I tried to keep our travel/ministry calendar as sparse as possible in April so we would have plenty of time to enjoy preparing for the wedding. Part of that planning is the rehearsal dinner. I could have just used flowers, but when I priced them, I thought I could go to Hobby Lobby and own some cool stuff for the same amount of money I would have spent on something that would have drooped and died within days!  Don’t you just love Hobby Lobby? They constantly discount their items, so the rehearsal dinner has been financed at 50% off!

So, here’s the plan…each table will have a centerpiece featuring an old small decorative trunk. The trunk is open with a tall glass candle holder in it that rises above the top of the open lid. The glass candle holder has a coffee scented candle in it. Surrounding the trunk are clear and

champagne-colored rocks scattered about with occasional coffee beans mixed in. Ivy gracefully flows from the trunk and intermittently placed around the trunk are old family pictures, 3-5 photos in frames, depending on the size of the trunk. Make sense? I know a picture is worth a

thousand words, but I’m doing my best here to let you see it with words!  Next month, I will have lots of pics for you!

The goal is to make it have a vintage coffee shop feel. Clayton and Caroline’s favorite thing is to go to coffee shops. They love coffee. So the theme is perfect for them!  But, what to do about the frames? Even at 50% off, we needed too many, so we dug out all our old frames that are no longer in style and decided to make them shabby chic. Our friends went in their closets and under their beds to dig out their old frames, and we met at our home with sandpaper, screws, spray paint and an adventurous spirit! It was so fun seeing two professors, a banker, a dental hygienist, a school teacher and a blind author trying to be Martha Stewart!

Anyway, we banged them, scraped them and sanded them, and the result looks like something you would buy at Pottery Barn!  And, it was fun!

The final centerpiece display.

During all the pre-wedding hoopla, I started reading a very interesting book called Sacred Pathways. In it, author Gary Thomas explores nine different paths we tend to take as we relate to and worship God.  In the opening chapter, he explains these are similar to personality temperaments. It is not an identical comparison, but, just as we each have different personality temperaments and live out our lives and passions in various forms, so do we have a “spiritual temperament.” Our spiritual temperament is our sacred pathway – it is the way we most naturally respond to God in worship and prayer. Because in Christianity, some tend to prescribe the “one” way to pray or the “one” way to do a quiet time, I am finding this book very helpful to understand why “one” size doesn’t fit all. So far, it is very scriptural and he uses lots of Biblical examples. The second half of the book dives into each pathway and offers a quiz to help you identify which you best fit into. I will let you know what I discover. You may want to give it a taste test, too!

Well, I’m off to make a list, wrap something, mail something, clean something…and do a million other things to get ready for the big nuptials!

So, give these things a taste test:

1.  Give your old frames a vintage new look

2.  Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas

What else should I taste? Leave a comment here.