2016 GOALS

And just like that another year is upon us. I hope you had a great New Year's Eve! Over here we enjoyed a little date night out followed by couch time with pups and I barely kept my eyes open until midnight. A perfect quiet night. 

Yesterday I shared my 2015 recap and today with it being January 1st it seems fitting to share my 2016 goals and my word of the year. But let's rewind a bit....

For 2015 my word of the year was BUILD. I was entering my first real year of event floral design and was pretty much a deer in headlights there for a while. I knew what my business meant to me and what I wanted it to portray, but I was shaking in my boots being so new. I felt build was the perfect word for all aspects of my life. I was newly married and I wanted to build my marriage in that first year and our home together. Now that it's 2016 the "building" won't stop. Marriage is the best thing in the world, but also the most challenging and it needs building everyday. Build was also the perfect word for my new business. I wanted to build it into something meaningful and something I could be proud of and I wanted to build my relationship with my fellow industry ladies. Choosing last year's word was really easy. This year however, it's been a bit of a challenge. So many things went right last year and I learned a ton when some things didn't go perfectly. 

So what are some things that worked?

Well for starters, I booked over a dozen weddings and I'd say almost all of them were ideal brides. Why is this? I think what worked in 2015 was my branding. I put out there a brand that spoke to a certain type of bride. I also made it a point to streamline my social media to my brand. I love the word streamlined and I worked all year to streamline my business across all platforms. Especially Instagram. If a photo doesn't fit within my brand, it doesn't get posted. Simple. And slowly but surely I started to get inquiries through IG and in turn have booked a handful of wonderful ideal brides who already know who I am through my photos. They know I love Starbies, that I have two dogs, and that I love fluffy pink flowers. So I think I did a really great job of streamlining my brand to turn it into bookings. 

Another thing that worked was outsourcing. I hired an assistant. (Hi Caroline!) Talk about a life saver. Not only has outsourcing let me focus on more important things like my brides, I quickly realized that when Caroline is over it makes me sit down and get work done instead of getting distracted and ending up in the kitchen eating snacks. She keeps my focused. 

Another thing I got down in 2015 was my client experience. It will always be changing and being updated, but my work flow became organized. One Sweet Day in May is a people centered business. My brides end up my friends and we keep in touch. I always wanted my business to be experience centered and I never want that to change. It means I have to market less. If my brides have a truly wonderful experience with me, they are more likely to tell their friends about me. I want each bride to feel like my only bride. I love sending them little surprises. It doesn't have to be anything expensive. Little things go a long way. So I'm really proud that my business is like that and that I cultivated it to be that way in 2015. 

What didn't work? 

Being able to leave work. Let me explain....Michelle is working on a client proposal. It turns 7pm and then 8pm. Chris is downstairs waiting and waiting. He comes up stairs and pretty much begs for my to leave my office and join him for dinner. Michelle gets upset and then finally comes downstairs at approximately 9pm and is too tired to make dinner so the inevitable frozen dinner or quick unhealthy meal out occurs. NOT GOOD. And then during that late dinner, I'm still answering emails on my phone. REALLY NOT GOOD. 

Another thing that worked for my first year of business but led me to be stressed was saying yes to everything. Towards the end of 2015 I started to get better at this, but the truth is saying yes to everything was a lot of pressure. This one is tough because when you're new you have to get your name out there and collaborate on everything you can, but it has its limits. There was one point in April of last year where I did 5 styled shoots in a week. A WEEK! The trick I wished I learned earlier than I did is to be more picky about what I said yes to. Somethings I said yes to were not beneficial to me or my brand and knew it at the time I said yes, but still came onboard those projects. I learned to cultivate relationships with other creatives but in a way that would benefit my business. After all, us ladies have to make money. So going into 2016 I have a better sense of where to give my time. 

So back to my word of the year. This was a tough one. Mainly because last year's word covered my whole life perfectly and I guess I put pressure on myself to find a word that would do that again. Nope. Didn't happen. 2016 is going to be craziness, there I said it. 16 amazing brides that deserve and will get every ounce of my undivided attention, our second (and hopefully 3rd) Floral Gathering, a few projects that are in the works that I'm super excited about! A few personal things on the books, my best friend's wedding in Florida, and sprinkle in some getaways in there and I my friends have one booked year. Just Keep Swimming should really be my phrase of the year haha. So because I couldn't find the perfect word that covered my whole life I have two words. 1 for my personal life and 1 for me in general and One Sweet Day in May. My personal word of 2016 is BALANCE. My goal is to not let work spill into my personal time. As in, don't answer emails at 11pm Michelle! And my word for me in general is FORWARD. I definitely see some obstacles ahead and time where I know I will feel overwhelmed so in those times I hope to remember the word FORWARD or in other words, remember why you started. 

So there you have it my two words of 2016 are FORWARD while having BALANCE. Their not big words or fancy, but I have a feeling they will mean a lot to me the next 12 months. 

So what do my 2016 goals look like this year? 

First let's do my short term goals ...

1. Give my current brides an incredible One Sweet Bride experience.

2. Book 2-3 more full service floral weddings for 2016.

3. Book 1-2 more full service planning weddings for either 2016 or 2017.

4. Book 18 brides for my 2017 season.

5. Blog 4 times a week 

6. Find my niche in blogging. 

7. Sell out our April Floral Gathering and announce our third!

8. Say NO more often for my peace of mind.

9. Stay the course of my health journey. 

10. Be more intentional with Chris and my weekly date nights. 

11. Hang those gallery walls! 

12. Attend one floral workshop to keep working on my skills. 

13. Go to Florida to see my best friends. 

14. Go to the UK to see my family. 

15. Collaborate with new vendors.

16. Learn photography. 

17. Give leftover flowers to a local nursing home. 

18. Finally turn part of our kitchen into a sitting room

19. Finally buy deck furniture this year.

20. Be more supportive of my husband.

Long term goals...

1. Have my work published in print.

2. Book a wedding at Pippin Hill in Charlottesville.

3. Work in Europe. Whether a styled shoot, workshop, or wedding.

4. Expand One Sweet Day in May in the way of adding products or an educational platform.

5. Finally complete the landscaping around our house.

6. Start a family. 

Happy New Year sweet friends! Thank you for walking this journey with me! 

GOODBYE 2015, YOU WERE INCREDIBLE!

Hi friends! Grab a cup of coffee and join me on a little walk down memory lane would ya? Ok, here we go! 

2015, where do I even start with you? You were a groundbreaking year for me, a wonderful whirlwind of the best kind of busy, and you were the happiest year of my life to date, You were my first full year of doing floral design and gave me over a dozen truly wonderful brides and the most wonderful of industry friends. The framework of One Sweet Day in May was built in the last 365 days. I found who I was and what One Sweet Day in May was and though it's only one measly year, I've high-fiving myself for all I've accomplished and because of 2015, I have the confidence to dream even bigger for 2016 and beyond. 

So where did this year begin? 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, what really kicked off my year, where I met "my tribe", and what has taken my business to the next level was Creative at Heart. You can read my recap of the January conference here. I'm so so thankful for Kat and her dream-big and go getter attitude and for bringing Creative to life. I left that conference motivated and with a clear purpose of what I wanted for One Sweet Day in May and the industry friends I met there have become some of my closest and made this sometimes lonely atmosphere a whole bunch of fun. 

In January I also attended Amanda Veronee's floral workshop. 2 days filled with gorgeous blooms, techniques, and learning pricing and the business side was invaluable to my business. At that time I was really trying to break out and define what my floral business would look like and Amanda'a workshop was incredible to attend. I wrote up a little recap here. 

February brought a lot of snow and a busyness that was new to me. At this point of the year I was saying yes to all the things including a ton of styled shoots. It's going to sound repetitive, but involving myself in styled shoots was the best thing I did this year. There are posts you can read here and here with a little advice on them. My first shoot was on February 21st with Ally Allison Events and Nikki Santerre Photography. I learned A LOT and it's still one of my favorite shoots to date. Check it out over on Burnett's Boards here. 

In March I teamed up with Brooke from North Start Events to put on my very own shoot. The first one that was really and truly mine. It took place in Duck NC and Chris and I modeled for it...hah. This one was picked up by Glam and Grace! I also modeled again in March for Nikki Santerre for the print magazine Pretty Pear Bride. I haven't really shared any of those photos, but I will say it was quite an interesting experience seeing a huge and legit photo shoot, plus it was at Dover Hall which is a stunning venue here in Richmond and I got to wear 3 Kleinfeld dresses. So exciting! I also took part in a Kentucky Derby theme shoot which you can see here. That bouquet I made for it is still one of my favorites. Creative at Heart Round 2 took place in March and I was honored to partner with Tart Event Co and style a lunch for the attendees. I single handedly made 130 feet of lemon leaf garland (I know, I'm crazy) but the whole room looked stunning and Kelsey and Amelia hit a home run with the design. Love those two! March was madness for me and it was the first time I felt exhausted. There was actually a day where my wholesaler assigned lady called me and I actually told her I needed to call her back because I had to take nap. Jeez Louise. That was a wake up call for me that I needed to take care of myself first, but it was hard because when you're new in business, I hate to say it but you have to say yes to everything. Thank goodness I got through the Spring. Yikes. 

April brought slightly warmer weather and my first ever Style Me Pretty feature, I think I happy danced for weeks after I got the news. This shoot is in my top 3 favorites of the whole year. I've learned that as much as I love inspiration shoots with ton of details, I'm really drawn to the more simple ones, the ones that really put the focus on the bride and groom. Simple yet intentional is where it's at for me, friends. Check out the shoot over on SMP here. The Boudoirathon came to Richmond in April and this is was the first of many projects with Annmarie Swift and it was so fun to see a boudoir shoot in action. I also worked with Ally Allison again to install a floral wall which acted as the backdrop for the day. One of the most fun days of my whole year, plus Chipotle was involved so you know it was a good day. 

May was a highlight for me. May brought 2 wonderful and pink covered weddings (yes to all the peonies!) May was also the month I launched my brand! I finally had a business that reflected me and what I wanted for One Sweet Day in May. As of right now it's 7 months old and I love it just as much as I did on day 1. You can read about my branding journey here and here. Ashlee Proffitt is the fairy Godmother of brands and I'm so thankful she took One Sweet Day in May on. Along with Ashlee, Andrea Pesce came on board and spent a whole day with me photographing me and my office and I was lucky enough to work with Andrea multiple times this year and she has become such a good friend of mine. Check out my session with her here! A huge thank you also to The Herrintons for bringing to life a promo video for me too! If you haven't seen it yet, you can view it here.

 I also put on my 2nd and 3rd styled shoots with Natalie Jayne Photography which are hands down my favorite of the year. You can check one over on The Richmond Wedding Collective and I I've shared sneaks of the other here and there, but more to come soon! 

In June I tuned 30! sweet sweet 30. Chris threw me the cutest surprise party and after a day or two of freaking out about the big 3-0, I came to terms with it and haven't looked back. I don't know how to quite explain it, but being 30 definitely feels different. There's more confidence and more of a sense of self. June also brought 2 more weddings which taught me about time management and I started to get my rhythm down with my wedding prep flow. I also introduced blooms for creative branding and have since worked with my sweet friends Amy, Laura, and Jessica on their websites with Andrea Pesce. I love this little part of my business. My heart is weddings, but it's so fun to do something different every now and again. My business thrives on vendor relationships, so anytime I can collaborate with other creatives, I welcome it. There's definitely a balance that is needed with working with other creatives and there has been a recent shift with that part of OSDIM, but it will always be a priority of mine to work and collaborate with my fellow industry ladies (and guys!) They make this job so much fun. Another highlight of June was the Come Together Event in Stafford Virginia with Katelyn James and Jordan and Amy Demos which was all about Blogging This mini conference really gave my a kick in the butt with blogging. I also did the flowers for my dear friend Anna of The Richmond Wedding Collective's 1 year vow renewal photographed by Ashley Virginia Photography. Ruffled picked it up and you can view it here! I wrapped up June with with a styled shoot with Natalie Jayne Photography that you can see over on 100 Layer Cake here! 

Summer was hands down the funnest season of the year for me. A few gorgeous weddings and I flew to Boston to spend time with Annmarie and we put on the most gorgeous shoot that included floral calligraphy letters...what! I covered Annmarie's apartment in flowers and spent those days with her laughing and chatting all things business and life. The shoot was featured over on Style Me Pretty (!!!) By coincidence my best friend Bree was having her vow renewal in Rhode Island a couple of hours south of Boston that same week and Annmarie photographed it. Gahh! It was perfect! See it here! Chris flew up to Boston too and we got to spend a few days just the two of is exploring Boston and got to go whale watching too! A dream! The whole week recap is here. The Summer definitely brought intentionality back in my life. I got back into seeing non-industry friends, Chris and I took in a couple of concerts, and our summer bbq nights were some of my favorite nights of the year. During the Summer I also got the news that I was Hypothyroid and was officially diagnosed with PCOS. Not great, but it has given me a better sense of what my body needs and how to take better care of myself. So in a way I'm thankful for these 2 conditions. It also made y realize I wasn't crazy for how tired I was feeling in the Spring. Since going on medication, my energy is back and I almost feel like a new person. I've been giving updates on my "health journey" in my monthly goals post and you will definitely see some talk about this from me in 2016. 

August was a bit slower as well with 1 wedding and down time that was much needed. I did the florals for Ashley and Tyler's Golden Birthday which you can see over on Heart Love Always here. Such a cute shoot. My office was featured over on Inspired by This in August too! I was so honored that the ladies at Inspired by This wanted to have my little space on their blog. One of my favorite things of the whole year! Towards the end of the month I flew up to Maine and attended The Working Retreat with a few of my favorite ladies. 4 days in the mountains of Maine. Take me back! That trip was the perfect mix of relaxing and productive. It's quite something to spend 24 hours a day with likeminded women in a gorgeous house where you can bounce ideas and ways of doing things with each other. I also came aboard as the Social Media Coordinator for The Working Retreat and can't wait for their next retreat in April! Check out my recap here. It was around this time Lauren from So Lovely Weddings approached me to partner for a Floral Workshop and on August 23rd we officially announced The Floral Gathering!! Holy Moly if you had asked me a year ago if I would be putting on a workshop I would have laughed in your face. Something I learned this year is you just never know where you'll end up. It's scary and sometimes you just want to say no out of fear, but saying YES can be so magical. 

September was by far my busiest month wedding wise. You can see two of my favorites here and here. I have to hand it to Chris for being such a trooper and helping me out so much with these events. You always think of husband and wife photography teams, but a lot of the time husbands are there for other industry ladies too and holy moly is mine a life saver. Chris is very black and white and I'm all the colors so it's really great to have him tell me how it is. I don't know if I would have gotten through September without him. We also celebrated our one year anniversary! We spent the day in Charlottesville at a few wineries, a brewery, and a trip up Carter's Mountain. The perfect day. Annmarie flew down to Virginia again towards the end of the month and shot a shoot for me that I can't wait to show you next year. It was very dark and romantic. Think phantom of the Opera and I pulled inspiration from Taylor Swift's Blank Space video. Oh yes, it was beautiful!

Photos from Jared Ladia Photo from one of my September weddings!

I also introduced you to Caroline! One Sweet Day in May's first assistant! She is such a great asset to this little business! 

Creative at Heart launched their new website and I was honored to put together a few arrangements for Kat and her team photographed by Andrea Pesce! So proud of those girls! I wrapped up crazy September with a backyard vow renewal filmed by The Herrinton's and photographed by Kristi Mckeag.

And between all these photo shoots Chris and I got one of our own in with Natalie Jayne Photography and took advantage of the gorgeous Fall foliage. 

October was MUCH slower and again quite needed after a whirlwind September. Chris and I and our friends spent a weekend down in the Outer Banks. There was a hurricane, but we didn't care. My sweet friend Amy of Sincerely Amy Designs put on a calligraphy workshop and I teamed up with The Darling Event for one gorgeously styled afternoon! Amy's business has grown leaps and bounds this year and it's been so fun to watch. Amy was one of my roomies at Creative at Heart in January and has been such a great friend to me this year and I can't wait to see what things we'll work together on in 2016! I also shifted my views on social media in October and started to realize how much I was addicted to it. So much of my time was spent watching Youtube videos that were being shared and reading Buzzfeed articles. i took a much needed personal break from it in the fall and started to finally see that my life was right in front of me instead of on a screen. I started to view Facebook especially as an extension on my company and not an extension of me. My business relies on social media, I do not. I deleted the Facebook app from my phone and iPad and after a couple of days didn't even think about it anymore. I still check in a couple of times a day, but I'm no longer glued to it. Although still new, It's been such a wonderful change in 2015. 

Duck NC. Our favorite place in the world. 

November went by so fast (really all of 2015) Along with a few styled shoots, I visited Charleston S.C. and went to Creative at Heart Round 3 as an attendee and it was so great to spend time with a few of my favorite ladies. You can read my recap here. I also did some flowers for The Herrinton's filmmaker workshop at Paisley and Jade. The rest of the month was restful and spent with Chris just doing regular things and before I knew it was December and we were off to Ireland thanks to super cheap airfare! We celebrated Chris 32nd birthday over on the Emerald Isle and we've been back for a few weeks now and I'm still missing our time over there. It was so much fun to just be us in a tiny car driving around the island and sometimes randomly stopping on the side of the road because there was a castle right there. There is something so special about this "season" of life. Starting a family has been on the brain more and more lately, but I'm so happy to have this me and Chris time. It's so fun and I'm remembering to treasure every moment of it. The spontaneous late night movie, the weekend away, and being selfish with our time. These are the good ol' days and I'm so glad we are using this time to our advantage. You can read my Ireland recap  here 

Once we arrived back home it full steam ahead for The Floral Gathering that took place on December 13th right here in my home. There is a recap post in the works for next week, but so many vendors and sponsors came forward and helped us pull together one fabulous event. Check back next week for a full post on it with photos from Jessica Green Photography!

2015, you were all I could have hoped for and more. To all of those who I have gotten to work with, to my lovely brides who made this year so fun, and to those who have been supporters of this little business, my dreams and goals THANK YOU!

 2016, you're mine!

With love,

Michelle 

A SCHMIDT CHRISTMAS IN RICHMOND VIRGINIA

Happy Monday afternoon! This week is going going to be a low key one, but today I am in cozy Starbies catching up on emails from the past week, scheduling venue walk throughs with my brides, and taking care of some details for my April classic meets enchanted garden wedding. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and loved ones. Despite the 75 degree weather and torrential downpours that occurred here in Richmond, it was one of my favorite Christmases ever. Over here it was one of those weekends (ok, 5 full days) of yoga pants and sweaters, long talks on Chris' parents deck, matching pajamas, girls day with nails and brunch, game night, and wonderful conversation with my sister-in-law who I hadn't seen in a whole year which led to me pretty much living at my in-laws all weekend and minimal sleep. Hello, coffee! 

 Oh! and my youngest brother-in-law got engaged so I'm getting another sister which now makes the Schmidt family have more girls than boys! Hooray! haha! And talking about engagements, my best friend Jen also and finally got engaged to her longtime boyfriend Scott. Love is in the air! And I'm so excited for all the wedding planning to begin with these two couples! Gosh it was such a great (almost) week! You know those days where you don't know where your phone is in the house, but you don't even care? It was like that everyday and I'm hoping for a lot more days and weeks like that in 2016. 

Chris and I didn't go crazy with presents this year because Ireland was pretty much our gift to each other, but Chris made a collage frame with photos of us which was really sweet, though he accidentally put two of the same photo in there...right next to each other...oh boys... and everyone is telling me when I hang it I have to keep it that way and I just don't know if I can do that haha. 

So another Christmas is in the books and later this week I see that Richmond is going to finally be getting colder and I'm anxiously awaiting the first snow even though it may be quite sometime.

I'm so excited to recap 2015 in a huge blog post on Thursday and on Friday share my word of the year and my 2016 goals! Hooray! 

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas!