courtney jade’s blog

For the past 6 years of my life I have been living in apartment after apartment. They have been nice apartments, but there’s just something so temporary feeling about them… it’s hard for me to “nest” or decorate, etc.

Well, I have been keeping this under wraps for quite some time now, but it has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to do! But I’m finally ready to spill the beans!

Mark and I just purchased our first home together!!!!!!!

I am beyond ecstatic, I can hardly express how excited I am. I didn’t want to say anything about it on the internet in fear that something may have fallen through, and then I would have to explain to everyone when they asked “so how is the house coming along?!” that something fell through and we were no longer getting it… and I would probably tear up and cry every. single. time. So to save myself from that possibility, keeping it under wraps was the best option.

But I am SO excited that I can now share it all with you!!! It was a long and stressful process, but everything ended up working out, and Mark and I could not be more thrilled.

warning- LONG post ahead!

It all started about a year ago…

For those of you who don’t know, I actually work full time in the marketing/design department for a mortgage company, so the thought and realization of the possibility and benefits to buying a home have been on the table for just over a year now. In my head, I was ready and excited to buy a year ago. However, Mark, with his ever-steady-let’s-evaluate-every-little-detail attitude (which might sound like a negative thing here, but rest assured I am SO thankful for his “realism” in situations like these) laid it all out and just wasn’t so comfortable doing so at that time. He was still car-less and taking advantage of public transit at the time, so our options for locations of homes would have been very limited. That, and the worry of taking on such a large financial commitment was a little scary… so our home-buying plans came to a halt early 2010.

This year, however, has been a really great one for Mark and I. He is steadily advancing in his company, and I have established myself at my 9-5 as well. Photography has been insanely busy this year for me, Mark was able to purchase a car in the late spring, and things have come a long way in the past year.

While I would secretly look at RMLS every day, and save my favorites, daydreaming about the time when we’d be able to start home-searching ourselves, I knew that patience and persistence would eventually pay off. I don’t know if it was the television being stuck on HGTV for months, or what, but in early September, Mark asked me- “so, what’s going on with the house search?”

“WHAT?!!?!?” I replied. “We can’t afford a house” (Ok, I was having a bad day… you know, the kind where you really didn’t want to look at your bank account, but you knew you should, so you did, and then you regretted it.. kind of… but you realize that you probably shouldn’t have went out to lunch 5 times last week, or bought that really cute dress that was on sale? yea… it was one of those days.)

I re-couped myself and thought about this again. I said “Well, have you been looking for houses? Because I thought you didn’t think it was a good time yet, and you haven’t sent me any houses to look at, so I just assumed you were still on that same page. Plus I didn’t want to pressure you if you did still feel that way.”

“Well no,” he said “but I think it’s time.”

My heart did a few back-flips… these were the words I had been waiting to hear for a year!!!

“OK! I said, well, check out these houses I have saved!” I pull up our Realtor’s website (www.portlandshortsales.com) and showed him my favorites. He liked a few, so I agreed to call our Realtor in the morning and set up a time to view some houses in the next week or so.

We ended up going the following evening (because our Realtor Alex is awesome!) and checking out a few houses. Here is where the story gets interesting…

I thought we were going to look at one house, but Alex actually took us to see the house next door to the one I thought we were looking at. “Why not?” I said, and we checked it out anyways.

We. loved. it.

One problem… the house already had an accepted offer in on it, and they weren’t accepting any back-up offers! Bummer. We tried to get into the house next door, but the key was no where to be found.. odd.. but Alex had another home to show us in the area, so we checked it out, and then called it a night. It was great to get a feel for the neighborhood, and we knew we definitely wanted to live in that community, so we just kept an eye out for new listings to pop up.

We ended up making an offer on a short sale house that was on the same block as the one we looked at. It was a beauty! But short sales are a MESS and so we weren’t expecting much to come from it. About two or three weeks after we submitted our first offer on the short sale, the home we toured (and loved) came back up on the market… the other buyer’s financing fell through!

I saw it pop up in my daily listing email and immediately emailed Alex. Mark and I talked it over, and we decided that it would be a much safer road to put an offer in on this house. This house was a bank owned (much better than a short sale!) and there was even a downpayment assistance program available for bank owned homes in this area. (They said they could do some short sales too, but come to find out it would have been a nightmare!)

So we made the decision to put in an offer on the house we toured and loved. We know that the bank already accepted a certain price, so we just went in at that price and hoped for the best! It was about 15k less than the offer we put in on the short sale house, so we were happy with that.

We heard back two days later that the bank had accepted our offer, so we withdrew our offer on the short sale, and now almost 2 months later, we have ourselves a home!!! We got the keys on Friday, and today we went out to the house to take a few photos and have the carpets professionally cleaned!! I am getting SO excited!

We plan on painting and packing this week, and moving on the 26th! Eeeee!!! I can’t wait to be in there and settled. It will cut my hour long commute down to about 10 minutes or less, which I am excited about, however Mark will get the opposite commute… so I’m thinking good thoughts for him…

Anywho, here are some photos of the new place!!

We are in love.
And we are in love with our home.

I can’t wait to show you updates as we get settled in!!! We have ordered our washer and dryer, and we just bought our refrigerator today, we can’t wait for them to show up! I can’t wait to paint, decorate, and make the place OURS. I have been waiting for a long time to do this, and yet I still feel like a very young homeowner.

We feel so excited, happy and thankful that we were able to do this.
It will be a very merry christmas for us this year.  <3

Something that has become more and more popular over the years on your wedding day is the “First Look”. While many couples prefer to see their fiance for the first time on their wedding day be at the isle, more and more couples are opting for a “First Look” instead.

There are many positives to having a “First Look”, as opposed to seeing each other for the first time at the isle:

1) Your moment is totally private.
You are bound to get emotional on your wedding day, especially when you see the person you are about to marry, looking their best. When you arrange a “First Look”, you reserve that moment, that first glance of each other, for just the two of you. You don’t have an audience (most of the time- this can depend on the couple though), and you get to have a moment to say “hello”, and tell each other how great one another looks, as well as how excited you are for this very special day.

When you see each other for the first time down the isle (which is nerve wrecking enough, as-is) you don’t get that private moment. It’s hard to talk to each other without interrupting the flow of your ceremony. Trust me, that moment of walking down the isle will still be intense, just a little less emotional…. maybe

2) You can get your formal photos done BEFORE the ceremony.
When you arrange to have a “First Look”, this means that you only have to hide from one another until this moment. Since you’ve already seen each other, it allows for time to be scheduled before the ceremony to get through all of the formal wedding party, family, and couple photos. As a photographer, this is a HUGE saving grace. Before the ceremony, people are generally happy, excited, and eager to participate. It’s a strange thing, but after the ceremony all people can think about is that they are hungry, want to party/celebrate, and give their condolences to the bride and groom- rightfully so. So you can imagine how difficult it is to get people to show up for the family photos before racing off to the reception, let alone concentrate!  Not to mention, everyone just wants to get the photos over with so they can celebrate already!

As a bride and groom, I’m sure the last thing you want to do after you tie the knot is to stand around and wait for Aunt Betty to waddle over so she can get in the photo with you. With a “First Look”, you can get this all taken care of and out of the way before-hand, so that once you say your “I do’s” there’s nothing left to worry about except having a great time!

3) Don’t worry about the tears- or the nerves!
I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding where the bride didn’t shed a tear the first time she saw her fiance standing there, all cleaned up and looking like a hunk. When you do a “First Look”, you can get those initial tears out without worrying about everyone seeing your mascara run. Have your Maid of Honor stand by with a couple of Q-tips, concealer and powder so you can freshen up before the formal photos, and before you make your debut to the isle!

You also get to let go of those pre-wedding jitters! Seeing your spouse-to-be can be soothing, and reassuring. Plus, you get to tell each other how much you love one another, and how great you look- boosting your confidence for the big moment!

4) “First Look” photos are always incredibly special.
While not impossible, it is much more difficult to get really great photos of both the bride and the groom’s expression when they first see each other at the isle. With you both being so far away when first seeing each other, it’s very hard to capture each person’s initial reaction. Generally, I stand at the end of the isle, closest to the wedding party. This way, I can get photos of everyone walking down the isle. I can also usually get a pretty good photo of the groom when he first sees his bride-to-be. However, it proves difficult to get a really great shot of the bride when she first walks through the door. (If you have a second photographer, this task can be easier) Also, just think of everyone who is standing on either side of the isle while you walk down. What if your second cousin decided to wear their neon yellow and purple polka dotted blouse? Or your little nephew is intrigued by the photographer, and instead of watching you, he’s picking his nose, staring at me. Trust me, these things have happened and they are GREATLY distracting in your photos.

This is one of the most cherished reactions you will ever keep in your memories. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have really great photos of it?

5) You get to enjoy your party!
You’ve spent MONTHS, sometimes YEARS putting this awesome event together. After the ceremony, instead of waiting around for everyone to get together for photos, you get to go ahead to your cocktail hour/reception and mingle, greet guests, and enjoy yourself! With everything out of the way, the nerves gone, and nothing but happiness on your mind, there’s nothing better than kicking back, and enjoying all of the hard work! So cheers! Drink a cocktail, chat with family, dance with friends! Since you’ve gotten all of your formal pics done and out of the way, you can just enjoy yourself.

I still reserve the right to steal away the bride and groom for some extra couple photos during the reception though, sometimes there are photo ops that are just too good to miss!

With all of these wonderful perks to having a “First Look”, you can see why more and more couples are opting to go this route. With the right planning and time management, your day is a breeze!

Please feel free to contact me with any comments, questions or concerns  you may have, I’m always happy to share my experiences, advice, and encouragement!

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