Thanksgiving +


I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving! In between our three Thanksgiving dinners, Justin and I got to enjoy spending time with many of our family members. Especially touching was a lovely speech Justin's grandmother gave to everyone in the family! We had a lovely time with all of our families and we are looking forward to many more Thanksgivings together as a married couple!



Justin and I also had a lot of fun this past weekend with his lovely little sister and my maid of honor as she spurred us along in our invitation/save-the-date creating. Our save-the-dates are complete, beautiful, and adressed, so they will go in the mail this week! I just love the way Marion addressed these!

I'm Late, I'm Late for a Very Important Date!

Over the weekend, Justin and I realized why it is that most engaged couples just buy everything. It's just easier! We find that most of our weekends are taken up running around trying to obtain all of the things needed for DIY projects, but then we have very little time left over to actually DIY anything. :/

On that note, let me share with you a few of our decoration inspirtation images and some DIY projects we think are awesome!


Dawn + Anthony Wedding; Bobbi and Mike Photography

Click here for a tutorial on how to make these from paper doilies!

Another Sneak Peek!



Turns out our save-the-dates should have said that! (Typed by Justin.)

Notice the background of tea cups and feel sorry for my parents dining room table. ;) "It will all be over soon" I keep telling them. hehe.

And then there was stationery...

First of all, let me provide a huge CONGRATULATIONS to my dear friend Suzy! She just posted some awesomely wonderful news on Youtube! Go check it out!

So... I've been busy working on my lovely save-the-dates that are going to be printed this week! (I know I keep saying that, but I am serious this time!) Justin bought the paper this afternoon. Even though I have yet to see it, I am certain it is wonderful and will work splendidly with our save-the-dates!

In preparation for the magnificent printing of our save-the-dates I have been going crazy trying to put together my address list. We almost have everyone on the list who is getting a save-the-date. Sadly, we will not be sending one to everyone. I've also had to research some "extras" that will make our save-the-dates completely unique and very much created by hand. (I'm sure I will post a sample after they have been sent out.) Next week I will find myself stamping, stamping, addressing, and typing. (Hopefully I will find myself some help!)

In the mean time, I decided to think about the wedding program. I was impressed with how many helpful websites there are for putting together a Catholic wedding program. Not being Catholic myself, I really had no idea what to expect from a Catholic ceremony. As it is, with mostly non-Catholics in attendance I will still need to consider how much participation will be required from the group that will need to be added to the program. *shrugs* I'm sure I will figure it all out!

Even though creating the wedding stationary has been a rough and stressful process, I am actually really excited about the save-the-dates and I know that our invitations will come together beautifully as well! However, do not be surprised if I post a few more times about the creation of our stationary before it is all said and done...

The Last of It?

Flintridge China - Miramar

Over the weekend Justin and I finally bought what should be the last of our China extravaganza. It is so exciting to see so many beautiful pieces of China all in one place!

Tiger Lilly Review

Ada earrings
I was so excited this afternoon when UPS dropped a small box off at my house containing the most beautiful Ada earrings from Tiger Lilly. Initially I had received a $25 gift card for Tiger Lilly from Dress Rush, a company that provides coupons and daily deals for brides. I wasn't sure if I wanted to purchase anything from Tiger Lilly considering the high shipping costs ($8), but when the last day to use the coupon came around (10/31), I decided to go ahead and order anyway. (It helped that they provided the option to pay through paypal!) I figured if the earrings were not wedding-worthy, then I could wear them as normal earrings with any outfit I had.

To my surprise and excitement, these earrings are definitely wedding worthy! They are very sparkly and MUCH prettier in person than they are in the pictures online. I think they will go perfectly with my wedding dress! The earrings are approximately 1.5 inches long providing a nice and dangly look. They also come in sterling silver which works out perfectly for me since I wear more silver than gold. Tiger Lilly even included instructions for cleaning the jewelry!

Tiger Lilly did a magnificent job packaging my earrings if not being a little too careful. The box I received in the mail was not obviously jewelry since it was a bit big. You can tell that they think highly of their jewelry since they package it in a box and send it via UPS (instead of just bagging it and sending it through USPS. So even though shipping costs are high, the money is obviously used to make sure that you do in fact receive your jewelry. The earrings themselves came in a smaller cute box with the company's logo image of a tiger lilly on it. Very cute indeed!

The jewelry from Tiger Lilly is exquisite and it seems as though the company takes great efforts to make sure you receive your order within a short amount of time packaged so that your jewelry arrives in pristine condition. I would definitely encourage other women, including brides, to take a look at what Tiger Lilly has to offer!

I was not provided with any compensation or object for this review. These are my personal opinions regarding the company at hand.

Paper Coterie book

As much as I dislike* the Paper Coterie program for editing...

and the style of the books...

I had won a few gift cards for Paper Coterie that I ended up using yesterday to create a book of engagement pictures that I will be sharing with mine and Justin's family.

You can check out the book I made here or go create a book of your own.

*See my review of Paper Coterie here.