Just slightly late to the New Year’s Resolution party, but better late than never right?

The Year That Was

2009 was a year of firsts. Moving out of my parents place for the first time, moving in with my boyfriend, moving across the country, having to fend for ourselves for meals, dealing with household bills, starting a new business, making new friends, going to new places. It was scary, it wasn’t always easy, I didn’t always get it right, but looking back I think overall it was a great year. You learn so much faster when you have to strike out on your own – which is what I had to do with both my living situation and work – and even though it’s tough in parts, if you survive you come out with a ton of knowledge and confidence that you didn’t have before. And it’s exciting, especially when things work out right!

These were my resolutions from last year, and this is how I did:

• Get fit and healthy – Okay, failed and went backwards with this one. No wonder it’s always on my resolutions list.
• Learn to cook – I’m not going to claim to be a brilliant cook, but between Jeff and I we’ve been cooking and eating pretty well for the past year (with only the occasional instant ramen or baked beans on toast). It’s become more than just a necessity, and turned into a hobby that we both really enjoy.
• Run a successful business – While I earned a little less than I might in a full time job and didn’t save quite as much as I would have liked, I’m still going to call this one a success. I love the freelancing lifestyle, and now that I’ve gotten the hang of things I think things will be going up from here.
• Keep on top of paperwork - Sort of? I still hate paperwork and am incredibly happy with my decision to hire an accountant so I don’t have to deal with the complicated stuff, but the rest I have pretty much down.
• Keep improving – I think my design work, business skills, crafting skills and general interpersonal skills have improved last year, so gonna call this one a success too!

The Year That Will Be

While 2009 was a year of firsts, 2010 will be a bit of an in-between year. We’re spending another year in Canberra before moving back to Perth and getting hitched, which means that a big part of this year will be preparing for next year – saving money, working hard to build a solid business, planning a wedding… Doesn’t sound quite as exciting as last year, but you never know what life will throw at you.

Here’s some resolutions for this year:

• Be healthy, drop a couple of dress sizes and stay there – every year I aim to be more healthy, and every year I seem to get worse! This year I’ve joined a gym and have a more clearly defined goal than ‘be healthy’. I’m sure some people who know me might say I don’t need to drop any sizes, but the fact is that I’m 1) very unfit, 2) bordering on overweight and 3) not completely happy with my appearance. In the end it’s an incredibly personal thing, and I’m not at all judging people who are comfortable at a weight and size larger than mine – I’m just not happy with the way that I am, and the direction I appear to be heading in. Likewise I need to stop assuming that skinny people talking about losing weight are judging me!
• Eat fruit – yeah, I rarely eat fruit. It’s not that I don’t like fruit, I’m just… lazy? Undisciplined? I think mostly I need to get into the habit of eating fruit regulary.
• Save money - moving interstate, weddings (both our own and all our friends who seem to be getting married around now), going on holidays, buying a place and everything else costs money that we don’t currently have enough of. Just need to be more disciplined this year and save save save!
• Work more – to help with the above.
• Work and manage time more efficiently – again to help with the above.
• Keep improving – gotta keep improving!
• Get out more – because spending days at a time where your only communication with people is with your fiance whom you live with and a ‘hi’ to the check in lady at the gym is probably not healthy.
• Be awesome – I think this is self-explanatary.

2009 was a tough year for a lot of people that I know, so I really hope that 2010 treats you better!

I’ve set up a super quick little blog to put down my wedding related thoughts and ideas, to save anyone who may be reading ChiGarden and is completely uninterested in dresses and centerpieces! I’m determined to avoid a typical wedding and really put my own style into it, so if like me you’re a bit bored of the kind of weddings they show in bridal magazines you might find something interesting there :)

If you haven’t heard through one way or another – Jeff and I are engaged!

Being the dorky designer that I am I’m more interested in deciding on colour schemes and fonts for my wedding than anything else, but I have been looking around for venues and some of the websites out there are really just appalling. My mother insists that this is just a matter of taste, but I think with something like design that has a purpose, one that fails this purpose is simply a poor design, regardless of taste. So, although I don’t think there are many people in this industry currently reading my blog, I thought I’d offer a few suggestions.

Have a website

Most reception venues seem to have this one covered, but there’s still a few out there without a website. We’re reaching the point where you don’t look up services in a big directory book; you Google them. If you don’t show up then to people who only use this medium, you don’t exist. Word of mouth and recommendations are wonderful things, but do you really want to risk potentially losing a portion of possible clients? Specifically in the wedding industry, a large percentage of clients will be young and tech savvy people who will expect to be able to find what they need online.

Get a pro to do it

Too many of the websites I’ve looked at look like they weren’t done by a professional, and it shows. There are also some really very polished ones out there, so to compete in this digital age you really need to be up to scratch.

Get some decent photos

It doesn’t matter how nice the venue is – bad photos will make it look bad. Just like having an amateur website, having photos that were clearly taken on a compact camera in poor lighting by someone who doesn’t know anything about photography really doesn’t encourage potential clients to see your professionalism. I haven’t looked far into wedding photography yet, but if you talk to the client and their photographer you might be able to make an arrangement to use their photos for promotion. Otherwise, get a pro in to get some quality photos of your space – it will make your website and other promotional material look far more professional and enticing.

Use decent fonts

Papyrus, Comic Sans, Curlz MT and Times New Roman don’t look for anything, wedding services included. Scripty curly ‘nuptial’ fonts are often used for and associated with weddings, but don’t go nuts – people still need to be able to read it!

Have decent copy

Writing is one of those unfortunate things that everyone can do, but not many can do really well. You might be the nicest, most professional and most flexible service, but if this doesn’t come through in what is written on your website you could potentially lose people. For weddings in particular people like to feel looked after, and since viewing your website will form their first impression it’s really important that that impression is a good one – both visually and in what the website says. Once again – unless you’re a talented copywriter yourself, get a pro to do it.

All of this is very much applicable to any website of course!

Don’t forget that your clients have talents too – I know I’m going to try and trade my skills to cover as much of my wedding expense as I can, so if you need a website feel free to get in touch :)