies, what venues, all of the things. And so hiring somebody like you to come in and help support that, I think, is so important.
Lindsey Nickel: Yeah. But my clients always say, I want it to be nice, but not over the top. They're so involved. Deep in the grief, they're so grateful to have something taken off their plate. So it's a lot of the same skills as wedding planning. I will say this is something that people, they're like, oh, celebrations of life, and they make this face like they're scared. You have to be exceptionally comfortable with dying, death and all of that, which I don't think a lot of people are, which is totally fine. Not everybody is, I don't know, comfortable being like an open heart surgeon and looking at organs all day long. So that's the one thing. When people are like, because I don't know what to say to me. I'm like, we have to be really comfortable with death, and then that puts them at ease.
Heather Nelson: That is a different type. Weddings are so happy, but it can be very stressful, though, right? Because you're dealing with different family members and different expectations. But I would imagine working with a family who is grieving through such a hard time. How do you navigate those conversations and relationships and be there? What have you learned over that?
Lindsey Nickel: So a lot of it is holding space for them, which is another one of those jargony words that is like, oh, here we go. This jargon word again. But being an outside person who is in this unique place of being very intimately involved in this intimate part of their life. And people, they cry, some people are just very still and can muscle through it, but once we get going, because I only work with them typically three weeks to three months. So a little bit into it is when they'll really break down or share something really personal. And again, it's just a different gratitude than the weddings. They're just so grateful to have help, and have someone moving this super fast for them, and largely making decisions on their behalf. Whereas weddings, it's their wedding. They have Pinterest boards, the expectations are totally different too. Usually, the parents are paying for some or all of it. Celebrations of life, the client is paying for it. They're the driver of the finances and the decision making, so there's not like a giant sounding board of people, which is a nice change.
Heather Nelson: What are you seeing as far as the budget? Some people probably get to that point, and I bet you that there's some people who have money set aside for this, or it's in their retirement or whatnot. And then probably, I would assume, you have clients that don't have a lot of money, but still want to do something. What you're seeing in the budget for a celebration of life kind of varies, or people reaching out to you when they actually have a little bit more money to be able to support a celebration of life?
Lindsey Nickel: At least for my clients, it's like getting married in wine country. It's a high budget investment. If you are in a position to hire a celebration of life planner, you're in a position to not really worry about money. And I have a blog post called, How Much Does a Celebration of Life Cost? Where I've averaged out the first couple years of events, so people can see real numbers of how much people spent. I don't know that I'm off the top of my head, because I usually just refer people to the blog post. But if someone is doing something equivalent, or they have the means to do something equivalent to a wedding, if their kid would get married in Wine Country, the funds to hire professionals to do everything for a celebration of life, they will, which is great, because that makes their life a lot easier. But it's not cheap. I will say that this is one thing I learned when I started the research. I knew it was expensive to die and go through everything, but, it is really expensive to do with the funeral home, cremation, or if you're going to do burial, like all the pieces, it is very, very, very expensive to die.
Heather Nelson: What are you seeing most when they are doing a celebration of life? Is it just a small reception like lunch, or just like a small appetizer and cocktails?
Lindsey Nickel: Weddings have a very clear format that people follow 99.9% of the time. Celebrations of life, I would say, have a format that people follow 75% of the time. So 75% of the time is like, one hour, people, guests arrive. Might be like appetizers, cocktails, whatever. Then next is usually the program where people get up and speak. That's usually like an hour, and then hour or two hours afterwards is a meal, or heavy apps, or something like that. That's like what 75% of the people have. I think it's easy for them. I think they're familiar with it. But 25% of the time, people come in and they want something else. Like last year, I did one, we called it, but the inspiration for it was like a mini Music Festival, and it was at covalent point. They had this huge lawn, and there was a DJ, and there was craft stations, and people could bring their kids. It was like a Family Fun Day, basically. And it was for a woman who was about our age. Maybe a little younger who had passed suddenly. So it was just like a Family Fun Day. Her husband spoke for like four minutes, and that was it. It was just like, come out, have a really fantastic time all be together. People were dancing like it was a fam. If you just walked by, you would think it was think it was like a field day for a family.
Heather Nelson: What is the difference between a funeral and a celebration of life?
Lindsey Nickel: So at a funeral, the body is present in the casket. In memorial, the body is not present. And then in celebration of life, I encourage people not to bring the remains or anything because I'm like, what if it gets knocked over? What if it breaks? Just leave it at home, please. And then celebration of life, I just sort of say it's the third thing, I guess. It's more uplifting. So it's people are not (inaudible), it's has definitely a more celebratory, uplifting, feel good vibe,
Heather Nelson: Which I feel like more people are kind of leaning toward too. At least I have not been around a ton of people who have passed away, so I haven't been to very many. But the ones that I have been to, that's what it's been more of the format. When I remember back in the day when my great grandma passed away, we were in a church, and the bodies were there. I feel like it was somebody attending as, like a family member was harder. Whereas a celebration of life is like, yes, they've passed away, but let's celebrate them. Let's honor them.
Lindsey Nickel: People show up. I see all kinds of outfits, but it's more fitting to, like, what the scene is. One that I just did last weekend, it was at this kind of a botanical garden, and people just wore casual sun dresses. They were dressed nicely. Women had jeans and a cute top. So it's much more fitting to whatever the vibe of the event is, rather than everybody putting on their nicest black dress.
Heather Nelson: You're dialed in and very much immersed into this experience. How has passing away, dying, grief and all that changed your life, or your perception of life?
Lindsey Nickel: That's such a good question. This is going to sound so cliche, but you only live once. Do what makes you happy now. You never know what's going to happen when you get in your car tomorrow. We're in our 40s and people's spouses are starting to have cancer, you just never know what's coming next. And have a conversation. I know it's really hard with aging parents. I have one myself, do you want to be cremated? Or do you want to be buried? And I realized that this generation is not always comfortable talking about that. But doing anything you can do to get your parents to open up and give you any sort of direction makes it much, much easier for you. Anybody who has a smartphone, basically, put it just in your notes. What would you want? It doesn't have to be formal or anything like that. But is it a celebration of life? Is it a funeral? Do you want anything with the church? My husband is in the cigar industry. Like, do you want cigars at your celebration of life? Just write it down somewhere so that the people who are responsible for planning it have some sort of foundation, but also to alleviate any infighting within family members of like, this is what the person would want. This is what the person would want. You can hold up your phone and say, this is what he wrote in our shared note. This is what she wrote in our shared note. She wants it to be outside at a winery, with kids in a pizza truck. You have a lease of a small foundation to work on. Or they really wanted a church service for just the family and then they wanted, I don't know, they wanted to rent out a corner of Disneyland for the day, or something. But give them a week. That doesn't have to be spelled out perfectly, but at least point them in the right direction.
Heather Nelson: So good. I never even thought of it like that. I verbally have said, I want to be cremated, and that's all that I know. And then I want people to really celebrate me.
Lindsey Nickel: What does that mean? Is it daytime? Is it night time? Is everybody going to a Giants game? One I did, the woman wanted a brunch where people gave a toast about her, and that's what her daughter planned for her. That is a foundation, even just picking a venue. So another guy, his wife picked the venue, and that was it. That is a great start. Give your loved ones any sort of start.
Heather Nelson: What have you seen done at events that you were like, oh, that's really cool. Or a really great way of honoring them. I guess celebration of life trends, but things that you were like, oh, I wish people did more of that.
Lindsey Nickel: Overarching answer is I wish people did things that made them happy, or celebrated the person. So the other thing, which is kind of hard for people to say here, but funerals, memorial and celebrations of life, those are for the living. The person who passed is gone. If you have no direction, what would feel good to this group of people? Is it a live musician? Is it a DJ dance party? What would make them feel good? But the things that I usually recommend to my clients are just like, here's the things I always recommend. And people say YES to handwritten chalkboard signs. A welcome sign, a little program sign. I love that they're handwritten, it just feels more personal. And then my sign artist, she draws on like, what have I had? Last weekend, she loved classical music and the cello, so she had a hand drawn cello. A lot of them have flowers, their favorite flowers. One was, he was really into biking and mechanical, so had a bike going on a hill. So the hand drawn signs are really special. Flowers, of course, for any event, whatever it is, like, just add the magic touches. When you put the flowers on the table with the linen, okay, now this is a special event. I have music, some sort of music. I say DJ, and people think I'm referring to DJ/music tech. Don't just show up and plug in an iPhone to your both speakers. Hire a professional to do that for you. And then from there, people just build whatever they want off of it. Again, the face painting station and the craft station, whatever would make you or your guys happy that day.
Heather Nelson: That's such a great reminder. Does your vendor list differ from weddings to celebrations of life based on, I would assume, budget?
Lindsey Nickel: It does. More based on Wine Country. Our vendors are mostly just in Wine Country. Caterers are in Wine Country, and they're not going to go to Palo Alto, that doesn't make any sense. The vendors that I use for weddings, they're just larger scale. More complicated weddings are four events rolled into one celebration of life. I've gone all the way from east of Santa Cruz to Folsom, so that's a really huge swath. So I do have vendors that are willing to go to those distances that I turn over and over. But a lot of times, Cavallo Point is a great place for celebrations of life, and they have a bunch of stuff in the house. They do the catering, they have the tables, they have the linens. I just need to bring florist signs and maybe a DJ, but maybe they use their in-house person. So it really depends on if they are at a venue that does events, or if it's just like a completely blank slate. But I kind of have two different sets to answer your question.
Heather Nelson: I was just curious. That was a personal question for myself. What would you tell before we jumped on here, we were talking about the perception of dying, right? It's a topic nobody really talks about. It's hard to talk about, but it's our reality. We're all going to die at some point, and we want to normalize the conversation a little bit more. What would you say to the family who is experiencing, like someone in their family who is about to pass away, whether they're dying of cancer or old age? Just some advice to make it feel a little bit easier and a little bit more about how they can honor them. What would you say to that family?
Lindsey Nickel: It's difficult because when they're dying, it could be so many things. Did they just get a terminal diagnosis? They have 18 months. As a professional, what I would say is, when you're ready, where is this going to be? At least, pick out a funeral home so you can call them when it's time. This is an article I read. I've read versions of this article, but it's like, don't ever use the phrase, at least. Like, at least, they're in a better place now. At least, they're not suffering anymore. At least, they're all together right now. It's like, oh, okay. I think that's a default for a lot of people, because we hear it all the time. Another good thing I read in an article that was like, oh, that's so smart. After the person has died, I guess what the articles have said is it is common that people are worried about bringing that person up again. Remember, your husband dies. People kind of say in these articles like, no one ever brings up this person I lost anymore. So don't be afraid to open up that conversation and say, I was just at a diner and had a milkshake that Fred would have loved. Just thinking of you and just giving people a lot of space, but also checking in on them. And also, this is another tough one, but don't just say, how are you doing? What can I do to help you? We all mean well, especially to a person who's in grief. They do not have the answer for such a broad statement. But if you can make it very specific like, can I drop off dinner for you this week? Can I help you with your kids? Here's three things I could do for you this week. Okay, now they can pick from options. I've seen this in event planning too like blanket things are just too much to compute. But options, people have done really well with.
Heather Nelson: You touched on it, and I want to read to revisit a conversation because I'm in the personal development world, right? A lot of times people are like, you only live once. What do you want your legacy to be? How do you live life to the fullest? What do you say about that? What is your perception of that?
Lindsey Nickel: Oh, that's interesting. In this world, I think it really depends. We don't have kids, but I feel like people who have kids, their answer is going to be more like, my kids are my legacy. I want to make sure they're set up financially, and I want to make sure they have good morals. But we don't have kids, so I think for us, it's the legacy part of at this point of being like 43 and midlife crisis, which I can come back and talk about on another podcast anytime.
Heather Nelson: I love that. I am with you. That could be a really great conversation.
Lindsey Nickel: We gotta go through the whole list. We gotta talk about the midlife crisis. I think especially for women, that is not talked about. What do you think at this point is just to get out of life, content and with no regrets, which is really hard because there's obviously things we want to fix all the time, and just be at peace with yourself. What does that look like? What does that feel like? Things like that.
Heather Nelson: I love that. Are there resources? Because you had mentioned that when something like this happens, it can be unexpectedly, or something pre planned. Are there any resources out there? What do you do? Like, not only just planning a celebration of life, but the process of all the trust stuff and in those things. Are there resources out there that can help people?
Lindsey Nickel: I can email them to you afterwards. There's a couple websites that have apps and stuff like that, and checklists you can download. It's a really new industry, though, like the dying industry. So that's not like a wedding or any other event where it's like, here's 17,000 options to pick from. It's like, here's four. I also have a blog that we write on almost every month with advice, tips and checklists for people. But yeah, I think it is coming with more people becoming interested in this industry, but I'll email you the two that I'm thinking of because I can't think of them off the top of my head.
Heather Nelson: We'll put that in the show notes. I think that's just long term. My business framework are resources that I'm sure you provide to your clients, but a whole nother avenue of how do you educate people on the process, and what things they need to do?
Lindsey Nickel: There is this one book that I would like to recommend to people, it's called, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And it's really funny. It's a woman who wrote it. I think she's like a mortician by trade. She's hilarious. She gets all these different questions, and it's a book about questions kids have asked. One of the questions is, will my cat eat my eyeballs? What happens if you die on a plane? And she answers them so well and is so funny. She also gives you just enough information to start being more comfortable with death, so I highly recommend this book.
Heather Nelson: It is another crazy thing to think about. But as we are creeping up on, I'm lucky enough that my grandparents on my mom's side are still alive. They're doing good, but that is the world that we're going in. And I think that I would love to have my girlfriend on, because her mom's going through Alzheimer's right now. And so seeing that as our age now, we're having to take care of our parents and like, how do you navigate that in life? That's a whole nother topic.
Lindsey Nickel: I'll come back to that topic too. We'll have a whole round table with people.
Heather Nelson: It's like one of those things. But I think the more we talk about it, and know that there's resources and support out there, that it makes it a little easier as you're going through it.
Lindsey Nickel: I say a death doula is actually something I would recommend to people. Whatever stage that they're at of working with somebody who's 11th Hour or just got a terminal diagnosis is working with a death doula. This is something I've been learning more about because I met you recently. I falsely just assumed they helped only at the end. But they actually can help in the beginning answering these sorts of questions, helping what resources you need, connecting you to those resources. So it's not just 11th Hour assistance. They work, obviously, directly for you. Whereas, they're not working for the hospital. Their only interest is you and what you need, and they're not from the hospital and not from wherever. So I would definitely recommend people talking to either called death doula or an end of life doula.
Heather Nelson: I did not know that was a thing. I knew there were doulas. I have a really good friend, and she was supposed to come on my podcast. I knew she did beautiful work. She's a coach, and she does all these amazing things. And then we had a meeting scheduled, and she's like, I need to cancel because I'm a death doula. I need to go. And I'm like, you beautiful angel, these beautiful souls that can do work like that. Kudos, because I know that's gotta be so hard, but I'm so thankful that more and more people are doing that. I know a good one, so I'll send her to you. I don't know how much she does it. I didn't even know she did it clearly.
Lindsey Nickel: Again, it's a really new industry. And the people I met, it's not their full time gig by any means. But someone's gotta be the first one to do it.
Heather Nelson: Thank you for normalizing this topic. Because again, it's not an easy topic. I don't know how normal you can make it. But the fact that there's people there to help support you during those times, hats off to you. And I think you found a niche. Because again, we're all going to pass away at some point. And hopefully, we all get to have celebrations of life. I feel like it's a market, a very untapped market, that is going to get very popular. And you're cutting edge on it.
Lindsey Nickel: Oh, thanks. Yeah, I agree. This is basically when I got started in weddings over a long time ago, I'm like, how long now? 15 years ago. I do think celebrations of life are gonna become weddings, basically, for better or worse. But there's a client for everybody.
Heather Nelson: Absolutely. Is there anything that I didn't talk about, or anything that you want to touch on and leave with the listeners today?
Lindsey Nickel: I don't think so. I really appreciate you being willing to talk about and share this. I would say, if I could give one takeaway to people, it would be, write down in your shared note with somebody like four things you want to be, cremated, buried or something else. Maybe you want a green barrel, or maybe you want a water burial. And if you have any idea of where you would want your event to be, is it in a religious institution, or is it at a beach? Or you just want it to be in Northern California somewhere, give your loved ones, or point them in a direction a little bit. As I've seen, it can happen to anybody anytime. So just have something in place for the loved ones, just to make it smoother and easier for them.
Heather Nelson: That is really good. I'm gonna have to do that today. I'm gonna make everyone in my family just a quick shared note. Yeah, at our next Easter dinner, we're gonna sit around and everyone's gonna tell me, Oh, I have it somewhere. Thank you for the work you're doing. Thank you for having this conversation. Lindsey is coming back on, because we have lots of other things to talk about. So again, thank you for being here.
Lindsey Nickel: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.