My MANY Contributions...

As many of you have seen I was given the opportunity to help my SIL plan her/their wedding. Since her mother had passed and she had never really thought about what she wanted she thought that I might be able to help her. I was honestly THRILLED to. I LOVE weddings!! The colors, the flowers, the ceremony accessories, the themes, the locations, the decorations, the bride, the flower girls and the romance. I love the idea of creating that perfect moment for someone. I can pick a theme and just go crazy researching it online and getting ideas of my own that fit the bride/grooms needs. I mold it to represent exactly who the couple are and what they mean to each other. So with that said, I wanted to take the opportunity to show some of my contributions Matt & Mary's wedding. Mary is so cute, she calls me her "Martha Stewart in a bag". She can take me where ever she needs creativity. Their wedding theme was the Beach (Hawaii was their honeymoon) and her colors were Coral and Turquoise.

Mary was hoping to find some small silver M&M monogram letters for the top of her cake. But we weren't able to find any in time. So I wanted to make some for her. She was giving M&M's in her wedding colors as favors so I thought my letters would help decorate the favor table nicely.
The & sign is made of sand and on each letter it says Forever / Always.

The Unity Candle. I was happy she decided to do a candle ceremony. If you do not know the history behind a Unity candle here is a link to describe it. I had a Unity candle at my wedding, I made myself from pressed Forget-me-Nots.

The Centerpiece. We honestly had Mary's mother's spirit on our side during the purchasing process of her wedding. We found deals left and right. We found the glasses and the flicker candles at Tai Pan. We got a bundle of shells, sand and some raffia and ...Voila! There was a lot of left over fabric from the bride-maids skirts so we used them to place under the glasses.

The Welcome Sign. We wanted to greet the guests with a casual welcoming that would let them know this was a laid back family event. I looked up the Hawaiian name for Welcome...E Komo Mai. I used vinyl lettering and stenciled the decorations. We hung the sign on the gate as everyone entered the backyard.

The Floral Arrangement. We wanted to have more decorations for the ceremony fireplace. One of Mary's best friends, Emily, did all the floral arrangements for the wedding except these. We found the large vases at Tai Pan and I picked out some artificial flowers, we filled the vases with sand and sea shells. They were place on both sides of the fireplace, and then at the entry to the backyard.

Hair & Make-up. I love doing make overs on my friends. It's girlie I know, but I love to try new things and see them light up when they love it. Mary and I did 3 different practice runs before we decided on a look she wanted for the wedding. I did large curls all over her head and twisted the hair at the crown to create a gorgeous updo. Mary doesn't wear a lot of make-up usually and Matt loves the look of her natural. So I did my best to create a natural elegant look the camera would pick up. Pictures of her parents for bouquet. Unfortunately both of Mary parents had passed before her wedding day. But we wanted to make sure they were remembered and close to her heart. I found some 1-inch frames and I placed photos of her parents in them, tied some ribbon to them and had them tied to her wedding bouquet. Sign in Table. I thought a fisherman's net would be a great way to carry the beach theme. We placed the Unity Candle on there as well as the sign-in book and some photos of the bride and groom.
Wedding Invitation & Ceremony Invitation. This was my first attempt at making a wedding invite and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. For the security of the couple I've smudged their location details. But you get the idea. Mary's friend Jessica & myself took some engagement shots of the couple. Jessica went to Murray Park and got some great shots of the couples outgoing personality. I took them to the Great Salt Lake and got some cute lovey dovey shots. The colors at the GSL were perfect for her wedding colors. I really appreciate all that Matt & Mary let me participate in. I really hope I might have a future (even if it's small) in wedding coordinating. Like is said before, I LOVE weddings, and getting to participate in them is always exciting for me. And getting to use my creativity has always been a stress relieving outlet for me. Thanks for looking!

Just when we think were up...

Recently Tyler and I were in the process of refinancing our home for a lower interest rate. We were excited it was going to drop 1.7% and save us a load of money. That savings would have allowed me to move to days soon and have the kids in school. However, just as we were about to sign the papers with the mortgage agent our "good luck" kicked in.

Tyler's Dodge Stratus lost it's Transmission pump, which means we need a new tranie. The newest one they could offer us had 80,000 miles on it and would cost $2K. That is more than the price of his cars worth right now. And from my experience cars today don't last as long as they used to. Even if we replaced the engine it would be another six months before another major problem would arise. So we've decided to get a new car, which means we can't/shouldn't refinance for awhile. UGH!!! Seriously, when I titled my blog "Tyler, Heather, Josilyn & Tristans ROLLER COASTER RIDE OF LIFE" is wasn't kidding. Every time Tyler and I make plans for the future and think we see the light at the end of the tunnel, we get slammed in the face with darkness again. It's truly exhausting. But what can I say, we never give up, we just hang on and try to enjoy the ride. Well, when we get the new car I'll post some pictures.

My First Bridal Shoot!

So I was privileged to get the chance to take some photos of my sister-in-law Mary for her wedding. I was honored she trusted me and happy to have the experience under my belt. I wanted to share with you all the outcome of our session we had at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. Such a BEAUTIFUL landscape and the bride-to-be was pretty dang GORGEOUS too.

I did her hair and makeup before we headed down there, then had my mom and her BF Miriam meet us there to help me and relax Mary. Let me know what you think and if you'd like me to take some photos for you or your families just let me know! I'd love to! I know it's a lot, but I just had way too many favorites.

No I'm not dead...

I know it's been FOREVER since I've posted on here. But I got so burned out after the wedding, and all the holidays that followed took up most my time too. But it's a new year and I'm going to try and be diligent about posting what's happening with us.

Just so you can expect it... I want to post some of my favorite photos of the wedding(Matt&Mary's), some of my crafts I did for them. I also wanted to post some of the other activities we've been up to for the past 5 months. I'm loving my new camera and I try to take as many photos as I can for practice. Tyler got me a Polarized Lens for Christmas. And with all the inversion (yuck) I haven't had the chance to really break it in. We tried going to the canyons on MLK day, to get above the clouds, but with our luck we were in the clouds and the valley had cleared up for the day. Recently we attended Tyler's Grandpa Ware's 80th Birthday! Wow and the whole Ware clan got together to celebrate so I was able to practice my portraiture skills. I think I'm getting better every time. I really would love to take photography classes but my schedule it just to complicated right now. Any who, just be aware you will be seeing lots of my favorite photos I want to share.

Tyler is loving his job with Energy Solutions Arena (aka Delta Ctr). Especially now that it's Jazz season. He's not a HUGE Jazz fan, but he supports his team. But he gets to work the games for the IT dept. every so often. He can take a "date" and gets to eat in the VIP lounge which has some AWESOME food. Some days I'm at work so he gets to go out with his guy friends to watch the games (he hardly has to do anything during the game).

Well I'm tired so I'm going to head to bed now. I have A LOT to catch up on, and you don't want to sit here and read a book. So I will catch you up in intervals.