Hello!
Long time no blog on our end. We’ve been meaning to get back to it, but it's been quite the year…or two? Losing count these days.
As everyone knows, covid restrictions put a big damper on 2020. It was extremely difficult for the wedding industry, and even harder on couples, and vendors. To be frank, it was a complete shit show- the world was a complete shit show—still kind of is. For us, there were rule changes every few weeks —from the state, and from our town. There were fines, and constant stress from all ends. Luckily, we had some of the most amazing couples. They put their trust in us and continued to roll with the punches. We were able to postpone couples to the following year who wanted to—many of those dates were weekdays, and winter dates because when covid hit we were already booked for the 2021 season. It was not a fun situation, and many hard conversations were had, but we all understood it was a difficult situation for all involved. On the flip side, there were also still a handful of couples that still wanted to get married in 2020 - regardless of what the constraints would be. So, we held their weddings, and they were just as special. We all continued to roll with the ever-changing rules until their wedding day. This forced us, and vendors, to get creative - first dances were held outside, appetizers passed in beautiful prepackaged boxes, scavenger hunts, and fire-pits took the place of dancing. 2020 was a year we will never forget, and we learned a lot.
Now, just because 2020 had its fair share of stress and obstacles, there were some pretty big silver linings for us. Greg and I had our first child, a
daughter, Charlie, in September. She has been quite the blessing for us, and gave us some much-needed joy last year! Charlie, combined with covid, helped us take a step back from the business. This allowed us to slow down, evaluate where our focus needs to be, and what Bloom might need going forward to continue to become stronger.
With that said. Our event manager, Rachel, has stepped it up big time! Me, being forced to slow down, allowing for her to truly grow into her role here, and we could not be happier. I’m sure most of you who have inquired, have booked with us, or been on tours in the last year are very familiar with Rachel, and know just how wonderful she is. This year was two seasons crammed into one, it’s a lot to manage and keep straight, and she did it seamlessly. Greg and I are still at each wedding helping, but Rachel runs the show. We also piled on the extra hands this season for the much-needed help and we are so thankful to them, especially Jenna and Erin who have been here through the thick of it.
Now, about 2022… it's going to be our busiest year yet and we are prepping for it already along with 2023. We have a team of dedicated helpers in place and will be bringing on a part-time wedding coordinator to assist Rachel for a few of the weddings, and we are excited for you to meet her! We also have a variety of projects happenings that will be fresh for the 2022 season! Among the more exciting projects- is the expansion of our back patio, work will begin early next year, and will be ready by our first weddings of the season in April. We will also be expanding the back garden beds, cause who doesn’t love more flowers?
For this winter, we still have weddings happenings, but we are also holding a handful of fun events! On January 7th, the ever-so-popular Berkshire Medium, Pam Ellis, will be back at Bloom! On January 29th we are thrilled to be bringing back the Father-Daughter Dance, which benefits the Hancock Fire Department. Starting in February, we will begin a speaker series. The focus of this is about being active and purposeful in your life. This is something Greg has been working on, and I am very excited about it! It’ll be free and open to the public, as of now he has three speakers lined up. Evan Webb, a strength and conditioning coach, focuses on healthy lifestyles, being active, and dealing with pain. Evan has a different school of thought on being active and managing pain than most. We encourage anyone looking for new ideas or frustrated with their current routine to come to listen and discuss with him. Red Shirt Farm, located in Lanesboro, will be coming in to speak. We are still planning on the direction of this talk, but will most likely be focused on the unique growing environment here, ways to grow your food, and how to become more food independent - whether that be eating healthier, or by taking advantage of locals farming co-ops. If you have any local gardening issues you would like discussed, please reach out as we finalize the focus of that talk. Lastly, we will be having speakers from Mountain One Bank and associated groups, who will be talking about budgeting, investing, realistic actions, and goals you can set for yourself. Right now we are aiming to have two people speak and cover a couple of different topics. This will be appropriate to folks just starting out, younger families, and even some of you that are worried it might be too late. The overall goal of this series is to get people thinking about their actions, and how they can improve their lives in realistic, and achievable ways. Tickets for these upcoming events will be out soon.
Alright, I need to wrap this up, I know. Yes, It’s been a hectic, and busy last two years, but we have learned SO much that has only helped strengthen our business. We are more excited than ever for the future of Bloom, and can’t wait to share more happenings as they come. Oh, and we are currently renovating a cute small cabin across the street that will be available for guest rentals - stay tuned for this before and after! ….andddd, we have baseball hats and winter hats coming in the next few weeks - there will be a limited amount of them sold, so keep an eye out for that info on social media. Hopefully, they come out as cute as I’m hoping —fingers crossed!
Okay. That’s it. For now :)