Happy Birthday to my first love!

It's this little guy's birthday, and we couldn't be happier to celebrate!!

Happy 5th Birthday Cooper!!

I don't celebrate every doggie birthday, but heck! He's FIVE! And, let's be real - he's kind of a big deal.  :)

To say he is spoiled would be an understatement. However, he's the most loyal companion I could've ever ask for, and I've been so blessed to have him as my sidekick for the past five years. The time just flew by! It feels like yesterday when he was just a little pup.

He was shy that night...

...but he quickly became the life of the party (well...a popular cuddler nonetheless).

It was only perfect that Cooper fell in love started a bromance with Brince instantaneously. I guess you could say we both fell quickly! 

In honor of Cooper's birthday, here are some fun things to know about him:

He bleeds red and black and lives for football season.
(This is Robert's old lab, Lily. They were great friends.)

Cooper's first snow storm in Athens in 2009. I'd say he loved it.

He's always ready for a leisure activity - he loves to boat ride with the Griffins.

He's no Scrooge - he's so festive at heart! Christmas is his favorite holiday.

Tonight we'll celebrate Coop's big birthday. We are so proud of him and love him so much!

Defining Perfection

One month ago today, Brince and I committed our lives to one another and celebrated during a day that will forever remain in our heads as "perfect."

I will be the first to admit that it is very easy to get caught up in the details when planning a wedding. I served as my own wedding planner, adviser, gift purchaser, decorator, and decision maker. Balancing all of this on top of being a bride consumes all of your free time (and sleep time). I will say that I do not regret any thing that I did or the amount of responsibility that I placed on myself. It’s okay to be busy, and it’s okay to work so very hard to make your wedding day perfect. What is more important is to realize that “perfect” is a subjective term. Everyone has a different perfect. In hindsight, I have come to truly understand what “perfect” means in terms of a wedding day. Perfect is the feeling of pure elation when you see the man you love with your entire heart standing at the end of the aisle waiting to marry you.

Perfect is the ache in your cheeks from smiling so hard after putting on your wedding dress.

Perfect is the frizzy hair around your face at the end of the night from sweating after dancing the night away with all of your friends.

Perfect is committing a LIFETIME to one person who you can love more than you love yourself.

Perfect is having a heart so full of gratitude for all of the people that went out of their way to join you on your wedding day.

At the end of the day, it will not be the small things that you remember for your perfect day. I loved every single detail that I chose to incorporate into our wedding and reception, but those aren’t the things that made the day perfect. At the end of the experience, it will not matter if a flower was out of place, if a waiter dropped and shattered a glass, or if all of the power goes out for 30 minutes at your reception (true story – that really happened). Your day will be perfect because you made a lifetime commitment to the person that you care about more than anything in the world, you shared this time with the people you love, and you had a darn good time partying like there was no tomorrow!

I came across a video today that made me especially grateful for one specific element that made my day “perfect.” We take so much for granted on any given day, and it is easy to take for granted the blessings that we have on our wedding day as well.  My wedding day was so perfect because I got to share it with my incredible parents. I am so lucky to have been escorted down the aisle by my sweet father, who I adore and couldn’t wait to share this moment with. Now, when people say a wedding is all about the bride and groom, they are totally wrong - because that wedding is your parents’ wedding too! They work so hard, give so much, and become just as emotionally invested in that day as the bride. I remember feeling so excited on the day of my wedding, not just for myself, but for my parents to see their dedication come to fruition too. THANK YOU Mom and Dad, for sharing a perfect wedding day with me!

 

Anyway, I am so lucky and grateful to have the parents that I have and to have shared in this special life event with them. It is important to remember that we all do not get to experience this special blessing, although I feel sure that it is something that every daughter and parent desires to share. By this sweet, heart-touching video, I am reminding that the eternal love of a parent for his/her child embodies the real meaning of “perfect.” It made me a little teary-eyed. Enjoy!

http://banana1015.com/father-walks-daughters-down-the-aisle-knowing-he-will-die-before-they-marry/?trackback=fbshare_top

A weekend of celebrations

Our lives have hardly slowed down since our wedding. We've stayed in a suitcase and on the move! You won't find us complaining because we love having so much to do and consider ourselves extremely blessed to have so many things to celebrate! This past weekend, we spent the weekend in Hawkinsville with Brince's family.

Saturday evening, Brince and I made our best attempt at being in two places at one time - we traveled to Cordele to celebrate the wedding of two of my childhood friends, Chelsey and Walt then scurried back to Hawkinsville for a post-wedding party for two of Brince's friends, Fain and Laney Griffin. Although Brince and I have attended a weddings since our wedding, this was the first one we attended together, as a married couple! It was extra special to go back to the very sanctuary where we said our vows just 1 month ago. We really enjoyed being on the other side of things this time!

How cute is this groom's cake?!

Although I didn't get any pictures of the beautiful bride and handsome groom, here are all of my "buddies" reunited at the reception. We had such a great time catching up!

B and I hurried back to Mr. Randy and Mrs. Joni's house for Fain and Laney's party. Since we were not able to make it to Fain and Laney's wedding, we were so glad to see them and celebrate at the party! The party was so cute! Scoot on over to Maggie's blog soon for pictures and details!

The main event for our splendid weekend, which took place on Sunday, was the dedication service for our nephew, Thomas Henry Griffin. He looked particularly dapper in his Sunday best!

He did such a great job in the church for the dedication service. We couldn't be prouder of this little guy! We are so glad that we were present for this special event. Sunday afternoon, I was especially lucky to have some personal snooze time with Henry...

One thing is for sure - Sunday naps don't get any better than this!

Hope you and yours had a blessed weekend filled with family and love.
xo- LL

Now we're married....so let's blog!

In the midst of newlywed boredom {not}, surely it's natural to want to take on a new project, right?! Considering that my day is no longer 8 hours of work, 8 hours of wedding planning, 2 hours of cooking/cleaning, zero hours of exercise and 4-6 hours of insomnia, I'm just twiddling my thumbs! Kidding! Actually, I still have plenty of things to satisfy my time. However, my theory is that the upcoming days, months, and years will be just too great not to document - so why not blog about all of the fun! So here we are - welcome one and all!

Just to give a little background, the blog became a goal of mine after I became engaged. Those that know me also know how much I {LOVE} weddings and looked forward to wedding planning for quite some time. When Brince proposed, I wanted to start a blog so that I could detail every step of the wedding planning process. Since I did all of the planning myself, there were many DIY projects to document just no time to actually "document." Now that the wedding is over, I'll include some of the fun projects that made our big day simply perfect. Since hindsight is 20/20, these wedding posts should be even better than if I had blogged along the way!!

So, what can you expect from me? This blog will be an outlet for my post-wedding energy.  I hope this will be a fun way for friends and family to keep up with what's going on in our lives.

On the blog, you will get to know my handsome husband. True loving! 

(see ---->)

You'll see more about our fun travel.

You'll certainly learn more about our sweet families.

On occasion, you'll probably receive an earful of meaningless nothings. Hey, sometimes we all need to air our incohesive thoughts (consider this my disclaimer)! 

I may even cover my cool work assignments adventures.

Last but not least, I'll include in-depth, colorful details from our wedding accompanied with tons and tons of pictures. YAY!

Are you excited yet?! I sure am. Be sure to "follow" the blog and we'll take the leap into this new adventure together. Let's go!!

- LL