It’s 3:45 and a client has come and quickly dropped off a deposit and a previous client has stopped by to pick something up and as always 30 mins disappears as we chat away. Nate’s climbing the walls and as she closes the door I rush to grab him from climbing into the dishwasher. Two seconds later he has figured out how to take the lid off his juice and there is a full cup of prune juice all over my floor. It takes my breath away; seeing him standing in a puddle of juice, watching the dog lick it up (that will be fun later), and then watching him run across the kitchen to me leaving pruney footprints in his wake. Yes, it’s naptime – I inhale and center myself – thankfully I’ll have a second to clean it up and a few non jam packed moments to breath and start prepping dinner.

My hats off to all of you Momtographers out there, it is not impossible to run a business and be a Mom but you better be good at juggling. And it’s some time for the truth (thanks Mary for sharing your truth today and inspiring me to do the same) – I am really not good at juggling. I can handle about three or four things at a time – it’s why I decided to specialize in weddings – and the last year has thrown WAY more than three or four things at me. 2010 has brought many challenges; Bryan and I are finding our footings as new parents, we tried to sell our house – through an agency that required us to run our own open houses, we had to deal with physio appointments and then trucking Nate back and forth to McMaster twice a week because of his plagiocephaly, building a new house, running our businesses, some family challenges not to mention the random disasters that landed on our laps from time to time. I feel like I’ve been holding my breath for the last 6 months and am just starting to reach a point of being able to let it out.

I blame no one but myself as I took on more work then I should have and it completely overwhelmed me, I also never thought it would take 8 months to sell our house. For anyone who was made to wait a little longer, asked to sit tight – this blog post is for you. It is my heartfelt apology and admittance of what has gone wrong and a promise to do better. I think as a business owner we always want to present as together and like we have everything under control but the other thing I’ve learned as a business is that when you make a mistake you own up to it and fix it and here’s what we’re doing.

I have been very diligent in bookings for 2011 to space everything out to a much more manageable pace – we’ve taken on less weddings and we’ve also done something else that’s pretty awesome. Samantha, our long time assistant, has now come on as a lead photographer. She will be leading her own team this year since so many of our previous clients have loved her and her work, we think this is a great fit. This also means that I don’t have to turn away clients – it also means I have someone to help me share the load and continue to strive to give our clients great service and turnaround times that this company was founded on. We’ve also added to our assistant pool – brought some people in that are talented in their own rights and will be able to help with other facets of the business.

I do have to give one small shout-out, if you thought things were chaotic at all last year my apologies again, but if you are reading this post and think I’m crazy because everything went smooth for you – I have to say it’s probably because of Heather. Heather is our administrative assistant and helps organize all of the info for the wedding day, in addition to bookeeping, blog tagger, file management, and the list goes on. Her role will become even more important in 2011 as she will help with order fulfillment, vendor co-ordination, wrapping, and a whole host of other things.

With all of 2010’s challenges there were also a lot of celebrations – this is the year our son celebrated his first birthday, we moved into our new home, and we celebrated 10 years together. The craziness I can fix but in all of this jumble I am so humbled and thankful to be surrounded by all of the clients, employees and suppliers that we are. It’s pretty amazing and I still wake up excited to work and create memories for each and every one of you.

Here’s to a great 2011 year and to balance – and here’s a thanks to all of my wonderful clients who brought me hot chocolate, sent Nate birthday gifts, sent us holiday cards, had more than a few kind words during their speeches that generally brought me to tears, drove my cell phone to me from Milton (yep Lauren that’s for you 😉 and were so so kind. I never forget how lucky I am to have all of you as clients and I have felt so privileged to be a part of such a special day in your life.

This blog post is my attempt at explaining my absence and since I’m in the business of truth I’m not making regular blogging my new years resolution – I’m only going to promise to TRY to keep on top of it and to catch up. No promises as I always try to put client image deliveries first.

Happy New Year everyone!

Wishing you friendship and love,

Amanda

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