sometimes...

it pays to have a friend who just so happens to be an amazing photographer... but only sometimes. 

no but really, we are so glad that we have been able to become friends with our talented wedding photographer, austin [even though he's always trying to deny it]. we love hanging out with him! and it certainly doesn't hurt that he brings along his film camera and/or his goldendoodle desmond every now and then.

a winchester wedding

meet the photographers.

here's a glimpse of the lovely wedding we got to capture.

 oh & did we mention that the bride and groom just so happen to be some of our best friends? 

but seriously. we had so much fun traveling to the charming town of winchester, va (with a couple pit stops in our beloved lynchburg)to be a part of josh & rachel's wedding celebration. we are so blessed to have made such incredible, genuine, godly friends while in college. it is so wonderful to see what the lord has been doing in all their lives since we were all together last. i am now determined to seek out a community like this here in nashville.

t-minus two weeks

i learned something new about my husband on the fourth of july. he is the word-for-word definition of a fairweather fan. we went to milwaukee to see britt's soon-to-be new home and guess who happened to be playing at the brewer's stadium? yep, that's right-- my good ol' diamondbacks. now you may be thinking, i thought you lived in tennessee now? but let's all be serious here. zona will always be my home. ryan, on the other hand, would rather just root for the most popular team. but we showed him [we, as in the dbacks & i]. they came back from a wopping 1:6 in the 7th inning and i faithfully cheered them on from the first pitch. 

in celebration of 6 blissful months: our engagement story

in lieu of pictures, i thought i'd just share another blog feature of our wedding. i realize there are few people who actually want to read an essay on a blog so if you don't happen to be one of those people, the you can stop reading after this.

i had my "ah-ha" moment after spending an awful summer apart from ryan, followed by an intense vacation filled with honest conversations. it was fall 2009 when i knew that ryan was the man i wanted to spend the rest of my life with. but i also knew that i had my final year of nursing school ahead of me, so i stopped the thought process at that.

fast forward to spring 2010, when i last-minute changed my mind and decided that we should spend our spring break snowboarding in colorado instead of sun-bathing in arizona. of course, ryan happily agreed. day 1 at the mountains, i dropped my cousin's brand new sparkling white goggles in the mud from the run-off and pouted about it for the entire rest of the day. ryan, being the romantic guy that he is, suggested a few runs on our own or maybe a little pit stop at the mountain-top prayer chapel. my classic rebuttals- how dare he weasel me away from my few precious moments of family-time or take me down a skiiers-only run to get to the chapel? but my stubbornness & sometimes difficult temperament has never stopped him before.

day 2 at sunlight ski resort, ryan requested the first run to ourselves to give my sister time to "warm up". this time i'm thinking how thoughtful, right? once at the top, he quickly unclipped his bindings and started tromping through the snow towards the back of the mountain. i followed behind, leaving one foot strapped in. once we got to a spot with two rocks and a perfect view of mount sopris, ryan plopped down and patted the rock next to him. "you want me to unclip my bindings?" i ever so lovingly replied. after a little coaxing, we sat and soaked in the gorgeous surroundings enjoying eachother's company. i didn't think a thing of the uplifting compliments and encouragement that i am lucky enough to receive daily.

when ryan stood up, i quickly reached for my helmet and gloves, fully prepared to resume boarding. little did i know what i would find when i turned around- ryan down on one knee with my great-grandmother's original wedding ring setting in his grandmother's green velvet ring box. another graceful, well-thought out response on my part: "are you kidding me?" ryan explained to me all the reasons that he wanted to marry me [even despite all the reasons i had just given him not to] all the while i'm mumbling "are you serious?... are you for real?..."

and then he asked me "jenna, will you marry me?"

an intimate proposal in an awe-strikingly beautiful setting, with my family waiting at the bottom of the mountain to celebrate. i'm sure everyone says this, but seriously, he managed to give me the engagement story i had always hoped to have one day.

thanks to my naive interference, the day that he was actually able to propose was the day my dad had taken the camera to another ski resort. therefore, we only have phone documentation. & mind you, this was before fancy iphones.

party animals

we went to another high school graduation party yesterday and had more fun with corn hole, bolo toss, moon bounce, & swing set than the kids it was all meant for. it's a good thing too, because we have eaten more in the past two days than we normally do in a week. yesterday's menu: authentic indian food + mini assorted desserts.

escape to chicago

in the midst of another stressful housing dilemma, ryan and i drove up to see his family for a belated graduation celebration for brittany and some fourth of july family time [still to come].

our first time in south carolina

we drove to greenville, south carolina for a friend's wedding this weekend. even though it was a short trip for a fairly long drive, both the drive and destination yielded absolutely breathtaking scenery and spending time with old friends did our souls much good.

after an afternoon exploring greenville and trying to find the remote cabin where we would be staying for the weekend, we started unloading the car. as i grabbed our small new camera bag from the car, i thought to myself, "man ryan took almost everything inside in just one trip". i became even more perplexed when i got inside and only saw our camera gear on the couch- "did he really already take our things to the room?"

when ryan came walking in, i asked him where he had put the suitcase, with a big smitten smile on my face. he told me he hadn't brought it in.. hm? "well where did you put the suitcase in the car then?" and that's when we both realized. the suitcase had never made it to the car in the first place.

three days later and we're both laughing about it. but let me tell you. there was NO laughter exchanged at that moment, or the rest of the night for that matter.

thank goodness for friends, hotels, and target.