Preparing Your Garden

Most of you are reading the title of this post as if it were a surprise line drive to right field. Yes. You heard me use a baseball reference. Softball in my case...but I keep moving onto the point. The last thing I think any of you would expect from me would be to write a post relating to gardening. But it might actually surprise you to see where this leads...

You may have noticed a bit of a buzz on social media regarding a certain book coming out. One I can say I've been waiting for since reading Make It Happen. Just in case you need an introduction, Make It Happen is a book written by the ever thoughtful Lara Casey. Her highly anticipated follow up to her first book, Cultivate: A Grace-Filled Guide to Growing an Intentional Life, is kinda picks up from where Make It Happen left off, but not in the way you think it would. 

The book is divided into three parts, this post being about the first part titled Prepare Your Garden. Like Lara's first book, Cultivate is written to not only give you great content, but also constructed to make you think and reflect on your own story amongst the one written on the pages in front of you. This is especially true with some of the topics Lara touches upon. In this particular portion, she refers a lot (as in most of the theming of this book) to actions that revolve around gardening. Weirdly enough, it was until I really started sinking into this book that I realized how accurate the correlation gardening had to how we build our lives.

Throughout each chapter, Lara disperses the lies we believe into actionable truths. From Embracing Your Season to Nourishing Your Soil, I was constantly reminded that it takes time to get your foundation in order. Something that in this microwave, instant gratification moment of time we live in, it can be difficult to really cultivate a life that is rich in love and truth. 

To some of you, this sound like I'm talking to you from the deep end of reality, one you would rather stay away from. But the deep end is a part of the pool you need to visit from time to time. Because goodness knows playing in the shallow end of the pool is limiting.  

Cultivate is available today on Amazon. There is also an audible version available. 

I'll be updating the blog with my progress in the book for those of you who may be interested in reading it. So far, I say get your copy. Whatever "season" you may find yourself, it will definitely give you a faith based, batch of helpful real talk verses some of the fluff that is out there.  

Change is Coming...

Yes, yes, I know...I'm getting Game of Throne Fans excited by my blog title. Truth be told, neither Gus or I are into Game of Thrones (don't throw your computer to the wall just yet), but felt like this title, in a sense borrowing the sentiment of #winteriscoming, was really appropriate.

Back to why we've taken you away from your regularly scheduled social media scroll break. We have some news and it's about time we told you about it. We have been in business for almost 6 years. Trust me when I say that there has been a lot of blood, sweat, and hard work (okay okay...tears too) that have gone into everything we've done since starting on this journey in 2011. But like any good movie plot, change is immenent young padawan (total Star Wars reference...look it up). 

Change can be scary, but so needed. After taking some time and reevaluating everything from our branding, logo design, website, and presence in general, I think I should tell you about some changes that will be taking place in our company.

OUR BRANDING AND LOGO DESIGN

Although it went through a slight redesign, the logo you see today was as it was at the beginning of our company; from the text written in my hand writing and the fountain pen that many of you have probably been puzzled about. Our branding elements like the wood background and accents that were purely from a photo taken of our dining room table (that we still have). The electric blue color throughout our branding was a random idea that I thought was needed. 

All of this imagery just doesn't feel right anymore.

OUR WEBSITE

When the needs of your project changes, so do the tools in your tool belt. Our website has always been a great tool for our us to communicate not only what our business does but who we are. We have been brainstorming and making moves to provide more services to benefit the experience that you, the client, will be receiving. This means we need to expand and change the way our website is coded, shaped, and make sure we are using to its fullest potential.

....which brings me to our biggest change....

OUR ROLES IN THE COMPANY

As a lot of you may know, Gus and I work as a husband and wife team. Although we have probably mentioned it in conversation, we haven't specified our roles in the company (which is totally our fault). We both feel it's important to be totally transparent with y'all if we haven't discussed it before.

I, Monique, handle all of the day to day work from answering emails, putting together invoices, and running our social media accounts. I also am the only designer and customer service representative that will not only walk you through the process but be a source of knowledge and comedic relief when things aren't always going right in your planning. 

Gus is responsible for our back end. He is the one that keeps track of our accounting and finance department. Gus is my biggest supporter and has been known to be my minion when in need of another set of hands to complete an order.

For these reasons and others, Gus is taking a step back in terms of presence in our social media accounts and other aspects of the business. So, in a sense, it will be I, Monique, that you will hear from and interact with on a daily basis. But don't freak out, our relationship is fine. I'm still going to include the emotionally, sappy posts that I know you guys love seeing (and I love sharing) about us as a couple. We just want to be clear on why Gus won't be as visual in the future.

After watching YOU PANIC A LITTLE, LET ME EASE YOUR MIND BY TELLING YOU WHAT WE AREN't changing...

OUR MISSION

I genuinely feel like our mission is to serve couples by helping them create beautiful, custom invitations and paper goods. There is a reason why a light bulb went off in my head after our wedding. Ultimately, WE WERE NOT THE ONLY ONES WHO STRUGGLED DESIGNING THEIR DREAM INVITATIONS. So many of you are in that struggle right now (or were until we helped make that wish come true). You should be able to have a design you love and treasure as something that tells the epic story of your prequel. Like Episodes 1-3 of Star Wars, your children and their children's children will want to know the details of how you two came together. Your invitation is a great way to help tell that story.

With all of that said, I hope you keep along with our journey to see whats in the future for Only One Mark, Inc. Change will come along slowly (or all at once), but one thing remains: our mission to create your dream stationery for your big day. 

Until next time!

CATCHING UP ON ALL THE THINGS

As I sit here in our little studio answering emails and finishing up for the day, I just felt the need to jump on here and, I guess, give you a life update. Looking back, it has been a bit since I've done so. Like, let's talk about how I haven't really written up a personal post since JULY of Last Year!!

😅 Yup....

Well, since then, we participated in two bridal shows at the Thalatta Estate & The Rusty Pelican. There were so many wonderful folks to meet and other wedding vendors too. We got to sort of cozy into our house (although Rome is still being built, people, make no mistake) and got to celebrate a milestone both in our age and our marriage. That's right, Gus and I both turned 30 and celebrated 5 amazing years together as husband and wife. We were so excited about this we made a last minute decision to fly out to Las Vegas and enjoy some time in the city of many Elvis impersonators. We also decided to capture the moment with the help of Sonju Photography. You can check out the full momentous, Star Wars filled day here. After the holidays, we stepped up our game and helped put together two workshops for entrepreneurs/creatives through our Miami Chapter of Tuesdays Together. Ooh, and also participated in a great little chat with some fellow wedding vendors over at Brides of Florida. There was a huge step taken towards serving at our church on both our ends. Gus is now volunteering with security (#fearthebeard) and I'm singing with our band. 

I really gave you the cliff notes version of the past few months, but that's it in a nutshell. God is good all the time, people. Whether you believe in Him or think He's just a fairy tale character from days of old. There have been so many opportunities and blessings that I've seen happen in these past months (not just with Gus and I). There is no way we could have planned any of it and it turned out as perfectly as it has. 

Proof you say? Is it photos you want? Even if you don't, I'll share a small gallery down below with some of our favorite shots from this past season.

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Five Year Anniversary - Just Us Session

As some of you know, Gus and I recently celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary as well as monumentally turning 30 (our birthdays are less than a month apart). Aside from our celebratory trip out to Vegas (in due time I'll be sharing more about our fun time there), Gus and I...well mainly I...really wanted to document this moment in our lives. As some of you might also remember, this past year was a big year for us as we also purchased our first home. So needless to say, I felt it was a big deal that we document where we are now.  

This is when the wonderful Stephanie Sonju of Sonju Photography and Juju Booth came into the picture (total pun intended). We have known Sonju for some time now and I have always admired her Day in the Life sessions. She just knows what moments are the rawest and most beautiful to capture. Needless to say, she was on the top of my list when it came to the idea of someone coming and documenting Gus and I. So on January 8th, I happily ran downstairs to begin our session and here are some of our favorite moments. 

Needless to say, Gus and I couldn't be more in love with our session and I would say everyone needs to do something like this. Whether it's just you, your spouse, kids, or pet; sometimes capturing those small moments really need to be documented.

Thank you, Sonju. You're da bestest.