Me, Lately

 via weheartit

You may be wondering what in the world happened to me. This is probably the longest period I have gone without blogging and I sincerely missed it! Sometimes, if I see something beautiful or unique, I will think, "ooh! I need to blog about this!" Or if I feel something inspiring or touching, I will think, "ooh! I need to blog about this!" But these past two weeks, I have not been able to sit and blog about anything. Which goes back to, what in the world happened to me. 

Nothing in particular, but more like a whole lot of somethings that have inspired me to share about ME, lately. :) This is not for the faint of heart, so consider yourself warned and please feel free to bypass this post if you are only here wedding inspiration. This post is going to be all about me, lately. And it's a doozy!

To put it in a nutshell, the things that have been happening in my life are grading over 200 midterm papers; meeting with brides and vendors before, after and in between my classes; preparing for the upcoming finals season with my students; preparing for the upcoming wedding season with my brides; preparing for a fun photo shoot I am designing along with Melissa of The Loveliest Day and a slew of other fabulous vendors (more on that soon!); celebrating 4 family birthdays, my sister's engagement (eeks!), my brother-in-law's return from the Army basic training and completion of Airborne training; and making time to have fun, laughs and good times with my husband and our two dogs.

It's funny because when I meet with brides for consultations, many of them seem to know so much about me already, through my blog. I love this and the fact that we can start off like old friends. :) I find it interesting that several brides have commented that the most memorable posts to them are the ones that are personal and about me, rather than just about wedding stuff.  So, I have been contemplating writing this particular post, and was further encouraged to do so tonight when I went to hear Jasmine Star speak about online presence and branding at a Smarty OC event. She encouraged women entrepreneurs to "Keep it Real," so I decided to do just that. (By the way, I really admire and heart Jasmine!)

Many of you know that So Happi Together is still fairly young, but I am already completely booked for 2010 (with just a few December dates available) and even have a few weddings booked for 2011!  I love what I am doing and have a passion for it. So in May, I will be quitting my "day-job" as a part-time college Instructor at three local universities. Teaching part-time at three different schools actually ends up being over-full-time, but such is the life of a doctoral student in the part-time Instructor circuit. The semester ends in three weeks and although I am ecstatic about being able to focus my full time and energies on my weddings, I have to admit that a part of me is sad to part with my students and my classes. I have been teaching for four years now and I LOVE my students and the communities I have been a part of on campus, taking my classes on field trips, meeting with them outside of the classroom walls, maintaining relationships with them even after graduation, etc. So, the end of the semester is bittersweet and a little crazy as I tie-up loose ends and prepare for a complete career change.

At the same time, my husband is unemployed and has been since last October. He is a designer (with a degree in Automobile Design from Art Center - but you know the car industry right now. boo.) and design jobs are very hard to come by. So, it was and is scary for me to change careers and make the choice to become an independent business owner, especially since we are still newlyweds. But he has been nothing but supportive of my decision and my number one cheerleader. We have been truly blessed and continue to believe that things will always end peachy if we have faith and love for God, our dreams and each other.

So, I don't know if this is TMI, but it is me. And I thought I would share because so many people in my life right now (including a few of my brides) are facing difficult times or choices due to the economy or just life in general. And I think that is okay. I think this is how we grow, learn and find hope. We should dialogue about it with the people we love and maybe even people we just met. You may find something in common and in the process find a new friend!

Something I tell all of my couples is, ENJOY being engaged. Cherish that time because it will only happen once in your relationship and it isn't a period of planning your wedding, it is a period of being engaged to the one you are going to publicly join in life and love and really, you are just planning a celebration for that moment! So, in the same manner. Let's all ENJOY where we are lately. Not simply concerned about where we are going and what goal we want to achieve. But rather, what we are experiencing through the process of living every day.

Whew. That makes me excited to wake up in the morning! And I guess that is just me, lately.

xoxo.

p.s. back to good old wedding posts next week, I promise!