Hey APW,

Over here it was our first week back at work after a lovely and much needed two-week break. (A break that was sometimes interspersed with high-stress relaunch issues… but at the end, I did hit a day spa for one of the best days of 2017.) And you know what’s nice after the holidays? Easing back into work. Which we… did not do. We started the week by introducing the new site to y’all, and ended the week on a two-day photo shoot that involved literally cramming my dining room with as many balloons as we could fit. It was delightful and amazing, and our team works together so well and pulls long hours without a peep of complaint. I really couldn’t ask for a better crew in the whole world. Of course, it was also unbelievably tiring, and a whole lot for the first week of the year. But all that said, I’m so glad that 2017 is in the dumpster of history, and I’m beyond delighted that 2018 is here. It’s the year of the mid-term elections, and if we can’t get excited about that, what can light our fires? #DemocraticWave2018

I also want to take a moment to thank you all for your amazing responses to the new site. As with all new sites, it still has plenty of bugs to get fixed and small changes that need to be made. Slowly but surely we’re working on all of them. (In fact, midweek we took care of resizing the site, so it should be less huge on your screen. If you’re not seeing that tweak, hit shift+refresh to clear you cache, and you should see it.) After almost ten years of running APW, I’m no longer new at the relaunch rodeo. My joke always is that when you finally let people see the new site, you hear nothing but complaints about how people hate it and want the old site back. And then a few years later when you relaunch again, everyone hates the new site and wants the site they previously hated back again, and you are stuck in a cycle of never winning. But this time around, you guys have had nothing but lovely things to say, and I am so profoundly delighted with the feeling of finally (mostly) getting it right for y’all. That said, please keep letting us know any bugs you spot or thoughts you have by emailing the team at apracticalwedding dot com. We’ve got our own list of fixes that we want made, and we’re always happy to hear what’s on your wish list as well. (For example, we’ll get a front-page comment count up and running on the most recent post soon.)

And with that worlds-longest-first-work-week-of-the-year, I’ll kick it to y’all, and your open thread. I know you’ve missed each other, so chat it up!

xo,

Meg

The post APW Happy Hour appeared first on A Practical Wedding: We’re Your Wedding Planner. Wedding Ideas for Brides, Bridesmaids, Grooms, and More.