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Hey! Matt here. Welcome to our annual year in review post. Why two weeks late, you ask? Well we were working furiously to get our brandy new website launched to start the blog back up and due to some backend technicalities it ended up passing our Jan 1st target. Water under the bridge. The important thing is – do you like it? We are pumped about starting off 2017 with a new website. Our previous one had run its course. It wasn’t very mobile-friendly and we always like to be friendly in everything we do.
2016 Happenings
So 2016… The years are flying by at an insane rate. It seems like just a little while ago that this idea of Blueflash was in its infancy. On a personal note we added another person to our family (Rory Calvin) back in August. He decided to drop in during the peak of wedding season. Thankfully our team is awesome and we were able to seamlessly cover everything. Here he is when he was a newborn:
Rory’s arrival trumps all the incredible things that happened with Blueflash in 2016. That’s not to say it wasn’t an eventful year for us here at Blueflash, because it was. We continued to be a part of nearly countless weddings. Our clients continue to let us in on one of the most important days of their lives. They tell other people about us and we get to see them again at future weddings. That’s so cool.
New Stuff
What’s shiny from 2016? A good amount of things. If you’ll indulge me:
The Website
Yes, the one you’re reading this on was born today (January 13th). You may very well be one of the first few people to lay eyes on it depending on when you see this post. As mentioned above it’s a big upgrade in terms of mobile experience. I’m anxious to kickstart the blog back up (it was down during development of the new site). We’ve got a backlog of events that we can’t wait to post about and get out there to everyone. Hope ya love it.
Bluecube 3
We built our third Bluecube toward the end of last year. It’s a bit of a departure from our original two. It’s got new capabilities that we’re pretty excited about. One is the ability to email or text animated GIFs right from the touch screen. It also looks pretty slick. We’re always trying to up our own game and I’m really pleased with how this project turned out (the glowing blue lights really help). Keep an eye out for it at an event near you this year.
Britt
If you’ve contacted us in any capacity since March then you’ve met Britt. She’s our full time studio magician, I mean, manager. Bringing her on has transformed Blueflash, the things I’m able to spend time on, and most importantly the client experience. We’re constantly brainstorming together on how to improve what it’s like for a client to work with us.
Drones and other UFOs
We launched (pun intended) our aerial add-on service to cinema and put our drone up in the air at a bunch of weddings. A ton of our couples have it booked for 2017 and we’re excited about that. It’s been really awesome to splice that footage into our highlight films. Abby’s moved into our primary pilot spot. If you see her with the controller in her hands at a wedding, don’t mess with her.
Stuff
‘Stuff’ isn’t a very descriptive header but it’s all encompassing and that sure is convenient when you’re trying to keep a blog post to less than 10,000 words. There are so many things that we’ve been implementing over the years to make all aspects of the business (both back end and front end) better. I could bore you to tears with the stuff we have in Slack conversations, Trello boards, Wunderlist lists, and Evernote notes. I won’t. I’ll spare you. Just know that we don’t stop.
The Team
These guys are the best. All credit goes to everyone on the Blueflash team. They are experienced, reliable, talented, dedicated and most importantly fun to hang out with. I love to see people on the team advancing into different roles, stepping up to fill various needs, and learning new skills and excelling at them. I am honored to work alongside them and wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Below is a sample of the various awards we’ve won over the years. I’m putting it there as a testament to their hard work. We’re especially proud of the latest awards we won which were from Borrowed and Blue. Industry peers (aka other vendors) voted on these. We won gold for best photographer, silver for best cinematographer, and we won the “Rising Star” award which is described on their site like this: This promising vendor is one to watch, someone whose talent and hard work has created a name for themselves both creatively and professionally within Newport. It was only awarded to one vendor in RI.
The Closer
I wrote an ending in the 2014 year in review post that I then copied and used again in the 2015 one. As I sit here writing the 2016 post I feel like I still can’t do better so I’m recycling with some minor tweaks once again. The sentiment is still relevant.
As humans we’re never sure what the future will bring. We can only anticipate, plan, hope, and trust in God. I think this upcoming year will be another exciting and wild one. This crazy adventure is a lot of fun and we are so appreciative of all of you that have come along with us to be a part of it at one point or another.
It’s all about doing what you love with people you respect and admire. I get to do that every day, which is more than I could ask for.
Thank you for enabling me to have this be my job, to be able to support my wife and three kids, and to provide work and opportunities for everyone on our team. All of us on the Blueflash team thank you for trusting us with your wedding day. Thank you for telling your friends and family about us and saying kind things. Thanks for the little notes and emails that let us know how happy you were – that helps keep us going more than you know.
Thanks 2016. Here’s to 2017. Hope you all have a great New Year!
