2014, a retrospective

What a year. If at the beginning of 2014 you told us how the year was going to end, I’m pretty certain neither Eric or I would believe you, even a little bit. There’s just no way we would have been able to foresee everything that happened this year which led us to ending the year in New Zealand, let alone all the things that happened in between.While I’m not going to explain how the entire year went down for us, I will tell you this. 2014 was a great year of growth and new experiences for us, in so many ways. We shot more weddings in one year than we ever have so far. We attended an amazing conference at the beginning of the year that really helped us define some of the largest goals we implemented this year. We were able to network and make friends with so many amazing people within this industry. We were blessed with AMAZING couples and families this year, many of whom we were able to get to know quite a bit and now call our friends. We took a huge leap of faith and I quit my part time job at our favorite cafe in the world, and decided that once the wedding season ended this year, we were going to travel. We moved out of the house we were renting, put all of our things into safe keeping, and convinced some friends to become long term sitters for our kitties. We were able to spend 6 weeks in Japan, hanging out and living with my brother & my sister-in-law, and going on adventures with two friends who recently moved there as well. The year ended, as I mentioned, in New Zealand- a place both Eric and I have always dreamed of visiting, but never really thought would be possible.I know online we tend to only talk about the good things, and we tend to make our lives look like this perfect place- and I want to make it clear that this year definitely wasn’t perfect. So many things in 2014 will determine how 2015 will go, and taking time and money to travel might end up causing us more stress than we would have had if we’d have just stayed home. Thankfully, I’m an optimist. When I look back on the year my mind tends to glaze over all the doubts and questions, the stress of trying to finish weddings before leaving the country, the drudgery of having to pack up and move our belongings, the strain of being away from comforts of home and having our own space. I’m able to look back and see all of the good and excitement that happened this year, and to see how blessed we were by our friends, family, and clients.So, this blog post is a bit on the long side. (that might be an understatement) It’s a bit tough for us to try and separate our personal work from professional work, and especially since we became friends with so many people we worked with, and were able to travel because of them- they’re all here together. All of the biggest highlights, favorite moments, and favorite images we created.2014 was pretty much amazing, and we are so curious and excited to see where 2015 will take us. Thanks to all of you who we’ve spent any amount of time with in the past year, our year couldn’t have been as great without you.