FRI-YAY

Last night I made time to go watch Caleb coach and play with his work softball team. He rocked it. I may or may not have been insanely proud when he made the best diving catch ever.

This week at work has been testing my patience but definitely rewarding. I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog but I'm moving positions within my company! I was feeling really anxious all the time, overworked, frustrated and annoyed that I had to go in every morning. I hated that! I love the people I work for and with and didn't like the attitude I was having towards my job. I decided to have a talk with my boss about it and had recently discovered the receptionist was (sadly) moving out of state.

Ironically enough, just a few days prior, Caleb surprised me at work to say hi and I was covering the receptionist lunch coverage. He told me how great he thought I'd be at being the receptionist and I laughed while thanking him, but told him the position wasn't even up for grabs (see how God works?! He was moving this all into motion before I even considered it an option). Just a couple days later, the receptionist told me she was leaving, so that's when I decided to have the talk with my boss.

Everything worked out and I begin August 1! I'm genuinely excited. I love being up front, having interaction with clients and everything that comes with the position. The hours are great and I think it'll be a fun change of pace that I absolutely needed!

So while this week at work has been tough, it's been worth it! I'm wrapping up all my current projects and am ready to pass the torch off to the next person!

5 simple things I'm thankful for this warm Friday morning:
-Carpooling with my husband to save gas (added bonus when I get to hear him sing in the car)
-Old Navy clearance racks - needed a couple tanks to get me through summer and they definitely delivered)
-Getting to try new Snickers flavors thanks to your MIL who works for Mars! YUM! Hint hint: think Nutella.
-Free education from your favorite photographers
-Brides who pay the best compliments about your talents!

Have a great weekend, friends!!

Linking up with Amanda today! 

Don't stay stuck.

I'm just going to say it right now...its taking Caleb and I longer to get out of debt than we thought it would. I'll be the first to admit, we haven't been AS frugal and disciplined as we should've been so far in 2016. We've definitely still paid off a LOT of debt, which is really encouraging and motivating, but we also still have a long way to go.

There are some days I get really down on us, saying "what's taking us so long?", and just kind of feeling sorry for our situation. Then Caleb quickly reminds me we'll be debt free well before either of us are 30, and that's pretty darn exciting.

So instead of feeling miserable that we're still stuck IN debt, I'm using it as motivation to continue, to tighten up our budget - oh and actually MAKE SURE we budget every month. We've done a little too much miscellaneous spending lately where we look back at our bank statement and say "what the heck did we buy there anyway?!".

It's always a good reminder that you don't have to "stay stuck" in the situation you're in. If there's something you don't like, you HAVE the power to change it! Whether that's a crappy job, drowning in debt or just wanting to shake up your exercise routine! You can do it!

Long story short, we're sick of being in debt, so we're saying goodbye to silly overspending at the grocery store and while we're out and about, and HELLO to more at-home date nights. I'm wanting to get creative and set a small cash budget for Caleb and I to go back and forth and plan themed date nights in every other weekend! I think it would be a fun way to get creative on how to stretch a dollar and still make each other feel special! I may or may not have a Lady and the Tramp theme coming on... get ready, Caleb! ;)

Happy Thursday, friends!!

A little quiz.

Biana had a fun quiz she took from Instyle last Monday and I thought it would be fun to try! Although I'd definitely call myself very basic in the knowledge field of beauty/skincare/fashion, I thought this would be fun (even if it is sad that I know next to nothing about this stuff - hehe)!

Insert photo where I actually had my make up DONE for me. 

Wear one outfit || dark skinny jeans, flats and a cute flowy top! I like to keep it simple!

Your style icon || I honestly do love fashion but I'm definitely no fashion BLOGGER. I do really love Blake Lively. Girlfriend's got serious style.

Shop at one store || Anthropologie (if I could afford it). Going off what I CAN afford? Loft!! All the way.

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Carry one hand bag || it's funny, I absolutely love clothes, bags and shoes (what girl doesn't?!), but I hardly ever buy them. Here and there I buy a new dress on clearance at Target or something, but I do need to invest in some new quality items. Caleb actually told me the other night "if you empty our your current purse and literally throw it in the trash, you can buy a new one". So that's exactly what I did! It was definitely old, and time to go.  I don't have a go-to brand, but I love bucket style purses that hold themselves up.

Wear one scent || Estee Lauder; Bronze Goddess. I haven't bought it since high school but wow, its really amazing.

Pick one flower || Hmm. I love peonies! I honestly don't know the names of many flowers. Caleb bought me the most beautiful yellow bouquet once and I was obsessed.

Apply one mascara || I'm not a big spender on make up at all. I wish I was! BUT I've only been in Sephora a handful of times in my life. I'm for drugstore mascara all the way - Maybelline's Rocket Volume is amazing!

Do one workout || Zumba, hands down. I love it! I've only done it a couple of times but always had a blast, and dancing is the best! I also love the challenge that was "Insanity", but lets be real, its insane.

Live by one quote || I honestly can't just pick one...but I LOVE this one.

Did you learn anything new? I always love random posts like this on others blogs because I get to learn a thing or two about them!! :)

I am excited for a night at home with my man. We have a huge to do list for the house before we leave Sunday for camp with the teens. We're so excited but definitely have a lot to do before then! Wish us luck!

One EPIC weekend

OH. MY. WORD. You guys! We had the absolute best, OBLIGATION FREE weekend! We did whatever we felt like, ALL weekend long. I know, lots of capital letters but I just can't help myself.

I mentioned we had some unexpected car stuff to deal with, so Friday we prepared ourselves for an entire night of used car shopping. Well, turns out every single dealership closed at 6...even the small family owned ones. So instead we headed home! My brother came by and we played Frisbee Golf for an hour or two. It was awesome spending time with him! It had been too long.

Saturday we woke up early, and headed down to City Flea! We've never been and it was just awesome. We picked up two of our friends and had a fun afternoon! Probably about 100 different booths selling handmade items, vintage items, and everything in between. We left lots of fun stuff! The BEST bbq sauce ever, a Cincinnati shirt, an oversized print for our living room, a new headband, and the most delicious lemonade shake up!

We ended up heading back out a little later, and immediately found ourselves a great car. We are so thankful! God's hand was definitely in this situation. I truly didn't want to spend ANY time at all on our first weekend off car hunting, but it was a pretty quick process, thankfully!

We spent the rest of our evening at home, watching lots and lots of Psych re runs!

Sunday we heard an amazing message at church from a guest speaker. I rushed home to drop Caleb off, then go pick up my bestie! Lyndsie was in town to celebrate some family members birthdays! After lunch, we headed downtown so we could have a little photo shoot.  Lynds started a fashion account on Instagram and I wanted to make sure she had some amazing pictures that really showed her personality.

After a fun afternoon with her, we had a pool party event with the youth group that night! Caleb's phone is water resistant so we were able to get some fun shots/videos underwater!

Even after 6pm, we got all kinds of sun! It was a blast.

I truly feel refreshed and ready to head into this week! Lets rock this Monday! 

Linking up with the gorgeous Biana today!

5 on Friday!

Happy Friday! This week was so nice knowing we had an entire obligation-free weekend ahead of us! Although we got some bad news about Caleb's car last night, we are trying to stay optimistic and explore our options in the meantime. So its the perfect time to look at the top 5 highlights from my week (aside from the fact that Katy Perry came out with a surprise single today!!!!)!

1 || Getting to visit our best friends this week and seeing our adorable, sweet nephew! Like I said on instagram, being Aunt Kayla & Uncle Caleb is basically the best thing ever. We are so lucky to live so close to them. It was so fun chatting with them once Tyler went to bed. Talking about life, our futures, clothes and everything in between really.

2 || When my brother called me just to say he misses us. I love that kid. I'm so thankful he isn't leaving the state for college or I'd probably cry for days.

3 || Long walks with my man equals random Pokemon being caught on my face. 

4 || Delivering a recent wedding and getting the sweetest text from the bride of their reactions. We have the coolest job! This groom cried a few times this wedding day and it was always at the sight of his bride. I mean... it was the sweetest thing ever.

5 || NEEDTOBREATHE's album came out today! O-M-G! Get it now!! This band is amazing. Caleb and I have been following them since we were dating in 2009 and they've stolen our hearts. We've been lucky enough to catch them in concert a couple times and hope we'll get to see them again soon!

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I am hoping we can figure out this car situation ASAP so we aren't spending our first bit of free time stressing over the whole situation! Good vibes, please! Hope everyone has an awesome weekend planned! :)

linking up with the adorable Amanda!

Be soft.

Last night it took me an hour and a half to get home due to a huge accident that blocked two of the three lanes on the highway. I was frustrated because I had so much to do that evening that I wanted to get moving! I found myself honking at people who weren't paying attention, stopping not quite long enough at stop signs and just rushing around in general. Then I started playing one of my new favorite songs (seriously, brings me to tears nearly every time) and my focus was shifted to what really matters.

I started to realize how minimal all of this "annoying" traffic was, especially in the midst of all the tragedy going on in our world right now. I saw how blessed I was to have errands to run that evening; that my biggest problem at the moment was forgetting my shopping list on my desk at work and still being a little behind on my edits.

At the end of the day, I have a car to get me to the grocery store, money to pay for our food, and a husband to help me unload the car when I got home. My "problems" were so trivial but in the moment my usual optimistic outlook was clouded by a silly inconvenience like traffic.

Once dinner was through, I had a ton of other obligations on my "to do" list, but Caleb took my hand and we had a nice long walk to a local park and played Frisbee golf until the sweat on my nose made my glasses keep falling off.

No matter how much I worry about anything, he always brings me back to what matters. Thanks for being my rock, Caleb...and for helping me avoid the poison ivy ;)

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday. Make it count, friends!

Weekending!

We did it! We photographed the 8 weddings-in-a-row stretch and lived to tell about it it! I honestly am so so proud of Caleb and I. We really put our all into these weddings and while we're completely exhausted, we're so excited about our long break that we can't even stand it. We plan to have a LOT of fun, a LOT of relaxing, and come back for our late Summer/Fall weddings completely recharged.

Friday evening we had no plans so Caleb picked up a frozen pizza, some Doritos and we popped in a couple movies and had ourselves a date night in! We also laughed ourselves to tears making some hilarious slow-mo videos. Our date nights don't usually cost a lot, but boy are they fun!

Saturday we slept in, then headed out to begin photographing wedding #18 of the year. Jackie + Andrew were just awesome. Their emotional first look was in her parents backyard that overlooked the city, their bridal party was incredibly easy to photograph, and their reception had me in tears when they paid tribute to Andrew's late father and all the guests hit the dance floor to gather around the newlyweds and sing one of his Dad's favorite songs!

Sunday we slept in (again, whoops) and once we had lunch, we edited our fingers off and folded so much laundry. Seriously, how does it NEVER END?! Caleb had the last minute idea to get outside and hit some golf balls at a local course so we did that for a little over and hour and I'm happy to report I did SIGNIFICANTLY better than the last time out. Woo!

Right after that, we had a fun youth group outing planned! For the first part of the evening we broke into teams and had a quick Pokemon Go race (and tied it in with Matthew 28), then played Frisbee and sand volleyball the rest of the night. It was such a fun time. Some of the teens joined Caleb and I afterward to grab a tasty dinner at skyline (jealous, Becky?)! I'm glad they don't think we're total losers and are willing to hang out with us still, haha!

Hope everyone had a great weekend as well! I'm ready to rock this week (I have some specific goals in mind) and head into an amazing FREE plan weekend. Ahhh we are so thrilled about that. Seriously, as much as we love photographing weddings, we are ready for this break! Hope you all have an awesome Monday!!

Linking up with the beautiful Biana today!!

Things I'm Loving {Volume 3}

I've enjoyed writing posts like this (see here and here) over the past couple of months... anything goes, really! Random posts are kinda my thing. Anything I've been loving, reading, watching, marveling at, etc.!

So here's what I'm loving...

-My sweet friend Anna's HUGE news! She and her husband are expecting a sweet baby! I couldn't be more excited for them!

-Keeblers Coconut Dreams cookies.

-My Tuesday evening pick me up. I treated myself to a much needed hair cut and Chickfila tea!

-The 1 second everyday app - thanks to miss Emily for sharing!

-This site that offers adorable, affordable bathing suits that are less traditional than regular ole bikinis! I've been stalking it and am LOVING the fun popsicle one!

-This DIY inspired Anthropologie mug!

-$3 L'oreal "Boost It" uplifting foam. Seriously, run to your local store and get yourself some! I was surprised with how well it worked.

-Trying a cappuccino for the first time and actually really enjoying it! I've never been a big fan of the taste of real coffee, I like mine VERY sugary/creamy.

-Coffee Emporium in Downtown Cincinnati; where I got said cappuccino! Their food is surprisingly awesome, too! We celebrated Greta's birthday last night and had a blast!

-That after this weekend, we get a 4 week break from weddings and can enjoy some FREE weekends! Woop woop!

-My sweet nephew, Tyler. I seriously wish I could leave work everyday early and go snuggle that bundle of cuteness!!

What about you? What are some things you're loving lately?

Currently!

I love these girls (Anne & Jenna) for always hosting this monthly link up. When my blog brain fails me, they always save me! Summer seems to be a slower time for bloggingin general, and you'd think with all the sunshine/activities the creativity would be oozing out of me but nope. Not a bit!

So, currently I'm...

Toasting: the fact that after this weekend, Caleb and I will have photographed 8 weddings in a row, and FINALLY get a 4 week break. As much as we love this side gig, it absolutely wears us out working 6 days a week. So we're more than ecstatic about some uninterrupted time together to do whatever we want!

Going: to Tennessee at the end of the month for our teens annual camp trip! We are SO excited for another exhausting, emotional, crazy fun week with our teens!

photo from our trip last year  when we went white water rafting!

Smelling: the Victoria Secret Bombshell perfume that I'm almost out of... reminder to get more!! I usually always just wear "body mist" or whatever I can find cheapest at Bath and Body Works but I found this perfume on Black Friday back in 2014 for $18 and I'm JUST NOW running out of it so I'd say that was totally worth it!

Wearing: a hand-me-down from my bestie. When I went to visit her in TN earlier in the year she had an insanely huge pile of clothes she was giving away so I went through it and took a few staples!

Wishlisting: our dream camera(s). So, the Best Buy in Dayton has really stepped up their game and has an entire DSLR section now with more than just "basic" cameras. They even hired employees from Canon, Nikon and Sony to talk specifics with you. It was so fun getting to actually FEEL the camera in your hands, not just look at it online. While we're definitely not ready to pull the trigger just yet, it got us both insanely antsy for when that DOES happen!!

I'm also totally wishing we were in Hilton Head already... sure, its not until October, but let the countdown begin! 108 days! ;)

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday! 

Our 4th weekend!

Although we had to work all day Friday and all day Saturday, we landed ourselves some awesome couples to work with. It just so happen both of these weddings were in Dayton so we got ourselves a hotel and that way we were closer to Saturday's wedding!

Caleb surprised me Friday before their ceremony with a new souvenir long sleeve tee from the museum we shot at that day!

Thanks to Megan and Troy for being troopers in the heat and also being willing to leave their reception for a few minutes to soak up the literal last 3 minutes of sunshine!

Saturday we shot Kelsey + Ethan's big day...it was such an intimate, awesome day and we're thankful to have been a part of it!

We got home pretty late, but not before a quick Walmart trip to make the most of our two days off! Unfortunately the rain kept us inside a lot, but we still made the most of it. Sunday we grabbed a spontaneous breakfast with Caleb's parents and holy cow, I think it was the best french toast I've had in my life.

We hit up the dollar store, bought a few more coloring books, watched a movie then headed to his brother Cole's house for dinner a few fireworks!

Monday we slept in (yay!!!) and ended up getting new phones. Both of ours had been acting up like crazy for months and we basically had had enough. We went to Verizon since we were due for an upgrade in August and the guy basically said he couldn't do a thing for us. Couldn't even tell us what an estimated ballpark monthly bill would look like. So we went to AT&T for giggles and ended up switching and getting a much better deal (saving up to $40/month and got brand new phones)! Then we grabbed a frozen pizza, some ice cream, and had ourselves a fun evening at home!

Although it wasn't a "long" weekend for us, we're thankful for the 2 days we did get off! We have now shot 7 weddings in a row, and this Saturday's will make 8th. BUT! Then we get a HUGE break and we definitely need it!!!

Hope everyone had an awesome long weekend! What did you do!?