What Does Family Mean to You?

Amazing Life Manifesto, Dreaming  //  10th July 2013

A few weeks ago we had one of our brides and grooms and their families over to share their wedding photos with them for the first time. As we gathered in our living room, the family started asking us about our family. We quickly pulled out our “What Does Family Mean to You” album and started sharing all about the fun we had making the album! Then we got really crazy and decided to share the video we made to go along with the album! As the tears filled my eyes again, I was reminded of how truly special our family is! Our bride and groom and their families were in awe. The love that radiates the pages of that book and the truth that is shared through the words on the video struck us as if we had never seen the pictures or heard the words before. That evening we were blessed with the reminder of how truly special family is… and even more importantly… how truly special OUR family is!

During the photo shoot for the album we asked everyone the same simple question, “What does family mean to you?” Today we wanted to reflect on that a little further. So we decided to think of a word that starts with each letter in family.

Faith: Family is having faith in each other. Faith that we can count on each other no matter how hard or difficult something may seem. And having faith that someone will always be there to stand by our side.
Always: Family is always there. If we need advice on taking a new job, taking care of each other when we are sick, or just someone to make us laugh and turn a not so good day into a happy day, we can always count on family.
Memories: Trips to Disney World, campfires outback, graduations, weddings, and so many more. The most important memories in our lives have always been when family surrounds us.
Inspiring: Family is inspiring! It amazes us to see all the incredible things our family does each day with their lives. We are all unique and different but all amazing and inspirational!
Love: Family is unconditional love. No matter how difficult things may seem in life, family is there to love us unconditionally.
Youth: Thinking of family brings back memories of our youth, playing tag, baseball in the backyard, and fun family picnics. Youth is also the refreshing of family with new children, nieces, and nephews. No matter what, when we are around family, we never feel old, but instead like we are always in our youth.

I think Liz’s MeMe summed it up best: “I pray every night that our family loves one another and does for one another… When anybody is in need that they will be there to help them. That’s my prayer of life.” – MeMe

So tell us, What does family mean to you?

Finding Happiness Together – AMAZING Marriages

Life in Love  //  8th July 2013

Since we’ve been married, finding happiness together has always been one of our biggest goals. We’ve always believed that the choices we make in life lead to our overall happiness. If there is just one thing we could have in life, it would be to always be happy. When we are happy, the day goes by so much quicker, we get things accomplished faster, we are excited to wake up in the morning, and we are more pleasant to be around. Liz and I have always tried to communicate with each other as much as possible about what makes us happy but just recently, we decided to take a more strategic approach to our happiness. Ok, I must admit, as a former engineer, this made me super excited!!! :) I am a bit of a nerd for creating plans, processes, and designs. :)

As we were in the car driving to photograph a recent wedding, we began chatting about our dreams for the future, living in Annapolis, owning a café, filming a documentary, and making family a larger priority in our lives.  As we chatted, we started feeling frustrated. A lot of these dreams have been on our minds for a while now and although we are making progress towards each of them, for some reason, on this car ride, it just felt like we were not going in the right direction.

It was at that moment that I said to Liz, “What makes you happy? What makes us happy?” There was a silent pause while we both thought about the answers to these questions. The answers were simple: Spending time with each other, sharing our home with family and friends, helping others have a more amazing life together, serving others, and capturing photos that couples will have for the rest of their lives.

As we talked more during our trip, we realized that the things that make us happy were currently not necessarily the top priority in our lives and that they didn’t all match up to our future life goals. As we approached the venue for our wedding, we knew we needed to think on this further and continue the conversation.

So back to the type A part of my personality, :), we decided to create a monthly Happiness Summit in order to help us obtain greater happiness together and to make sure our life goals match up with what actually does make us happy. So you might be asking, what does our Happiness Summit look like? As with our Dream Storm meetings, we decided to hold it at a place that makes us happy. For us, that can be any of a few places: On our rooftop deck, at our favorite coffee shop, or sitting in the sand at the beach. Once we are there, we ask ourselves the following questions.

• As an individual what makes us happy?
• As a couple what makes us happy?
• What do we think makes each other happy?

After spending 5 – 10 minutes on each question separately, we compare notes. As we chat we discuss ways to help each other be happier and then we come up with a happiness plan that answers the following questions:

• What can we do each day to help each other be happier?
• What tasks, activities, and frustrations can we eliminate in order to be happier as a couple?
• What do we each do well to make each other happy that we could do more of on a regular basis?

Finally, once we’ve decided on our plan for happiness, we take some time to dream about the future. As we think about our future, we think about how accomplishing these goals will make us feel on an everyday basis. If the effort to accomplish a goal on our list isn’t going to make us happy, then we stop and think about whether the goal is something we really want to achieve. In the end, knowing that life is short and that we should spend it being happy together is the most important goal we have.

So as you go about your week, we hope that you will take sometime together to host your own Happiness Summit. Liz and I will be hosting our own later this week and we will definitely share our results. But no matter what, whatever you do this week, be sure to do the things that make you happy!!!

Thanks to all of our AMAZING Friends and Family (in and not in the photo!) that helped us celebrate the 4th of July last week!!!

Have an AMAZING Week!!!

Liz and Ryan As Seen In | The Buzz Updated

Gratitude, Saying Thanks  //  5th July 2013

Since yesterday was July 4th (hope you had a sparkly celebration! ;) ), we thought it would be fun to end the week with a bang and celebrate all of the exciting places we have run into Liz and Ryan photos recently! ;) We have FINALLY updated The Buzz section of our website and words really can’t describe how grateful we are for every opportunity we have had to share our photos! Seeing our brides and grooms (and our fun DIY projects) on other blogs and in print sets fireworks off in our hearts! ;) (haha… I am full of it today! ;) ) But the reality is… the more people that see our AMAZING couples the happier this world is going to be because their happiness radiates happiness! ;)

Thank you so much to all of the editors and creators of these AMAZING publications for sharing our work and most especially spreading happiness by sharing images of our AMAZING couples!!

When you have a few minutes, definitely check out The Buzz section of our website and click through to the links of these AMAZING publications! Leave them some love… guaranteed they will appreciate a friendly hello from you! ;)

Thank YOU so much to these AMAZING publications where our work has recently been featured:

Southern Weddings Magazine V5, The Huffington Post, Style Me Pretty, Heart Love Weddings, Bayside Bride, Wedding Chicks, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, The Baltimore Sun, The Knot, Weddings 411, My True Blu, Bridal Guide, Baltimore Bride, Charm City Wed, and The Happy Family Movement!

So grateful for you all and an extra special thanks to all of our couples too!! Thank you all for being so AMAZING!! We love you! ;)

Making Our Lives Good | Allstate Good Life Commercial

Celebrating the Everyday  //  3rd July 2013

It is not often that a TV commercial stops me in my tracks. In fact, now that we have Apple TV and it tells us how long the commercials are going to be, I find myself running to do other things while the commercials play. Most of the time, I don’t even pay attention to the commercials… but the Allstate Good Life commercial stopped me in my tracks.

I can’t even tell you what TV show we were watching, but I can say that I watched every single TV break hoping to see this commercial again. And it was on every single break. ;) It is so good, friends. The message is such a good reminder that amongst the bad things that can happen in life, we have the choice to make sure it doesn’t stop us from making our lives good! Ahhh! LOVE it!

So good, right?!?! We are just about half way through our Take Action Challenge with Still Motion (the video workshop we are doing) and we are learning so much about cinematography and the art of storytelling! It is such an art and we are appreciating it even more than ever before!

The story in this commercial is one that we can all relate to! There are stories of “bad” all around… but we can’t let that stop us from making our lives good.

Have an AMAZING day, my friends!

Be Spontaneous

Amazing Life Manifesto, Dreaming  //  1st July 2013

Over the past few weeks, with wedding season in full swing, we found ourselves in a bit of a cycle. We would wake up, blog, work, work, work, and work some more, until it was time for our fav tv show to come on (The Bachelorette, of course) and then we would move our work station to the couch and continue to work. Seriously, that was pretty much the story of our days! We were getting the work done, but we struggled to make time for balance.

Last week, we decided to switch it up! We took a little time off the blog and found time for us. Everyday we took a long walk just to enjoy the moment! It was pretty magical. Even though our days were still very productive and hardworking, by the end of the week I said to Ryan, “I feel like we are on vacation.”

However, it definitely took me till the end of the week to actually slow down and realize it is ok, in fact… it is actually a good thing to find balance. I am still working on that everyday! We have the hardest time taking breaks and taking time for ourselves knowing there is always something to be done for the business!

Last week, we had a little lesson in spontaneity. As we were about to walk out the door to head to the coffee shop for the day, Ryan proposed that we take some time to do something fun before we left. I pretty much freaked out. lol. Seriously, we had a plan to go to the coffee shop so my head was already running through everything that we had to get done while we were there. (I am finally realizing that this is a major difference between men and women! I hear there is a book called Men are Like Waffles – Women are Like Spaghetti by Pam Farrel where she talks about this very thing… I will be reading it soon! ;) ). Anyway… after I freaked out and then got upset because I felt like I was ruining all of the fun (am I crazy?!?! ;) )… we decided to take a walk.

We walked down to Inner Harbor and as we walked by the fountain, Ryan decided to test my spontaneity! ;) I said, “we should go run through the fountain” (as a joke, of course). And as soon as the words came out of my mouth, I knew I had to do it. With Ryan laughing at me and thinking I would never do it, I said I have to, “I want to be spontaneous!” It was my way of redeeming myself and reminding myself that I am actually fun when I take the time to be! ;)

So, amongst the 20 little kids running around in only their bathing suits, I found myself in the middle of the fountain, fully clothed, with the biggest smile on my face! If this is what it always feels like to be spontaneous, we should all do it more often!

I am going to continue to work on that.

Yep thats me. In the center in the green shirt. (Sorry for the iphone pic! ;) )