teaser

get ready for a new project
that i'm working on to be revealed soon!
can't wait to share it with you all!
cheers to the new year!

here's a teaser:

side notes: epic 2016

hello lovely bloggers!
today's blog will be about next year!
well next year's plan anyway...

my husband and i came up with...
"our epic 2016!"

our epic 2016, to us, means that we live
it up for the entire year. we
decided to do this because we want
to have kids soon, so we want to
live it up before we start trying.

what this entails: try a new
restaurant a month, celebrate every holiday
in the month and celebrate an
obscure holiday. we are also going to try
to volunteer more, host game nights at
our place, run more marathons,
go on another vacation, and
kick more kid-less nights in the a$$,
and anything else we can think of
along the way!

i will try my best to post about
this most up and coming epic year ever!

why not start something with your
family, too, even if you have children.
i hope to never lose sight of fun
when i become a mother.

side notes: falling leaves glitter garland

happy fall everyone! :)

i have another blog off the subject
of weddings! that's okay
though because i love fall!

i was pinning away on pinterest
and came across a glitter garland
with hanging leaves. it appeared
simple enough to make
and my fireplace mantel
was pretty much begging me
to slap something pretty on it!

doing what i always do, i
decided to give it a go!

this is the process i took, but if
you would like to see the original
blog for this project, visit: boxwood clippings blog

you will need:

ribbon [any fall color, i chose
brown], the original blog says to
use real leaves but i used artificial
ones, glitter in red, brown, gold, even
any color you choose, elmer's glue,
scissors, newspaper [not pictured],
hole puncher


first, i punched holes on the top of
the leaves so the ribbon could be
threaded through. [my wonderful
husband helped me with this part :)]


spread glue all over surface of leaf
[excuse the hair in the glue] ;P


sprinkle glitter on leaf over laid
out newspapers and let dry


cut different size lengths of ribbons
and thread through hole in leaf

i made a lot so it took quite a bit of time


before and after

side notes: speaking of weddings

on the subject of weddings,
chris and i just celebrated our
first year wedding anniversary! [and
nine whole years together!!]
time really does just fly by!

well i don't want to get into every
detail of that day because those were
special moments between us two...

let's just skip to the part where
we ate our year old cake! because,
ya know, everyone loves cake! :)

one of the main things i was worried
about was my cake toppers. i made my
own pinwheel toppers, so the baker just
stuck them into the top tier. well,
that decision left holes in the
top of the cake. i figured that would
totally just dry the entire cake
out during preservation!

we were both very anxious to try it,
i mean, one year old cake? uh ew! lol!
surprisingly, the cake was still really good!
i think the thick layer of fondant
kinda helped lock the moisture in!

the first bite was kinda dry. but that's
because it was an edge piece.
i cut into the middle and it was like
a new fresh piece of cake! yummy!

lucky for us, the venue sealed it
up properly and squared it away for us.
[who knew a cardboard box and
some saran wrap would keep it delicious!]
it then sat in our freezer for that
very short year waiting for us to dig into!

the funniest part was chris and
i chose four different flavors for
the tiers and we couldn't remember which
flavor the top tier was. we eventually
figured it was the monster cookie cake because
we saw some m&m's hiding in the cake. lol!

the flavors were:
a. monster cookie
b. lunchbox [yellow cake w/ chocolate
frosting, because chris likes simple]
c.hazelnut nutella
d. chocolate peanut butter cup

i decided to get creative and remade
the toppers [the originals got
ruined, but it was expected since they
were just made of paper, and the holes on
the top made the cake look ugly so
i had to cover them, lol].


here's a picture of the top tier
with the pinwheel toppers:




here's a picture after i cut it and we ate it:



what a fun way to celebrate something
so special! we didn't even want to throw
the cake away! we were sad when we did!

stay tuned! more photos and info
on the cake coming up!

"the big picture"

the first chapter of the
'wedding keepsake book' begins with
'the big picture.' this allows
you and your soon-to-be husband to write out
and talk about all the things you
both envision for the wedding.


"the big picture"



this chapter includes a small area
to write out your dream wedding ideas,
a place for your wedding contacts, such as
the caterer, photographer, etc.

the next part is
my favorite part of this chapter...
the long engagement and short engagement
checklists. the long engagement checklist
starts at a year out and the short
engagement starts at six months out.

some of the items on those lists include:
-send save-the-date cards
-meet with officiant to plan ceremony
-choose table linens and napkin treatments
-schedule rehearsal time and rehearsal dinner time


there is also a "mock" schedule:



i thought it was very helpful to
see how a wedding should flow to create
a smooth and stress free wedding night!
although, the dj we booked took care of
a lot of the flow of things, thank you, cubbie!

[if you are in the des moines area or
surrounding area i would highly suggest
'select entertainment'as they are amazing at
what they do as a dj, photobooth company
and wedding organizer, but more on that later]!
here's the website: select entertainment

last but not least there is a
wedding day emergency kit list!
which was super awesome to me! that
someone could think about that!
although , i didn't pack one-- but turns
out i didn't need it anyway because
the reception site had me covered!
greatest wedding team my husband and
i could ever have!

wedding planning keepsake book

hey everyone! sorry i went missing again!
i really need to learn how to manage
time better between work, my husband, writing
in this blog, and schoolwork. i never
know when it's a good time to blog :[

since we are on the subject of planning
weddings, i thought i would share the
wedding planning book that i used for
chris and i's wedding last september.
[i should've started the opening topic of weddings
with this blog first... sigh]

here's a picture of the book cover:



the wedding planner & organizer
by mindy weiss
you can find it at barnes & noble

this book is not only helpful, it's really cute too! bonus!
[i even bought the wedding book she wrote!]

funny story, i got this book as a gift from
my mother-in-law and I already
purchased one on my own, but i really
liked hers more than the one i purchased.

i'll also use this book to help guide us
through the topics of getting from point a
to point b with planning your day. [with photos!]
i will also share the good and bad, as well as the
highs and lows, and everything else in between.


next topic is: the big picture
this includes checklists and brainstorming
to give you ideas on what you and your
soon-to-be husband want for the big day!

rain in the [wedding] forecast

of course, like many brides,
i checked the forecast for our outdoor
wedding more times than you can
count on your fingers!
it was mid september-- i didn't think
a thunderstorm would happen!
only in iowa!

it was such a roller coaster ride
because two weeks out, the forecast
said sunshine and lollipops. the next week,
the week closer to the actual wedding day,
said thunderstorms and sadness.

[i wonder if my husband had second
thoughts marrying me because one day i
would say, "it's okay, nothing will stop us!"
and the next day i would be all,
"i can't do this!!" i was primarily
freaking out because our arch was made
with paper flowers! so i feel that i had
the rights for a meltdown! lol!]

i'm happy to say that he did marry me
even after all my freak out crazy bride moments.
he even found a cute blog about
another bride who coped with her day
filled with rain, too. he made me read it and
said that it'll be okay. i was okay after that.
and i knew i would get through it with
the support he gave and showed me.

he kept it in his bookmarks
[probably just in case i flipped out again, lol]
here's the other bride's blog:
luckiest girl ever blog

we did get lucky and everything was sunshine
and perfection! [and it did rain on our wedding
day briefly during the time we were getting ready and
it stopped right as we left to say our vows :] ]


photo by: steph & dado at 5th photography

dressing the bridal party

as you probably know finding anything
in the tiffany/aqua color was pretty much
near impossible. so impossible- i wanted
to give up on the whole idea!
glad to say that i didn't give up on it!
everything worked out!

the girls

i searched far and wide for the
bridesmaid's dresses. for them to be
reasonably priced and gorgeous.
i got lucky and kept pushing on even when
i thought it would just waste my time.

after searching and searching,
i happened to find short convertible dresses.
[i wanted longer, maxi ones but they ran $150.00
more, so i settled for the short ones!]

i didn't want my girls to all look alike--
so it was perfect! they got to style the dresses
to their preference and they got to style their
hair the way they wanted to, too.
you would think they all would have been
super happy about it all-- but they all were
saying i was giving them too many options!
you gotta love girls, right! lol!
there's always something!

i did purchase the same shoe for them all, though.
i felt that something on them needed to
tie them together besides the color of the dress.
their shoe was a silver ankle buckle heel.
['totally uncomfortable', so i was told all night, lol]

don't they love lovely? :] i know they do!

photo by: steph & dado at 5th photography

the boys

of course, the boys got dressed and put
together without a hitch! i think
they all secretly felt completely handsome
in their suits! i thought so, anyway! i give
milroy's tuxedo an a+ because i just gave a
description of the colors and a quick swatch check
and everything went well after that.

the picture is the groomsmen mixed with the ushers.
the groomsmen are wearing white shoes.
chris and i love jordan's so we bought the
groomsmen white air jordan retro 1's as part of the
attire and as part of the gift.
[i should have just had the ushers wear white shoes, too,
but i wasn't thinking that far ahead :( lesson learned.]

gotta love men for just going with the flow.

handsome for sure!

photo by: steph & dado at 5th photography

stay with me! there's more details to hash out!
coming up next!

the start of it all

chris proposed to me a little less than two
years before we really said i do.
but i knew that in order to have that
elegant, beautiful wedding with all the
small details i've envisioned for awhile-- time was
not to be wasted. i jumped right into planning.
it was the best thing ever, i was engaged
and i got to use my creativity!

we'll talk about everything, i promise!
the details, the dress, the cake... everything!
[if i don't forget!] :]

i originally wanted this crazy cinderella
wedding, all frou frou and pink and
castles and tiaras-- [mind you this was when
i didn't even have a fiance yet! whew!
typical tacky disaster averted! :] ]

so this new wedding theme-- came from scratch.
yes, i freaked out. i didn't know where to start.
chris wanted a royal blue... i'm not fond of that
color but i wanted his ideas to be a
part of the wedding, so i compromised with aqua.
i like the color and it was a part of the blue
family. we both were happy. we ended up with
aqua, white, and silver/glitter. because those
who know me, know i love the glitter!

dressing the guys was an easy task for me.
i never really liked the black suits, i
felt like it was too, i'm getting dressed to
go to a funeral not to see two people tie the knot!
we went with light grey. lovely!

dressing the girls was fairly easy--
you know girls... meow! more on that later...

we are both very unique and also like to
stand out from the crowd. so we threw
a bit of spider-man things here and there
because chris is a huge fan, of course.
ladies, it's not just about you!

i eventually decided to make all the decor out of
paper. a] because i knew that i could recycle it [save
the planet!], b] because i love working with paper,
and c] because i took some ideas from wedding
magazines that were unique and beautiful. perfect.
no worries. we'll get through it all,
some with tutorials and some with pictures.

keep in touch for more! xoxo

photo by: steph & dado at 5th photography