And that's a Wrap 2017!

Disclaimer: Yes, I know it's been nearly 5 months since our last blog post and this will never happen again I PROMISE. Blogging on a weekly basis is one of our 2018 Resolutions!

As I sit here staring at this photo, it's hard to believe 2017 is nearly over. What a crazy, but exciting year it has been. Where do we begin to describe everything that has happened?

We started the year with a few new members on our team and they were ready for any challenge to come their way and they were wedding hungry.

We officially kicked off wedding season in March and formed some great new partnerships with vendors and venues and are excited to continue to foster those relationships into the new year as well as other amazing vendors with whom we have loved working with over the past 12 years.

As for our favorite memories are highlights for the year, honestly there were too many to pick just a few.

In July, we were lucky to have two of our former EA Wedding Planners tie the knot. From Jen marrying her college sweetheart Cole up in Roche Harbor to Kim marrying her childhood sweetheart Chas at her family's home, there were a lot of tears and laughter watching members of our family complete the circle of wedding planner to bride.

Photo by Caitlyn Nikula 

Photo by Meredith McKee

We were blessed to have several of our weddings and all of our editorial styled shoots featured on several websites including Seattle Bride, Modern Wedding, Wedding Chicks, Every Last Detail, and Borrowed & Blue. We have many more to come in early 2018 and cannot wait to share those with you too.

There is one top secret project we worked on back in November and cannot wait to unveil it! We were asked to join with Blue Nile Diamond Company to style their commercial and print campaign just in time for engagement season and Valentine's Day!

November was indeed one special month for us, not only did we have the commercial shoot, an editorial shoot (that will be unveiled soon) we launched Project Proposal. Partnering with one of our new photographers that had the pleasure of working with twice in 2017 and several times in January, thank you Erin Perkins Photography for collaborating.

Lastly, we were blessed with all of our 2017 couples and cannon wait for all of our 2018 couples to have their big day. Stay tuned to see what we have up our sleeves.

What 2017 will Bring!

Well it's officially 2017! Read or not here we come. The ladies of Elegant Affairs are ready to take this wedding season by storm.

Right now we are gearing up for the Seattle Wedding (Learn more about the Seattle Wedding here on the bog!) and then as of right now we kick off our wedding season in March.

What I am most excited about is the addition of three new associate wedding planners (Emily, Lisa and Mimi). if you are coming to the Wedding Show at the Washington State Convention in 2 weeks then you will meet all of these incredible ladies. You will instantly fall in love with everyone of them. I am so honored to have them part of Elegant Affairs' future. They can't wait to start their own journey with our 2017 and 2018 couples.

Something you are hearing about first is the roll out of our new online client workbook. We have been working on this for a few weeks and it was finally finished tonight. If you are one of our lucky couples, make sure you check your inbox tomorrow as you will be able to get your hot little hands on our latest creation we are so proud of. Our goal is for this "workbook" to is let our clients be a little more interactive with their own wedding planning.

I have a little secret, well I guess it's not all that quiet especially if you have been on our Web site, but we are about to introduce our Mentorship Program (official name TBD). This has been my baby of sorts that I have been working on and off for some time. Over the years, we have received inquiries from individuals interested in becoming a wedding planner which gave me the idea for this program. I am not committing to a specific date when this will be introduced, but trust me you will know when it does. If you are interested, send us an e-mail to info@elegnataffairswa.com and we will add you to our mailing list.

A few of our 2016 goals that we will be continuing this year is working more from our new office location and "trying" to work less from home. It's a constant struggle but I am always working on finding a good balance between work and family especially when we are deep in the wedding season. One thing that really helped was taking Sundays off and only committing each of our planners including myself to one wedding/event per weekend. We have received great feedback from our clients and this is one of our selling points when meeting with potential clients. Ultimately, we want to give each of our clients 100% of our attention for their event with no distractions.

We are so excited for anything that comes our way in 2017 and ready for any challenge!