Friday, I'm in Love: My Favorite Bloggers

I follow a ridiculous amount of bloggers on Bloglovin'. Some are full-time bloggers who make a living at it, others are smaller bloggers like me. But I love them all! Here are a few of my favorites:

• Hollywood Housewife - I found Laura through SortaCrunchy's blog, and I had the pleasure of meeting her at a book party she threw for Megan a couple of years ago. She is super nice and stylish, of course. Plus she's a native Okie, so show her some love!
• SortaCrunchy - I can't remember how I found Megan's blog, but I love it. She talks about motherhood but not in a way that is overwhelming to non-mamas, books, and all things kinda crunchy.
• Jen Loves Kev - This blog started out as a fashion blog, but eventually turned more lifestyle over time as they had two adorable babies. I actually bought a few things from Jen on Instagram!
• Kendi Everyday - I love Kendi's style, and I cannot wait until her store reopens! If you live in the DFW area, check her out.
• Elizabeth Michelle - I don't remember how I came across Elizabeth's blog, but I've been following since she was Miss Wisabus. We've never met though she is an Okie blogger, but we have mutual friends and have been in touch via social media. Gotta love Twitter.
• Under the Sycamore - Another Okie blogger. She's a photographer located in the Tulsa area, and I have loved following along while her family grew when she adopted her super cute daughter from China. Amazing photography and inspiring honesty.
• Modern Mrs Darcy - All things books!! I link up with her every month for Twitterature and I have spent way more than I should on Kindle books because she always shares great deals.
• Kimberley's Quests - I'm a newbie to her blog, I think I found her through the Sunday Social. She's Canadian and I get a kick when I see her write favourite or colour. Because I'm weird like that :)
• Leanne Penny - I started following Leanne when she lived in my hometown, but she has since moved to Michigan to establish a church with her husband. She is expecting their third child soon, their nickel baby.
• Nesting Place - I only started following Myquillin within the past year, but she's been blogging for years. I love her style, her mantra, and her overall attitude.
• Oak & Oats - Another blogger I've recently started following. I love the style and feel of her blog, plus her Stitch Fix posts. Though I am disillusioned by Stitch Fix, I love hearing other people's stories! She is also an awesome person to follow on Instagram, her pictures are gorgeous.
• The Lady Okie - Another Okie blogger, obviously. I think we had some mutual Twitter friends and I've started following her blog in the past year. She blogs about local things, trips, and running. I'm not a fan of running, but I don't mind reading about it :)
• Hodges Podges - Joe came across my blog somewhere and started leaving comments, so I had to check out her blog of course. And I loved it! She writes about writing, nail polish, and book.

Of course there are other bloggers I read regularly, but these are the ones that came to mind first. You should definitely check out their blogs soon!

#NeverForget: 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb

The past three years I've watched James participate in the OKC 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb. The first year I went with him was the first year of the event in OKC. It was a pretty amazing and humbling experience watching all these local firefighters climb for their FD brothers who were killed when the Towers fell. These local firefighters climbed 110 floors in honor of their fallen brethren.

The building behind James is the First National Bank Building. They climbed it multiple times until they'd climbed the 110 floors. Please excuse the flag pole coming out of his head!

That first year James was the only one from his department to climb. Because they had such a small number of participants, he climbed for multiple FDNY firefighters. (He still only had to climb 110 floors, but he carried the names of multiple men.)

The following year two more firefighters from his department joined him, and it seemed like a lot more people participated. The crowd in Leadership Square were the ceremony took place was much bigger than the previous year.

The crowd in Leadership Square

After the ceremony was complete, the firefighters made their way to the building. It was chilling to watch the firefighters line up and march while bagpipes played. 

This year there were five people from James's department climbing. And for the first time there were 343 firefighters signed up to make the climb. That meant that each firefighter climbed for one person. Each firefighter wore the name of someone who died on 9/11 around their neck. 

I took a picture of each of our firefighter's name tags. They climbed for Andrew Jordan - Ladder 132, Michael Kiefer - Ladder 132, Thomas Mingione - Ladder 132, John Vigiano II - Ladder 132, and Christian Regenhard - Ladder 131. These aren't just names on a lanyard. These were men who gave their lives thirteen years ago. They died trying to save others.

This year it was raining the morning of the climb, so everyone gathered in the lobby of the building. Bagpipes played, prayers were prayed, and the firefighters waited patiently for their turn. They climbed the 110 floors and then returned the accountability tag featuring the fallen firefighter's name to the board. 

It is always a moving experience. Each year is different but I hope we are here every year for the foreseeable future. It is an honor to watch these men and women honor those who gave it all on 9/11.

On a lighter note, local meterologist Emily Sutton sang the National Anthem before the climb. She's engaged to a firefighter and this is her second time at the climb. I had no idea she could sing but she was pretty great! Plus she is super nice, I chatted with her briefly while I took pictures. Here's a video I caught of her singing and the crowd during the anthem.

These stair climbs honor the first responders who gave their lives that day. But today, on the anniversary of that dark day, let's remember everyone who was killed in the acts of terrorism against our country. All the men and women who died not only in the Towers, but also in the Pentagon and in the Pennsylvania field. Not to mention all the lives that were subsequently affected by the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 9/11 is a dark day indeed, and I pray that we never forget.

Friday, I'm in Love: Blue Elephant Photography

I know I've said this before, but I LOVED our wedding photographers. They are based out of Stillwater, Oklahoma and they are wonderful! Kristine & Scott Redekopp are a husband and wife photography team that go by Blue Elephant Photography. My sister actually used them for her engagement photos and I loved their vintage look. So a couple years later when I was planning my own wedding, I knew we had to use them!

We ended up meeting up with them for coffee when they were in the OKC area, and I liked them as much in person as I did from their blog. So we booked them for our engagement and wedding photos!

The engagement session was awesome. We were super worried about the weather. It rained all morning, but thankfully it cleared up before we started! That was also the day OU kicked Notre Dame's butt on the football field, so it was a pretty great day overall :)

If you want an example of how great Kristine & Scott are, look at this photo.

It looks so good! You would have no idea that the area around that barn actually looked like this.

So yeah, that impressed us! They also process their photos pretty quickly, and within weeks we had this adorable personalized USB full of photos. To see more photos from our engagement session, head to their blog.

Based on that engagement session, I knew our wedding would be amazing. And it was! We were in communication in the months leading up to the big day; they provided a suggested timeline based on what we had planned and I incorporated it into our overall schedule. And they drove down for the rehearsal to get a feel for the lighting of the church (and the strictness of our priest!)

Kristine & Scott arrived on Saturday morning ready to go. They took pictures almost from the moment they arrived until the moment we started breaking down the tables at the reception. I'm sure they were exhausted (& probably starving!) But they never showed it. They were always right there with a camera in hand. And I'm sure that's why they captured all these amazing little moments:

I love having these photos that show the behind the scenes part of our wedding day. All the traditional pictures are great, but these remind me of how much fun we had leading up to those big moments too.

Really y'all, I can't speak highly enough of them. I was super stressed out by some last minute issues, not to mention the crazy high winds, but they worked with the situations we had and rocked it. For example, I pretty much refused to go outside in the wind before the ceremony because our hair stylists had already left and I didn't want my hair to look bad! So even though they'd planned to shoot our photos outside, we ended up doing them in the hallway of the church. The photos turned out fabulous anyway! Plus, they are super fast with their turnaround. We got a sneak peek while we were still on our honeymoon, and within a couple weeks we saw even more photos on Facebook and their blog. We received a USB drive with all our edited photos a little more than a month after the wedding, and it came in an adorable wooden box with some bonus prints!

And within three months, we had our photobook! It turned out amazing, of course. 

To see more photos, check out their blog post of our day. And if you or someone you know is getting married, seriously consider them. And let them know I sent ya :)