A Transition In My Relationship
On March 11 I changed my relationship status to engaged. I had been waiting for this day for quite some time and it was a pretty magical experience (if you want to relive it with me, just click here). Thus started the intense wedding planning. Lots of things happened really quick, the big things mostly, so that made everything a lot less stressful. I got my photographer, my wedding dress and wedding venue within the first month, and those are three of the most important things to get done fast when it comes to a wedding. Then came all the little things. I am the first to admit, I am not good at planning the little things. I give a lot of credit to my mom and her helpers for pulling off the intricate details. I had a macro vision for how I wanted the wedding to look, and even though we did not always agree on the micro decisions, she made everything happen at the micro level.
I was blessed with a very patient and understanding fiance during some of the more stressful months of wedding planning. He is the poster child for being on the same team as your partner and I couldn't have made it through without him anchoring me.
During the wedding planning madness I was thrown two awesome parties. Merilee Kenney threw together a fabulous bridal shower for me (with the help of my mom, sister, Kathi Little and Belynda Heslop). And Steph & Kenzie (&Trev) threw Zach and I rager of a bachelor(ette) party. I am all about the parties, so I wanted my entire engagement to be one, and our peeps did not disappoint.
On September 23 I changed my relationship status to married. It was a very surreal experience getting sealed to Zach, but the experience in the sealing room is something I will never forget. We were surrounded my so many family members and friends, the amount of love and the spirit in the room was overwhelming. Zach and I are so grateful to everyone who helped us get to that point, you all have shaped us in ways you can't imagine and in one way or another that brought us together.
Now let's talk about how our wedding was such a PARTY. I don't know if y'all had a good time, but I didn't even want to leave hahaha! It was the perfect celebration to the happiest day of my life.
There are no amount of words that can describe the love I have for Zach. He has been my best friend for years now, and being married to him is the greatest adventure. It's the most magical thing to say goodnight and then not leave each other! You guys seriously have no idea how much I treasure just sleeping in the same bed as him, especially since I am away at work for days at a time. He is the most excellent husband. He always cleans the house for me when I come home from Chandler on a Wednesday. Whenever I transition from a day in the office to a day at home, he will always set up my computers and work things at night, so I don't have to do it in the morning. Even though we live in the same house he will still surprise me with treats randomly when he comes home from school or work. He had quite a transition this semester too coming to the UA. It was a tough semester for him, but he very rarely complained and always put up with my complaints about work. He never let school or work come before our relationship. He is real life husband goals people. Everyone deserves a Zach in their lives.
As much as I think marriage is supposed to be a hard transition, it was such a breeze because Zach and I have spent so much time together leading up to moving in together. We work together, make decisions together, pray together and just love each other. I am grateful for Zach for making this transition the easiest of all.
A Transition In The Workforce
I don't have any photos of me at work soooooo this birthday cad from our designer will have to do
I can explain this all to you if you're interested hahah
I was heading into 2017 with a job offer for a newspaper in Cottonwood, Arizona (a job that I wanted exactly... just not where I wanted it) and a plan to get married to Zach later in the year. Zach was going into his final semester at CGCC and had plans to transfer to a university in the fall. I made a tough decision to not put any more distance between mine and Zach's relationship and turn down the job in Cottonwood. That left me in Mesa, close to Zach, but unemployed and mostly bored. I did some freelancing for some newspapers, and started transitioning to portrait photography to start making some money. I wasn't getting any serious cash from this, and knowing that I did not want to have my future wedding in a church building I knew I needed a real job. I just wanted something that was full time and would help me save for my wedding. I was pretty sure that Zach was going to the University of Arizona at this point, so I figured I would only have this job until my wedding anyway, so I didn't really care what the job was in. I applied for lots of jobs from social media marketing to good ol customer service. In March I eventually interviewed for a job within Backdrop Express to be a customer service rep. Not my dream job, but they were paying well so I figured I would go for it. I passed my phone interview, and they brought me in for an in-person interview and I started to actually like the sound of this environment, even if I didn't like the job. A few days later while grocery shopping at Fry's with my mom I got a call from the operations manager saying I didn't get the job I applied for, but that they are creating a new position for me that involved less customer service, more working with orders, and a lot more photoshop/design work. This had me stoked! Because even though I was okay with just being CS agent for a little while, I felt super blessed to have a position created for me (they must have really liked me or something). So I took the job, and started on March 20th. At the start I knew this was going to be a short term job...but as months went on and I started gaining more and more tasks and responsibilities, I was actually kind of sad at the prospect of leaving this job once I got married. So I did that unforgivable and tried to convince Zach to go to ASU so that I could keep my job. This logically made a lot more sense to me, because I thought for sure that I would have to quit this job and try and find a new one in Tucson that paid just as much. But as God would have it, Zach ended up receiving a better scholarship from the better school, so we made plans to move to Tucson in September, and I slowly started dropping hints to my boss that I would be leaving in September. Jokes on me though. I walked into work one day in August with wedding invitations and a plan to officially tell my boss to start looking for someone to replace me. Well turns out she was wanting to talk to me that day too, but not about me leaving... instead how to get me to stay! She said that the benefit of working for a small e-commerce company is that we don't necessarily have to be in the office, as long as we work hard. So she worked out a plan for me that I can work from home in Tucson and work in Chandler a few days at a time. It was a tremendous blessing, especially at the start of mine and Zach's marriage. Financial security is the number one thing that stresses me out in life, so to not have to worry about going paycheck to paycheck with part time jobs going through college, was an incredible gift to us.
During all of this I started to get more and more opportunities with my photography... I even did what I swore I would never do... make a photo Instagram account! As much as I didn't want to admit it, I was transitioning from the photojournalism world to the portrait/wedding photography world. This is an extremely saturated profession, especially in the Phoenix valley so I feel way less confident in my skills in this realm than I did in the journalism world. So while it probably seemed like an easy decision to start promoting myself more... it honestly tore me apart because of how insecure I was about it. But I am glad I made the leap! I shot my first wedding in May for Diana & Harrison. Did some senior shoots here and there. And because of a partnership I did with the Gilbert Girl I was able to meet so many families and do so many family photo sessions through the fall and and winter. I even got to photograph some engagements, a proposal and a wedding all this month! Although this is just my side gig to my full time job, I am so excited to see my photography grow this year and meet so many more people! I do want to thank everyone that hired me this year, or let me take photos of you a million times so that I could expand more portfolio more and more! I won't bombard you with my favorite photos from the year so here is one from this week's bridals session with Raini & Levi:
A Transition in Geography
Like I mentioned earlier Zach and I live in Tucson now that Zach is going to school at the UA. Tucson ha my heart, so it wasn't really a transition to just moving to Tucson. What was more of a transition was living in Tucson, but not at 1320. That duplex was my home for the entirety of my college career, and even though that is still the happening house amongst the Tucsonans, it wasn't my house anymore. It sounds silly to feel displaced just because you don't live in the same house anymore, but it definitely has taken some getting used to have the Beezies next gen there without any of the originals. But I love living in Tucson. I love pretending to be a college student still. I love still going to parties at 1320 and I love having my own house with Zach. A place that is completely our own. And while I have failed miserably to decorate our house (it'r hard when I was honestly in Mesa more than I was in Tucson the past two months), it has become home for me and Zach, and I love it.
This isn't really a transition, but it fits under the theme of geography here. Zach and I did quite a bit of traveling this year, and we went further than we have before! In March we went to California with his family for spring break:
In June we went to Sedona with Parker, Sadie & Trevor:
In September we went way out east to Tennessee for our honeymoon and proved all our h8erz wrong. We visited the Great Smoky Mountains and found my new favorite place DOLLYWOOD:
In November for my birthday trip we went to California again, but this time to Disneyland and the Channel Islands National Park:
Other notable things that happened this year:
- Cob and Keaton returned home from their missions, allowing the Fam to reunite
- Rory moved to China!
- I won third place for the College Media Best General News Photo for my photo from the Orlando vigil in Tucson in 2016 that I have over shared with you guys
- We lost our dog Chloe this year, which was easily the most heart wrenching moment of the year
- Zach bought a car right before we got married (and he let me use it while he was living in Tucson and I was in Mesa because he is the bae of all baes) and then when we got married we bought a 2016 Chevy Trax to support me in all my travels to and from Tucson.
- Zach turned 21 and we went on an epic scavenger hunt across Phoenix
- Most exciting of all, Zach and I have indeed made a completely fresh, not frozen meal. Hold the applause.
2018 is fuzzy to me. I know that I am going to be working and I know that Zach will be going to school. But outside of that the canvas for 2018 is completely blank. I am hoping (and planning) for some exciting adventures, like going to DC for EJ's graduation in May! And I am excited for all the photography opportunities that are ahead. I already have one wedding scheduled (yay Kara & Tristan) but I want to start doing more! I have a goal to document more of me in Zach in photos. Just everyday things. I take a lot of photos, but rarely of the two of us, and I want to be able to have a lot of photos for us to look back on in our early years of marriage. I am excited for big events that are happening in 2018 like the arrival of the Whitmore baby (please be a girl) and lots of friends weddings!
Since 2017 was my transition year, I can't wait to get settled into 2018 and really start living life and enjoying the day to day things. I look forward to spending more time in Tucson with Zach, now that the busy season is long gone at work. Here's to my year of transitions, and to an exciting year ahead!
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