On a Personal Note...

I'm really shocked.

I can't believe I only posted 35 times last year. ONE HUNDRED post less than last year.
I'm beside myself.
But there is an explanation, so are you ready?
I suck.

Okay, no that's not it, it's just really hard to know where to start. Let me work my way backwards. As my profile alleges, I am a student. Weddings by day, student by night so to speak. I study my brains out when the kiddos sleep and on the weekends I play with flowers. I have been doing it for the past two years, and this year I transferred to UC Berkeley. Since I have a big family, I can't exactly live on campus so I commute 2 hours a day there, make it back home in time to pick up kids, and then get on with my mommy duties.

It's freaking hard.

There's no way around it, Cal is challenging. I had 7 readers and what felt like a gazillion papers due and they were not easy. So when you factor in my classes, my homework, my emails, my brides, my wedding, my vendors, the walk-throughs, the consultations, the prep work and labor, the set ups, the husband, the kids, their homework, their school stuff, and all the other basic life stuff we all go through. Needless to say I was overwhelmed. Then my grandfather got sick, then we experienced a death of several family members, then I got sick. That's about as far as I will go with it, but you get the idea.
I had a decision to make by September and it was not pretty. I had to basically let everything go and take care of myself, seriously take care of myself, and then take care of the remaining brides I had and get through mid terms and finals.

I survived.

I made it to the end of my semester and I completed all my big beautiful weddings and I kept my sanity and worked on my health. Thank God for my husband, he helped out and supported me like you wouldn't believe. I looked up and realized, I had 1300 emails in my inbox, I left a lot business on the table, I let a lot of opportunities for collaborations, guest blog spots, publications, contests, and potential clients go. Not to mention personally, I sacrificed a lot. Professionally and personally I was stretched too thin and burning the candles at both ends.
But fast forward to now; I got my act together, cleared my calender, set up a vacation and here I am!! BACK with a vengeance. I came close to giving it all up in order to focus on one thing but the tide has turned and I'm healthier, and that is a BIG part of what made me realize I love what I do and I can't give it up. In the time I was gone for my vacation in Boston I received 19 inquiries for weddings(!) and I am in the process of returning emails now. FINALLY!

Thanks for checking in on my little blog, thanks to those who stuck with me and those who I will work with in the future. I appreciate your business and I hope to start posting my little heart out very soon! I have a lot of weddings to catch up on and a lot of photographers to contact so you may see a random October wedding or Thanksgiving post or even a summer wedding show up.

To add to all this we got a puppy for my mama, a Jack Russel Terrier, but something tells me he is going to be our puppy since he's so cute and I'm the one taking him to Puppy Prep Academy and raising him until I go back to school. Isn't he a cutie pie?

{photo by Rig Galvez}