Heart to Heart with Latoya Papillion-Herr

Tell us who you are and what you do?

My name is LaToya Papillion-Herr of latoyapapillionherr.com and waningmoonweddings.com. I'm a professional wedding officiant, pre-marital coach, entrepreneur, and new author! Everything I do allows me to celebrate people during some of their most amazing, memorable, and heartfelt moments of their lives.

What's the single most important thing about your work that people don't understand?

Creating space for others to genuinely celebrate their full and authentic selves.

How can people take what you specialize in to be better advocates for social justice and equity?

As a wedding officiant, I am intentional about celebrating, highlighting, and honoring the diverse spectrum of our human experience. That is a model I would love to see EVERY event professional, wedding blog, publication journal, and wedding website take. It is time that we are, collectively, checking ourselves and what we decide is beautiful enough and worthy of public praise.

What's the world you want to live in? What 3 things will it take for us to get there?

I want to live in a world that is radically compassionate and forgiving. Life is seriously too long to spend EVERY DAY of it upholding damaging ideals and facades. To get us there, I think we'll need THERAPY, a shift in social standards, and overall mindfulness of others.

How do you define joy?

You know this is a weird question for me! I genuinely believe there will never be an idea of justice on this land. There can't be. Blood, greed, and chaos live in its soil. And as long as it's under the beckon of the people that brought the chaos... so it shall be. HOWEVER... that is very morbid. Lol. On the other hand, how do I define joy... FREEDOM. To dance, play, laugh, travel, fail, grow, cry, feel, and exist. And honestly, that freedom has to begin as an internal act that spills out into the world.