Best Weekend Ever

John Mayer says that a "little bit of summer makes a lot of history." This past weekend Ben and I had the kind of summer fun that everyone chases from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Being the hardcore music aficionados we are, ours included live music instead of a beach. On Friday night we went to the Bangor Waterfront to see Los Lobos and Tedeschi Trucks Band. On Saturday we made our way south to Fenway Park to see Dead and Company.  One of our first dates in 2007 was to go see Phil Lesh in Connecticut so to see John Mayer play with Bob Weir and the gang was like we had come full circle. There was something really special about seeing them at Fenway (I had never been there before) and so close to the wedding. It felt like our wedding kickoff weekend.

The shows were amazing and I brought the camera that Ben got me for my 29th birthday when we went to Atlanta to visit Amy (our matron of awesome) and Matt and see Mayer play in the place where he really got started. When I went to upload the images from our weekend I saw I had taken 778 photos over two days. #GodBlessDigitalPhotography. The images included here are all raw as I haven't had the time to go through and give them the super fancy treatment but they were my favorite shots from the shows and I wanted to include them.

As I sat watching the Dead show from an awesome seat in Fenway Park, my mind wandered back to a letter I wrote to myself when I was 13. As a girl, I had a hard time focusing on anything but the future. My small town always felt to small to hold my big dreams and one day, I vowed, I would be a grown woman full of happiness, freedom, intelligence, and would have a very cute boy completely devoted to me because he saw all of the things that made me, Me and recognized that those things made him unable to live without my force in his life.

I was a dramatic kid and somewhat lonely so I spent a lot of my alone time thinking about the woman I would be. Most of this time was daydreaming but when I needed something tangible I would write and one afternoon 13-year-old Katie wrote a letter to 23-year-old Katie swearing not to open it until the decade had fulfilled or dashed its contents. I'm very proud to say that I did not open that letter but by the time I had permission to open and read it, I had misplaced it and to this day have never found it.

I assumed that I would be the woman I wanted to be by age 23 (because when you're 13, 10 years feels like forever and surely enough time to accomplish all of  your dreams). This made an irrationally large impact on me. When I did turn 23 I struggled with the idea that I wasn't the woman I dreamed about. I felt like my life had stalled and that I was floundering. I still dreamed of a happiness I still wasn't old enough to really understand yet and I was still naive enough to think that I was a failure for not accomplishing all the things I had set out to. I relived all this in my head watching the show that night and realized that if metaphysics would have allowed it, I would have sent my 13-year-old self a picture of our life that very night. The way I felt with Ben beside me and John Mayer and Bob Weir on stage was what I dreamed of all those years ago. I no longer felt like a failure. I felt like I had finally "made it." Cool job. Awesome Husband-to-be. Great taste in music. And, maybe most importantly, a healthy self-image of my body and soul that made me content. My heart bloomed with happiness and I had an overwhelming feeling of being right where I was supposed to be. I felt a direct connection with all the years of myself and could see how all of it lead me to where I am.

On the way home I thought about how I've never daydreamed about how I would age after I had made myself the woman I dreamed of being. I feel like I am shedding a skin that I get to replace by "Hanging Luce." The slate is clean from here on and with all the things I know now, I feel pretty unstoppable.

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
23 DAYS until the wedding!

The Mother-in-Law

The last couple of weeks I have taken a break from wedding planning. We are exactly one month out and I have the major details taken care of so now everything that is left I can take my time with and I want to incorporate some sentimental elements. I am looking forward to posting all about the completed dress in a couple of weeks but before that I want to formally introduce my co-designer, seamstress extraordinaire, and Mother-in-Law-to-be.

I'll never forget the day I met her. It was a cool fall evening and I traveled to Bigelow Hill for the very first time. I had come from my father's house and I got lost because it is pretty easy to miss the turn so Ben came out to fetch me and I followed him all the way up to the little stone house that his mother and father had built by hand. I didn't know much about his Mom then but when he opened the door to his childhood home I saw his Mom nestled behind the counter. She had a big smile on her face and welcomed me into their home. I was new and there was no way to tell how serious our relationship would get but she told me to make myself comfortable and they were happy to have me there.

As the years went along Nancy and I have grown closer and I can confidently say that she and I are friends. Outside of my relationship with her son we have connected on so many levels and over so many things. We are a lot alike in our love of craftiness, being frugal, hard work, and Luce men. Some of my favorite memories are times we hung out with his parents and especially his Mom. Last summer we went to the Air Show in Brunswick. I'd never been but the weather was gorgeous, the planes were awesome, and when Nancy and I went out  to see what the vendors were up to we met a "Jeep Keeper" who she tried, valiantly, to convince to let us take one for a ride. He was a trooper in his ability to resist her charms but in the end he let me take her picture sitting on the front bumper (a big no no) and we made the 6 year old behind us begging his mother to touch them pretty unhappy.

She is always prepared, creative, thoughtful, and helpful. She goes out of her way to make the lives of those she loves easier and happy. My first Christmas with the Luces brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I had never spent a Christmas away from home. Ever. In 26 years of being alive I always woke up at home to have Christmas morning with my family. When Ben and I got serious we decided to alternate Christmas eves and days between our immediate families. I didn't quite know what to expect because everyone's traditions can be so different but when we gathered around the tree I felt like I belonged there. I felt like we were a family. We all passed around presents and laughed and drank coffee and totally forgot the hangovers we were all nursing (adult christmas are a whole new ball game). I never once felt like they just included me because I was Ben's girlfriend. I felt like they included me because they wouldn't have had it any other way.  Even the presents they gave me made me feel like family because they were all things that were thoughtful and were clearly meant for me and not just "things that a certain girl of this age should like."

I could go on and on thinking about sliding on the hill and adventures with Dr. McGillicuddy, playing cards, shooting off fireworks, concerts and countless other things we do together that have made so many amazing memories. None are quite as special as making my wedding dress with her though. I can't say enough how this would not have happened without her. I would have been a bride that put on a dress that was beautiful and I would have grown to love but it wouldn't have been the same. Every dollar spent on the dress we made means something in the end. This isn't a route for everyone because the experience of choosing a dress is different for every bride but for me, this was the right choice and that is 100% due to Nancy and her awesomeness.

There have been so many movies made about how terrible Mother-in-Laws can be. The scenarios are all basically the same. Boy meets girl, proposes, and introduces her to his mother and all hell breaks loose. I can't relate to those movies at all. I'm winning the mom-in-law jackpot for sure. I owe so much to Nancy for making my dress, birthing my groom and my Matron of Awesome, and opening her property up to the wedding of my dreams.  Ben's Dad certainly had a hand in most all of that and I'm grateful to him too but Nancy is the oil that makes the machine run and without her I know our lives would not be nearly as rich, happy, or full.

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
30 Days until the wedding

Phase 3: Beads of Glass, Sweat, and Blood

The last progress update I gave was when we just began to do the beading. We had a completed canvas with an attached overlay and we were ready to bedazzle this bitch. That was more than a month ago and I am so excited to say that the last leafy sequence have been placed on the dress! We have a completed wedding dress people! HAPPY DANCE!


via GIPHY


This process may have been the most grueling of all! Again, I have to disclose that I wouldn't entirely know how grueling, because Nancy did all the beading, by hand, over the past month and a half. At the beginning of the Beading Phase we met at her house and I had drawn out the general idea of how I hoped the vines would lay out. I LOVED this drawing and I was so excited to have come up with something I was so proud of. I also spent several nights stringing glass tube beads onto strands so all we would have to do is lay them out and attach them. Easy peasy! Right?! Yeah.. we know how it goes when I think something is easy...

 Upon laying out the strands I soon realize that they don't really keep the curvy shape that my drawing so beautifully depicted. I taped on each strand only to have to tape and retape and with each adjustment I became more and more worried that I really was an insane bride whose ideas are brilliant but completely and utterly impractical.

Nancy clearly saw every panicked expression and bead of frustration drip down my face because she said "Why don't you take a break and I'll give it a shot." I gave her the reigns and the next time I saw the dress every trace of panic evaporated because it was exactly what I had in my head that I tried to convey in my drawing. She is absolutely incredible! She saved me that day from having the complete meltdown that I vowed to myself I would not have under any circumstances.

My whole problem was that I had no faith and too much vision. I was too close to the tree to remember there was a forest around me. She pulled me back, gave me a powerful talk on "Just Winging It" and got down to business. How lucky am I to have her in my life, on my side, and as my seamstress? Luckier than words can ever describe. She has made this whole process so easy on me and made me feel amazing every step of the way. I owe her more than I could ever realistically repay but I promise that I will always treat her son with the same unconditional love, kindness, patience and respect that she has shown me through this process. I will spend a lifetime doing everything I can to make her proud to call me her daughter-in-law. Even then, I'll still be in her debt because I am so so so in love with this dress... and her son... and neither would have happened without her.

 In the end, there were more beads than just the glass ones that make up the vines in the design. We both pricked ourselves and bled all over the dress (one word: OXYCLEAN!) and the beads of sweat that ran down our faces round out the holy trinity of dress making woes. The final product makes my heart sing and I can't wait to put it on and become a Luce.

On July 30th I'm having a "Dress Reveal Party" to introduce the dress in all its glory to close family and friends before unveiling it here on the blog. The ladies that attended my Bridal Shower already got a sneak peak but the dress wasn't entirely complete then so I'm looking forward to the official reveal. I really feel like this is a work of art and can't wait to share it with everyone up close.

In the coming weeks I'll be adding more posts to the actual "How To" series and I hope to have Nancy be a guest blogger and describe the experience in her own words so you know just how full of crap I am with my bright sunshiny attitude.

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
37 Days until the wedding

It's a Barbie... It's a Princess... It's BRIDEGIRL

My last post was in the middle of May. Since then I've been busier than I think I ever have been. My house hasn't had a good scrub in a couple of weeks and I feel like the Exorcist because my head has been spinning... luckily without the projectile green vomit.

In the weeks that I have not been writing I've been spending some time with my Grandmother. She met my Grandfather at 15 and by 16 they were married. They were married for more than 50 years and over the past couple of months I've gotten to hear so many new stories about their marriage that never came up when they had each other to live with and love with every single day. I have this romantic (albeit naive) idea that they spent that time focused on each other and on life and didn't spend much time focusing on the details of how it all got started. I'd trade every story to have him back with us and I think her telling me the stories are her way of trying to make that trade too.

At the beginning of May my own focus shifted away from planning a wedding and daydreaming about a future with my husband-to-be and turned back to my family that's going through a difficult time as my Uncle was hospitalized and has passed away unexpectedly. We are actually getting married on my uncle's birthday and that feels like a small way to have him there with us. It has been a rough go of it. Healing requires having something to look forward to and now more than ever I want to throw a wedding that our family can look forward to and just cut loose for a while. My cousin will be giving birth in October and I think these two events help to keep us all going when its harder than usual to do so. I wish she could be here for the day but Alaska is pretty far away even before you add a baby belly to the picture.

All the while, Nancy continued to work on the dress and made so much progress! The dress will be completed this week.  On Sunday my Mom, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law threw me a gorgeous bridal shower. It was a great day and I gave everyone who attended a sneak peak of the dress and the reactions made me feel like a fairy tale princess. It is all coming together and I can't wait to do a blog reveal soon!

At my shower I was given the most beautiful gift that I also can't wait to share in a future post. The mother and grandmother of our (human) ring bearer, Silas, teamed up to create beautiful bouquets for Amy and me, as well as one to toss at the reception, and amazingly gorgeous corsages for our moms and grandmothers. They were able to give them to me at the shower because they are all made of incredibly lifelike permanent botanicals so that we can keep them forever. My friend Kristen always made fun of my love of "fake" flowers in decorating the apartments we shared but I think even she will find these flowers breath taking.

I am so grateful to have so many people helping us make this day a living dream. It is coming up so fast and I'm trying to savor every single moment. Planning has been fun and I don't feel like I've been stressed by this wedding at all. I hope that is a good sign the marriage will be just as easy... :)

From now until the wedding I will be writing and sharing a bunch of elements I'm working on. I want to look back at this blog and be able to have an account of making the dress but also of how the rest of the plans came together. I'll be sharing LOTS of photos from here on out.

The next few weeks will be challenging and go by fast but I think they will still be fun as long as we stick to our motto: If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong. One way to keep myself having fun is to continue to be the silly girl that I've always been. In trying on my undergarments for my dress I realized that Wonderwoman would eat her heart out if she saw me because it is nothing short of a superhero's dream costume. From here on out I'm going to start thinking of this like I have an inner wedding planning superhero on my side. Her name is BRIDEGIRL. In response to any dillema my mantra can be "What would Bridegirl do?!" When she isn't answering my questions I romantically visualize that she is fighting my inner Bridezilla that we all have somewhere inside of us. Its going to be an epic battle and I hope you'll join me.

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
44 Days until the WEDDING

Stitch Witchery and Glitter Farts

I got engaged last June and even before that knew I wanted to make my dress with the help of my Mother-in-Law to be, Nancy. I knew it wouldn't be easy but I was confident we could handle it and that the end result would be worth any strife.

What I did not anticipate was the role I was asking Nancy to play. When we started I sort of thought that we would connect once per week and work on each step together, with me taking on the bulk of the work and her there to guide me and bail me out of any jams I found myself in. That's not really how it has turned out. Instead Nancy has taken the lead and tackled the bulk of the whole project. She had time in the evenings with the project staring her in the face and really went to town getting the dress to the point where we are ready to bead.

Because of this, I was somewhat sheltered from the jams and problems that arose along the way. She kept me in the loop and we discussed everything but I've been so impressed with the way that she has been able to navigate the finer points of how making a wedding dress is a pain in the ass. There! I finally said it. I've been all sunshine and roses and keeping a positive spin on this but the truth is that this has not been easy and I have been lucky as hell to have Nancy in my corner because she is a sewing BOSS.

Things progressed really well until we got to the overlay. As you may have noticed, that was what my last couple of posts mentioned and then CRICKETS! This is partly because my life has been extra crazy the past couple of months but it is also the result of the overlay giving us some serious attitude. This is entirely my fault as the dress I "designed" had an overlay that was different than the pattern we are using. In order for the overlay to lack the bottom seam as I desired there was some magic that had to happen and some modifications needed to be made. Up until this point, if you could master your pattern, I am confident anyone with enough drive, patience, and tenacity could make their own wedding dress. After this overlay excursion I am confident it can still be done but I do see why many (most all) modern brides choose to buy their dresses. It is really hard work though and even though I haven't been knee deep in the think of the issues, I can recognize that this has been a complicated and stress inducing project.

Do not misunderstand me though. I am ECSTATIC about the way my dress is shaping up. This dress is going to be gorgeous and it fits me like a glove. When I put it on I literally feel like I transform into a beautiful bride. I feel amazing in it. It feels secure and like it holds in all the parts that I am self conscious about and it just radiates beauty back at me. This is easy for me to say having been pampered by Nancy but I am absolutely sure this was the right and best option for me.  I want this blog to be an accurate account of how the dress developed through the process so I don't feel right not discussing the problems we (mostly Nancy) have faced.

So let's talk about the problems. When you don't have a pattern for what you need you have to make a pattern. To make the new pattern for my overlay we taped the two top pieces to their corresponding bottom pieces and cut out the fabric from that so there wasn't a seam. This sounds relatively simple right? Wrong. Patterns are already so flimsy that taping it together makes it much bigger and somewhat more difficult to work with. This is compounded by the fact that patterns are flat and girls... well this girl... is anything but flat. This is an issue that you can work through pretty easily but it isn't the most fun part of the project.

After that we had to cut the material out of our new pattern. Also sounds pretty simple right? Wrong again. I wanted to incorporate pieces from my Mother's dress into mine and Nancy and I both thought that using her overlay to make my overlay would work perfectly. When we tried this though we realized that the shape of my Mother's overlay is totally different than mine and that a one for one exchange was just not an option. It took more magic and farting glitter to make it work and in the end Nancy NAILED it! She was able to use my mother's overlay with piecing pieces together in a way that is completely invisible and made it happen. She worked so hard to make this part happen for me and it really came out fantastic.

After creating the overlay and fitting it to the dress we had to iron it and secure the overlay to the dress. We used some stitching for this but we also used stitch witchery. This stuff is freakin' awesome! It allows you to just iron the pieces together and the bonding glue secures it invisibly and has some substantial strength. It made putting the overlay and the under dress together much easier.

The next obstacle was creating pleats in the places on the overlay that were present on the dress we used as the model for our design. These pleats were a main part of why I chose this dress design and they were a key element in the overall look I was going for. The pattern we used called for pleats in the underdress but they were in a different place than where I intended the overlay pleats to be. This meant that we had to figure out how to cut the fabric and shape it so that we could create the new pleats for the overlay using no pattern at all. We met and discussed different ways we could do it and decided to cut the fabric at an angle so when we brought the fabric together it created the pleats absolutely perfectly.

I really tried to be realistic about this process and I really wanted to take on all the stress and work myself so that I wasn't putting it on someone else to do it for me. Sometimes things don't go as you expect though and I am so lucky and appreciative for everything Nancy has done.  She has silently shouldered so much of the stress of this project so that I have a great experience with a beautiful result. I feel so lucky that I get to marry her son and just as lucky to be getting a bonus Mom that cares enough to do so much for me to make this beautiful and special.

So as this has unfolded I've sat upon my white blogging horse and talked about how I wanted to make this a project that anyone could do with the right attitude but it hasn't been that simple and I have to be honest about that. I don't know how I would have handled the issues that Nancy has solved for me but I suspect that I would have had to start over at least once because I would have botched at least one thing that would have been so catastrophic I would have had to start over from scratch to fix it.

At this point we have the dress completed to "canvas" status. Now the beading starts and the real fun (?!) begins.

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
86 days to go

The DIY Bride: Kara's Vineyard Podcast

We officially have a dress shell and are currently pulling together some details that will be crucial before moving onto "decorating." The plan right now is to use the overlay from my Mother's wedding dress as the overlay on my dress. We have run into some complications trying to get the overlay to fit the right way but while we have been brainstorming how to solve that problem, I've been doing some other planning to keep me from being too anxious about the next steps of dress creation.

Once the overlay problem has a solution I'll write a post all about how we solved it. In the meantime I thought I would share some of the great resources I've been using for other parts of the wedding. When we first got engaged last June, all I could think about was the wedding and how excited I was to start planning. Being the Podcast Junkie that I am, I went looking for something to listen to while I walked and worked that would give me some good ideas. After scouring iTunes, I found one but it wasn't really my style. I couldn't get into it and abandoned my search. In January I felt compelled to try again and in looking for the first one I tried, I found a new one! The Wedding Planning Podcast was brand new and I checked out the first episode. It was as if the wedding fairy godmothers heard my pleas and inspired Kara to start just the podcast I was looking for. Kara Lamerato is a wedding planning professional based in the San Diego area and a big part of her focus was planning that was accessible. She stressed that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have the wedding of your dreams and that there were a lot of opportunities to do things yourself. She had me at DIY.

The entire month of March, Kara did segments related to different aspects of DIYing your wedding. She covered flowers, catering, decor and so much more. I felt like I found my DIY wedding planning soul-mate. I couldn't help but write in to tell her about this whole DIY Dress endeavor because if there was ever going to be another human being to completely understand my DIY mission, it was Kara. She read and responded to my email right away with sweet encouragement and then gave me an awesome shout out on the podcast that made my whole day. She has made me feel like I'm part of a community of brides who would rather do it themselves and on the days when you're struggling to work something out, that can make all the difference.

It wasn't until I listened to the podcast that I realized how DIY the wedding was turning out to be. So far the list of things we are DIYing includes our catering, venue prep and decorating, the dress, the decorations, the Save the Dates, the invitations, and even the music until the band arrives to take over.
Finding a resource that was objectively focused on ways to plan a beautiful, personalized wedding without overspending was amazing because sometimes I've felt a little like a cheapskate when it has come to dealing with vendors. I know so many great wedding vendors in the area that really do offer incredible experiences and service. Having come from a small part of the wedding industry myself when I worked for a jeweler, I understand that the vendors that do this for a living in my area are really great people and they are passionate and are great at what they do. My decision to do-it-myself is partly because I like that I get to hand craft this awesome celebration of our love. There are so many little details that feel like inside jokes of our life together that we get to let everyone in on for one day in August. I'm sure that I could find great vendors that would help me make this personal on a budget but I like getting my hands dirty.

I don't have it in me to pay for something I'm relatively sure I can have more fun doing myself. I really think that is the key. At first we were going to borrow the chairs we needed from a local organization that wouldn't have charged us anything. We would have had to drive out to get them and bring them back and accounting for the distance and time sacrifice and all it would demand of us on the weekend of the wedding, we decided to rent them instead and have them delivered and then picked up. The motto of this wedding is that "If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong." If I find I'm doing it wrong, I'll rent stupid chairs and I'll like it.

I finished the design of my invitations which I also asked Kara about and she gave excellent advice in keeping it simple. I ended up just creating jpeg files in photoshop and then printing them as pictures from an online printer. There are 3 layers in 3 different sizes. The invite information is on the 4x4. RSVP info is on the 4x6 and direction info is on a 4x8 that, fun fact, came with an envelope because that size is classified as a "greeting card." Boom. Wrap the 3 layers in a paper doily and tie with string. Rock and roll.

I also had an awesome girl's day with one of my Flower Maidens, Savana. We went to Bangor and found her a gorgeous dress and some snazzy sneakers that will be perfect for wrangling Brutus down the aisle. After scoring with the dress she wanted to go back and hang out with Brutus (do you see why I love this kid?) so we brought him for a walk and had an adventure at the playground complete with playing plinko off the slide with dog treats. She would be at the top dropping them down and he'd be at the bottom snatching them up. To say we had the best day ever would be an understatement.

Getting a shout out on my favorite wedding blog, getting one of the flower girl dresses purchased, and completing the invitation design has made me feel like a wedding planning rockstar this week. If there were wedding planning Oscars, I'm not saying I'd win one but I would definitely be a hot contender... I'm clearly taunting fate to throw me a spitball and I'll regret this boastful rant... but I'm going to enjoy this feeling while it lasts.

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
123 Days till the wedding

The Fitness

I have struggled with my weight from a really early age. Over the course of my life I have successfully lost a significant amount of weight several times only to gain it back. In 2013 I had climbed to my heaviest and vowed to make a change that would change my life, not just the shape of my body. I began a blog about my journey and over about two years I changed how I ate and began to make exercise an important part of my life. When we got engaged last June I was 50 pounds lighter. 

I wouldn't have done this any other way. I knew that when I was preparing for my wedding I wanted to focus on the parts I wanted to remember and not on how to lose the most weight before the big day. For the most part I have been successful in making that happen for myself. I still have about 15 pounds to lose before I hit my goal but summer is my best time for getting fit because the weather allows me to walk with Brutus which gets me most motivated to exercise. When the days are long we walk about 5 miles every day. It is so therapeutic and has added so much value to my life. It helps me focus on what is important.

That being said, when the days are short and I can't walk with Brutus after work, my progress falls off the map. I like to think I'm a morning person because I thought my life would include being the host of a morning radio show but since it has taken another turn I am finally admitting to myself that mornings are not all that attractive to me. The idea of them is but in practice it is so hard for me to pull myself out of bed super early to go exercise. One thing I learned about weight loss and maintenance is that you have to have an option that you actually like to do otherwise it is a chore and you're bound to fail. This winter has killed my momentum and now that the days are longer I am so excited to get back to walking.

I am starting this Spring at 170lbs... 5 pounds heavier than when I began this winter and that's not all that bad at all. By the time the wedding comes I anticipate that I will be at about 155, my original goal when I began my weight loss 3 years ago.

losing the 15pounds isn't really my goal though. I'm moving on from the number on the scale and paying attention to toning myself up. I don't care what I actually weigh on my wedding day but I do know that I want to make my arms stronger. I want to tone my stomach and build some muscle all over my body. Walking really helps me build that in my lower half so I plan to spend more time on my upper body to achieve similar results.

This wedding is about having fun and having a day with our family and friends that we remember for a lifetime. I am so excited about the photographer that will be documenting our day. He's incredible and I'll have a whole blog post all about him and his work but I am so looking forward to spending two hours with him, just Ben and me. We had a blast on our engagement shoot and I love the pictures so much. I spend so much time behind a camera that I almost never spend time in front of it but this will be the one day that I will be thrilled to be the subject and I really want to be fit. Partly this is vain because I want to look gorgeous but it is also about how I feel. I want to feel healthy and fit on my wedding day. I feel like my wedding day is the start of my new life as a new woman. I know it is symbolic and that the day after we are married we are still just the happy couple we are now but it feels like a big milestone and I want my fitness to be a part of that.

I feel like all my romantic teenage dreams are coming true and back then all I wanted was to be skinny and have the boys take notice. Today I have more than a boy, I have an amazing man who is everything I dreamed about. I don't just want to be skinny anymore, I want to be fit. I want fitness to be a part of who I am for every day of my life as a Luce. That is what is going to motivate me and make me feel like exercising isn't to make me skinny. It is to make me happy.

<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
149 Days to go