Rehearsing as the Day was nearly upon us.

By the time we all got to the rehearsal for the ceremony, you could feel the amount of stress 

going on from planning the wedding.

But there was also a sense of peace knowing that the day we had all been waiting for and praying about what indeed almost upon us.

The reception was looking beautiful and it really was just a matter of tying together some loose ends before we could all kick back and celebrate the start of Z&D's marriage.

We were so thankful that God heard even the smallest prayers around their wedding day.

Because when we rehearsed it was so cold outside, 

and during the ceremony the sun was shining and it was the most beautiful day

we had the entire time I was there.

Praise God for His goodness!!

Sorry for teasing you guys with pictures haha.

There will be pictures from the actual day soon.

Just walking you through most of what I have been up to.

Much Love,

L

Girl Behind the Blog: Your Influence

Hey Ladies,

Its time for another Girl Behind the Blog Link-Up.

I'm so glad Ashley keeps hosting these because its so awesome to keep seeing all you beautiful ladies in real life and hear different things about you all.

I also am so excited that Erin is co-hosting this month since she is my kindred spirit and I'm so thankful for her friendship.

So to support them both. Here is my video and addition to the Girl Behind the Blog 

Community.

You guys should head over and check out the other videos.

These ladies are so beautiful inside & Out. 

I'm so thankful for the close friendships of several of these ladies.

The Prompt

Time limit: Vlogs should be 2-3 minutes long

Introduce yourself and your blog

Who or what has influenced the way you think and who you are or changed the way you think/are? 

How do you hope to influence people through your blog? 

Is there another area in your life where you have influence? How do you plan to use your influence in this area? 

I know I keep saying that I hope to be back to regular blogging soon and honestly ladies I am trying.

You will have to bare with me for another few days as I deal with some pressing things going on in life right now.

I do have several ideas for posts but have been stuck in a funk for a few days.

So know they are coming, but I am just using this time to spend time with the Lord and work on some heart issues.

Much Love,

L

Tales of a Reception Set-Up.

We had an amazing group of ladies working to turn this:

Into a vision of beauty looking like this:

Z had worked really hard ahead of time to picture the look she was going for. We had so much fabric to work with which was amazing.

Especially when you combine that with an aunt who is an interior designer.

Like wow. The only response after seeing her work.

Like this picture where she used remnants of decorations to cover heaters which we didn't need.

It was a fun day even if a little stressful. There were about 8 of us working hard in this hall making it look the way they wanted it.

There was a point where we wondered if we were going to get it all done as it was taking so long.
So thankful for husbands who are so calm in stressful scenarios (see last picture LOL).

Here are some of the little touches:

 Flowers in the backs of the chairs & Guestbook table with prayer tree.

(The guests wrote a prayer for the couple as they started their marriage, not sure if they've had a chance to read them all yet)

 Thumbprint tree for them to frame and put in their new home together, reminding them of all the people supporting their marriage.

Sparklers to send them off on their honeymoon with.

 Goldfish in the centerpieces, the coolest thing ever!!! And Dan's sweet sisters spent probably 3 hrs wrapping the cutlery at each of the place settings. 

The favors Z had done herself ahead of time. Seeds for everyone to plant.

Sad I couldn't bring any back due to agricultural laws of CBP. 

Oh well =) 

What sweet ideas right? Z had found a lot of them on Pinterest during the last year....

got to love Pinterest wedding ideas.

It truly was beautiful to see it all take place.

Hope its not too much picture overload for everyone.

I couldn't help sharing each beautiful detail.

(Pictures with logo property of Mike Dick)

Much Love,

L

Details of the Bridal Shower.

Over the next few days, I thought I would share with you guys what had me so busy these past two weeks.

Remember the Bridal Shower ideas I shared here.

Well here is how they turned out...... 

I didn't have my nice camera with me during the shower as I was busy organizing things, but here are some pictures to give you an idea of the decorations. 

The first shows the pompoms made out of tissue paper, my amazing mom helped me with these.

I think they look amazing and are pretty easy. Definitely want to use these again if I plan another party. 

I didn't get a picture of the cupcake style lights, they did work although we had to tape them all together to get them to stay on the lights.

This was a fun game we played where the guests had to guess whether the happy couple were dating, engaged or just met in the pictures.

It was quite a hard game, I will admit.

Of course we did the toilet paper brides. 

Don't they look lovely? 

So many of the ladies brought such wonderful advice to share with my sister about marriage.

I was so thankful for such a wonderful group of ladies who were then willing to pray over my sister as she prepared for her upcoming marriage.

She has married into such a godly family full of wonderful women, her sister-in-laws are the sweetest ladies.

Praying that they are having a wonderful start to married life as they return from their honeymoon today.

What advice would you give a soon-to-be Bride?

Much Love,

L

Short but Sweet Visits.

Hey Sweet Friends,

I think this has been the longest blog break in a while for me. 

I am back from England now so hopefully will be back in the swing of things in the next few days.

I apologize for my lack of replying to emails and things, I hope to catch up with many of you soon.

It was a wonderful time to take a break and enjoy the precious time I had with my family and sister & now brother =)

The first picture is the view from my window at my parent's house.

Very different from my view here in the states. 

I will update y'all slowly about the wedding and things as it is such a joy to share such a precious memory.

My brother-in-law's (doesn't that sound awesome!) family came into town a few days after I did and we had dinner with them before the busyness of rehearsal dinners, bridal showers and other planning was in full force.

Such a fun evening spending time together enjoying our gathering to celebrate the start of Z&D's marriage.

We got to celebrate D's sweet sister's birthday.

I was so thankful to see them again, they have been leaving overseas the past year after living less than a mile from our old house.

So sweet reunions all round.

The sweet couple walked the archway for the ceremony up to my grandma's garage where we stored all the decorations to go in the gardens for the wedding.

They set it down and posed for a picture.

Aren't they sweet?

So thankful for encouraging sweet friendships.

The time was too short.

But I'm thankful that now we are all family, we shall hopefully see more of each other.

That's all for me today as I am still trying to unpack and get over jetlag.

Love you all!

L

Bridal Shower.

Hey guys,

Just a little message to let you know wedding plans for the sister getting married are coming along.

This evening we had her bridal shower. 

(bride is in the middle in white)

We are pretty much just super super busy until the main event.

So there won't really be much from me for a few days.

Maid of Honor responsibilities. 

Much Love,

L

50 Shades of Stupid [Co-hosted with Julie from The Funny Thing]

Welcome to 50 SHADES OF STUPID!

The Brand New Link Up where we tell on all the stupid things we do and say!

Now, it's YOUR turn, Grab a button, tell me something dumb you did last week,

last month, last year, 14 years ago...or maybe something you do regularly!

I am ready to get my giggle on. You know, the giggle you get when you are alone.

At your computer. Smiling like a monkey. That giggle.

Grab a button, link up, follow me and my co-host  this week, 

which is L from ALL GLORIOUS WITHIN and make us laugh!



<a border="0" href="http://thefunnythingofitis.blogspot.com/search/label/50%20Shades%20Of%20Stupid" target="_blank"><img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b370/jewels76/50shadesbuttonofficial.jpg" border="0" alt="50shades" /></a>

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Hey guys!

L here now to share my fun story!! =)

So.....my story happens to involve a Jr high experience.

I picked one from so long ago simply because I think it is by far

one of the most embarrassing things to happen to me.

Picture me as a little sixth grader a little intimidated at being the small kid full of middle schoolers.

Having a hard time? Here let me help you visualize.....

So I decided that student council sounded like a totally cool idea &

thought I would go ahead and run for sixth grade rep.

Everything went really smoothly,

I was running against a new kid in the school and someone who was pretty new too....

so most people had told me they had full confidence I would do an excellent job.

We get to the school assembly where everyone running for student council is giving their speeches.

And the sixth grade reps are set to go last, myself the very last person.

I was sitting on that stage listening to these awesome speeches

and freaking out about how lame mine was starting to sound on the piece of paper in my hand.

Finally, it was my turn......

I got up to the podium.

Said my name.

And Froze.

Nothing.

For like several minutes.

I just stood there.

Until finally a teacher came up and asked me if I wanted to sit down again.

So I did.

And cried.

On the stage.

In front of the whole middle school.

I never lived that down.

Everyone remembered for pretty much the whole of Jr High.

Oh and I lost the election too.

(Yes, that's me in the tie-dye shirt, btw I am wearing shorts underneath)

Guess politics were just never my thing =)

Can't wait to hear all of your embarrassing moments!!!!

Much Love,

L

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Influence Excitement

Countdown: 1 month & 1 day till Influence Conference

Well there are many reasons why I am looking forward to Influence.
I'm looking forward to the awesome sessions, seeing several of you lovely ladies in person
for the first time (anyone else find that weird, cause I totally feel I know you guys already?),
learning about how to blog with Christ at the center.
I feel a wonderful weekend of learning and sweet friendships on the horizon.

One of the reasons I'm so excited, is that I have awesome roomies lined up who I also happen

to be roadtripping to the conference with.

These three girls and I will be sharing a room.

So for sure, there will be many goofy moments awaiting us.

(SweetnessItself, What She Saw, Taste and See)

But just in case you wanted to see a project in the works
(I know we are so months behind when this was cool....but we don't live in the same place guys!!)
Enjoy these moments from when I stayed with one of these girls in the past.

Hopefully that got you laughing!
I'm sure there will be many more moments to share!

Much Love,
L

Fall Fashion.

Over on Casey Wiegands blog last week,
 I entered a giveaway and had so much fun making this fall collection of items,
 I wanted to share this with you.

Obviously a lot of these are ridiculously expensive
and just pretty to look at.
But sometimes it's more fun to find something expensive
and then go thrifting or to sales to find something very similar.



What items are on your fall essentials?

Much Love,
L

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Not Perfect.

As a dear friend and I sat on a Barnes and Noble floor and pondered many different topics, we talked about perception of blog identity. Of how we appear to others in the Blog world. How we are being perceived to those who read the thoughts we share. How we could be seen to put our best foot forward. We could be seem as though we have it all together. That we have perfected on thoughts on things before we write. 

So just let me clarify a few things.

Please don't ever think that I have it all together.
That I am perfect in any way.

I have nothing but Jesus.

Don't think that I have never cried out to the Lord from the pain of trials He has allowed in my life
(for my own good), crying for Him to remove a trial or struggle
because I can't bear it any more.
Even though I may write about having a focus on learning from struggles/trials and
how we can grow from them,
this is often written in hindsight.
After I have learned that difficult truth. 

Please don't think that because I chose to focus on joy in these situations
while writing in this area of Influence (my blog),
that I don't ever feel discouraged or discontent.
Focusing on being joyful is how I actually find joy in a lot of these situations.

I have joy because of Jesus.

I have hope because of Jesus.

I have faith because of Jesus.

I share these things because He changed my life. 

I am on an adventure learning how to love Him with all my heart, mind, soul, strength 

and how to love others through the overflow of His love for me.

I never want to do things to win His approval (I can't!)

but because He loves me and I want to love him in return.

So please friends, I never want you to feel that you can't email me or talk to me.

I never want to be unapproachable or to come across as judgmental.

That is not my heart at all!

I screw up badly just like everyone else.

I am far from perfect.

I say the wrong things, do the wrong things and 

step on the toes of others.

My goal is never for you ladies to think I am perfect.

But to know that I love Jesus.

And if you want to know more about Him.......

...Oh girl, email me! Cause I would love to tell you more! 

Much Love,

L

Influence Meet & Greet.

Well hello everyone! I'm so sorry about forgetting to set this post up, 

as I did know about it a few days ago.

Truth be told, I am still relating to Winnie-the-Pooh with feeling as though my head is made of fluff. Therefore, I am trying to lie low as I am due to fly to England this upcoming weekend to perform Maid of Honor duties for my sister's wedding. 

(Whilst trying not to think of all the things that have to happen before then)

So cold ~ Be gone!!!

However, in October...my plan is to attend the Influence Conference along with several awesome girls I have met through this beautiful community. 

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am, 

and nervous as it does seem weird to be heading to a blogging conference right? 

(Well maybe to those who don't blog)

It also hasn't full sunk in yet that God actually opened the door for me to go, and to join several of my closest blogging friends! What an amazing blessing!! 

I am still working on the final projects which have helped me pay my way to the conference.

My Etsy products have been such a help. (Store here)

So even though it seemed like a pipe-dream....the money was provided and it is actually becoming a reality.

3 get-to-know-me things:

1. I have been married for 2 amazing years to my wonderful husband, A. It has been such an adventure and such an eye-opener at learning how sinful I am. Marriage has definitely been one of the biggest refining processes I have ever been through. 

2. I am actually British by nationality. But I don't have an accent so it's unlikely you would have ever figured this out unless I told you. 

(Or you traveled with me and saw my passport)

3. I have a heart for encouraging others, especially younger girls. I led a Jr high small group just after graduating high school and fell in love with encouraging them and sharing Jesus with them. I long to see other girls falling passionately in love with Jesus. 

(Picture taken of some of the group this summer, 6 yrs later!) 

2 things I’m looking forward to about the conference:

1. Meeting all the wonderful ladies whose blogs I have been reading and who have been such an encouragement in the past 7 months of blogging!

(Including driving on a mini-road trip with my roomies to Indianapolis and having tons of fun hanging out in person with those girls!)

2. Learning more about how to blog to further God's kingdom! I feel there is so much wisdom to be gained from the sessions available and the ladies hosting this conference, I can't wait to hear all about what they have learned in their adventures with God.

1 thing I can’t leave home without:

My camera!!!

Because I know I will want to remember the memories and wisdom gained from this trip for a very long time!!

And I can't wait to share about the conference! 

Much Love,

L