Wahoo! It’s Christmas Eve! And today is one of our favorite days EVER! We have so many traditions that fill today with magic, joy, and fun… one of our favorites will happen tonight at MeMe’s house when we all gather in the living room to read T’was The Night Before Christmas. On this 24th Day of our AMAZING Life Holiday Advent Calendar, we invite you to gather your loved ones together and read T’was The Night Before Christmas. Magic will definitely fill the air!Picture about 60 people (probably more once you add in the friends that come and go throughout the evening) packed in the living room of a home. Kids running around with their toys, conversations running over each others conversations from across the room, people sitting on each others laps and many people hanging out on the floor! This is the reality of our Christmas Eve and it is everything that we dream of! ;) The best moment is when we gather around to read T’was The Night Before Christmas. The room suddenly gets quiet and the wide-eyed kids start to feel an extra bit of magic! As soon as the story is over, we start singing… and every single year we have been blessed by a visit from Santa!! Santa comes to MeMe’s house and it is pretty much the most magical thing you can ever imagine! Yes, I am no longer a little kid… but that is one of the moments that I look forward to year after year! The wide-eyed kids quickly spread the magic in the air and there is nothing quite like it!Wherever you are today and tonight, take some time to soak in the magic! Read T’was the Night Before Christmas and hug your loved ones tight!
“An AMAZING Life for me means living your passion everyday and living for God everyday” – Annette Thurmon
If you have followed along with our blog you may have seen a few of our AMAZING Life Manifesto videos. We are extremely passionate about the fact that anyone can live their own AMAZING life. One day, while Liz and I were dreaming about life and what we could do to help inspire more people to follow their dreams, we came up with the idea for our “AMAZING Life Chats”. We thought that if we could also share other people’s stories and thoughts on living an AMAZING life then we would be able to inspire even more people to live their own AMAZING Lives.
So now that we thought of this fun little idea we immediately knew who we wanted to interview first…
We first met Annette in January of 2011 at the Style to the Aisle event in Baltimore. Check out some of our photos from the event over on our old blog here. Immediately we could sense Annette’s passion for life, plus she made some super AMAZING wedding gowns! We later found out that Annette was also an alum of Making Things Happen! Since then, we have stayed in touch with Annette through social media. We LOVE seeing her work and all her amazing new designs.
Earlier this year Justin & Mary asked us to be a model bride and groom for their Las Vegas workshop. Although Liz could have worn her AMAZING wedding gown, the workshop theme was a bit more Vanity Fair then our style was when we got married 5 years ago. :) So we reached out to Annette to see if she had anything that Liz could wear. Let me just say that Liz looked stunning in the Chaviano Couture gown that Annette provided! Don’t take my word for it though, see some of the photos over on our old blog here.
Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago. As we were making plans to head down to the Southern Weddings Magazine V5 Launch Party, we found out that Annette would also be attending! So we reached out to her again to see if she would be interested in sitting down to chat with us. At the time we didn’t exactly mention that we would be video taping it for our blog! :) Fortunately she said yes anyway.
The morning after the party, we snuck into an unused conference room (unfortunately we couldn’t figure out how to turn on the fireplace) and sat down with Annette to chat about life, following big dreams and living your life passionately. I got to practice my cameraman skills while Liz practiced her hosting for the Today Show interviewing skills. :)
We immediately knew we were on the same wavelength when Annette said “An AMAZING life for me means living your passion everyday and living for God”
Enjoy what we hope is the first of many AMAZING Life chats below and be sure to leave Annette some love in the comments. Plus, Annette is also in the process of writing a book for couples with advice on marriage. Check it out here and pre-order your very own copy December 3rd!
Annette, thank you so much for being our first AMAZING Life Chat interviewee! :)
If you have been following along with us from day one of our business, (I know, that is a long time!) you know that we have this dream to be on the Today Show! Over the past few years, every time we write out our goals- there is something to do with being on the Today Show included. Those goals/dreams have evolved from wanting to be a producer, to shooting the Today Show wedding (which I am pretty sure they don’t do anymore ;( ), to most recently, sharing a super fun and easy Thanksgiving centerpiece idea!
A few weeks ago we saw that The Today Show was in search for Thanksgiving Centerpiece ideas. We figured we could whip something up and send them a photo… so we did just that. At the very last minute when the deadline for submissions was about 10 minutes away, we sent them a photo of our centerpiece. Let me tell you, at the time, my stomach was in knots. I was excited, nervous, doubtful, yet incredibly hopeful! I was thinking, “what are we thinking?!?” and then the next moment I was thinking “this could be our chance to be on The Today Show!” I was dreaming out loud and it was such a crazy feeling.
We really didn’t have anything to lose… but for some reason I delayed actually taking the action to submit the photo. I was so nervous about it for some reason! Honestly, it took me back to the days of starting our business. It was scary.
We hit submit…. And then I held my phone close praying that the Today Show would call immediately. Haha. It didn’t quite happen like that. The timetable was short, so we knew that if we heard from them we would hear within a few days. Every time my phone rang, that knot in my stomach came back. My heart would skip a beat. Every time I answered the phone… it was not the Today Show! Haha. Seriously, I was at the mall with Ryan and saw NY pop up on my phone and I literally screamed. ;) When I answered… it was the wrong number. :( lol.
HOWEVER, a few short days later, at the point that I actually started to come to the realization that it just wasn’t our time to be on The Today Show, we received a call. We were in the car on our way to NC when NY popped up on my phone again. I was driving, so Ryan picked it up. When he said it was NY, once again, my heart started beating faster. He answered and about 10 seconds into the call made it clear that THE TODAY SHOW was on the line!!! ;) AHHHH! ;) Seriously- how amazing is that?!?! They told us that we were in the Top 5 Finalists and that they would let us know by the next day if we made it to the Top 3 and would be invited to the show. Ohh my word!!… yes, there was a lot of screaming going on! I probably should not have been driving at that point! ;) I just couldn’t believe that we were so close and there was a chance that our dream could actually become a reality. Very Soon!
Unfortunately, we received an email from a producer the next day stating that they chose “a different direction” for the segment. Yes, a part of me wanted to cry. But, over the next few days a lot became rather clear to us! This was definitely a teachable moment that God had planned for us! ;) Among other realizations, it taught us that, yes, honestly, you can do anything that you put your mind to! We were so so so close- and that little tease just made us more and more confident that one day (if it is meant to be and the timing is right) we will make our way to The Today Show.
Hope you are well rested after a long weekend full of lots of good food and time with family and friends! Whew! I know we are thankful that Thanksgiving is on a Thursday, because we needed every minute of that long weekend! ;) But this morning we are back at it and feeling more energized than ever!
Over the weekend we took some time to really concentrate on slowing down and being present. We worked hard earlier in the week to get all of our work done so that we could concentrate on being present in the moment! However, I must admit, we still struggled. It is so hard for us to take a break. (Yes, that is a good thing because we are incredibly passionate about what we do… but it is also a challenge because letting our bodies and minds rest is SO IMPORTANT! Plus, we owe it to our family and friends that surround us… they deserve 100% of us!)
It is easy to get caught up in that To-Do list that is never ending (especially with the holidays upon us) or lose track of the conversation that is happening right next to you because Facebook is filling you in on the latest (not as important) news. We are guilty too! However, this week we invite you to focus with us on slowing down and being present. Turn off social media when you are surrounded by your loved ones, delete items on your To-Do list that are actually impossible to get done (Note to self: Honestly, if they are that important they will get done at some point- no reason to stress yourself out over it!), and add one really important task to your list that forces you to slow down. Maybe it is “go to the gym,” or “go to yoga,” or “write in your journal”… whatever it may be that will help you slow down, write it on your To-Do list. You owe it to yourself to make it a priority to slow down and be present!
Have an AMAZING week!
*Side Note: This will be our last Amazing Life Manifesto Video for the year! Whoa… that seems crazy to say! lol. But we have a December full of AMAZINGNESS that we are so excited to share with you! Stay Tuned!
It’s Thanksgiving Week! Wahoo! This is one of our favorite weeks of the year! Thanksgiving provides the perfect excuse to eat a lot of food, watch a lot of football, take an afternoon nap, and most importantly… take the time to reflect on EVERYTHING that we are thankful for!
With hosting Thanksgiving, we are always up at the crack of dawn getting our turkey ready to go into the oven. We quickly get caught up in the “to do” list that we rarely take a minute to slow down and truly give thanks for everything!!This year we are going to change that up! We are going to actually take the time to go around the table and say what we are thankful for! Of course our family and friends come to mind first… but there are so many little things that we take for granted everyday that we truly are thankful for! (The blankets on our bed, heat and air-conditioning, clean water, sunshine!, high-speed internet, etc.)
We invite you to join us this year in turning the focus to being thankful for everything! Take the time to write out a list. Share the list with family and friends and add to that list daily! I can’t wait to see the magic this creates in our hearts!
Picture about 60 people (probably more once you add in the friends that come and go throughout the evening) packed in the living room of a home. Kids running around with their toys, conversations running over each others conversations from across the room, people sitting on each others laps and many people hanging out on the floor! This is the reality of our Christmas Eve and it is everything that we dream of! ;) The best moment is when we gather around to read T’was The Night Before Christmas. The room suddenly gets quiet and the wide-eyed kids start to feel an extra bit of magic! As soon as the story is over, we start singing… and every single year we have been blessed by a visit from Santa!! Santa comes to MeMe’s house and it is pretty much the most magical thing you can ever imagine! Yes, I am no longer a little kid… but that is one of the moments that I look forward to year after year! The wide-eyed kids quickly spread the magic in the air and there is nothing quite like it!
Wherever you are today and tonight, take some time to soak in the magic! Read T’was the Night Before Christmas and hug your loved ones tight!
