It is easy to be grateful when things are going well in your life and business. But staying grateful through the hard times is when it really counts!
I have always considered myself a positive and appreciative person but nothing could have prepared me for the impact the pandemic had on my own life and business. And at times, my gratitude and resilience were tested!
Being faced with the prospect of postponing more than 60 weddings was frightening. Everything I worked for drained away within weeks and there were definitely times when I feared it would never come back.
It has been a long 16 months since Covid reached our small island and honestly, I am thrilled with the way my team and my couples have navigated this time.
I am someone who always looks for the positives and I love to put a positive spin on a negative situation. I am sure my couples will agree, postponing your wedding is heartbreaking, but I have positively insisted that there are benefits of a longer engagement. And I will always do what I can to limit their disappointment. I canβt take it away, but my role as a planner and also as a friend to my couples is to reassure them.
Even when at times I have also needed reassuring. The pandemic gave us an opportunity to pause and review. To grow.
And although I would be lying if I said it was easy at the beginning to accept this. Having the time to see there were areas of improvement to be made has been invaluable.
The pandemic gave me an opportunity to improve my business. We have implemented new processes, invested in the brand and the marketing and looked for ways to remain accessible through Covid times.
We moved our appointments online through our online booking system and offer virtual show arounds. This is a development area I didnβt know we needed but it has been a game changer! We are also investing in new systems and continuing building upon the re-brand (more to be revealed soon!) We have definitely taken advantage of an opportunity to up-level and it excites me so much!
Covid certainly presented new challenges when it came to planning weddings. The handful of weddings that took place in 2020 were subjected to conditions we had never known before. From limitations on numbers, masks, and restrictions on dancing. This was a new era celebrations. Numbers were reduced and so many changes need to be made at the last minute.
For a super organiser like myself, this has been a challenge at times. Having everything ready only to change it all at the last minute. We have had to learn to be flexible and accommodating. We now have to work differently but in a positive way and accept that things will and can change at the drop of a hat. We no longer have the freedom to plan a wedding as we did in 2019, but that is ok and Covid has really shifted our perspective and changed the way we work. Having to overcome obstacles such as not being able to source decor or certain services has been difficult but planning your dream wedding no matter the hurdles we face is and always has been one of my favourite parts of the job. So we adapt and we continue.
We will all look back on this time in our lives and just think WOW! We have all overcome so much – but my message to you is to always stay grateful, in the good times and the bad – because I truly believe it always comes good in the end
Lindsey xx