• Wedding

    Zinhobls Say I Do: Family Pictures

    March 2, 2017

    Hi friends! 🙂 Today is another installment of my wedding pictures. If you are interested in seeing the others, or you missed a week, you can check those out below those below:

    This week I wanted to share our family pictures. I think these came out so nice and I’m excited to share with you guys. 🙂

    My Family

    My Mom, Tommy, Me, My Grandma, My Grandpa, and My Brother Dylan

    My Grandparents!

     

    My Mom
    My Brother (Whose eyes are closed in 80% of all the pictures, haha!)
    My Dad

    Tommy’s Family

    Tommy’s Parents
    My Brother-In-Law Michael, Tommy’s Dad, Tommy’s Mom, Me, Tommy, My Sister-In-Law Diana, and My Brother-In-Law Nick

    That’s all of ’em! Now we only have the Reception Pictures and Decor Pictures, and to end off the series, our Honeymoon Recap! It’s so fun to go back and relive this day through these pictures. Hope you are enjoying following along as well. 🙂

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  • Wedding

    Zinhobls Say I Do: Bridal Party

    February 23, 2017

    I’m back again this Thursday to continue sharing wedding pictures. This week I’m sharing pictures of our wonderful bridal party! Next week it will be family pictures, then reception pictures, and I am still debating doing just a decorations picture post. Then to wrap up the series I am going to recap our honeymoon at the Dominican Republic! So we have about a month more of pictures! Hopefully you aren’t hating them. 😉

    Our Wonderful Bridal Party!

     

    My Bridesmaids

     

     

    My Maid of Honor and Cousin, Nichole!

     

    My Longtime Friend, Brooke!

     

    My cousin, Natasha!

     

    My Sister-In-Law Diana!

    I’m so thankful that these girls were there to stand up next to me on wedding day! They’re all so special to me!

    His Groomsmen

     

    Tommy’s Best Man, Matt

     

    Tommy’s Brother, Michael (This is the only picture we have of them together!!)

     

    Tommy’s Brother, Nick

     

    Tommy’s Friend, Colin

     

    My Brother, Dylan

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    So that would be it. Those are our quirky, fun friends! 😉

    Oh and we can’t forget our adorable Flower Girl and Ring Bearer of course!

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  • Faith,  Marriage

    An Open Letter To My Husband

    February 21, 2017

    I know I have been writing a lot about marriage the past couple of weeks but it’s just so hard not to. It’s obviously such a huge part of my life and it’s the thing that I most feel like I can help others with, not because I’m an expert but because it’s very real to me right now and I’m still learning. I’ve always loved writing about things while I’m still in the process of going through them myself so that whatever I’m writing about will be hopefully be relatable.

    This post however is probably not going to help anyone though, but it is still something that I really want to write. Mostly to document this newlywed time well and to also encourage my husband too. This letter is actually part of the challenge at the end of the Wife After God book (affiliate link). The challenge is to write a letter to your husband and present it to him in a meaningful way. I just thought I’d share it with you all as well. 🙂 I would actually encourage anyone reading this to try it with your husband (or boyfriend) and let me know how it goes! I think it will be a really special time.

    To My Tommy,

    I finished the Wife After God book probably a little over a week ago or so and at the end of the book there is a challenge to write a letter to your husband. I’ve been really excited about this but also haven’t done it yet mostly because I honestly lack the words to really get across to you how much you mean to me. That may sound so cliché but I really mean it. I thought if I waited a bit I could think of the words or the perfect way to present this letter to you, but I don’t think I’ll ever find the words to perfectly communicate how much I love you.

    Anytime that I take the time to think about how our life is together, I am in complete awe that God would actually allow this much goodness in my life. I’ve dreamed of getting married for honestly as long as I can remember. Sure I’ve had tons of dreams but being a wife and mom were always at the very top of my list, and honestly the only two that I truly cared about seeing come true. Now that they are coming true, this life is way better than I ever dreamed it would be. And not just because God answered my prayer. I’m sure I’d be happy no matter what if I just got the chance to be a wife, but I’m amazed that God allowed me to be your wife.

    I know I don’t say it anywhere near enough but I’m so proud to be your wife. You make this life easy. You are always putting my needs first and working so very hard to provide for us, and those things never go unnoticed, even if I forget to thank you for them. 

    The way that you have been supporting my dreams of making a living working from home, even though it makes our lives more difficult in this season is a true reminder that you care so much about me and my happiness. I’m so thankful that I have someone who encourages me to chase my dreams. I’ve never had that before and it’s such an awesome thing. 

    I love the way that you aren’t afraid to step out of your comfort zone for us. Whether that be at work, trying your very best to make a living for us, despite the odds against you sometimes. Or whether that be in your faith. You lead me so well with your faith. I think we compliment each other so well when it comes to faith. You never hesitate to take the next step that we need, whether that is to start praying together, or joining a small group, or changing churches. You are always listening to my needs and trying your best to make sure that they are being met. 

    On top of all that, as if it could get any better, you are my very best friend. When something great happens, you are the first person I want to tell so that we can celebrate together. Or when something not so great happens, you are still the first person I want to tell because I know you will be there to encourage me through it. I love doing things with you, even if it’s just hanging out in the house all day. We always have fun together and that’s such a great gift to have in a husband.

    I still don’t feel that these words accurately display just how much you mean to me but I hope they at least scratch the surface and they encourage you. Thank you for being such a loving husband and my closest friend. You are everything to me. I love you.

    Love,
            Your wife

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  • Faith,  Marriage

    How To Pray For Your Marriage

    February 20, 2017

    I wanted to write a post about how to pray for your marriage because even though I wrote about how to pray for your husband, I think praying specifically for our marriages is actually different. I know that this will make it a lot easier for myself to pray for my marriage, so I figured it would help others as well.

    Just like in my praying for your husband post, this post will also be outlined based off of a chapter in the book Wife After God: Drawing Closer to God & Your Husband. If you are interested doing this study alongside your husband, there is also a book Husband After God: Drawing Closer To God And Your Wife. (Please note these are both affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase I may receive a small commission for the sale, but the price does not change for you. Thanks for your support!) It may also be a really special time to ask your husband to pray for your marriage with you.

    1 | Thank God for the gift of marriage

    No matter if your marriage is easy or hard, God still has given you marriage as a gift and I think it’s important that we try to see it as such. (This obviously is easier in some seasons than it is in others.) Thank God for the gift that is marriage and having a partner to do life with. If you are going through a hard time in your marriage and are having a hard time seeing your marriage as a gift, ask God to change your heart to be able to see your marriage as a gift.

    2 | Ask God to protect your marriage

    As it says in the Wife After God book, marriage will always be a very fragile thing. Since we are two sinners living together, there will always be arguments and hard things, so I think it is so important to ask God to protect our marriages. Ask that God will protect your marriage from the schemes of the devil and from your own sinful desires.

    3 | Ask that God will increase the intimacy between you and your husband

    Increasing intimacy will obviously make our marriages stronger. If we ask God to increase the intimacy between us and our husbands, he will be able to help with this. Sometimes this might not be so easy apart from God, but with his help, he can open our eyes to ways that we can bless our marriage. He may also show our husbands how they can also pursue us better as well.

    4 | Ask God to help you center your marriage on him

    This is important because without a firm foundation, marriage can very easily crumble. We know that if we build our relationships on God, our foundation will always be secure. Ask God to show you how to center your marriage more on him.

    5 | Ask God to show you what you need to pray for

    This one is great. Sometimes we honestly don’t know what may be lacking in our marriage or where we can improve so all we need to do is ask God to show us what does need prayer. It may not be automatic, but this is a prayer God will definitely answer.

    6 | Ask God to help you with your finances

    I think this is a great thing to ask God as well. No matter how well we think we are managing our finances, God knows what is down the road and the best way we can handle them so it is so important to ask for his help. Finances can also be a huge stressor on marriages, so asking for his help with this can ultimately eliminate an issue within your marriage.

    7 | Ask God to strengthen your marriage

    All of these things will obviously strengthen your marriage but if we specifically ask God to strengthen our marriages, he will. Ask God to give you an increased desire to spend time doing the things that your husband enjoys, and vise versa. I don’t know anything quite as helpful to a marriage than spending a lot of time together, doing things that you both love. Ask God for help with this.

    These are just some ideas that might be helpful to pray over either by yourself or with your husband. Inviting God in always improves our situations, including our marriages, since marriage was always about God anyway.

    What other things do you pray for your marriage for? I’d love to add it to my list as well!

     

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  • Marriage

    Our Love Story In 10 Questions

    February 17, 2017

    This weekend my husband and I are taking a little getaway trip up to Lake George, New York with my in-laws. (They have a house up there.) I’m excited but also a little sad because it’s supposed to be almost 60 here in New Jersey this week and not that warm up at the lake! But I’m sure it will be a ton of fun so it will hopefully be worth it. But anyways, I say all that to say that I admittedly needed an easy blog post topic today because I still need to pack for both my husband and I (I’m such a procrastinator) and we are going to try to leave by 2ish. I’ve also seen two of the bloggers I follow do this (both Amanda from The Lady Okie and Morgan from The Truelife of MKH) and I just love, love stories so I figured I had to join them too!

    Also before I dive in I wrote out mine and my husband’s love story on our one year dating anniversary so you can check that out if you’re interested. (Part One + Part Two)

    Our Love Story In 10 Questions

    When did you meet? We met at a Dunkin’ Donuts in February of 2014.

    How did you meet? We had a mutual friend who was hanging out with Tommy and a bunch of other people and he kept asking me to come because he wanted me to meet Tommy and I was so nervous I almost didn’t go! Meanwhile Tommy never even knew I was invited until I showed up! (Although technically we met at a party two years prior at another mutual friends house but never stayed in contact after that.)

    First Date: April 20, 2014. It was Easter and after we both had spent time with our families, Tommy came and picked me up from my uncle’s house and took me hiking. It actually ended up getting dark and he held my hand on the way back to his car. I definitely had butterflies and it honestly felt like a movie. I took this picture as the sun set.

    Date you got engaged: December 5, 2015

    Marriage Anniversary: May 22, 2016

    What is your song? We don’t really have a song, but our wedding song is When You Got A Good Thing by Lady Antebellum. We also both really love Eric Church so those songs really remind me of him.

    Do you remember the first movie you saw together? Hmm nope not really. I believe the first one in theaters was The Fault In Our Stars.

    First road trip together? I have the worst memory ever honestly, let’s see… probably one of the times we drove up to Lake George I would have to guess. I honestly really don’t remember.

    Who was interested first? I would say it was mutual but he was the first to act on it and start talking to me.

    Who said I love you first? He did. I think. Omg I’m the worst!

    Here’s some more fun real life pictures from over the years!

     

    The night we got engaged. Real life. We could not get a nice picture no matter how hard we tried!
    Our first Christmas together

     

    Our first birthday(s) together (our birthdays are 1 day apart)

     

    Our first vacation together at Lake George. This very well may be from our first road trip, haha

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  • Wedding

    Zinhobls Say I Do: Bride + Groom

    February 16, 2017

    Hi friends. I just wanted to start out by saying thank you so much for all of the support you guys have been giving me lately, especially since my last post about chasing my dreams. All of your comments really mean so much to me so thank you! Today I want to continue on for the fourth week sharing our wedding pictures! (Hopefully you aren’t tired of them yet! ;))

    Today I’m going to be sharing the pictures of just Tommy and I that happened right after we got married. We were tossing up the idea to do a first look, and even wrote letters to each other (which you saw in the last wedding post, Getting Ready) but we actually ended up running out of time and didn’t end up doing the first look. I wasn’t disappointed or anything and it all turned out fine, but if you are considering doing a first look I would say go for it. I think it helps a ton because it saves you time after the ceremony because you will cut out a lot of picture-taking.

     

     

    I thought I’d better end the post now before it became overkill, haha. Now I’m wishing we could go back to that day. I can’t believe next Wednesday it will have been 9 months ago. Time just goes so fast!

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