Wedding Wednesday: The Reception

Hello and happy Wedding Wednesday! I have to say, I'm not great about showing up here every Wednesday to recap our wedding, but when I take the time to go through photos and prepare a post, it always puts my heart in such a happy place. When I say the wedding day flew by, it's difficult to get across just how true that statement is. Taking some time every few weeks to peek at our photos again and choose some of my favorites takes me right back to that particular part of our day and I really love that about blogging in general. So let's get to it, shall we? Here are some I mean lots of my favorites from our reception.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Snyder for the first time ever!

For our first dance, we twirled around to "Baby I'm  Yours" by "The Arctic Monkeys."

Jonathan and his momma danced to "A Song for my Son" by Sarah Connor.

My daddy and I danced to "Dance Baby Dance" by Chris Cagle. I've never been able to listen to this song without crying and the first time I heard it, I knew it was the one we'd dance to. This is just one of the many moments of our day I shared with my father that I will never ever forget.

Trying to keep my tears under control which was a constant the whole day.

My dad was a nervous nelly about his speech and I have to say he was so amazing. Watching him up there welcoming Jonathan into our family and being genuinely over the moon about it was more than I could ever ask for.

This photo kills me! I don't even need to show you the photo that came after this for you to tell that Jonathan's cousin, Bree (the one diving in the blue dress) caught my bouquet! I love this one!

This photo of my mom makes me so happy.

This next photo requires a story because it is too amazing not to share. My father has never been much of a

dancer. Whether we've all been at another wedding or just a night on the town, we've never been able to convince him to get on the dance floor and just dance. Quite a while back, I found a funny pin on Pinterest that said, "The secret to dancing: Pretend you have a wedgie and try to get it out without using your hands." I sent it to my dad because I knew it would make him laugh and didn't really think about it again. During our reception as people started hitting the dance floor, I was so pleasantly surprised to see my dad not only on the dance floor, but he was tearing it up! I obviously had to rush over there and celebrate his new-found dance moves when he caught my eyes, leaned in and said these three words:

"I'm doing it!" 

I knew exactly what he was referring to (my little piece of advice I had texted him probably over a year before this) and I know I will never forget how unexpected and hilarious this moment was! My dad proceeded to spend the remainder of the night on the dance floor and even grabbed the microphone for some karaoke at one point! I don't think I'd ever seen my dad have such a genuinely good time before. I love that man!

Our wedding reception was an absolute blast! I'm glad we kept things fairly simple and focused on making sure everyone just had a really good time. I knew the night was going to fly by and I tried to stop every now and then and simply take it all in. Even still, the DJ announced our last song and I was shocked that our night was coming to an end. I'll never forget dancing with Jonathan to the last song with the happiest tears in our eyes as we watched our loved ones dance and celebrate around us in complete awe and appreciation. It was truly an unforgettable night.

All photos by Lora Rodgers Photography.

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday.

Telling Self Doubt to Get Out

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm taking the week off from Wedding Wednesday mostly because I opted to drink wine and proceeded to take 3 hours to cook dinner last night, which left no time for me to choose which photos from our reception I wanted to share. It works out because I have a bit of exciting news and not a whole lot of time to write about it.

I got a bit of a promotion at my new job! I started working here at the end of February and since then I've been in more of a support/administrative role than I was expecting. I was approached a few weeks ago about another opportunity with the company as they were thinking about hiring from outside and instead, wanted to see if I would be interested. As of this week, I'm officially our Business Development Coordinator and I'm pretty psyched. It's a lot more responsibility and much better fit for my experience so things couldn't have worked out better. 

I guess you could say yesterday was my first official day in my new role and I went home feeling less than thrilled ...and for no particular reason. I'll admit that while I'm really excited about this opportunity, I'm a little intimidated and a lot overwhelmed. Instead of letting the intimidation empower me to dive in and do my thing, I let self doubt rush over me and take control. 

The thing is, when I calm down and really think about it, I know I can totally do this. I can totally handle the pressure and responsibility that come with this role. What I don't know, I will learn and I have a network of people that will help me figure it out. 

I got this. 

So why is my first instinct to start doubting myself? Because change is always a little bit scary? Because I don't want to fail? Because I am too hard on myself at times? Probably all of the above. But I want to be the confident woman who takes on challenges without thinking twice, who has faith in herself and who doesn't let her thoughts get the best of her. 

It's amazing what a difference a day makes. Here I am on day #2 of my new role and today, I have a new perspective. I feel like I am rocking it. I'm energized and motivated. I'm still a little intimidated and a lot overwhelmed, but I am in control of how I deal with that. With the amount of work I have, I'm just diving in and figuring it out as I go. I'm not allowing myself to take the time for self doubt because I am too busy just doing what I have to do. 

I need to make this my default from here on out because asking myself, "Can I do this?" is just taking time away from when I could just be saying, "I got this."

Recap: Random Acts of Kindness for my 28th Birthday

Happy Monday! I can't say I'm thrilled to see the weekend come to an end, but alas, here we are so we should just go ahead and make the best of it.

As promised, I want to recap my birthday week challenge of performing 28 Random Acts of Kindness today. I'm a little disappointed to say that while I'm really happy with what I did do, I didn't even make it close to reaching my goal. I'm going to focus on the positive though, and share with you the few things I did throughout the week:

1. Used a gift card to buy a coffee at Starbucks and gave it to the person behind me in line

2. Donated my old glasses at Lenscrafters when I picked up my new pair

3. Made an extra effort to compliment coworkers

4. Donated $1 to the American Cancer Society at Walgreens

5. Spent time commenting on blog posts I normally wouldn't take the time to comment on. Everyone loves blog comments!

6. After doing some shopping, I taped a $10 gift card to a cart at Target to help with someone's shopping

7. Baked a batch of Snickerdoodle cookies and delivered them to the local police station with a note thanking the officers for what they do

While I didn't make it anywhere near my goal of 28 RAKs this week, I'm still feeling pretty satisfied! These few simple acts felt really good and it reminded me how much more satisfied I am when I am making a conscious effort to bring joy to others. I may not have made it to 28 in a week, but I'm feeling more motivated than ever to seek out opportunities for RAKs on a daily basis.

I know it would take a lot more than a few simple things like this to change the world, but knowing I can spread joy through a simple act of kindness makes me feel better about what I'm putting out into the world. I may not have reached my goal for the week, but I'm certainly going to make an effort to keep this up!