So I woke up this morning and BOOM. The sunshine came out to play. Instant mood lifter huh?

It has been a whirlind of a week here in the HGE office. Tons of client and vendor appointments, tours of potential office spaces, I finally hired an awesome intern (yay!), booked two new clients and glittered my little unicorn-loving-heart away for a rad wedding coming up in about a month. I also recently made some back end changes to Hey Gorgeous (which overlaps a little with my office space search; more soon I promise!) but I’m feeling content about things right now. Like I’m on the other side of this invisible barrier I had build up for myself sometime last year. I met these guys yesterday (what a treat) and Aimee and I were talking about how this year has sort of been a turning point for us in our late twenties. And how we see life a little bit differently even in just being another year old. Or young I suppose. Because I don’t feel old! I just loved being able to talk to someone else who shares the same views on me.

I’m off to a client taste test for the afternoon, and another appointment to view a design and floral studio, then this weekend will be spent in Benton Harbor confirming design plans for next month’s event (you can follow along with me on instagram here). If you’re in the Grand Rapids area and would love to buy someone special some lovely blooms for Mother’s Day check out this post. And with that I will see you all next week! Dish below on your plans this weekend too; if you’re here in the Midwest I can bet it involves anything to do with that glorious sunshine :) xoxo

Guys, I’m so excited about this post today. Not only because it includes a pretty picture like this one below…

But because I happen to think I have the best Mom in the whole entire world, and I’m thinking most of you out there probably think the same thing about yours too. So to celebrate all of those amazing Moms out there this Mother’s Day I thought it would be appropriate and oh so fun to offer lovely pre-ordered arrangements for customers in the Grand Rapids and Rockford, Michigan communities. I’ll be designing and selling arrangements like the one above, filled with peonies, roses and other yummy pretties your Mom will love, all tucked into a sweet little clear hobnail vase (for pricing on an arrangement of this size with these blooms please contact me). The vases will be packaged with tissue and ready to go either late in the afternoon of May 12th or the morning of May 13th. Delivery to certain areas is available at a minimal fee but if you can pick up your blooms in person, I may have some fresh baked cookies for you as a treat. And a high five for being so awesome and supporting a small business much like the one run by yours truly.

To order an arrangement for your Ma, email me over at hello@heygorg.com and we can chat about all of the details! I can’t wait to infuse my surrounding community with a whole lot of Hey Gorg goodness. Have an amazing morning, friends and stop by Kelly Braman’s blog today to say hello! She took that beautiful photo you’re seeing up there xoxo

Keeping in line with my January post on social media free weekends, I wanted to talk a little bit about my work schedule and what I’ve found works for me as a work from home professional. A lot of you have been asking for more wedding industry business advice and that makes me so happy! Around this time last year, I was struggling to keep balance between my personal life and my business. I was working a part time job to make a bit of extra money leading up to my wedding season and was coming home every night exhausted from my full day of work. Sometimes I’d work until 3:00 am handling my own business responsibilities and more than often, I’d schedule consults and Skype dates with clients as late as 9:00 pm; when I just wanted to be in bed winding down from my day. Andrew took a backseat to it all and I found that life caught up with me; and not in a good way. Rhi needed a schedule intervention really bad.

In May of 2012 I finally decided to leave my part time job and take on Hey Gorgeous full time. For the second time. Best. Decision. Ever. Within just two weeks I booked two more events for my season, which surpassed the amount of money I would have made working my part time job for six months. I was able to work during the day and do things like eat dinner with my husband at night. Or go to a movie and not feel guilty about it. But I also learned really quickly that I’d still need to put in the hard work at home with Hey Gorgeous if I wanted to be successful and get my work done. I write a lot on this blog about what I do to stay motivated and on task. I think any business owner or creative professional can attest to the difficulties of staying on task 24/7 even more so when you wear so many different hats.

These days, I stick to a loose 9:00 am to 5:30 pm work schedule that’s done wonders for me. I work Monday to Friday, meaning those times and days are when I am accessible to clients (unless of course an appointment is made outside of these parameters and I certainly do work overtime when it’s necessary like the week of an event). I wrote a bit about a typically work day over here. And then I also wrote about a typical wedding day of work here. Just reading that post gives me this weird combination of exhauastion and excitement because my job is pretty demanding but absolutely and 110% worth it. I also usually spend Sunday nights prepping for my work week ahead, and once my weddings start each season I take Mondays off. When you work on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays you need to give yourself a little break.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg on work schedules and office hour boundaries (as learned from the incredibly smart Lara Casey herself) but I’d love to generate a discussion here (over Starbucks lattes of course!) If you’re a business owner who works from home or not, I’d love for you to dish below on what you like and dislike with your current work schedule. Maybe your comment will inspire other business owners to make changes with their current routine! Which also leads me to the exciting news involving my hunt for a perfect office space for the 2013 and 2014 Hey Gorgeous season. More on that soon though, soon. Happiest of Mondays, to you all! Photo by Kelly Braman xoxo

If there’s anywhere I could be on this Friday afternoon, it would probably be back here….

I’m back finally from Jamaica, guys (that paradise I’m enjoying above in the always gorgeous Ocho Rios), and man that trip ended up being one whirlwind of a nightmare with customs and immigration on our way home. More on that later because as our good friend Bob Marley would say, “Every little thing, is gunna be alright”. And really despite the travel woes I had a lovely time away. I’m so grateful for the five days to reflect and recharge a bit and am literally bursting at the seams with the fun and exciting things coming up with Hey Gorgeous over the next few weeks and months. So off I go tonight to celebrate Andrew’s 30th with some good friends and this weekend will be spent catching up on some spring cleaning (read this here), prepping for a fun little shoot with these guys, and searching for the perfect office space here in Grand Rapids. Yeah. Just typing that out feels stellar. And it holds me accountable a little :)

In the meantime, is there anything fun on anyone’s agendas? Spill the beans below, bloggies xoxo

I have to write this today. And just let the words flow out, yo!

Not to sound like a broken record here, but last year around this time now I was an emotional mess. I had a hard exterior and everything in my life put together but inside I was sad, sad, sad and frustrated more than ever. Did I mention sad? One day I’ll share more on why I felt this way but for now it’s not important. What’s important is what I am about to tell you below. Forgive me for so many words but I’m a big advocate for making decisions in life that are in line with living your best life. I didn’t always think this way but I do now and it’s a good thing. I’m a super sensitive, wear-my-heart-on-my-sleeve kind of girl and can easily get upset over something insignificant or temporary so I’m often thinking of ways to maintain my positivity and focus on the good. Sometimes, that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes life sucks and you have to kick yourself in the ass to regroup. Here’s what I think and wanted to share.

Define What Matters. You know what matters to me right now? My husband matters. Our marriage really matters. The third year of marriage is the hardest. I know this because that’s where we are right now in our journey together. Marriage is like the female body in a sense. Yeah it sounds wacko but stick with me here. In high school some girls have these rocking bodies and a metabolism that can process McDonalds and late night pizza runs like a boss (I wasn’t one of those girls FYI). We buy teen mags with airbrushed women posing provocatively on the front and constantly feel like our worth is determined by how we too look; in real un-airbrushed life that is. Then we get a bit older and life catches up with us. Our hard as hell work outs don’t seem to do much. We think man I had it GOOD in high school and didn’t even have to walk a mile before dropping five pounds. As time goes on you realize you can’t just sit around and expect to feel or look good. You have to WORK at it. Marriage is like that to me. You want to reap the benefits of a healthy and loving marriage? You have to WORK. And the work is so so worth it as I’ve learned in the past month. Do. Work.

My family matters. My future family and whether or not it involves babies matters. My job and my business and my clients matter. My home and how it feels and looks matter. Yup how it looks matters to me. This doesn’t mean it’s perfect. It doesn’t mean we have the nicest or most expensive things. It just means it’s where I am the most physically, as a working-from-home-professional and self-proclaimed home-body, and if I’m going to live here and make memories here, I want it to be in a way that makes me happy. My health, our crazy pets, our well-being, our space, our free time, all of these things matter. My close friends, the ones who call to check on me, who listen to me on the phone, who send sweet notes and give me love love love, these people matter. Everything else? Does not matter. Not important.

You Are Enough. Why do we tell ourselves we’re not enough? Why do we let others make us feel like we aren’t enough? This sweet thing wrote a post on instagram yesterday that reminded me of the post I wrote over here. I’m ALWAYS feeling like I’m not enough guys. Maybe I don’t share it publicly but it happens often especially as of late. I’m not skinny enough, pretty enough, rich enough, successful enough, my two college degrees are somewhere out there (seriously, I don’t even have them framed and couldn’t tell you where they are right now. I’m embarrassed) and not doing much for me, I’m not saving lives, I’m not making serious bank, I’m shopping at Hobby Lobby during my business hours looking for the perfect shade of soft ble ribbon for a ceiling treatment. What? I can’t cook a carrot cake from scratch, I can’t wake up at 5:30 am to go to the gym like some women do. I can’t stay up past 11:00 pm because I get sleepy like a baby. I can’t remember my times tables past the 5′s. I can not run a mile if I tried. I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t. I’m sick of it.

Because I am. I am more than enough. I am a good wife. I am a good fur baby mom. I’m not a real human mom (ha that sounds funny doesn’t it?) because right now wouldn’t be a fair time to bring a life into this world and I think that means I’m enough in and of itself. That’s a decision Andrew and I have made together as a team, and that’s enough too. I’m not saving lives but instead I’m enriching them. And helping people make beautiful and special memories. I’m not rich but I’m fulfilled. I’m so creative and have so much to give it hurts sometimes. That’s plenty. And those Hobby Lobby trips, as trivial as they feel, are what I’m paid to do. So I should embrace it and know that I am enough. Enough already with not feeling like we’re enough as women, business owners, moms, wives, teachers, people, friends, whatever. We are all enough. More than enough most days. We need to start believing it and telling others to know and believe it too.

Define Your Own Version of Success. I was on the phone with my sweet friend Leah this morning for almost an hour. God I love that girl and am so thankful our paths crossed early last year because she’s become a true friend and such a bright spot in my life. Leah is a perfect example of focusing on what matters. She inspires me DAILY to just let go. New followers? More weddings? More overtime in the office? More superficial being? Hell no. Ain’t nobody got time for that. We talked today and I told her the only thing holding me back these days is MYSELF. Because I have this stupid crazy hard time defining my version of success sometimes. Success so often is what everyone else makes it out to be. Success to some is more followers, more features, 25 weddings a year, more comments on a post, more money, more friends, more more more. I’m sick of that too. Because more is further away from enough and the only way you’re going to live a fulfilled, happy and menaingful life is to define your own version of success. Write it down. Memorize it.

With that being said I’m off tonight to the airport with my husband. We are meeting my parents, my brother, and an old neighbor friend of ours, in sunny, beautiful, Jamaica. I had to write this post before I left because the jumble of words above has been heavy on my heart. I hope whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you do or are planning to do, that you know you’re enough. The photo above was taken in Chicago by my sweet friend Shalyn. Who just announced her business’ new name. Hooray! Head over to her blog to check it out. Enjoy your day and I’ll be back next week xoxo