Turning 1970s office into a wedding chapel and so much more

In June, my sister Heather and I signed the lease for a 2000+ square foot building that we intended to turn into a Wedding Chapel. We worked along with our husbands, parents and children to turn this:

In to this:

And this:

In to this:

We took the ceiling down and replaced it with bead board and lots of trim. Heather and I learned to use a table saw and many power tools without fear. We learned to measure once and cut 2 or 3 times is very, very frustrating.  We learned the difference between "Tree Housing It" and the right way. But we still prefer to "Tree House It" whenever possible.

We found beauty in small things, like this mound of saw dust that signified 12 hours of hard work.

We found strength to climb ladders and hold our hands above our head until they were shaking. Yes, that's me on the green ladder, along with James (Heather's fiance) , Kaleb (my son) and Joe (my husband).

 

Heather prying off years of old plaster that was attached to our cinder block exterior wall.

 

In the midst of it all....

Heather and James got married...in our almost finished Chapel. I officiated it. (This was at the end of the night still working in wedding dress and tuxedo.)

 

Our Dad seen here on top of cabinet had a heart attack. Not here, at home a few weeks after this photo.

Me, my 3 sisters, my brother and parents were brought so much closer. And Dad is doing great. He even let us do a huge family selfie at the hospital.

My daughter, Samantha got married. James officiated, our Chapel and family did all of the work for a "Pop Up" Wedding at my In-Law's river property. It was a magical night.

It has been quite a summer. We opened Something Blue Wedding Chapel and Boutique on October 10th. I hope you will check out the rest of our chapel over on our website: www.SomethingBlueChapel.com I built the website using WordPress in my spare time. :)

How was your summer?