Becoming Gold

I'm sharing 3 tips to manage family's expectations for your wedding and the first one doesn't even include them 🙃 I know family can be complicated, but these tips will help you get ahead of common frustrations that come up so you can reach your wedding day at peace with each other!

FREE DOWNLOAD: SETTING EXPECTATIONS

I'm Laura-Anne Smid and I help Catholic couples navigate engagement so they are present & prepared for their wedding day and life as newlyweds.

Website: https://laura-anne.ca/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraannesmid/

Are you overwhelmed by all the things you need to do for your wedding day?

Do you feel like planning your wedding is distracting you from preparing for marriage?

Are you tired of planning and just want to be married already?

Those are normal things to feel. But it doesn't have to be this way!

I'm going to show you how the thing you're spending so much time on can actually help you prepare for marriage, which is the thing you probably want to do more of right now, anyway.

Mentioned: The Wedding Guide

I'm Laura-Anne Smid and I help Catholic couples navigate engagement so they are present & prepared for their wedding day and life as newlyweds.

Website: laura-anne.ca Instagram: @lauraannesmid YouTube: Watch here

In this episode, I read a blog post from November of 2016 about being single, just weeks before being invited to move back to Langley... and meeting my husband. Focusing on the beauty of the season I'm currently in has been a big part of my prayer life lately and this flashback to what life was like as I waited on the season I'm in now was WILD. A definitely must-listen if you're single, but really if you're waiting on anything coming next in life, this is for you.

On a side note, I'm starting a MARRIAGE BOOK STUDY! I'll be reading and discussing Three to Get Married by Archbishop Fulton Sheen starting AUGUST 11 and can't wait to read along with you!! I definitely forgot to mention this on the show so I really hope you read this 🙃 You can get a copy from Holy Family Catholic Bookstore.

And on another side note, if you know of a couple I should ask to be on the show in the fall, send me a message on Instagram @lauraannesmid or email me [email protected]! I'd love to start lining people up when summer vacations are over :)

This episode is full of encouragement for engaged couples in that last week before you say your vows. I share some practical advice for the lead-up to the wedding day, as well as some inspiration for when the enemy might try getcha down - because he doesn't like marriage and you're in his line of fire right now. I'm praying for you!

Find me on Instagram over @lauraannesmid

And check out my blog for more stories of generation changers like yourself: https://laura-anne.ca/blog/

In this episode, I'm giving you 8 tips for your first year of marriage. A lot of these are based on things Brandon and I did, aaaand a few of them are based on things we did not and wish we had done, so learn from our mistakes and take these and apply them to your relationship!

Mentioned in the show:

The Marriage Journal from Beating 50 Percent.

Episode 18 for budgeting, and I accidentally said 18 again but I meant episode 17 if you want to hear about our weekly check in!

Liturgy of the Hours

If you want to hear more about any of the tips I shared, find me on Instagram over @lauraannesmid and send me a message!

Does the love of your life know you support their dreams? Do they even know what your dreams are??

In this episode I chat with Jesse & Kathleen LeBlanc from Found Together about what it looks like to dream with your spouse and be the best cheerleader for their dreams, too. These two have hands-on experience as they've just released their first single, Home, and will be releasing the rest of their EP later this year; a long-time dream come true.

You can find Jesse & Kathleen over on their Found Together Instagram or you can learn more at wearefoundtogether.com. You can even listen to Home on Spotify (or Apple Music).

If you liked this episode, please share it with your friends! And come over to Instagram and tell me what you liked about it: @lauraannesmid

Money used to be one of the most difficult subjects for me to talk about, so the fact that I'm doing a podcast on it is WILD to me. In this episode, I share about my relationship with money, how I avoided looking at my finances to my own detriment, and what I did to finally have a healthy understanding of money and get out of debt.

I use an app called You Need a Budget and if you click that link you'll get a free month trial as well as an additional free month if you sign up (and I get one, too).

If you're planning a wedding, I recommend getting The Wedding Guide, a start-to-finish wedding planning guide I wrote to help ease the stress of all the decisions you have to make - including figuring out your budget. Use code BUDGET at checkout for 10% off until June 30. https://laura-anne.ca/shop

Depression has shown up for both myself and my husband, Brandon. In this episode, I share how he supported me when I was at my lowest a few years ago and what I've learned to do to best support him, too. I hope our personal experience with depression in our marriage is helpful; know that there is ALWAYS hope even on the darkest days.

Got questions on this topic for me? Find me on Instagram @lauraannesmid and ask away.

No one starts their marriage as an expert in love. Hailey McIlmoyle and I chat about what being a beginner in love and married life looks like, how she's sharing her experience learning to make a home for her family along the way, and the need we all have for connection on the journey of life (aka putting the social back in social media).

You can find Hailey over at @making.mcilmoyle on Instagram.

PS. There's a bit of an audio quality issue in this episode thanks to the Zoom recording... thanks for listening anyway! Tag me @lauraannesmid so I can see where you're listening from!

After a year off from the show, I'm back and ready to see what God has in store! I can't wait to get it started with a little walk down memory lane into the last decade of my life… my wedding photographer life, that is. I recently celebrated 10 years of documenting weddings and I'm sharing some of the biggest lessons I've learned thanks to the incredible couples I've been able to serve this past decade.

Post a screen shot of you listening on social media and tag me @lauraannesmid so I can see where you're tuning in from! #thisisbecominggold