Saturday, July 28, 2012

Wedding Story and First Anniversary





One year ago today July 28, 2011, I was nervously putting away my tent, picking up my flowers, and hanging up my wedding dress. Our wedding was absolutely wonderful and completely different. This past year has been full of challenges and a lot of laughter. Not everyone knows our wedding story so I am going to write about it now.

Chance and I decided that we wanted to do something different for our wedding. We had been planning a traditional, cake, guests, food, outside, summer wedding. Well, things changed and we came up with a better, less stressful idea-Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

I had never been there and Chance had when he was little. I started to do some research and considered the main things I wanted: photographer, witnesses (I'll get to this in a moment), a place to stay, a place for the ceremony, and someone to marry us.

I found the most adorable looking bed and breakfast called Teton View. I looked to see what days they had availability and sent off an email to the owners. I figured the owners would know better than anyone the answers to the rest of my questions.


I never thought I would be typing out an email asking if someone would be witnesses to my wedding and if they knew of a preacher in town. I soon had a reply in one of the friendliest emails saying they would be happy to be our witnesses and gave me the name of Tom Jordan the Municipal Judge. I called him to see if he would be free on a certain date, he agreed, and we had a plan!

Looking back at it now it seems almost crazy but it worked out perfectly it's almost funny.

Mr. Jordan and I had a few phone conversations about what type of ceremony we wanted and he put together the most unique and beautiful ceremony. I had asked him about a photographer and he gave me the name of a lady in town. I called her, she was available, in our price range, and we had a plan!

We drove up to Jackson Hole and camped the night before our wedding because the B&B was full, which I had all of this planned well before we left. We also picked up our marriage certificate right when we got into town. The morning of our big day we packed up our camping gear and headed into town to pick up some flowers at Albertsons. I didn't want anything fancy just a simple colorful bouquet. The rest of the morning we set up at the B&B, they were so kind for us to check in early to get ready. Our ceremony was to be in their beautiful back yard and we wanted to meet our witnesses who ended up being the owner and her neighbor down the road, both wonderful ladies!

I took pictures of my dress and got all ready while Chance got ready downstairs. Our room was on the second floor and there was a deck outside that went down into the backyard which is what I used as my "aisle". Everyone showed up right on time, we all met, and then I started my nervous walk to my future husband. There was no music, no crowd of people, no bridesmaids, or flower girl, it was just a sunny mountain day with a breeze in the aspens and it was lovely.







We said our vows, listened to Mr. Jordan's words of wisdom, exchanged rings, and kissed. The Carol (the owner) had thoughtfully planned an entire reception for us and even bought bubbles to blow after we kissed. The photographer was a funny lady and we all enjoyed homemade brownies Carol baked and sparkling cider. They even got us simple beautiful gifts, and they hardly knew us!



After our brownies we loaded up in the car to drive up the road a few miles to take pictures in Grand Teton National Park, this was an adventure in itself but so fun!

That evening, after pictures, we found leftover brownies, bubbles, and flowers in our room. Instead of eating out at a fancy restaurant we bought some groceries from Albertsons and had a feast on our private little deck.

For our honeymoon we went through Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. Why not get married at your honeymoon destination?

Friday, July 27, 2012

Vacation!

We will be headed to Texas in two days! I will be posting pictures after our trip of course. First San Antonio and then on the Corpus Christi and the beach.

The last two pictures I took from a trip there a couple of years ago.
I can't wait for our adventure!




I am also considering doing another book giveaway when I get back. I appreciate any feedback on what type of books you like the most and would want to win!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Titanic Tea

 Me, Mom, and Grandma

I understand this is a bit late but life around here has been rather crazy! Last month I was able to attend the "Titanic Tea Party" hosted by Deeanne Gist who is one of my favorite authors. I had bought two tickets last December for my mom and I and we decided to dress up for the occasion. My mom found our clothes at a small costume shop in the town I grew up in so I had no idea what my outfit was until the day of the party.

About a month before the party, it was decided that Julie (mother-in-law), Echo (sister-in-law), and Margaret (my grandma) should also join in on the fun.

 Julie figured since we were going to be in the big city we might as well stop by the Molly Brown Museum since she was a Titanic survivor.  This was a neat tour of her house in Denver, Colorado that we all enjoyed before our tea party.

Denver.org


We all dressed up for this grand event, I even wore boots! When we got to the party we were a little early and some of the first people to arrive. Deeanne came right over to us to comment on our outfits, I thought this was the most amazing thing. We each were given a person that we would be as if we were on the Titanic and at the end of the party we found out our fate. Most of us survived even though I was third class.

So fun and pretty table.

The tea was so much fun, we played games, ate delicious food, met multiple Romance authors who gave us autographed books, and drank a lot of tea! At the end of the afternoon we were able to keep our cup and saucer! Our small group also made our way to see Deeanne and get a couple autographs before we left.

 Julie and Echo

 Tennessee (Lady in pink) is Deeanne's daughter. We are playing a game trying to figure out what part of the outfit went on first.

 Do you see those yummy looking tarts?

 My Mom, Grandma, and Myself

Sometimes it's just necessary to have a little fun!

Myself, Deeanne, Julie, and Echo

Friday, July 20, 2012

Life in Spite of Me Book Review

      Picture from Reaching You Ministries Website

Life in Spite of Me by Kristen Jane Anderson with Tricia Goyer is a book that I could not put down. Kristen writes about her past in a way that makes you feel like you are in the book next to her. The story starts out with her decided to lay across the train tracks with intention of dying. God had other plans and she did not die, though she did lose her legs. As I kept reading the story, in most books like this is gets better only a couple years after something tragic, with this book, it all seemed more real to me because things kept happening. Kristen kept going to the psych ward and struggling for quite a few years. The book starts when she is 17 and leads up to what she is doing now being a speaker and inspiring other people with her story.  

This isn't a terribly long book, but I definitely recommend it! I am impressed with how it is written and her story is really great, not watered down just straight up truth.

Here is a link to her "Reaching You Ministries" here.
At this link there is a video by Kristen Anderson here.
"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review."

Friday, July 13, 2012

The Fiddler Book Review

The Fiddler by Beverly Lewis is about Amelia Devries who ends up in Amish country while driving from a country music concert where she performed. Amelia plays the fiddle and creates beautiful music throughout the entire book, I really liked this aspect of the story. She runs into Michael Hostetler, a young man from the Amish community and the two form a friendship that eventually turns into love. This book is fairly predictable and does not have too many twists or turns but is still a cute Amish story.
I love the cover of this book, I think it is one of the most beautiful covers I have seen for this type of novel. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Amish stories or Beverly Lewis as an author.

Here is a link to Beverly Lewis' website here.

"I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishers for this review"