Two

Two years ago today I made the best decision of my life and said I Do to the most wonderful man.  I am still amazed that I get to be married to Brandon and that God chose him to be my partner in life.  God created marriage so that we can have someone to share life's joys, pains, changes, and excitement with and that we would be drawn closer to Him through it.  I am so thankful that my marriage is based on Christ's love for us and that I can continue to grow personally and spiritually through it.  I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store for us through our marriage.  You can see the video highlights of our special day here.  Happy anniversary Brandon, I love you so much!

Our Love Story

Let's be honest, I've been having some major writer's block lately.  What better way to cure it and still keep this little blog going than a link-up!!  Today I am linking up with Becky at From Mrs. to Mama for a super adorable link-up called What's Your Love Story.  So appropriate since it is almost Valentine's Day!!

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

Brandon and I went to middle school together, but didn't start to actually know one another until high school.  We became friends our sophomore year and started dating our senior year, which means we have been a couple for 7 years.

Senior Prom

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}
Brandon and I actually went to middle school together, but we did not start becoming friends until high school.  We sat together in Spanish class and developed a friendship.  During our senior year our two groups of friends started to merge and things took off.  We started flirting and finally he asked me out while sitting in my parent's den.  We went to senior prom together and ended up enrolling in the same college.  Throughout college we continued to date and fell in love.  We knew we wanted to get married and were just waiting to graduate college and become financially stable.  Brandon landed a job as an Engineer  and I got a fellowship to get my Master's in School Counseling.  Brandon proposed to me on September 14, 2009.

 

3. If married, how long have you been married?

We got married August 14, 2010.  It will be a year and a half on Valentine's Day!

 

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? 
We got married in the church that I grew up in in our hometown.  It was an average size wedding, not too big, not too small.  It was perfect.  You can see details and a video HERE

 

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!
I call Brandon "Brando" and he calls me "Wienerschnitzel"

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

     1. I love his sense of humor.  He make me laugh even when I am in the worst of moods.

     2. I love how giving and caring he is.  He can make friends with anyone he meets.

     3. I love how patient he is.  This is one area that we are complete opposites in, but he           definitely balances my lack of patience.

7. Tell us how he proposed?

Brandon asked me to dinner, so we went to McAlister's to pick up some sandwiches. We then went to the nearby lake and ate. After eating, Brandon said he had some gifts for me. He pulled out a series of small boxes. Each one had a letter on top, which made no sense to me at the time. Inside every box was a slip of paper with a word or phrase of something we had done together over the years. With each box he gave me a small gift that was a reminder of that time.  The final box had an "A" on it and said "Prom" inside. He then asked me what my favorite part of prom was and after a few wrong answers I said "How you asked me", which was that he got down on one knee on Valentine's Day. He asked me to stand up and began proposing. I still didn't know what the letter on the boxes meant. We had a running joke that everything I want to do, include get engaged and married, Brandon always says "One Day". I respond "well that will be one great day!". He was proposing and said "You know how I always tell you one day we will get engaged? It's today!" I looked over and the boxes spelled out "It's Today". He asked me to marry him and I said YES!, of course. It was the perfect, sweetest proposal!

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?
Valentine's Day is usually pretty low key for us.  We usually just do flowers and a nice dinner, so I guess he is a combination of the two.
 

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
Most of the time I am a couch kind of girl, but I do like the occasional romantic evening out.  Either sounds like fun to me!  

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
We have a whole list of things we want to do, but traveling is definitely a dream of ours.  One thing we would love to do is go on a mission trip together.  Hopefully, next summer we will be able to plan one somewhere overseas like Haiti or somewhere in South America.  We love serving together and are growing every day in our faith.  

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.
This Valentine's Day we are going to a nice dinner and relaxing.  Nothing too fancy shmancy.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?
We typically don't do gifts on Valentine's Day, so I am not asking for anything.  I do know that he got me a small gift, so I guess I should probably get him something small too.  I usually just bake him some sort of treat.  You know food is the way to a man's heart ;)

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.
Always hold on to each other.  All around you there may be other people or fast-paced action, but when it is just the two of you the world seems to stand still.  I love this picture because the people in the background are all active but we are embracing the moment. 

It's all about sharing

 Today I am over at Petchie's Blog Book sharing a little bit about my wedding day.  She has a fun guest series about weddings.  She interviews a bride all about her special day.  It's great to see all of the different wedding styles and to hear each girl's wedding story.  So head on over there and say hi!

His Best Friend's Wedding

This weekend we had the opportunity to celebrate a very special occasion with our good friends, Justin and Courtney.  By a stroke of luck in 2008 Justin moved into Brandon's college apartment.  He was just the subleaser, a replacement roomie for the summer, at least that's what he thought.  Turns out, this would become one of his closest friends.  This was the summer that I was studying abroad, meeting my own close friends in my own random situation.  The Lord truly does place people in your life at a strategic time with a careful plan in place.

If you were to meet Justin and Brandon, you would think they have known each other for a very long time.  They both have such a sense of humor and are a perfect match, if you will.  When I returned from Peru that summer three years back I was introduced to this new bromance and was instantly so thankful that Brandon had met such a great friend.  Friends share such a special place in our lives.  I was also incredibly blessed to be introduced to Courtney, Justin's girlfriend at the time.  She is so sweet.  Over the past three years Brandon and I have kept in touch with Justin and Courtney.  We have had the opportunity to go to football games together, celebrate their engagement, and we even spent a long weekend at the Mangy Moose with them this summer.  We have shared their happiness through their engagement and this weekend we were so blessed to share their wedding, Brandon serving as a groomsman.

 

It was a perfect fall day.  The crisp breeze was blowing.  The guests looking out over the golden fields, the beautiful fall flowers contrasting the slightly grey skies.  The bride and groom were both glowing.  They said their vows in the presence of the Lord and we celebrated in an old refurbished barn.  There was laughter, there were tears of joy, and most importantly love.  Weddings are always such a great reminder of how blessed each of us is to be partnered with our mate, handpicked by the creator himself.  This particular wedding was also such a wonderful reminder of the relationships that warm our hearts.  We are so thankful to call Justin and Courtney our friends and we can't wait for more celebrations in the future.  

Our Wedding Video

In case you were bored or curious or just obsessed with weddings, I was finally able to upload our wedding video highlights!!  Enjoy!!

One Year Ago

One year ago I made the best decision of my life.  I said "I Do" to the man of my dreams, my best friend.  There was aqua and red, lots of laughter, guitars playing, dancing, eating, and pure joy.  Every day we are growing closer in our marriage and I am so thankful to have him as my partner in life.  Happy anniversary Brandon, I love you with all of my heart and I can't wait for the years to come.  Here is a look back at the best day of my life.

 

Happy August

Can you believe it is August already? I certainly can't because it's our ANNIVERSARY month.  I am baffled to think we have been married almost an entire year.  So many things have happened over the last year, but that is for another post.  August is sure to bring some wonderful memories here in the Brown household. There are so many exciting things happening this month.  I will give you a short preview of what this month has to hold, but there will certainly be more detailed posts as the events unfold.  Let's take a look at what August has in store for the Brown family: 

1. My sister-in-law (Brandon's sister, duh) is going off to college!  Of course she is following in our footsteps and going to the best school ever!  We will be moving her into her dorm room in 10 short days.  Such a bittersweet moment, but we are excited for her to have the college experience.  

2. I am thrilled to announce that I got my first big girl job as a Middle School Counselor!  I am super excited, but also pretty nervous.  I will start in the middle of August.  I'm excited to have my own office and get to decorate it!  I just pray that the skills I learned in graduate school don't fail me now and that I can  make a difference in the lives of the students and in my school.  

3. I get to celebrate with the love of my life and reminisce about the best day of my life.  We also get to try our wedding cake for the first time, seeing as we didn't get to eat any at our wedding (besides the icing that went up my nose when he fed me).  Did I mention that I just adore my wedding gown and wish I could get married every August just so I can spend the day in it?  I mean how often do you find an article of clothing that makes you dance for joy in the middle of a clothing store?  On another note, we will also be taking a short vacation for our anniversary, so be on the lookout for those details a bit later :)

August is sure looking to be a pretty eventful month.  I'm sure it is going to continue to be HOT, but I would not trade this month for anything.  So happy August everyone!  What does you month look like?

P.S. send me those posts for the Footprints series!  I want to hear from all of you!

Mr. and Mrs. Pinto

I love weddings, everything about them, but I especially love when my friends get married.  Mary is one of my dearest friends. When my family moved to our church in third grade I did not know how my life would transform.  I fell into a group of friends who became my best friends for many years.  Mary and I became best friends, attached at the hip practically.  From playing basketball together, to traveling with the youth group, to countless sleepovers, and years of going to Camp Ridgecrest, we have made many memories.  Unfortunately, when we both went to different colleges in 2005 we sort of lost touch.  We both got busy in our studies and college life and I regret not putting more effort into maintaining our amazing friendship.  

However, the Lord knows my heart and knew our friendship was not over. After college we both ended up back in Charlotte and reconnected.  We have been growing our friendship ever since.  She was a part of my wedding, as a program attendant, and on July 9 I had the honor of returning the favor for her wedding.  Yesterday, she said I Do to a wonderful man who makes her incredibly happy.  I could not be happier for her.  She looked beautiful and radiated from the inside out, not to mention the huge smile on Michael's face.  I am truly blessed to call both Mary and Michael my friends.  Mary, I love you and I wish you two a lifetime of happiness.  Thank you for being an amazing friend and I can't wait to make more memories with you and your new husband. 
 

Every Wedding a Royal Wedding

Okay, Okay, I admit it, I am one of those girls who loves sappy love stories and can't fall out of love with weddings.  Even after planning my own for 11 months I still enjoy watching wedding shows and helping friends plan their own.  So, naturally the royal wedding took its place on my DVR this morning.  I loved it.  The gorgeous gown, a beaming bride, the look in the groom's eyes when she reached the altar, but my favorite part was the address given by The Bishop of London.  He said

"every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and groom as king and queen of creation, making a  new life together so that life can flow through them into the future... The spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this: the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life."

I love these words and the purity behind them.  Yes, my wedding day was a fairytale, a royal day.  We are honored to be God's chosen creation, to be the Kings and Queens on this earth.  We are chosen to uplift one another to bring each other to a higher level of our selves.  I can truly say Brandon makes me a better person.  He challenges me to live as my true self, to never stop evolving, and he delights in my spiritual beauty.  Marriage truly is an opportunity to bring out the best in one another, to become self-actualized creations, to glorify our creator by investing in each other's true selves.  I am thankful for my marriage and to be able to see other men and women of Christ to love each other in the purest sense.    

A Year in Review

2010 brought many moments of joy, pain, laughter, adventure, challenges and new beginnings.  It was a year of both celebrations and moments we'd rather not have had.  With every new year comes a time of looking back and looking forward.  Here's a look back at our 2010:

Most of our year was spent hard at work planning and creating our DIY wedding

We turned the key on our first home

 Brides always have more fun

We had lots of photos taken (here are some of my favorites)

WE GOT MARRIED!!!!!

We Honeymooned in St. Lucia

We adopted a new baby (cat of course)

 All in all, 2010 was a wonderful, enchanting year full of love and life change.  We are anticipating great things in 2011 including house hunting, my graduation from grad school and hopefully a new job.  Happy New Year everyone, may you also be blessed this year!!