Its a Hero

elopement

Cheers to SIX Years ! // and a COFFEE Prize Pack Giveaway

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Six years. Six years ago, tomorrow, Chad and I eloped on an empty beach in Portland, Maine.

It truly feels like a lifetime ago. We were about 13 weeks pregnant with Ari at the time. We had been dating for what seemed like forever, so we decided why the heck not go get married and make it official!

When I say we ‘eloped’ I mean that we were the only people present, besides the justice of the peace, our photographer, and her assistant (whom also acted as our two witnesses for the event).

Our parents knew we were getting married; but no one else did.

It was perfect. And I love looking back on the photos from the day…

And here we are — six years and three pregnancies (and almost three babies) later — still in love, even though our lives look much different than before.

To my husband — you are still the love of my life — even if our lives look tremendously different than we imagined, and even if we get lost in the hustle and bustle of parenting and work. I love you. 

I’m certain our anniversary will look even more ‘boring’ this year — as I’m working a fundraiser and Chad will be working — but it will be special, nonetheless. ♥

And to help us celebrate our anniversary, I’m hosting a giveaway for a Dunkin Donuts Summer Prize Pack. It includes everything you need to celebrate this Summer!

2 Dunkin’ beach towels
2 Dunkin’ drink containers
1 donut pool float
1 donut drink float

Use the rafflecopter widget below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Photographer: Justine Johnson
Resort: Inn By the Sea
Jar Cakes: Etsy
Location: Portland Head Light, Crescent Beach, Lobster Shack at Two Lights

Tuesday Overshare – Our Wedding Video

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Happy 3-month anniversary to my wonderful husband! 🙂
{well, technically, our 3-month anniversary was on Saturday 😉 }

I realized that once our wedding pictures came in, I never actually shared them with anyone!

Luckily, Chad made this incredible video documenting our journey together! Check it out!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udamT5uRudw

Hope you enjoy it! 🙂

PS. Also awesome?
The fact that one of our wedding pictures was featured on the Tumblr blog F***Yeah! Wedding Ideas. 🙂

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

xo

♥ our wedding ♥

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Over our wedding weekend, we fell in love.

More in love with each other;
in love with Maine (again);
and totally in love with our photographer,
Justine Johnson.

Even though we eloped, it didn’t go unplanned.
In fact, we had a pretty specific vision for our special day.

I found Justine’s photographs on APracticalWedding.com.
Even if you’re not planning a wedding or elopement,
this blog is always a good read.

From first contact with Justine, I knew it was a great fit.
It can be difficult to trust someone you’ve never met,
with something like your wedding pictures.

But it was a wedding vendor match made in elopement heaven!

So the rest of this post = less words, more pictures.

my dress and lovely hanger from etsy.

right before the ceremony

walking from the hotel to the beach to meet my groom.

still walking to meet my groom! 🙂

our ceremony on Crescent Beach.

married!

cape elizabeth, maine

love.

i love him so much 🙂

my family calls this the rachel face. i was actually laughing at my husband. 🙂

♥

Tookies Cheesecake Wedding Jar Cakes

Thanks for looking at our pictures
of the most amazing day of my life!

Vendor information:

Location: Inn By The Sea, Cape Elizabeth, ME. innbythesea.com
Photographer: Justine Johnson. justinejohnsonphotography.com
Cakes: Tookies. Jar Cakes. etsy.com/shop/tookies
Mrs. L Hanger: Chipper Designs via etsy. etsy.com/shop/chipperdesigns

If you have a couple of minutes, check out Justine’s Facebook page.

🙂

eat { lobster } , drink { rootbeer } , and be married!

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Wow wow wow! Thank you for the outpouring of love and support to our elopement news! It was a whirlwind of a weekend!

Thursday Chad and I packed up the car, dropped off the pups and hit the road!

We decided to take our time to get to Portland. The drive is a total of 13 hours from Akron to Portland, so we drove 8 hours and stopped for the night in Albany, New York. We woke up bright and early Friday and finished the drive to Maine.

We stopped in Ogunquit, Maine to get our marriage license:

we were kinda excited. 🙂

Finished our drive to the Inn By The Sea in Cape Elizabeth {about 10 minutes outside of Downtown Portland}. We stayed at this exact hotel on our trip to Portland in 2009 and LOVED it.

fireplace view from our comfy bed.

After settling in, we went to a place called Gilbert’s Chowder House in Old Port for a lobster dinner:

chad and his lobsters.

my amazing gelato canolli

Saturday morning we woke up and split a yummy blueberry pancake and bacon breakfast; and followed it up with a couples massage. Post-massage, we finished getting ready for our big day!

The weather for the ceremony was fantastic. The whole week prior we were watching stalking the weather channel and they were forecasting 40 degrees and rain, rain, rain. But it turned out to be absolutely beautiful.

We ate our wedding dinner at the Lobster Shack at Two Lights. This little shack has the most yummy lobster rolls ever. And everyone who was there thought it was hilarious that we were so decked out at this super casual restaurant.

at the lobster shack!

chad + lobster roll dinner

my delicious lobster roll

I have some official shots from our photographer, but those belong in a separate post!