We had a number of highs, a six page spread in the Malaysian based wedding magazine Signature Weddings, and twice published in Real Weddings Magazines- we were in both of their issues this year! We were ALSO featured in Our Weddings Magazine. That's right, FOUR magazines this year! How about THAT?! I could not be more proud!
We had numerous blog features, from The Wedding Chicks, to Love & Lavender, Knotty Bride, Sparkle & Hay, United Kingdom based blog Whimsical Wonderland Weddings and even the French language blog Le Marriage de Portabello. At our peak, we were receiving over 14,000 page views a month! We have been BLESSED!
We had some lows too... I've had some serious problems with copyright infringement. This has weighed heavily on me to the point I have made myself sick. I do not like being the bad guy, but I do not know what else to do. (Am I the bad guy when it's other people breaking federal copyright laws punishable by up to $150,000 fines per violation?) If individuals knowingly and willingly violate the contracts they signed, and we just reviewed them, literally, we just went over all the terms again to make sure it was all clear and then everybody purposely and clearly violates all the terms of the agreement... I am at a loss as to what I am supposed to do other than to enforce the agreement. And that is really painful to even consider, and tears me to bits. I'm still banging my head against the wall looking for an alternative...
I also still suck at paperwork, and hiring an intern to help me didn't totally take the load off. I'm still probably editing too much so I can't quite keep up still. This has been an ongoing problem and gives me anxiety on a daily basis when I think of all the work I need to do that I just cannot get to because I have to take care of pictures first. I mean,that's what I do. I'm a photographer. I play with pretty pictures. I'm not a paperwork person. I'm not an office manager. I was talking with the pastry chef at my favorite bakery tonight and she was saying something along the same lines when it came to managing the official business end of things. She's the expert in her field in pastry land. She can make a gorgeous cake and get it delivered and keep it temperature controlled and ensure that it won't get damaged and repair it properly if it needs it. Paperwork? Ehhh... You do it. So... I'm going to try another tactic. (Again.) Someone I have known over a decade, who works from home is going to give it a go. I trust her and hopefully... this will work! It's going to be long-distance so it will be a little unorthodox (cocks head to the side like a deranged beagle)... but I think it will be good! We will probably have you guys mail paperwork into her in Utah, and she will manage it from out there. She'll do the bookkeeping, scanning, organizing. We're also going to try and have her take over burning master discs. I'm starting to ship her all of the kits to start doing that. It's going to be interesting... But it just might work! (PLEASE!)
I wrapped up the year with another Washington DC wedding on December 30th, which was wonderful and I enjoyed very much. It was my third wedding with the Shepherd family and lovely. At this point, the third wedding with this family in the last 18 months... I could rejoice with them. It was fun! The bride and groom told me that when they checked in at the counter in the temple one of the workers told them to make sure to always kiss each other goodbye. That's nice. :)
Just before I left for that trip the motherboard on my work laptop failed and needed to be shipped back to the manufacturer to be repaired. I didn't want to ship it back until after all of my holiday travel had been completed (so I would be sure to be home to sign for it when it was returned) so I am just now ready to send it out for repairs. It has had some stuff done to it, but the actual repair work hasn't been started with the manufacturer. That's next on the list.
In the meantime, I've been using my backup computer, ( a whacked out laptop that has to be hooked up to an external monitor, and therefore is basically a desktop) which seems to have now contracted a virus. I've had to shut down all uploads to my clients sites as of today to protect everyone's images and drives. Everythings backed up but I want to protect the hard drives so everythings been disconnected. It's been scanned several times but it's not picking up whatever this is. We are working on it!
When I picked the puppy up from the kennel a few days ago, he came back to me noticeably thinner, with a hoarse bark and a runny nose. He then proceeded to get sick all over my house. (Not out of the cute end... the yucky end. Yeah, sick, right?) We spent the day at the vet and he is now on bubble gum flavored meds (K-pectin! aka, doggie pepto bismal) which he thinks is poison, and Rx food (also poison), which the cat thinks is positively scrumptious and I have to hide from him. (Freak). In the meantime, I seem to have caught a bit of a head cold myself too, as I apparently sound "like a dude" on the phone. (Thanks friend for telling me that. It really made me feel awesome about myself and my femininity.)
I think that about catches you up on the last few months! We are currently sick, trapped at home with computers working on repairs! I'm a little nervous to send emails lest I have the ability to infect anyone right now! Since I don't know what's going on, I'm not uploading, download or sending files right now.
Hope this helps keep everyone updated! :)
Emily (sniffle, sniffle)
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