05-26-10
The Nicest Thing I Have Ever Done///Pt 4
Last one!
I didn’t take many pictures of the wedding day brunch, but this is before:
And now, the ceremony!
The bride had a painter paint the wedding scene and gave it to her parents afterward:
The finished product:
Programs:
Probably my favorite detail:
Then we had a cocktail hour, and THEN we had dinner and dancing. However, I forgot to take pictures at this point. So, this is all I’ve got!
More things with my NAME on them:
It was such a fun weekend because we didn’t have to worry about anything. All details were taken care of for us, making the whole thing stress free and fun. I kept joking that the only problem I had was worrying if we were going too fast in the golf cart because I didn’t want my drink to spill 
(it didn’t).
By the way, they planned the wedding and they did the invitations/programs/anything printed. SO impressed!
05-25-10
The Nicest Thing I Have Ever Done///Pt 3
On the way to the rehearsal dinner:
With the beautiful bride:
I love things with my name on them…have I mentioned that?
Menu–best meal of the weekend:
After dinner, we went to the dancing part of the evening.
And look! MORE FOOD! Popcorn and chips!
Candy!
Cupcakes!
My two faves:
And tomorrow, finally! The ceremony! (And then I’ll go back to my regularly scheduled blogging. Which, let’s get serious, probably means not blogging so much)
05-19-10
The Nicest Thing I Have Ever Done///Part 2
My mom, my sister and I were invited to the Bridesmaids’ Brunch (even though we weren’t actually bridesmaids).
As a reminder, the invitation looked like this:
When we got there, our names were embroidered on a little napkin?coaster? to indicate where we sat. Please also note the embroidered napkins.
The menu:
The pretty, pretty food:
Flowers! Sweet Peas! And my sister!
And…after we had an amazing sorbet dessert, they brought out cotton candy! SO fun!
Tomorrow: Rehearsal Dinner and Wedding Day Brunch
05-18-10
The Nicest Thing I Have Ever Done///Pt. 1
This past weekend, my family and I were invited to what shall henceforth be known as The Nicest Thing I Have Ever Done, aka my [step] cousin’s wedding weekend at Gorham’s Bluff in Pisgah, AL.
Over the next few days I’m going to be sharing the details of this wedding, starting back in November when we got the Save the Dates (please note my mad photoshopping skillz).
The invites included the story of how the bride and groom met, an outline of the weekend’s events, and lodging information. Of course, since we’re family, we got to stay on the property all weekend. For relatively free, I might add…that might be rude to mention but I don’t care because it just made it THAT much more awesome for me.
Then in about February, we got the actual wedding invitation (these are the same, but I wanted to show the cool wrapper thing with my NAME ON IT. i love things with my name on them):
A few weeks later, the invitations for the various events of the weekend began to arrive: 
We left Friday morning (my sister and I sleeping in the back seat like we’re 7 and 10)
and met the Father of the Bride (aka the Brother of my Step-dad) and the rest of the family before caravaning (i think i made up that word) up to Gorham’s Bluff. On the way there we find out we not only have our our house for our rather small family of 4, but we have 2 golf carts (one for my parents, one for sister+me) for transportation purposes. Because, I mean, who wants to walk DOWN THE STREET in heels, right? I had never driven a golf cart before…and let me tell you, I’m not very good at it. Perhaps because I insist upon taking pictures/drinking/laughing my head off at the ridiculousity (i think i made up that word too) of it all while driving as fast as possible.
So, our house.
The one with the wrap around front porch and a balcony AND a screened in back porch? Yeah, it was beautiful. See for yourself:
When we went inside, we were greeted with these lovely picnic baskets:
Containing maps, an official schedule (complete with the wedding planner’s phone number), and SNACKS!
Love the details somuch.
For tomorrow: The Bridesmaid’s Brunch! Hint: cotton candy FTW!
05-08-10
Praise in the Valleys; or, My Thoughts on Plan B
I received an advance copy of Plan B by Pete Wilson in exchange for a review on my blog (from booksneeze, which is so great, by the way…you should check it out [I'm looking at you and you]). I usually hate reading blogs when people give reviews, but I really wanted this book and I really wanted it early. Oh, and Pete’s my pastor. And I like him a lot. Um, and I’m impatient.
A couple of years ago I found myself constantly asking God why life wasn’t turning out the way I thought it should. Plan B is about just that – how to deal when things are seemingly falling apart. Pete’s not stating that God has a Plan B. He is making the point that, while God only has a Plan A, we as humans often get to Plan Z before we stop planning in general and learn to rely on Him.
My life was a cycle:
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I had it all planned out. Graduate from college, get a job that paid me $40,000 a year with an awesome laptop and a company car, meet someone, get married, live happily ever after.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Move to New York, have a fabulous life a la Sex and the City and/or Felicity, get a fantastic and high paying job, help plant a church, make lots of new friends, meet someone, get married, and live happily ever after.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Move home from New York for the summer, get a part time job, move to California, go to grad school, get a degree in Biblical Counseling, start a new adventure. Oh, and meet someone, get married, and live happily ever after. Of course.
And even recently: It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Start dating in March, engaged by December, get married next summer, and live happily ever after.
That’s not the case. Honestly, it’s not even close. [Sometimes you have to walk away from what's 'good' to pursue what's 'best'].
This book and sermon series couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for me. Something Pete said on Sunday kind of slapped me in the face (he does that sometimes):
The reason you are so broken is because you gave your love and devotion to your plans and dreams instead of to God.
There’s that word again– broken. Brokenness = in need of rescue. In need of someone to sew our hearts back together. We need healing, and we need a healer. I’ve written about this before…and I talk about this rather often. (One day I might write a book about it!)
How many times was I going to plan something my way only to realize it wasn’t going to go my way?
How many times was I going to look at my circumstances and say, “it wasn’t supposed to be this way”?
How long before I realize that I am broken, I am not in control, and Jesus is my everything?
In his book Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr says:
I believe that faith might be precisely that ability to trust the river, to trust the flow and the lover. It is a process that we don’t have to change, coerce, or improve. We need to allow it to flow. That takes immense confidence in God, especially when we’re hurting.
Especially when we’re hurting…yes. Learning that now, this very week. This very moment, even, as I prepare to go help clean out homes of those who have lost everything in the Nashville flood. We were not made to live on the mountaintop, but praise in the valleys.
The end of Plan B says it well:
…trust that one day faith will win over doubt, that light will win over darkness, that love will win over hate, and that all things will one day be redeemed. I’m asking you, right in the middle of your Plan B pain [your plan B, NOT God's], to trust the process that is going on in your life. It won’t be finished for a while, but it has begun. God will finish what he started.
Pete’s book is awesome, and I highly recommend. Especially if you like books that slap you across the face. You should also download the sermon series “Shattered Dreams” that goes along with the book:
