That Something Exciting

Remember how I said my weekend got more exciting?

I had asked Justin if we could have steak on Saturday night. When we went to look at meat prices, we were shocked at the cost for a steak. Justin ended up getting a hanger steak not knowing what it was. Apparently, in the Joy Of Cooking, the authors claim that a hanger steak is only really good if it is cooked well, but very little was said about how to cook it. They did, however, recommend that it would be a good steak for boeuf bourguignon -- Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon. (Ok, maybe the book did not say that specifically, but the dish was recommended... just not Julia Child's in particular. Apparently Julia Child became popular after the Joy of Cooking was published.)

While dinner at midnight may appease some, Justin and I decided to wait a day to make the stew enjoying instead some guacamole and chips. Come Sunday, Justin began preparation of some meringues and helped me to get some cleaning done around the house not once realizing that the stew really should have been cooking the whole time. Around five o'clock, Justin decided that he was going to make Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon anyway even though we wouldn't get to eat it until Monday. I'll have you know that Justin got so distracted creating this meal that, once again, we had a late night dinner with the boeuf bourguignon not finishing until nearly midnight and smelling delicious the entire time!

As a surprise, Justin's parents came down to have dinner with us on Monday night. Between the boeuf bourguignon, broccoli, french bread, steamed potatoes, and a delicious salad, no one went hungry. The boeuf bourguignon was sooooo tender... like pot roast. It still had the taste of steak and little bit of a fruity taste... most likely due to the wine it was cooked in. It was absolutely delicious. Having been my first French meal, I would definitely eat something like this again.

So that was my something exciting. It probably is not everyone's 'cup of tea', but I definitely had quite an experience trying this new (to me) recipe. Plus, I always love watching Justin cook. I'm not good with food myself and I can never tell what will go together, but I love that he can alter recipes and it usually tastes pretty good. If you have ever had the desire to try this recipe, I definitely recommend that you do.

The apple pie with cheddar cheese and ice cream that we had for dessert that night was just the 'icing on the cake'! :)

New Items at BHLDN

I'm sure I've shared this before and I am sure I will share this again...

I LOVE BHLDN and the majority of the stores in the Urban Outfitters line. This morning, BHLDN posted a bunch of new things on their website. This is pretty exciting since it is only the second year they have been open. It seems, to me, that the BHLDN line just keeps getting better! While I don't check out the website enough to tell you what is currently new, I can share with you a few things I have not seen before on the website that I LOVE!

Up until recently the Tea Rose Dress only came in a light rose pink color. When I saw this dress in this turquoise color, it didn't matter how much the original went on sale... I wanted to wait for this one to become available. Although I cannot currently afford or justify the $380 price tag for this dress, which also now comes in gold, I am absolutely in love with this dress! Maybe it will go on sale at some point, so that I can purchase it! (Or maybe my husband will be awesome and let me at some point... We shall see.)

While I have no desire to ever get married again, I am absolutely in love with the Onyx gown now available at BHLDN. The front of the dress is gorgeous, but I love the back of the dress with the elegant lace, the flowing skirt, and the beautiful bow detail. Plus, what are your thoughts on the model's hair? :)

Finally, I stumbled across these bits of gorgeous. They are the Parlour Cake Stands and look very similar to some cake stands I had wanted to use in my wedding. The pink is a gorgeous color, but I am not entirely sure the husband would agree to put one of his cakes on these beautiful stands, so, for now, I will have to admire from a distance!

Are you currently loving anything at BHLDN? :)

What a Weekend!

So my weekend started off pretty awesomely when I got a text from some friends in Germany saying they finally got their Christmas gift in the mail! (We sent it pretty late, because I was sick, and crazy-busy crafting bunches of Christmas gifts! Eek! I am a terrible friend/person, I know!) I loved the response of having given "something warm and something to drink hot chocolate with" since when I sent it I avoided using words that would indicate what exactly was in the box. (I hate how the postal service slaps on a sticker saying what is in the box voiding the whole point of mail being a surprise. Why no! You have to open the box to know what exactly is in there!)

Anyway, from that point on my weekend just got better.

I had a whole crazy long list of things that needed to get done on Saturday and appointment times to go with it. We weren't sure if we would make all of our appointments, but we did! It began with a trip to the bank Saturday morning, dropping off things to be stored with my parents, having a quick brunch while out and about before breakfast hours ended, followed by a hair appointment and an Apple appointment for my computer.

In between all of these appointments, we also needed to return something I had bought from Anthropologie. Justin probably should have said no, but he agreed to let me look through the sale section. I tried on 4 different things.

One of the first things I tried on was the Fan Folds Tunic. It was really cute on... except that the chest fits a little tight. I tried the shirt on in my usual size of 0, but while it fit everywhere else, I would have needed to go up a size or so for it to fit in the chest area. Considering I have a fairly small chest, I decided it wasn't worth it.

Next up was the Striated Lace Dress. Justin and I agreed -- the dress tried REALLY HARD, but it was a no. Turns out the waist was really weird on me. Instead of looking natural, it kind of stuck out. On top of that, the top of the dress was too big! I was wondering what was going on with my chest at this point! Too big for one dress and too small for another! There was really a lot of room in the top of the dress, and I would probably have had to spend a lot of money getting it taken in... which is not something you want to do when you purchase Anthropologie. Yuck. I'm also not usually a fan of stripes, so it was interesting that I was willing to try this dress on. I inevitably decided that the way the dress fit made it not quite as awesome as the Sunshades Dress which is one striped dress I absolutely love!

So then I tried on the Noisette Lace Dress. I had seen it in Anthropologie about the same time I saw my Stitched Looma Coat. I loved the style of this dress, but I was terribly afraid it wouldn't work for me. I assumed (as did my husband) that the dress was meant for someone much taller than a 5'2" female. I was terribly wrong. Do you see the model in the picture above and how her dress swooshes? That was my very first impression of this dress! It swooshes!! I know it sounds hilarious, but it's the part of the dress that makes you feel like a princess when you are wearing it. The fabric is nice and heavy... The dress does not feel (or look) cheaply made at all. On top of it all, this dress hit me right above the ankles which actually looked pretty great. I think with this dress you could easily add a belt or a bolero (shrug?) and jazz up (or down) this dress. I tried it on with a grey shrug, and Justin said it looked phenomenal.

The very last dress I tried on was the Chrysanthemum Tea Dress, another Tracy Reese design.* I had tried this dress on initially around Thanksgiving on a day when I was short-tempered and not feeling good. I guess my mood had an impact on what Justin thought of this dress. While we were at Anthropologie on Saturday, he pointed out this dress and asked if I wanted to try it on. Remembering that I thought it was lovely on, I agreed. I figured if he didn't remember my first time trying this dress on, it was his loss (or gain). So I tried on the 2 and the 4 remembering that this dress fit crazy tight in the waist and that the 0 was too small. When I tried on both the 2 and the 4, I could not get the zipper up. My initial thought was that the 2 didn't fit, but I felt insane thinking that the 4 didn't fit. Finally, I just got help. It's quite possible that the 2 could have fit me if I had asked for help with the zipper, but considering the 4 fit pretty well, with Justin's help zipping, I didn't bother going back to the smaller size.

Justin bought me both the Noisette Dress and the Chrysanthemum Tea Dress on sale. When I asked him why he would agree to buy both, he said that 1) it gave me more dresses to wear and 2) Anthropologie dresses give me confidence and make me feel pretty. I was not going to argue that!

So, at the end of the day, with my hair cut and styled and two new dresses, I definitely felt like I had emerged from the movie Pretty Woman.

My weekend did get better, but for that you will have to wait until my next post!


*(See Stitched Looma Coat and Noisette Dress.)

Financial Struggles When Getting Married

If you are getting married, you've probably already thought about your budget. More than likely you've had one of two thoughts:

1. I'll win a bunch of contests for awesome wedding things and our wedding will be super cheap!

2. I'll have a small wedding and thus our wedding will be really cheap!

Can I blow your wedding budget bubble? Weddings cost more than you think they do!

Unless you are a wedding planner, you probably aren't aware of the actual cost of weddings or the time that goes into them. So I suggest you research the general cost of the vendors that will be necessary for your wedding before coming up with a budget. Despite having worked as a second photographer for weddings before, even I was surprised at the actual cost of a wedding!

To give you an idea of wedding costs, let's look at the costs of my wedding:

1. The photographer was the most important part of our wedding. The first photographer we planned on using cost roughly $2000. When we found out the main photographer was pregnant, we went on a last minute search for a replacement photographer... who cost us approximately $1000. Dove Photography, our first photographer, had had their images published in magazines, had attended the same college as me(!!), was going to give us all of their images, but they were only going to shoot for approximately 6 hours with 2 shooters and their company was located out of state. The second photographer we hired, Darwin Young, actually lived in the area, was giving us all of our images, and was going to shoot the whole day of wedding excitement.

2. The florist we booked cost us approximately $2000. Amy Osaba, it turns out, was charging for name only. The florals were pretty until they fell apart and turned brown before the ceremony. Other florists we talked with were only going to charge approximately $600 for what Justin and I asked for.

3. Venue, one of the last things booked, cost us $3000! We were originally looking to spend $200 on our venue, but the building was being remodeled. Every other location we looked at, we were going to have to bring in rentals and crazy decorate the location. Having free rentals, s'mores, tents, heaters, and an extra wedding planner helped us to seal the deal.

4. Food was one of the cheapest things we paid for! Yay!! At $12/head with appetizers and three different entrees, bread, salad, coffee, and fruit we thought we got a good deal! Most caterers were asking a minimum of $15/head with only 2 entrees, salad, and bread. Some were asking as much as $30/head!!! We had considered buying Costco lasagnas and getting some of the men Justin's dad knew to heat them up and serve them, but even Justin's dad, who knew a lot about catering, decided we were getting a good deal with the food!

5. Music was also cheap. We had my laptop plugged in... Not ideal, but it worked. Justin was even able to go change the music during the reception without anyone noticing! In total, music cost us about $100. Obviously, you could just use music you already have. We were looking at a DJ for around $700 for 3 hours... or a band for a few thousand. 

6. I'm embarrassed to admit that the invitations and paper products cost quite a bit coming in at about $1000. I wasn't even all that happy with my invitations! I was just so indecisive at making my own invitations, and I was trying to be a perfectionist with my save-the-dates and programs. I was in love with my programs, by the way! However, if you don't know what you are doing, you could probably get away with spending $500 or less on invitations, $1000 for fancy invites, or less than $100 if you just print them off of your own printer.

All in all, our wedding cost us more than we expected including clothing, decoration, and dance lesson costs that I have not mentioned here. We did not go into more debt than we already owed, we were able to pay in cash, as I suggest you do as well.

While vendor costs are all over the place, I hope you get the general idea. There are a lot of variables that make up the cost of an item from awards, to the name, not having a clue what you are doing, bargaining, rental costs, etc... The best you can do is be aware that weddings are expensive, know what to expect given a vendors particular price range, and look for the absolute best deal you can find.

Weekend Recap

In my last post, I told you all that Justin and I are taking hold of our financial future in a very strong way this year. (Not that I would ever not be interested in my financial future. It was inevitable.)

Justin approached me over the weekend and said "We have a problem." He informed me that his checking account was lower than he liked and he didn't know why. He gets really angry dealing with finances whereas I can sit there and work things out unemotional. Turns out we had a lot of yearly expenses that came due this month. *sigh* Ok, change that. HE had a lot of yearly expenses I didn't know about.

Up until this year, I have really tried to stay out of his finances. They were none of my business because we weren't married. (I know! It's insane that a girl could keep her opinions to herself! Don't worry though. My opinions were clear on every other subject under the sun before we married... and still are.)

So anyway, my whole day Sunday was devoted to coming up with a financial plan. I first needed to know where our money was going, so that I could then split it up over the course of the month according to Justin's paychecks and determine exactly how much out of savings we would need to cover those yearly expenses.

Justin and I clearly aren't on the same page. I ask if we can split expenses with his family, so that more people can get the services for half the cost. He doesn't understand. He says "But it's only $25, and that won't save us much." I'm of the opinion that any money saved is beneficial.

Unfortunately, considering all of the yearly expenses have been paid (both with and without my consent), I find it not worth arguing until next year. On top of that, we have Justin now set up to save the money over the course of the year, so that we don't get a surprise depletion of our savings against our/my will next January.

In other news, my husband worked very hard replacing some part on my car with my dad's help this weekend. He kind of looked like a creature from the deep when he was done... black hands and a black face. :) I didn't say that though. I am very thankful for a husband that can do almost anything and a father that can help Justin figure out my car. Yay for $40 parts and no other repair costs!

Do you agree with Justin that sharing expenses isn't worth the money saved? Do you have a financial plan worked out for this year?

New Year Resolutions (i.e. Financial Goals)

Justin and I didn't make any explicit new years resolutions, but we do have some general goals that we would like to meet.

Having dated for so long before getting married, Justin and I have very different ways of handling our finances.

It took me so long to get a legitimate job that my biggest goal has always been to save as much as possible and get amazing deals. (Did you see my latest Anthropologie splurge?) I've never been great at couponing, so I do my best to keep an eye on prices. I wait for things to go on sale. When things do go on sale, I try to only buy what I need. Finally, if the price does drop again, I love doing price adjustments!

Over the past year, every cent I make goes into savings. That number includes any gifts from my family to us or to me. (Justin's family doesn't usually give us gifts in the form of cash, so we really haven't had to deal with that before.) Before I began work in August, I came up with a financial goal that I thought would be achievable. It was honestly a lot harder to reach that goal as a married individual than it would have been as a single individual, but thanks to a generous gift from my family for Christmas, Justin and I were able to reach that goal. (YAY!!!) Back in August, I also came up with a savings goal to be at by the month of May. I'm currently striving for it, but... I don't know that we will reach it by May.

Basically our savings goal is more than enough to pay for a new car if my car decides to die next week... We also have enough to pay a FEW months of living expenses if Justin's company goes under. (Being a start-up company, you never know what can happen!)

Justin's money, on the other hand, goes to pay for living expenses as well as paying down debt. Between Justin and I, both, we owe enough in student loans to pay for a house! (A small house, but a house is still a house!)

So between paying down debt and building an emergency savings account, we have some really crazy financial goals... without adding on the fact that we are planning a trip to New York/Massachusetts this summer! I'm not entirely certain we can afford the trip, but I do think it is important for me to meet some of Justin's family I have never met in the entire 8+ years we've been together.

Those are our somewhat lofty financial goals for the year of 2013. We have to meet them though, because we owe a trip to Germany and may have a wedding in Chicago to attend at some point in the near future. We won't even mention my desires of visiting Italy, France, London, or you know... owning an actual house at some point.

So what are your financial goals for 2013?

Holiday Break

Here's hoping that all of my followers had a lovely holiday break!

Justin and I had a nice holiday break... though not quite as long as I would have liked. (Are breaks ever as long as you would like?!) I found myself sick just prior to the break... then got better just in time for us to go visit my dad's extended family. I came home that night exhausted... and sick AGAIN! Two weeks later, I am still fighting it! The lesson learned in all of this? Being sick on holidays is not fun.

To celebrate the new year, yesterday, Justin and I went to the theatre and saw Skyfall! We went all out and got popcorn and soda. It was really fun! :) I don't think we've been to see a movie together since before we got married! Plus, it only helped that the movie was awesome! I definitely recommend seeing it! :)

Also, over the holidays, I decided to spend my Anthropologie giftcard money that I won at Sarcire's blog!

At first I bought the Plenty by Tracy Reese Stitched Looma Coat on sale with the Fritillary Ruffle Loop. The two were absolutely gorgeous together, and I got soooo many compliments! At least 10 the first day I wore the pair! :)

 

So anyway, one week later, Anthropologie has another sale. My coveted coat can now be obtained for even cheaper than what I originally paid for it! So what did I do? I called Anthropologie back and I got a price adjustment! A price adjustment in the form of a $60 giftcard and $15 back on my debit card. I was stoked!

What's a girl to do but to go back and find even more loves?

I ended up ordering the Fritillary Ruffle Loop in a cream color from the Anthropologie in Chicago. (They were the only store that still had one.) Justin and I also went to explore the biggest Anthropologie in Atlanta, the one at Lenox mall. There we discovered At My French Table by Jane Webster and Meringue by Linda Jackson.

Coincidentally, Justin had just finished baking a German chocolate cake that used a lot of egg yolks but left him with a large number of egg whites. We had so much fun getting and looking through these cookbooks. At My French Table was more a story than a cookbook, but it contained a variety of French recipes scattered throughout. I had that book read in one night! :) It turns out Jane Webster has a sequel that I may have to check out! Meringue had far less text and far more recipes with gorgeous pictures of delicious desserts and icings!

Needless to say, I was (and am) pretty excited that my giftcard to Anthropologie went so far!

I would say Justin and I had a pretty exciting holiday vacation despite being sick and all that came with it! What do you think? :)