A Lifetime in the Making: Wedding Plans & Ideas

Casey/Bryan Wedding-May 5, 2012

Camp Sumatanga

Kyle and I have been together since November of 2006. Kyle proposed during my first semester at JSU, and he eventually began school here as well. Over the past four years, we have grown up together and come to realize how awesome of a ministry we can have  together. I will graduate this December with a Bachelor's Degree in Secondary Education, English. Kyle is a History major, and he will graduate in the next few years. He has been appointed by the United Methodist Church to a small church in Leesburg; he will begin his time there this June. In a few years, he plans to attend seminary. We are so excited about this new stage in life, and  we can't wait to further our ministry together. By the time May rolls around, Kyle and I will have been together almost six years. We cannot wait to take our vows with all of our friends and family around us. We have begun the wedding planning, and we are more excited than ever. We would love to hear what you think--so hear it goes...

Ideas in Pictures

Colors: Deep Purple and Light Green

Theme: Shabby/Chic. We like how these pics have the shabby chic feel to them.

Candy Bar: We love the idea of a candy bar for the guest favor. We like how these go with my color scheme, but they do not really go with the shabby/chic theme all that well; they’re too modern.

Coffee Bar: The idea we have is this: we want my guests to be able to go to the bar to order coffee drinks instead of alcohol. we would like to have three or four different coffee drinks that they can choose from. We like the ideas of these pics but none of them really capture what we are thinking. We really want it to be like going up to the counter in a coffee shop and telling the order to the barista.

Suitcases as Decoration: Kyle and I love to travel. We went to Mexico last summer, and we are traveling to Italy for three weeks this year. We wanted to capture our love for travel in some aspect of our wedding. We thought that we could incorporate antique suitcases into the shabby/chic theme. We were thinking that some of them could have flower arrangements; we could use one to hold the going away things (sparklers, maybe?);  and then, I like how this pic uses the suitcase (the pic and the suitcase are REALLY ugly! The suitcases we have purchased are a lot nicer and more vintage looking, and certainly not the tacky blue). I just like how they have the line with “cards” on it.

This is one of the suitcases we have actually purchased. We are hoping to have about ten total at the reception.

Table decorations: We have collected antique green and purple (to go with the color scheme) glasses, pitchers, bowls, etc to make flower arrangements in and go on all of the tables at the reception. 

Table Clothes: We have also purchased several different lace table clothes to be put over the standard table clothes. All of the lace clothes we have purchased are different and they vary in sizes, shapes, and patterns. They are all off white/ivory.

Flowers: I want all of the centerpieces and bouquets to be done with white lily and white hydrangea. Maybe some purple added in—I haven’t decided.

Cake: I know we want a huge cake with a giant bow tied around the middle. I like the colors and patterns of the first cake plus the size of the bow on the second and the shape of the third.  feel like the bow goes well with the theme. ….and I love bows!

For the bridesmaids: This dress in purple, not the green. I really love this dress because of the bow. This dress isn’t a definite, but it gives a better idea of the look we are going for.

The Location: Camp Sumatanga. CS is a very special place to me and Kyle. We have chosen to get married by the lake. We hope to have an arbor, but we want the cross (not seen in this pic) to be in the background of all the pics. We want white chairs at the ceremony. For the reception, we have chosen to have it in the Hutto Auditorium at CS. It is a beautiful building with pine walls and ceilings. The only problem is that there is a huge stage that I have no clue what to do with! Follow the links to see the location!

The wedding site in Spring:  http://sumatanga.org/Facilities/LakesideFacilities.aspx#

Hutto: file:///C:/Users/Leann/Pictures/Wedding%20Ideas/Hutto%20Auditorium.htm

Hutto stage: http://sumatanga.org/Facilities/HuttoAuditorium.aspx

These are probably all minute details, but these are the things we know we really want. I am open to any ideas and suggestions to make our day even better! I definitely feel like we have captured the shabby part, and I am hoping that you can help us make it even more chic! 

Blessings, 

Leann

Smile! You're on the SCAM camera.

I went to the Southern Bridal Show in Birmingham with my mom and my mimi. We had a lot of fun. Basically, I walked around and signed up for free giveaways. lol. …and as of a result of all that, we won a free weekend vacation!!! Sound too good to be true? …it was. In order to get the free weekend, we had to go to Birmingham the next weekend to a show that sold cookware. We didn’t have to purchase anything to get the trip, but everything they were showing us just seemed so cool! This man presented this awesome cookware that was all around healthier for you. It was not made of any of the materials that cause cancer or Alzheimer's like other cookware. The cookware cooked out all of the oil and fats. They even poured the fat out into a cup of ice! ....That was going into my body! Gross! You could just put your food in the pot or pan, and it would whistle when it was done …I mean, the cookware whistled when the food was done--WOW! Ok, so I know it sounds dumb now, but I promise you it sounded good at the time. So, if you became a customer of the Carico cookware that night, you got a 5 day 4 night cruise in addition to the other weekend trip. AWESOME! …not! Anyways, we became a customer of this cookware, and we were really excited about it the whole ride home. We even got free wedding bands, too because we paid the tax in cash. So, once I drop Kyle off at his car (we left from his work) I really started thinking about this whole deal. I started to get nervous and realize that it was a really impulsive decision that we made. (This cookware was WAY WAY WAY too expensive, and we should not have bought it, with or without all the free stuff.) I tell Kyle how I feel once we get back to Jacksonville. He tries to reassure me for a while, but then he starts looking up articles about Carico. I can’t take it so I go to bed. He calls me back into his room a little while later. I think it is to reassure me about the situation, but instead, he found an article that someone had written that recounted our WHOLE experience—from the time I got the call, to the cruise, to the whistle, to the type of pots and pans, EVERYTHING!!! It made Kyle sick. We realized that we were scammed. Not that the company wasn’t legit, but just that they get you to come to their seminar, not telling you what they sell, so you will only see one side of the story when you buy it. Luckily, in that article that we read, the lady mentioned that there was a 3-day cancelation period. We have filled out the cancelation paper and overnighted it to the place in Florida, but we are still worried that everything is not going to work out. When Kyle call talked to a representative about it, he said we could keep the weekend vacation for coming to the seminar. We shipped it ALL back, though; we don’t want any part of their company. I wrote them a $260 check for the taxes, and we are hoping that I get all of it back! So, lesson learned: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! 

A Ministry of Presence

As I have matured and grown older, both in age and faith, I have come to understand that there are different kinds of ministries.  There are the most obvious and well known types such as pasturing a church, serving on a church committee, being a missionary, etc., but within the past six months, I have been introduced to a different, not as obvious, type of ministry: A Ministry of Presence.

I was first introduced to this concept of a Ministry of Presence a few months ago when I was discussing a worship service held at Jacksonville State University’s Wesley Foundation. As a resident at the Wesley Foundation, I was discussing the low attendance for that night’s Mosaic with some of my peers and the campus minister. The concern and disappointment over the low turnout inspired mine and my peers’ conversations that night; as we were discussing, someone briefly mentioned how much of an impact someone’s presence can be. Our campus minister went on to explain what an effective ministry and opportunity a Ministry of Presence can be.

Our campus minister explained it like this: a Ministry of Presence can be as simple as showing up to an event. For example, when the Wesley Foundation hosts their weekly worship service, Mosaic, it means a lot to have several people in the room. Presence holds value because new people that come to the worship service are welcomed more by a room full of people rather than by an empty, cold room. This concept made sense. As a former “follower,” I would never go anywhere alone. I was terrified of having to be outgoing. I could relate to how much more welcoming a room full of people is than an empty one where only one person seems to be in attendance.

So after this first mention of Ministry of Presence, I also began seeing this concept “pop-up” in other areas of my life. Also at the Wesley Foundation this past semester, I taught a bible study on Monday nights based on the book by Gary Chapman entitled, The Five Love Languages. Two of the love languages—Acts of Service and Quality Time—come into play concerning Ministry of Presence. Not only do these relate to our love lives, but they also spill over into our relationships with our friends and family. Let me explain. When someone you know loses someone they love due to death, often times we spend time with that person in order to comfort them and to help make them feel better; I would call this comfort session Quality Time. However, if an acquaintance loses someone they love due to death, it is often times common for us to attend a funeral in recognition of the friend’s loss; this is what I would consider an Act of Service. You are showing your friend (or whoever) that you acknowledge their loss by being PRESENT at the funeral home—hence, Ministry of Presence.

With all of that being said about Ministry of Presence, I have not fully understood or comprehended what exactly this ministry encompassed until this past December. Let me explain. My fiancé, Kyle, has had a rough semester both with school and with his family life. His older brother was recently admitted to drug rehab for taking prescription pain medication, and due to his admittance into rehab, he was not able to attend all of the holiday functions as he normally did in his past 25 years. He missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, his 26^th Birthday, and New Year’s, and although Kyle would not take his brother’s presence over his health and safety, he still missed his brother during the usually fun and joyous holiday season. So, needless to say, the holidays for Kyle were rough. So, on Christmas Eve, Kyle’s granny always hosts their family’s festivities, and Kyle and I had just turned down the road he and his granny lived on. I looked at him as we drove down that road, and I fully understood what it meant to embody a Ministry of Presence. I knew that there was nothing I could do or say to make the Christmas season of 2010 any better—nothing was going to fill the absence of his brother. The best and only thing I could do for Kyle was to be in his presence. He needed me—My Ministry of Presence.

The Reason for Writing

Hello friends!
Due to my English classes coming to a close, I want to keep my writing up to date and fresh. Therefore, I have started my own blog! There are exciting things coming up in my near future that I want to share with the rest of the world. I am beginning wedding planning in January; I will be visiting Rome, Italy in May; I will be completing my Practicum and Student Teaching over the next year, and I will be experiencing life to the fullest. Follow my blog, and see where life takes me over the next few months!! Blessings.