Coming Soon!!!

       I have some pretty exciting news! This December I will be launching a brand new blog! Wooohooo! I have been blessed with some very cool opportunities with blogging and will be doing things just a little bit differently. I will be posting more often and on a variety of different topics. So if you have enjoyed reading this blog, keep your eyes peeled for what's coming next and feel free to pass it on and chime in even!

Looking forward to sharing more with you soon!

The Habit of Prayer

   

    On November 5, 2013, my beloved grandfather passed away. He was such a sweet man. The whole way through the memorial service the pastor talked about his faith in God. His faith was something I got to experience first hand during the past couple of years.

   Both of my grandparents had been taking turns being in the hospital and/or rehab and while one was getting well, the other would stay with us at my mom's house. The one incident I remember most was when my grandma was in the rehabilitation center and my grandpa was staying with us. His favorite dessert was cherry pie so the one day my sister made him one. Every time he saw me he would say "Young lady, theres a cherry pie out there. You should try some". I would then have to tell him that I did not like cherry pie, but despite that fact every five minutes he would say "Young lady, theres a cherry pie out there. You should try some". So when they served cherry pie after the funeral, even though I don't like it, I made sure to finish off a piece, just for grandpa.
   
      The thing that impacted me most was how every evening he would sit in the rocking chair with a piece of paper. I discovered that it was the prayer request list from his church bulletin. He would sit there every evening in silence and pray over that list for hours. At some points I was certain he'd fallen asleep but then he'd get up when he heard the heater turn on. His dedication to prayer is something I not only want, but need to inherit. So I thought of a way to challenge myself in making prayer for others a habit in my life.

    I've seen the whole thankfullness posts on facebook for the whole month of November. So my idea is, starting in December, to write out one person or situation for every day of the month and just pray for that one thing. It's not hours of intercession but one prayer is better then no prayer. I've learned that when I try to instill a habit in my life I always seem to shoot too high. I end up giving up by like day 5 because I tried to do too much at one time. So I'm starting small. One prayer a day for a month. Then maybe in January I can pray for two things a day! My goal is to create the habit of prayer for others in my life.

   So what do you think? How is your prayer life? If it's better then mine then I applaud you and say keep it up! Prayer is vital to our lives and I know I've been taking it too lightly. If you're where I'm at then I'll invite you to do this challenge with me. Let's create the habit of changing the world with our prayers.

ps. I have one rule if you decide to do this challenge. Please, please, please! Do NOT post your prayers on facebook. Declaring thankfullness is one thing but prayer is between you and God. This is not about looking super spiritual in others eyes, nor is it a platform to express your opinion through prayer (seriously you already can do that in a status). Make this about you and God, period. :)

10 Do's and Don'ts of planning a DIY wedding

   

          I've been looking at my wedding pictures at least once a day since I got them back from my photographer (if you haven't seen my pictures then you should look at my previous post and check out Kayce Shoffner's work. She is awesome!). It's all still sinking in that I really am married. I love looking back and reliving the day that I married my best friend, but in all my reminiscing I have come up with a list of do's and don'ts that I have learned from planning my own DIY wedding.


1. DO! Eat! Seriously, have someone who will be willing to nag you, pull you away from doing things and shove food down your throat. I can probably give you a list of the things I ate on my wedding day and had it not been for my dear friend sticking food in my hand and saying "EAT THIS!", I wouldn't have eaten anything until dinner. They also bribed me and said if I didn't eat I wasn't allowed to have any champagne. It worked.

2. DON'T! Forget to give everyone their gifts! I gave my bridesmaids their gifts, and remembered to send my gift to my groom but completely forgot to give my mom and my mother in law their gifts! Whoops. :/

3. DO! Make a list of everything that needs done! And then make copies of that list and give to your maid of honor, your groom, your mom, your mother in law....anyone and everyone! After I was taken to get my hair and makeup done there were things that never got done. It's nobody's fault, they didn't know. So we didn't have a nice glass for communion, and the juice wasn't poured, and the bread wasn't taken out of the bag. Ya know, just little details that made a sacred moment just a bit tacky. Nobody else cared but I did.

4. DON'T! Let people talk you out of doing something you want to do! I knew I wanted to do a first look as soon as I got engaged but then I talked to a couple different people about it. I was told that seeing your groom before the ceremony took away from the moment when he first see's you walking down the aisle and I didn't want to miss out on that. After meeting with my photographer she sent me an article to read about first looks and how so many couples say that it doesn't do that at all! That "this is happening!" emotion is still just as genuine and real if you see your groom before or not. Do what you want to do and don't let anyone's opinion change it! You'll only regret something if it's something you didn't really want to do.

5. DO! Delegate! Seriously, you are one person and cannot be in ten places at the same time. This goes for the day of and all the planning leading up to the wedding. I really didn't ask for much help throughout the planning process until the very end. I realized how important it is to ask for help when I had to make 150 wedding favors. Had I done it myself it probably would have taken me a couple days, but since I had a great group of friends knock them out, it only took about 2 hours! And it was super fun!

6. DON'T! Let tradition hold you back from doing something original. If you are really back and forth about keeping a tradition, look up the history of the tradition. Ten bucks says you'll be like what the heck and then want to do your own thing even more! Do you know how the tradition of the bride and groom not seeing each other before the wedding started? It was to make sure the groom didn't run away after seeing the bride! So if you're certain you got a keeper, do yourself a favor and see him before the ceremony. Seriously, it's one of the best choices I made!

7. DO! Have someone else do your hair and makeup! Yes, I could have very well done it myself but I wouldn't have looked nearly as great and I wouldn't have gotten to have a chance to just sit for and hour and a half and just soak in the day. It forced me to just sit still and let everything happen. I didn't pay big bucks for a hair stylist and makeup artist but I did ask a wonderful friend who is gorgeous herself and I really wanted to be part of my day to come make me look gorgeous. And seriously, she did an amazing job! If you have a friend who you love the way they look, chances are they will make you look good too.

8. DON'T! Buy one of the cute personalized wire hangers with your married name or bride off of etsy! I love etsy and found so much stuff for my wedding on there but save yourself $20 and make the hangers yourself. They are so not hard and for $11 I made five of them! I not only had a cute hanger for myself but also for my three bridesmaids and flower girl. They each had a hanger with their name and it was adorable! So go buy the supplies, get on youtube, find a tutorial and DIY!

9. DO! Have a wedding coordinator! No, not a wedding planner. I was completely against paying someone to do what I knew I could do but I didn't know that a wedding planner and a wedding coordinator are two completely different things! A wedding planner helps with all the planning and decorating and food and stuff. A wedding coordinator makes sure everything happens on time and everyone is where they need to be. I was so lucky that one of my dear friends was able to step in during the rehearsal and run the whole show! She took the load off of my shoulders and made sure everything was happening smoothly. I am convinced had she not been there I would not have enjoyed my wedding as much as I did.


10. DON'T! Stress if everything doesn't go exactly as planned. It rained during our reception. Not just a little shower, it poured!! We didn't end up doing quite a few things that we planned. We were gonna do a first dance (my husband wanted to do that), we had written songs for each other
to sing during the reception, and we had s'mores to make! We ended up just scratching the dance and the songs and only the people who waited out the storm got to make s'mores. Heres the thing, yes I when I was dreaming and pinteresting these things sounded like things I just had to include in my day but when it comes down to it your wedding isn't about what you did or didn't do during the event, its about being married to the one you love. As long as that happens, then I'd say your day was nothing less then perfect!


Happy Wedding Planning!