Prepping For Engagement Photos

Getting ready for our engagement pictures and our love story!

Let me tell you something, planning a wedding is hard work! From trying to find the perfect venue that you've dreamed about since you were a little girl, to planning every last tiny detail of flowers and invitations. It's a task to coordinate all these vendors to make sure they are all on the same page and arrive at the same time. Trying to remember what all has to been done for a wedding is a task in itself.

All in all though, it has been so much fun! We have our venue booked, along with the caterer, photographer, hair and make up and the DJ. I think I'm just missing dessert and flowers at this point. Of course there are some small little details that I have to get worked out and planned. Cordero is excited but honestly I have found wedding planning is not his deal. He just says "What ever you would like babe, just let me know how much it is." He did pick out our invitations and may I say they are super cute!

I guess before I go into full depth of all this fun wedding planning, I should tell you how we got here.

It was the beginning of 2017 and I decided I'd finally had enough of being in a very one sided and unhappy marriage. I had been married just over 5 years and didn't expect it to turn out the way it did. Of course I loved my now ex-husband but there was too much wrong in our relationship for it to ever be repaired. The lies had become to much, his drug use was drowning our family and holding me back from the plans I had for my future. I had had enough of the physical and mental abuse, let alone coming home to my power and water turned off almost every other month. So I decided, finally, enough was enough and that I was going to leave but I had no clue where I was going yet.

My heart yearned to go back home to Georgia. I missed my friends, the country way of life and just everything about "home". In talking about it with one of my best friends, Jon Scott, he immediately said "You're not going back to Georgia. I'm not loosing my best friend. You can move in with me." I wasn't sure at first, solely because living with friends is not always a good idea but in the back of mind I really didn't want to leave the area I was in. I had a good job, great friends and was really established in my community. I also did not want to move away from my step children, who thankfully I am still a part of their lives.

So I decided I would move in with Jon and his now fiance, Elizabeth. In December 2017 Jon and Elizabeth helped me move, again, into their home in Camden, North Carolina. It wasn't far from my Virginia Beach roots but it got me back to my country ways. The first few nights I cried myself to sleep. It was hard being away from everything I knew and the man I had spent the last 5 years married to and the last 6 years with. Thankfully that passed quickly. It was like I had already moved on so long ago I just had to let the scab heal.

I slowly started to figure out who I was again, I started to find my soul and a purpose in life. Even though it was just Lola and I, I was having the best time of my life! I was going out with friends again, meeting new people, Taylor (my bestest friend in the entire world) gave birth to her son. It was truly a great time in my life. I felt free! I was not stressed everyday and NEVER had to worry about my power and water getting turned off again. Jon was trying to be the best wing man he could be but I think after a few drinks he kinda forgot my age limit! Eventually I decided "What the hell, I'm gonna put myself out there!" and I signed up for one of those online dating things......BEST THING I EVER DID.

So I signed up for a dating website, posted my best pictures, filled out my profile and published it. Lord was I over come by the creeps that were a part of the online dating world. So many just wanted to "hook up" or just wanted to get into creepy fetishes within their first few sentences to me. I started to think it was a terrible idea to "put myself out there", and then this handsome thing popped up in my mailbox.

Like HELLO handsome! Who could resist that smile?

Now before I get a mushy gushy over here about how amazing Cordero is, let me tell you I ALMOST did not message him back! Of course he caught my eye, that smile sucked me in immediately. I read his profile and we had so much in common but I could tell we were polar opposites as well and then I saw how old he was.....*Insert Sad Face*! He was a couple years younger than I was and in today's day in age, guys younger than me, hell even some my age, are known to be highly immature and only after ONE thing. But something in my gut told me to message him back and I thank God I did, everyday!

Not only were we so much alike, he was such a gentleman! Not once did he turn total perv or creep on me. Never got into some creepy fetish where I thought he would drag me into the woods and murder me, we just vibed for HOURS. The first night we talked, we talked until about 4 in the morning. The second night, was our first phone call and we talked till about 3 in the morning. This man was reading my soul let me tell you! I was still on the edge though, I mean it all felt to good to be true! I'd wake up in the morning and he was the first thought in my mind. He was the last thought running through my brain before bed and every waking moment in between. I could not wait to meet him on our first date!

It decided to blizzard right before our first date. I was bummed that instead of going out with me he took his Jeep out with his friends. I later found out it was because he was nervous and was putting our date off for one more day. (How rude!) Low and behold though our first date was planned for January 5th. We had been talking non-stop since January 1st and I couldn't wait to meet him in person! Sadly, my car was stuck in the snow, in my drive way and we had to go old school and he picked me up for our first date.

He had sent me pictures of his Jeep, that included his license plate, so I made sure to send them to Taylor in case I went missing they would know who did it. I talked to another friend the morning of our date, Kim, that I was so nervous I literally threw up. Before I knew it, it was 11:45 and he pulled up in the drive way. Remember, I hadn't been on a date in six years, I had no clue what I was doing. As he pulled in the drive I was on the phone with Taylor saying " O my gosh, he is here! What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?" He reaction was priceless........"Go outside, duh!"

The ride over to the sushi bar was a little quiet, we were both nervous but once we warmed up it was a wrap. We had lunch together and sat there and talked for 2-3 hours. He drove me around in the jeep, in the snow, showed me around town and took me on some roads that were beautiful covered in the snow. We drove for hours and before we knew it, it was 7 o'clock and we headed for dinner!

Dinner seemed to go by to fast, we were running out of hours of the day and I dreading him going home. We clicked so well, everything with him was so easy. I felt like I had known him my whole life. We went back to my place and he met Lola, she was the true test and he passed with flying colors! She jumped up in his lap like he had raised her from a pup. She never does that with men! We watched a movie with Jon and Elizabeth and next thing we knew, it was 12 o'clock and he needed to get home. We walked outside and hugged underneath the starry sky, in the snow. Sadly we didn't kiss, it would have made the night even better! From there, we were inseparable and have been since day one. I guess when you find your person, you know. He is such a supporting man, hard working, funny and loves everything about me. Ok, well maybe not EVERYTHING but lets say 98%, I think he would pass up my attitude some days.

So we fast forward to December 26th and we're headed up to a HUGE light display up where my Mom lives. My Mom came with us, along with her fiance and my grandparents. The place is beautiful, I love flashy lights so I was in heaven already! We come to a kissing bridge and the toll is "One kiss under the mistletoe" So we go up after the people before us, my family is behind us and we kiss under the mistletoe, which is when Cordero pulls back and looks at me and says "So, do you want a reason to kiss me?" I'm like "Huh?" and he gets down on one knee and pops the question "Will you marry me?" OF COURSE I said yes! I'm crying, he's crying everyone is crying! There are "Awwwww's" in the back ground, it honestly could not have been more perfect!

Don't you just love the dinosaur behind us? If you know me, you know I have a huge thing for dinosaurs! Nor sure why it was in a Christmas Light Village though!

SO, now that we have the back story out of the way let's get to the fun stuff! Tomorrow we take our engagement pictures and I truly cannot wait! Of course Lola is going to be in some of them, along with Cordero's Jeep, I mean it was a huge part of our first date! So with that being said I made this adorable two sided sign for Lola to wear for our pictures!

I had looked at buying one, since my handwriting is terrible (I think) but then I bought my Cricket and decided to make my own! I bought a 6 pack of the tin signs from Michael's for $12, which I was already using them for my business and cut it out of Orcal 651 Vinyl. Super simple, super cheap and super cute!

As you can see, Lola was not as thrilled about the sign as I was. But I found that a can of wet dog food is a good bribe to get her ears up! I pray that she cooperates with us tomorrow!

So make sure you stay tuned for more updates! I will post some sneak peaks of our photo shoot hopefully sometime next week! Also make sure that you're checking my Facebook page out regularly for live videos of new product releases! Also, if you have not subscribed to my blog, please do! This will keep you in the loop and you get exclusive discounts sent to you!

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