TRAVIS AND SYDNEY // ROUND TWO
Sydney and travis had some time left from their engagement session and chose to wait till the summer to use the rest of it. We toured the grounds of the Rollins Mansion and took some gorgeous photos. They are so awesome to work with and I’m getting really excited for their wedding day!

MY OWN WEDDING PLANNING
So Glenn and I, while, no, we are not engaged just yet, have started to put together our own wedding. We started because we wanted to nail down a budget, but it turns out that actually involves planning the actual wedding. It’s been exciting and a learning process. Three big things I’ve learned:

1. GET ORGANIZED. Find an organization method that makes sense for you and works for you.

2. PLAN BEFORE THE ENGAGEMENT. Maybe not every detail, but hammering down a budget and discussing what you want.

3. USE OUR OWN SKILLS. If you’re a florist, do your own bouquet. If you are a decorator, do your own decorations. If you’re an event planner, maybe you skip the wedding planner. I’m a graphic designer, so I’m doing all of our invitations and printed materials. It’s still expensive, but I’m not paying a designer like $1000 to design them.

GETTING ON TOP OF MY SOCIAL MEDIA GAME
I have changed how I am approaching social media. I have joined TikTok (@emmaleecreative), and I’ve started doing reels, more stories and IGTV on Instagram. Another huge thing I’ve done is I started planning out my social media posts by the month. I bought a special planner to use just for social media. It means I know exactly what I’m going to be posting on each platform. I might break out the Gelly Rolls and color code it all. This is an adventure and it could get messy. It’s small business. It definitely will get messy.

SUCCESS
This week I shared an experience where I compared myself to a small business friend and it went poorly. I was griping because she was getting more attention from her friends sharing her page, an article in her local paper, and I assume that it’s driving business. I was disappointed in my friends because they don’t share my posts or engage with me on my social media (not true). She’s more successful because she’s more popular than me. Then I stopped to think about it: Why do I think that popularity equals success and popularity equals money? Because it’s American. That’s what we measure success by.

I completely disregarded everything about how I define success and why I do what I do and automatically deemed myself a failure because my business journey doesn’t look like hers. As I redirected my thoughts, I came to realize that I don’t actually give a fuck. I’m measuring my success by how well someone meets criteria that I think is bullshit. One thing I need to do is sit down and define my metrics of success. It’s not enough to not worry about what other people are doing that I’m not. I need to worry about what I am.

ONE MAJOR IMPROVEMENT
Showing up. I have been showing up, showing my face, and being more honest and raw about how I feel. I’m less concerned with offending people, and I don’t really say anything terribly controversial anyway. What do I have to fear? That people will see me and be like “Ew. She’s too ugly to photograph my wedding.” No. That’s ridiculous, and anyone who would make that kind of evaluation is not someone I want to work with.

In conclusion, June was a rich and challenging month. I created some of my best work, and wrapped up a bunch of things while keeping busy with my own wedding plans. Life shifted a little in June and I’m resting in that. Hope you have a great July.

Cheers, kids.

Emma