goals for next year!!

3 weeks from tomorrow we will be finishing off the 2011 season. We were beyond blessed with 28 very different weddings this year. Different in a good way! Some were small, others were big, many were fun, a few were rustic, a handful were formal, a couple were traditional, and plenty of them were beautiful. We want the weddings we shoot to be different, different makes our job interesting and enjoyable. If every wedding we shot was a black and white formal affair in a ballroom..we would get so bored! Getting to see the personally of each of our couples in their big day is fun to us.

As booking season is starting up (yes, there is such thing as a booking season). We had no idea! We are learning all kinds of new things in this industry. This time last year we just thought it was by coincidence that we booked 5 weddings in 1 week. Needless to say, it was booking season and we just didn't know. So with booking season practically here I've been setting goals for myself, writing them down, and adding to them each day. These aren't goals like.. "I need to book 2 weddings this week" or "have 20 weddings booked by December" They are more goals like this::

1. Be open minded to each inquiry. - Ballroom weddings aren't our favorite thing in the world but I want to be open minded to them or any other inquiries we receive that isn't the most popular venue in Southern California. I want to focus on getting to know the couple first to see if they are a good fit!

2. Limit checking my email to 10x a day. - Okay, that may sound like a lot anyways, and well...let's just not try and guess how many times I check it now.. I really want to break myself off from being a slave to my inbox and breaking myself from the mentality that I need to respond to an email within 5 minutes. My inner workaholic hates this goal.

3. Trust my gut. - Getting to know each couple and getting a feel for if they are the right fit for us. Last year we had a hard time with this because we were so focused on booking as many weddings as we could for 2 reasons. 1. to build our portfolio fast and 2. to get our name out there! We really want to make sure that our couples and us are on the exact same page, that they are hoping for a wedding video that is what we can deliver for them and that we can feel 100% positive that we can provide a video for them that they will love.

4. Know when to say "no" - I am very much a people pleaser, almost to the point where it is a fault of mine. Ask Paul, he has to remind me of it daily, "Kelley, you can't go through life thinking you are going to please everybody that's just not possible." Well, I want it to be. But deep down I know he's right. Here's a perfect example of when I need to know when to say no.."oh your wedding is on the 21st? Well that will be our 4th wedding in 2 weeks, yeah we can do it." This year was also very much about finding out comfort zone. 6 weddings in 1 month? Out of our comfort zone. 3 weddings in a month? Totally in our comfort zone.

2012, I can't wait for you to be here!