Denver Wedding Photographer | Colorado Wedding Photography

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. EXPLORE. DREAM. DISCOVER. – Mark Twain

On April 7, 2011, Matt and I packed up our home in Michigan and headed west. If you had asked me on that day how I felt about moving, I would have exploded in tears and said I wished we could unpack our U-Haul and keep living life the way it had been. I was an emotional wreck – as should be expected! I had lived in the same area my entire life, have deep friendships there, and my entire family (minus my sister Kristin who lives in Denver!) were all in a 20 minute drive of each other, and my business was thriving. So why in the heck did we decide to leave all of this and start a new life in a place where we had no jobs, would be living in a tiny house old house that costs the same as our beautiful new home in Michigan, and didn’t have any friends?!?!? Because sometimes taking a risk means giving up something that is great so that we can experience something that is even greater. Most of our culture would say we were crazy and foolish, but our dreams are bigger than living this so called American Dream. A lot of dreams die because we aren’t willing to do something that seems illogical and it usually takes stepping out in faith to see big things happen.

Almost 10 months later, I can honestly say that I am very happy that we made sacrifices because we have gained so much. I have felt myself grow and change more during this time than ever before. It didn’t happen overnight, but somehow I almost feel like a completely different person. I didn’t have any friends when we moved here, so I just decided that I would be over the top friendly every place that I went and that I would be the one making friends. I was starting my business from scratch again, so I became proactive and have worked very hard to become re-established. Matt and I have a stronger marriage as we have been on this adventure together. Growing is kind of an addictive feeling! I have really enjoyed the challenges that we have faced and this feeling of growth! I really think that the greatest breakthroughs in life will happen when we push through our fears – and I was certainly fearful on that day our moving truck was pulling away from everything that was familiar to me. These defining moments will also double as our scariest decisions! It’s tough to describe, but there is something about facing our fears that can also make us feel alive. I know that I certainly feel more alive than ever!

Let me back up my story. When I married Matt in 2003, I knew he was a man that loved adventure and taking risks. I am the same way (which is why we are a good fit!), but it takes me a lot longer to say yes to those risks. Part of our big dream is to start a church where people can meet Jesus in a real way and build meaningful community with each other. That has been such a major part of our own personal stories and we want to help others experience the kind of life we have found. I knew that Matt wanted to move away from West Michigan to pursue this dream, so I thought, hmmm, maybe I should pray and ask God to make Matt want to stay in Michigan forever! So I did. I secretly prayed for a year and half for this. One day Matt came home from work and said, I’ve decided that we should just stay in Grand Rapids and we will start a church here. He knew that is what I wanted. You would think that I would have been thrilled. God had answered my prayers! I felt the exact opposite. I knew I had been praying the safe prayer and that staying in Grand Rapids would just be a cop out for us and that we would regret living the safe life someday. Deep inside I knew we had to do something counter-intuitive if we were going to reach our God given potential and destiny. We had to walk away from security and chase uncertainty.

So here we are! Chasing those big dreams of ours and growing exponentially in the process. Momentum is building and those dreams are unfolding before our eyes.

I put together this video before Christmas to share with our friends and family back in home in Michigan and now I want to share it with all of you. It’s a look at this journey we’ve been on. VIEWER WARNING: Watching this video may make you want to move to Denver – or at least go on a big adventure!

I’ll wrap up with this. Are you facing your fears in exchange for living an even greater life and future? German author Johan Wolfgang von Goethe sums it up perfectly – “Hell begins the day God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do.” Today is the day to start living!

When I got married I thought, I hope I have what it takes to do this thing called marriage successfully.  That was in 2003. I am so happy to say that I think Matt and I have an amazing marriage 8 1/2 years into this journey and every year it gets stronger.  That is a rarity in our culture. Marriages fall apart for so many different reasons, and don’t get me wrong, we have our issues.  Boy do we ever! If we didn’t have issues, I think that would probably mean we weren’t facing reality and actually working on our weaknesses. In today’s blog post I want to share one of our keys to success – having fun together!

Fast forward to November 15, 2007.  A beautiful baby girl named Lily Catherine entered our lives and turned it upside down.  We were in love with this little baby who cried and left us not knowing what to do, kept us up at night until the dark circles under our eyes matched the color of the midnight sky, pooped all the time, wanted to eat around the clock, and that was about it.  But somehow we were head over heels for this little babe.  Having a baby certainly changed our marriage and made it so that we had to work harder to build our relationship.  As Lily grew, we realized that she was a very easy going child. Now at 4 years old she just wants to have long conversations about what she is thinking and feeling (yes, that is already happening!) and snuggle with her mom and dad.

Lily added a new element of busyness to our lives, but on January 15, 2010, Calvin Matthew entered our lives and all of a sudden the busyness factor grew exponentially. We learned why other parents told us that the transition from 1 child to 2 is difficult. Now we had a toddler and a newborn to take care of and somehow we were also supposed to have this happy marriage together. Now Calvin is almost 2 and has so much energy he could light up an entire city if there were a black out.  All of this is to say that life has gotten busier than ever and Matt and I have to prioritize our marriage and intentionally plan time together as a couple and as a family.

One of our keys to success is making sure we are always having fun times and making adventurous memories together.  In our 8 1/2 years of marriage we have had many fantastic vacations from cruises around the Caribbean, sunbathing in Cancun (well lets be honest – I was laying in the sun reading books while Matt was bored and waiting for the next fun thing to do!), wine tasting in Sonoma & Napa Valley and driving highway 1 along the northern coast of California in a convertible, zip lining through the jungles of Costa Rica, camping on the Straits of Mackinaw, a road trip through the western half of the United States, and more.  In fact, we got engaged on top of Table Mountain in Capetown, South Africa.  Are we rich? Far from it.  Most of the time we have to sacrifice for months before a trip by not spending any extra money anywhere so that we can make it happen. My parents taught me that making memories is more fun than letting money collect in bank accounts until I’m old and can’t even do any of these fun adventures in life.  I’m sure the accountants out there will completely disagree with me on this!

Now that we have children, we want to include this same way of fun adventurous living into our family life.  Our biggest adventure together thus far has been that we moved across the country 8 months ago to Denver. Now we live on the edge of the Rocky Mountains and have so many new places to explore! Yesterday is a classic example of a family fun day in the Gravelle household.  We went to the Christmas wonderland at the mall (that was mostly for  my enjoyment!) and then we took our kids to Toy Story on Ice and finished the day with 35 acres of Christmas lights at the Denver Zoo.

Life is so busy and in our family we always want to be intentional with balancing the work with fun times!

What are you doing in your marriage or family life to make sure that you are actually enjoying life?  Go ahead and leave a comment below telling all of us what your adventures have included!

Here is a rare family picture of us a little while ago at a ski resort in Beaver Creek, Colorado.  I am always taking the photos, so we hardly have any family pictures together! Some nice lady snapped a picture for us.

Colorado wedding photographer, Laura Gravelle, is considered a top Denver wedding photographer for Colorado weddings such as Estes Park, Vail, Aspen, Colorado Springs, Keystone, Beaver Creek and all destination weddings. You can contact Laura for all Colorado weddings, to be your Denver wedding photographer, and for destination weddings by emailing laura@lauragravelle.com.  Please look around to see why brides planning Colorado weddings choose Laura Gravelle as their Colorado wedding photographer and Denver wedding photographer.

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For brides planning Colorado weddings, please contact me to be your Colorado wedding photographer by emailing laura@lauragravelle.com. I am a Denver wedding photographer and for destination weddings in the mountains like Estes Park, Beaver Creek, Aspen, Vail, Keystone and Colorado Springs.