By The Way: My One Day in December

This post is part of a series entitled "One Day in December", the brainchild of Orly Lyndon. Yesterday's post was from Ilse of Secret Jewel (but as of scheduling this post, I didn't see it go up...?), and tomorrow's will be brought to you by Krissy of Wed Eclectic. If you're on Twitter and want to see the entire chain of bloggers who have participated, just look for #1DayinDecember11 to follow right along.

PS isn't the little logo above the best? It's the work of design guru Cris of Kiss My Tulle. Okay, here it goes...

When I look back at some of the earliest TWB posts, one thing is evident: we had no idea what we were doing. To call it a blog would really be pushing it; we rarely posted, we never included photos, and it was, dare I say, kind of boring. But Erin was (and still is) a true lover of blogs, and I knew that having a solid dialogue could help clients find and interact with us, so we soldiered on. Erin is still out there loving her some blog reading, but isn't really liking the blog writing so much. That's why it's basically been all me here for the past several months. But of course there is no 'T' in TWB without Erin, and who knows....maybe one day she'll want to hop back on here and share something with all of you again. You don't get the benefit of her daily email musings like I do, after all. 2011 is the year I was determined to make the quality of this blog equal that of the service we provide our clients.

Sometime over the course of the past several months, I actually started to enjoy blogging for the first time. Before it always felt like a chore, and it'd take for-ev-er to get even the simplest post pulled together. And guess what else happened? The TWB audience expanded. It's still a small following compared to many other blogs, and that's okay. But when I look at the visitors, comments, followers, etc. that we have now compared to this time last year...it really is a remarkable difference. So 2011 is the year I finally found my blogging mojo, and alot more of you found TWB. Thanks so much for liking what you saw and sticking around.

If this isn't your first time here, then you probably know I got married in May of this year. I know alot of brides love their wedding planning experience so much that it leads them to quit their jobs and turn to a career in the wedding industry. I obviously did things in reverse order (as did Erin), as I was a planner first and then a bride after. And I must say that planning my own wedding didn't really strike a chord with me. The line that I would repeatedly say was "I'd much rather plan someone else's wedding than my own." Don't get me wrong, we had an absolutely wonderful day. I'm just happier pulling together those endless minute details and coordinating countless moving parts for someone else. It's easier, even. Yup, 2011 is the year I got to see how things look from the other side of the aisle (and was happy to return to the planning side!)

(Photo from our May wedding, from Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography)

And I just so happened to marry a "real blogger" as I would call him: he blogs as part of his full-time gig, and has an ever-growing, extremely loyal following. It's been years now where I've heard from him, "Okay, I just have to finish this post first" when we have plans to go out. And now I find myself using that line on him every once in a while. Yes, 2011 is the year that we made it official: he will always hear about my proudest retweets and I will forever hear about his day's page views. Now if that isn't love...I don't know what is.

There are so many invaluable industry people out there who are also a big reason this blog has grown. The support you've all shown this past year, not only to me but to so many others, through your shared experiences, encouragement, humor, and compassion has been unequaled. You have collectively provided a rather extensive network that I know I can rely on for favors, questions, and collaborations big and small. I haven't met many of you in person, but I "talk" to you almost every day. Funny, isn't it? Book it: 2011 is the year I started so many new blog relation(friend)ships.

(From our VDay styled shoot with SWOONOVERIT & Little Bit Heart, as featured on Brenda's Wedding Blog)

All I can say is...here's looking to 2012...!