Well its official, I have resurfaced after what has been one of the busiest times of my life. A wedding, visitors from the mother country, and the biggest project I have started to date..lets just say its been nuttier then squirrel shit and leave it at that.
First of all the wedding. Its funny, looking back on it all it seems like a distant memory or something I once read in a book rather then an actual experience that happened to me. I do remember that the wedding date all of a sudden came really fast and before we had a chance to ask each other if we had thought of everything I had my amazing parents fly in from Australia, followed shortly by my brother and his wife (and my little nephew Lachie), and my sister and her husband. A few days of catching up and showing them around our little slice of the American dream and it was back to the airport to pick up 6 of my best mates from Australia. A quick jaunt to Vegas for my bachelor party and then back to coordinate a 32 person Australian contingent to the town where we to get Married - Murphys California.
The actual day itself started like any for me, nothing very special. Up at 4am, pacing, a jump into a sub zero pool to clear the cobwebs, followed by 3 cups of coffee and a serious bout of vow writing. You know, the usual. Up until the ceremony, the day felt really strange. It was like the electricity you feel shortly before a big storm…it was like there was something huge in the works and everyone knew it, but no one really knew what to do until about an hour before the ceremony. And then action stations! Its funny what you remember in retrospect.
As for the ceremony and the rest of the night, lets just say that somethings are hard to explain on a verbal level. I could get all flowery about how she looked but it just wouldn’t do the kind of justice that something of this magnitude deservers. Surfice to say that the memory of her walking down the isle to meet me is something that I will have for the rest of my days, and give my life meaning and purpose beyond any single event or occasion before or since.
We had a great honey moon in Puerto Vallarta at a fantastic time of year in ole Mexico. Relaxation was the name of the game and we were both world champions by the vacations conclusion. We did venture beyond the pool-side arm chair and floating bar several times to explore the near-by town of Salulita and to do some surfing but other then that we relaxed and enjoyed the warmth.
After getting back I decided to go a deep underground. I had taken on a 3rd redesign for a client shortly before the wedding craziness which was by far the most ambitious - in all aspects - then any project I had done before. It was important to me to make my client aware that it was time to push the envelope with this years website and to not only enhance and revise last years site, but to launch a revolutionary look that would put them on the next level. It was also time for their business to coordinate their marketing efforts with the website and to ensure a consistent look for all external facing promotions. My frank conversation with them really hit home and they gave me the creative license to make this all happen.
As I write this, the website is near completion and I couldn’t be happier. Considering the constraints and the objectives put forth in front of me I’m proud of how the design and follow through of the site is going (for an update go to http://www.blacktieskis.com/), and am looking forward to the launch sometime closer to the middle of October. I’m really stoked with how the login system and the reservation system have turned out. They have taken up most of my time and allowed me to create a very cohesive and user friendly booking system. Using ajax I have been able to create intuitive suggestions as well as information and tools the likes of which exist no where else in the ski industry. And the main thing is that it has hit every objective and my clients couldn’t be happier with the outcome!
Fingers crossed my next post will be about the Black Tie Ski Rentals website successfully being launched!! The end is near and the light in the tunnel is oh so bright!
