Browsing Tag

wedding

Tiny House Magazine Feature: Tiny Living, Big Community

Tiny House News

We are super exited to be featured this month in Kent Griswold and Andrew Odom‘s online creation of Tiny House Magazine!*

This month they are celebrating their 2 year anniversary! Congrats guys!!

The article tells much of Ryan and I’s story: from meeting, to engagement, to wedding, to tiny house building, to current.

There is a focus on our wedding and how it literally took our entire community to pull it off (there are several folks mentioned – not by name – in the article, so if you were involved in helping with our wedding, you might just be in there…) We like to think of it as our “barn raising” wedding.

Also a snazzy infographic (created by yours truly) depicting the average costs of weddings in the U.S. this year based on a study by Statistic Brain.

Here’s a sneak peak of the article:

I had never heard of a Tiny House until I met my husband in 2012. I met him in a coffee shop that I was working at in Golden, Colorado. He was living in Houston at the time and was just visiting family, who was traveling through the area. We had a lot in common; We’re both oldest children, both fairly stubborn, both enjoy learning, and we both wanted to live a life that was different than the average person.

To read the rest, click here or on the picture above to purchase this month’s edition of Tiny House Magazine! Get 25% off if you use the code 25FOR5 from now until December 23rd. (If you click on the link, scroll down until you see the 24th Edition- $3.99, with 25% off with coupon code)

Included are other stories and pictures of tiny house and sustainable living enthusiasts. If you like reading about things like grown men making homes in dumpsters, or families living in hobbit holes, or if you just enjoy learning about how to live a more sustainable life – you need to check out this magazine.

Other News

Another 2 year anniversary is quickly approaching – our wedding anniversary! I mean, we’re still like 4 months away, but whatever :)

This month I’ll remember my babe’s sweet proposal on Christmas day

cute baby tree and gorgeous big girl ring

It was awesome. Like for real. Totally didn’t see it coming. He’s so creative too: he wrapped up every candle, then as I unwrapped it he lit them all, and placed them around the room so that by the time I got to the last present we were sitting in a cozy, mountain, candleland. (#soromantic) He just rolls his eyes (like a good husband does) while I bring out the tissues while looking through every.single.wedding.picture. I can’t help it. #iloveus

As well as having fun memories from last Christmas when my family came to visit us and we packed 10 people in a two bedroom one bath lil rental, went sledding, and frolicked in the Sangre de Cristo mountains for the holiday. This Christmas will be quite different from my family’s normal traditions as my dad is recovering from a scare with severe acute pancreatitis. I may write more about this experience in the future, we’ll see. For now, we’re all just really thankful that my Dad is alive and on the mend.

My family, minus Ryan… he was making my Christmas presents #spoiledrotten

So I’m not exactly sure what this year’s Christmas festivities will include, but at least we got the tree up :)

Merry Christmas everyone! Don’t forget to grab your copy of the Tiny House Magazine, cozy up next to something warm (fire, candle, or coffee mug will do), and check out our article! :)

(*This post contains affiliate links)

December 18, 2014

Simple Living, Tiny Living

Wedding & Tiny House Update

Hello & Happy Summer from the Corsons!

Yes, its true- we did get married! 4 months have passed, so we figured it was about time to update the blog…

Wedding Update

Now, I know you’re all wondering, “well, DID you have a ‘simple wedding??'” Especially all you brides out there a couple of months after your big day. I can just hear you, “ooohhhh yess… that funny girl who thought her wedding was going to be ‘simple’ and then she invited 400 people. HAH! She’s cute.” Well, was it simple?…

Kind of.

We definitely did stay true to our original vision of keeping this wedding as simple as possible for the sake of focusing on the things we care about. We quickly found out that the things we really care about are people. We both loved looking around the room at the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and potluck reception and seeing how many different people were here to celebrate with us. We also realized that weddings, no matter how much you try to weed out stress- just ARE stressful. Yes we kept things simple, yes we look back and love everything that happened, and yes we were super stressed the week of the wedding- trying to work out details or organizing people, spending time with people, and spending time with each other. It’s a huge week in the life of any human making a lifetime commitment like marriage to another. Add in other humans who you both love and want to spend time with and you’ve created something more complex than just having a few conversations with out of town guests. Also, we had the help of SO many people in actually pulling this thing off…could NOT have happened without these friends.

Our conclusion? Weddings are stressful. And worth it to us because, with the help of friends, we were able to create space to celebrate and set aside time designated as a very important event with very important people. If you ACTUALLY want something simple and stress-free… we suggest you elope :)

Tiny House Update

There has been SO many changes in this area since the last blog post!

(1) We found a trailer

(2) We have been collecting materials

(3) and building and designing… (let’s be honest, Ryan designs everything)

(4) AAAAAAND…… we moved in!!

While it is SO exciting to get out of the renting cycle and to actually be living in what will soon be our completed home, this adventure has been so much different that I (Hannah) pictured. I have always really admired and looked up to pioneer families who rode in a wagon across months of unknown territory and adventure to their picturesque cottages and babbling brooks. Of course it was a hard life, but didn’t they realize that they were starting something new and that the challenges were totally worth it, even in that moment?

Whew.

Shoot dang those folks were amazing.

Now, don’t worry – I feel almost completely silly at comparing what we are doing to the pioneer families (except we don’t have running water or electricity). And I don’t exactly think that Tiny Houses are going to be the next “thing” (um hello, homeschool families like my own would have to have a train of these things) – of course I could be wrong ;-) But here’s what I see the value for us right now:

we can do it.

Financially. Physically. Mentally (some days better than others).

It may take us longer than we initially expected, but we will finish. And have a HOME that is paid for and fully functional!

But honestly, living without things that I (still Hannah here) am used to having (like running water and electricity) has been so much harder than I thought it would be! I thought that I was ready to be camping out in a partially finished home, working long hours, learning as much as I can about construction…

Yup. I definitely admire those pioneers.

But I AM learning so much. I am thankful for a husband who is patient (most days) with me to teach me what he knows about construction and perseverance. I am thankful for Zella Cameron, the kind woman who is letting us build this monster in her front yard. I am also thankful for her bathroom and kitchen (which she recently offered to let us use until ours is complete). I am thankful for friends and family who have given their time and muscles to help us do a little bit at a time. I am thankful (most days :) ) for the ways that this project is challenging me. To do something I’ve never done and honestly, am really not good at. I’m thankful that we are building a home and will have no debt.

That’s pretty cool.

That’s about it for now… Thanks for reading! You can keep up with more current updates if you’re on Instagram, look up hannahcorson and follow her, she has updates more frequently there regarding the Tiny House construction! You can also keep up with us at gofundme.com/restoringsimple . Thanks!!

August 17, 2013

Simple Living

A Simple Wedding

You know how people always talk about having a “simple wedding?” No stress, just enjoying each other and the special people you’ve invited to spend your special day with? And then, that week and day comes, and it just IS stressful and NOT simple?

How does one keep a wedding simple? Is this even possible? Everyone I talk to says that they have tried this, but because of one thing or another, it always ends up being stressful and not so simple.

I (Hannah) quickly realized this within the first week of being engaged. I was at Hobby Lobby (because where else do you go to start planning a wedding?) and was looking into the possibility of making our invitations. I found cute & kitschy paper, stamps, ribbons, stickers, and envelopes. Of course, it might take us 2 weeks to make them, but our invitations would be so pinterest perfect, all the 15 year-olds would save them for inspiration for their own weddings. After 45 minutes of strategizing in the aisles of the mecca of the craft world: this stamp with that paper with that ribbon, with that paper laid on top of this one, I had two thoughts.

(1) “Crap. This was not going to be a simple wedding.”

And then after a moment of sitting in the defeat and sensing my stress levels rising already:

(2) “Wait a minute. What if I just said NO to trying to make this day perfect? What if I just realized my goal of this day (to have people I love in one place, celebrating me and my man) could be reached in MUCH easier ways than my culture tells me?”

Our wedding website says that we have 179 “to dos” and we are behind on 89 of them. We haven’t sent out invitations, gone dress shopping, figured out colors, or even talked to the wedding party yet. We HAVE had a conversation about whether we want the wedding in the evening or in the afternoon (no decision yet…). We don’t have a budget (well, we do- its somewhere between $0-$50 depending on how much utilities are in March). We aren’t having a cake or big reception. We may or may not be including a dog in the ceremony. We had no idea what an “A” or “B” list was before yesterday. We know that we want candles and Christmas lights (well, I [Hannah] do at least). We DO have someone to marry us and we DO have the church booked! We also have amazing friends who have offered to help. We consider these things fairly significant steps.

We have just realized (Ryan probably faster than me) that we desire to keep Simplicity as the highest value in planning this day, because when we say NO to things that honestly, don’t matter, it can free us to say yes to the things that really do.

Well, this is our plan at least. We’ll see how it goes :-)

February 2, 2013