Bridal Shower

I had my bridal shower on Sunday June 2nd.  It was amazing.  I couldn't have asked for a better day.  Thank you Nathalie (MOH) and Lynzie (BM) for everything you did for me.  They threw me a pink garden party themed shower which encompassed everything I am.  Rather than explain it all, let me show you through pictures.  Enjoy!

 Amazing french macaron favors

 Bridal Shower Cake by Stacey Raits

 Yummy Cocktail

 Wishes Basket

 Food Set-up

 Can you tell I love pink?

 Best blonde friends

 BM Ashley, BM Lynzie, myself, MOH Nathalie, BM Kristina

 Best flower girl. She just wanted to dance.

My shower was amazing.  I am one very lucky girl.  Many people were not pictured, but spoiled me rotten and I want to say thank you to everyone.

Run Or Dye

Two weekends ago, I did the Run or Dye 5K in Reno.  But let me first start by saying I was in Chicago the week leading up to the race for work.  And lately, I have the worst luck with flying United Airlines.  Ugh, I really dislike them.  In the last month, I have flown them three times (round trip) and three of the six legs have been either cancelled (two of them) or delayed almost 5 hours.

My flight from Chicago to San Francisco was delayed 4 hours and 45 minutes due to engine failure.  Ok I don't want to get on that plane, so I understood, but it took forever to find a new plane after sitting in said broken plane four over two hours.  I got into San Francisco and missed my flight to Reno, so I drove back home....5 hours.  I got home at 12:30 am and had to be up at 6:30 am to get ready for the race.  I don't know how I did it, but I did, and it was really fun.  Here is some photos for your enjoyment.

 

We had such an amazing time.  Only downside, being a blonde, the pink did not wash out of my hair.  The green, orange, purple and blue, all washed out nicely.  But the pink left a huge circle of color on the left side of my hair.  I got most of it out by a week later, but my hair dresser had to come to my rescue and fix the last bit of pink in my hair.  Oh and I had some pink in my hair for my pink themed bridal shower.  Guess I really took the pink theme seriously!

Have you ever done Run or Dye, Color Me Rad or any other color run?  Did your hair dye all sorts of colors?

Bad Blogger

So I have been a bad blogger lately.  I have been going on work trips left and right.  It seems like just when I unpack, I have to pack again.  Now most of the time I love traveling for work or fun.  But when you are planning a wedding, it is HARD.  Hence why I have been a bad blogger.  I have so many cute photos from my Bridal Shower this last weekend.  Plus I have been a DIY crazy bride lately.  Oh and I had my first bridal meltdown.  Ugh I didn't think it would be this hard.  So hopefully later today or tomorrow (I know such a procrastinator). But in the meantime, we got our first two wedding gifts.  Crazy I know...my our wedding isn't for another two and a half months.  I think I just had a panic attack over that fact.  Anyways, first we got a big box from William Sonoma from dear family-to-be for me.

We got 4 dinner plates, 4 salad plates, 4 soup bowls, 4 cereal bowls and 2 Riedel wine glasses.

Cereal Bowls via William Sonoma                                 Dinner/Salad Plates via William Sonoma

                                                       






                                                  



Second, we have money in our honeyfund.  Basically it is a fund where people can send us gifts of cash towards something they want us to do or spend on our honeymoon.  Super stoked but didn't realize we would be getting stuff this early.

Clothes, Stress and Travel

I have been searching long and hard to find myself a bridal shower dress.  My theme for the shower is garden party, and since I love pink, my bridesmaids are doing it all in pink.  So naturally when looking for dresses, I looked at pink and white dresses.  I even bought one from Altar'd State.

I found this store while on a work trip in Austin, Texas.  Don't worry, I went after work in the pouring rain, but so worth it.  The store had so many cute clothes that I bought too many a few summery pieces.  Since I love their dresses so much, I thought why not buy one for the bridal shower.  There were so many to chose from but I decided on a light pink dress with navy straps and a navy belt.  I got in the mail and it is a no go.  Way too big.  So I quickly ordered another dress and I hope this one works, otherwise it's to the closet or shops around here.

So fingers crossed this is the dress that will work, fit and get here on time.

Image via Altar'd State

Along with prepping for all things wedding, I have work travel every other week it seems.  Ok not every other week, but every two weeks.  Now don't get me wrong, I love traveling, seeing new places, and experiencing new things, but it is hard to travel and plan a wedding.  

Que, stress.  I have been really good about keeping the stress levels down while planning a wedding, but lately it is all adding up.  Oh please get me through the next three months 87 days, so I can happily marry my best friend, have the most perfect beautiful wedding and start working on having babies!

Anyone else having the stress creep up just a bit much?

Centerpieces

I have looked at more wedding centerpieces than I could even handle.  I wanted something clean, vintagey (is that even a word?) and elegant.  This is what I had in mind...

Since I am using calla lilies in my wedding bouquets, it was only natural to order extras for my centerpieces.  I loved these simple centerpieces.  So when we went in for our food tasting (more on that later), I decided to ask what they had available for free and what I could purchase.  Our DOC (day of coordinator) gave me some options.  Below are two samples they came up with.

So since these are free, we are going to have parts of both.  We love the aspen wood pieces and they match our vintage, elegant, sparkle theme.  The vase pillars will be taller than in the first picture.  They are 12 or 14 inches I believe.  They will have glass beads in the bottom with a single calla lily.  Then we will have tea lights in some sort of holders placed all around the aspen block (need to look through their closet full of items like this).  And that blue table cloth you see, yes we are using that.  We will have a white table cloth with a navy overlay (we wanted silver, but those are way more expensive), so we opted for silver napkins (better priced at $1 per napkin).

Next up is the table numbers.  I have obsessed over these.  But that is for another post which will incorporate a DIY project. Stay tuned.

Tan Lines and Wedding Dresses

When I went wedding dress shopping, I never thought about how the style I wanted would affect my "tanning" sessions at the beach this year.  I am very good about wearing sunscreen, but sometimes I get a little too much sun while walking Walter, gardening or even sitting outside for lunch.

I chose a strapless dress which means I need to be very careful about tan lines this summer.  I want some color as I don't want to be a pasty bride, but it comes at a cost.  I have a few bandeau bikinis and triangle tops.  The bandeau bikinis are good for the chest area, but with the wide strap in the back, will it show the tan lines on the back?  It is a better option to wear the triangle tops and untie them to avoid the lines?  Should I not worry as much and use self tanner a week before?

So many options.  I read that self tanner can rub off on a dress and that seems to be a no-go for me.  Unless someone, anyone has suggestions on products that won't rub off through sweat and normal wear and tear.

I have been coveting two bikinis from Victoria Secret.  Both of them are the new sort of bandeau types that have the under wire in them.  I really want these two bikinis.

Image via Victoria Secret

I am in love with both bikinis, but the pink one is so pretty.  I love the beading and think it will be the perfect amount of sexy on our honeymoon.  But I haven't pulled the trigger in buying it.

What swimwear will you be wearing this summer to help with the tan lines and prepping for your wedding.

Flower Girl

This past Friday we went to dinner at our friends house...more specifically our flower girl's parents house.  Raymond and Misty have been good friends of my family for years, so when we got engaged I knew right away I wanted to ask their daughter to be our Flower Girl.  She is ever so cute.  She loves princesses and dressing up.  She even told me that she dreamed of princesses, more specifically Ariel last night.

Meet our Flower Girl, Brooklynn.

Miss Brooklynn will be 3 years old in a few short days.  Isn't she just the cutest?

Before meeting up with Ray and Misty, I had picked a few dresses for Miss B.  When we went to the airport to welcome her grandpa (my dad's best friend) back from Afghanistan, I asked her what dress was her favorite.  She chose the one below and my favorite.  I can't wait to see her in it.  They are ordering it this weekend and she will be ever so cute in it with her matching halo wrapped with white flowers, baby's breath and navy and silver ribbon.

The dress is by Seahorse, style #46248.  We are getting the colors as shown above (navy and marcasite).  Miss B loves the Nevada Wolf Pack and since our colors are close to the Pack colors, Miss B was really excited to wear this dress.

What dress will your Flower Girl wear?