First Engagement-iversary

This time last year, I was in Louisiana - we'd yet to embark upon the visa process entirely (though we had already started to prepare and had a "visa" notebook filled with checklists of things we needed to do, information and things we needed to print).

There was a dream in our hearts that had been there for four years - and we weren't going to stop until that dream became a reality.

The spot where Jesse proposed

In the Kisatchie National forest at sunset on May 26th, 2012, I became Jesse's fiance - officially. 6 months after we'd first started looking for rings and a year after we first started talking seriously about getting married. 

It was the start of the next chapter in our lives and it gave us the momentum we needed to finally make our dreams a reality.

Today, those dreams are our reality - and our lives look a whole lot different. Right now as I type this post, Jesse is in our bed fast asleep. We come home to each other and make daily plans together. The only goodbyes we say is when we leave for work or head out somewhere separately - and it's only hours until we say hello again - not months or years.

And it feels incredible.

Today I know that it's possible for your heart to smile, for you to be so incredibly overwhelmed with happiness that words can't escape your mouth and a tear will roll down your cheek. Today I feel incredibly, unbelievably blessed and I am so glad that the prayer I prayed for so long was finally answered.

Today I am so proud of myself and so proud of us that regardless of how tough or how challenging things got, regardless of who said it was too difficult and regardless of the physical, mental or financial costs - we never let go of that dream.

Today is only the beginning.

We have even more dreams - for ourselves, eachother, our families, our future, our work, this blog - and together we're going to achieve them. Now we know that anything is possible if you work hard enough and never ever lose hope.

Five years ago we met on Myspace, weeks later talked on the phone for the first time about how we would be together, some day - even if we had to live in a carboard box. We were fifteen and seventeen, but we knew this wasn't just any relationship - and what we were feeling was something way way more than that.

Today we're planning our wedding which is less than five months away. Today we're working to grow our relationship and build this little blog which has become so much more than that. Today we're planning for the future because it's finally something real. Today I am praising God for everything that he does - for all of the blessings I've received and all the prayers that have been answered - and for all of those prayers and blessings that are yet to come. 

I want you to know that anything is possible. That little dream in your heart? The one you might squash down because it's too difficult or too unachievable - or maybe the dream that you're fighting for, but don't feel like it's going to come true.... don't give up. Let your fears and your worries and your doubts build your desire for it to come true. Work your butt off - because one day, you won't even remember how hard it was.

So whatever your dream may be - achieve it. I have and I will.

Never stop dreaming - and that dream you're thinking just isn't realistic? It's never going to be realistic if you think that way.

Jesse; I love you - thank you for working with me to make our dreams come true - thank you for always being the one to encourage me to achieve my dreams and never questioning my actions. 

Together we can do anything - and we will. 

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Kristy and Jesse - The Engagement Shoot

Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

Hey lovelies! I am so excited to share these photos with you!

As you may have heard me rambling about on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram - on Friday, Jesse and I headed out to Centennial Park for a photoshoot with our incredibly Wedding Photographer, Lucie Zeka. 

Lucie sent us some of the photos last night and we love them! So here they are (watch out! Photo overload below!)

See the bottom of the post for details on my Hair/Makeup, Outfit and the Photographer

Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

 Photography by Lucie Zeka Wedding Photography

Hair/Makeup: I wanted a really natural look for my hair and makeup and the incredible Emiko from Bijin Hair and Makeup did exactly that. 

Website: www.weddingmakeupartistsydney.com.au

Email: bijinhairmake@gmail.com

Clothes: The dress is a Valleygirl dress from last season with a cardigan given to me by the superhero, Rita from Spoon Fork & Chopsticks! Rita came to my rescue and sent me the cardigan after I spent days traipsing the shopping centres searching for a cardigan to match with no luck. Thank you thank you thank you, Rita! xo 

Location: Centennial Park, NSW.

Photographer:

Not only is Lucie Zeka an incredible photographer, she and her husband Alban made us feel so comfortable that there wasn't an awkward moment (the last thing you want when you're having your photos taken) and Jesse even said "I really like them - we could hang out with them Kristy" - and those words are rarely spoken!

We absolutely cannot wait for Lucie to take our Wedding Photos because we know they will be incredible. Lucie would be my first recommendation for any bride and/or groom looking for a photographer. You can find her Facebook page here and keep up to date with her latest photos or visit her website.

Website: www.luciezeka.com

Email: mail@luciezeka.com

    

   

Wedding Wednesday: Airport Disaster on the way to Meet the Family

So last week I told you about Jesse's relationship with my family - but what about mine with his? While I'm going to tell you that, I thought I may as well tell you how we got there in the first place!

After wanting to go to Louisiana and meet his family, I finally got the opportunity to go on May. We'd been planning it for some time and once Katrina had her last chemo treatment, we left the country two weeks later.

We? Yes we! I took my other best friend, also known as my Mum with me. I did this for two reasons - one because I wanted her to meet Jesse's family and for them to meet her (even though I wished my dad and sister could have come too, but that will happen!) and two, because I didn't want to be traveling 24 hours alone knowing how sick I'd been for the last couple of months.

We headed out of Australia via Dallas and after 16 hours of being cramped up in a plane, we were then stuck in the customs waiting line for 2 hours.

We had a connecting flight to Alexandria that was getting closer and closer - and we were still in line. It was the last flight of the day and if we missed it, there was no other option than to stay in Dallas overnight. When you tell that to someone who never sees her (then) boyfriend, she will only think one thing - that's one less day and that's not going to happen. When Jesse came in December, he had a similar situation in Los Angeles where his flight was overbooked and he had to stay in LA until he could catch a flight the next evening. He was mad, I was a crying sobbing wreck - you'd have thought he wasn't coming.

But back to Dallas. At this point we were looking at the clock watching the time pass and we weren't even moving an inch. We noticed that they were letting other people with connecting flights go through so I flagged down someone to ask. "60 minutes? noooo you have pleeeeeenty of time dear" - the answer I got wasn't what I was looking for. Keep in mind, at this point we hadn't gone through immigrations and we still had to get our bags, go through customs, check onto our next flight and then get to the domestic side of the airport to find our gate and board our plane - all in an hour and we had only moved about 50 metres in the 2 hours we had been waiting. 

A group of English tourists heard us talking to the woman and started saying "oh, you're not going to make it you know... there's no way... we may even miss our flight that's in an hour in a half... we've traveled here before you know..". I'm not a violent person and I'm actually really nice and polite and everyone comments on how well mannered I am - but at this point I wanted to scream at these tourists because they were only verbalising the fears I had in my head.

Another twenty minutes minutes passed and we finally got to the counter. The guy was lovely and while processing our papers, decided to have a little chat while his slow computer processed the information - lovely... but we now had fourty minutes left before boarding and I was growing almighty impatient, Mum too. 

Once we got out of customs, Mum told me to run because we still had to get our bags and get down to go through immigration - and it'd be a good idea to get there before the thousands of people that were behind us (though with only 4 people actually on the counters, we didn't have to worry about that).  

Now... I'm not a runner - never have been, never will be. I'm the clumsiest person on the planet and when I run I just look like an idiot. Take my failure at running and add one big bulky handbag and a carry on bag over my shoulder that kept hitting me in the bum and knocking me over every time I tried to "run". What came out of this was as graceful as a penguin's waddle. In fact, it probably was a penguin's waddle. 

So I waddled my way down stairs to grab our bags and thankfully by the grace of God our bags were right there. We grabbed them and my mum told me to run once more. Now... you remember my situation before? Now add in a big wheelie suitcase that weighed almost as much as me - so now I had a big handbag, a carry on bag hitting me on the bum every time I tried to walk, sore feet and a wheelie bag that kept running into the back of my ankles. If there had've been another flight - this is where I would have laid down on the floor and died. 

So we got into yet another line... 30 minutes to go. This line was full of people and there was no other way than to wait - regardless of whether you had another flight. 10 minutes ticked down and we finally got to the end of the line. "Oh Ma'am... would you mind coming through an extra security check" actually yes, I would mind... 

Source

Thankfully that security check took all of two minutes (unheard of in an airport) and we were once again running waddling to get to the next point to check our bags onto the next flight. We got to one part only be told to quickly run another 100 metres and check our bags in there, once we did that we got to the counter and I frantically called Jesse to let him know we might not make it. While on the phone, my mum was talking to the guy who said "Oh.. you've already missed this flight" 

I just about died. 

Then he says "Oh whoops, I just read the wrong line... you have ten minutes... run". I didn't even have time to scream at him or punch him in the face (though I never would have!) and this time the penguin waddle took off at full speed. We ran through the doors, up the stairs, up the escalator (all while pulling those damn bags behind us and my carry on bag cutting up the back of my legs) and onto the skylink to get to where our boarding terminal was. 

Thank goodness that monorail went so fast it just about knocked me over. We got straight off and once again started running to our terminal. We got there with five minutes to spare. Thankfully because it was a small plane, they didn't have to board until the last minute and there was a slight delay so we were allowed to get on. 

I once again made another rushed call to Jesse... this time to tell him we were coming. We got onto the flight and I was exhausted and beyond nauseous. Combine stress with a whole day of traveling and already having GI issues - and it wasn't a fun event. But I knew I was only one hour away from seeing Jesse.

Once we touched down in Louisiana, Mum had to wait to get her carry on bag from the hold since they didn't want everyone's big bags in the tiny plane. She sent me off ahead to go find Jesse. 

I walked out, expecting it to be like Sydney domestic airports where you wait for the passengers right outside the gate. No Jesse. My heart dropped. I walked back towards the gate to my Mum to tell her that he wasn't here. She reassured me that of course he was here, I just must've missed him. 

What I didn't know was that all those people waiting outside the gate were waiting to get on their flight... not to pick up other passengers. We walked outside of the gate area and there was Jesse walking towards me. Right then, I knew everything was fine. 

We got our bags, got into his car and drove to the grocery store (priorities people! No one ever knows what to buy for me with all my food intolerances so it was go shopping or go hungry :P). Once we were finished shopping, it was time to go to his Mom's house, where we'd be staying. 

Next week I'll tell you about how I got along with Jesse's family! 

So tell me, have you had your own airport disaster? or do you have pretty good luck with airports? 

Wedding Wednesday: Engagement Story

Originally posted at ksayerphotography but adapted for this blog!

Your ears are filled with the sound of birds chirping,

your lungs are filled with the clean air with the scent of pine, 

there's nothing but trees around you.

That's what it was like when we walked into the Kisatchie National Forest, off Camp Claiborne in Forest Hill LA.

There were trees as far as the eye could see and my photos don't do it justice to how gorgeous it was. We were in the forest in the late afternoon and there wasn't a sound but birds chirping. 
 

In total, the Kisatchie National Forest covers over 600, 000 acres across seven different Louisiana parishes.

It's filled with gorgeous long-leaf pine forests with camping facilities and 400 miles of trails for hiking and ATV riding. In different areas you can also go swimming, boating and fishing. 
 

That day we had plans to go out for lunch with his mum, her husband and my mum but Jesse told me that we'd be going "somewhere pretty" once we got back so that I could "take photos" (I'm lucky to have a fiance who understands my photography-inclined brain).

 We finished with lunch and got back to the house and waited til it got a little cooler before we left. I asked Jesse where we were going and the conversation went a little like so; 

Kristy: So, where are you taking me?
Jesse: To the forest
Kristy: The florist? Oh.. who are we getting flowers for? Wait... did you say florist or forest?
Jesse: Forest.
Kristy: Oh.. haha, I thought I hadn't seen any florists around

In case it wasn't obvious, when I was born I was pure blonde. While my hair colour has changed, at times my brain doesn't know that. 

 Once it got a little cooler, Jesse told me to change my shoes (and thus my outfit - pretty dress and sneakers? no thank you) and while I was talking to my mum, he came out with a backpack and started putting water bottles in it - because it was "hot out" and then I had "somewhere to put my camera". But there was something else in the bag and it wasn't trail mix. 
 

 We drove through the forest to find somewhere we could get out and walk through the forest. We stopped the car and walked out into the trees. I took photos for a little while before turning around and Jesse was on one knee asking me to marry him. I said yes (about 310 times!) and finally I had my pretty little ring on my finger!
 

 Oh I know, major PDA.
 

Did I know? I suppose you can say I was hoping. We'd had the ring since the Thursday, but Jesse had asked my Mum whether he should take it in his carry-on on the plane back to Sydney or if it was fine in his suitcase and that threw me off. 

Actually, I heard it and thought.. WHAT?! He's going to make me wait that long!? That reaction sounds totally selfish, but if you've read how we found the ring - you'll understand.

So what do you do when you're 10, 000 miles away from friends and family but you still want them to know the news?! You do the modern thing and post it on facebook, of course!

My friends and family woke up to the news and we were flooded with emails, comments and messages.

So tell me, If you're engaged/married - what was your proposal like?
If you're not - what would your dream proposal be?Would you like a big song and dance, or something more romantic and intimate? 

Find out more about us here!

Wedding Wednesday: "The ring"

The search for "The Ring" started way back in December 2011, while Jesse was in Sydney. We looked at a dozen jewelry stores with no success, so we made the decision that once I got to Louisiana we'd look again at the jewelry stores there.

The first week I was in Louisiana, the search began. We looked at every jewelry store we could and as I have teensy tiny fingers, all of the rings just looked odd or ridiculously large. I started to wonder if we'd ever find a ring that didn't look like I'd stolen my Great Aunt Beatrice's hideously gaudy costume jewelry. I need something that was petite and feminine and I wanted something that looked almost vintage in appearance. 

The first weekend we headed off to Mississippi to visit his grandmother and hadn't had a chance to look any further. In the car on the way back we decided we'd have another look at the mall once we got back. I'd decided, at this point, that I was feeling lucky and Jesse agreed with me (or so he said!). We got back to his Mom's house, left my Mum and the groceries and were off to start the search once more.

Once we got to the mall, we only had an hour until it closed so we decided if we found something we found something but if we ran out of time, sobeit! 

We walked into the jewelry store and I told the salesperson we were "just looking". Little did I know that just a few seconds later I spotted "the ring" and started hovering around the display case. I started pointing it out to Jesse saying "oooooooooohh, that's preeeetttyy" and the sales guy soon caught on to my odd behaviour. He made his way around the counter and asked if I wanted to try it on - Ummm... is the Pope Catholic?!?!

 

I tried it on and the second I did I knew that I'd found it. Just to make sure, I tried on two other rings. Those rings were off in a second and "the ring" was straight back on. 

I only had one week before I left Louisiana to go back home so the store had it sent out as a 'rush order' to get it re-sized. We were told they would do everything they could to get it in before I left, but they couldn't make any promises. We then waited patiently for them to call to say it was in the store. 

Thankfully when we were on our way back from Lafayette on the Thursday, we got a call saying the ring was in the store and we could pick it up whenever we wanted. We got back to his Mom's house, dropped off groceries and my mum (I see a habit forming here, haha) and we were back in the car to pick up the ring. 

It fit perfectly and was even prettier than I remembered, but I wasn't allowed to have it just yet! It went back in the box because Jesse wanted to propose officially. That didn't mean I wasn't teased with it though! Jesse found it quite amusing knowing I so desperately wanted it on my finger when he showed it to his family and my mum. I didn't find it so amusing!

He started asking whether he would take the ring in his carry-on or in his suitcase on the way back to Sydney and I started to wonder whether he really was going to wait or not. But clearly he did not, next week I'll tell you all about how he proposed!

Yes, I chose my engagement ring because Jesse wanted me to have something that I loved seeing as I'd be wearing it for the rest of my life. I couldn't be more thankful for that as I'm really particular about jewellery and now I have a ring that I ADORE and never ever want to take off my finger.

Ladies, if you're engaged/married - who picked your ring? 

If you haven't gotten to that stage yet, would you want to choose?