A girlfriend of mine posted on her stories a few weeks ago, “Life is not always perfect and sometimes that’s okay. Without struggle there is no growth and sometimes there are things you have to learn the hard way.” Ya’ll know I am such a super positive person. Ya’ll know I can give you pros and cons about anything. Often times, I can take the worst situations and make it be the happiest of times. This is what I value in myself! I value to enjoy what life comes to me.

A promise I made when starting my website was I will always be honest with you as my audience (no matter how small or large the platform I may have). As of recently, my words of reflecting the positive things in life has been majorly put to the test. Right now I will warn you my post today is going to be very raw. It is going to be super personal and reflect my emotions. Everyday and at every event I put myself in such a vulnerable position. This post is going to be me opening my heart to you. I think its extremely important for people to recognize and for other couples who may be experiencing the same things to feel they are not alone. My post today is talking about infertility.

Growing up, I had a wonderful childhood. My parents were always attentive with activities my siblings and I were in. They have always been supportive. Values of respect, discipline and encouragement were taught at a young age. The dreams I had were always taken seriously. They made wishes to reality and told me to keep reaching for more. The qualities my parents reflected towards my siblings was why I always wanted to be a Mommy.

Being a planner, I have ALWAYS planned for everything. I knew directly out of high school I wanted to go to college and get my degree. Being in a serious relationship with Shawn, I knew I didn’t want to get engaged until after I graduated (he waited a week later). Being engaged I knew I wanted to get married and have a house before we talked about having kids. Once we moved into our home, the goal was to wait a year before we started trying. I knew the women in my family didn’t have issues with getting pregnant and often joked about them getting pregnant from breathing. As Shawn and I were taking this journey we knew the plan I had would change. My plan started to become “OUR” plan. Once we moved into our house and had been married almost 4 months, we knew we wanted to start trying for a family.

In April of 2018, we took the leap of faith to pursue having a family. People reference it as the “fun part” of getting pregnant. People get excited leading up to when they get to pee on the stick in hopes of seeing two pink lines. I will be honest, it WAS fun for us the first few months. Leading up to seven, eight and nine months later the fun turned into disappointment. I thought maybe I was calculating my ovulation time wrong considering I was using an app. I switched from an app to taking ovulation test everyday within a month to see my most fertile times. When I knew my correct fertile days, I would keep myself positive thinking its only a matter of time. There have been plenty of times Shawn and I would be talking thinking I could be pregnant. At the closest opportunity I would take a pregnancy test. Often times would take two to three each month hoping the results would be different. Nothing changed, I was not pregnant. I will say brain power has a contributing factor when going through something difficult. Our minds have a way to help with balancing emotions versus facts. When going through dates and knowing my peek times something was not adding up. I needed to know what was stopping us from being able to have a baby.

March of 2019, we finally went to the doctor. We went through several tests and the results concluded we have very low chances of being able to conceive naturally. I could tell you who has what wrong BUT there is no point. The fact of the matter is no one is to blame. We can’t help our situation with the blockers we have for infertility and a lot of it has to do with our genes. The doctor has given us plenty of options such as IUI (Intra-Uterine Insemination) but due to our case, he finds IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) will be the better option. It’s an aggressive and very expensive option that will not be covered under insurance. With our options given, there is not a 100% guarantee it will work. It will take months of physical and financial preparation before we get try to have a mature egg. Chances of us having to go through multiple cycles is very likely.

Here is my emotions and the truth. Days before the appointment I was extremely anxious. In my heart, I knew I needed to prepare for what might be said. The moment the doctor told us the chances of us conceiving naturally would be low, I was choking back tears. Leaving the doctor’s office, our emotions were all over the place. Shawn had to go back to work to finish client deals while containing his emotions. Family members were waiting patiently for the test results as they knew about the appointment. Even as an adult, I needed my mom to comfort me. We drank wine and talked about what the odds were. We talked about what was to come and knowing this journey wasn’t going to be easy. She would explain to me how we could change certain habits to be able to go through a natural pregnancy. Knowing she was able to do it naturally, created a bitterness for me. Often in our conversation I would reference telling her that there is more to getting pregnant than just having sex. She would be crying as I would tell her she would never understand the feelings of what my husband and I are going through.

As I was driving home, I was crying. When I got home, I was crying. Thinking about mine and Shawn’s dream creating a large family, made me cry. Thinking of me being a mommy, made me cry. My eyes were so red, so puffy from the tears. Going into the next day, ended up being the same. If I thought too much of what was said or going into the thoughts of kids, I would start crying. When scrolling through social media, it felt all of these people were happy of the things their kids were doing or making the announcement of being pregnant for the first or fourth time. Out of all of these people, they have not experienced the tears, rage and jealousy I am facing. They get to have a choice to have as many children as they want and when to call it quits. In our situation, its really based off the miracles God can provide for us. Its going to be a long, hard battle Shawn and I will be facing together. We are continuing to heavily pray for our outcome to change. We want our miracle to be on God’s timing and for us to be set with our perfect match. As of now, we believe there is a lesson needed to be learned. We still don’t know what it is or what it could be but we know we will learn something from what we feel in heartache.

Shawn and I are the 1 in 8 couples who have problems with infertility. Even though the doctor is optimistic for us to get pregnant it is still a physical and mental battle. What is bananas is the fact we are NOT the only couple. Plenty of couples are going through this right freakin’ now and often find it embarrassing or too hard to talk about. Some couples have gone through the struggle of getting pregnant and ended up with miscarriage or still born. IT HAPPENS EVERYDAY AND ALL THE TIME! There are so many couples who have similar situations as we do. They all range in ages from as young as 20’s going up to 50’s and older. All are still just as painful, just as hurtful and just as heartbreaking.

I really want family and friends to understand. There are so many things Shawn and I are suffering silently. We are working a lot of the struggles through prayer. A little bit everyday we feel more at peace and everyday we are getting stronger to overcome our emotions. Infertility will always be something we will live with and right now it is very fresh. There are moments we feel hopeless and often feel very sad.

My goal for this post is not to get sympathy. I promise you we don’t need it. My hope is for this to make people aware of the words and actions it has towards others. The fact I used to prank my parents into thinking I was pregnant makes me cringe. It hurts because now I am struggling to fight to have those two precious lines. It hurts how pregnancy can be used maliciously. It hurts how people can be careless and undeserving of having such a precious gift. It is not funny or comical. It completely hurts.

You think pregnancy is a joke?! Honey, let me pray for you. I pray that you and your future spouse never have to experience the emotions my husband and I are going through. I pray for you to never take advantage of the precious life God gave you. I pray for you to be a great parent and pray for your children to be healthy. These are all things I am praying for you.

Love you bushels,

ONE FAT DOVE

Oh February, the month of love with chocolates, flowers and kisses. Total confusion from the girl who loves romantic comedies, I used to HATE Valentine’s Day. Literally the thought of professing your love for someone one day was nauseating. Most of my Valentine’s Day would be Sex in the City style were I would watch horror and thriller movies all day. Don’t get me wrong, I used to have the boyfriends (WAY back in the day) who would do the cheesy surprises and of course I would do something for them. I just didn’t understand why everyone made it such a big deal. Not to mention my birthday is three days after V-Day! Personally, I used to say just go all out on my birthday and at times feel like I was setting myself up for disappointment. In all, I just didn’t care for the month of February. UNTIL…. I started to learn the values of myself.

Knowing your self-worth is a HUGE lesson women should learn. We are in this constant state of lowering standards because we become so judgmental of what over women have. It is this constant battle field women play in their minds time and time again. We become competitors with each other as we analyze each others bodies, hair, nails, purses, homes, cars and personal things. We reflect each other from what is on the surface versus what is within. (Cliché, I KNOW!)

Has anyone ever felt good about judging others? Please respond or take sometime to reflect this question.

My answer… NO.

I have never felt good about being so judgmental. IN FACT, there have been a few times when I would compare my life to someone else. It would make me stop appreciating my blessings because I was jealous of what other people were doing or having. It made me feel too insecure. THEN, I got a good slap in the face (figuratively). I had this thought. What if women stopped seeing other as competitors? What if we stopped being so judgey of what others have/look like and gave a few moments to appreciate them? WHAT IF?! So in hindsight, I put my “madness” to the test. Let me tell you, it was a 100% way more positive. Taking a moment to compliment someone, helping a fellow sister out with their business, buying a Starbucks coffee for the person behind you or just telling someone you were praying for them had a HUGE impact. When I stopped feeling like everyone was a constant threat, I felt like I was learning who I was… again. I started to value my creativity, being a wife, my home, family and being just plain happy. Of course, I will always admire people like Rachel Hollis and Reese Witherspoon BUT it is not a constant void I am needing to fulfill. I can value all the sweet, little things in my life without having to compare others.

So fast forward to February of 2019, OFD was super freakin’ busy as we started to work with some new collaborations. Not to mention, it was also the end of engagement season AND we ended the month with a wedding! All I can say is power of prayer, does some amazing things my friends! When planning for February, I wanted to showcase work with a color scheme of reds and pinks. We not only had one styled shoot BUT we had TWO.

FIRST UP… A BLUSH TEAPARTY!

Photographer Credit: @onelovetexas⠀⠀⠀
Hair/ Makeup: @blushbarbeauty ⠀
Videographer: @jrowfilms ⠀⠀
Florist: @brighteyedblooms ⠀⠀⠀
Bakery: @ruthihutsoncakes ⠀⠀⠀
Bridal Gowns: @gownsofgrace ⠀⠀⠀
Rentals: @5starrental ⠀⠀⠀
Tablescape Rentals: @royaleventrentalsdfwVenue: @sunnypaigefrisco
Models: @makeupbyspeshal @schylarrene⠀⠀⠀

For this shoot, we wanted to capture the beauty pink tends to reflect. Not just pink but BLUSH. With the amazing hair and makeup team from Blush Bar Beauty, OFD collaborated to come up with the concept to reflect personalities of each businesses. There is elegance and a timeless look being reflected in the photos Christina MacMeeken tends to compose. I wanted to show a reflection of women who are having a good time while being elegantly dressed. A tea party being decorated with glitter, bubbly and cake. Just a few of my favorite things…

SIDE NOTE: How about the new website ya’ll?!? I am not a technology nerd, in fact I am the least tech savvy person on the face of this earth. BUT… I am pretty proud of the new facelift for OFD. Even though I felt like I got my a** kicked, the hard work has paid off.

2nd Style Shoot, 24k Love

Are you starting to see a trend of love here? When Jennifer Wax and I collaborated we wanted to use the various tones of dark reds and pinks. The vision was to have more of a romantic setting. We also wanted it to be more light and airy with an emphasis of modern. With the models, we wanted a couple who would wear their hearts on their sleeves.

FUN FACT: Do you recognize a certain person in the photos? Justin (the male model) is our videographer! For the shoot, I had such a hard time finding a couple who could take the photos during the weekday. Luckily, Justin and his wife Jamie have more of a flexible schedule so I had the privilege of having him be in front of the camera. I am so happy to say that the love shown in the photos is how their marriage is, absolutely beautiful!

A special thank you to the vendors who collaborated in the shoot. Please check out their Instagram with handles below:

Photographers: @jlglamour_photography & @monilynnimages ⠀⠀⠀⠀
Bakery: @ruthihutsoncakes ⠀⠀⠀⠀
Florist: @brighteyedblooms ⠀⠀⠀⠀
HMUA: @phoenixbeautyteam ⠀⠀⠀⠀
Rentals: @5starrental ⠀⠀⠀⠀
Tablescape Rentals: @royaleventrentalsdfw
Stationary: @wordsmadesemple ⠀⠀⠀
Tuxedo: @mistertuxedodallas ⠀⠀⠀⠀
Wedding Gown: @terrycostabridal ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Venue: @lumenroombryanstreet⠀⠀⠀⠀
Models: @jamieromeyn @jrowfilms⠀⠀⠀

The Howerton Wedding

Boy oh boy! I could not contain my excitement for Byron and Desirae’s Wedding. When they hired me back in June, I didn’t realize how much of a personal relationship would be built. I mean you can’t help but love people who love the same wine as you right?! Desirae and I became close compadres as we narrowed down the timeline and the aesthetic of the big day. Candles was crucial as it needed to be EVERYWHERE! Flowers needed to be beautiful with the use of anemone, peonies and roses. Simplicity can be used in an elegant fashion. From the pictures, I believe the bride’s vision was captured.

A very loving shout out to the vendors. Everyone really worked together to make this event amazing for the happy couple. Below is the Instagram handles to check them out!

Photography Credits: @hannahwayphoto
Venue: @stonecrestvenue
Florist: @hollyvilesdesign

HMUA: @teasetopleasehairandmakeup

DJ: @soundmastersdj

Bakery: @ruthcakeartist

Catering:@hutchins_bbq

Bartenders & Service Staff: @hdliquidcater

Videographer: @juliancastorena

Love was in the air this Valentine’s Day! For the first time, I was able to love myself and my work. I have so much love for my husband Shawn who spoils me rotten #gucci and makes quality time for us. I have felt so loved with all the amazing support. BUT YA’LL… More love is soon to come! We have spring event season coming right around the corner AND more collaborations to come. I can’t wait to share the information with you soon!

Love you bushels,

ONE FAT DOVE

Photography Credits to J.L. Glamour

Holy buckets ya’ll, 2018 is almost over!

Let me recounter what happened… At the start of the year, I was miserable and just unsure of what I wanted to do with my life. My husband and I were blessed to move into our beautiful home but something felt empty. A road crossed from me leaving one job then I left another to where I was jobless for three months. THREE WHOLE FLIPPIN’ MONTHS! I went from interview to interview and sometimes no interviews. It was definitely a tough time and put a lot of stress on my husband. There were so many conversations we would have were I would say, “Let me start my own business. Let me do something were I can try to create something on my own.” Shawn would and will always support me but we didn’t have a lot of money to start. My thoughts were I wanted to have my own clothing boutique, I wanted to start with online and eventually move into a location near my home. My brain was always so focused on having my own clothing boutique that I never stopped to hear what God wanted me to do.

When nothing seemed to work for what I wanted (I can’t make this up, I seriously did this!) I dropped to my knees and prayed. I was crying, feeling so lost with my hands in the air I said, “I am done! I have tried it my way and it doesn’t seem to work. Please tell me what I should do. Please guide me in the path you want me to Lord.” I can’t make this up; a calm voice stopped me and told me to start doing events. Honestly ya’ll it was shocking and I questioned it! I pondered the idea for weeks talking to my girlfriends (You know who you are!), to my mother, to Shawn, pretty much to everyone. It didn’t seem like a bad idea but it was a scary thought. When I stopped with the resilience, again I can’t make this up, I was told to start with the blog. Same voice and everything! I always wanted to but always found an excuse not to do one. So once I created the website and did my first blog post it was CRAZY! I started to see I had so much support from friends, family, loved ones and even few people I didn’t know. Then the voice came said one thing, “Events.” That was it! Something so simple and I have followed the voice ever since. Shortly after was when I did the Mother’s Day Brunch, a Graduation Party and then a Gender Reveal. From hard work with postings on the blog and through social media, I have grown way faster than I could have imagined. My goal was to have only three clients by the end of 2018. With One Fat Dove being “live” for seven months, I am so happy to say I have twenty-one clients I am so honored to work with.

In honor of 2018, here is my most memorable moments…

Mother’s Day Brunch

Birthday Party Fiesta

Graduation

1st Birthday Party

Gender Reveal

Gigi (Mom), Magnolia (Baby), BoBo (Dad)… My little boxer family!

I have been so blessed to create memories and life long friendships with clients. I have been blessed to witness moments that will be forever cherished as the happiest of times. I have been blessed to work with other vendors and collaborating together as a team to grow businesses together. I have been blessed to grow with Shawn as we strive to grow our family and to making our house into a home. I have been blessed to be loved by so many. I can’t thank everyone and God enough for all the many blessings each of you continue to give me. Each person has impacted my life and you are such a blessing to me.

One Fat Dove came to life and it made me learn to live my life without hesitation or fear. I have learned to finally stand up for myself and fight for what I believe in. The sweet, calm voice has guided me through this entire journey. Some people may call me crazy, some might call it fate and to be honest I am not sure what it is. What I do know is the calm voice has brought my closer to God but also to happiness. My journey for One Fat Dove has only begun.

Here is my prayer, “Lord thank you for this journey. Thank you for all the many blessings that you have continued to give me today. Thank you for the lessons and thank you for the successes. Thank you for showing me life has so much to offer. I promise to continue to work hard and to glorify your light. Please continue to help guide me in your path. In your name I pray. AMEN.”

Cheers to 2019 and many more years to come!

Love you bushels,

ONE FAT DOVE

P.S. To kick off the New Year there will be a giveaway! Make sure to follow me on Instagram @onefatdove starting January 1st to learn more. Please follow rules to win.

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?… No for real are you listening because its THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE WHOLE FREAKIN YEAR! I have been celebrating Christmas since beginning of November and so excited I don’t have to be the cliché of being THAT GIRL…. You know what I am talking about… “OH my God, you have your Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving?! Like HELLO Thanksgiving is a holiday worth celebrating.” Yes, I totally agree; it’s a holiday I cherish the most. My mom would wake up early to turn on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as the feast was cooking. Katie Mae (Mimi) would check on the yeast rolls to make sure they were rising and pop them in the oven.  It will always be a cherished holiday for my family and I.

HOWEVER, in 2017, I was at a different time in my life. I was getting married while building a house, traveling and going through a really tough time with my job. I was so happy to start a life with Shawn but I was so unhappy with my professional life. It was super stressful and I lost sight of the holiday spirit. In fact there was no tree, no decorations, no presents nor being jolly around my family. I was flat exhausted and torn what I should be doing with my life. I cried more so than I would like to admit.

Fast forward to 2018, I decided to take a leap of faith and follow a different path. I started to pray more and turn to God for my answers. For the first time in my life, I am happy with who I am. I am grateful for the things I have worked for and I am hopeful for what is to come. My spirit for joy has returned. This year there is no such thing as

BAH HUMBUG!

Growing up, the holidays were always such a magical time. All of my family would gather together to my grandparents house where it was a Winter Wonderland. From the outside to inside, EVERYTHING was decorated with lights, ornaments, trees, stockings and nutcrackers. The Christmas dinners were spectacular as everyone had at least one of their favorite items. (Mine were petit fours with holly decorated icing.) The Christmas trees have always been Pinterest worthy! No lie, my grandad has created magnificent trees where snow balls fly from the top of the tree as it dances down to the presents. Seriously, he needs his own Christmas store with a side service to decorate homes. He is just that good! The amount of time they have spent to make the holidays so special will forever be remembered. Because of them, they are the reason why I love this season! They taught me to have a passion.

Wrapping up the end of 2018, I wanted to do something different. I am a huge fan of following other bloggers and connecting through Instagram/Facebook. One of the things I have always admired is the self confidence they reflect. It gave me an idea; a wickedly awesome idea to do a styled holiday video. After one meeting, a week later and a bottle of champagne poured, I am able to present One Fat Dove’s first video collaboration.  Definitely click the link below to see it!

One Fat Dove’s Holiday Video

Please check out Justin owner of Creatve Wedding Films. Ya’ll he is just flippin’ amazing!

Need help with gift ideas?

Check out the below pictures from Four Season Fabulous, as your holiday gift guide!

Starting One Fat Dove, I really wanted to commemorate Katie Mae. For a while I had tossed around the idea of having the name be Miss Katie Mae’s Events. As time went on, I found out Katie Mae would volunteer at the nursing home. She would bring fresh flowers from the church and would spend time with the residence. In honor of her, I started providing a service to my clients for FREE. All flowers that are NOT wanting to be kept would be repurposed and used at the local nursing home. The residence and employees are able to keep most of the arrangements for TWO WEEKS!

As we are all aware, this time of the year is about “spreading Christmas cheer for all to hear.” Not only is One Fat Dove providing the service of repurposing flowers BUT I am also making it a priority to volunteer. This holiday season, I had the privilege to help with the decorations and had a few of Santa’s helpers!

Love you bushels,

ONE FAT DOVE

YA’LL!!!!! Have you been without your cell phone for a solid week?!? I am not talking about when you were younger and the pa-rentals would take your phone away because you flunked your biology test. I am talking about as an adult working for your source of income and the phone is the lifeline to make the money. Let me say it is freaking NUTS! A full, flipping week of no phone and having to do all communication on my computer. I have a strong sense of knowing now more than ever technology is so amazing but the Devil at the same time.

Let me give you the low down…. I am the biggest klutz in the whole freaking universe. (Seriously, talking to a girl who broke her ankle from walking… no joke!) Needless to say, I dropped my phone one too many times and the screen cracked. It wasn’t even bad, you could barely tell there was a crack. However, my sweet, darling 6-month old puppy, decided to start liking chew toys way to expensive for my taste. She got a hold of my life support and bit down on the screen perfect enough to see two little bitty bit marks. Of course, I have a passcode lock on my screen with 6 digits and only 5 of the numbers working to unlock my phone. With not enough luck on my side, the face lock was not working either. A quick trip to the AT&T store, 3 whole flipping days later and an insurance phone, still there was NOTHING I could do. My phone’s backup was not going to transfer everything over because my iCloud’s last backup was MAY of 2017! NOT COOL!!!! So finally after begging to God 4 days later, tears and an all day trip to the Apple store I was able to have my precious, expensive equipment back in my hands.

Magnolia AKA the culprit!

However, I learned some very important lessons:

1. It is SUPER important to protect your phone. In this last predicament I bought a really cute, silicon blush pink case found at Target. It looked like it would protect my phone and something durable to be able to carry around anywhere I went. However, I quickly found my phone case would fall apart with only a few weeks of having it. At the time it wasn’t important for me to get a new one. However, I will NOT wait ever again. I am even looking at the option of getting a glass protector for my screen! Its wicked cheap and easy to replace.
2. Be knowledgable of your phone. This sounds odd because EVERYONE knows how to work an iPhone. However, when you get the updates of “BACKUP YOUR PHONE STUPID, IT’S BEEN A YEAR!” please do what it says. There is so many things that change and happen. Communication is crucial in any work environment and it is up to YOU to keep it organized. Needless to say, I have a backup, new iCloud and phone is linked to my computer to receive ALL messages.
3. Honestly ya’ll, I was on my phone WAY TOO MUCH.  It was the first thing I would wake up to in the mornings and the last thing I would look at night. There were so many times Shawn would tell me to put my phone down. I made excuses to him saying “I need to get creative content, looking at ideas for client, needing to take picture for website, etc.” Having to look at your phone there is always a time and place. It’s not during work, school or date nights. Its on your free time! Learn to do something more productive like reading a book (because you can’t read enough!), go to the gym, actually have a conversation during dates, snuggle by the fire, whatever just don’t have the “blue lights” in your face all the time.
4. Being away from my phone gave me more of my own creative thoughts. When constantly looking at Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, you tend to start replicating in some form of what other people were doing. It gave me time to come up with a plan to expand ideas for social marketing. Let me just say, its going to be AH-MAZING!

Having a healthy balance of work and personal life is so hard! You stress because you NEED to have a phone but also learn its not the MOST important thing. Having positive attitude will turn any crappy situation into something to grow from. It’s the sweet, little things… +++ it makes for a good Marley and Me story!

Gigi (Mom), Magnolia (Baby), BoBo (Dad)… My little boxer family!

The Newly Married Mr. & Mrs. Moreno

As if I don’t say it enough but ya’ll, I have the best clients EVER! I get the absolute privilege to help with the most important day. I get to see the sweet, little moments of Dad watching his little girl become a lady and the moment when the groom looks at his happily ever after. Even while working and watching these moments happen, I start to tear up! They are such sweet, happy moments to be apart of. When it comes to Victory and Ryan’s wedding, you couldn’t help but notice the sweet, little things.

Victory’s mom, Mrs. Deborah hired me ONE WEEK before the wedding! Long story short,  a family friend was supposed to help coordinate the wedding and broke her ankle. In a panic with little left in the budget, Mrs. Deborah reached out to me.  She was so sweet wanting to make the wedding feel so special for her daughter and the groom. It was my job to ensure her everything was going to be okay. Which it was because I have never seen a client so organized! Ya’ll Mrs. Deborah had a timeline that was 6 pages long!! I am not kidding. Like I always thought my timelines were usually long around 2-3 pages BUT she had 6 pages! Even when I went to the house to help with prep of organizing boxes, she had everything packed with linens pressed and folded. Labels were slapped on each container of what the items were and where it was to be displayed. She was an organized GURU! Needless to say, I feel in love with her immediately.

Before everyone knew it, the week flew by and the day was officially here. The ceremony was so pretty under the gazebo with rose petals scattered down the aisle and wine barrels drapped with beautiful flower arrangements. A violinist was serenading all guests and bridal party as they would walk down the aisle. Communion was the unity for the bride and groom to declare their marriage with Christ. It was definitely a tear jerker FO-SHO!

During the reception it was amazing to get to know staff members of the venue and to work with some amazing vendors. All guests, bridal party and vendors were happy to be apart of Victory and Ryan’s wedding. The food was of course amazing from La Madeline’s (which is my favorite Sunday hot spot). Some pretty awesome stories were given from Ryan’s Dad about the love he has for his son. The cake was 100% the best cake I had EVER, EVER had! The bridal party was fun to work with even though there was a lot of teasing from one groomsmen in particular. (Yup, you know who you are!) There was no shortage of dancing as all guests were ready to celebrate. Finally, the “Grand Exit” was the most memorable with bubbles and a car battery dead. Making the getaway a little delayed.

But hey…. its the sweet, little moments that make life more interesting.

Love you bushels,

ONE FAT DOVE

One of the many sweet, little moments from my wedding… When my bestie of over 12 years caught the bouquet.

Does anyone else have a brain that is in constant rotation? Everyday, all day, I am constantly thinking about things I need or want to be doing. To give you an example all before 11:00 AM today I thought about: finish reading my book, finish laundry, do dishes, what time should I go workout, make sure to send out invoices, see what I should do for Christmas gifts, I should totally buy a new Christmas tree, if I am buying a tree I should throw a Christmas party, maybe it should be ugly sweater themed, maybe it should be a Grinch theme, oh but WAIT (pause for deep breath) I need to do social media content, what a good idea for a blog post, I need to write that blog post, pictures need to be taken, what events do I have next month, etc…. LIKE SERIOUSLY, no wonder I have too much anxiety. The wheels in my head are going all the time; sometimes I need a slap in the face for someone to tell me W..T..F!

I can’t explain why I put so much pressure on myself. Maybe it is the sense of doubt and not knowing what is to come. There could be a sense of wanting affirmation from others to boost my professional and personal life. I can’t give an exact reason and it is a battle in my head all the time. The only thing that gets me through the “battle cry” is the support of my family and knowing I am not alone. Changing the cry into positivity changes my whole demeanor. My secret weapon, the power of prayer. My thoughts become clear, cohesive measures to achieve what I want. I am able to move the barriers to walk the path the Lord wants me to. Doubt goes away and self acceptance starts to shine. I toss the confetti and move on. 

Luke 12:22-26 “Anxiety is a result of envisioning the future without Me. So the best defense against worry is staying in communication with Me. When you turn your thoughts toward Me, you can think much more positively. Remember to listen as well as to speak, making your thoughts a dialogue with Me.”

Try it for yourself…. I promise the weight you once felt will be lifted.

HOW DOES THE BATTLE AFFECT ONE FAT DOVE? 

Well it does more or less.. I start to think creative thoughts and then there are times where I am overthinking about table centerpieces. When I get to the exhausted point, I start to ask for help. There is NOTHING wrong to ask for help or to ask for support. Just get the job done!

Journaé’s 1st Birthday

FIRST EVENT FOR ONE FAT DOVE

You may ask, why talk about anxiety and then move to talking about events? Let me be open and honest. I started One Fat Dove thinking it was going to take me a while to grow a client base. When doing my business plan, I predicted I may get three or four clients by end of 2018. The Lord had a different plan and I ended up having three clients by four weeks of business. Funny how that worked?! My anxiety was through the freakin’ roof! I was a new business (still am) and really didn’t know what to expect as a sole owner for my company. When working corporate, we had a team to help guide and give the right expectations. When working a lone it is based off of thoughts and previous experience. Sounds scary right?…. Well, it was! My first client had booked me to do her daughter’s first birthday. It was exciting because we had five weeks to plan and plenty of vendors to hire. The theme for the party….. PAW PATROL!

Paw Patrol on the double.. and it was planned at a fast pace. The first big mission was to find a venue. When looking at venues it took at least two weeks to find a place that would allow for all vendors, guests and be within budget. Thankfully, there was a family member that worked at the local YMCA to provide the gym at a discounted rate. Catering was tossed around but the client was wanting the gym to be fully decorated. So instead, food was prepped at home and served onsite at the party. This helped with service charges and delivery fees from catering companies.

For decorations, the client liked the look for chair covers and table linens to be spandex. It had a clean, polished look that the client was going for. There was also a glitter sleeve added to the back of the chair to “jazz” it up. To add more fun to the chairs, character mask of Skye and Everest were added to every other chair to signify more of the Paw Patrol theme. The centerpieces were simple and fun as it had gift boxes, tissue paper and character pictures/piñatas. Each seating had a gift bag full of goodies with charger, desert plate, napkin and cup.

The dessert table was the center attraction to the whole party! A personalized backdrop of the birthday girl was added as delicious fun treats were being displayed. Carmel apples, personalized cookies, rice crispy treats, cupcakes, cake pops, strawberries and a beautiful cake were ready to be served. Die cut character images were placed around the table with a few accent balloon columns. It was so pretty, most guests didn’t want to touch it.

Guests got to experience so many fun activities! A DJ was playing top hits the entire party. Kids were able to enjoy the bounce house, face painter, basketball and celebrity guests of Paw Patrol’s finest: Skye, Everest and Chase. As if that wasn’t enough, kids were able to get more of a “sugar high” on the cotton candy and popcorn being served. Adults and kids were enjoying the party dancing the afternoon away.

For a first birthday it was, over the top. It was a fun celebration of the sweet, little birthday girl. As a planner, it was so exhilarating to watch all of my hard work come to life. Of course lessons were learned such as venue options, vendor rentals and decoration expenses. When planning of course you prepare to have the “perfect” event BUT plans change. It’s okay for them to change. I have learned to have a backup plan for all circumstances. An emergency kit is brought with me for ALL events; bandaids being one of the many items. For example at the event, a bubble machine was rented as kids were able to pop bubbles while dancing. A mat was laid so the bubbles would catch on the mat instead of the hardwood floors. In the aftermath, kids were sliding all over the hard wood floors from the soapy bubbles causing a falling hazard. Needless to say I am NOT a fan of a bubble machine unless it is going to be for an outside event.

Being a first event for One Fat Dove, I would have been terrified if the birthday party went 100% perfect. There were lessons needed to be learned. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill a successful event as a business but to complete a chapter for the client. When the event was over, honestly I was relieved. The doubt and anxiety I once had disappeared. I felt I had accomplished something BIG! There was this enormous, BRIGHT ray of light shinning and it was a feeling of being hopeful. One Fat Dove has so many more lessons needing to be taught. There will be obstacles of anxiety but always learning to enjoy the sweet little things!

Love you bushels,

ONE FAT DOVE

Holy buckets ya’ll, pumpkin season is officially here. I am talkin’ pumpkin candles, pumpkin pillows, glitter pumpkin, suede pumpkin, ANYTHING pumpkin! It has blown up and hit the Waara House hold. There are even more pumpkins coming next week from Amazon and Bath & Body Works. EEEKK! I can hardly contain my excitement. Below are pictures from this years home décor. Of course, I had to keep my fat dove!

It is finally freakin’ fall meanin’ pumpkin spice lattes for days, sweaters, football and most importantly event season! Since starting the website and creating One Fat Dove Events in May of 2018, I have been so blessed to work with some amazing clients. From graduation, to birthdays, gender reveals, baby showers and weddings it has been so fun to capture the “sweet little things.”

But boy, I have learned some important lessons from starting this business. NUMERO UNO: There is NOT enough hours in the day. Like for real! Answering emails all day, to working on timelines, to ordering event supplies, creating social media content and  partaking in a part-time job. TIME FLIES BY! Coffee, my husband, puppy therapy and Jesus help me out on most days. LESSON NUMBER TWO: There is ALWAYS room for improvements. Each event is planned to have a goal of absolute perfection. There are hours spent planning the little meticulous details of what to place there and when to take pictures here. A lot of improvements come from setup and breakdown, its a lesson that comes from gaining more experience. THIRD AND FINAL LESSON: HAVE FUN… DUH! Ya’ll I love what I do. It is the best feeling in the world to make small ideas come to life in a grand, special occasion. There are times that I feel like the Fairy Godmother of events. However, there are times when the “Other Katie” takes over. I am talking about full force, eye on the prize, getting sh*t done type of Katie. I will be honest, its hard starting a business from scratch. You learn as you go and I have learned that its okay to not take everything so seriously. Life is a party, start spreading the love by tossing the confetti!

BABY JENKINS

REVEAL…

So let me start off by saying, I promise to make more of a diligent effort to do more blog posts. I do really love talking about all things going on in my life. The goal I have in mind for the blog is to give ya’ll a little realism of myself but still talk behind the scenes on the events being coordinated.

 So with that being said, I have finally come around to start on the post of Baby J’s Gender Reveal! I know I had a “teaser” back in August talking about how I would do a blog on my social media pages but again from LESSON NUMERO UNO, there hasn’t been enough hours in the day. For the gender reveal, the parents of Baby J gave me full creativity, plus I got to have the event in my own home! With the first big event in the Waara House, I kept with the basic colors of pink, blue, gold and GLITTER. Below is a picture of the invitations sent to guests. 

Ya’ll lets be real, any event that I do is probably going to have glitter in some way… Just sayin’! Invitation address and phone number were edited out. 

When doing a gender reveal, keep things fun! The parents and guests are excited to know what the new family/ friend is going to be. Have drinks available, food hot and to bring on the entertainment. Also always expect to have guests arrive sooner than expected. I will be honest, a lot of the food I had prepared wasn’t ready by the time guests started arriving make me a nervous wreck. However, I turned up the music with cold refreshments and people didn’t care. People were starting to mingle and loving on the soon to be parents.

FUN TRICK: When serving Prosecco at an event, flavor it with candy. The original plan was to have cotton candy in the champagne flutes because its one of the “Mommy-to-be’s” favorite sweets. However, I had the worst time trying to find cotton candy; so PLAN B was to use Jolly Ranchers. Using the flavors blue raspberry and watermelon made the prosecco taste AH-MAZING! 

For the decorations, it looks like there was a lot bought. But in truth, there wasn’t much to it. Simple things of having tulle, lights, backdrop and little things I already had around the house, made it fairly inexpensive. Its learning to work with the few things you have in the event space.

The gender reveal was a HUGE success! There was about 50 guests who arrived to celebrate the new baby girl, Bristol.

To the Mommy and Daddy: Auntie Kate is so excited to spoil your little bundle of joy. I am forever grateful for the years of friendship. Just a little reminder, remember to cherish all the small things. Don’t let people discourage you from doing what you think is best. Make your own choices to do what is best for your family. Above all things, keep Christ within your family and in your marriage.

Psalms 46:5 “God is within her she will not fall, he will be with her when the morning dawns.”

Love you bushels,

ONE FAT DOVE

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

“For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 

The eternal light, the light shining in the darkness. The light firing my soul. It is this light that inspires me to grow as a Christian, as a wife and even as a daughter. The fire inspiring me comes from a lady named

Katie Mae.

I will be honest, this is the hardest blog to write. I have tried writing many times in my head and nothing seemed to fit. This lady was more than wonderful, she was one of my best friends and not to mention my great-grandmother. As I am typing, tears are running down my face. By no means am I trying to make this an emotional post. The goal is to show you my inspiration and why One Fat Dove is what it is.

From her, I learned to love the sweet little things.

If you can envision the perfect southern belle, she would be it. A good Christian lady who was stubborn in her ways. Church followers would obsess over the new outfit she put together. Lipstick on check and Obsession perfume spritzed. She would sing church choir, often volunteer at nursing homes or teach bible study. When not at church, she would come home to the love of her life, Frank.

Listening to stories of Frank and Katie Mae, made me learn the true meaning of having a soul mate.  They were a couple who loved with their whole heart. Their life wasn’t a fairy tale with extravagant things. They had each other. A house was made into a home where they grew a family to have for generations. This is what I would love to have as my husband, Shawn and I try to grow our family. This is our light.

Katie Mae was with me for 24 years. She witnessed my happy moments and she was there for my sad. She often let me cry in her lap or let me help knit her newest creation.  For 15 years, she lived with my family and I; honestly couldn’t have imagined it any other way. I could always count on her to have Extra Peppermint gum stashed in her designer purse. The night before Thanksgiving will always be remembered as an exciting time. Katie would prep her famous yeast rolls that no one can replicate. After school, we would talk about our day having meaningful conversations with some inappropriate moments. The memories I have with her are so strong and will forever carry with me.

My childhood will be remembered going to her house. She would take my brother, mom and I to Reid’s Orchard as we would pick strawberries. We would roam through the greenhouse and plant the most beautiful flowers. Katie would give my brother and I animal feed to feed the goats. As she watched, she would buy peaches and candy. After each visit, there would be a pit stop to Frank’s grave. A new flower arrangement would be in hand as she would look and say, “Look who came to see you Frank.”

Simple but forever remembered.

To my pretty lady: Katie, I will forever carry you in my heart. I promise to carry your joy through One Fat Dove as it is inspiring me to grow.  The little things in my life, have become the greatest blessings. It is what drives me to do better everyday. I will carry your name to help me follow with my heart and lead by grace. These moments I will forever cherish with your eternal light.

Love you bushels,

ONE FAT DOVE