[black & white wordless wednesday]

Last night the future husband and I went to a pre-season Braves game. We had great seats just near the dugout on the first baseline. We purchased our hot dogs, pop in collectors cups, and I grabbed a hot chocolate (due to it being "cold" - give me a break I'm a Georgian, 50 degrees is cold!) and we got comfortable in our seats.

I had a beautiful surprise at the beginning of the game - my littles sang the National Anthem to open the game! I had no idea that they were going to do that, I jumped over Mr. C trying to get a picture while saying "Oh my gosh! My students are down there! Those are my kids!" I was so happy to see them and so proud!

I imagine that parents have this feeling all of the time, they are proud of their child's accomplishments big and small. Mister and I talk often about our future kids but know that they are far, far in the future. However, right now I am content to have 40 or so littles who I can send home at 3:30 and to whom I only have to feed one meal and a snack. I do not have to pay for their sneakers or toys, etc. 

Although I've no doubt that when the time comes, after we're married, and a bit down the road, to have littles of our own, we will be excited and the Lord will prepare us and give us peace about it. So to all of you who have children (and perhaps lots of them) I commend you - it is hard to raise children, especially in this world! Always lean on the Lord for guidance and wisdom in raising your children and do not be afraid to be your child's parent and not their friend.

To Mr. C.,

You are going to be a great father one day because you are already a great man and fantastic fiancé. When we were at the Braves game last night you said to me, "I can't wait to bring our son here to the field and tell him about the players." You know what? I will cherish those moments when you teach our son to be a man and you give him all of the love and attention that you got from your brother, Ronnie who was more of a dad to you than anyone was. I love you, future Mr.!

Love, the future Mrs. Coons

[being patient & travelling across 5 states in 4 days]

This weekend was a little bit of a strain for the mister and me. I was in Mississippi and Texas this past weekend shooting a wedding for some of my good friends. The conflict happened because he believed I was having fun with friends and having glamorous lunches and traipsing around with my camera. He would text or call and I would be unable to answer because I was constantly tied up in what I was doing.

I travelled over 24 hours in 4 days driving from ATL to Jackson, MS to Dallas, TX. When I was not travelling I was working, shooting the wedding or setting up and prepping for shooting said wedding, or editing photos after the wedding, having lunch, promoting my business. It was an intense, stressful and tiring weekend but the mister saw it as me jet-setting for a mini vacation. Oh the trials of misunderstanding what your partner feels.

Of course I knew that he was lonely and missing me but I did not give the proper thought to his feelings that I ought to have. Especially since he was worried about me travelling at all hours of the night, and in the rain, and I just blew him off and told him to quit checking in on me every 30 minutes. We must learn to be more patient and understanding of one another. That's what I am working toward, though, and one of the joys of becoming Mrs. Coons - learning to understand the Mr.


In closing, here is a photo from the wedding I shot this weekend of my good friends, Jared & Charlotte:

And here is a favourite from the ceremony. 

Charlotte had just seen her cupcake tower for the first time as she arrived at the venue.

[weekend and a wedding]

Last night was a tough one for the future hubs. I spent yesterday at work, teaching the littles, working on my classes, going to the library, having dinner with my lovely mother, then meeting up with Mr. C at Kroger to buy some pop & fill a prescription.

Granted, that does not sound tough at all. What was difficult was that he knew that it would be the last time we were able to spend time with each other until Monday. 4 days, shouldn't be a big dang deal. To him it is, though, and I think it is because I am going back to TX & MS, where I used to live with all of my friends, and he is afraid I will stay there and never come home. While it is tempting for the first day or so, by day three I am usually ready to rejoin him in the comfort of GA...

I am excited about this weekend because not only do I get to go back "home" to see my best & dearest lovies; I am also photographing the wedding of two of these lovies! Excitement! It's the first wedding of the year for my little biz so I have many ideas ready to come bursting out of my pretty little head. I will post some of the photos at the beginning of next week! For now, here is a photo from my last wedding:

[love & respect]

Last night future Mr. and I had another pre-marital counselling/coaching session. We LOVE those! It is a dear time of learning; being taught by some of our dear friends who are succeeding in their marriage. Kenny & Shannon have the type of marriage for which we are aiming. Kenny said, "We have made good habits. We have gotten this far with limited scars. That is important." I very much admire them.


Last night our theme was "Love and Respect" from Ephesians 5:33, "Each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." I'll be honest, Mr. Coons and I have not been really awesome at feeling valued or respected. We tend to bring this up to one another as well. Kenny & Shannon reminded us that we don't always need to voice our complaints, while that may seem like it would fix the issue or help communication, it doesn't. It is more important to protect the other person's heart.


Mr. Coons, 
I'm sorry for the times when what I say comes off as disrespectful, even when that is not my intention. I will be more intentional in saying things that will only encourage you and support you. I will also work on understanding that you are valuing me even when what you say or do does not come across to me as very loving.

The Future Mrs.

[asking forgiveness & meat lover's pizza]

Today I should really be addressing save-the-dates. My goal is to finish addressing the ones for which I have the addresses and then to track down addresses which I do not have and complete those as well.

I also need to put my entire wedding look together. I know how each piece (veil, hair, make-up, dress, jewellery shoes) looks on its own but I have not seen it all put together so I want to do that and take photos so I can get used to it or change anything that does not fit.

Fiancé and I had an argument last night since we are both kind of stressed about our jobs and the upcoming wedding and buying a house but it is so funny how one little phrase from him to me and a Meat Lovers pizza from me to him can cause us to re-evaluate why we were even upset with one another.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn how to love him better everyday.

The future Mrs.

[update: the save-the-dates are (mostly) addressed aside from a couple stragglers (31 of fiancé's list, actually) but all in all today's goal = success!]

[what i'm loving wednesday]

Since today has been such a day of non-motivation to do anything school or wedding related I should probably procrastinate by teaming up with other bloggers who aren't doing school or wedding shtuff either. Jamie challenged us to think about what we love today. Here goes...

I'm loving the future Mr.

I'm loving signing up for the Warrior Dash.

I am really loving this little cutie:

(Too bad future Mr. won't let us get him...booo)

I'm loving making fun craft projects as gifts for people (ie this little diddy)

I'm loving writing letters in journals to give to the future hubs on our wedding day.

I love that I can look like I'm not a ghost even though I haven't gone to the tanning bed this year 

(yay for avoiding melanoma!)

Finally, I'm loving this weather which enables me to lay outside in the grass reading children's books.

[Where the Wild Things Are - what what!]

[throw a photo in]

I shot this photo of S (the little sis) yesterday. She is such a good sport - letting me drag her outside to shoot her "Junior" pictures. I was pleased with how they all looked. I did not have to do any editing on them, though I chose to boost the warm tones - I HATE COLD PICTURES!

I shot it with my Nikon (duh) and a 50mm portrait lens which gives that incredible macro shot every single time if you know how to use it. I had the ISO set to 200, f/1.8 & at 1/1600 sec. It was around 30 mins. before sunset so we had that great, golden light that was at just the right angle.

[procrastination, save-the-dates, and 4 weddings]

Today is the day in which I will need to finish addressing Save The Date cards. I will be so happy to have those shipped out; they have been taking up my desk for more than two weeks now waiting for addresses to be artfully calligraphed onto them.

First, I was able to put them off by touting that I needed everyone's addresses. Now I have them.
Then, I needed future hubs to get all of his people's addresses. He did that. I have them.
Now, I realise that this whole time it was just procrastination.

Procrastination has become the name of the game lately. I have my graduation in sight (4 weeks!) and yet I have the worst case of senioritis known to man. It is hard to force myself to do my work and read my textbooks. I guess it has spilled over into wedding planning as well. Granted, I have a while to get things done (little under 7 months), in fact longer than most people have for their entire engagement even though we have been engaged for 3 months already.

I am looking forward to the upcoming events, however. Though they all begin AFTER graduation so I have to make it there first.
Well I do have a wedding coming up - March 26th - which will be fun. It will be my first wedding job of the year and it will be good to bring the camera back up to speed with some creativity.

After grad is when the real magic happens. Things to which I am looking forward:

1. Spending the week between my graduation and her graduation with my best friend, Heather.
2. Her wedding-ish the day after her graduation. (They are having a pre-wedding reception before their destination wedding)
3. Warrior Dash!
4. Going to Honduras for the 7th year in a row in June.
5. My good friends' wedding [insert Krystal & Stephen here].
6. New job?
7. Getting a house for the Mr. and me.
8. Getting married [whoooo!] on Oct. 8.