Thoughtfully Designed Giveaway!

Hi there! Just had to pop in and let you guys know about the giveaway I'm hosting for a $25 credit to my etsy shop in honor of reaching 300 sales!

Head on over to my shop's blog to enter! Good luck! :)

{Giveaway Winner}

We have a winner of the giveaway for the $20 credit to Megg’s etsy shop! I can’t wait to see what the winner chooses – I love everything Megg sells!

 

 

The lucky lady is…

 

 

Congratulations!! I’ll pass on your email address to Megg, and she’ll be in contact with you soon!

 

Thank you to everyone who entered! Megg’s offering a discount code to the rest of you – Just enter lucky20 at checkout and receive 20% off your order! And for those of you who are brides, be sure to keep an eye on her shop for her new bridal pieces!

A Friendly Reminder

Just a little reminder about the giveaway I’m hosting for a $20 credit to Megg’s adorable etsy shop! It ends Sunday, so be sure to enter soon – She has some beautiful stuff listed in her shop! I can’t wait to see the bridal jewelry she designs!

 

 

Also! Stephanie over at The Vintage Modern Bride is giving away a set of the bridal/groom/newlywed suites hangers from MY etsy shop! That giveaway ends Sunday as well (Stephanie’s birthday!) so hurry over to enter!

 

 

Good luck! :)

{Giveaway}

I’m so excited about this giveaway – I’m obviously a huge fan of etsy and an even bigger fan of wedding related shops! I’ve had so much fun with my etsy shop since our wedding, and I’ve loved having it as a creative outlet and business opportunity. When Megg contacted me about hosting a giveaway and her desire to start making wedding jewelry, I jumped at the chance to help a fellow newlywed jump into the etsy wedding world.

 

Megg already sells beautiful jewelry in her shop and is offering a $20 credit towards anything in her shop to one lucky reader!

 

 

 

{All images from Megg’s shop}

 

To Enter:

 

1. Visit Megg’s shop and comment telling me which beautiful piece you’re eyeing! {Mandatory entry}

2. Follow @library_fiend on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway including @library_fiend, @les852, and a link to this post.

3. Become a follower of this blog or comment letting me know you’re already a follower through Google Friend Connect.

4. Become a follower of Megg’s blog or comment letting me know you’re already a follower.

5. Purchase any item from Megg’s shop. {3 additional entries!}

 

The giveaway will end Sunday, July 17th at 10 PM CST. The winner will be announced Monday, July 18th.

 

Good luck!

You Make My Dreams Come True: The End

After our last dance, it was time to leave.. To walk away from the celebration I’d been pouring myself into for the last 15 months. A year later, I can actually say I truly only remember the good moments. There was certainly drama that occurred right at the end of our reception, but now, looking back, I’m finally able to look past that and focus on the joy I felt as I left with my new husband.

We made our way out to the parking lot and found our *beautiful* car. :) I know a lot of you said you’d be upset if your car was decorated, but our bridal party helped us clean most everything off before we drove away, so it really wasn’t a big deal. I loved it!

Due to a miscommunication, one of my bridesmaids had left with my bag for the night in her car. So we waited around a bit for her to bring it back, and then we were off to the hotel as newlyweds!

When we got there, David carried me across the threshold into our suite!

And that’s where the story ends, for you guys at least. ;) The next morning we had a nice breakfast and then headed to our new home together to meet our family who was there to have lunch and watch us open gifts. You can read about that here and our incredible honeymoon here, here, and here.

Thank you all so much for sticking with me through everything! I can’t even tell you how much it means that I had support and encouragement during our planning process, the sweetest comments on our wedding day, someone to vent to with everything that happened with our reception venue, and the nicest compliments on my recaps. I knew I’d be grateful to have a keepsake in this blog, but I never knew how grateful I’d be for all of my readers and followers!

My recaps are officially finished, but if you follow me on my newlywed blog you know I’m turning my etsy shop into something a bit bigger. It will now be Thoughtfully Designed: Custom Wedding Coordination & Keepsakes! I’m hiring someone to work on a blog/website for me, and I’m SO excited about what the future holds and that I’ll still be involved in the wedding world. I likely won’t be posting much here any more (after this week and our anniversary) but I’d love to leave my blog live so that other brides can draw inspiration from my projects and posts. I’d love for you all to keep in contact, so please follow The Luckiest in Love, and if you’re a bride, definitely keep a lookout there for my new business blog and website, which will be full of lovely pictures, wedding details, and inspiration!

Need to catch up?

 

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

I put on my dress. 

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show. 

We got some fun bridal party pictures. 

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional. 

I shared our ceremony details. 

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

We danced with our parents.

We did our bouquet and garter toss.

And the dollar dance!

Then it was finally party time!

Our sneaky bridal party decorated our getaway car.

I shared our reception details.

We had one special last dance.

Our First Year

I know I keep saying this, but I seriously cannot believe our anniversary is 2 days away. The last year has gone by in the blink of an eye, which makes me a little sad, but also tells me that it’s been a year full of memories and fun. Before getting married I think everyone wonders what the first year will be like – If you’re like me, you had people tell you that the first year was the hardest, or that it was terrible trying to figure the whole marriage thing out. You don’t know what to expect, so that uncertainty combined with those comments leads to some anxiety.

I remember the night before our wedding (if you haven’t read any of my wedding recaps – read this one! It’s seriously one of my favorites because of my sweet husband!) falling asleep praying I’d be a good wife, teammate, and best friend to David. I had no idea what the heck I was doing, but I knew that both of us were committing the rest of our lives to each other and promising to do anything in our power to make our marriage glorifying to God.

Honestly, I couldn’t be happier with how our first year turned out. I’m not saying we didn’t argue, didn’t disagree, or didn’t cry a few times out of frustration with each other. That definitely happened. But through all of that we learned about each other and about us as a married couple. We’d been together 6.5 years when we got married, but I feel like you learn so much more as a spouse. Marriage is a whole new level of commitment and closeness, and it teaches you so much.

I learned David constantly leaves his utensils/plates/cups in the sink instead of putting them in the dishwasher. I learned he needs warm water to brush his teeth. (Isn’t that odd?!) I learned he presses snooze about 30 times every morning. And I also learned more important things, like that he’s constantly helping his family/mom in some way – that he’ll drop absolutely anything to make sure he’s there for them. I learned that he’ll support me no matter what. I learned that he is the hardest working man I’ve ever known. While I probably ‘knew’ some of those things before, seeing it on a daily basis is totally different.

So much has happened in the last year. David supported me through nearly 3 months of unemployment following our wedding, and then celebrated with me when I found my first ‘big girl job.’ We experienced our first holiday season as our own family. We became a part of a new group of friends who we absolutely adore. We dealt with a ton and a half of family drama. We celebrated our first birthdays and holidays as husband and wife. We survived David finishing his last couple semesters of undergrad and his first real busy season as a public accountant. We grieved with a dear friend through the loss of her father/one of our mentors. We completed countless house projects. We hosted multiple family get-togethers and parties in our (now not so) new home. We watched friends get married, offered advice (are we even qualified?), and were even readers in one wedding. And through everything, we fell even more in love with each other.

I wouldn’t change a thing about our first year of marriage. Has it been easy? No, not really. But has it been worth it? MOST definitely. The one thing I’ve learned over and over again is that you must make your marriage a priority. It’s so easy to slip into a routine and end up living like roommates instead of husband and wife. You make time for everything else that’s important to you – Why wouldn’t you make time for working on the most important relationship in your life? Multiple people told me that marriage is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, but also one of the most rewarding, and I couldn’t agree more.

I am SO blessed. And I’m so excited to see what the next year (and the many years after!) holds for us. Regardless of what happens, life is so good with David by my side. It’s so comforting to know I have a husband/best friend/teammate/partner/encourager for life.

I love you more than I ever thought was possible, babe! You’re my biggest blessing, and I’ll never be able to express how grateful I am for you, everything you do, and everything you are. Happy 1st anniversary!

Married ladies – What's the most important thing you learned your first year as a wife? I’m obviously still learning, and love advice!

Also, I have my last recap (tear!!) scheduled to go live later today. :( I can't believe I'm really finished. If you've missed any, be sure to catch up! 

Wedding ABC’s: Part 2

Here’s the rest of my post from Tuesday!

 

Music:

 

Our grandparents were seated to ‘Canon in D’ and our parents were seated to ‘Love Never Fails’ by Brandon Heath. Our bridal party walked down the aisle to the beginning of ‘Kisses and Cake’ by John Powell and I came in at 3:47 and it was absolutely perfect.

 

 

Two of our friends from high school were our musicians, and they sang ‘When I Say I Do’ by Matthew West and ‘The Luckiest’ by Ben Folds. Here’s a low-quality recording of the first song – He did SUCH a good job!

 

 

Our recessional was ‘You Make My Dreams Come True’ by Hall and Oates – Probably one of my favorite parts of the day!

 

 

And our first dance was to ‘our song,’ which is ‘True Companion’ by Marc Cohn.

 

Newlyweds:

 

This is a blog all about our newlywed life, so you guys are pretty much caught up on that! Here’s one of our first pictures as newlyweds!

 

 

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue:

 

My something old was my grandma’s rosary that was wrapped around my bouquet:

 

 

My something new was my dress, shoes, veil, basically everything.

 

My something borrowed was my slip and corset from my best friend.

 

My something blue was my bride underwear from Victoria’s Secret (on the left in the picture, although yes, I bought all 3) and my KU garter.

 

 

 

Photography:

 

We used Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design and would highly recommend her!

 

 

Question Popping:

 

It happened March 7, 2009! You can read the whole story here – It’s a good one! :)

 

 

 

Reception:

 

I absolutely loved our reception aside from our terrible experience with the venue – Boulevard Banquet Hall (now ‘The Boulevard’) in Wichita, KS – DON’T use them!! – and wish we could do it all over again! You can read all of my posts about it here. (And please do – there are so many pictures I want to share!)

 

 

 

Shoes:

 

I’m about 0.25” shorter than David, so I wore pink ballet flats!

 

 

 

Trash the Dress:

 

I love looking at pictures of trash the dress sessions, but I could never do it!

 

Unique:

 

Oh man, we had a bunch of unique details because I was determined to take the DIY route. You can see a lot of them here. Also, our ceremony was totally written by us, so it was unique, although I’ve since seen another bride use it. I recapped it word for word here, here, and here.

 

Vows:

 

We wrote our own vows, and I loved them. I said, ‘I, Laura, take you, David, to be my husband before God who bought us together and all of these witnesses. As we enter upon the privileges and joys of life’s most holy relationship and begin together the great adventure of building a Christian home, I will look to you as head of our home as I have looked to Christ as head of the church. I will follow you through all of life’s experiences as you follow God. I will love you in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, in sorrow as in joy, and will be true to you by God’s grace, trusting in Him so long as we both shall live.’

 

 

Wedding Woes:

 

Again, our reception venue. You can read that whole story here. The only other one I can remember is both of my sisters being late to get ready/take pictures, which was pretty disappointing at the time. Overall, though, things went really well!

 

X-rated:

 

Uhhh, no.

 

Young Kids:

 

Our flower girls and ring bearer were my nieces and nephew. They are the cutest darn kids ever, biased or not. I love them to pieces!

 

 

{With our honorary flower girl, their baby sister!}

 

 

Zzzzz:

 

We were SO tired after everything was over! Luckily we had Sunday to recover a bit – We had lunch and opened gifts with our families and then took a nice long nap before packing and running errands for our honeymoon. Our flight left early Monday morning, and having that extra day was SO nice!

 

So there’s a quick recap of our wedding! If you’re interested in more details or have any questions, feel free to contact me or visit my wedding blog!