Dear friends,
Happy new year! Thank you for stopping by to check out the new face of Simply Yours.
I feel a little bit like a young girl walking into a new office in a place where she's worked for a long time. Same building, same view, same coffee in the break room, but entirely new world.
When I started this company in February of 2008, I was 23 years old, fresh out of college and six months into marriage. I knew that I loved helping people, I loved being the one who could solve the problem with my Mary Poppins sense of readiness, and I knew that I loved weddings. Otherwise, I had a heck of a lot to learn about running a business, about the ins and outs of weddings, the nuances of how people function in relation to weddings, and how to develop my own sense of what made a wedding truly great. Not to mention, why someone should hire me to share any of that information and be able to tell them about it.
Once I started getting my feet wet, the world kept on changing. When I began my business, I booked my first wedding off of my MySpace page, DIY weddings were unheard of, the economy had yet to tank and Facebook was limited to colleges and the most exciting part about it was changing your profile picture. Since then, Social Media has completely changed the vernacular of a generation, Pinterest has changed the wedding world, and Facebook.... well. Its Facebook ;)
Not only did the world grow and change, but Simply Yours has changed. For one, the name got shorter! It started out as Simply Yours Weddings & Etc. I think I was trying to be fancy. I started out as a one woman show, trying to do everything and be everywhere at once. There have been a number of fantastic guys and gals who have worked for me on my team, and we've grown now into a tight-knit family. In the last 8 seasons, we have been a part of over 100 weddings. We have seen so many incredible Brides walk down the aisle, grooms beam as they greet them, first dances, hugs from proud families, happy tears, "we wish you were here" tears, an amazing variety of designs and tastes, colors and textures, and a world of personalities.
On top of all of those changes, and a world of experiences, I have grown and changed. Andrew and I are now 8.5 years into marriage, we've lived in two apartments and house and now we are 3 years into the adventure that is parenting with a beautiful, hilarious and rather sassy little girl we are blessed to call ours. And today, I turn 31 years old.
I think one of the biggest things that has changed in my life, and in turn in the life of Simply Yours, is not so much a change, but a growth. I started out pursuing this career because I really loved helping people and walking with them through what I saw as a challenging season in preparing for marriage, mostly because it was so fresh in my life. Not just because of what we walked through, but also what I was seeing in all of my friends. The joy, excitement, anticipation, constant ideas and big plans colliding with feelings of confusion, uncomfortable conversations about money and life merging, managing shifting family dynamics and reality checks.
Over the years, I have seen all of these things and more. I've had meetings in hospital rooms, umpired a million arguments, dried 1,000 tears, held dozens of hands, and prayed an innumerable amount of prayers.
What I didn't expect, was just how magnanimous the good stuff would be. The overwhelming satisfaction of bringing a dream design to fruition. The CAKE. (Just bein' honest!) But seriously... The happy tears of a proud parent. The equally hysterical and sentimental toast from the Bride's brother. The truly perfect look on a Groom's face when he sees His Bride for the first time. The Father/Daughter dance. The sacred moments right before I send the Bride down the aisle.... I never would have been able to anticipate the true privilege of bearing witness to these pieces of the lives of my clients. To all our Simply Yours family of the past 8 years... the pleasure has truly been mine.
The new Simply Yours is not a source of major change, its a deepening of what we've always been. And I wanted to be provide us a home that could house all that we have been up until now, and allow us to put down roots for where I believe the Lord is calling us.
I have had multiple veins of this calling going for a couple of years now, where I have been sharing with and helping others in the industry, or those trying to break into the industry. I've also been writing pretty much my entire life, but I've kept it hidden away from the world because honestly, it was scary to share. However, in the last year, I've been given so many opportunities and much support to pursue both of these things in addition to the ins and outs of doing what we do best for our Brides and deepening our knowledge to become better at what we all ready love to do.
And now we have a home for all of it to live together in the same place, where all things Simply Yours: Weddings, Consulting and what I lovingly refer to as all my other Shenanigans, can live in harmony. I can't begin to describe how equally scary and awesome it feels to share it with you!
Now. I know this post is all ready lengthy, but I want to wrap this up by inviting you to celebrate with me! In honor of the launch of the new Simply Yours home, and because its my birthday, I have a special project I've created to start the party! Its called #31actsofintention. Its going to be a project that's based on being intentional with the choices we make walking into the new year, not just making resolutions, but actually planting seeds that will take root and hopefully, grow all year long.
I will elaborate more on it today via social media, particularly Periscope and Instagram so be sure you are following along! I will also dive into it more here in Simply Shenanigans as we get further into January. I just know I've babbled on too long all ready for one day =) I would love for you to join the party.
Thank you for being here today. Thank you for reading. Just... thank you. I can't wait to see what happens next.
xo,
Em