When planning a wedding you have expectations and ideas of what your big day should be, right? Sometimes life gets in the way of that. After 11.5 years of living with cancer, I'm getting married at the end of October 2016, and cancer has been the perfect trial and error for this entire process.

Cancer has been no walk in the park. Sometimes I have days where I can walk miles and still have energy to make dinner AND bake some vegan cookies. Other days, not so much. The other side of cancer is what has been helpful in wedding planning: doing something even though you're exhausted and ready to cry. When it comes to cancer and wedding planning, it's a learning process that helps on both ends.

Here's an example. The people around me during the wedding planning process have all said that I'm "indecisive." It's not that I can't pick a specific color scheme, or any theme for that matter, I just don't want to. At one point, I had to make a decision during a time when it was really hard. I talked at great length to our photographers, Matt and Paulette of Novella Photography, about what I wanted for our engagement photos. We decided that showing our personalities and our views on life would be perfectly summed up with a carnival. We'll waste some money on what makes you happy, take the good with the bad, and enjoy the views.

Ultimately, cancer has made me appreciate the good days and focus on being positive and laughing. I find that laughing every day isn't just great for a relationship, it's actually perfect for getting through a tough day. Carnivals have always had a way of cheering me up - the lights, the sugary treats, and the game prizes that get me as giddy as a child are always great.

Between the good days for me and my pure luck at finding a future husband and a set of photographers who understand and help me find the simplest pleasures in life, I'm able to take the trials of cancer and apply them to the trials of wedding planning.

Let's take a peek at this carnival engagement session!

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