Plant Based Bride

Living With Less: The Series! Beginning My Minimalism Journey

This past year has been an incredible one. I met Jason, worked on a cruise ship for 6 months doing what I love, got engaged, visited 6 new countries and countless new cities, and did quite a bit of learning and growing on a personal level. 180+ nights at sea in a row really give you time to soul-search and contemplate your life's direction. It also requires you to pack your whole life up into two large, very overstuffed, suitcases. As you might have gathered, my minimalism journey began a bit against my will. But something incredible happened when I was packing up my cabin to return home: I realized I could have lived with even less than two suitcases worth for those 6 months. That I could have lived on FAR less. Maybe for some of you that doesn't seem like anything earth-shattering, but for me? That was a big deal! I've always had trouble letting go of things as I'm very sentimental yet practical (meaning I love the memories attached to material goods as much as their possible utility later on), so this realization surprised me. I lived out of two suitcases, a backpack, and a tiny guitar case for 6 months? And I could have done without almost half of what I brought? Me??

Minimalism, LifestyleElizabeth TurnbullSeptember 15, 2015living with less, living with less series Comments

The Ultimate Wedding Planning Timeline!

This week Jason and I celebrated our one year anniversary, which means we're now less than a year away from our wedding! While this makes me incredibly excited (I might have squealed for a second...) it also makes me more than a bit nervous. Only a year until our wedding?? How could we possibly get everything done? What needs to be tackled first? What do I do?? But luckily, being the organized bride-to-be that I am, I'd already compiled a list of tasks to get done before the wedding a couple of weeks after our engagement. Once I'd listed everything that came to mind I headed to Pinterest and searched for "wedding planning timeline". I then proceeded to repin every search result and add anything I'd missed to my list. By the end of a couple of hours I had a pretty comprehensive list, and I realized that other engaged couples may benefit from it! So here it is, the ultimate wedding planning timeline to keep you organized right up until your big day!

How To Start Your Day Off On The Right Foot! Becoming a Morning Person

Everyone wants to start their day off on the right foot, right? You want to wake up refreshed and energetic, ready to go! Unfortunately I'm not a morning person, and often when I need to wake up earlier than 10 am my whole day can get a bit thrown off by grouchiness and brain fog. Most of the time I don't get high quality sleep and wake up often throughout the night, every night. But no more! I've gone on a rampage lately reading all of the articles on becoming a morning person and getting better sleep that I could possibly find and making lists of things that I've noticed help me to wake up feeling more rested and ready to start my day. I decided to compile these things into an article for myself and anyone else who may be struggling with the same issues as I have, with the hopes that it will help at least one other person. I hope not only to be able to wake up at 8am every single morning, but to want to! If that's you, too, read on!

How Much Wedding Can You Afford? Choosing The Big Number for Your Big Day

Weddings cost a lot. A whole lot. A put-away-every-extra-penny-for-your-entire-engagement-and-only-eat-rice-and-beans-and-don't-buy-anything-that-could-be-considered-a-want lot. When I read that the average wedding in Canada costs over $31,000 I got very close to giving up and eloping with Jason right then and there (we were in Costa Rica, after all. Not a bad locale if you ask me.) But I have always dreamed of a wedding including my closest and dearest, and so had he. We decided to stick it out and go with a traditional wedding. But at what cost?