Author Archives: 365 days of marriage

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About 365 days of marriage

I started this blog in April of 2011. At the time, Bret and I were wedding photographers and it was a way to share how marriage is more about the day to day and so much more than the wedding day itself. For about 5 years, I blogged about the joys and sorrows of the Christian walk, marriage, work, family and friends. I’ve blogged every day since a few weeks after I started. In May of 2015, we photographed our last wedding. Now, I have become passionate about simplicity, particularly in marriage, Christianity, business, travel and life. For a number of reasons, we have become minimalists. I’ve found that having simplicity makes life so much deeper, refreshing and joyful. I hope that this blog will help others see the benefits of living simply.

Day 1546 – Planning Your Wedding In Baltimore Maryland – Wedding Pastor

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The pastor/priest/officiant for your wedding may be a big deal or a little deal. If it’s a big deal, here are a few things to consider.

If you’re attending a church, your first place to look is your pastoral staff. Is there a particular pastor who has had a big impact on your relationship with your groom?

If you’re in between churches, or not attending, is there someone from your past that would fit the bill?

You want to make sure your pastor will say and do the things that mean a lot to you.

We were soooo blessed with our pastor, Jimmy Cannon (now senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church). He sent me a recent wedding ceremony and I was pretty much able to modify it to what I wanted. One of the MOST important things to Bret and I was that the gospel was clearly shared at our wedding.

The gospel, very basically is this – we are sinners…i.e. we are soooo messed up we can’t do ANYTHING right on our own…Christ (God’s son, fully God and fully man) came to earth, lived a perfect life (didn’t mess up AT all) and died IN our place to pay for all of our mess ups…If we believe that, we are pardoned for our super messed up lives and God sees Christ and His perfect life (not ours) when He looks at us.

Sharing this clearly with our guests was so very very important. Hopefully, at least one person was impacted by our marriage ceremony, I know we were.

I’m not trying to be all preachy here, just sharing my own heart and how important it is to let your pastor/priest/officiant share what YOU want most shared.

This is our fabulous pastor, Jimmy:

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p.s. Doesn’t he look spiffy? Since Bret decided to wear his Marine blues, we had the “buy so many, get a free tux for the groom” deal, so we gave that free tux to Jimmy!

Day 1545 – Planning Your Wedding In Baltimore Maryland – Wedding Cake/Cupcakes!

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Mmmm, delicious topic today!

I’ve seen lots of different options for this topic. I’ve even seen a few weddings with pies instead of cake! So the first thing you need to narrow down is what type of cake…or pies…or cupcakes…you like. Sometimes you can have different flavors for different layers of the cake. Make sure you make the bottom layer the flavor you want! (Since you’ll be cutting that layer!)

Another VERY important thing to figure out is if you’ll smash or not! Sometimes, the groom wants to smash but the bride does not. Grooms, please please PLEASE don’t smash if your bride doesn’t want to! She’s spent a lot of time preparing for this day, spent a lot on her dress and makeup! BUT, if she is a smasher, make sure you get it up her nose. 😉 (I was a smasher and I’m proud to say I smashed Bret not once, but twice. Unfortunately for me, he got me back much worse.)

You know I love me some Flavor Cupcakery, so here’s one of their cakes!

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Day 1544 – Planning Your Wedding In Baltimore Maryland – Wedding Florist

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One of the biggest things I’ve learned about flowers for a wedding is to trust the florist. You may be attached to one type of flower or design concept, but their vision can be so much better than you ever imagined. The things I’ve seen florists do just blows my mind!

Flowers are one of the areas of weddings I know very little about, hence a shorter post today! I was thankful to get an insider’s look when Linda of Fine Florals by Linda wrote a guest post for me. So make sure you check that out for even more ideas when planning for your wedding flowers.

Here is one bouquet that Linda made for our style shoot last year. It is by far the most amazing bouquet I’ve EVER seen in my 9 years in weddings (and before!)

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Day 1543 – Planning Your Wedding In Baltimore Maryland – Wedding DJ

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The first thing you want to do is figure out is what type of DJ you want. There is a whole range out there. Do you want someone who will be able to get your guests out of their seats and on the dance floor? Do you want someone who will follow the lead of the crowd?

I’m not going to lie, it took me a good 5 years to even take a DJ’s business card at a wedding. Not that the DJs were bad, just nothing spectacular. I will say, the first DJ who wowed me enough to ask for a card was Frank of Friendly Entertainment.

Sometimes you might want something WAY over the top. One of the most extreme DJ experiences I’ve had was with Lasting Impressions. (They also have THE best limo service I’ve experienced over the years.) I saw them put on the Super Deluxe DJ Package at the McLean Wedding. What made them over the top? Well, they had the wedding party do the YMCA…hats, props and all! The bride’s dad dressed up like Elvis and the ladies in the audience were given underwear to throw at him. Obviously, this isn’t for everyone! But, if this is your cup of tea, oh my goodness is it fun!!

Some of my other top recommended DJs are:
Dance Masters Entertainment
Iceman Entertainment DJ’s
Jenny Z Mobile DJ

In my opinion, you want a DJ that will make your guests do this…

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Day 1542 – Planning Your Wedding In Baltimore Maryland – Videography

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One of the things I never really thought much about…or thought I wanted for my own wedding….was wedding videography. Through a series of events, we secured a videographer friend of Bret’s. I am SO glad that we did and here’s why!

– You can hear your wedding vows again.
– You can SEE the tears that were shed. (Photographers can capture this, but there’s nothing like seeing your groom wipe away his tears when he sees you the first time.)
– You can get well wishes from your guests.
– You can relive your wedding at any time.

You want to make sure you contact them quick too, the best book up fast.

Two of my top recommends are:
Buerhaus Design
ZMBmedia

And here’s Matt Buerhaus from a photo shoot he posed for!

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