We didn’t bring a camera with us on the honeymoon, so these are just from Marc’s camera phone [I unfortunately forgot my phone charger... n00b mistake]. I tweaked them a bit in photoshop so you all can get a look at what we’re doing!

So we’re staying at Summit County Mountain Retreats in Keystone, Colorado. It’s awesome, basically. The weather is cooperating nicely, though we kind of wished that there would be some snow here. I think it’s supposed to snow on Friday, the day we leave. Go figure! But it’s okay because we’ve enjoyed walking around River Run village and Dillon, CO, and we even made a daytrip to Breckenridge in hopes of finding a cute bookstore/coffeeshop.

We’ve spent most of our days sleeping and reading and watching movies. Last night we had a “date night” [I mean, that sounds silly because the whole point of a honeymoon is that it's one big date, right?] in Dillon, which is about 10 minutes away from Keystone. We ate mediocre sushi and watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was amazing but very hard to watch at times. Marc was very taken with Daniel Craig’s outfits throughout the film, and whispered to me, “I want to be juuuust like him when I grow up!” We both giggled, and I smiled to myself because I know that Marc already has a very good sense of fashion and when we eventually get enough money to get each other nice wardrobes, he will look BETTER than silly old Mr. Craig.

Anyway, here are some photos from yesterday:

I know. We’re hilarious, you wish you were us, etc.

Here's a pic of the little courtyard outside our lodge.

The ice skating rink. It was closed for repairs when we tried to go yesterday, so we'll try again today.

Arapahoe Lodge, our home base.

No snow, unfortunately. Our sushi date was fun, though. The waiter gave me free miso soup for some reason, “on the house!”. I’m not complainin’.

Marc and I are excited to return home, get our apartment put together, and start having people over [Settlers of Catan nights, anyone??]! This semester is going to be awesome!

Hair courtesy of the lovely Lauren Barry!!

What I’m getting at is that I feel incredibly blessed. Marc is a saint. My family and his family are both amazing and supportive. We don’t have much money, but we have been given enough to plan a small, sweet, and hopefully intimate & fun wedding.

Gratefulness is a word I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around. I’m a very selfish person. I sometimes feel entitled to things. I compare my life with others’, and feel self-righteously sad about whatever reason–lack of money is usually the culprit in this case.

And I’m not going to lie–planning a wedding on a shoestring budget is very very stressful. Hearing several of my other engaged friends talk about the beautiful things they are going to have in their weddings–the amazing food, the gorgeous flowers, and that they are able to invite all of their family and friends–hurts a little.

But I have to remember the reason Marc and I are getting married, and it’s definitely not because I wanted a fancy wedding.

We’ve been dating almost 5 years by now, and we believe that we can do much more for God together than we could ever do apart. It’s disappointing that we can’t go on a tropical honeymoon, but in the end, does that really even matter? I’m sad that I couldn’t invite all of my sorority sisters, or even my whole pledge class, but the amazing thing is that my friends are understanding and lovely.

It’s less than three weeks til the wedding, and Marc and I are getting increasingly stressed and ALSO exponentially more excited every day! Keep us in your prayers if you can remember.

I have no reason to be ungrateful about what I’ve been given, or sad about what material things I can’t have. Because I have been given so much.

Photos by Rebecca Tredway.

I’ve designed a post with the above colors, and you’ll get to see it soon! Hopefully I can find time tomorrow.

Anyway, here’s something cool that I worked on tonight. The photo I believe is from a Valentino Haute Couture event, but a Google photo search couldn’t unearth the original source, unfortunately. I found this on someone’s tumblr.

I extracted the colors and designed the following “text art”. I’m feeling rather mushy and sentimental lately. Marc has been so wonderful and so supportive, and makes me feel so lucky to have him. I’m incredibly blessed.

It was a small but very very fresh farmer’s market. Everything looked amazing and delicious. Mom bought a few things, but my favorite was the locally grown avocado that we took and ate on the beach.

Can’t wait to return!

As an example, back in October I took a few photos of my music friends:

Anyway, I do still have a tumblr, and I pin things on Pinterest like mad. I mean, I still EXIST in the internet-o-sphere, even if I don’t actively participate in it. I’m certain that once Marc and I move into our new place [we will find out if our application got accepted on Monday!], I will want to take pictures and create hundreds of blog posts about all the DIY-crafting and home decorating we will be doing.

Then again, that’s what I said about the wedding too…

I didn’t start reading the Harry Potter books until the summer before the 7th book came out. I think I was going to be a Senior in High School, and I wanted to be a part of the hype that I knew all my friends had enjoyed nearly their whole lives. I wasn’t disappointed, though some not-particularly-nice people at work ruined the whole ending of the 6th book for me. Nevertheless, I cried at the end of the Deathly Hallows the first time I read it [although the Epilogue annoyed me--does anyone else agree that it seems overwrought?], and who knows what will happen to me at the end of this last movie?

heck yes harry potter

I wish I could have grown up with Harry, as many of my friends have. In hindsight, though, I can appreciate that I had a different outlook on the story and could understand many of the complex relationships and concepts that I wouldn’t have been able to understand at age 12. I also never did the “read all of the previous books before the next book/movie comes out”, so I haven’t had the opportunity to get tired of them. This time through is the second time I’ve read the books, and I’m falling in love with the characters even more. Especially Ginny. She’s so great in the books; it’s just too bad that the films make her seem flat and unadventurous. Anyway, I’m seeing the movie next Friday night [I couldn't find a midnight showing in LA with 5 consecutive seats anywhere, as of Tuesday. Sad.] with some of my favorite people, and I couldn’t be more excited!

I’ll be sad to say goodbye.