Awardweddings contributes to Wedding Business Magazine
We created Awardweddings 10 years ago and have seen the industry evolve a lot... We have been following it and are delighted to have contributed to a key magazine in the industry Wedding Business Magazine in a special about work life balance. This topic is particularly relevant as it's not so long ago that we quit our careers in London to concentrate full time on Awardweddings, then moved to South of France to build the life of our dreams.
The edition is available on https://weddingacademy.lpages.co/wedding-business-magazine/ and our article can be read on page 59. And here is the article we wrote:
Work life balance is a very interesting topic, especially nowadays with people wanting more time with their families and getting a little bit of me-time being a key priority. In our professional life (15 years worth), we’ve had some big changes and this is how we have evolved.
In London, I used to work in global corporates and Mark was Head of Dept. & Faculty in a secondary/6th form school. It goes without saying that a large part of our lives was spent in the office. On the side of our jobs, we set-up Awardweddings, a wedding photography, film and planning business. We achieved in both sides of our professional lives and then took the chance to concentrate full time on our own business. Our perspective on work life balance has been very different since.
Working on our own business gives us a sense of passion. It is like our baby and we are tireless when developing it. Our work ethic hasn’t really changed as we worked so hard before the switch, but we don’t see work as such anymore; the pressure is ours, and we choose what to impose on ourselves. We just love what we do, and the job is integrated into our life. Work takes a different meaning now and we definitely don’t have a Monday morning blues, quite the opposite!
A few years ago, we moved from London to the South of France where we work from home so our life and work are even more blended. Especially being a husband and wife team, our discussions often involve work matters!
We have dedicated time at our desks where we are ultra-efficient! We also work every day and everywhere, checking emails, doing social media, etc… to ensure our clients get answered quickly, especially as they often contact us in their home time, which is also ours.
We don’t spend all our time working though. We have two young children who take up a lot of our time. We actually fit work around them. We have chosen a life in the countryside where we can look after them most of the time. This means we often need to work at nights. Our time is a bit more limited and we sometimes and we sometimes have to put in the hours to meet deadlines but it’s only whilst they are young. Soon they won’t want to play with us anymore! We’ve chosen a work/life style with our whole life in mind.
Being in the wedding industry, our work is seasonal and summer is our busiest time of the year. We work in the whole South of France and internationally for Mark so we are constantly traveling. The time at home with our children and recovering from the long days become even more precious. Time away from work just comes naturally and we spend more time in one or the other as we need. It’s a fine balance that adjusts itself seamlessly.
All in all, we have chosen a life style where we blend our work and family life and this works for us as a family. Our children have us around all the time and we get to work on our ‘other’ baby when they’re at school or dozing soundly in their beds!
