Happy New Year everyone! It’s surreal to start a new decade with 2010. It’s probably because growing up, I always thought of a decade as such a LONG time, and for the first time, I’m able to look back at the last decade and have legitimate memories. Yesterday on Twitter, there was a trending topic of #10yearsago, and mine was, “#10yearsago I had a childhood crush on my husband. I saw him at my brother’s wrestling matches and thought he was cute.”

I would have never thought that 10 years later I would be married to that boy at the wrestling matches, a wedding planner and a blogger. But here and I am, and I am SO incredibly excited for 2010! I’m making lists, rearranging things, and I feel like my head is going to explode with ideas and all of the things I want to do. I’m never one to make a “New Year Resolution”, I more of a planning and list-making kind of person. So, of course, I have to share some of these plans for 2010!

- Photo shoots for {ELD}…more to come soon, but GET EXCITED!!

- Building the {ELD} blog and making it a source for brides to find inspiration, resources, and insight into wedding planning

- Working a TON of events with MMD Events

- Prepping for the launch of Every Last Detail Events, estimated to be by 2011

- Learning and growing every single day

- Attending at least 1 seminar or conference focused on the wedding industry

- Everything that’s in store for the wedding industry in general!

These are just a FEW of the things that are running through my head right now. I just had to get some of them down on “paper”! How about you guys…what are you planning for 2010? Is there anything that you would like to see on {ELD}? I’ll be back to the regular posting schedule next week, but I’m always open to any suggestions!

And I want opinions…are you saying “twenty ten” or “two thousand and ten”? I’m think “two thousand and ten”, but I have a feeling it’s going to develop into just “twenty ten”….whatever it ends up being, it’s still 2010!!!

With the coming new year (which has snuck up on me super fast), I’ve been thinking about all of the wonderful things that I’ve been blessed with in 2009. I know some have had a horrible 2009, but in terms of personal life events, my year has been pretty awesome! Of course I’ve also been making plans and setting goals for 2010, but since this IS the last day of 2009, I’m going to revel in the past.

In case you haven’t been following the blog since the very beginning, I thought I would share a little bit about what 2009 has meant to me!

In no particular order….

- I graduated college with a totally different degree than I planned for upon entering
- I married my best friend and high school sweetheart, and had probably one of the best weddings my hometown will see in a while, so the guests say (until I start planning the weddings there of course)

- I started The Design Grove in July, and dove head first into the wedding industry
- I attended a wedding planner certification course and started apprenticing with different companies in the Tampa wedding industry, learning SO MUCH along the way
- I lost my job that I was miserable at, which turned out to be an incredibly HUGE blessing
- I was offered another “dead-end” job, had a revelation, turned it down, and decided to pursue my passion of working in the wedding industry
- Less than two weeks after being unemployed I took a job with the company I was apprenticing with, and for the first time ever I LOVE going to “work” and love my bosses and what I do!
- Relaunched my blog as Every Last Detail to coincide more with what I aim to achieve with blogging
- Realized the incredible power of Twitter- the relationships made as well as the social networking amazingness
- Discovered the importance of having quality wedding vendors and doing research

It may not seem like much, but for a girl who wanted to be a dentist two years ago, I would have NEVER thought that I would be working in the wedding industry. If someone had told me a year ago that I would be a wedding planner and have a blog, I would have had a chuckle out of that. I have seriously been so incredibly blessed this year, and although nothing went the way I planned (except for a teeny bit of my wedding), I have learned to follow my heart and the gut feelings I have.

I want to thank EVERYONE who has supported me along the way and helped me realize my true potential (that’s my husband, family, friends, my bosses, and all of my Twitter friends)!

It’s definitely a journey, and I’m just now embarking on it. I can’t wait to see what 2010 and the next decade has in store for me!!

In January (described in more detail here), I was told about Style Me Pretty. From then on, I was forever a member of the blogosphere. There are so many things that I would have done differently if I had been reading blogs earlier on in my wedding planning, as I’ve said several times in my blogging.

Photo from author’s personal collection

I decided that when I returned from the honeymoon, I was going to start a wedding blog. But I didn’t want to start a blog just because I was still in love with weddings. I started this blog because I want to help other brides, bridesmaids, mothers of brides, basically whoever is involved in a wedding! I want to provide tips and tricks to brides so their planning experience is fun and their wedding day goes smoothly.

I realized that I was one of the first in my circle of friends to get married, and therefore I didn’t have anyone to go to for advice. At times, I know I was annoying my friends and mother with discussions of bridesmaid dresses, invitations, monograms, flowers, the list goes on and on. There were times that I felt like I had nowhere to turn for answers to questions about my wedding.

So brides, grooms, bridesmaids, mothers, fathers, whoever is reading: feel free to ask me questions! If you need some ideas, you can’t decide on a monogram, invitations, centerpieces, whatever it may be, two heads are better than one! I would have loved to have someone to collaborate with on some of the decisions I had to make when planning my wedding. Leave me a comment, or send me an email. I will be more than happy to help!

Photo by CvB Photography

In my few months of blogging and connecting with others in the wedding industry, I’ve realized that I truly do want to help others enjoy their wedding day. I’m working to gain more experience in the wedding industry so one day I can physically be there to help brides have the best wedding day that is possible!

So, for my friends, family, blog readers, and anyone else who was wondering, this is why I blog! I absolutely love doing it, and I can’t wait to share more with everyone!