These type of blog posts are my absolute FAVORITE because they give me all the feels!!! (< --- btw...when is that phrase gonna go out of style? Not for a while I hope, b/c I loooooves it!!!)

Looking back at all that 2016 has brought me seriously gives me the chills. When 2016 started we had been in New Jersey for about 6 months and I was:

entering my fourth year of business,
was about to turn forty
was just starting to get plugged into the photography community and make some friends
and feel more settled at our church.

My goal for the year was to shoot five weddings.

FIVE ya'll.

I ended up shooting THIRTY!!!

How is that even possible?? I am so incredibly blessed for the amazing connections and friendships that God brought into my life to make that possible. I booked and shot seven of my own weddings and 2nd shot or assisted at twenty three more. Thirty celebrations of marriage that I got to be a part of during my FIRST year in business in New Jersey. BLOWN AWAY.

In addition to that, I branched out my business and diversified my income. I helped numerous entrepreneurs and small business owners launch or update their websites. I mentored and coached other photographers to help them grow their business. I served blogging clients and editing clients all while maintaining my own photography for weddings, engagements, family sessions, styled shoots and other things here and there.

Paul and I traveled to Connect retreat, Seattle and Albuquerque this year. I joined and stayed active in NJ Spark and was able to fellowship with some amazing other Christian women and photographers. Paul and I started a small group bible study in our home for couples at our church and have made some great friends. We saw two broadway shows, countless movies, endless shows on Netflix, became obsessed with meal delivery and built a deck on the back of our house.

We have learned, grown, prayed, fought, cried, laughed until we cried and loved each other fiercely.

This has seriously been a year for the books and I am incredibly humbled, grateful and blessed for all of the friendships I have gained, experiences I have had and lessons I have learned. Now you can see why I love posts like this so much. In all reality, its nice to share this with others, but really, this is such a good way to reflect back on everything I have done an accomplished over a period of time. Oftentimes we feel as if we are spinning our wheels and not really getting anywhere, but when you take a step back and take some time to really look at where you have grown, you will see it. All that progress. It's there, you just gotta look for it.

This post is really for me. A way for me to visually see what 2016 meant for my own personal life and for my growing business. And it makes me even that much more excited for all that is to come in the next twelve months! Cheers!