Covid Times & Staying Motivated and Inspired ...
Lovelies can we do a little check in? I had so many high hopes that during quarantine I'd become like the best blogger (EVER) and with each passing day I just couldn't bring myself to talk about anything clever, funny, inspiring, or eventful. As a matter of fact things were looking pretty event-less if I'm being 100% truthful. Day by day I was quickly watching a very full and magical season just fade into a season I didn't recognize.
I'm sure at this point you want to know what I did during quarantine and the months after so here goes.... I began to plan and redefine what I wanted Grace Floral and Co. to be. I let my mind day dream a bit and then I started really thinking about what I loved and what the future would look like, who would be there, and what I wanted to remember most from 2020. I began to embrace the reality of a smaller and more intimate wedding season, I dreamed and thus created a beautiful cutting garden that I am SO proud of, and loved using some of the blooms in weddings. I created NH's first mini-floral truck, who I've affectionally named "Gracie" and I found a deeper and more profound love for teaching others to confidently design floral arrangements for their home. If you didn't know I am also a floral educator at my floral education company, Popped With Phebe where I teach industry professionals how to create successful diversified events. I really leaned into that and gosh it has felt SO good to be recognized within my industry.
Day by day life started to get, (dare I say it) sweeter. I began to smile again and the warmth just began pouring out of me and into all corners of this business. My last wedding (likely) of the season happened and I CELEBRATED an amazing and wonderful season! Yes, I celebrated a 5 wedding/event season and I felt every ounce of joy for what I had accomplished. Covid had taken so much but I was reminded even through all of the postponements and the very sad tears from my brides & grooms that love was not cancelled, love was absolutely being magnified. Through small celebrations we had found it, a love so abundant and so fierce that it refused to be stifled or quieted. And there you have it lovelies a season I could have never dreamed of was exactly what my heart and my head actually needed.
To my 2020 couples who subsequently needed to move to 2021 although none of us know what the future holds, I do know that love has no end and it can face all obstacles. I hope you take this time to deeply reflect on the life you are planning together, that you take time to get excited about the very bright future as a couple that awaits you. I hope we party like it's 1999. Ok. let's not make it awkward, it's Prince so just go with it.
To my industry pro's, please remember that we aren't defined by the amount of weddings/events we floral-ize or plan. We aren't the entire sum of our business and if you've been operating (maybe even admittedly I have) from a place where you think you are ...please stop. Smell the roses, slow down, sip that coffee extra slow, take lunch, have that extra glass of wine but most importantly don't forget to LIVE a life as beautifully as the events you create. Maybe I had forgotten for a bit what it was like to enjoy the simple and uneventful things, besides maybe things weren't uneventful after all and maybe the greatest adventure of my life was just beginning....
Stay inspired lovelies .....
Phebees
