The Best Gift

See this??

 

 Yep, it is the motorcycle Reed and I got engaged on, left our wedding on, and then sold 2 years ago. But guess what?! WE GOT IT BACK!

Yep. After years of dreaming, and many failed attempts to save the funds up I was able to purchase this beauty back and surprise him with it on our 3 year wedding anniversary.

After this I had so many people say “you are a keeper”, or “best wife ever” and Reed even said he could never get me something as good as that. But ultimately that wasn’t my goal. I wasn’t trying to win a battle of gift giving, or the best wife award, or have the coolest pictures on social media (even though I do because my super awesome and talented friend Mary, of Mary DeCrescenzio Photography, made sure we captured this moment for all time).

My goal was to love my husband well. Show him that I see those long hours, I see that sometimes he feels like he works all the time and never gets time to just do what he wants. I see that. I see him agonize over being able to put gas in the boat to go fish or go out for a quick bite at the Mexican restaurant. I saw him sacrifice his wants for me and our family for over 2 years. I knew he wanted to give me more, he would tell me constantly that he was sorry he couldn’t just let me go out and get the shoes I wanted. But each month he took me out for a fun dinner, I got to buy fun little pieces for my wardrobe or save funds for a trip with friends. He made sure that even when he wasn’t getting what he wanted all the time that I was feeling loved and supported.

During that time, when he was so selflessly giving to me, I didn’t have a job. I tried, and my pride always got in my way but Reed would remind me not to worry. We would figure it out. He would tell me not to get a job just for the money, he had our needs taken care of. I could do what I felt I needed to do, even if that was wait for my dream.

So when the time finally came that our budget grew, that my dream job came true, I knew I had to let him know I saw all his sacrifice. That is what this was about.

That my husband acted out the love of Christ for me for 2 years. He put me first. He lead our family the way we needed to go, even when it was hard. I wanted to give him something to love him well and let him know that HE gave ME the best gift. So no everyone, I am not the best wife ever; Reed is the best husband ever and I am just saying thank you.  

PS> if you need some awesome photography for your fam and you are in SC go check out Mary and her photography blog! She is so talented and a blessing of a friend :) 

Cheap Halloween Photo Booth

Eek so close!

2 weeks is an acceptable time to start decorating. We don't have neighbors so we wont have any trick or treaters so instead Reed and I are throwing a party! You can check out the invites I sent out HERE. But today I got ready by starting to decorate for our big party! 

As always I LOVE the Dollar Store. I can walk around there for hhooouurrsss. I mean so much goodness for just A DOLLAR! It is just so inspiring :)
For this party we've obviously asked everyone to dress up, and why dress up if you aren't going to document it! So I've decided that a fun Halloween photo booth is the perfect way to make sure we document all our creative ideas.

This photo booth took less than 30 minutes and cost less than $10!
I bought a white table cloth and hung it on the back porch and used that as the back drop. Then I began draping the Halloween goodies all over. As much as I love to make my own decorations it is really great when you can just buy pre-made decorations and arrange them on your own. So much quicker!

These goodies came in packs and I had SO MUCH more left over I think I'll be able to use it for the table scape too!
And who doesn't want glittery flies. I mean so cool!!

Of course I had to try out my new photo booth! So here's my second costume. Yes, second costume. My first one for the season was this Piñata and Birthday Girl get up with my puppy :) I'll be sharing how I made this Princess Peach costume from goodies laying around the house!

How are you getting ready for Halloween? I'm so excited and can't wait to see how all of y'all celebrate this fun holiday.

$4 DIY Floral Halo

Hey Peeps! Have y'all seen all of these stunning floral halos and head pieces that are popping up all over the photography world along with the music festival scene? I sure have and have always wondered how people have the patients and resources to make these stunning accessories. 

Well, I have been wanting some updated pictures of Reed and I so I was planning to take advantage of our blooming sunflower field and wanted to look all flower child :) I was planning to use real flowers found in the yard, and around the farm/ranch; but then I was roaming the isles of my local Dollar Store and found these pretty gorgeous faux flowers. So I figured why not spend $4 and just try it out! 

All you need to collect is the faux ivy and flowers of your choice. I picked up 3 different bouquets and didn't use all of them so you could probably get away with less.

Then wrap your ivy around your head, cut to length, and wire the ends together. 

Begin to twist your flower stems around your ivy halo. I believe the flowers look more natural when mixed in randomly together.

Really there is no rhyme or reason, simply keep adding your flowers until you are in love! to get the look of a super full flower halo keep your goodies up closer to the front that will leave you space to pin your halo in place on your head too. 

Here is a sneak peak of some of our pictures from the sunflower field. I think in the natural lighting the flower halo looks pretty real. I know it adds a beautiful oomph to our pictures. By coordinating the colors in my halo with the sunflowers and our outfits it also helps make the halo look natural when in reality they are totally cloth/plastic and cost me FOUR BUCKS!  

 

 Dollar Store for the win!

Staged Photo Shoot with Mary Decrescenzio Photography

Well, I didn't do well this week with blogging. I was just enjoying my time getting things done and not feeling like I "had" to share. Don't get me wrong I LOVE sharing here but sometimes I've gotta just do my thing with out thinking how it will look in pictures every two seconds :)

So, with all that said I don't really have anything to share today. No DIY projects and no real heart to hearts either. I do have some AWESOME pictures that myself and the unbelievably talented Mary of Mary Decrescenzio Photography took back in November.

I've known Mary for a while now, I was in a wedding she was shooting and some how we just really hit it off. It has been so great having a friend with so many of the same beliefs and understanding of being a creative person attempting to make a living with our God given talent. Sadly, we don't live in the same city so we have to do a bit more planning when we hang out. But that leads to things like this!

I asked Mary to join me for a staged photo shoot. I was dying to get some pictures of the ranch, and wanted to try my hand at staging. We knew we needed to figure out something that wasn't going to be too hard at first. So we just went with what I had and yep that meant I was the model too. Basically I emptied out my house and collection of cool containers and we set up for the shoot!

It was so fun working with Mary, she does amazing work and would LOVE for y'all to go check her out! Hopefully we will work together again and this time feature some awesome custom designs by me and obviously Marys amazing photo talent :) 

Love Is.

This weekend I had the chance to photograph an old friends wedding. 

I've never done any kind of photography before (other than my 2 classes at school) but I've been involved in lots of weddings and worked with a few photographers in the past. I'm not saying that made me confident or qualified AT ALL but I thought it would at least give me the ability to be generous to a family that has always been extremely generous towards my family and I. 

This family has always been a huge part in my life and Reeds. 

So when I heard the oldest was getting married in a small intimate ceremony I volunteered my limited talents to hopefully capture their exciting day with out having to empty their wallet. 

Rhett (the groom) worked with me for my wedding this past August. 

He helped me plan out the music for the ceremony and did an amazing job on our big day.

Rhetts dad is a Pastor and was the one to marry Reed and I. 

I just wanted Rhett to have the perfect day, his family did so much for my day that taking pictures was the least I could do in return. 

Rhett and Lindsey are so obviously in love. 

While preparing for the wedding day I helped with a few of the decorations, and each time I talked to Lindsey she mentioned the bible verse 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8. 

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails.

After going over this verse many times and hearing Lindsey talk about it I thought the perfect "theme" for their wedding would be 

Love Is.

So with out further adieu

Love Is... 

Rhett & Lindsey 

These are just a few of the pictures I took. 

I am working on creating a link to share all of them. 

Like I said, I am in no way a photographer, but I hope that my limited talent and knowledge was enough to helpt these beautiful memories last :)

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Frank Rhett Sanders III

Wedding Album by Shurtterfly

I know the wedding was a while ago, and you would think I was done talking about it. 

BUT it was amazing! The pictures are perfect, done by The Mondays. 

I ordered some books for my parents and in-laws from Shutterfly.com

They are FABULOUS! 

I wasn't going to share but I loved them so much so I ordered a larger version for our coffee table

and it just came today!! 

 I thought I would share it with you all, boast a little bit about The Mondays and about Shutterfly:)

First of all, this came in SO FAST! 

But the best part is how easy it was to make! 

Shutterfly has plenty of options for layouts and you can even make your own. 

I loved all the little add ons they supplied for almost every occasion. 

I was even able to add a page for just our Vows. 

These are just some close up shots of some of my favorite pages. 

 These two pages where great templates!

I loved being able to share so many photographs with out adding any extra pages. 

And the back cover! 

I love this book and will probably show it to everyone who comes over. 

So obviously, I would TOTALLY recommend anything from Shutterfly. 

The company is so easy to work with and there are so many options to personalize your photos.

The quality is great and I will be ordering one of these for all of our special occasions!