I’m Back and I’m Married!!

Hello Inspired Friends!  I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in forever.  I didn’t plan on going on a blogging break for so long.  It all just sort of happened!  You may remember me talking about being engaged and wanting to get married this year.  We hadn’t set a date yet, but I had it in my heart that I wanted to get married on the anniversary of when we first met.  So much stuff was going on over the Winter, and then my I had some graphic design work I was doing, among other things.  I just didn’t know if I could pull it off.  Of course you may have guessed by the title that I did!  We set the date officially back in April some time and then I worked like gangbusters to pull of the wedding and reception of my dreams in a two month time frame.  Crazy making?  Yes.  I pretty much had to drop everything (including my writing and business) to focus solely on project marriage.  I had intended to document the whole thing here online (leading up to the events), but found that to be too nerve wracking & time consuming.  So, I took some time off for life off screen!

 

 

Amid all of this excitement, I just finished up working for/with one of my favorite book authors at a weekend writers retreat teleconference.  I’ve spent pretty much all day and all night (until midnight) in creative writing/self transformation land for the past 3 days straight.  Having the opportunity to connect in a fun and deep heart level way, with such amazing people, was the perfect way to wrap things up post wedding.

June has been a blessed & exciting month with many celebrations and new beginnings for me!  I am slowly easing my way back in to every day life again and I will probably need a lot of naps :).  I wanted to get SOMEthing posted here at We Live Inspired, so for now a brief overview of wedding stuff with lots more to share in the months to come.

 

 

As far as the wedding and reception goes-

 

I designed both events myself.  That is a huge reason why I was so busy!  You name it, I probably did it…or at least had my hand in it somehow.  I did the graphic design/photography to make my own wedding invitations, made my own ring pillow, flower bouquet, reception decor, centerpieces, flatware, and a few other things I am probably forgetting.  I even did Matt and I’s hair for both events (cuts, highlights, style) and my own nails and makeup.  Part of the reason I did so many things was to save money ( I will have tips to share on doing wedding things on a budget now!) , but the other big part was simply that I wanted to create something beautiful and magical that was unique to us.  I wouldn’t say we had a traditional wedding.  I would say it was a mixture of things.  A bit eclectic, a bit modern, a bit bohemian like (with a nature vibe to it), very whimsical and beautiful, very special and romantic, with some of the traditional wedding things thrown in.  I have hosted many a theme party and designed many things, but I guess you could say our wedding was my largest work of art to date!

 

There are so many inspiring miracles to share and also some trials that I had to work through that may encourage others out there.  I will be sharing those too because life isn’t perfect, but of course you can still always live joyFULLY inspired no matter what!

 

 

One non traditional thing we did was have the wedding and the reception on two different days- a week apart (& I had 2 different dresses/jewelry/shoe combos too! Fun!)

I did this for two reasons:

 

1. Each date had special significance to it.  We got married June 5.  That is the exact day we met 16 years ago the night before I graduated from high school.  Exactly 1 week later (June 12) Matt asked me out for our first date. That is when we had our reception.  Coincidentally both of those were Friday nights, and June 5 and June 12 this year also happened to fall on Fridays 😀 .  I will share our love story of how we met later sometime, but they are both super special memories that stick out in my mind so clearly even today.  We already celebrate the anniversary of when we met every year anyway, so it just made sense to celebrate our wedding anniversary each year at the same time!
2. Although I can be quite social/outgoing in many ways, I can also be a bit of a shy and private person.  Matt is the same.  We wanted to have a special day just for us with not much of an audience. We didn’t want a big nerve wracking production, but something sweet and special for us to celebrate our anniversary of meeting.  We did however want a bigger party to celebrate with family, which is why we had a separate event a week later!

 

 

This turned out to be the perfect combination for us!  Some people thought it was odd or were not too happy with our decisions.  However, at the end of the day my best advice is to be mindful of others BUT, also do what makes YOU happy.  Like the song by Frank Sinatra goes, ” I Did it My Way” (or our way as it were).  We couldn’t be happier.

 

 

The wedding events may be over, but I am not done yet.  Because of budget and limited tent space in our garden (which was our beautifully free venue), we were only able to invite 50 people to our reception.  Matt has a huge family, and I know a lot of people.  If we would have invited everyone we care about, I imagine we would have had at least 300 people.  I’ve thought of creative ways to extend the celebrations to everyone.  I’ve just ordered very cool marriage announcements that match our enchanted garden theme and we will be sending a professional wedding photo or 2 out to everyone who couldn’t be there.  We are also opening our home the rest of this year to visitor’s that would like to come by and visit the bride and groom/see our new home.  I’ll be hosting many barbecues and tea parties I am sure!  We will get out the wedding decor and have several mini celebrations.   We have this cool wishing tree I made for the reception that we can have visitors and friends from afar (via mail) write wishes on for our tree too 😀 .

 

 

It is fun to keep the celebrations going as this has been a long time coming!  We have been through a lot together with many health challenges, deaths and tragedies in my family especially.  In fact, ever since high school, there really haven’t been any weddings or births in my immediate family.  No new life to speak of.  Just lots and lots of funerals.  Needless to say, my parents are ecstatic to be celebrating something happy and NEW and so are we!  Just to be real and transparent here (so people know my merry nature doesn’t come from having had the ideal life),  I wouldn’t have foreseen my life arriving at this destination when life handed me some major lemons after high school.  I still can’t believe we just had the beautiful perfect for us wedding in our beautiful perfect for us garden, at our beautiful and perfect for us home.  There were times when my future seemed bleak and some things seemed nearly impossible to me.  It’s been a loooooong road, but we have received our fairytale ending (or beginning)!

 

 

This my friends, is God’s Grace in God’s divine timing.  May it encourage you if you are in a bleak, don’t know what my future looks like sort of spot.  I will be sharing more writings on this topic as I continue to blog about the everyday miracles I witness as I create the life I desire.  I feel blessed to have you with me on this journey as together “We Live Inspired”.  You’ll have to excuse me while I happy dance and continue to enjoy our time in the sun! 😀

 

And so the story ends,

Life is never perfect, BUT

They lived happily ever after anyway.

And this is not the ending.

No, this is just the beginning –

As we turn the page and embrace the next juicy chapter.

 

With love,

Rebekah