The Weekender

It’s Friday! And you know what that means. Here’s a recap of my thoughts this week.

Don’t be afraid to ask. This weekend is a big one for us. We are cleaning and repainting the house we’re going to move into soon. Part of me really just wants to do it myself. That ugly need to control. Thankfully, I’ve learned the joy of asking for help. The gift of joy others receive by helping and the love we receive by their answer of “yes” to our need. It’s a beautiful exchange! Don’t miss out on this by wanting to go it alone, wanting to control, or feeling bad for asking.

Friendors. I believe that’s what they’re called – friends who are fellow vendors. In my case, within the wedding industry. Friendship can be hard even in my personal life, but I’ve found it to be even harder within the industry. So, this week I have to celebrate my new found friend Satra from Events By Satra. She is sweet, genuine and simply fun to be around. We decided our friendship has worked because we have similar personalities. I would also say proximity matters. She lives nearby so it’s very easy to get together. If you are feeling lonely, whether in life or in business, don’t give up! Keep connecting with others and you will find your friend or friendor. And if you are getting married and need a wedding planner, you would be well taken care of by Satra. She would be a joy to work with!

Date Night. I kept telling myself, we’ll be able to invest more in date night after this move. We just need to push through. Just do another date night in. At least it’s something. But doing another date night in was not what we needed, and I knew that. And let’s all face it, the minute you get passed one life hurdle, there will be another waiting for you on the other side. The “just push through” mentality never works! So, we found a babysitter, put Rose to bed, and finally got out of the house, away from all of our responsibilities, and invested into each other. It was exactly what I know we both needed and I am so happy we didn’t put it off another week.

Blogging. Can we have a brainstorm session? I’d love to hear from you! I’m gathering up ideas for new content. What would you like to read about on here? Any topics you enjoy most? Any questions I can answer? Regarding weddings, marriage, or anything else! I’m toying with the idea of starting to write about weddings – advice from a photographer? But struggling with what would be most helpful to a bride/groom. Please email me or leave a comment. And please do share – anything! I’ll take all thoughts into consideration. And if it’s a more personal question, email me and I would never share who asked. Thank you in advance!

Lara Casey Powersheets: I’m not going to lie – it’s been a few months since I’ve worked on my powersheets. But when I do, I see SUCH a huge difference in my productivity and my overall sense of peace. They just launched a new set of 2016 powersheets and have all kinds of new options. Go here now and grab yourself a set! I’m shopping mine today. And Vitaliy and I are praying about the possibility of doing a powersheets group with other couples (we have our clients in mind). Would there be an interest there?

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a wonderful weekend! If you need me, I’ll have my work/paint clothes on (do I even own such clothes?) and you can find me all Cinderella-like in our new home. Actually, that’s probably how you’ll find Vitaliy. Me, I’ll have my notebook out directing folks on where and how to help. Yeah, that sounds more like me!

Photo: A favorite from Chris and Tiffany’s recent wedding.

Bride and groom portrait

Salt Stains Shop
2016 Calendar

As I mentioned last week, we are in the process of moving.

I’m sure you all can relate – purging, boxing, cleaning and painting can feel quite daunting at times. But as I daydream about turning our new house into a home, I get butterflies of excitement and feel so thankful for this next chapter. After majorly downsizing almost four years ago, there will be a few things we need to purchase for the new place. But we’re in no rush. Living in a tiny space has taught us so many great lessons that we hope to carry into our new home. One of which – less is always more!

We are still two weeks away from moving, but I went ahead and made one single purchase for our new home. This beautiful calendar from Salt Stains!

Salt Stains was launched by our former client, now friend, Yuris. Her artistry blows me away! And I love the heart that goes into each piece she designs. I followed along as she began designing this calendar and I couldn’t believe the final product. When the calendar arrived, it was even more beautiful than I expected. I am so happy this was the first item purchased for our new home. I can’t wait to look at Yuris’ art each day and be reminded of the truths poured out onto each page.

Yuris and I are collaborating to give one lucky person a beautiful 2016 Love Verse Calendar. You can find all the details on my Instagram account! Also, check out the behind the scenes details of Salt Stains’ 12 Love Verses Calendar and be sure to check out her online shop.

Salts Stains 2016 Calendar Giveaway

The Weekender

Pumpkin Patch

Here is the latest installment of The Weekender! Cheers to costumes and candy and the weekend!

Halloween: Vitaliy is shooting a wedding on Saturday with another photographer so it’ll just be Rose and me. I gave up on the family costume idea and am taking it easy with a hand me down costume for Rose. I can’t wait to share! Follow us on Instagram to see her tomorrow!

We’re moving: It’s so bittersweet! We absolutely love our little tiny in-law unit and the family we rent from, but God provided an opportunity to rent a home in our area that was too good to pass up. We did nothing to make this happen and are so thankful to God for everything, our current home the past 4 years and the new one we will enjoy come December.

Date Night: Unfortunately, date night has been pretty spotty for us lately. We’ve been short on time, money and energy. But we did manage to make it happen this week. Not wanting to take the time to find a babysitter, we enjoyed a date night in. We planned on watching a scary movie in honor of Halloween, but ended up enjoying a foreign film, The Secret In Their Eyes.

Talking Heads Concert: Vitaliy has been asking me for weeks to watch a Talking Heads Concert from the 80s with him. Nothing about the idea appealed to me. On Monday night, I came home after a Mom’s Night Out event with my local MOPS group and found Vitaliy watching the concert. I was so relieved until I realized he had just started watching it. He nicely asked me to put my phone away and watch it with him. As I mentioned, we haven’t taken a lot of time to invest in each other lately so I felt the need to comply. As I watched and listened to the music and to Vitaliy’s commentary of the performance, I was intrigued. Both by the artistry of the band and the mind of the man I married. My take away from this experience: I’ve been married to this man for 9.5 years and there is still so much to discover about him. Also, those activities your spouse invites you to enjoy with them that you loathe just might be an invitation to step into their world and get to know them even better. I’m so happy I joined him!

Family Photo Sessions: Every fall we do a very limited number of fall family photo sessions. We have a few spots still available before we hit the road on November 17 so email us if you’re interested and we’ll send you more details. In my book, Christmas cards are always better with a photo!

Photo: Rose’s first trip to our favorite pumpkin patch, Bob’s. That was not the outfit I originally planned on her wearing to the pumpkin patch, but she pooped out of her original outfit at church, which also included soiling the nursery helper’s shirt.