happiness is..

my favorite littles + my favorite guy = happiness

took these rascalls to a cider mill a few weeks back and we had so much fun! 

our first home.

in the middle of the street.

we rent a cute and tiny house in ferndale and it is pretty great. 

i thought i would take photos of it. to share but also selfishly. i have always photographed my rooms because i change them around and paint often, i like to have documentaion of what they used to look like! its fun to have! 

i should note that we didn't paint any of the rooms. the color was neutral enough and for just renting, i didn't know how much fun it would be to have to repaint the walls back when we were to move out.

our wedding: according to everyone else

im fairly certain i did not take a single one of these photos. maybe a few. but everyone else sent me their photos. these are them. 

it was the best day of my life. it was so much fun. i married the love of my life in front of all our closest friends and family. and danced our hearts out!!! 

soon. not today. soon i will post our professional wedding photos. if you follow me on instagram {@ashcashbadash} you have already seen a few. im just too busy looking at them myself to share them with everyone ;)

love, me. 

may 2013

we kinda totally got married this month! but other than that, this is what we did! 

we saw the one and only taylor swift at the ford field in detroit with these people. 

is that a run on sentence? 

anyway. it was wonderful. duh.

this was the week leading up to the wedding! with our favorite people! 

this was the rest of the month. 

friends. wedding photos {!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!} friends. indy {more on that later} and a tigers game!! our 2nd together! 

honeymoon: Saugatuck, MI

here are some of our honeymoon photos {from the iPhone of course!}

i was really looking forward to this trip with patrick. but i will say that it exceeded my expectations. it was so perfect. now that we have been home and back in to the routine of our normal life now, i miss it so terribly much. it was so nice to be so disconnected from the rest of the world and only have patrick to talk to and laugh with and be with. it was amazing how comfortable it all felt. we did so much and we ate the most delicious food. 

it was so relaxing to just be able to do what we wanted, when we wanted. we didnt have a schedule or itinerary to keep to. we didnt have to leave the house or go back to the house unless we wanted. 

i want to go back. right now. if not right now, then at least tomorrow. 

i highly recommend a honeymoon like this to anyone who is getting married. it doesnt matter where you are as long as you are with the person of your dreams. 

check out the photos i took from downtown holland here! 

love. 

april 2013

i have far too many photos to share of the weeks leading up to our wedding. so i thought maybe i would share the photos this way. 

this was april. essentially. 

lets start here. a thursday morning, i was getting up for service with my sister. i can not find my car keys so i am going to have to have my mom drop me off. {what a hassle in the morning!} i head out to my {unlocked.. im smart} car to get a few things and a car approaches me honking. it was my sister. i see alexa and rula in the back seat and i was confused. {there is a video of this whole thing.. you can see it here...} and next thing i realize is my parents standing outside my house with my overnight case. 

it was planned. 

i was being kidnapped.

jody comes and the whole thing is set to start. we go to breakfast first and then head on the freeway, but i have no clue where we are going. at some point i am blind folded and soon enough i see that we are at Kalahari Water Park - i had always wanted to go! 

here are the photos of the best surprise i have ever had! 

and if you have not gone to Kalahari before, you must! its wonderful.

the next big event was my girly shower. girls only and lots of food and some yummy drinks! i believe this was one of the most fun nights of the wedding excitement. some of my favorite ladies in one place and some dancing of course. my friend even made an owl cake for me. i mean, really?! it was so fun. my sister was the hospitable host. 

the most memoriable gift was a scrapbook page from each of the ladies who came. that meant so much to me. i will keep that scrapbook forever and i look at it more often than they might expect. i have many friendships and relationships to be proud of. 

this last one is pretty much just a hodgepodge of everything else. from the tigers game, getting my hair back to the color it should always be, special assembly day, anniversary party and just being with the love of my life.

april was wonderful. 

our wedding shower

my brother in law and sister made our wedding shower invites! 

it was wonderful.

the only thing that i would change?

i would make sure i got a photo with my mama bear and dad! so sad that we missed that. its hard to remember to get those shots when youre in the moment though. 

but mama, rest assured i love you and so apprectiate all the hard work that you put towards this special day for patrick and i! 

here are some photos. enjoy!! 

and my favorite photo from the entire day.. my favorite little person. McIntyre. 

this is us opening her gift and reading her card. she was explaining what she drew for me. 

i. love. her. 

so. much. 

also i would love to thank, again, my wonderful bridesmaids! they went above and beyond what they should have and made this day so special and beautiful! they were such giant helps with everything! 

lex, rula pie, mad, kale, jo and ber... i love you. forevers. 

and cant forget to thank my dad, who had the big job of taking all the photos!!! we love you too!! 

hey madeleine, surprise!!!

one day i call kale. i have this idea that is impossible for many reasons. one of them being that its already a jam packed month. be it the month of my wedding shower, and kales school schedule and the memorial.. the list goes on and on. 

the idea came from one night when i wasnt able to sleep because i was thinking of how much i miss both maddie and kale. how i miss being with the two of them and how awesome it would be if kale and i just showed up in georgia one day. unsuspecting maddie would see us and think she sees someones who just look like us. 

kale loved the idea and we planned and made phone calls. we decided to fly, maddies older sister helped come up with the way to get maddie out of the house so late and night and we showed up at her favorite coffee place, jittery joes, and viola! two of her favorite {her words, not mine...} people surprise her. loudly. one of us with only one eye working at the time. 

it was wonderful. here are some iphone photos. 

and look at this link for the surprise, on video!!! 

the best breakfast you will ever eat. at mamas boy

im like a moth to a flame, or something like that.  

baby wills, getting some lovin' 

the memorial! 

kale and maddie, i love you girls. my favorite shoegurls and my favorite people to go to eye drs. homes on a sunday morning with! by. far.

march 2013

march. the month of our shower, memorial, georgia trip with kale, out house, moving, kate nash with alexa rae, ikea trip, saying goodbye to dan. it was alot of fun and a lot of excitement. 

our house! {well our house while we rent it!} we seriously love this house. even the awnings have grown on us. {i was nearly going to remove them myself..} its a tiny two bedroom, one bath, no basement home. but it is perfect for what we need and want. the backyard is so nice, and my favorite part is that there is a park across the street!! i will be sharing some photos of the inside soon! promise! 

this was too good to include in the collage. dan and patricks goodbye. 

roommates until i came along and changed things. im a meanie. at least petoskey isnt too far!!

photographed: us

how do i even describe how much fun this session was? 

as someone who just adores people in love and photographing people in love, i absolutely love my job and every aspect of it. 

as someone who hates having her photo taken when its not on the front facing camera on her phone, i was not super excited for this. 

and then i got there. with the right guy. the right people behind the camera...

and...

it was... 

...flawless. 

it was only fair since my sister and brother in law were the first guinea pigs for my photography that we would ask them to do ours. i knew the place i wanted to go to and knew what i had in mind for our invitations {also created by my awesome brother in law, with the help of my awesome sister!}.

as rushed as that day was and as cold {ask my sister..} as it was out side, i wouldnt change a thing. we got so many great photos and had a blast taking them. 

it was easy to be comfortable in front of the camera with the love of my life, patrick. he makes me laugh and makes me feel so good, it is difficult to not be a smiling fool next to him. 

so anyway, i guess all of this was to just tell you guys, i think engagement photos are worth the time and energy. its a memory that we wont soon forget and makes for great invitation or thank you note ideas! 

plus, it gets us comfortable with someone saying "okay, now kiss!!!"

darn. 

to patrick, i love you forever {and ever and ever} and can you please figure out how to slow time down. everything has gone by soooo fast... oh and 

to amber and niko, thank you for being willing and creative and inspiring and awesome. yeah. 

love, ash