|| Colour Schemes ||

Photography will always be my first art love but design comes in close second. I have random designs of logos, fonts, christmas cards, senior and baby announcements and so much more stored on my hard drives and computer. I love it. It's something I do when I am bored or when I'm stressed. Which means lately there has been a lot of random designing going on. So I thought I would share with you something I have loved doing lately... making colour schemes! I think I will make this a monthly thing.{?} Here are October's colour schemes! Feel free to pin these and use them for your design or decor benefit!

OCTOBER COLOUR SCHEMES

fall

 mason jar pink

holt wedding

bright and tight

|| Thanksgiving Dinner ||

Well peeps I did the dang thing. I cooked up the dinner and it was pretty good, if I do say so myself. Maybe ask Brett sometime when I'm not around to get a truthful, unbiased answer. I thought it would be a lot of work but I actually really enjoyed it. Not everything turned out the greatest... {my sweet potato casserole was a little on the "soupy" side} But overall I am proud that I took a chance and made something. For those of you who knew of my cooking skills pre-marriage, or lack there of, you would have been impressed. Mostly I am speaking to Annie, Amber, Megan, and my family! Anna if you are reading things just know that I took your for granted the year you were "my wife" and I am sorry. All those meals you made me, the treats you baked, I didn't say thank you enough. I hope this helps! Also to my own mother and to my mother in law, you guys are rock stars for always making such great meals like this! You make it seem effortless and I now realize it is not. Thank you both!

Anyway back to my meal. I made mashed potatoes with chicken gravy {shout out to my mother in law Robyn for getting me such yummy gluten free gravy!!}, sweet potato casserole with brown sugar pecan topping, and green bean casserole. Also if you are living near us and are craving any of these foods please stop by or we will have leftovers for eternity. I have a problem with making way to much food. I even half the recipe most of the time. Any tips for solving this problem?

I was grateful that Brett was able to take a quick break from the books to share this meal with me. We each took a turn saying what we were grateful for and it was just a nice little dinner. I am so glad we did it! I am sure this will be the first of many thanksgiving dinners away from family so I am sure glad I get to spend them with the best husband in the world.

Well here are a few more pics of our quiet little thanksgiving feast complete with recipes.

Oh you might be wondering why I didn't include the chicken you see in the "things I made" sentence above... well because I got that bad boy from wally world. We are poor students after all. A full blown turkey just wasn't in our budget. It was delicious and the best part was it was made already!

I really hope everyone had a great thanksgiving complete with loved ones and good food!

|| thankful ||

Happy Thanksgiving! I love this holiday for it's obvious reasons, being: great food, family time, no work/school, and more great food. This year is a little different since we are separated from our family and friends and living in a country that doesn't celebrate this holiday for another month. The one thing we will be having today? Great food. Well I hope it turns out great. I am making a mini thanksgiving dinner for Brett and I tonight {thank you pinterest}. We were both feeling down yesterday after seeing our families post-thanksgiving dinner instgrams and hearing about all the fun they were having so I decided we weren't going to totally miss out. Wish me luck.

I also find it makes me happier when I take the time to think about all the many blessing that my father in heaven has given me. I am sometimes overwhelmed with all that I have been given and wonder how I am deserving of such amazing things. I am a very grateful and happy girl this thanksgiving.


I just wanted to take the time to share a few of the things that I am truly grateful for this thanksgiving

my husband {first year getting to use that one}

being a member of the LDS church

my family

my new holt/gibb family

mitch's safe return

a temple marriage

my health

my little home

grandparents

my eternal perspective 

brett being in dental school

my ward family

my friends both old and new

FaceTime {and technology in general}

my photography career

the generosity of others

the power of fasting, prayer, and tithe paying

date night

airplanes 

being a canadian citizen 

|| My Cousin Sarah ||

I love this little family so much! For my family who follows this blog go check out all of their photos on my photography blog! 

 

|| Maxwell Girls in Arizona ||

This weekend was:

-shopping

-laughing

-girl talking

-tanning

-eating

-conference watching

-no sleeping

-bonding

-pampering

-shopping

So needless to say I have such a great weekend! How lucky am I that all my Maxwell girls decided to come vacation just a short drive from me? I don't think if they went anywhere I would have had to fly to that we could have afforded it so this was such a blessing. I had the best time with these ladies! I have been blessed to grow up knowing and being extremely close with all my aunts, uncles, grandparents, and especially my cousins. Family is so important to both Brett and I and that is the main reason we want to end up back in Southern Alberta someday. 

The weekend started out with me picking up Morgan at the airport! We spent the day chatting, going for lunch with Brett, chatting some more, hitting the pool and tanning! I loved getting to spend some one on one time with this girl. We don't see enough of each other since we live so far apart now! It was so much fun catching up! 

Later we went back to the airport and picked up the California Maxwells (aka Aunt Jeanne, Mackenzie, Carly) and then headed to meet up with everyone in Gilbert. We spend the rest of the night just hanging out with everyone and getting groceries! 

The next few days were filled with a LOT of shopping and eating and laughing! I also loved getting to spend some time with my bff, my mom! She spoils me rotten and we always laugh until our tummies hurt because she thinks all my jokes are funny and it's the best! 

I had such a great time and I was so sad to see them all leave :( COME BACK SOON!

All 14 ladies and their first round of shopping bags! 

Doing some damage at Forever 21

Me and my momma's nails all done up fancy!

Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory!

A bunch of gorgeous goofballs!

Love this mom of mine so much!

|| our wedding part 1 : the details ||

I have wanted to blog about our wedding day for quite some time now but I just felt like it was such a big task. My solution? Do it in parts. Today is wedding instalment number one {The Details}. So here we go!

I owe the details of my wedding to two amazing women. My mom and Barb McMurray. Without them my wedding would have been completely pathetic. Between working my 2 jobs and travelling back a forth from Arizona I had no time or desire to plan a wedding. Don't get me wrong I knew what I wanted, I had known since I was a little girl. I am after all a wedding photographer. I just didn't want to put the effort into finding everything and making a million decisions... I know I sound really lazy but honestly all I wanted to do was get married and stop the long distance. Brett and I talked multiple times about eloping but obviously decided against that haha Thankfully I have the greatest mom known to man. My mom spent countless hours researching things on the internet and making choices for me. I totally trust her. She has really good taste. I trust her to buy me an outfit or house decor because she knows my style and she has a good sense of style herself! I had made a pinterest board and so she went off of that a lot and asked me questions along the way.

We were getting a little panicky when things weren't falling together quite right so we eventually called in the big guns. I cannot say enough thank yous and nice things about my wedding planner Barb! She rocked it. Every idea I had she made better and ever idea she had was spot on to my wedding theme. She came up with the best ideas and I love her for it. It all turned out so nice! I loved everything and wouldn't have changed it at all!

Okay well actually there was one thing... The one thing that was a little sad for me was that I always said I wanted an outdoor wedding. I was completely set on it! I was not having my reception in a church. So when I realized I was getting married in February, the middle of a Canadian winter, I knew my dream was not going to become reality. I was pretty bummed but looking back I am happy at the way everything turned out!

I just want to say thank you again to Barb and my mom and also a big thank you to all those who came and helped set up for two days! Both mine and Brett's family and friends were all so awesome and came and decorated for two days and were so willing to help in anyway they could! I also need to thank the wonderful ladies who lent us decor from their own homes, the ladies who made the food served at the reception, and the ladies who helped in the kitchen at the reception. My last thank you is to Brett. Thank you for letting me create the wedding of my dreams. Thank you for being so supportive of every choice I made. Thank you for shopping at Hobby Lobby twice for flowers and never complaining. I love you! You are all amazing! I sure do love all the wonderful people in my life!

If you have any questions about the details of my wedding feel free to shoot me an email at meghaneholt@gmail.com! I would be happy to do my best to answer them.

flowers: hobby lobby

greenery & lambs ear: micheals

boquets and corsages: lisa maxwell {yes that's right, my momma made them all}

wedding planner {decor}: barb mcmurray

photographer: alixann loosle

wedding cake: crazy cakes

cupcakes: michelle wocknitz