Hope Photography

It has been a long-standing dream of mine to open a coffee-house- I think born out of my love of writing and all things creative I have always been drawn to a beautiful space in which to relax and eat/drink. I treasured my time in Alaska when I was able to spend a lot of time in coffee houses writing and have always harbored this desire to one day create my own beautiful space. Over time the dream has grown in to something more, something bigger. Hope Photography is a huge part of my life now, as is Potter, so the dream had to envelope that. So enter The Laden Table…. Part cafe, part bistro, part gallery, part working creative space. I first spotted the building back in May-unknowing really at that point whether I could turn the dream into a reality. I began the process-wrote a business plan, sort advice from my business manager, spent many a sleepless night deliberating if the risks were to great. My mum thought I was crazy-but she has always been the practical one, and I have always been the dreamer. I think at times I have wondered if I were to young for such a project,  but then I wondered what it was I was waiting for-now is all we have.

So I fell in love with No. 8 Foundry Yard, Boroughbridge and then in my madness decided to rent No.7 also and knock through. My mum nearly had a heart attack when I told her. But the beauty of it all was it was no one’s decision but my own, for the first time in my life I am in complete control of my fate and it feels amazing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s terrifying. If I fail I’ll be bankrupt by the age of 26. But at least I’ll know I tried. Today I found out that I got planning permission for A3 use which is cafes/restaurants-the news I have spent months waiting on, and the reason I have held off blogging this news before now.

Of course I will keep you all posted, I am having a website made for The Laden Table complete with a blog so I can document the process. Hope Photography still very much lives on, I have limited the amount of weddings I have taken on for next summer but am taking bookings for 2011. There will be a client area within the building so for the first time clients can come to me for meetings which is very exciting.