Friday Feature Couple ~ Holly & Joseph Peed
From 2010 – 2015 I had a small business called MovieMe. I made video montages and converted tapes to DVDs. During that time, I created another product called ‘Legacy Impacts,’ where I would capture family stories told via video. That’s where Joseph came in. Joseph is passionate videographer who loves his work and loves his drones! At the time, his wife Holly was working with him. It was such a treat to work with this creative duo!
In 2016, I invited Joseph on another project in the community. Instead of donating funds to a charity, I offered to produce a video. To say I was a little out of my league is an understatement. Although we ended up with a final product, it probably took me twice as long. haha
When I shut down MovieMe in October 2015, Russ and I started this membership website. One of the products we offer are Webinars. It wasn’t until last year did we start doing live Webinars discussing marriage topics.
I had the camera lights and the webinar software but I wasn’t quite sure where to place the lights, where to sit to have the best background, etc… We invited Joseph & Holly over for dinner to catch up and ask for their staging/lighting/video expertise. Over dinner we learned more about what a beautiful and intentional couple they are. I knew then I wanted them to be a Friday Feature Couple. I think you’re going to be blown away by their vulnerable transparent answers. I hope you enjoy getting to know them! Show some love by commenting below.
Q: How did you meet each other?
A: We met in High School through a mutual friend. One of our friends dared us to kiss if Holly wore a specific shirt to school. She wore the shirt and eventually we kissed in the school cafeteria in front of all our friends. The rest is history.
Q: How did your husband propose?
A: Joseph made a sci-fi action movie that showed at a small-town movie theater near the town we grew up in. He totally surprised me; all our friends & family were there the whole time and I had no idea until after he proposed and heard everyone cheering.
This is the link to the video:
Q: How long have you been married?
A: We hit 4 years on August 30th, and will be together as a couple for 10 years this coming February.
Q: What was one thing that surprised you after you were married?
A: We were both virgins when we married, and figuring out sexual intimacy was a bit of a challenge. We had a great wedding night, but after that we both realized we wanted different frequencies when it came to sex so finding that balance was challenging. We also weren’t taught the emotional side that is included with sex. We understood the mechanics, but emotional connection plays a huge part.
Holly would hear a lot of negative connotations when it came to any sexual act outside of marriage as she grew up, so that has played a big part in her being able to accept her sexuality as a woman. Jumping from “sexual acts are bad” to “you’re free to basically do what you want now that you’re married” was like jumping head first into ice-cold water- how the heck do you swim in that?
Joseph grew up around family that wasn’t very intimate, so he has had to figure out the best ways to love Holly intimately. These challenges have made things difficult from time-to-time, but because we work through them together we have grown closer than we’ve ever been.
Q: What are you both really excited about?
A: We’re really excited about the future. We want to travel and we love thinking about the new places we will hopefully get to see one day. We are also excited to see the fruits of our pursuit of God, each other, and relationships and how our future child(ren) will impact the world in positive ways as a result.
Q: What’s one thing you do for your husband/wife everyday?
A: We both make sure to kiss each other every day and say “I love you.” Seems like a small thing, but it makes a difference.
Q: What are your thoughts about counseling? Do you and your spouse go?
A: We both really value counseling. Our second year of marriage was the hardest for us, and counseling really helped us out by setting our minds in the right direction. We do not normally go, but we’ve set some work up for ourselves and it’s actually been very helpful. We try and make sure to have at least an hour to talk with each other each day (or have some sort of interaction), check-in at least once a week on how we are both doing in our marriage, and find some sort of guidance whether it’s through books, our church, or people we look up to.
Q: What’s one piece of advice you would share with someone before getting married?
A: Know that no one is perfect and you will always find something unpleasant about someone. Work out your differences as quickly and effectively as you can, forgive mistakes and hurt, and remember that you are making a covenant to each other…not your circumstances.
Q: Are you becoming the husband/wife you hoped you’d be? Why or why not?
A: We both feel like we are on good paths. We thought we were great when we first were married, but the world added new stressors not long after that we’ve never had to face before so it’s a process of learning and growing every day. We both are very proud of what we’ve built (by God’s grace) and that we have been learning how to love each other through challenges.
Q: What was the happiest period of your marriage and what are the reasons you think so?
A: We don’t see a “happiest” period in our marriage. We see life being hard, yet always counting our blessings and trusting God. We felt the most blissful right after we got married, but ignorance is bliss. We didn’t know very much about marriage then, but our love is stronger now.
Q: What do you see in the character of Christ that you most wish were in you as well?
A: I (Holly) see a listening heart and a ready forgiveness. I tend to jump to conclusions when things go awry and I assume the worst sometimes. I (Joseph) see humility. I can have big expectations of the people around me sometimes (especially the ones I’m closest to), because of that I look down on others when they don’t meet my high expectations.
Q: Can you honestly say, “I love you my husband/wife as is, without requiring anything to change?” Do you ever waver on that?
A: This is always an interesting topic. We believe and are learning how to love unconditionally (that’s not a natural thing for anyone to do). We both can waiver on that sometimes because we came into this relationship with our own unexpressed expectations of what we wanted our spouse to be like, and when those expectations aren’t met we become unloving. Thankfully, it gets easier with time.
Q: How would you describe the word, “love?”
A: We believe and have seen that love is as described in Corinthians. Speaking in the context of marriage, it is 100-100, not 50-50. If you’re only giving 50%, you aren’t fully loving them.
Q: Would you say that you love each other more now than earlier in your marriage?
A: Definitely! We’ve seen so much growth in our relationship and each other in such a short amount of time- it’s really amazing.
Q: What worries you most about life?
A: My (Joseph’s) worry about life is not doing enough; enough meaning, I want to make sure I provide enough and I want to succeed enough. I get into a comparison trap a lot in my profession. Because I tend to hold high expectations on others, I do it even more to myself and it can become a burden sometimes. I (Holly) have typical day-to-day worries or nearby-future worries, but I honestly don’t have any that are a huge weight on me for our life. I know that God has us no matter what, and in the end all the pain is going to be gone and everything will be made right.
Q: Do you feel that there is something unfulfilled in your life—something God wants you both to do? What is it?
A: We feel a nudge to start a family one day, and we’ve seen God preparing us for that each year- it’s pretty cool! We also have felt a drawing towards Oregon. We moved to Atlanta right after we married, and have never fully felt like this is where we will call it our forever home. We’ve played with the idea of moving to Portland and what that would be like even if we did it for just a year or two. We’ve had different people show up in our lives randomly who have talked about Portland, and each time it’s brought up we feel our heart strings being slightly pulled. We put it in the back of our minds for a while, but this year finally brought it up and began asking if that has been God calling us.
Q: Do you think your friends see your marriage as beautiful? Why or why not?
A: We’ve had a lot of people tell us how encouraged they are through seeing our marriage. We’ve even had people we don’t really know that well tell us that we are a couple they look up to; you never know who’s watching. We don’t claim to know everything or that we are perfect; we just try to love each other and be genuine people. It’s all thanks to Christ.
Q: Do you like the way he/she responds to your family? What could he/she do to improve?
A: Joseph responds to my family really well. However, I feel that he struggles when it comes to responding to his family. I hope that he will grow more confident to speak up when he sees them hurt one another. Also, that he will show them how to communicate properly and effectively in love & truth.
[recent_content showposts=’5′ post_type=’post’ accesslevel=’free’]
Leave a Reply