Looking Back to 2023 + Looking Forward to 2024

​Cheers to all the folks we worked “for and with” throughout 2023!
We are so grateful and so proud of what we created
​and the memories we made.…TOGETHER.

|  Photo Credit: Cappy Hotchkiss  |

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​I especially love this time of the work year. It requires me to hit the pause button, deep dive to cataloging the year’s event and focusing on review and reflection. There is much to learn from the past 12 months, and it urges me to rethink as I move forward with our business vision and with our next-up clients. But the most satisfying and rewarding aspect is in the scrolling through one gorgeous photo gallery after another as I update our website,
seeing some moments for the first time and through the many lens
​of our talented flock of photographers.

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​For the last two plus weeks I’ve been immersed at my computer pondering photo selections that tell the story of each event, respecting privacy while unveiling the love and beauty that each day holds. In this process, I am reliving joy-filled days and feeling intoxicatedly by all the love. It’s only in this time that I can fully appreciate our photographer’s captures from every angle and the true perspective of the celebration.

​During event days, my focus is on the moment-to-moment management and staying one step ahead of each next happening. Within the landscape of an event, as vibrant and alive as it is, I am not an observer but instead actively participating through my closeup lens at details and everything or everyone  that requires my attention. I do catch charmed glimpses that stop me for an instant to pause, smile and often cry a happy tear, but not until now do the endless special connections and relationships amongst our couples and their guests appear to me in full color. A glance, a touch, or a deep embrace…sheer joy, fun and connections that unfold from early getting-ready settings to the late-night glowing fire pits against deep slate night sky. The ability to look at each photographic image without ANY distractions is blissful, no longer forced to work on a side column to-do list or respond to the ping of endless mounting emails in my inbox. This is the very best end of year gift I can give myself. It triggers poignant recollections of my relationship with a couple, mini replays of conversations and decisions that had direct effects on the outcome of the day and it also further enlightens me to who they are and why they are and where they came from. 

|  Photo Credit: Brian David  |

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tThis immersion and closure have the same gratification as holding the last piece to a very large puzzle. Under close inspection you consider every piece as you build, and understand first-hand how it feels, and where it needs to land, step by step. Once this last puzzle piece snaps in, the feeling of completion is just so good, right? In fact, often after a 12 to 18-hour day at this process, I go to bed and re-dream the event as well as our couples and families. These are sweet dreams unlike the ones I have the night before an event when my brain is reckoning with the tasks that await me. The commitment of time it takes to see this end of year process through impacts my soul as an artist and as a people lover. It also is the jet fuel that propels me into the new event year with confidence as we get ready to do it all again. On New Year’s Eve, I finished our last gallery cataloging and that was reason enough to celebrate what an event year we had and what an thrilling event year we have ahead. ​

|  Photo Credit: Cappy Hotchkiss  |

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The teams we build for each client are never the same, each one as unique as the vision. This affords so many opportunities to strengthen existing relationships or to build new ones, and in many cases…even new and dear friendships are forged as we lean into the tasks at hand and get to know each other on deeper levels getting “sh*t” done. I am blessed to be flanked with so many dedicated and talented people, who give so much to us when we ask and even when we don’t ask. Thank you thank you…you know who you are. 

​​Speaking for myself, my team and all the vendor talent we enlist for an event, it goes without saying that we are well versed in creating inviting and gorgeous festivities filled to the brim with culinary, musical, and aesthetical details (and so much more!). This environment is the platform and our teams, and their energy are the conduit to allowing the magic to happen.

 As this new year takes hold, we created a reel that focuses not on the impressively staged events in our
5 action-packed event months but on the endless personal connections that were made possible
​because of the work we do as event creators, heart driven. ​

I am so very proud to share this love with you…

| ​Video Credits: Photographers, Venues and Vendor Teams are highlighted at the end of each website gallery along with our client reviews |

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​If you care to gush on our 2023 galleries and see who ​was behind the scenes making it happen,
​please have a peek:
Weddings: www.yourevent.us/wedding-lightbox.html
Events: www.yourevent.us/events--parties-gallery.html

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|  Photo Credit: Tricia McCormick  |

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In closing, ​I am so grateful to all of you that touched my life, hands, and heart in 2023. The year started in challenging ways as I watched my dear dad fade and leave me while looking just ahead at the daunting and robust event year that I was navigating. The company I kept with clients and vendors supported me in gentle and caring ways that kept me going and lifted my spirit when I wanted to retract. This work that I find so very gratifying refilled my heart and uplifted me with each moment of joy and happiness that was celebrated together. Love most certainly heals. 
 
With all my heart, I thank my personal team, you and your teams and our valued and dear clients that made each event come to life in so many beautiful and memorable ways. To the photographers that I was graced with this year, thank you for being everywhere and more, spotting the nuggets in each moment. You amaze me and your work delights me. 

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My New Year's gift to all…
A quote I found along the way in my mindfulness practice, lives pinned to my bulletin boards above “both desks”.               A compass point when the seas get rough and the challenges build. I hope it can be appreciated, embraced, and perhaps passed along to another bulletin board or finds it's way on yours. 
• 
“May I live with compassion, with grace, with insight, with integrity, with love.
​May I live each moment at a time, doing the next right thing,
​whatever that may be.”

|  Photo Credit: Jessie Casey  |

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My heartfelt wishes to each of you for a new year filled
with joy, optimism, positivity, excitement, and anticipation and SO many blessings sprinkled with lots of love.
 
XOXO
Paula 

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