If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen that I got married at the end of last year. So I’m now known as Mrs McKenzie, which is a whole lot easier to pronounce than van Meeuwen. Still, most people in business know me as van Meeuwen and it seems to be memorable so I contemplated on keeping it for my business. But then I thought better of it and now I’m in transition, which seems to confuse a lot of people but I’m sure they’ll get used to McKenzie soon enough.
We had an amazing day, it was simply perfect! I have been thinking whether there would be anything I’d change and there isn’t a single thing. We loved every part of the day.
Admittedly we swapped things around a bit and were slightly unconventional but that’s US, we did exactly what WE wanted and everyone loved it! In the afternoon we were picked up by Ralf, our Kombi driver to go to local parklands to take photos by a historic barn surrounded by gum trees. After that we drove to the venue take some more photos in the paddock before our ceremony started. We opted for a late afternoon ceremony so that we could head straight to the party with our guests and have a great time with friends and family. The reception was held in a renovated barn on a 10 acre private property. Instead of a sit-down or cocktail wedding we chose to have a lounge wedding, our dinner was wood-fired pizza from a food van and our cakes were lemon meringue cupcakes. We danced until the end and I can truly say that it was the best wedding ever!
A few days after our wedding I sat down to think about how the day went and suddenly had an epiphany… I actually learned some business lessons from my wedding! They’re pretty important lessons so I really wanted to share the 3 business lessons I learned from my wedding with you.
People are the most important (especially yourself)
It’s easy to get caught up with the whole wedding hype and the ‘must do this’ and ‘can’t do that’s’ so it’s important to stop and think about why you are doing this. Most of us will agree that a wedding is to make the union of two soulmates official. For us, firstly it was to declare our love for each other in front of our friends and family and make it a binding commitment. Secondly, it was also a day to bring everyone we love and care about together to have an amazing day sharing our love.
It’s sort of like defining your WHY in business and then aligning your actions accordingly to live out your why. Because we know why were getting married and also who we are as people, it was fairly easy for us to plan our wedding the way we wanted to and not get swept up in the hype. It probably also helped that I’m not an overly wedding-y person so we were very calm throughout the process. People are important, but not in the sense that you need to please everyone. We were very focused on making this day about us, about what we wanted, and I knew in my heart that if we loved it and were happy on the day, everyone else would be too.
All the mindset work I had done throughout the year paid off so that I recognised when things were too much and I had to look after myself. I had a lot of massages during the months leading up to the wedding, because the most important person to look after is me.
Of course everyone is important, but I’ve learned that if I don’t look after myself I can’t look after others. Put yourself first, in business and in life. You are the most important asset.
Build a dream team
Even though our wedding wasn’t overly big, there is no way I could have done it all by myself. I needed the help of others to make our day the magical day it was. This is no different in business, whether it’s a business coach, a cleaner, a baby sitter, a mastermind or a team of contractors, you can’t and shouldn’t do it all alone.
Create a solid budget and plan
I think this is not only a business lesson but also a life lesson. It’s important to know where you’re going, how you’re going to get there and how much it costs. This is what I do for my business and we approached our wedding the same way. We booked all of our suppliers early and planned out what needed to be paid and by what date. This allowed us to budget and work towards the payments. It also helped us figure out what we needed, what we wanted and then make the best decision that suited our budget. Having a plan and a budget made it all much easier and less stressful, although I don’t think you ever know how expensive a wedding is actually going to be until you have one.
We were lucky that many of our friends were married before us so we got lots of great tips on vendors, what to buy and what to hire as well as being able to borrow some things from friends. Without a plan we wouldn’t have known what to do or where to look. Make a plan for any project, whether it’s your business, an overseas holiday or a wedding. It saves a lot of stress.
