Ah! Cue confetti! This is kind of a big deal for me–mostly because I’ve been putting it off for quite a while now.

But I’ve finally ventured forth into pursuing something I’ve felt like was an open door for me for a while now.

But I wasn’t really sure how, and I fell numerous times into the trap of it having to be perfect. When in reality, I’m a photographer today, because I wasn’t afraid to dive into something without being perfect. Thank goodness for my bit of impulsivity! So why has it been so hard to pursue this?

Maybe because deep down, I have felt like my own marriage is so far from perfect. Jordan and I have learned a lot since our honeymoon, but we also are so dang imperfect that it’s like, “why haven’t we figured XYZ out yet?!” Or maybe it’s because I don’t want to be judged or come across the wrong way to the wrong crowd. I’ve never been one to want to ruffle feathers.  Fear of failure? Maybe that could also be. But how could I really fail at this unless I just…..stop posting. I guess that’s how. Okay, so now that that’s out there, it makes me a leetle nervous! 🙂 Anyway..

So here we are friends! I pushed myself into the pool very slowly and am experiencing more peace and excitement, as it’s all coming together.

For those of you who don’t know much about me

I’m a small town New Mexico-raised girl who met her husband at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. He was from Dallas, so after we finished graduate school and nursing school, we decided to search for jobs in the big city. He is currently an ICU nurse while I just went full time with wedding photography this past June.  The year prior I worked in the schools as a speech-language pathologist! We currently have a baby boy who was born this past December, and we are taking a little breather from our home renovation. 

Just like I accidentally fell into photography while in graduate school, I feel that it’s no coincidence that I specifically fell in love with wedding photography. I was and always will be the sucker for a good romance movie, a sweet proposal story or a thoughtful gift idea. I was the friend in high school who watched her friends date, formed my own opinions on how relationships should be and when I began seriously dating myself, I realized how excitingly difficult they could be. I discovered that I really enjoyed reading about dating, relationships, communication and anything in between. I also discovered how even though I have a passion for this, it doesn’t actually mean Jordan and I are able to apply these nuggets and have a perfect marriage.

I’d say that Jordan and I have definitely had really easy, smooth and exciting seasons within our marriage, and I’m really thankful that he is the man he is. I’d say we have a loving, strong marriage. I’ve experienced some of the sweetest memories of my life with this man, and I am giddy thinking about all the more memories we have to make. But we’ve swallowed the good with the bad. We’ve definitely had some really dark and difficult seasons, as well. I mean, moving to a new city, starting new jobs, working opposite schedules, renovating a house and getting pregnant in a year doesn’t exactly equate to simplicity. But surprisingly, looking back at the trials, I wouldn’t have changed any of it.

Because marriage is amazingly messy, beautiful, adventurous and difficult. We’re not meant to do it alone, and community rallied around us can only help us out to experience the sweeter joys of the sourest seasons of life.

So birthed this idea of mine…

I wanted a way to love on and support my past and future wedding couples. A way to support them after the excitement of the wedding dies down. Because, you know, after the excitement of the wedding, you’re left with a marriage. And your marriage will truly be what you make of it, what time you put into it and how you choose to be present within it.

So with that little background shared and my heart open for you, I’m pursing this outlet for couples of all stages—dating, engaged, on their honeymoon or married for half a decade. For couples that love dating one another, are in a dry season or who simply want to go from a 8 to an 9 in their relationship. I’m launching this new blog post series that you’ll find posted here on Mondays called Marriage Mondays.

Inspire & support couples. Encourage & create new shared experiences. Equip, Love, Learn.

I hope and pray that it be a safe, encouraging, silly and creatively-fun place for couples to find encouragement and ideas for various kinds of shared experiences together. I’m a firm believer in that setting out to have new “firsts” together is one ingredient to an adventurous, fun relationship. The longer you’ve known each other or been married, the less “first” you experience on the daily, and there is so much to learn about one another and new emotions to share when you visit a new restaurant, event or city together. It’s exciting; it grows you and creates this said “shared experiences“. HENCE why I LOVE TRAVELING.

While some posts will be a bit deeper with communication advice or understanding your love language, others will balance it out with creative date night ideas, meals to prep and cook together and stay-cation ideas. Because you guys, Jordan and I are first in line for learning new date night restaurants and ways to continually “date” each other. We sometimes just fail at the creativity and fall back on our Redbox + wine combo, but you know, we don’t hate that either. 😉 

I’m already so giddy about our line-up of guest posts, shared from food bloggers, lifestyle bloggers and a hand full of local counselors who happen to be friends of mine.

I can’t wait for Hannah from The Cake by Hannah to share with us next week, and I plan on using some of her ideas for a future stay-cation, myself! 😉

I’m overjoyed that you’re here, and I hope you know you’re loved. Have a fabulous week friend! If you know a friend or two who’s as giddy about rom-coms, date nights or marriage as I am, I’d love for you to share the news about my new series! 

Hugs!