As small business owners, Justin & I wear a lot of hats.
Add to that teacher, speaker, writer, blogger, and oh yea WIFE....and I could pretty much open up my own hat shop!
I like to imagine that they would look like the Kentucky Derby hats, and be in all pastels like the "I want candy" montage from Marie Antoinette. The Kirsten Dunst version. With macaroons. But I digress.
The point is, we have a lot on our plates. All of us small business owners do. And something that Justin & I realized a long time ago is that if we're only ever two people, with four hands, and twenty-four hours in a day....then quite simply, we can't do it all. And more importantly...we shouldn't be.
I think it's John Maxwell who talks about how if you ranked all the things you can do on a scale of 1 to 10 at how skilled, talented, and passionate you are at doing them, you will be far better served in your life & your business if you spend your efforts trying to get your 8's & 9's to a 10 rather than your 5's & 6's to 7. In other words, we should be focusing our efforts in the areas where we most excel and that fuel our souls anyway, rather than trying to get better at the things we don't truly love. Amen? AMEN!
For us, enter album design. While I absolutely LOVE handing over the finished product of an album, and the idea that that book will be passed down for generations in a family telling the story that their family always started with love drives the why behind what we do....when it comes to the actual layout work, I'm just not very good at it. And more than that, I don't LOVE doing it. Me & photojunction are not friends (although I hear it's a fantastic product!). I don't lie in bed at night dreaming of key lines and making sure all the x axises line up. I know what I love design-wise and I know what I want our books to look like so that they reflect our brand. But I don't want to be the one actually building the layout.
Because here's the secret: there are people out there who actually LOVE design. And on their Maxwell scale, this is one of their abilities that's a 10.
We just started working with these guys after we hung out with our good friend Melissa Jill (the founder of Align) at WPPI. She told us their vision & what they hope to stand for, and I can tell you we have already been blown away by their customer service, clean & classic design sense, and super fast turnaround time. More than that, I LOVE knowing that we can do everything online with them so Justin & I can be taking a day off at the beach or traveling to North Carolina to teach a class....and our designs & client's changes are still getting done.
It's like we've just added a whole other team of hands working on building our business right alongside us. And that my friends, is a very good thing.
If you know that feeling all too well that your own two hands just aren't enough anymore & you're looking to get something off your plate, definitely check these guys out! They do such beautiful work! And the amazing folks at Align have just made it that much easier to give them a try: just mention "Justin & Mary" in the "how did you hear about us field" and you'll get 50% off your first design!!
And then you can use the money you save to go buy hats! :) Obviously.
Also! We are SO excited to be able to gift one lucky winner a completely FREE design from Align. to start digging you out of that workload! Just leave us a comment in the box below & we'll be announcing one lucky winner later this week! And....GO!!
When it comes to the dreamers, the darers, the look fear in the face starers, there is one universal truth that they all have ingrained in them, possibly since birth, and we would all benefit to learn from: the world belongs to those who ask.
Or rather, as I'm slowly starting to learn...to the ones who ask Why Not?
See when it comes to how life is and how we wish life would be, we are all experts in lining up all the things that could go wrong between us where we are and where it is we wish we could be. Until a great wide treacherous divide separates the two. And the only responsible, safe, grown up thing to do is not leap.
We spend so much time thinking about what could go wrong, that we never once stop to think about what would happen if it all went so very, very right. Better than we could have ever imagined. With the exact right pieces falling into the exact right place at the exact right time. Like some life-sized game of Tetris. With better theme music. We never once think about any of this when we're hanging all of our solid, responsible reasons out to dry. We never once think, Man, what if we're wrong?
What if this next leap could be the single greatest thing that ever happened to us. And one of the greatest adventures of our lives.
What if for one brief second, we stopped sitting on the sidelines of our own lives, watching the victories play out for someone else's dream? What if we stepped out of the shadows and remembered what it's like to have the light on our face?
Because if there is one thing that I'm learning, it's that this life is far too precious and short not to once truly feel what it's like to shine. {You were born for far greater things than this, my friend, I promise you.} It is far too brief and ungiven to limp tentatively and quietly embarrassed in the direction of our dreams.. See, me & you....we have to remember what it is to run.
To suck cold, salty, ocean air into our already burning lungs and feel our hearts pounding in our aching chests. And to know that we've never once felt so free. Because for just this once, we're actually moving. We're going somewhere. And our legs, suddenly so light without the weight of a thousand reasons why we "can't" tangling up in our shoe strings, are now more than ready to take us there.
Today, if you're not running like that toward where you want to be. If you're not thinking about all the things that could go SO right if you just tried.
Then do me a favor & take a lesson from the Dreamers. The Darers. The Look Fear in the Face Starers.
And ask yourself....Why Not?
It could change everything.
Rock it out friends,
xo
M:)
**Here is recap of our recent trip to Nantucket with some of our closest friends in the world. A trip that started with "Why Not." And saved me from a lifetime of "What if we had." I am so grateful for every one of these people who challenge me to think differently each & every day. And especially thankful to Jeremy, who was there to capture it all. Here's to one of the greatest adventures of our lives...And many more to come!
If the day were a color, it would have to be pink. Soft, comforting, unassuming. And yet, anyone could see just how beautiful, through and through, it truly was. Pink can be delicate. It can whisper to you quietly and draw you in closer. Murmuring the words that should never go unspoken and speaking softly in unbroken truths. Pink lives in quiet moments and breathes in safe certainty. But pink can also be bold. Boundless. A daring adventure or nothing at all. And absolutely unwavering in its propensity to always take a stand for loving unabashedly. Unflinchingly. And with ones whole heart.
Yes, if the day were a color...it would have to be pink. And all the soft, quiet, certain, bold and boundless parts that make up their love.
Married: Ashley & Chris
As you guys have seen by now, Ashley & Chris were married on a fairytale sort of day. That's not the sort of word I use that often anymore because for the most part it seems to reside in a world where it has lost all of its meaning. Where it's just something people say at weddings because it seems like a wedding-y sort of thing to say. But in my eyes, Ashley & Chris breathed new life into it. Gave new meaning to a word that was all but lost. Because they lived it every second of their day. In a way that only they could: soft, comforting, unassuming. Ashley & Chris, with the help of Ashley's incredible mom Karen, brought together their perfect, and yes pink day. They assembled a dream team including Beth from Blush Studio, Katherine at the Branford House, Beth from the White Dress & Michael from Coastal Gourmet to pull together every inch of their pink & gold vision. Not to mention hours of DIY work from Ashley & her mom on everything from the invitations (hello, hand cut water color inserts!) to the gold peacock stamp on every place card. The day was perfect, made even more so by two people who would have loved & laughed even if it hadn't been. That in my book, is the real fairytale. A&C there are no words for how much we adore & appreciate you guys. We will be grateful for the honor of documenting your love for the rest of our lives. Love like this always.
So much love,
J&M
Venue: The Branford House
Blooms: The incredibly talented Elizabeth Zemetis of Blush Studio Dress: A gorgeous Anne Barge gown from The White Dress by the Shore Jewelry: Vintage
Catering: Coastal Gourmet Photography: Justin & Mary
**And a HUGE thanks to the lovely Ms. Alicia Sturdy for assisting us & second shooting for the day!
And BOY do we have a post for you guys today!! Well....AND tomorrow actually! I worked all day yesterday on Ashley & Chris's Branford House wedding and I just couldn't get these guys narrowed down enough for one post. I was driving myself crazy & it was getting to the point of cutting images that I really loved, so I just decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and make them a two-parter! Which y'know, is twice the fun! :)
A big part of why I just couldn't narrow these guys down any further, despite their beautiful details courtesy of Blush Studio & the DIY efforts of Ashley herself, was just that these guys knew that photography was really important to them so they gave us the photographer's dream schedule for pictures! In addition to doing a first look, they also hung out with us for most of cocktail hour, so we were able to play, take our time, and ended up with images we're just over the moon about!
I'm going to do their personal post with tomorrow's Part II to tell you all about how wonderful these guys are, but for now I know that every photographer out there has already just fallen in love with them after hearing that! So for now, enjoy the Getting Ready & Ceremony from Ashley & Chris's big day!!
Venue: The Branford House
Blooms: The incredibly talented Elizabeth Zemetis of Blush Studio Dress: A gorgeous Anne Barge gown from The White Dress by the Shore Jewelry: Vintage
Catering: Coastal Gourmet Photography: Justin & Mary
**And a HUGE thanks to the lovely Ms. Alicia Sturdy for assisting us & second shooting for the day!
I hope you guys had the best Memorial Day & start to the summer yet! Yesterday, we tried to put together a little impromptu badminton game. But somewhere around my third swing in, I hit our only birdie up into a tree. And then when Justin tried to throw his racket up there to knock it loose... the racket got stuck too.
This could only happen to us!
So instead, we took to front porch sitting, white wine sipping, and fish on the grill. It was pretty much perfect.
So today was supposed to be the full post of our latest wedding, which we can't WAIT to show you guys! But, I am having the hardest time narrowing down my favorites! Just wait til you see this wedding, you'll understand why! So today we'll just have to tease you with a little sneak peek & tomorrow I promise to have the full post up, so be sure to check back in! It's a doozey!
Pancake Sessions
