My dress, made by the talented Couturesmith

Bart, our Dutch farmhand this summer got to come to the wedding. He opted to wear a bow tie. So cute. Actually he had us take a poll, and the bow tie won over the regular tie.

Krista was our hairdresser and is a family friend. She has done an amazing job on my hair for Katelyn, Erica, and my own wedding and is just the sweetest girl ever. If you are in the London, Ontario area and need a hairdresser Krista is your girl! Let me know and I will give you her info.

My bridesmaid Michelle and her adorable dimple. They requested hair flowers which I thought was a nice touch.

Pretty sure I had the cutest bridesmaids ever!

A nice one of my parents.

Leah and dad! So sweet.

My friend Dane drove us around in his amazing car. The car shots are some of my faves (and my bouquet? Amazing.)

The town my sisters and I grew up in was having its annual garage sale that day so we stopped in. I picked up a veil for $5 which you can kind of see in this shot:

And then we were off to the church! To be continued…

I was visiting a wonderful Aunt recently, and upon my telling her of my “old-ness,” she laughed right in my face (as she should have). She has a way of saying ‘you are so young still, you have the whole world in front of you’ without actually saying those cliched words, and so began an inspiring conversation. “What do you want to see in your future?”, she asked. Travel? I have lived on both sides of our country, traveled Europe for a summer with all the girls in our family and lived in Costa Rica for a summer. Volunteer? Those six weeks in Costa Rica were spent volunteering. Fall in love? I have a wonderful man in my life who I love so very much. My “old-ness” was making me resistant, wanting my settled life to start before I am really done living my young life.

I hesitated. “I guess I’ve always wanted to spend more time in France, and I’ve never been to New Zealand.” As she saw my mind starting to open up to these ideas again, she encouraged me to make a vision board.

I really had no idea what a vision board was, but after she told me, I thought that was exactly something I needed to do.

So, that is my goal for the next little while. I guess I should set a date, right? By the New Year, I will have a vision board completed and it will be a concrete way of starting my life goals and keeping myself accountable.

Immediately, I saw a beautiful and quaint home, kind of like this vision board. 

Source

But of course I want beauty in my life. I need to push myself more, and think in terms of the scary future of my career.

Source 

I need to focus on money, and where my money is going. How am I providing for my family?

What am I doing to make this world a better place?

I am hoping that this activity will encourage myself to stop feeling settled, and to feel as though my life is more of a path, to remind myself that with effort, drive and determination, I can create that path to be whatever I want it to be.

We even got a picture with him!

Okay that’s it for my brush with fame, now here is what I dressed up as on Halloween!

Coincidentally, this person is also having her 22nd birthday today! This is Stef, who has been my best friend since I was three.

When we were children, Stef and I lived 10 minutes apart. We would play dress up (she had the most awesome dress up clothes), we would go to each other’s school dances,  we would play Nintendo 64, and would always go camping every summer with our families (our Mom’s also happened to be best friends).

We would tie bars of soap to our feet with elastics and jump on her trampoline with the sprinkler on underneath.

When we got older, Stef’s Mom moved their family away from the farm and to our nations capital to further her career, so started the family road trips to Ottawa.

I couldn’t live without her so far away, and I was so happy when she came to the same University as me.

Then I moved to Calgary, and can you believe that I didn’t see Stef for 14 months? She got an internship that brought her to Calgary (did I mention how absolutely brilliant and sought after this girl is?) and we got to be inseparable again for a few weeks.

I love this girl, this magificent woman who is there for me in joy and when  I just need to cry.

Happy Birthday Stef!

I just can’t live without her.