Videography

When Mr. and I first got engaged we decided not to have a videographer. I was determined it was just a waste of money. My Granddad owned his own video company for years and did weddings ALL the time. He offered to video our ceremony for us and I felt that was just fine.  However, the more I thought about this the more opposed to it I became.  My Granddad is going to work during his granddaughters wedding? On top of that I will be the first grand child to get married before having children. The first grandchild to get married in a formal venue and I am going to put him to work? No, I don't think so. 

Then I decided I just didn't need it. I thought that spending thousands of dollars on a video that I'll watch just a few times a year was ridiculous. I thought this until I saw our friends video. I could see how much the loved and treasured this video. It was something they will always cherish. Then I really started thinking about how much I will miss the day of our wedding. I'll be waiting down stairs for the ceremony to start. I won't see anyone's reactions to the club. I won't see my niece and nephews walk down the aisle. I won't see my bridesmaids walk down the aisle. I won't see SO much during that day. I will miss so many precious moments because I'll either be outside taking pictures, distracted by something else or just out of the room. Do I really want to miss so many priceless moments? No.

This weekend my mom was telling me a story about my cousin Jenn who married over the weekend.  Jenn was one of my mom's flower girls in her wedding.  She tripped on her dress while walking down the aisle, then she proceeded to hike her dress all the way up to her buns, look down at her shoes, give them a dirty look, and then drop her dress and begin walking down the aisle again. My mom said the entire congregation started cracking up. She told me this story like she'd seen it happen. So when I asked her if she did see it and her response was no, I knew there is no way I can go without video. Her photographer didn't catch any of it either. She has nothing to look back of this moment. 

Another factor that really hits me is what if, God forbid, something horrible happens to me or Mr. when we have small children. Or our parents, or grandparents.. Our loved ones are not guaranteed tomorrow. Will I want my children to know what my voice sounded like if I do pass early? Will I want them to know how loving I was to their cousins and how loving I was to them - even if they don't see me with them? Or how I looked? What my manor-isms are like? Or all of the above for Mr, my parents or his parents..? If anything did happen my children would forever be able to look back and know what I was like. I would be able to look back and see my grandparents and parents 30 years from now and remember what they were like. 

So now can I imagine not having a videographer simply because it's expensive? No, because I believe that video is simply priceless.

Happy 3rd Birthday Samuel Lucas!

My sweet little Sammy,

I am honestly so shocked that today you're 3.  It really feels like it was just yesterday that you were born. Have you heard that story? Mommy and Grandma left for the hospital at 11PM, and you know the hospital is about 10 minutes away, at 11:26PM I got a phone call from Grandma and I answered it and said "what did you guys forget?" to which she replied "Nothing! He is HERE!" You wanted to come out and meet all of us so badly that you didn't even give your momma time to get some medicine.

 

I will never forget the first time I held you. Or the first time you said that you loved me. Or the first time that I walked into Grandma & Grandpa's house and you came running around the corner saying "Hi Nini!!!" and jumped into my arms. All of these moments seem like they happened just yesterday.

Did you know Sammy that I named you? When we found out you were a boy we all knew your first name would me Samuel - just like your daddy.  Your mom and dad couldn't think of a middle name and I said I thought Samuel Lucas was pretty cute and here we are 3 years later with the most beautiful little boy.

You are now starting to become your own little person.  Your sister isn't too fond of  this just because you don't always want to do what she wants you to anymore. I think it's pretty great. 

You love to play outside. 

You even just started swimming lessons! You don't like the water all that much though, after all you are related to your aunt. 

You like to pretend that you are a tiger and you have the best little growl I have heard. 

Your favorite shows are (in this order) Backyardagains, Diego, and The Wonder Pets.  

Your best friend changes daily but most days it's Grandpa, Hollie or me. I love it when you say it's me :) 

Your sister loves you so much and I know you love her just as much too. In fact when you get up from naps if you don't see Hollie the first words out of your sweet little mouth are "Where is Hollie?" 

Your favorite dinner right now is Spaghetti and Italian sausage but your favorite food is chocolate. 

You also really love to go camping.

You are certainly ALL boy! 

I used to believe that the difference between boys and girls was the way they were raised.  I thought that dad's taught their boys how to make boy noises. I know now that is not true. When you first started making noises at about 1-2 months old you would lay on your back and blow bubbles but the noise you made sounded like a truck engine revving.

At 8 months when you were crawling and playing with cars you would crash them into each other.

In fact your favorite toys are cars, dump trucks, or a ball. 

I hope you know how SMART you are. 

At one years old you had mastered the shape sorter.

You told your cousin Mason who was putting the green square in the hole that should have had the red triangle "No, Mason, da wed twiangel goes dere"

Your first word was "tickle tickle" I guess that shouldn't surprise me since Hollie's was "Wiggle Wiggle"

Sammy, I hope you know  how much you are loved by all of us.

I hope you know just how special you are. 

I hope that in 10 years when you are a teenager you still know how much we all love you.

I hope you enjoy your day at the zoo with mommy, daddy and Hollie today. 

I hope that your third year of life is just as great as your first 2 years were.

I love you sweet boy!!

If you really knew me..

I had seen this on Natasha's Blog and thought it was a really neat way to let your followers get to know you a little better.  

It's based off of MTV's new show "If you really knew me" where they go into high schools and do exercises to try and break up the clicks.  

They put nerds, jocks, popular, thin and not so thin kids together and ask them questions that reveal a lot about each individual.  

They show these kids that even though they may not be in the same click as the others they probably have a lot more in common then the people who are in their click. 

{My niece & I 3 years ago @ Grandma's 60th b-day party}

So, if you really knew me you'd know that...

• My niece and nephew are by far the most amazing people in my life. I'd do anything for them.  They are the reason I am terrified to have children of my own because I can't imagine loving anyone more than I do the two of them.
• When I was 7 I had heart surgery.  I haven't had an issue since but I am terrified that my future kids will inherit my heart condition and I'll know the fear that my parents lived with for the first 10 years of my life. 
• I am obsessed with Nordstrom. Mr. jokes that I need to go to shop-a-holics anonymous. I've curbed this obsession a bit since we've been saving for the wedding.
• I have an irrational fear of driving in the car with the doors unlocked or walking to and from my car in the dark. I'm terrified that someone will try to adult-nap me and hold me hostage or worse murder me.
• Even though I'm scared I won't love my children more than my niece and nephew I want nothing more in life than to be a momma!
• My daddy is my favorite person in this world. I have been and always will be a daddy's girl. 
• My "step-grandma" (whom has been in my life my entire life, she married my granddad when my mom was 9, and I call Grandma) is my favorite Grandma and is the only one who has never shown favoritism. She is by far the most amazing person I will ever know. She wouldn't say a bad thing about anyone and has been such a wonderful example of what I strive to be like each and every day. 
• My mom works harder than anyone that I know. She bends over backwards for my sister and I. She is the best grandmother to my niece and nephew that they could ever ask for. Seeing my parents with my niece and nephew makes me so excited to have kids!
• My brother-in-law Sam is more of a brother to me than my actual brother will ever be. I feel so blessed that the Lord brought Sam into my life and gave me the brother in him that I deserve.
• Mr. Vid is my very best friend. He's like home. As long as he is where I am I'm happy and comfortable.

What would we find out if we really knew you?!

When you make your private life public..

I know this is the second post in a day but this is something I feel I need to talk about. When is making your private life available to the public okay? When is bashing your husband or wife on the internet for hundreds of your friends and family to see okay? When is allowing others to judge only ONE side of the man or woman you married okay?

I have seen women, in particular, bashing their husbands all over facebook.  One minute they're getting divorced, the next day they're working it out, and then two days later they're getting divorced.  Now, I'm not going to lie this drama has kept me rather entertained. I can't help but to log in and read the comments these particular people are posting but is it right? Absolutely not! I understand that divorce happens. People change and people grow apart but you got married at 20 years old and you knew the guy for 2 weeks before marrying him. Am I surprised? No. Do I feel sorry for you and your soon to be ex-husband? No. Do I feel sorry for you innocent children? Yes, they're innocent by-standers. Do I feel sorry for your husband because you're online all day everyday talking about how he did you wrong? Yes, because it should remain between you and your husband!! 

Remember those vows you took, the ones that said for BETTER or for WORSE?!?! Well when things get worse you have to keep chugging  along and work on your marriage. Marriage is WORK. It's HARD WORK. You're not going to wake up tomorrow and have everything you ever wanted handed to you on a silver platter. And if you did have everything handed to you how would it be rewarding?! I mean do you really think that you're the only woman in the world who has had struggles in marriage? If you do you need to grow up. Every relationship has struggles whether it be marriage, friendship, or family issues will arise at some point and you have to be adult enough to handle them. I can tell you for sure that getting on facebook and posting status updates about how horrible your spouse is, is not the adult way to handle the issues. 

I understand that there are certainly times when you should get divorced. Maybe he's abusive, or maybe he's committed adultery and you can't move past it. However, I don't understand why you feel the need to tell the entire world what he/she has done to you? I firmly believe that once you have made your decision it's best to talk to your family and friends about your decision and why you made the decision you've made but is it right to tell people you knew 4 years ago in high school? Probably not. Out of respect for your children you should respect your soon to be ex on the internet because at the end of the day two wrongs don't make a right. 

I really don't understand why so many people feel that it's okay to reveal more to the FB/Twitter world than they would their grandmother. Yes, it's a free country and we have the right to say what we want when we want it but what happened to self respect? In my opinion the only person they're really making look bad by publicly bashing their soon to be ex is themselves! 

Have you seen this with your FB friends? What have you done about it? Deleted them? Ignored them? Read all of their posts for entertainment? Sent in a letter to TLC stating that they should have their own TV show because they've got more drama then Jon and Kate?!?!

Must learn to say no..

Words of wisdom - Don't say yes to driving your friends mom 16 hours in a car without really knowing the person first.  Mr. and I went to Palm Springs for the weekend for a little bit of business and a lot of play and we drove my friends mom down with us (she flew back, thank God!) the woman didn't stop talking for more than 20 seconds the entire 16 hours.  I felt so bad for Mr. He is the quite type and usually on long drives we listen to music and talk about random stuff here and there but overall the drive is pretty quite and we just enjoy the silence.. Not this time. The last 100 miles he gave me many death glares. We will never be the nice guys and say yes again.

Overall though we had an awesome trip! We had the opportunity to talk to some people who are doing really awesome things in my company and I learned so much! We really were able to spend a lot of quality time with amazing people and a lot of time laying by the pool with yummy drinks! Although, Mr. did get caught sneaking his own beer in to the pool.. He was just asked to take it back up to the room. We are both already looking forward to our trip next summer but we will be flying! I don't have any pictures yet but I'll be sure to post some in the next couple of days after I steal some from others who went too! 

How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun?

Bridesmaids Gifts!

I realize that I still have 9 months to worry about this but considering I have seven - yes, you read that right, seven bridesmaids - I wanted to get started early and collect one or two things at a time to give them all a totally awesome gift for being my very best friends and stand up there with me on my special day!

What would you be thrilled to receive as a BM gift? I'm looking for some out of the box idea's... What did you give your BM's?

Top 2 Tuesday

It's Tuesday... That means it's time for one of my favorite blog hops hosted by Taylor.  

This week The Undomestic Mama is doing Top 2 Tips!

The tips can be about anything so make sure you pick yours and link up!! 

1) My first tip is to spend more time loving and laughing than fighting and crying.  You never know who will be here tomorrow or even this evening.  Love like crazy and enjoy every moment you have with those that you love.

2) My second tip is on keeping your lips in great condition! I am a firm believer that this stuff keeps my lips soft and un-chapped. I love the tingling/cooling feeling when you first put it on.

***Edit - All photo's via.***

Lets talk wedding flowers....

I am over the moon excited to tell you all that we have found a florist that I L.O.V.E.!!! Although, she projected our overall floral expense about $1400 more than I wanted to spend Mr. has approved me to up our floral budget by $900. SCORE! :D This girl is happy!

So the florist we chose is so incredibly artsy and creative! My mom and I met with her Saturday morning and our hour consult went for almost two hours.  She gave us so many ideas! She really took the time to find out what kind of flowers I love and what I really don't love. On top of all of that she also took the time to show me different options for the seating at the reception and even told me that if I had an issue with our vendor doing the layout I wanted that she'd "take care of it"! She made sure to show me how we could reuse the alter arrangements on the head table and how we could reuse the bridesmaid's bouquets on the head table as well. 

I left the consult feeling overwhelmed in a great way! I felt as if she got my vision and enhanced it. I felt confident that she would make me very happy on our wedding day.  I know that having her do our floral is going to ease so much stress for me the week of the wedding!

Now if only we can find a little extra cash for a videographer...