My Wedding Dress Went to Goodwill

Our friends were coming to town a few days after Christmas, so Dave and I wanted to tidy up the place since we hadn't been home all weekend and then some. I left my sweet husband a honey-do list, and he honey-did. I came home to a lovely, clean apartment after working the day after Christmas. As I sat down to unwind with my guy, I realized that this box that we had by the door was gone. In my mind, I knew that that box contained both things to keep and things to purge. Well, in my things to keep list was....yes...my wedding dress!

I failed to communicate to Dave that I hadn't sorted through the box yet, and since he was on such a roll with cleaning and stuff, he decided to take a car load of stuff to the local Goodwill. Needless to say, I had a meltdown for fear that i'd lose my wedding dress to someone who wouldn't understand why it meant more than the normal amount to me. Our wedding photographers pursue to inspire forever, covenant, and "Don't Give Up" into the couples' marriage for whom they photograph. They have each couple pick something on which they want to write the word "prevail." In our case, we picked my dress. We would have picked the treehouse, but we weren't sure how realistic it would be to always have that with us wherever we would end up. Who knew that Sharpied fabric would become to dear to me.

Now the only thing I could see was my dress wadded up in a sad ball-- a needle in a haystack post crazy Christmas donations. Dave zipped out the door as soon as I confirmed that my dress just got handed over to unknowing strangers and drove back to see if he could get it back. When he got there, there were different people working and no one recognized him from the earlier drop off and vice versa. He came home--hands empty. The manager told him that they would keep an eye out for my dress (which was for whatever reason really hard to believe). That began the just-in-case grieving process--tears flowing.

I kept on telling myself, "If it's meant to be, i'll get my dress back." I, along with a few friends, said some prayers, and hoped for the best.

Friends, beyond good news!! I don't have to just remember my dress by way of photos. I can keep it and show our kids and maybe even our grandkids one day. Thank you Goodwill for your goodwill. They called Dave to let us know that they'd come across the bag with my dress, in a box, in a pile. Thank you, love, for making it your mission to get that back for me. I love you...so, so much.

That...was a close one.

Look What Came in the Mail!

I absolutely love snail mail--hands down one of my favorite things ever. I checked the mail today and got not just one, but two surprises!

Our wedding photographers, Sarah & Rosina, sent us our wedding images :D! If you missed their blog posts from our wedding, you can see them here (Rosina's / Sarah's). (I'm practicing self-control and waiting until Dave gets home from work before I pop those discs in and relive our wedding day.)

Isn't their disc packaging adorable? Simple but with a touch of personalization and pizazz.

 

 Sarah also sent me a book called A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken 

as a wedding gift. She couldn't find another copy at her local bookstore, so she

gave us her personal copy!

 

We cannot thank Rosina and Sarah enough. They are very talented photographers & friends of ours who shoot with their hearts and have an eye for the special, real moments that their clients want to hang on to. Not only that, their aim in their business is to encourage couples to prevail in their marriages (amen!). Thank you, you two, for running far more than a photography business--thank you for investing your skills and talents into the life of your clients and always bringing a bit more of His love into the world.  You ladies are awesome.

We'll share some wedding photos with you as soon as we've gone through them!

Holly and Paul--Married!

Although it's true that a couple's wedding day is about them, it's also about so much more than that: It's about friends, family, community, love, and the rest of their marriage. Those facets of a wedding celebration were very much evident at Paul and Holly's wedding this past weekend. Despite the blustering winds, family and friends excitedly came together to celebrate this couple. It was an honor to be a part of their day as Holly is the mother/mother-in-law to two of my very dear friends. Congratulations to the both of you. Your adventure in one of God's greatest gifts has already begun :). 

And this about sums up their whole day 

and the rest of their days: 

Becoming the Robies

So my wonderful Dave wanted to gift me with a quick weekend trip to New York for Christmas this past December because our friends Michelle and Ryan were going and wanted another couple to tag along. Well in tagging along, Michelle introduced me to her long time friend, Nicole and her new fiance Ben.

They're a pair who march to the beat of their own drum and are completely in love with each other and with Jesus. Though they're planning a daunting wedding (w/ the guest list at 1000+), they're easy going, and we had so much fun getting to know them while exploring NYC in the wintertime. While we were out there, we had some time to spare, so I took a few picture for them in Central Park. Unbeknownst to me, Nicole actually decided to use one of the shots for their Save the Date! So fun. I'm so glad I was able to capture you two in your element.

If you go to one of my older posts [here], you can see some more of the pictures I got of Ben and Nicole that day. 

Happy wedding planning, you two! :)

Magazine Banner: A Repurposing DIY Project

I was in my friend's apartment, and she wanted to add some color to her white walls . She had some Anthropologie magazines lying around, so I figured I'd repurpose them. The first thing that came to mind was to make a banner because I keep seeing them on DIY blogs (This is also great for parties, weddings, baby rooms, etc!). Well folks--here's my first how-to blog.

Step 1: Grab an Anthro magazine (or any other magazine, of course).

Tip: If you want there to be an eclectic sense of cohesion, work with only one magazine

since they usually fall under certain complimentary color themes.

Step 2: Tear the pages of the magazines out. Fold the pages in half (top to bottom)

 and tear them in half once more (In other words, you'll have two flags made for every magazine page).

Step 3: Fold one of your sheets in half (I recommend using the cover of the magazine b/c it's sturdier) 

to find the center point. 

Step 4: Take a ruler and with a pencil, draw two lines to make your flag pattern. Start at 

the center point that you found from Step 3.

Step 5: Cut out your pattern. Place this pattern above a few of your sheets and start cutting!

Step 6: Once you have enough flags cut out, you'll be ready to start putting the banner together.

Get some string, yarn, twine, fishing wire (etc...) ready.

Step 7: Place your flag underneath the string and leave some room at the top so you can fold it over. Make sure the side you want showing is not the side that you can see.

Step 8: Have some tape handy. Fold the top part of the flag over the string, and tape it down. 

Continue this step with the rest of your flags.

(Depending on how sturdy you want it, you'll need to use a varying amount of tape.

For this particular banner, I just put a piece of the place at the center.)

Tip: When taping your first flag onto the string, make sure you secure the flag to the string, so

your flags don't go flying off the end.

Step 9: When you've attached enough flags to achieve your desired banner length, hang

your banner up wherever you needed that splash of color! Be creative; add your own twist to this 

simple DIY project!

Enjoy! Challenge yourself to craft with things you already have!

Give your old things new purpose! Give it a shot. I'd love to 

see all the ideas you come up with :).