Behind Serene Moon

My name is Juliana (most people all me Julz) Zenisek, and I am the owner and sole planner in Serene Moon Planning & Events. I started Serene Moon in early 2022 as I was approaching college graduation and some other pretty big life events. 

I figured it was probably about time for a little "get to know" me post, which I think is important for making sure our vibes align in working together - but if you want to be surprised or "about me" blog posts aren't your thing, feel free to skip (I'll only be slightly heartbroken </3). 

~So, allow me to introduce myself~

If you didn't catch it above, I'm Julz :)

I'm an event planner, trained historian/lover of all things history, cat lover, and wife. I recently made the move from Lancaster, PA to Fort Wayne, IN; which has been fun (if not a little intimidating) in getting to know new people, explore new places, and dig my feet into wedding coordination and planning. My history background makes me a great researcher, so it's been fun finding and building relationships with other wedding vendors in the midwest region. 

I grew up in a tiny, TINY town in southern York County, PA (think an hour away from the nearest hospital, and outside town limits so we were under State Police jurisdiction...) and moved to Lancaster in middle school. This definitely changed how my life was going. I went through my true crime phase a bit earlier than most gals, and thought I was going to be Beckett from the show Castle (oh, how things change after you shadow a detective in the homicide department in Baltimore...). I went from wanting to be a detective to starting my history journey at Wheatland (former president James Buchanan's home).  I worked there in many roles - tour guide, actor during Yuletide, archives intern (cataloguing mostly, but got to create some really fun exhibits), visitor services associate and then manager. This is where I decided I wanted to major in history at Dickinson College. Through college I helped manage and plan events for both Wheatland/historical society and for the history department, which gave me a lot of the core skills necessary for planning weddings and other more personal events.

A career at Wheatland would not be in my cards for the future though. While I thought I wanted to go into museum education and stay in PA, things changed when I met my husband. I met my husband through a mutual hobby (living history/reenacting), and he is from South Bend, IN (hence the move here). We got legally married in 2021 before he was deployed with the National Guard, and got church/party married in 2023. Between planning my own wedding for 3+ years and helping friends in "the hobby" plan their own weddings, this is where I started thinking about creating a wedding planning business for a steady, additional source of income. 

I moved to Fort Wayne and started my "day job" in the city parks and recreation department as a program coordinator in July 2023. I'd say the biggest culture shock moments I had was not having buildings around me that were built in the 1700s, realizing the amish were out here as well (there's no escaping them, apparently), and being able to buy whiskey next to my cereal (as all of the liquor stores in PA are state-owned). Also getting to justify the move as the cost of living in PA is about three TIMES higher than in the second largest city in Indiana... which is wild.

In addition to Serene Moon, the programs coordinator position in parks gives me the best parts of everything I love to do. I'm able to bring history programs to the parks, develop educational programs for kids, work rentals and weddings; and with Serene Moon, I get the honor of witnessing couples' growth leading up to their wedding, and the joy and love they share on one of the biggest days of their life. 

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Anyways, that's enough about me. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I can't wait to get to know you as well!