I feel like I am always apologizing about my inability to stick to my blog calendar. And I hate giving excuses (because let’s be honest, I am still keeping up on Twitter AND watching some quality TV), but things are just insane at the moment. I wanted to share a little life update just to let you all know why the blog hasn’t been what it used to be, and make a renewed promise to you (and myself!) to be better about it. But I think I also need to make a pact here to just stop apologizing, and instead, reset the expectations for the blog.

So first, why life has been insane. Well for starters I did what I always say I shouldn’t do: back to back to back weekends of weddings. With my day job, I’ve officially worked 20 of the last 23 days of this month. 3 days “off” to enjoy my family, catch up on some sleep, and catch up on some OTHER things happening in my life, well it’s just not enough! I am TIRED!

Second, you probably saw on social media, but if not, Andy & I are selling our rowhome! After a few weeks of cleaning, de-cluterring, and staging, we put our home on the market and were thankful to receive a handful of offers – one of which we accepted. We close in a few weeks – so we’ve been busy trying to de-clutter more, and start to PACK. We close in a few more weeks (just after celebrating the big 3-2 & memorial day) and then we enter a super fun time of living in the words tiniest 2-bedroom apartment. I’m not sure this has hit me yet – that we are officially leaving our first real home together and where we started our family.

On top of selling our house and moving into a temporary living situation – we are renovating the home in Brookland that we’ve been renting out for the past 3 years. This is exciting (and ok, somewhat fun – interior design! woo hoo!), but it’s also TIME CONSUMING! There are SO many decisions to make, that I didn’t realize we would have to make (picking the location of outlets, picking out cabinet pulls and towel racks, etc etc), but fortunately Andy has been owning most of this work, like a boss. I just try to keep us on our budget ;) We’ve been having fun on our Brookland Dream Home Pinterest board and are SUPER thankful to have Jenn Heller Design Co working with us on consulting. Lots of Instagram updates coming soon on that front!

On top of selling a home, moving into a rental, and starting a major home renovation – the wedding coordination business is BOOMING. We have a few remaining slots for 2017, but we’ve collectively booked 35 weddings this year – our best year yet). Lately we’ve been in process of getting Amanda (our newest coordinator!) on-boarded and I already feel behind on 2018, as those inquiries are just starting. 2018 pricing is on the website and I am trying to get our 2018 contracts in place – AND I am trying to get a new workflow & contracts management system setup for 2018 too – but man I am struggling to get that running. I am leaning towards 17hats if anyone has any input there. Their tagline is: chaos. simplified. That sounds exactly like what I need right now ;)

Along with prepping for 2018 wedding season, I have BIG PLANS underway for the blog & my brand in general. I am starting the early work of moving to a brand new wordpress template, with some updates to our logo. I have a goal for myself to finish this by the end of this year and I really hope I can stick to this. We’ve got Stacy Kleber Design on board starting our wireframes & site mock-ups and we’ve got BIG DREAMS about how this is all going to launch, including a new brand video to better outline the services CapRo LLC provides. More to come here too … it’s been over two years since the blog has gotten any love, and it’s way over-due for a site update and a look at how I can better align my brand across the multiple services we provide (blog. coordination. store).

Finally, I have a lot more plans for the end of this year and early next year to tackle with the ecommerce shop, email marketing, and monetizing other facets of the business. I hope the new site and streamlined branding will be the start, and I hope with having the renovation and moves behind me on the personal side, that it will set me up for an awesome 2018 … I guess we will just have to wait and see :) but for now, at least you have an update and a little more insight into why the blog has been riding the struggle bus lately. As always, I appreciate all of you that are still riding this journey with me!

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Images: An Endless Pursuit

I’m hurting Romancers. This weekend concluded my 3 weekends in a row of wedding craziness, and man it hurt more than I thought it would. Not to say I regret it (I loved each one) but having only 3 days off in the past 21 days is a little insane, especially for my (almost) 32 year old bod. I just don’t bounce back like I used too! I know I owe you an update on SO MANY things – there is SO much going on over here, I promise I’ll post one soon, but for now let’s attempt to stay motivated together, with this beautiful Capitol Hill engagement session from An Endless Pursuit.

Lindsay and Mark met in college at the University of Wisconsin while volunteering during the 2008 election cycle, but they lost touch after election day. They reconnected three years later after they had both moved to Washington and joined the DC Badgers community. Lindsay and Mark started meeting at the Badger bar for football games and eventually started dating. During their five years together, Lincoln became one of their favorite date spots – they celebrated birthdays, Valentines Days, and going away parties there.

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Images & Tutorial: Jenn Heller Design Co

Our DIY maven is back today, bringing us the awesome with this DIY copper pipe table number tutorial. And wait, there’s more! This is just the beginning of her DIY copper pipe series – so get excited people! Take it away Jenn!

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DIY Tutorial: How to Make DIY Copper Pipe Table Numbers

I had avoided copper pipe as a DIY material for years, for several reasons that all ended up being completely false**.  So now I am making up for lost time, and I have a bunch of fun copper pipe DIYs to share in the coming months.

First up are these fun table numbers! There’s a dozen ways to personalize these to your liking – with the table number card itself, or dip or spray the copper pipe to add an accent color.  You could easily make a larger version and drape with greenery to show off your signature cocktail menu, signs, or even extra large as a seating chart!

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The wedding day high is a real thing – and so is the post-wedding day low. Now because you’re upset you’re married (that’s an AWESOME feeling), it’s because you’re exhausted and realizing you will never get to have that amazing, special, one-of-a-kind day again! So our girl Kelsey is back today to talk about how to survive the morning after your wedding.

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You just woke up in a hotel bed as a Mrs. Yeah. That happened. Yesterday. You’re exhausted and still pulling bobby pins out of your hair. Seriously, how many were in there?

My biggest piece of advice for the day after the wedding is to float. That’s right. The stress is over. It doesn’t matter what happens today because you’re married. So whether you have to wake up at 7am for a goodbye brunch or you are getting on a plane to your honeymoon, just float.

For me, I made it clear that the newlyweds would not be attending the day after brunch. And as my mom confirmed, ‘thank goodness’ we didn’t go because it was pretty much a second wedding. Everyone showed up. Except us. We slept in. #Blessed

When we did get up, it was gameface time to give some major hugs to the parents.

It was a really nice way to get back into semi-reality and remember that people don’t always hand you champagne and cake. We got the gossip and did the ‘ok now who was that?’ and the ‘can you believe she dropped it that low on the dancefloor?’. But then it was time to say goodbye.

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Images: CYork Photography

Yesterday was Mother’s Day (as I am sure anyone on social media, soon realized) and I had planned a personal post for today, but decided to share this gorgeous, same-sex maternity session instead. I love this session not only for the beautiful photography & the gorgeous couple, but for the story behind these two incredible women and their journey to motherhood. I know many people personally that are struggling to get pregnant, or have faced miscarriage, and it’s something MORE PEOPLE should be talking about (along with the struggles of being a working mom, the lack of childcare & paid leave in our country, and the reality of post-partum depression ) because keeping things like this inside is isolating and damaging. I know not everyone is keen on sharing intimate details like this, but I am thankful for those of you that are, because I KNOW there will be people reading this post today that can (or maybe will) relate and if it helps even one other reader, then I am happy this couple was brave to share their personal journey.

So my Mother’s Day reflection will wait, and instead we will celebrate today the struggle and hardship of not-yet Mothers (& parents), of almost Mothers, and of some that may never get to be Mothers. <3

From Rebecca: Azuree and I always had the goal of expanding our family. Last year, we decided it was the right time to get started since we had witnessed how long it could take, and also how waiting could make it take longer. We are so fortunate to live in DC where we have access to top notch fertility doctors, and got started in March 2016 with natural cycle IUI. When that didn’t work after two tries, we took a much needed emotional break from treatment over the summer. No one tells you how hard that part can be! After another unsuccessful try, we got some testing done and changed our treatment plan to medicated IUI. Well-that worked, x2! We found out I was pregnant on October 24th, but imagine the surprise we got when on November 8th we found out it was two instead of one!

Trying to get pregnant was much more of an emotional process than I thought it would be for us, and I think the best advice I could give to other LGBT families starting this journey is to have patience with yourself. Be kind to yourself. Take care of yourself emotionally and physically while you are doing this. It is easy to beat yourself up and go into a dark place. Don’t stay there.

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