Reflections on the last year

So the one year anniversary of this blog is fast approaching and I have thought of nothing to celebrate. Any ideas people? I would love to do an awesome giveaway or something else totally rad so drop me a shout if you have a suggestion 🙂

I already got the most amazing blogiversary gift possible 🙂 I’m still kinda in shock that I made the list. This time last year I began doing my homework if you all remember and I went to the Library and checked out this book…

Buy iDo by Christa Terry Now

And so began my internet wedding planning saga. Of course one of the first sites my searches led me to was BrideTide and a couple months later I was delighted to read their Top 100 Wedding Blogs (and Twitters) To Follow In 2009 list. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that less than a year later I would make their 2010 list. Ok I’ll admit it, maybe I dreamed, but I never really thought it would happen.

So let me first take a moment to thank Lauren @ ILoveYouMuch aka Miss Scissors for nominating me to be on the list. Your da bomb girl! 😛 And although I don’t know who else threw my name out there, I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported this blog this past year. It has been an amazing experience.

I am so excited with the journey this wedding has taken me on and I’m wicked excited about my future plans for this blog… After the wedding I plan to take all the entries to date and put them in one of those schnazzy Blurb blog books to go on our coffee table and show off to all our guests and maybe future clients (I’m getting to that in a minute). And of course I plan to continue sharing wonderful wedding inspiration and ideas.

This whole planning process has opened me up to an amazing career path too. I always have known that I love weddings but I just never realized the practicality of it or the application to real life. When I was little my mom sewed wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses for all her friends. When we would go to JcPenney I would make her stop by the catalog section to pick up the latest bridal and formal wear catalogs. Then I would go home and cut out all my favorites and make little construction paper scrapbooks out of them. As I got older I had a collection of lined paper “designs” of dream wedding dresses. But I always knew I would never become a fashion designer or something like that.

And so my life went on…

Until all this engagement business started and what do you know? I still LOVE weddings 🙂

So it was Luke who actually first mentioned the idea of me professionally going into wedding planning once I’m done with ours. And I liked that. But then I ran across Inspired Goodness on Weddingbee Pro and was amazed by what I saw. It was Kimberly’s tutorial on DIY Etched Mirrors that first caught my attention and I wanted to learn more about what exactly Kimberly does.

{source}

It turns out she started out (like me) with a background in Graphic Design before taking the love she developed for weddings in planning her own and started an Event Designing business in NYC. This was the first time I heard the term event “designer” and I was intrigued. Well yay for me, Kimberly is so nice to actually explain what she does.

What a novel idea I thought. And so began my research… and the birth of my own Event Designing business here in TX… *cue drum roll*

Pretty, right?

My business website www.mismikadocreations.com is still under creation but I do have the “about” page filled in with some basic info about our mission and such. We are going to be a full service wedding vendor that will focus on the aesthetic details of your event, but will offer planning and photography services as well. Can you tell I’m really excited about this? 🙂

So as you guys already knew, it been a rather busy year 😉 But it has had its ups and downs… as I informed you all last week, my great-grandmother passed away 8 days ago. And it’s been a rollercoaster of a time adjusting. Now I’m working on ways of tying family remembrance into our special day and I promise to share my ideas.

On a blogging note, I fell prey to the Weddingbee addiction (not that it’s a bad thing…lol) and aspired to become a Bee myself. So I applied… and was rejected… twice O_O

I never asked for an exact explanation of why I wasn’t considered “Bee material” and I’ll admit I was a tinge bitter at first 😮 But I know I’m not alone in that *wink, wink, Brit* And as time has gone by, I can definitely wholeheartedly agree “I am not Bee material!”

I still love the hive for it fun crafty ideas but (please don’t take offense, anyone!) it’s getting old and losing originality. They have some amazingly original Bee Bloggers like Miss Scissors and Mrs. Meatball but lets not forget that those ladies are independently amazing as Lauren @ IloveYouMuch and BAB respectively. For the most part, I’m nothing like the brides blogging at the hive. I’m very young, I’m on a very fixed budget, I’m comparatively conservative in my beliefs and Luke & my just wouldn’t mesh with their target audience.

So while I was worrying that Weddingbee’s rejection meant I don’t have what it takes to be in this industry BrideTide’s recognition gave me that needed self-esteem boost to see my dream through. Because you guys love me, you really love me 😀

So if anyone actually took the much appreciated time to read through this lengthy piece, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for listening and thank you for supporting all my crazy ideas 🙂

And if you want more info on Mismikado Creations just drop me an email. And I am willing to travel to help with your event in any way 😉