I’ve had the honor of photographing Kindal and Adam a numerous times over the past two years. This girl has been one of my biggest cheerleaders and I know she has been rooting for me from the beginning! Kindal must have reached out to me seven or eight months ago hoping that they could squeeze in an anniversary session while they were home before departing on their anniversary moon. I was so thrilled when all of the dates lined up and we got to see these two again at the beautiful Paynes Prairie. It was a gorgeous day with some beautiful light!

In honor of their one year anniversary, I asked Kindal to pass along some advice for brides-to-be as well as recently married brides. Here were her words of wisdom:

As a future bride, enjoy your time being engaged. Plan to spend a lot of time with your friends. It is important not to loose touch with your closest friends just because you’re about to venture into married life. We ended up moving right after we got married so I had to cherish that time with my close friends too.

Plan the wedding the way you and your husband want to. Big or small, this is your day. Try not to stress over the little “if’s” and “but’s” – everything will be perfect. And at the end of the day, it is your husband, family, and closest friends that make your wedding day what it is – not the center piece that was slightly off center.

So now you’re married….whomp, whomp. I think almost every bride thinks, “Well, now what?” Adam and I really wanted to focus on each other. We want to build the strongest marriage we can before we expand the family. Having some time for us both to grow is so important. Even though we have been together for almost eight years, there is still room to grow. We both still have goals we want to attain and we can’t lose sight of that.

Now that we have settled into the marriage, I realize that nothing has really changed. We continue with life as normal. Adam goes to dental school, I go to work, except now we’re married and have rings! Living together can be an adjustment if you didn’t live together before you got married. Some days you will be madly in love, some days you’ll need your space. It is all an adjustment, and that’s okay.

Adam and I planned an Anniversary Moon because we wanted a stress free vacation where we disconnected from our daily lives. No cell phones. No internet. No emails. No social media. We had the chance to refocus on our relationship and fall in love all over again. Even just a few days of just enjoying our one year of marriage and reflecting on just the two of us was a gift for our relationship.

My biggest piece of advice is to continue dating each other. Adam and I go out on a dinner date at least 1-2 times every week. I love, love, love doing this (despite the fact that it can be a little costly) because it gives us time to just focus on us and connect without distractions. We all know when we get home there will be work stress, chores, bills, television, and internet. And sometimes you just need to take some time and go back to the basics. Remember what it was like to go on those first dates and just be a little romantic. Some times life just gets in the way, and we make an effort to make sure that we tell life to hold on for a moment while we reconnect over this delicious appetizer. 🙂

So thrilled to see this session over on Knotsvilla Weddings!