hair inspiration: Serena/Blake

I have long (thin), wavy hair with bangs that I cannot live without. I don't dig too much on up-do's. Yesterday I started to think about who inspires me hair wise...this is what I came up with!

Serena van der Woodsen/Blake Lively!


pretty but still laid back

I love braids!

hello waves

More coming soon!! :)

you know you love me...

xoxo :)

Anniversary gift

I love Peachgroom for searching, finding and buying this awesome gift for me.

A true, vintage Joey McIntyre from the New Kids on the Block tshirt. One of the best gifts ever.

xoxo

Bridesmaid dresses

I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it's turned out to be. I only have one woman to dress...it can't be that bad, right? Wrong.

My smart brain decided that since the groomsgirl was on summer vacation from law school, we should find her a dress during that time despite the fact that I don't have a dress of my own yet. I didn't think that was a big deal until we went to a bridal shop in pure Michigan (don't tell me you don't love those Tim Allen commercials, people). The man that was "helping" us...more like telling me what I should do instead of what I want to do...told me something that has stuck with me ever since. Groomsgirl put on a bari jay dress that she really loved. I mean, she was smiling and excited to be in that dress. And it looked amazing on her. But would shortening it to tea length take away from the shape? Probably.

Gorgeous, right? Imagine how it would look in navy.

So anyway, the guy was totally annoying but that thing that he said? If I was looking at more toned down fabrics, then having her in a satin would make her stand out more. That made me think.

So while I was shopping with my mom for wedding dresses a couple of Sundays ago, I mentioned that I loved Dessy bridesmaid dresses. She asked me for a look that I was going for after I told her the predicament and she showed me these awesome dresses.

A little satin with tulle... I love tulle!

Yes, satin again with tulle. Ballerina style.

Here are the originals that I liked and she tried on:

she didn't necessarily care for this one...felt like there was a bird on her shoulder.

we like this one but maybe a little plain?

This is the last one I swear!!!!

ah, the Grecian dress.

If you're still here, thank you. It came down to the bird and Grecian dress for me until those tulle dresses were added. Would I be a hypocrite for wanting one of those even though it has satin? Probably... All I wanted was a dress that she felt great in, liked and that went with our wedding...is that so bad?

So, what are your favorites?

Which Bridesmaid Dress?

• bari jay
• satin and tulle
• ballerina
• bird
• plain
• grecian

View Results
Create a Blog Poll

Tuesday Shoesday

I love Tuesday Shoesday and all the creativity that goes with it. So today I decided to post my own pick. I think it's a good representation of who I was as a child and who I am today.



Pretty, right? They should be for costing 556.00 dollars! One day when I win the lottery... :)

xoxo

2 years ago at 2am

The weekend of July 25, 2008 Richard's dad was in town. Guy bonding time. Riding bikes in the city, going to a cubs game...the days of our manic texting back and forth. (Ok, we still do that.) Richard's dad knew something was up or maybe Richard told him that he was seeing someone and Mr. Peach said the word "girlfriend" to Richard. It was quickly said that I was not his girlfriend.

I believe that night I saw a special showing of Stepbrothers with my friends. After the movie, they all wanted me to call him so I did, acting as if I were alone. They wanted to hear how cute he sounded! (I was 24 at the time but I'll admit, I acted like a 16 year old.) After they all approved and agreed that he had a great voice, we giggled all night.


Richard and I said our goodnights on the phone after I got home but neither of us could fall asleep. We were texting into the am and at around 2 am, he finally asked me to be his girlfriend. So when he woke up in the morning, this time he was quick to tell his dad that I was, in fact, his girlfriend.

2 years. It feels like forever and at the same time like no time has gone by at all.

aww first picture ever...before the beard went buh-bye!

first vacation 3 months in! (the man must love me if he took me to Disney World)
skating on Wrigley Field!

his 25th birthday

there are no good pics of us together on our next vacation so...

here's one with no people. I love West Virginia.

night before the proposal!my 25th (part 2...part 3 coming in February!) birthday

at a friend's wedding :)

There are so many things we have done and seen in such a short amount of time. There's no one I'd rather do any of it with than him. There's no one I want by my side helping me through every trial but him. I'm so excited to see what awaits us in married life. If these 2 years are any indication for what lies ahead...I'm such a lucky girl.

xoxo

No bridezillas here!

You know, way back when twitter became all the rage, I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever heard of. I can do the same thing by updating my status on facebook and not everyone in the world needs to know what I'm doing.

While some people just don't get what twitter is used for, I am very happy I got over my preconceived notions and got on it after becoming engaged. I am so thankful for those I have met through the social networking wonder. Not a single one is a bridezilla, rude or a down right mean girl. It's a supporting and loving environment and I adore it. I can always put things out there on the twitter universe and get the best answers back.

Then I receive this from Hollie, a.k.a ThriftyinWhite.




Whoa. Me? Hollie, are you sure? I'm just this girl blogging about her wedding...

Hollie, you inspire me. You are going to have such an amazing wedding that represents who you and your future husband are. That is what every girl should dream about. I'm so glad you are so close by and that we can share our love for dorky things like Hanson. :) You rock, lady.

So now I'm gonna pass this award along to Angela, or as you may know her, Swatchbookwed. Seriously, her posts make me love everything about wedding planning even more and I did not think that was possible. She is killer talented and very cool...which is hard to be in Arizona!

xoxo

PS-
To my other girls who are going to crash my wedding (but touch nothing! haha)... I'm up for Fiji, Forks, Disney World, Denver, NYC, Salt Lake City...wherever you guys want to go! I'll get there. :)

E-pics!

May I introduce peachbride and peachgroom... :)

feet first!

yes we went into traffic.

there you go, smiling faces. :)


cuuuuuuuuute!

fun shot, right?

he likes this one more.

we do this all the time.

this one may be my favorite.

just for fun.

There you have it. Those wedges that I wore are super cute but they killed my feet. Made me kind of wish that I had worn my chucks as well but I don't think the outfit would have been quite the same. Haha. It was a fun time and I'm glad we got the chance to get to know our photographer by doing this. Now we have to choose between one of the two. I'm finding that decision making probably won't be done with until the moment I walk down the aisle!

Photos courtesy of serendipity portraits.

xoxo

Menu tasting

I'm sure you're wondering why we are doing the menu tasting in July when we're getting married in March. The place we are going to be ordering invites from is going on maternity leave in August so...I know we'll have tons of time otherwise but I can get a little paranoid like that. :)


So first we started with this:

baby tomato and mozzarella mini martinis, firecracker wonton shrimp, chicken lettuce cups

and this:

mini braised beef short ribs with crispy onions and balsamic herb salad

I cannot choice a favorite. Seriously. The meat was sooo juicy and the shrimp was awesome. The mini martinis were perfect and light. The chicken was a little spicy for me but it was still super yummy. Short ribs were sooooo freaking good-I love it. Ok, that might be my favorite. I'm jealous of our guests.

Next we tried some soup. I figured we don't have to try a salad we would probably pick a caesar or something safe. It was weird eating soup in the middle of July but it was pretty yummy.

roasted tomato



chicken wonton soup

The clear favorite was roasted tomato. It had a great homemade quality and I loved that. The chicken wonton was interesting but I think our guests would not like it as much as the tomato. Not only that, the chicken soup was a bit difficult to eat.

Onto entrees! We had a sesame seed and a pretzel roll in addition to our yummy yummy YUMMY entrees. Seriously, I may dream about this food. Ok I won't tease you anymore.

honey glazed young chicken, baby veggies and potato custard

grilled sirloin of beef, baby veggies and potato croquette

Sooooo amazing. The chicken was yummy and cooked so so well. Perfect. The potato custard is best described as grown up hashbrowns which is amazing, right?! I loved the beef though too. Again, cooked just perfectly and tasted wonderful. I thought I went to food heaven for sure. I definitely don't know which one I would pick but at the suggestion of Peachgroom, maybe we can share. He said "it would be our first sharing of meals as husband and wife". Awww!

xoxo

Our florist is awesome

It's true. I don't like flowers and somehow my ideas with her ideas made me so excited about what we're going to have. And here's a lovely bonus: we are under budget! Actually I just did the math and when I saw the total I literally said "whoa". I mean we're getting some awesome stuff! Think deep pink gerber daisies with lemons in a freaking awesome pink cube vase for centerpieces. Lush clutch for me (doesn't that sound amazing?!). Since my flower girl can't throw petals in the church we were given options of a basket filled with pink daisies to pass out or just a basket with an arrangement which are both super cute! Gerber bouts, white gerbers for Mary (you know, Jesus' mom), vases for our bouquets... It's all so fun to think about (or maybe that's just me...).

I know we're spending a lot on things that will just die in a few days but I know it's going to make my mom and grandma smile and to me, that's all worth it.

xoxo