He must increase, I must decrease.

It's been a couple of weeks since I have written a blog post and I do apologize! I have been SLAMMED with everything basically. My life is oh so busy lately. Anyway, this past Sunday mine and Matthew's very first article for the Dream Wedding was published in the Times News. We received so many phone calls, emails, and text messages saying how excited everyone was for us. It honestly made my day! And thankfully,  our interview DID NOT publish Matthew's "uhh I don't know what I love about her" comment. Shew! 

So along with our article, another exciting, but sad event has occurred in our lives. I have decided to close down my shop in Kingsport. This decision is something I have been contemplating almost all year. This year has been so financially devastating for my business. I just don't have the traffic that I used to. So I have been looking for a more "professional" full-time job and I've found one. I honestly think during the time that I have been in business, there have been so many times where I have put myself and my store above God. I never want to do that. I want my life to belong to Him, including my possessions, my job, my dog, whatever! It is ALL God's. So me stepping down from owning a self-made business will hopefully draw me closer to God and in turn draw me closer to my family and to Matthew. I didn't want the financial burden of my business to affect our marriage in the long run. So for now, my business is closing December 31st. I'm not sure for how long, but I just know that God has a different plan for my life. And honestly even though I am losing a part of me, I am excited about my new adventures. And hopefully I can be a light to more people now that I have time to focus on other things. He must increase, I must decrease. John 3:30

don't worry, it's real.

After our engagement pictures last week, the excitement wasn't over. We had our very first interview for the Dream Wedding! Matthew had to go into work a little later than usual to make the interview, but it was nice to get to spend some time together in the daylight for once! By the time we both get off work, it's dark and we're both tired, and we are normally asleep on the couch by 8. Anywayyyyyyy...we drove to the Times News to meet with Marci, our interview lady for the next 10 months or so. Matthew and me were both extremely nervous. For Matthew, that is normal. Not sure why I was nervous though. I rarely get nervous. I guess I didn't want anyone to find out that we honestly rekindled our friendship on Facebook, or maybe I was afraid I would say something stupid? But it went well. Marci really didn't ask too many questions, and the total interview time was 15 minutes. She basically just asked "get to know you" questions---how we met, how we fell in love, blah blah blah. And let me tell you, when she got to the "so, what made you fall in love with each other" question, Matthew had NO response. NONE. He didn't even make anything up! Just said "uhhh, well I really don't know?!" and he laughed it off. That's a man for you I guess. Just hope she doesn't publish that : / This "interview" will be published in the Times News, along with some pictures of us, on Sunday November 25th. So look for us! It should be in the living section. We will be in the paper 6 times between now and our wedding, so it's pretty exciting!

We also had our first meeting with the "Dream Team" this week at the Carnegie Hotel in Johnson City, since that is our new venue now : ) Keep in mind, I had only been to the Carnegie ONE time, and it was to use the bathroom, but needless to say, I was still impressed. So we met all of our vendors in the Grandsoldiers Ballroom, where our ceremony and reception would be held. I felt like we were celebrities! I was honestly speechless, and Matthew was too of course LOL. So we talked to the vendors and set up appointment dates with each one separately. There were a couple of things that I found out weren't included with our wedding package like, invitations, favors, gifts for the bridal party, etc. I also found out that we can only have 100 guests. That is probably going to be my biggest fear throughout this whole process. There are SO many people I want to be there to support us. But, I guess knowing that only our family and very closest friends will be there, will make a huge difference in the long run. One thing that did make up for the lack of guest list, was knowing that I can still decorate and incorporate some of my own touches at the reception. I have TONS of ideas for signs and different things that I was afraid I wasn't going to get to use, but fortunately that is not the case : ) I was about to FREAK OUT that my Pinterest wedding board would be in vain LOL. All in all, there is only one word to describe how we have felt the past month. BLESSED. There's no other way to describe it.

I am still so amazed at how God works and how he knows our needs. There are a gajillion people in this world, and he knows the needs of EVERY SINGLE ONE. I had been praying about our wedding planning process since we got engaged, of course. My main prayer had been, not that God would provide us with the funds to pay for it, but that HE would be the center of our planning and of our actual wedding day. I don't want any of our guests to see Matthew and I, but to see God reflecting in our life and in our marriage. I hope we can truly honor him on that day. I am so grateful that he has provided us with this gift. He knew we would struggle to plan our idea of the perfect wedding. But now, I have an awesome Dream Team who is going to take care of that for me, and I can't wait. 10 months from today, I get to marry my other half.

paparazzi!

so..it's been a few since I've written a blog post and I apologize! I have been oober busy trying to get ready for this huge sale at my store (which is today) so I haven't had much time to blog. Anyway, this past Sunday Matthew and I FINALLY got to have our engagement pictures taken. The first thing I did after I told all my friends and family that we were engaged, was book an appointment for engagement pictures. Mainly because I have known for almost 2 years who I wanted to take our pictures! We have waited almost 5 months for these, which felt like forever! One of my very best friends Kayla is an awesome photographer with her husband Andy. Their work is amazing! Remember the barn on my family farm that we had planned on using for our ceremony site? Well, that's where we got our pictures taken :) I was so worried it was going to rain, but thank the good Lord it didn't! It was a tad cold, but the clouds made the mountain setting look awesome. Matthew and I have never had professional pictures taken. EVER. So honestly, I was kinda nervous. We are both so awkward anyway, so I knew there would be some not so great shots of us lol. But Kayla and Andy made us both feel so comfortable! Mainly because we are BFF to begin with! But we goofed off and acted like ourselves the whole time, which made for some spectacular pictures. seriously. There is not one single picture that I have seen so far that I haven't been completely IN LOVE with. It could be because I am pictured with the love of my life in every single shot, maybe? ;) Anyway, here is the link to their blog post featuring us, so go leave them some comments! Oh yeah, and book them for your next photo op!

http://andrewerinphoto.com/engagement/laura-matthew-gate-city-va/#comment-183

My advice to brides-to-be trying to find a wedding photographer: Research! If you find a photographer who just does "OK" work, then you will just have OK pictures. Nothing great. Spend the extra money and find someone who is awesome. Pictures are FOREVER. Remember that. I am so so blessed to have friends like Andy and Kayla who do amazing work, so I didn't have to look anywhere else! Happy wedding planning :)

xo

is this a dream?

Ok, so as a lot of you know......Unexpectedly, this past Sunday, Matthew and I won the Times News Dream Wedding.

Before I go into details, let me take you back to a couple months ago. So, after Matthew and I got engaged, I saw an ad in the Kingsport Times News for the Times News Dream Wedding. The prize was a $25,000 wedding. Complete with vendors for every wedding need you might have. You had to fill out the application, submit your love story, and a picture. I knew we didn't have a chance to win this because, don't get me wrong I love Matthew with my whole heart, but our love story isn't the most spectacular one you have ever heard. We weren't high school sweethearts and I haven't known him since kindergarten or anything like that. But I wrote our love story anyway and we took a couple of quick pictures one day after church. I submitted all of our info 5 minutes before the deadline of the contest. I had a long day and almost completely forgot about it!

Anyway, you had to be present to win the Times News Dream Wedding on Sunday, October 21st at the Women's Expo at Meadowview Convention Center. You can imagine how hard it was to get Matthew to go to this thing. All kinds of women everywhere. I counted the number of men I saw on one hand lol. But he went with me anyway. We sat in front of the stage and waited for the bridal fashion show to end, so they would announce the winners. Still knowing we had no chance of winning, we were cutting up and not really paying attention. Then the announcer starts reading a couple of lines from the story I submitted. Matthew and I just looked at each other. My palms were sweaty and my heart was seriously racing! When she announced our names, I immediately started bawling! I could not believe (and still can't) that we won! We went up on stage and they put the picture we submitted on the big screen. It was so overwhelming. When the announcer started asking me questions, all I could get out was, "We are broke." haha how embarrassing! But oh so true! We were then introduced to our "Dream Team", which is the team of vendors who are going to make our wedding possible. Everything is included with this $25,0000 package. The dress, cake, venue, music, bridesmaids dresses, groom and groomsmen attire, hair and makeup, photography, EVERYTHING is included in this.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't have had a $25k wedding. Heck, I was trying to have a budget of $5,000. We just don't have the money, and I was not about to put that huge burden on my mom and dad. I had actually just started a part-time job last week to help pay for some of the expenses. I was accepting to the fact that our wedding was going to be planned on a budget. Yes, I was a little sad, but I knew I could pull it off. Hello? that's the whole reason I started this blog! But now, I want to blog about my Dream Wedding experience and encourage brides from this area to apply! I think it is an amazing thing.

I am so so so so blessed! I do NOT in any way deserve this dream wedding. I am so unworthy of the love and mercy God shows me every day. But this is proof that he knows our needs and he will provide for us even when we least expect it. I can't blog about this without giving him all of the glory. He is so good to me! I hope He shines through on our big day, so everyone can see that He is the center of our relationship, our marriage, and our life. Please keep reading my blog! I will continue to post about my wedding projects and experiences with vendors along the way :) happy wedding planning!

Here is the link to our love story, if you want to read it! I have to admit my friend Stacey helped me edit this, to make it sound much more awesome! :)

 https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=13a2717eeb2b3c58&mt=application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui%3D2%26ik%3Db2d5182ed3%26view%3Datt%26th%3D13a2717eeb2b3c58%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26zw&sig=AHIEtbSUC_B21otN6DKP4irLvrJNyhpK9g

can't i just order that online?

One of the easiest, and most convenient things for me is to order EVERYTHING online. Between running a business, and trying to spend time with my family, fiance, and dog, I feel like I have NO TIME, whatsoever. So my first thought when I started the wedding planning process was, "I will just order everything online and that way I can do half the work." Buttttttt, as I have started to "shop around" for wedding items, I have turned a 180 and realized, I am buying NOTHING online haha. I have had way too much fun already with rummaging through thrift stores and comparing prices just to find a bargain. Doing it this way is much more time consuming, but definitely cheaper! I haven't had a chance to do a whole lot of wedding shopping just yet. But last weekend I made a small dent. here's some of the awesome deals I've scored so far:

2 "redneck" mason jar wine glasses-found at a yard sale for $5 each. we'll be using these for our toast with cake :)

a beautiful vintage chandelier from a thrift store for $10. i plan on hanging this in the middle of the barn. Matthew said he just needs 1 thing to fix it and it will work just fine.

22 strands of Christmas lights for $22 at a different thrift store. i plan on stringing these EVERYWHERE around the barn. still need a lot more, but thought this was an awesome start!

i also started my sheet collection. i'm using hay bales for guest seating during the ceremony, so i've got quite a few sheets to buy to cover those! i'm looking mostly for vintage floral prints. i bought 5 sheets for $5 at the same thrift store.

So.....my total spent so far on wedding things: roughly $47. i think i got a lot accomplished for under 50 bucks!

location location location.

So...the newly engaged feeling has finally sunk in and i have realized: i. am. getting. married. whaaaaa? crazy, right?! ok, not THAT crazy, but seems crazy to me! of course i am overly stoked, but a little worried at the same time because I AM BROKE. that's right. i have very little money and i am planning a wedding. go ahead and laugh if you want to, but i am confident that i will be able to have the wedding of my dreams. After lots of research and pinning things to Pinterest, i think i have this whole budget thing down to a science. at least i hope : / My first decision as a bride-to-be, before I even chose our date, was the location. A couple of years ago, my dad and my little brother built a "horse barn" on my older brother's farm. it's a big, beautiful barn, complete with a riding ring right next to it, and a gorgeous field up above it. So before I was even engaged (or dating Matthew..shhhhh!) I decided that THIS was where I was getting married. I love the country, I love barns, I love outside. End of discussion. So my #1 first tip on saving wedding money? Skimp on the location if possible! My location is totally and 100% FREE, which I love. Some of the perks to this are just fab. Besides that it is FREE :) I can decorate any way I want, any time I want. Most locations, you can only decorate the day before or the day of...so just a few hours before the start of the wedding. Plus we can stay however long we want! My brother and super sweet fiance built a fire pit next to the barn this summer, we are building a fire and dancing all night long! Not to mention, I did check out some other locations before I completely decided to go with our barn and YIKES! talk about pricey! One barn I checked on was $2,800 for 4 hours. Yes, that's right. I just did NOT want to go through with that. May not seem like a whole lot when I know some weddings that cost $50,000 or more, but to a BROKE 23 year old, it is A LOT of money. Anyway, you may have to sacrifice some things when choosing a budget savvy location, but I promise it will be worth it!