The Year In Review

Every year, for the past 4 years or so, I have been doing a "year in review" post which catalogues all of my first of the month posts with the first sentence from each of those posts. Here is a look at the busy year Justin and I have had as we got married, moved in together, and experienced some of our biggest life changes ever. January - I am beyond excited to have had one more day of vacation...

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

Since yesterday was Christmas, I thought I would share a few of my favorite things about the holiday season. 1. Packages tied with REAL ribbon (not the fake plasticy stuff). Unfortunately, the box above used a WHOLE spool of ribbon. (At least it was pretty?!...

Christmas Eve!

image by Robert Hill of Eyeon Media; edited by me I can hardly believe it is the day before Christmas! After a fun-filled weekend with baking, spending time with extended family, grocery shopping, and going on a hike to a waterfall, unfortunately, Justin...

Smashcake Studio

Guess what we received in the mail this week? A 12" beautiful white milk glass pedestal cake stand from Smashcake Studio! Justin and I had won it in a contest from Anders Ruff. Approximately 3 days after deciding on what we were getting,...

The Kiss

After watching The Bachelorette: Ashley and J.P.'s Wedding (Yes, I watched it. Yes, that makes me a sad, sad person. lol.) I was inspired to write a post about the importance of the kiss, the first one you make as husband and wife at the altar. If you haven't discussed this with your future husband, you need to. Or maybe you don't. I'm not you or him... I'm not in your relationship, and I can't tell...

Christmas Movies

Over the weekend, Justin went with me to babysit a few little gremlins as we watched Steven Spielberg's The Gremlins and ate some homemade popcorn. Apparently the movie, despite being quite scary for children, actually takes place at Christmas time. I had never seen it before, but it was quite amusing between explaining what was happening to a three year old ("Someone gave him a shot!" in a high-pitched...

Finally Friday!

I'm sorry for the lack of updates this week, friends. I've been sick, and I haven't really felt like doing much. I hope you all are looking forward to the weekend as much as I am! Justin and I have some Christmas present crafts to finish as well as addressing and sending all of our Christmas cards that came in the mail yesterday!! Yay! I'm also going to be watching the movie Gremlins with...

Bouquet Pendants

One idea I absolutely love that we used when planning our wedding was the idea of using pendants to make each bridesmaid and flower girl's bouquet unique and special. We didn't actually get a picture of the pendants in the bouquets, but we bought little picture...

Through the Woods

image by Robert Hill of Eyeonline Media; enhanced by me As the days get shorter, Justin and I seem to get busier. Over the course of the last week, as mentioned in last Tuesday's post, Justin and I managed to go from having one or two things to do... to having...

Florrie Mitton

Forever Lace Garter with Rhinestone Trim So you have your dress, the venue is picked, and now it is time to decide on the small details that you may or may not remember about your day. You have to pick out the decorations, the rental company for plates, and......

ChicWish Review (Follow Up)

Back before Thanksgiving, I discovered ChicWish and ordered a few things. Now that the dress I ordered, the Got a Date Lace Dress in Mint, is finally in, I thought I would review my experience. First off, I used free shipping right before Thanksgiving. When using free shipping, ChicWish will not monitor where the item is in the shipping process for you, so I was sitting on pins and needles waiting...

A Busy Weekend

Justin and I were super busy this past weekend. I came up with a list of things that needed to happen over the weekend, things we could do to save money rather than spending it... but things that needed to happen anyway. One of those things was getting a chandelier...

ASOS

A Wear Fit & Flare Lace Dress I feel like I keep discovering more and more shops. ASOS is an awesome shop with cute clothes. It started in the UK in 2000 with only recently (as in 2010) opening up to shoppers in the US. I had heard about ASOS before...

Christmas Decorations & the Holiday Weekend

After spending a delightful Thanksgiving with our families enjoying Justin's most delicious Ultimate Coconut Cake, and a crazy-busy Black Friday at the malls shopping deals and discounts to obtain the perfect gifts for the ones we love, Justin and I spent...

Black Friday Shopping

One of my favorite things to do every year after Thanksgiving is to go shopping on "Black Friday". I love people watching. Then there is also the excitement of seeing Christmas decorations up in the malls and hearing Christmas music for what is hopefully the first time in the year. While Christmas decorations are going up earlier and earlier every year and shops are playing Christmas music sooner...

Wishing All A Happy Thanksgiving!

Over the past year, my life has changed in so many ways... for the better. I am so thankful for all of the wonderful people in my life who have blessed it in so many ways. I sincerely hope that each of my readers has a particularly good Thursday whether or not you celebrate Thanksgivi...

Shoes... Shoes... Shoes...

When I was getting married, I had the hardest time finding shoes. Today, through pinterest, I stumbled across ParisXOX on etsy. Watermelon Pink Shoes with Rhinestone Embellishments. Before finding out about ParisXOX, I thought the only place to...

Christmas Crafts

Apparently, this week's posts are all about saving money! This week Justin and I have been discussing how best we can save money and yet still decorate for Christmas. Let me share some of our ideas: 1. Instead of buying a Christmas tree, we are going to borrow a fake tree. As exciting as a real tree? No. Can we focus on giving instead? Yes. 2. As I shared in the last post, we have been shopping...

Sacrifices

So... when you get married and: a) one of you doesn't work b) both of you have mediocre/bad paying jobs or c) you have a lot of debt (i.e. student loans) that needs to get paid off you make sacrifices in spending. Hopefully you didn't splurge too much when you got married and/or if you did it was for reasons you both wanted. The same goes for after marriage. You pick and choose what you want...

The Designer Jeans Search

Instead of celebrating Halloween on Wednesday like any normal person, Justin and I decided to go out and do something different. I had never been to Phipps Plaza, the mall known for having the most expensive stores in the city of Atlanta. It is the mall of...

Paper Accessories

One of the most exciting details I wanted to include when planning our wedding were the paper accessories. I picked out doilies (which you can get fairly cheap on Amazon) that we used to make cupcake holders that I thought were really elegant. We also bought the...

Viral Videos

We've all seen the viral videos that are all over the internet (specifically "Gangnam Style" & "Call Me Maybe").  I know you've seen them, because the nine year old I babysit for has seen them. I know you are more tech savvy than her. :) But have you seen all of the parodies? Carly Rae Jespen's "Call Me Maybe" was sung by the US Olympic Swimming Team, the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders,...

Amy Osaba Florals Review

One of the best and worst vendors of my wedding day was Amy Osaba Floral Event & Design. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous. They looked hand-picked which was exactly what I wanted. She also tried to incorporate my vision into my flowers. That's...

The Last Name Fiasco

One of the most important things to consider when getting married is what your last name will be. If you are the bride, will you take his last name? Keep yours? Maybe hyphen the two names together? Come up with something new altogether? It really is a big deal. Feelings can get hurt. You just have to keep your best interest in mind. I have known people that have done all of the above. I know you...

Just Another Weekend...

In case you were blithely unaware, my obsession is Anthropologie. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that store. I love their home products, their dresses, their cookbooks... I went in this weekend and found some amazing $80 shoes. I did not buy them. I don't wear orange!...

Cleaning Up

Over the weekend Justin and I went to Ikea looking for options to clean up our spare bedroom. Our landlord was coming to figure out how to set up a security system, and we didn't really want him to think we lived like slobs. Hence, we started a major cleaning...

Bridal Shower (1950's Style)

I'm absolutely obsessed with anything 1950's, but I thought this idea was particularly creative and interesting. I absolutely love the fun bright colors (specifically the red). And look at those cute aprons! What a fun way to incorporate...

September Overview Instagram Style

I love taking pictures, so I decided to share what Justin and I were up to during the month of September Instagram styl...

Changes

The scare last Thursday (and Friday) have resulted in some changes that Justin and I are taking to make our house feel more like a home (as well as add some additional security). Justin, I must report, is doing much better at checking and double-checking to make sure he has locked doors (with me triple checking). We leave far more lights on at night (with little regard to how this will effect our...

Programs

Honestly, this was one of my FAVORITE parts of the wedding planning process. I spent sooo much time planning out the invitations and save-the-dates that it almost makes me sick. Do you know how little time I spent planning the programs? Do you know how much more...

Thursday

On Thursday morning Justin and I woke up to find the trunk open on my car. Upon further investigation, Justin noticed that nearly everything in my console was gone and everything in my glove compartment had been gone through. Lovely way to start the day, yes? First I checked with my bank to make sure no money had been stolen or used -- it hadn't. Then we contacted the police. Within 10 minutes, we...