I can’t believe this wonderful week has already come to an end! And truly what a wonderful week it has been :) Thank you everyone who visited, commented and shared posts this week! We are so grateful for each and every one of you! We’re also super excited for the progress we made on the site updates this week! If you’re a long time visitor, you probably recognized some of them, if not, no worries, all will be revealed soon!!

We shared so many amazing posts this week! Y’all had a hard time choosing a favorite :) We kicked off the week with love, cowboy boots and flower girls with bows on their butts in this gorgeous rustic chic elegance wedding from Two Chics Photography!! I packed so many shades of blue into Tuesday’s post on blue wedding ideas that I lost count!! No, really, there’s a lot. I have to say that this week’s mint, pink, peach and gold shabby chic wedding inspiration board is swoon-worthy perfection and one of my all time favorites!! Be sure you check out our vendor spotlight on Katherine Henry Boudoir, a fabulous Boston boudoir photographer!! I’m still swooning over the love and natural light filled carnival engagement session from Archetype Studio Inc. that we shared on Thursday!! Catch me, won’t you? :) May’s pretty love quote printable is here and ready for download! Be sure to tell me what you love today and every day!! I also shared my May Goals this week and announced that I will be on vacation from May 25th until June 8th. To find out where I’m going and what our post schedule will be like for those two weeks, click here. Lastly, Saturday Snapshot is here!!

We’re seriously IN LOVE with this Penelope Inspired Engagement and Wedding shoot put together by a slew of amazing vendors and photographed by HLW Vendor Boutique vendor Jillian McGrath Photography! Katherine Henry Boudoir shared my fabulous new headshots on her blog yesterday! Check them out and leave us both some love, please!! :) Britt Croft Photography has been on a roll with her blogging lately, sharing both her reasons and tips for doing a first look and an engagement session!! And we loved seeing Danielle Pasternak feature a Q&A on wedding stationery with fellow HLW Vendor Boutique vendor Simply Designed Invitations!

Have a fabulous weekend! xoxo

A picture is worth a thousand words . . .

One Photographer. One Snapshot. One Quote.

One-thousand words and emotions.

“Familiar acts are beautiful through love.” – Percy Bysshe Shelley

Photo by Elizabeth Messina via Style Me Pretty

I honestly cannot believe that I am staring May 11th (almost the middle of the month) in the face already. I don’t know what happened to the month of April or even what I did during it. Clearly that’s not true. Otherwise I wouldn’t have crossed off all of these things on my April Goals list.

I purchased the books Rework, The Happiness Project, Boundaries and The Five Love Languages. I (with the help of Doodle Dog Creative) launched and announced the updates to our Vendor Boutique to our wonderful vendors. It will all be announced to the rest of you soon :) I drove into Boston to spend a fabulous afternoon with Katherine Henry who took the fabulous new photos of me you’ll start to see throughout the blog (and everywhere else). I updated our submission guidelines to Two Bright Lights (because I hadn’t yet) and I cleaned out my address book (because it required it). I also booked my plane ticket to Florida for VACATION.

Every year for as long as I can remember and even before that, I have gone on a two-week vacation with my family to Captiva, Florida, where my family has a timeshare on the beautiful South Seas Island Resort. It has always and probably will always be my home away from home.

I haven’t really been able to enjoy it much in recent years though. Two years ago, I didn’t go. I can’t remember why. Work maybe? Last year, while I went, I spent about 95% of my time working (and fighting to get an internet connection) and only about 5% soaking up the sun on the beach or by the pool. Why? Because we were in the final (and most critical) stages of the design for the new Heart Love Weddings that launched just a few days after I returned. Needless to say, I spent most of my “vacation” last year on my laptop than I did on the beach. It’s shameful, I know. Which is why, this year, I will be dedicating 95% of my time to the beach and only 5% to my laptop.

Here’s how things are going to run:

I will be working my butt off from now until Thursday, May 24th. On that day, at 4PM, vacation auto-responders (for email) will go up, the iMac will be shut down for the first time in I don’t know how long, and I will take the pups to doggy daycare. Tears will more than likely be shed by us all. On Friday, I am on the first flight outta here!!! There will be a fun, personal post on this day, so be sure to be on the lookout for that!!

The post schedule for the following two weeks (Friday 5/25 – Friday 6/8) will be as follows:

• 5/25 – What’s In My Suitcase
• 5/26 – Saturday Snapshot
• 5/28 – NO POST
• 5/29 – NO POST
• 5/30 – Inspiration Board
• 5/31 – NO POST
• 6/1 – June Goals
• 6/2 – Saturday Snapshot
• 6/4 – Biggest Hits – Love Story Recap
• 6/5 – Biggest Hits – Tips & Inspiration Recap
• 6/6 – Inspiration Board
• 6/7 – NO POST
• 6/8 – NO POST
• 6/9 – Saturday Snapshot

You’ll notice that in the two weeks that I’ll be gone, there are no real wedding or engagement session features. I did this on purpose. When I feature a photographer’s work, I want to give it my utmost attention all day long, and since I won’t be able to do that, I’m making a conscious decision to not have those particular features shared while I’m gone. They will once again resume on Monday, June 11th. You’ll also notice there are a couple of days sprinkled throughout the 14 days that will NOT have a post. This is to prove to myself (as many people have said) that the world will not end because I don’t blog. I can neither confirm nor deny that I actually believe this to be true.

Out of all my May Goals, I am most excited for this vacation. As I mentioned before, this is my first “true” vacation in two years and I need it. But more than that I deserve it. It’s taken me a while to actually say those words out loud. I am a workaholic and a perfectionist (you do the math). I eat, sleep, and breathe weddings, and this blog, and everything that goes along with them. It is because of this that I need a break. I’m not saying that I’m burned out. What I’m saying is that working your butt off to achieve your goals and make your dreams comes true is just as important as taking a step back and finding a state of rest and relaxation. It’s going to be really, really, really hard to step away from my computer and iPhone, but I also know it’s going to worth it. Because I know that when you shut down the part of your brain that works the hardest, allow it the rest it deserves, you will be more inspired than ever when you finally turn it back on. I can almost guarantee that I’ll be brainstorming away by day three ;)

Other May Goals I’m psyched about? Finally starting, doing, and COMPLETING Lara Casey’s The Challenge!!! I’ve read through it about a millions times but have never “had the time” to do it. Well, I’m not using time as an excuse anymore, or coming up with any other excuse for that matter. I have a printed copy on my desk and I AM DOING IT. I’m excited to finally get through a fairly large stack of books (see the list above) that I have been steadily collecting for months now. And finally, I am really happy to be (already) following through on a goal that a sweet friend and Making Things Happen alum suggested in our private Facebook Group. Last month, she randomly decided to start speaking great things over herself. Many of us, I’m sure, have fallen into the trap of saying “I’m not ________ enough” or “I can’t do ________”. So, instead of continuing on in this way, Amy began inserting positives into those statements. Every day she’d tell herself “I can…” or “I am…” even if she didn’t believe it at the time. She posted this idea on her blog too, and on May 1st (because I have a thing about starting new goals on the first of somethings), I started speaking beautiful, confident, inspiring, motivating things over myself. And you know what, it has already made a world of a difference. I highly recommend reading her post and trying this for yourself. Every time you feel yourself about to say something negative about yourself, insert a positive. You’ll be surprise what a difference it really makes.

That’s all for now, friends. If you made it to the end of this goals post, I applaud you :) and I’d love for you to share your thoughts, your dreams, your goals in the comments below! xoxoxo

Guess what?! May’s pretty love quote printable is here and ready for you to download!! I’m really excited about this one because it’s completely different from the printables we brought you in March and April. When I approached Jen of Blush Printables with the idea, she ran with it and made it even more beautiful than I could have imagined. Take a look!

**DOWNLOAD IT HERE**

**DOWNLOAD IT HERE**

What we really wanted to accomplish with this month’s quotable was something bright, cheery, and also something that didn’t have to stay the same. Once you’ve printed yours out, simply pop it into a simple frame (ours below is from Target). All you then need is a cute caption and a black dry erase marker (which easily wipes right off the glass with a paper towel). Place it in your office for a cute, motivational reminder that date night is just around the corner… Or put it up in your kitchen or back entryway so your sweetie can notice and change it too! It’s cute. It’s fun. It’s simple. It’s free. You know you want to print your own today!! :)

So, what do you love today and every day?

xoxo

Blush Printables is a member of our Vendor Boutique.

Want to hear something funny? I love carnivals. Wait for it. That’s not the funny part. Clearly. Carnivals don’t like me. But it isn’t the carnival’s fault. You see, I’m allergic to corn. So 98% of the food at a carnival makes me sick as a dog. I also suffer severely from motion sickness. So 98% of the rides also make me sick as a dog. Except bumper cars. I love me some bumper cars :) It’s probably why I love engagement sessions at carnivals so much. And this one, captured by the husband and wife duo of Archetype Studio Inc., is no exception. In fact, it is absolutely breathtaking. The light! The love! Catch me! I’m swooning.

John was originally introduced to Mary Beth’s older sister by a family friend who also happened to befriend John while they were both studying abroad in Ireland. Did you follow all that? A few months later, John was looking at apartments in Houston when Mary Beth’s sister decided to introduce the two. Little did she know how perfect the match was in the making…

John and Mary Beth became great friends after their first meeting. So great that Mary Beth arranged for two of his best friends to come to Houston and surprise John for his birthday. He was so thrilled with his surprise, and all the thought and effort Mary Beth put in to make it happen, that later, he gave Mary Beth a surprise of her own. He pulled her aside to thank her and then kissed her!!! It was just about a month after they’d first met. He also asked her out on a date :)

That date didn’t exactly go as planned though… Mary Beth actually (technically) got stood up. The night their first date was to take place, John, an engineer, got caught up in an emergency and didn’t call her until the next day!! Luckily for him, Mary Beth understood and agreed to reschedule. They had a fabulous time. Phew!

Their first official trip together was to Washington D.C. over a weekend in September 2011. The second night there, John had a private car pick them up at their hotel and drive them around to see all the monuments before taking them to dinner. To kill time until their dinner reservation, the driver dropped them off at the Lincoln Memorial to walk around some. The weather that day had been raining and humid but the skies had cleared and they were able to watch the sun set over the Washington Memorial.

Just past the Korean War Memorial, John stopped, gave Mary Beth a kiss and said, “You know that I love you more than anything in the world and want to spend the rest of my life with you, right?” Completely oblivious to what was about to come next, Mary Beth replied, “Why, what’s wrong?” Typical girl. But John just laughed and then got down on one knee. Mary Beth was so shocked/excited/emotional that she doesn’t remember saying anything except yes!

Later, John told Mary Beth that when he’d gone to her father to ask his permissions, her father simply said that he had a no return policy. HA! Haven’t heard that one before…

{Behind the Lens with Archetype} Mary Beth and John are an awesome couple!! We can’t wait for their wedding (on the most popular wedding day in Texas for 2012… October 20th). This shoot was kinda an accident… we were scheduled for an urban park in the middle of downtown, but when Koby and I got there – it was crawling with people – and an outdoor concert was taking up most of the park. I made a quick phone call to Mary Beth to see if they might be open to a spontaneous location change – she said YES! So off we went! It wasn’t long before we found a quaint little carnival (they are frequent all year round here). We also went to a park (where Mary Beth works) to accomplish some of the images closer to the feel of the original location.

Breathtaking and swoon-worthy isn’t it? I know so :) Congratulations, Mary Beth and John, on your engagement and upcoming nuptials! We couldn’t be happier for the two of you and can’t thank you enough for sharing your love story with us today! And thank you, Terilyn and Koby, for sharing your incredible talent with us also! xoxo