Bride.Paper.Scissors

Valentine's Heart Doily & Pendant Banner

2012-02-14T17:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I wanted to share with you the Heart Doily & Pendant Banner I made for Valentine's Day. :-) I used twine for the string to hang the flags on, bought the heart doilies from Michaels, and the flags were cut out of scrapbook paper from Michaels. I tied some linen ribbon into bows onto the twine to add an extra something to it. I hole punched two holes into the flags to string the twine through them and simply taped the whole banner up onto the mantle. This would be easy to make for any holiday. You can have fun with it and make it your own unique banner with different scrapbook paper, etc.

My wonderful husband gave me a dozen roses this morning (so sweet of him!) and I decided to use them as part of the decor on our fireplace mantle to go along with the banner I made. I placed each rose in random old bottles I had collected last year (for our wedding). The LOVE sign was from our wedding too. Ps. Sorry for the TV in the pic, I couldn't really take the picture without getting it in it. Oh well!

If you want a fresh perspective on Valentine's Day, visit my sweet friend Bekah's blog je*m'appelle*bekah. I love her advice to guys who feel the pressure to get something special for their Valentine and think it is just a "Hallmark holiday".

She put the true meaning of love perfectly, "If nothing else, this should be a day of being thankful for the definition of love: God. God is love. God is the creator of love, God is the one who allows us to feel the beautiful emotion of love. He is the only One who never fails and never disappoints."

DIY Wedding Seating Chart

2011-09-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

My mom, dad, sister, and I helped make the seating chart at our wedding. All of my family was onboard at this point in the wedding planning because it was getting to be crunch time.

Here is how we made it:

- I started by taking a very large frame and painted it white.

- Then I sanded it down to look distressed just like I did for the chalkboard menu frame.

- My dad cut a large piece of cork board to fit inside the frame.

- Then I sprayed an even thin layer of Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Spray onto the surface of the cork board and gently spread some linen fabric over the front of the cork board being careful not to leave any air bubbles beneath the fabric.

- My sister printed out the title and guests names with a fancy font she found onto some nice card stock paper. We organized everyone by last name on our seating chart. I thought it would easier for everyone to find their name this way.

- My mom found some decorative pins at a hardware store and used them to pin the guests names on the chart.

- The wooden heart was left over from the table numbers I made so I added a little personal touch by writing onto it with a brown paint pen, "Find Your Table" and stuck it onto the board with the pins.

Bridesmaid and Groomsmen Gift Ideas

2011-09-20T17:51:00.000-07:00

When Jon and I were researching bridesmaid and groomsmen gifts we had a hard time coming up with something unique and meaningful to give to each member of our wedding party. We wanted the gifts to be something special and something that they would use after the wedding too. After looking around quite a bit, here is what we came up with.

I gave each of my bridesmaids a turquoise cotton stretchy dress. I bought them for my bridesmaids to get ready in the day of the wedding since they were comfortable, they slip on and off easily so it wouldn't ruin makeup and hair, they were the same color as our wedding, and they could be worn again. I bought myself a white one to wear (since I was the bride and the bride always wears white :). I also gave them their turquoise beaded necklaces they wore in the wedding and the flower hair clips I made for them to wear in the wedding.

Here is a picture of the girls all in their dresses as we were getting ready. The dresses were from Target. :)

Photo credit: Mark Janzen Photography

Jon gave each of his groomsmen a branding iron and a pair of branded grilling gloves. Each branding iron was unique because each one had the first initial of each guys last name. The initial was also branded on the grilling gloves that came with it. I think it is safe to say that the guys loved their gift! I mean, what is more manly than grilling a piece of meat? ;) Now they get to personalize each piece of steak they grill with their last name initial.

If you are interested here is a link to the website that we bought them from. It was perfect because it was a specific package just for groomsmen. http://www.barbecuebrandingirons.com/pkg_brand_gloves.htm

If you are interested we also got gifts for our ring bearers, flower girl and guestbook attendant. For our ring bearers, we gave them each a baseball bat that had their name, the title "Ring Bearer", and our wedding date engraved on it. I'm pretty sure they love this gift since they are both really into sports.

Here is a link to the baseball bats: http://www.PersonalizationMall.com/Personalized-Wedding-Party-Baseball-Bat-i21484.item?productid=6183&sdest=Search&sdestid=17040928

For our flower girl and guestbook attendant we got them each a pretty bracelet with a heart-shaped charm on it with the first initial of their first name. They looked sort of like these.

We got the bracelets from an engraving store in our mall called Things Remembered. Here is a link to the online store. http://www.thingsremembered.com/

From Wedding Decor to Home Decor

2011-09-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

When purchasing items for our wedding I always made sure it would be something I would want to use later for decoration in our house. Here are some pictures of items that have been taken from wedding decor to home decor.

Birds and birdcage at our wedding

Birds and birdcage in our home (on our mantle)

Mason jars and card box (lantern) at our wedding

Mason jars and card box (lantern) in our home

Antique bottles at our wedding

Antique bottles in our home

How to Make a Chalkboard Menu

2011-09-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

I made a chalkboard menu to display at our wedding so guests could see what they were having for dinner. Here is how I made it! :)

First I took an old frame and painted it white.

Then I roughed it up with sandpaper to make it look weathered.

Then I sprayed it with some Aleene's Spray Acrylic Sealer so that the frame would be protected.

After that I took a smooth piece of wood (had my dad cut it down to the right size so that it would fit in the frame) and sprayed it with some Krylon Chalkboard Paint.

Once it was dry we placed in the frame and wrote down the menu with some white chalk. There you have it!

DIY Fabric Flower Hair Clips

2011-09-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

Today I want to share with you the fabric flower hair clips my sister and I made for my bridesmaids and flower girl to wear at our wedding. They were really easy to make. No sewing involved! We just took several different turquoise patterned fabrics and some ivory tulle and started making them. Each one was a little unique from the next because we mixed up the fabrics. If you are interested in making them yourself you can find a great tutorial at Little Miss Momma. Instead of making the girls headbands to wear, I made hair clips. I bought some alligator clips and glued one side of the clip in between two pieces of felt. I think they looked great in the girls hair; it added that extra pop of turquoise color I wanted!

Photo credit: Mark Janzen Photography

Our Antique Kitchen Hutch

2011-09-02T15:31:00.000-07:00

A little while back Jon and I bought an antique kitchen hutch off Craigslist! We have an empty space in our kitchen dining area and think it would perfect there. Of course it will look a lot better with some paint and no more yellow wallpaper on the inside. Yikes! I plan on painting it a barn red color and then making it look a little distressed, but my ideas may change. I am looking forward to working on this once Fall weather rolls around. I would prefer not to be painting in my garage in triple digit weather! Anyway, here is a pic of the hutch exactly how we bought it. I think it has a lot of character. The man we bought it from said it probably dates back from the 20's or 30's. Wow! I will show you how it turns out once I'm done with it.

Today is a Cleaning Day

2011-08-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

Today is a cleaning day... so I am going to make a quick post so that I can get back to work!

I wanted to show you a picture of the finished wedding arrow sign I made for our wedding. We put it near the ceremony along the pathway to direct guests on where to go. I think it looks really pretty in front of the white roses. If you want to see how I made it click here.

By the way, two days ago marked our three months of being married anniversary. I can't believe that it has already been three months!

Married Life Update & Honeymoon Pics

2011-08-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd check in and let you know how married life is going. You guessed it... it is going swell. :) It's nice to be able to spend a lot of time with my best friend and not have to say goodbye to each other every night anymore. I've gotten into the whole "wifey" routine quite nicely I think, although I may not always enjoy cooking dinner and cleaning the house. ;0)

I just realized I never shared any pictures from our honeymoon on here. Here are several pictures! We stayed at the Sandals resort in Antiqua (a small island in the Caribbean) and it was absolutely beautiful! We had an amazing time. I wish we were still there.

Wooden Heart Table Numbers

2011-08-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

Today I want to share with you the table numbers I made for our wedding! Very simple and easy to do and it added that unique homemade touch.

I bought some wooden hearts, number stencils, a craft sponge and brown craft paint from Michaels.

After I finished sponging the numbers on the hearts, I let them dry. Then I took the hearts outside and sprayed them with Aleene's Spray Acrylic Sealer to protect them so that no moisture would ruin them. Once they were dry I had my dad drill two holes at the top and we tied twine through each hole and tied them on the table centerpieces.

Here is a table number hanging on one of the white iron centerpieces.

Photo by Mark Janzen Photography

We also hung them from the mason jar centerpieces too.

Photo by Mark Janzen Photography

Starting Out Small

2011-08-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

Time for a new post! I know... I am really overdue! Stay with me folks, I hope to get more consistent again. One reason that I haven't been blogging is that I'm really busy (but who isn't?). My other reason is that whenever I think about blogging I just get so overwhelmed thinking about everything I need to catch up on since I went MIA on here a couple months before the wedding. Ok, enough excuses!!

Today I decided to get on here and start out small. That's why I decided to show you the LOVE mugs I talked about awhile back. Here is a picture of them with the flowers in them on our guest book table. Don't they look fabulous?! I just loved them! Special thanks to our amazing florist, Amy Degraw, with Brown Bunny Flowers. She is wonderful! If you are local and are looking for a wedding florist, I definitely recommend her!

Photo cred to my friend Alexa Westerfield of Swell Life Studios

I'm a Married Woman Now!

2011-06-30T18:46:00.000-07:00

Wow!!! I cannot believe it's been over two months since I last blogged! Sorry I couldn't keep up before, I just got soooooo busy with wedding planning towards the end that I just couldn't find the time to blog. So that means I have a lot to catch up on....

Well for starters.... I am married now!!!!!! I am loving married life. My husband is such a wonderful man and I am incredibly blessed to be his wife. Our wedding was everything I dreamed of and more. The day went smoothly and it all turned out so beautiful. The weather was great except for a little rain towards the end of the evening, but we were under cover so it didn't matter. Everything was perfect and I have pictures to show for it. Here are a few of my favorites. I will be sharing more with you later (especially the ones of my DIY touches to the wedding). :)

1 MONTH for Us... 1 DAY for Will & Kate

2011-04-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

I've got lots to share... life is busy, but good!

2 weekends ago I had my bachelorette party! We had a lot of fun at the coast wine tasting and hanging out at the beach. I will post some pics once I get them from my sister. :)

Last weekend Jon and I flew to Michigan with his brother, sister-in-law, and sister for their grandmothers funeral. It was a sad time but also a joyous time because she is now pain free and in heaven with our savior, Jesus Christ. It was nice because we got to spend Easter with Jon's family which we wouldn't have otherwise. We got back really late Tuesday night so I've spent the rest of this week recovering from jet lag and doing laundry, etc.

Also----- Today is a big day for Jon and I because we are now officially one month away from getting married!!! My, how the time has flown. I know this month will go by especially fast. I'm starting to feel pretty overwhelmed because of all the things I still need to do before the wedding. My to do list is daunting. I know it will all get done though and I just need to take it one step at a time.

Well- that's it for now.... I will be hopefully showing you some more projects I've been working on soon.

Oh, and I am looking forward to watching the royal wedding! You better believe I have my DVR set to record it tonight/tomorrow morning! I'm excited to see what her dress and everything else looks like. :)

Another Fun Bridal Shower and a Trip to San Fran

2011-04-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share with you another cute and fun bridal shower of mine that I had two weeks ago. :0) I had a great time and felt so blessed to have such a wonderful family. Thank you to those of you that came and to my aunt and cousin for throwing a great shower!

My cousin Kristen made these adorable cupcakes. I loved that she wrote, "Best Wishes Mandy" on them. They were delicious.

This little advice tree was really creative. Each guest wrote some words of wisdom for marriage and hung it on this metal tree. Everyone also came with a favorite recipe and put it in a box for me to take home. I have all kinds of great recipes that I can't wait to start cooking now!

I thought this was very cute too. Everyone got to take a little bag with them home that had Hershey's hugs and kisses inside.
And here is a picture of me with the party planners... my Aunt Janice, Cousin Kimberly, and Cousin Kristen.

Last weekend Jon and I went to San Francisco to visit my sister, Chelsie, and Jon's sister, Maria, who are roommates in the city. How ironic is that?! It's pretty awesome if you ask me. :) Anyway we had a great time visiting them. Some highlights... we walked through Golden Gate park, went to Buca Di Beppo for dinner, went to Cheesecake Factory overlooking the city, Sunday morning went to church at Reality, had a delicious omelette at Squat and Gobble, and stopped for cookies at Hot Cookie located in Castro (pretty interesting place, that's all I have to say about that!).

Here are some photos from the weekend :)

My Cute and Creative Bridal Shower :)

2011-03-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share with you all some of the pictures from my fabulous bridal shower last weekend. They truly did an amazing job hosting it. Every little detail- the decorations, food, games, etc. It was so great! I had so much fun at the shower with friends and family. I feel so so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. I must say, I have a very creative family. :)

The party planners are in the picture below... my cousin Heather, my aunt Terri, my grandma Diana, my aunt Karen, my sister Chelsie, and my cousin Kayleigh (who sadly couldn't make it).

They made this super cute fabric curtain/banner. They cut out strips of fabric and tied them in knots to a rope and hung it on the fireplace. It is something that could be reused again for another party like a baby shower or you could use them as curtain, etc. I think I am going to hang it up in my room! :)

I liked the decor on top of the fireplace too. They put up some fabric Anthropologie letters "M" for Mandy and "J" for Jon on top of the mantle. They also stacked antique books with little teacups and flower pots on top. So cute and creative!

As you can also see they decorated my "throne"- the place where I sat at my shower. They covered it in tule and my sister made really cute little felt birds and hearts that stuck to the tule. On the bottom right you can see they even put out my grandmas antique umbrella for decoration.

Here is the shot of the other side of the room. They made tissue paper pomander balls and hung them from the ceiling. So cute and really easy to make!

Look at these yummy cupcakes! They were amazing! They even made a few gluten free ones for me and they were delicious. Can you see the sparkle on the cupcakes? Love it!

My party planners also made these adorable signs to place near the food so everyone would know what they were eating. They bought little flowers and glued them onto some card stock. For the base they actually cut little styrofoam balls in half and covered them with fake moss. Great idea!

This was a really cute idea too. They made a jar that said, "Words of Wisdom" and asked everyone to fill out a card with some wisdom about marriage/life for me. Thanks everyone for all your advice! I really loved reading them. :)

They also did a cute game in which everyone had to unscramble the words that Jon uses to describe me. Very fun idea! They also filmed Jon secretly a week or two before the bridal shower and asked him questions about himself. At the shower they would ask me a question about Jon and play back the video with his answer. They kept track of how many I got right. It was so funny! And it was a great way to incorporate Jon into the shower too.

And here's a picture of Jon and I before everyone arrived for the shower. Jon left to go hang out with the guys shortly after this. :)

DIY Wedding Arrow

2011-03-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

In between writing thank you notes, cleaning the kitchen, putting away gifts, and getting new carpet put it, I wanted to show you a wedding project I made last week. :)

It's an arrow sign to put up at our wedding to direct our guests on where to go. This was a really easy project and didn't take much time. I had a lot of fun making it too.

I started off with just a plain wood sign I bought at Michaels.

I painted the entire sign with some brown acrylic paint for the base.

After the brown paint dried, I painted over the top of the brown with an antique white acrylic paint.

After the white dried, I took a piece of sand paper and sanded it down so that the brown underneath showed through where the wood grains are.

I also bought a set of stencils from Michaels and used them to sponge paint on the letters in brown.

And it was finished! I still need to screw in some hooks in the top and tie some ribbon on it so that we can hang it at the wedding. :) Hope you like it as much as I do! Thanks for reading!

Handmade Hostess Gifts

2011-03-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

I feel like there are a million things to talk about because I have been so busy lately with wedding planning. Sorry I have gotten so behind on keeping you up to date!!

Today I would like to show you the gifts I made for the wonderful ladies who put on my bridal shower this Saturday. By the way, the shower was so much fun. I feel extremely blessed to have so many wonderful, generous women in my life. Oh and the decorations were so adorable. My two aunts, two cousins, grandma, and sister all took part in the decor and they did an amazing job. I will post pictures later.

So... how did I make these hostess gifts? I wrapped Anthropologie candles up in the fabrics I am using for our wedding. I tied them shut with some twine and a little note thanking them for all their hard work. Simple, easy, and fun!

My Friend's Pink Mountain Resort Wedding

2011-03-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

On February 12th, 2011 my good friends Katy and Chris got married at Tenaya Lodge in Yosemite, CA! It was a beautiful wedding. Lots and lots of pink.... and so Katy! :) Here are a few pics from the wedding I wanted to share with you.

The happy couple walk back down the aisle after being married.

My friend Bekah made this adorable seating chart. I loved this idea! I think she took pink lace and wrapped it around a board, then criss crossed pink ribbon across the board to create the diamond shapes, and then printed out the table names and glued them onto the centers of each diamond shape. Katy had the fun idea of making each table the name of a song and when that song was played during the reception that table would have to get up and dance to it.

This was a great idea too. For their wedding favors they ordered little heart shaped cookie cutters that said "Truly Cut Out For Each Other" and they were tied with a cute pink ribbon.

I loved their dessert table. It was really pretty with all the roses and hearts that were hung from the ceiling above it.

And here is a picture of Jon and I with Katy and the Chris, the wonderful bride and groom.

It was a fun and beautiful wedding. Jon and I are so blessed to have such wonderful friends in our lives. :)

On a side note... we went food tasting at Wolf Lakes on Saturday! All the food was delicious and they have so many things to choose from. It was fun because we got to taste food on the same day as everyone else who is getting married at Wolf Lakes this year. It was funny because we ran into 4 different couples we knew that are also getting married there this year. Wolf Lakes truly is THE place to get married in the Fresno area. It is beautiful!

Team Bride Crystal Tank Tops

2011-02-25T12:27:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share with you all the cute tanks that my friend Katy bought for her bridesmaids on Etsy by uniqueandtrendy for us to wear at her bachelorette party. :) Aren't they super cute?! This could be something for all you brides out there to make for your bridesmaids. All you would need is some Tulip Glam-It-Up! Iron-On Crystals and a Tulip Cordless Heat Setting Tool for easy application.

Here we are at her bachelorette party with them on. Sorry they are kinda hard to see in this picture.

I will post pictures from Katy's wedding soon. :)

100 Days!!

2011-02-16T14:05:00.000-08:00

Remember back when I said it was 200 days until our wedding? Well, guess what?!... It is now officially 100 days until I get to marry the love of my life! I said that it would fly by and it most certainly has. Yaaay! So excited! :)

Hipstamatic Meets Wedding Crafts

2011-02-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

The last few days I have been busy crafting items for my wedding. :) I took some photos with the hipstamatic ap on my iphone. Pretty cool, huh? I love this ap because it makes all your photos look vintage and awesome! These are just some sneak peaks of the crafts I have been doing. I will be sharing more later about what I am doing with them and how I did them.

Fabric flowers :)
A little Aleene's Fabric Fusion :)

Centerpiece fabric from JoAnn :)

I bought these 1/2 gallon blue mason jars from a lady off Craig's List for a total of $25! What a deal! :)
Fabric scraps, etc. :)

I bought these at an antique store in Clovis, CA called The Robin's Nest. I fell in love with them the first time I laid my eyes on them and I cannot wait to put them up in my house!!

Hope you are enjoying what I post! Please let me know if there is something I am not posting that you would like to see. Thanks for reading!!

"Extreme" Home Makeover~ Part 1

2011-02-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

The inside of my house has a tuscany look to it. The previous owners took a lot of time hand painting/sponging on the look to the walls. They even hand painted grape vines in the kitchen. Although it is a nice look, it is not me (or Jon) and there were so many areas that needed to be touched up that we decided to get the whole house painted. Jon and I wanted to get the house painted before we got married and before he moved his stuff in to make things easier.

The photos below represent my life for the last couple of weeks. It first began with picking out paint colors. Look at the many colors we experimented with. I love that hardware stores now make small size samples of the colors you like so you can first paint an area to try before you do the whole wall, hate it, and have to start over again. We are painting the entire house so we wanted to make sure it was the perfect color (the green is for the kitchen).

Jon is very handy as well as technology savvy so he installed surround sound speakers. He decided we should do this before the painters came so that they could patch up the holes and paint them to match. Here he is putting them in.

It was a mess of wires, drywall dust, and holes in walls for several days. Here is a pic of Jon and my dad who came to help out one night.

And of course, you can't forget Burrito, the cat who always seems to end up in my pictures because he is so curious and so cute. He climbed up to the top of the ladder on his own so I had to take a pic. My roommate moved out this weekend and took him with her and I miss him soooo much already. Burrito was hers, but he felt like mine. *tear*

Here we are now... painters have been here everyday this week from 8-4. You don't realize how much stuff you have until you have to empty out your entire closet and put all your furniture into the middle of the room. Right now everything is either covered in plastic or covered in paint dust that has settled everywhere. It is definitely tough living in a house that is being painted, but it will definitely be worth it once it's done!!

Lots and lots of dust!

Fairytale Romance

2011-01-25T09:50:00.001-08:00

I thought these wedding gowns were very pretty so I wanted to share with you. They are not my style, but I still think they are beautiful.

"Your wedding dress is the most important dress you’ll ever wear. Period. Needless to say expectations are high. But when we saw the newest collection from Claire Pettibone, Spirit of the Night, we knew it would not disappoint. Filled with whimsy and delight, these beauties will make you feel like you’re in your very own fairytale romance." ~ Style Me Pretty

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

2011-01-24T16:12:00.003-08:00

Last night I watched the new episode of David Tutera's My Fair Wedding on WE TV. I just loooove that show! It is fun to see the horrific plans these brides have for their weddings get changed into something magnificent once the fabulous David Tutera takes over.

I think last night's episode was one of my favorites because of the theme... The Wizard of Oz! I love that movie, although it kind of creeped me out when I was little.

At first the bride had some pretty ridiculous ideas... she wanted her bridesmaids to walk down the isle in these tiny yellow sparkly munchkin dresses holding baskets of apples and some other items from the theme of the movie. Hideous! She was also planning on walking down the isle on top of a yellow brick road made out of construction paper. With all this said, I must say that she was such a sweet bride to watch, she took everything with a "glass is half full" attitude.

Although my wedding is not going to be themed, I kind of like the idea of having a themed wedding because you can do so much with it and have fun! Never in a million years would I have a Wizard of Oz themed wedding, but that doesn't stop me from admiring the artistry of this one.

Amazing wedding cake! Look closely and you will see a little something from each of the characters in the movie.

Photo via Press-Enterprise

This was the bridal bouquet. It was so unique! Even Emerald City is even represented in the middle.

via http://www.flowersfirstthenfood.com/?p=15

Here are some pictures I took from my TV so the quality isn't that great.

These were the tables at the reception. I liked how they mixed rectangular tables with round ones and how the centerpieces were combination of candle opras, pillar candles, and flowers in various vases which were different heights making it look very whimsical and fun.

The bridesmaid jewelry was beautiful and bold. I loved how they were a sparkly ruby color. I might have to do something like this with turquoise stone jewelry for my bridesmaids.

This is a shot of the ceremony. If I had an unlimited budget for flowers I would want something like this. The whole isle way was covered with yellow roses that looked like they were actually growing out of the ground. The large pillars with balls of flowers on top added some great height and dimension. I'm not a fan of the yellow brick road walk way, but I thought it was very clever since her theme was Wizard of Oz.

I have always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon so I absolutely loved this idea too! They served as a colorful backdrop to the wedding reception.

This was such a fun and creative wedding so I had to share with you all! Hopefully you got a chance to watch the episode. If not, I think it's online.

Ok, I'm off to see the wizard! haha... not really, that would be weird. Bye!

I'm back, with much to share!!!

2011-01-20T14:22:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I would like to first of all say I am back to the blogging world! I cannot believe how much time flies. It has been almost 2 months since my last post.

Heres an update in my life since then:

My friend Erika got married on December 19th at her in-laws backyard in a large white tent. Despite the major downpour of rain we got all that week and the flooding in the yard, it was such a beautiful wedding. I loved her style- a kind of woodsy romantic feel to it. I was so honored to be a part of her special day. She was my roommate about a year ago and have missed her dearly since she moved back home to Visalia to go to nursing school. I will miss her even more when she moves to Texas with her husband where he is stationed in the navy. Below are a couple pictures I took from the wedding.

Jon and I about to get our boogie on at the reception :)

The adorable signs at the entrance to the tent

An overview of the tent as it was getting set up

A close up of the tables - I loved how the centerpieces were pretty cupcakes sitting on top of a slab of wood & I also loved the burlap runners

Their guest sign in tree- every guest dipped their finger in green paint and pressed it to the picture to make leaves- loved this too! They now has something personal & beautiful to hang in their house.

Me and the beautiful bride Erika :)

Sorry its a little blurry, but heres a pic of the bride and groom about to cut the cake

Moving on now to Christmas. As usual Christmas came and went so fast. I had a blast spending time with family and friends.

Here was our family Christmas photo this year. :)

My friend Katy is getting married February 12th- soon! We threw her a bridal shower a couple weeks ago and here are a few pics from that.

Dominique, Katy- bride-to-be, and I

I helped organize a few games- this one is the toilet paper bride

Voila! The finished toilet paper wedding gowns!

I think I may share with you all the games we played in a later blog post.

And finally... Jon and I went to Michigan to visit his family and to attend two of our bridal showers. We just got back a couple days ago actually. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures from the showers, but they were lots of fun! We got some great gifts! Having bridal showers of my own made me realize how soon we will be getting married. Can't wait!

I did however get some pictures of the snow- it was pretty chilly over there.

Hope you all enjoyed this extra long blog post! Check back again soon, I will be trying to update more regularly now especially since I am kicking it into high gear now with wedding planning!

Personalized Christmas Stocking Tutorial

2010-11-30T13:31:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I am going to show you a recent craft project I made for Christmas. No, it is not related to our wedding at all, but I thought what the hay, I will show it to you anyway. :)

Right now at my work we are having a contest for who can decorate their plain red Christmas stocking the best. I love crafting so I got really excited!

The cute kitty in the picture is my roommates cat, Burrito.

I just love the little guy. :)

Below is a picture of the plain red stocking they gave us to start off with and they told us to decorate it however we pleased.

I was in Hancock Fabrics the other day looking for fabric for my wedding and took the opportunity to pic out a really cute fabric for my stocking as well.

My sister learned how to make fabric flowers a few months ago and I was intrigued so I decided to make one to put on my stocking.

First you cut out a long strip of fabric and then fold it in half. Take a needle and thread and start threading it through both layers of the fabric along the edge. As you pull the thread tight the fabric naturally starts to gather and spiral into the shape of a flower. For more detailed instructions on how to make these go to the Creation Corner.

Next I wanted to make a center for my flower so I took some Aleene's Fabric Fusion and glued it down onto the center of the flower.

Next I cut up squares from the fabric and glued them down flat onto the stocking with Aleene's Fabric Fusion as well. I had a red and white flannel ribbon that was left over from a wrapped gift that I tied and glued onto the top of the stocking. I used some of the extra pieces to cut out little hearts too. I had some left over letters from the project I did to ask my bridesmaids to be in our wedding. I used these to put my name on my stocking.

And it was finished!

There's Burrito again, checking out the stocking hanging from the fireplace in my room. :)

And here is a close up of my new fabulous Christmas stocking!

Sneak Peak!

2010-11-19T16:10:00.000-08:00

Today I have decided to give you all a sneak peak of the fabrics that we will be using for decoration at our wedding reception. I haven't decided yet whether or not to tell you what they will be used for because I think I might want to make it a surprise. :) During the last couple of weeks my mom and I have gone to a few fabric stores to find the perfect fabric. All of these were found at Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts. I am so excited because I feel like my look is finally coming together!

200 days to go!!!

2010-11-09T14:55:00.000-08:00

It is officially 200 days until our wedding!! So excited! Yes, 200 days is still quite a while but I think it will be here before we know it. With the holidays coming up and a few of my friends weddings and showers to go to, it will fly by (or at least I hope so!). I think when we hit 100 days, that is when the real count down will begin. :)

Cake Inspiration

2010-11-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

Next week we are meeting with Sweet Dreams Bakery located in Oakhurst, CA for a cake tasting/meeting. We have heard many great things about this bakery so we thought we would meet with them first.

Jon is especially excited about meeting with the bakers because of the cake tastings, of course. I think this may be the most exciting part of wedding planning for him. lol. And... my dad wants to come to the cake tasting too! Figures! So next week on Thursday the four of us, my mom, dad, Jon, and I will be tasting cake. :)

The fun part for me is picking out the design of the cake. Don't get me wrong, I love cake, but since I found out that I have an intolerance to gluten there haven't been as many flavor options for me. Although I have heard that pretty much any wedding bakeries make gluten free cakes now that taste as good, almost as good, or better than the real thing. I do love that Betty Crocker has a line of gluten free baking mixes (I think the gluten free chocolate cake is better than the regular kind) and I discovered the other day that they have Bisquick gluten free pancake mix and it tastes just the same as the regular stuff.

Soooo, I am thinking we will make the whole cake regular and then just have one of the tiers (probably the small top one) gluten free for Jon and me. I don't want to make all our guests eat gluten free cake just because of me! Although, no one would probably know the difference. I bet it is more expensive though.

Anyway, to the fun part (at least for me).... the cake design! I have been looking on various websites for cakes I like the look of lately. I found some inspiration at Martha Stewart Weddings and The Knot. Since my dress has lace on it, I'm thinking of incorporating a "lace-look" to our cake. I love how bakers can do just about anything anymore these days. They can make frosting look like lace! Check out these cakes I like below. Aren't they beautiful?!

Ps. It's Jon's birthday today!!!! If you know him make sure you wish him the very best! :-)

Wedding Gift Registries

2010-10-18T11:03:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days my fi (short for fiance :)) and I started our wedding gift registries. We registered at Bed Bath and Beyond, Pottery Barn and Macy's. This seems like a good mix.

Bed Bath and Beyond is for every little thing you need at a good price and an advantage is that they are located pretty much everywhere. Jon is from Michigan (and most of his family lives over there) so we have to keep in mind that we need to register at places that they have too. Macy's is good for this as well. I do not think they have Pottery Barn so that will be for just people in Cali. I love that store (I actually worked there about 3 years ago as a seasonal employee). They have very nice furniture, decor, and dinnerware, etc.

And then last night I went to Anthropologie.com and created a wish list. Sadly they do not have wedding gift registries. :( But they do have a wish list and it looks just like a registry because anyone can look up your wish list to see what it is you want. The list tells you how many of each item they want and how many have been bought for them already. Sounds like a gift registry to me! I got the idea from my friend Erika who is also getting married and she created a wish list at Anthro. I took a look at her wish list last night and got super excited, maybe a little too excited, because I ended up staying up until almost 2 in the morning adding items to my own wish list. I just love how everything there is so unique. The pieces that we get from there will add lots of personality and style to our house.

I admit that being registered at 4 places sounds a little bit excessive and almost greedy. I am considering listing that we are registered at Anthropologie for just my friend showers and not for the wedding. I don't know yet, we will see. I figure my friends and some of my mom's friends would enjoy shopping at Anthropologie more than the other stores. All I know is that I got excited when I found out I could buy Erika something from Anthropologie instead of the usual places.

Registering for wedding gifts is so much fun! It's like Christmas except your wish list includes anything and everything you will ever think you need. I think Jon enjoyed using the scanning gun the best. I think his favorite thing to do is to point the gun at me. He tells me he just wants to make sure I'm on the list. :)

One more thing... in your opinion.... should we register for china or not register for china? Jon and I are leaning more towards not registering for it because we don't know when we will ever use it. We will probably just register for nicer everyday settings that can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. There are some really pretty designs out there for China, but I gravitate towards the more unique and I know that it will probably go out of style within a few years and then we will never use it again. So what's the point? We would rather have people spend more on other items that we will use more rather than on expensive China we may only use once every few years. In all honesty, what is your opinion?

Antiquing Adventures

2010-10-11T16:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went antique shopping again! This time we went on a mission to find antique bottles to use as centerpieces and for the ceremony aisle way. My mom, sister and I went looking for blue mason jars specifically and then any other types of small antique bottles that weren't too pricey. We went to antique stores in Clovis and found some great bottles! My plan is to have half the tables with groupings of 3 or so bottles in varying heights and sizes as the centerpieces. Depending on the size of the bottles there will be different amounts of flowers in them. Some of the really little bottles will have one big flower in them.

Here is a photo of all the pieces we collected!

The plan for the other half of the tables is to have much taller centerpieces to balance out the overall look. These will be floral centerpieces as well but they will be in white iron pieces my mom found at Home Goods. They are perfect! We met with two of the florists last week and are pretty sure we know which florist to go with. She just got my vision exactly. She got super excited when we showed her the white iron pieces my mom bought.

We went on another antiquing adventure today at the antique stores in Cayucos. We came here for a few days to stay at our beach house and figured we might as well go shopping here too! This time my fiance came too along with my sister and mom. :) He was a good sport although he was working half the time from his phone, he still joined in on the search. I always knew Cayucos had several great antique stores, but I hadn't really been inside them. A couple of them were 3 stories tall, who would have known? We found some great treasures there as well.

Personal Wedding Websites

2010-10-07T16:19:00.000-07:00

This week I created our personal wedding website!

Before I created our wedding website, I did some research on the different ones out there. At first I went straight to theknot.com because they are a phenomenal website for all kinds of great wedding tips and ideas. I browsed through their wedding website templates and although they had several cute ones that you can make in a variety of colors, I just didn't feel like any of them represented the look of our wedding. Then I looked up weddingjojo.com because I had remembered reading about it on other bridal blogs. Unlike theknot.com which has everything you can think of as far as weddings go, weddingjojo is just for creating your own personal wedding websites. I browsed through their templates and I found one in particular that I really liked, but realized that you had to pay 14.99 a month for it. Only one of their templates is free! No thank you! If I can find other websites that don't charge, that is what I am going to do, I don't want to have to pay for something like that. I then google searched wedding websites and looked at ewedding.com and some others I can't think of right now and none of them really had that great of templates or you had to pay for them.

Then I came across weddingwire.com and browsed through their templates. They have 100's of templates all for FREE, I couldn't believe they were free because they had soooo many cute ones I had a hard time choosing which one to use for our site. I got so excited!! They have ones from Vera Wang, Martha Stewart, and all sorts of other designers. I think they have a lot of wedding invitation companies' templates so that if you wanted to, you could have your website match your invitations. What a great marketing idea!

Disney Princess Wedding Dresses!?!

2010-09-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

For all you Disney die hard fans out there, I think this may be for you!... Disney princess inspired wedding dresses! Yep, that's right, Alfred Angelo is working with Disney to create wedding gowns inspired by the looks of the Disney princesses. Disney Fairy Tale Weddings by Alfred Angelo

via Coco Perez

I love all Disney movies and I grew up watching them every chance I could, but this doesn't neccessarily make me go gaga. These dresses are beautiful, don't get me wrong, but they don't really look like how they did in the movies.. although I don't know how many brides would actually buy them in their original style anyway, I mean look at Ariel's 80's poof sleeves! haha!

Ps. Thanks Crafty Chica for posting this on your facebook and giving me some inspiration! :)

Flowers Flowers Flowers

2010-09-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

The next vendor I would like to book for our wedding is a florist. Before I start meeting with some I wanted to figure out what style of flowers I like best. So this weekend I put together a few pictures I found on various wedding blogs to take with me to the appointments and see which florist gets my vision the most. I am struggling to sum up my vision in a few words... I guess you could call it a romantic, vintage, spring garden wedding.

This first grouping is all bouquets- I like that they are more loose and airy (as opposed to tight balls of flowers) almost as if they were a bunch of wildflowers just picked fresh from a field. I tend to like bright colors vs. pastels. I think the bouquets are pretty when they look really organic with a few leaves sticking out from the bouquet too.

This next one I put together as inspiration for my centerpieces. I love the blue mason jar look. I think having these line the aisle way of the ceremony would be so beautiful. I also like the idea of having other eclectic random antique bottles with fresh flowers in them as well.

The next one is just another grouping of ideas that I liked.

I think I am armed and ready for meeting with the florists! I will have to let you know how it goes!

DIY Pillows & An Indoor/Outdoor Wedding

2010-09-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

First of all I would like to show you these awesome handmade pillows I found on Style Me Pretty! They are super cute with the different love words spray painted on. This look can actually be achieved very easily on your own. All you need is some Tulip Fabric Spray Paint and Tulip Fabric Sticky Stencils and you've got yourself a great DIY project. For an alterative to doing this for your wedding you could make some for your bedroom or living room too! Check out the pillows Maya made at the I Love To Create Blog using Tulip Fashion Graffiti products for her bed! So fun!

...Now I would like to talk about how much I love the wedding that had these pretty pillows in it. They literally brought the indoors outdoor for such a beautiful effect...

"What do you do when you love the outdoors but want to get married in a church? You bring the church outdoors! That’s exactly what Cedarwood, an all-inclusive historic venue in Nashville, Tennessee does when they create their stunning Outdoor Cathedral. Ten foot Gothic church windows and antique carved solid Oak church pews set in a green summer meadow is a site to make anyone pause at the beauty of God’s handiwork." - Abby Larson @ Style Me Pretty

LOVE Monogram Mugs

2010-09-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

I found this great idea at Style Me Pretty using the Anthropologie monogram mugs as decoration. The flowers are so pretty and the best part is that they spell out "LOVE". I really want to do this for my wedding.... Maybe they could go on the guest book table that I just bought (read last post). That would be so pretty!

Weekend Furniture Find!

2010-09-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend my mom and I went to the Clovis Fest. It is a fun outdoor festival in the quaint little streets of Old Town Clovis. Vendors fill the streets to sell things like handmade crafts, fresh fruit, kettle corn, you name it. Best of all they start the day off with a hot air balloon launch... unfortunately by the time my mom and I got there they were long gone and we couldn't see them anymore.

The fun thing about Old Town Clovis is all the antique shops. I honestly had no idea how many there were until we started browsing through them... And I think I found a new love for antique shopping. I never really saw myself as an antique shopper. I always thought of antique shops as kinda smelly places filled to the brim with stuff that only grandmas would like. Well... I found out that not all of them are like that... sure they are sort of jam packed with lots of stuff and it does smell a little, but some of them are actually pretty organized and nice inside. I found myself picking out pieces in them that I could see myself purchasing someday for my home.

And I actually did purchase one piece!! I am so excited! I think it may be the first piece of furniture I have ever bought. It was sitting outside of a gift shop that was brought over from an antique store for displaying seasonal items. I asked if it was for sale and the lady said yes it is.... $250 but today we are marking it down half price to $125 because we don't want to have to haul it back over to the antique store. What a steal! Or at least I think it was. The lady said she thinks it dates back from the 30's. But anyway, here is a picture of my new find. Just imagine it without the pumpkins, etc on the top. So... what purpose will this piece serve, you ask? Well, I would like to use it first in my wedding, maybe as the guest book table. Can you picture it?... fresh flowers in a vase on top, maybe some iron letters of our initials resting next to it and the guest book sitting on top.... Then I had another idea, why not get two uses out of it? I thought it would be perfect in our new home. I have a house that I live in with roommates right now and Jon will be moving in with me when we get married and the roommates will be out. I am not quite sure where we are going to put this table in the house, but I have several ideas in mind already where I think it will look really nice.

Inspired by Vintage Brooch Bouquets

2010-09-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to show you vintage brooch bouquets! This is for the bride who wants to add a unique DIY twist to their wedding. I am definitely a fresh flower girl, but I still find these so inspiring.

via Etsy seller 1amanda- original creator of the Vintage Brooch Bouquets

via Style Me Pretty

Wedding Color Palettes!

2010-09-13T23:26:00.000-07:00

I found a great blog all about wedding color palettes! Every blog post shows a new inspiration of color. I am so happy I stumbled upon this little gem.

theperfectpalette.blogspot.com

Here is the color palette I found to be most inspirational for my wedding. It is a really romantic color palette with aqua, chocolate brown, latte, and ivory...

...And the inpiration board to go with it. :)

Previously I thought my wedding colors would be turquoise and yellow, but after I found a bridesmaid dress that I loved in a latte color I began to to think maybe I wanted something different. Here is the dress. What do you think??

And here is the back of the dress... Isn't the bow in the back so cute?!

Engagement Session at the Happiest Place on Earth

2010-09-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

I am IN LOVE with this engagement session!!! It is sooooo adorable. When I first came across it I was like, why didn't I think of that! Don't get me wrong, I am VERY happy with how Jon and my engagement session turned out, but I just got so inspired when I saw this one. Engagement session in Disney Land!!??? So fun! What better place for a happy couple to share their love in photos than at the Happiest Place on Earth!

I found the session at Bridal Bar Blog. Photos by Beautiful Day Photography. You can see the entire engagement session here.

What's In a Name? That Which We Call a Rose...

2010-09-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

..."What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself."
~ From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

To be honest I don't really know what this poem means, but when I went to write this blog the phrase, "What's in a name? that which we call a rose" came to mind. I guess I did remember something from my highschool English class after all!

Now to my point. Flowers actually have really cool meanings! Check out this site: http://www.perfect-wedding-day.com/flower-meanings-bridal-flowers.html
It tells you what each type of flower means. It would be kinda fun to choose the flowers in your wedding to go with your personalities and love for one another.

I found what they said about flower meanings on this site interesting:

Florigraphy - The study of flower meanings is an actual science known as florigraphy, and it reveals extra underlying meanings to sending or receiving flowers - subtle and secret messages can be passed through the different blooms.

History - It is believed that the flower language began in Turkey during the seventeenth century. Romantic lovers began using floral exchanges to convey emotional messages. In the Victorian era there was a rise in the popularity with this flower language. In England, dozens of dictionaries of "florigraphy" with their flower meanings were published during that period. Suitors carefully studied these guidebooks to select appropriate bouquets for their lovers and sweethearts.

Toppers Too!

2010-09-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to look for my wedding cake topper! I immediatly went to Etsy to see what they had since I love DIY stuff and there had to be some cute ones there.

Look what I found! Soooo adorable!

I found this one on Etsy by bthanari. She customizes each pair to match your dress, hairstyle, etc!

Thes were on Etsy too! Very cute as well! These are by enchantedbelles.

For something a little different than the actual wedding couple, you could try little love birds as your cake topper! This designer, ItsAllTakingShape, found on Etsy says each topper she does is made custom to your liking. So you can change the color, add a hat and veil, etc.

This one I found hilarious! It's called Love Pinch. I found it at smartbrideonline.com.

I thought this one was funny too. Personally I wouldn't want them for my wedding cake, but to each his own. I found it on Etsy as well. The designer is Garden4Arts...

On a side note I went to the Emmy Award Gift Suite on Saturday and met the voice of Mrs. Potato Head from Toy Story, Estelle Harris. She is hilarious in person by the way! We got her to tie-dye with us. She was a crack up! Here's a pic of her with our Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye Kit.

Playful Pomanders

2010-08-31T13:22:00.000-07:00

Paper pomander balls are a recent trend in weddings. I have found them in many wedding blogs and magazines. I absolutely love them and think they would add fun and color to any wedding! Especially for those on a tight budget. Forget the real flowers and go with tissue paper! In my opinion they are almost better looking than the real thing.

The ones above came from Style Me Pretty & bashplease.com. The colors are so fun!

Something interesting... Through further research I found that they are often called kissing balls! Cute and perfect name for a wedding. Maybe it's kinda like mistletoe?? :)

There are so many tutorials out there for making tissue paper pomanders. When I start to make mine for my wedding (assuming I will) I will let you know which one helped me the best!

Here are a few that look promising....

http://www.projectwedding.com/wedding-ideas/diy-tissue-pomanders
http://diytissuepomanders.weebly.com/
http://www.bridalbuds.com/2009/01/tissue-paper-pomanders/

I thought these tutorials below seemed helpful too.

These are neat too! They are roses made from crepe paper. You can find the tutorial at the House of Smith's.

There are also alternatives to tissue paper. If you really want to get creative take a look at these!

I found these really cool paper flowers on The Sweetest Occasion from Weather Paperworks. I love how the color is incorporated in with the black and white newspaper.

And then there are these that I found on Once Wed. They used a flower shaped punch and round head pins. Super cute!

J.Crew Bridesmaid Dresses

2010-08-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a little bit of research lately online looking for some cute bridesmaid dresses. I really like what I have found so far on jcrew.com.

I definitely would like my girls to wear short dresses especially since it is a spring wedding and turquoise seems like the color for me!

Here are a couple I found that I loved! What do you think?? Any other suggestions for where I can find other cute bridesmaid dresses?

Ps. For any dress they end up wearing I want to get some DIY action going. Maybe a pretty rosette for their hair or on the the corner of their waist or both. :)

Our Engagement Pictures

2010-07-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

Mark Janzen (our amazing photographer) posted 10 pictures from our engagement session on his Facebook!

I absolutely love them!!! He did an excellent job! I couldn't be happier. :)

How I Asked My Bridesmaids

2010-07-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I asked my bridesmaids if they would like to be in my wedding. I really wanted to give them something special when I asked them and it had to be original and handmade. So I searched around online looking for ideas and found the cutest poem on weddingbee.com!

Here's how the poem goes:

"The day, the dress
The bride, the groom

The joy, the tears

Will all come so soon

Professing true love

To my husband-to-be

With family and friends

All watching me

I hope the sun will

Be shining down,

Keep your fingers crossed

That I'll fit in my gown…

But there's just one more thing

that there needs to be…

and that's to have you

Standing with me!

Will you be my bridesmaid?"

I copied this poem into blank note cards I bought from Target and glued a glittery letter (the first letter of each girl's name) to the front of each one with Aleene's Original Tacky Glue.

Then I tied each card to a single yellow rose with a thin turquoise ribbon and voila! My bridesmaids were surprised and they absolutely loved their gift!

Here are some pictures~

Turquoise & Yellow Wedding

2010-07-02T15:39:00.000-07:00

For awhile now I have been thinking about what colors I want to decorate my wedding with. I'm thinking turquoise and yellow?! One, because they are my favorite colors and two, because they create a great contrast.

Check out these amazing photos I found on Life. Love. Lipstick by Hugh Forte Photography. I love that she incorporated the blue mason jars with the yellow roses and daisies. The lemons used as placeholders was such a cute touch! I also like how the bouquets still had a few pink flowers in the mix to make it a little more feminine and fun.

Engagement Photo Session in 103 Degree Weather Tomorrow!

2010-06-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

Jon and I are getting our engagement pictures taken tomorrow. You might call us crazy, but nonetheless we are taking them anyway on a VERY hot day. Weather forecast says it will be 103 degrees in Fresno, CA tomorrow. Fresno has it's fair share of hot weather during the summer so it's expected, but hopefully for us it will have cooled down a little by the time we take our pictures at 6 in the evening.

We decided to take our pictures now rather than later in the year so that we had plenty of time to make and send "Save The Dates". I am really excited about the location in which we are taking our pictures! It's at an old ranch house (white porch and all), a couple barns, ponds, grape vines, etc. Lots of textures and places for great photos!

I spent practically all day on Saturday shopping for my outfits for the pictures. Although I had plenty of clothes to choose from, I wanted to wear something new for the photos. Well... I ended up buying an outfit, tried it on again on Sunday and decided I didn't like it anymore. It just wasn't me; I probably wouldn't wear it otherwise so I thought, "What am I doing?" I need to wear something I feel comfortable in. So I went through my sister and my mom's closet and found just the perfect outfits. Today it's time to go through Jon's closet to find something he can wear that will look good with what I'm wearing. :)

Ps. I thought I would post a pic of the two of us right after we got engaged. Proposal on the beach in Cayucos. :)

Anthropologie Wedding Dresses???!!!

2010-06-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

Yes! You heard it right... Anthropologie will be launching a bridal collection! Too bad the line comes out in Spring 2011, too late for me, but I am excited to share the news anyway! The line will have wedding gowns, bridesmaid dresses, gifts and accessories. Everything you need to create a fabulously feminine and ultra chic wedding.

Click to view article on InStyle.com

I just love Anthropologie... so much in fact that I used to work there. I still miss it sometimes... the soft indie music, the magnificent smell coming from the burning candles, the amazing displays... I think I may be due for another shopping trip! :)

My First Blog Post

2010-06-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

Helloooo everyone!

I had been putting off writing my first blog post for a few days simply because I did not know how to start. I can relate this feeling to starting a research paper or essay. The hardest part is to start, then once you get those initial thoughts down the rest flows naturally. Can you tell I just graduated from college??

A little bit about me… I consider myself a fairly creative person. I just don’t ever really get a chance to show it. I mainly use the excuse that I am too busy to do arts and crafts. The good thing about this blog is that it is going to force me to make the time to be creative which I am not complaining about at all. I love being able to just sit down and let my creative juices flow. It is one of the most relaxing things to me. Growing up my mom always encouraged my younger sister and me to be creative. We would spend our summers decorating t-shirts with puffy paint, going to the local ceramic studio to paint pottery, scrapbooking our vacation memories, making jewelry, etc. Now I work at one of the most creative companies in the world, iLoveToCreate, a Duncan Enterprises Company, where I am surrounded by constant innovation and creative inspiration. So here I am taking a whack at it myself.

I got engaged in April of this year to the love of my life. I could not imagine anyone else to spend the rest of my life with. God has blessed us both so much to have found each other. I cannot wait to start a life and grow old with him. Jon and I are getting married next year (May 2011) in a beautiful garden with a reception overlooking a lake. It will be simply beautiful.

So here I am writing my first blog post and I am very excited to start documenting my wedding planning journey this year! In this blog I hope you find inspiration whether you are a bride-to-be or someone who enjoys anything to with weddings.

Thanks for reading! Looking forward to sharing more with you in the near future!

<3, Mandy