Can I let you in on a little secret about your wedding day?

Things will not go as planned.

I know I know, after months/years of planning it’s impossible to believe, but your perfect day may not go according to the timeline you have.  People will be running late.  Something will be forgotten.  A bridesmaid will have a hair appointment that goes longer than planned.  You know what though?  It’s OK.  There is a way to fix it.  Just plan for it.

Plan for the unexpected.  Set up your whole wedding day timeline and once you have it written out, move it back 30-45 minutes.  The best thing you can do is give yourself some breathing room on your wedding day.    Plan time to sit and talk with your bridesmaids.  Give the guys time to just hang out before the ceremony.  If these are the most important people in your life then an extra 30 minutes with them should be perfect.  Don’t just dress up all your friends in fancy clothes.  Make sure you have to to hang out with them.  Your day will go smoother.  Your stress will go down.  Your wedding will go as planned.

Maybe.

I love when couples choose to have sparklers for their get-a-way.  They are fun, they add light, and they give the whole day a sense of crazy love story movie ending.

My tip to you… If you are using sparklers, don’t skimp on them.  Get the longer ones.  The short ones burn out way to quick.  Sometimes before you even get to them.  Also, make sure your guest wait to light them till you are standing there ready to exit.  If not, you’ll end up running though a thick cloud of smoke. :)

I love Mondays.  My weekends typically consist of a a wedding on Saturday, church on Sunday and rest on Monday.  Mondays are our sabbath.  They are a “day of rest”.  I don’t do E-mail, phone calls, or editing.  It’s a day to enjoy the wife, the kids, and the life I have been blessed with.

One of my favorite places to eat is also big on taking a day off.  I know this has happened to you.  You’re hungry, you know what you want, you pull into the drive through giddy that the line is not long and then you realize… It’s Sunday.  Chick-Fil-A is closed.  A restaurant closed on Sunday.  The busiest out to eat day of the week and they are closed.  It’s basically like me saying I’m a wedding photographer who does not shoot Saturday weddings.  Chick-Fil-A is so convinced that people need a day of rest that they are willing to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year for it.  I figure I can skip a few Monday voicemails. Right?

It has not always been like this for our house but back in 2004 I heard a talk by a guy named Rob Bell.  He talked about just how important rhythm and rest were to our bodies.  He talked of the importance of slowing down. The idea resonated with us and we were hooked.  At first taking a day off was hard.  I really do love my job so editing, learning, and shooting are never things I dread.  Taking a break is not always easy.  You have to “plan” for a day of nothing. (Example: I wrote this post on Thursday.)  Little by little though I have been able to “turn off” the part of my brain that likes to work and create.

Our kids LOVE Sabbath.  It’s a day when they know Danielle and I are both fully present.  They know that we are theirs and phone calls or Facebook won’t pull us away.  We are completely emerged in them and we play harder that day than any other day of the week.  It’s how I refill my creativity so that I can pour all of it out the following week.

List of things that are “Sabbathy”
Legos
Bubbles
Cake
Tea Parties
Video Games
Dates
Trampolines

Some “non-Sabbathy” things
E-mail
Laundry
Editing your amazing wedding images
Facebook
iPhones
Paying bills

Your list may look different.  You may not even have a list.  This whole post may seem like a crazy ridiculous stupid idea to you.  That’s OK, you don’t have to do this.  My advice though is try it for 3 months.  Set aside a day of rest.  No talking about work, no doing it, no E-mail.  Want to go really crazy?  Don’t think or plan about your wedding.  It may seem impossible, but you can go 24 hours without looking at a color swatch.  You’ll be amazed how refreshed and eager you are to jump back into the planning if you take little time off from it.  Like I said, you may think I’m crazy, but all I know is Mondays are my favorite day of the week. :)

I’ll start this post with the obvious disclaimer that I am a guy.  That entitles me to ignorance on certain topics such as, when wearing white shoes is taboo, not knowing what the Kardashians ar up to, and being unclear on fork etiquette.  Having said that, I LOVE it when girls put fancy cool things in their hair at weddings.  I don’t know what any of these are called, but I know they are fun to photograph and make you look cooler than the average bride.  Here are some of my favorites from past brides.

But wait, you say.  Where can one find such plumy hair goodness?  I’m sure you already have this site bookmarked but if not may I introduce you to Etsy.
(Get ready to lose 2 hours of your day.)  Here are just a few of the fancy hair clip dealy-boppers they offer.  Have fun ladies.

A quick Monday post about Dinosaurs.  Just what you would expect to find on every great wedding photography blog. :)  Last week was Kids Week at our house.  We swapped boys & girls with our friends and then one night they all stayed at our place and the next night they all went to their place.  The last day all 10 of us went to Dino World in Glen Rose, TX.  There was no birthday or particular reason for going.  Kids Week is just something we started a few years ago.  A chance for them to celebrate being kids.  We eat lots of junk food, stay up late, play lots of video games, build a fire, camp in the living room.  Crazy stuff kids want to do all the time. :)

Kids week is about embracing who these little people are right now.  It’s about ice cream with cherries, pineapples, whip cream, and cookie crumbs.  It’s about finding the joy in driving 3 hours to look at life size dinosaurs.  The older we get the more we look towards the future as “better”.

Once I graduate high school and go off to college…

Once I get my degree and get a real job…

Once we finally get married…

Yeah that’s right. I totally turned a post about dinosaurs into a post about how you are missing the joy in your engagement. :)  Enjoy the process.  Live it up.  Flirt.  You have the rest of your life to be married.  You only have the next few months to be engaged.  Find ways to make it something memorable and not something you just check off your wedding planning list. :)