AMAZING Marriage Project Documentary

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  26th July 2013

As I think about what I want to write in this post, I am truly at a loss for words. I went to Pinterest in search of some inspiration for a quote or two on following your dreams. I found many… of course! ;) (Thank you Pinterest!) But with each one, I was feeling a little overwhelmed with everything that I would want to say.

A few months ago, Ryan and I had this crazy idea… The AMAZING Marriage Project. The goal was to photograph 15-25 married couples and learn as much as possible from them about what makes their marriages AMAZING! As the nominations rolled in, we quickly realized that our crazy dream just wasn’t crazy enough. There was more to it, for sure! The stories that many of you shared with us blew us away! They touched our hearts in a special way and we knew they had to be shared with more than “just” photographs! Our passion quickly grew and our dream exploded into something that we see as a mission to touch the hearts of others and hopefully make a big difference in people’s lives! From that very moment where the crazy idea popped into our minds, our dream evolved into a plan to create an AMAZING Marriage Project Documentary.

Ahhhh! CRAZY! ;) We have been talking about it among family and friends over the past few months, but I do not believe we have said it out loud on the Internet! ;) Eeek! That is a big deal, friends! ;) This is a crazy dream for us because we really do not know much about cinematography- let alone the world of documentaries! ;) We have so much to learn and over the last few months we have dove right in! The one thing we do have right off the bat is an amazing amount of passion to make a difference in the lives of others! This dream to touch people’s lives through this documentary is one that we pretty much have not stopped thinking about from day one! And every time the thought goes through our minds, a huge smile fills our hearts!

Along with the excitement, the past few months have reminded us that with crazy dreams also comes crazy fears! Believe me, the fears are incredibly present and it has already not been easy! ;)… and likely will only get harder! lol. One day we have no doubts and then the next, every single possible fear is being thrown at us like ping pong balls in a really bad game of ping pong! (Believe me, without hand-eye coordination, I have been on the receiving end of many of those bad games! ;) lol!) Here’s the exciting thing though… the beauty of dreams is that there is ALWAYS a way! Through every fear and every challenge we face, we can make it happen! (I say this as a reminder to ourselves to always follow that happiness in our hearts and the drive from above.)

On Sunday we have a crazy important meeting that we have been looking forward to for months! ;) We are making our way out to Portland (again) to meet with our AMAZINGly talented friends from Stillmotion! We are praying that this meeting leaves us with even more clarity in our pre-production plan to make this documentary happen!! We will definitely be sharing more details in the near future!!! (especially with all of the AMAZING couples who have been nominated!) We will definitely be seeking your help and encouragement along the way too!! If you are praying friends, we would so appreciate your prayers for safe travels and clarity in knowing our next steps towards making this crazy AMAZING dream a reality! And if prayers are not your thing… maybe you could send positive vibes?!?! ;) Please! ;) We would so appreciate it!

Here’s to making dreams a reality and saying really scary things out loud! ;)

P.S. This is another perfect opportunity to just say Thank You! I know this post has been a little bit all over the place… because honestly, our minds are a little bit all over the place right now! ;) We are excited and scared, but we know you all will be by our sides to help along the way! THANK YOU for always being that support for us! We are so grateful for you!

How to live an amazing life together | a sneak peek at our new ebook

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  6th May 2013

In addition to our AMAZING Life Together Webinar, we decided we also wanted to write an ebook to share a few ideas on how to live an amazing life together.  We’ve been wanting to write the ebook for a while now, but just never got around to it.  So, we decided to change that by giving ourselves a deadline that we had to hit.  As part of the webinar, anyone that purchased the recordings would get a copy of the ebook for free.  It’s amazing how efficient you can make yourself with simple deadlines like this!  With only a few days to spare, we finished up the ebook just in time.  We are planning to officially launch the ebook later this month (hopefully on Amazon.com for download) but for now, we wanted to share a quick sneak peek to start your week.  Enjoy!

From the AMAZING Life Together Ebook By Liz and Ryan

1. HAVE A COUCH SLEEPOVER

We started dating in high school. It was the fall of my senior year and football was in full swing. We “dated” over the summer and Liz finally said yes to being my girlfriend just after school had started. In the early stages of our relationship, one of our favorite things to do was to fall asleep together on Liz’s couch after a Friday night football game. Because we were still in high school, I was never allowed to spend the entire night, so around 1 or 2 am I would head home.

In those moments, snuggled tight on the couch, nothing else in the world mattered besides each other. I held Liz tight and as night grew quieter. She breathed gently and fell asleep against my chest. Those moments were so perfect and so innocent.

Earlier this year, we were trying to decide what to do for a Date Night. Winter was holding onto the last few days of the season and venturing outside did not sound like the most fun. I believe it was Liz who said “Let’s have a couch sleepover.” It was the perfect idea for a romantic evening. We cuddled close on the couch with just a candle flickering in the middle of the room. We stayed up late and watched old Saturday Night Live skits on Netflix. Liz pulled the blanket tightly and we let the still of the night surround us. I watched Liz gently fall asleep, and again in that moment, nothing else mattered.

AMAZING Life Escape | Sign Up Now! This Getaway is Happening!

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  6th March 2013

We have had this crazy Stupid (as Richie Norton would say) idea for quite some time. As with any crazy idea we come up with, we get super excited and dream about it on a regular basis! As you may have figured out by now… these are the kinds of things that have us smiling without even realizing we are smiling! Some of those crazy ideas come and go… but, this one, stuck. It really wasn’t going to leave our minds and it was our choice to do something about it or let our dream fade away into that black hole of fear.

“So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don’t sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we’ve satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late.” -Lee Iacocca

For us, too late means that a marriage or relationship we could have positively impacted ends up in a divorce. Or on a lighter note, but still so significant!, too late means someone lives another day of their life not recognizing the AMAZINGNESS that surrounds them every day. We don’t want to see that happen! In fact, we see it as our responsibility to do everything that we can to keep that from happening!

So, with a huge amount of fear and nervousness, but with MEGA passion and excitement, we are so incredibly pumped to be announcing our first ever AMAZING Life Escape!

This fall, November 11-14, 2013 the very first AMAZING Life Escape will take place in Newry, Maine. We will be hosting 7 couples for a 3 night-4 day getaway to the mountains of Maine. It is our goal to provide an experience that will give couples an excuse to escape the everyday craziness of life and focus on the AMAZINGNESS that surrounds them daily!  Between breakfast in bed, AMAZING Life inspired sessions, a mini photo session, a cooking class to enjoy cooking together, and many other super fun experiences, we are planning plenty of additional time to just relax and soak each other in!

The location we have chosen for this first escape is a gorgeous estate in the mountains of Maine. Every couple will enjoy the luxuries of their own bedroom suite and a spa inspired bathroom! There are many additional luxuries that come along with the estate, that include, but are not limited to: a state of the art movie theatre, 2 hot tubs, a game room, outdoor fire pit (perfect for s’mores, of course! ;) ), and a 3 acre property within the gorgeousness of Maine! ;) AMAZING, right?! We promise you, it will be nothing short of AMAZING!

If you are interested in joining us for an Escape, please check out more information on the AMAZING Life Escape website… or click here to sign up! Registration is open NOW! Space is VERY limited!!! So, please don’t delay!

We thank you for all of your support and for giving us the opportunity to crush our fears and pursue our dreams! ;) We are so excited to be creating this experience that will without a doubt leave us all celebrating the AMAZING lives that we live with the ones we love! Hope you will join us for the celebration!

P.S. If you can’t make it this time, but you are excited about the idea… please let us know! This is the kind of project that lights our hearts on fire and if we know there is a demand for it- we are going to do everything that we can to meet the demand!! Please spread the word to your friends too! We would appreciate it so much!!

Amazing Lives, Amazing Marriages, Amazing Photos

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  26th February 2013

We interrupt the regularly (or irregularly, lately) scheduled program for this special news bulletin about Liz and Ryan! :)… First, we just have to apologize for the irregular part! We are learning a lot about travel and working and how wifi is not as regularly available as we had become used to in the comfort of home! Thank you for learning along with us and being patient as we get ourselves together! ;)

And now onto the new bulletin! ;)

Happy Tuesday friends! Over the past few weeks Liz and I have been discussing ways we can make our blog more useful to everyone who visits! As we have written about before, our passion is to help people live a more AMAZING life and have more AMAZING marriages! In addition, we love being able to document these AMAZING moments in peoples lives through our photography. In order to best serve you, our readers and friends, we have decided to develop a little plan that will (hopefully ;) ) create some consistency on our blog and make it a more enjoyable experience for you!

On Mondays, we are excited to start sharing posts with a theme of “AMAZING marriages.” In the AMAZING marriage posts, we will share experiences, both personal and from other couples that have taught us how to always choose love first to make our marriage amazing each and everyday!

Wednesdays will now be featuring posts about living an AMAZING life. Each day we are given is a gift and it should be celebrated! Life can be tough and we recognize that. Through the everyday stresses of life, we recognize that we always have the opportunity to choose happiness. Our good friend, Lauren Wakefield, summed it up best. “Sh*t happens, but we are still going to eat cupcakes!” The posts we share on Wednesdays will include things we do to make everyday moments just a little more AMAZING! Wednesdays will also be the days that include some of our favorite topics (Ryan Cooks, Liz’s DIY) and our AMAZING Life Manifesto videos too!

Friday is still a work in progress! One thing is for sure, we hope that after reading our Friday posts that you are inspired to have an AMAZING weekend. A few of the ideas we are currently hoping to include are recipes for Breakfast in Bed, Friday Favorites, the Liz and Ryan Book Club, ways to make Love and Service your way of life, and how to make big dreams happen.

Tuesdays and Thursdays will be dedicated to photography. We will be sharing our work from our most recent sessions on these days! I am also a little bit of a tech nerd, and as long as Liz lets me ( ;) ), I hope to start sharing a little bit more of my technical side and why I love photography!

We plan to consistently post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9:00 a.m EST. Our goal is also to post Tuesday and Thursday posts at 9:00 a.m. EST, but depending on how crazy the wedding season gets, you may have to forgive us a bit!

Can you tell we are Type A people?!? ;) We felt like we needed to create and share this little scheduled plan for all of our other Type A friends out there! ;) One of our favorite bloggers, Chris Guillebeau is always SO CONSISTENT with his blogging- and knowing that he will be posting on Monday and Thursdays definitely gets us even more excited for those days! We can only hope that you all will share that same excitement for our new and improved plan! ;)

As we begin to implement these changes, we would LOVE to hear from you all and what you would like to read about! If you have any ideas for posts, want to share ways you live an AMAZING marriage or AMAZING life, or would be interested in being featured as a guest blog post let us know! Either leave us a comment below or send us an email at hello@lizandryan.com. We can’t wait to hear from you! Thanks so much for reading! You all rock!

What If …

Dreaming, Our Dreams  //  11th February 2013

What if? It’s often a question we ask ourselves but not one we normally take very seriously. That is until we attended the What If conference this past week in the Dominican Republic.

How often do you ask yourself what if on a daily basis? What if I didn’t have to go to work in this job I don’t like. What if we stopped worrying about what everyone else thinks of our idea? What if we had more time?

For just this moment, stop worrying about what could be done and actually go do it. Turn those What Ifs into action. Make all your dreams a reality.

We will be sharing a lot more about our experience during the What If conference throughout this week but for now we wanted to share just a few of our What Ifs. One of the biggest What Ifs and amazing life lessons we learned was What If we let ourselves be more vulnerable? So with that said, we are going to be a little vulnerable and share some of our What Ifs and not worry about if you think they are crazy or stupid. Because if they sound crazy and stupid, then we must be doing something right! :) And if any of our What Ifs resonate with you, be sure to let us know, we’d love your support!

What If we lived to give in every single thing that we do. In every single interaction we have. What if we shared ourselves with everyone with such amazing love everyday and not just in the hardest and darkest times of need?

What if we started an AMAZING marriage project to photograph 15 – 25 happily married couples. What if we did it for free? What if we had people nominate their favorite couples? What if we documented it in such a way that we could learn the secrets of an AMAZING marriage and then passed it along to world?

What if we woke up and chose happiness everyday? Not because it was easy, but because if was a better alternative to worry, fear, and anger? What if we saw the positive in every single moment, through divorce, addiction, cancer, and death? What if no matter what, at the end of the day, we still choose to eat cupcakes? What if we shared this idea, and inspired people to approach life with a similar mindset to the world?

What if we could help make a marriage that was ok… AMAZING, a marriage that was flat and stale… energetic and full of love? What if we could make our marriage more AMAZING by helping others? What if we created an escape for couples to let go of the everyday stresses of life, and work, to focus on what makes their marriage AMAZING? What if we created and hosted the escape this year? What if we didn’t worry about if people would sign up? What if we didn’t worry about if we would make a profit? What if this could keep just one marriage from ending in divorce? Wouldn’t it be worth it? Wouldn’t it be our responsibility?

What if we put it all out there the moment we got home? Oh wait, we just did. :)