OH what a beautiful day!!!!!

Even though I know we didn't have that rough of a winter, to say that I'm happy that spring is here is an understatment. I am so happy to have nice weather to look forward to, sandals to wear, and outdoor activities to enjoy. :D

I mean honestly, look at this weather forecast for this week from KSL:

Doesn't it just SCREAM spring? :D I'm one happy girl over here, yes siree!

In fact, I got to enjoy my lunch outside today. :D

Everything you ever wanted to know about my wedding.....PART TWO

Okay Peeps. I'm back!

My wedding day was seriously SO CHILL. My best friend Becky came and we went up to Logan the night before the wedding and stayed in a hotel in downtown. We watched chick flicks and ate Easter candy and just giggled over the fact that I was getting married the next day. My wedding day we had HOURS before having to even start getting ready. We enjoyed a lazy morning of silly morning game shows and got ourselves caught up on all the jazz of The Voice. :) It was a fun morning.

So...we had our wedding ceremony at a chapel in Smithfield. Allan's former YSA bishop (from when we first started dating) performed the ceremony. We had the opportunity to say a few words to each other and it was very tender. I cried. I honestly don't remember much, just that when everyone cheered at the end of the ceremony my nephew cried. :D

RECEPTION DECOR:

We spent a day way back in November during a planning session going to all sorts of places to look at them for our reception. The best and my ultimate favorite was by far, Cafe Sabor. It used to be an old train depot and they had this amazing space that was just PERFECT. They handled everything for us. They got tablecloths in our colors, put up ALL of our decor for us, and made everything just very easy.

For our decor we went with tissue paper balls that my sister, mom and I made (I heard there was some crazy last minute making of these the night before the wedding...but I wasn't there, so whatever. :D ) I also made a cute banner for the head table, and all the center pieces were glass votives that we spray painted to look like mercury glass and put battery operated tea lights in.

EVERYTHING WE PRINTED:

My AMAZING little brother Caleb designed all of our invites and all coordinating cards. I LOVED how they turned out. He designed the swirlies, the "C" for my name (because I didn't like the original one that came with the font) and just was AWESOME. I used a GREAT printer down in Spanish Fork. I was able to get everything printed on linen paper which added to the feel I wanted for the invites and was perfect. Caleb also designed a little postcard that we sent to everyone that we wanted to tell, but wasn't invited to the ceremony/reception. This we printed at a place in Orem. It wasn't amazing, but it worked. We ALSO printed a thank you card (just on gray card stock from my personal computer) for everyone's dinner plate. All in all I'm VERY happy with how the paper goods turned out. 

PHOTOGRAPHER:

If you hadn't noticed, I had an amazing photographer: Brandi Lyn with Brandi Lyn Photography. Brandi Lyn was AMAZING to work with. She nailed our style down pat during our formals session. (we had engagement photography done by Allan's cousin) She was fabulous at our wedding and even when I freaked out when I wasn't getting her emails, she was super calm and all worked out in the end. I still am friends with her on Facebook/follow her on instagram and she's AWESOME. She captured all the right moments at our wedding/reception and I love the keepsake photos that I'll have for forever and ever.

RECEPTION PARTY:

After dinner we went out on the patio and had our fathers say some words. We also cut our cake --w which was really a Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake. Oh man, that was the best decision ever. I made our cake topper and found our cake cutting tools at Hobby Lobby.

After all of those shenanigans we had our first dance, which per the tradition in our family (as it seems to be) my Dad interrupted it...but then Allan and I finished it out and then we had the Father/Daughter Mother/Son dance. Then the party got started and we had dancing for an hour or so. We had SO MUCH and our good friends Benji and Melissa dj'd our dance for us. They played all of our favorites and on a couple of the songs EVERYONE got up and danced. It was AWESOME.

GOODBYE!

After we decided we were done dancing and it was time to get on to other activities *wink wink*. We left the restaurant amid confetti poppers that scared the beejebers out of us. We got in our car (after popping a bazillion balloons) and as soon as we turned it on we were attacked by star glitter things. Those things got EVERYWHERE...including down my dress and in my hair. We still find a few every once in a while. :)

Honestly, everything was amazing. I think I covered everything...we had a simple honeymoon up in Bear Lake at Allan's timeshare with Worldmark. It was perfect.

So there you. My wedding. :-) We just received our sealing clearance last night, and so now the planning begins for our sealing day in June. :D :D :D (granted it won't be quite as big of an affair, but still fun and still important to us.) until our next adventure my friends.....ciao!

Everything you ever wanted to know about my wedding.....PART ONE

Well. I've talked about wanting to do this post for OVER a year. And I'm finally getting to it y'all.

I'm sorry. Married life is busy. ;)

ANYWAYS. I wanted to tell you all about my wedding, because it was absolutely perfect and it was everything I wanted it to be at this point in my life. When I was younger I was SO SURE that I wanted the standard Mormon reception where you invite all 500 bazillion people you know, make a bunch of nut and mint cups, serve BYU mint brownies, and then sneak out of the reception early because you're sick of standing in some long line.

Well. When it came time to plan my wedding I KNEW that I didn't want to do that. Any of it. I know there were a lot of people who would have loved coming to a reception like that in support of me and Allan and it would've been fun. BUT at the same time I wanted something sophisticated and intimate. I wanted the people that have ALWAYS been close to me and that will continue to be close to me for the rest of my life.

Thus, our less than 100 guest list was born. Allan wanted something similar and invited even fewer people than I did, but we were both happy with our decision. I know some people felt like they should be there...but alas, it wasn't meant to be according to us. :D

ANYWAYS. Shortly after I started this I realized that there is A LOT to cover. So, PART ONE will be all about what we wore, colors, flowers, and accessories. PART TWO will be all about our photographer, the wedding itself (what we did and why) and everything to do with the reception (restaurant, cake, etc)

ENJOY!!

COLOR SCHEME:
We went with teal, gray (of varying shades) and cream. Here's a link to my wedding inspiration board so you can see what I was sort of going for when it came to my dress and theme.

DRESS:

After shopping with my mom (and perusing Pinterest and knowing kind of what I wanted) and not finding anything, we took the plunge and ordered a dress from China, my mom whacked off the bodice (because it wasn't what I wanted) and then we shipped a mock bodice and then the real thing back and forth 3 (4?) times from VA to UT and back. The finished product still need a few alterations that we were able to find a freind of a friend to do for $50 dollars (I think?). It was a satin pleated top with fake buttons down the back in ivory, with an ivory organza vertical ruffled skirt with a little bit of a train. My mom is AMAZING and the end result was GORGEOUS.

See for yourself:

BRIDAL ACCESSORIES:

I found my shoes at Head over Heels in the Logan Mall, I made my own hair piece (and decorated bobby pins) from a headband thing I found at Kohl's (I cut and slashed and added bling to it. :) ) my bracelet and earrings were made by my mom. :) I did my own hair, which I practiced several times (and it turned out amazing for EVERYTHING) and my own makeup. (I used a lot of e.l.f. products) The AMAZING Jesse Keefe did my nails based off a picture I found on Pinterest.

FLOWERS:

I had a very clear vision of what I wanted for my bouquet and could (mostly) care less about the other flowers. I knew that I wouldn't have much choice given out color scheme, but wanted it all to be classy.  We went to this small little place in Salt Lake that Allan knew about for the mother/father/groom's flowers and I made mine and Lindy's bouquets. Ambitious? Maybe -- but I started it WAY early, had it done in PLENTY of time and it was EXACTLY what I wanted. :D We went with small lilies as the main flower and some other flower that I can't remember for the filler on the corsages. :) Lindy's bouquet is a minitaure version of mine and filled with teal and cream fabric and fake flowers as well as different types of metal broach flower things I found at Hobby Lobby/Michael's. I used toilet paper tubes to make the base and after a lot of hot glue had our flowers done. :)

GROOM:

We got Allan's suit at a clearance sale at Dillards. We had it tailored by Stitched Specialties in Midvale. (they were AMAZING) We rented his vest/tie/shoes from a place in Logan (the only one that had a teal that I liked) and then we got him (and his bestman) "matching" cufflinks. (we got the ones that were monograms of everyone's last name.)

LINDY:

My mom made her dress, I made the flower that went on her dress/in her hair. My mom also made her a necklace. :)

THE REST OF THE GANG:
Everyone else was given paint chip cards with the wedding colors and they were responsible for finding something to wear. I really didn't care what people wore so much and I wasn't going to make people buy something they were never going to wear again. For the most part everyone nailed it on the head. There were a couple of outfits that I would've changed, but it really doesn't matter what people wore. :D

Stay tuned for a blog about the rest of my wedding everything. :D until next time....ciao!

One-Year Anniversary

Well. We did it.

We made it past the one-year mark. :) I love Allan so much and know that I am SO lucky to get to be married to him. 

Marriage is a funny thing - I feel like in the Mormon culture so much is associated with being intimate with a person when being married, but there is really SO MUCH MORE than just that.

The past year has had a steep learning curve of being a wife AND a mother. Who would've thought I'd be potty-training a toddler after being married for 3 weeks? Not this girl. (but totally rocket it like a boss y'all.) I have loved the journey that I have been on so far, and I look forward to learning so much more as time rolls on.

Allan and I decided a few months before our anniversary that we would trade off on years of being in-charge. (so this year he did Valentine's and I did our Anniversary and it will switch every year) Being the one in-charge this year, and loving to be reminiscent of things, we went to Cafe Sabor for dinner. Cafe Sabor is where we had our wedding dinner/reception and I just love the place. :) (I am working on the vendors blog post! It will go up VERY SOON!) Then we went to the Logan Temple to do some sealings. (we decided we wanted that to be part of our celebrations every year.)

We also decided that we didn't want to do gifts every year. (we'll tackle the "big ones" [5, 10, 15, etc] when they come up) Instead we decided that every year we'll write a letter to each other in a journal. This will be an amazing keepsake we can have for our children and I'm excited about it. Allan claims to have a hard time with words, but he always says the exact right thing. I loved reading this year's letter. :) Here's to a bazillion more years together and the eternities to follow. :D

us outside the Logan Temple before doing sealings, after eating dinner.

Smithfield Shenanigans

This weekend Allan, Lindy, and I all went up toSmithfield to spend some time with Allan's side of the family. We had lots of fun adventures including seeing Monsters University at the dollar theater, having a picnic/BBQ in the park, and going to see Grandpa Gary's corn. 

Gary is a farmer here in Smithfield and I am always impressed by the hard work at he puts into his livelihood. Allan and I took a little drive out to parts of the farm to see how his corn was growing, and it looks amazing!!

The corn is super tall and is looking great! 

In love going up to Smithfield because it is always so nice, quiet and relaxing. Sure the winters are crazy cold, but it's a beautiful place. 

31 for 31: Day 3

Sorry this is a couple of days late. :) Please note that being late might happen from time to time, but I'll try to not let it get out of hand. ;)

Anyways! Day 3:

Top: Gray Empire top with pink satin ribbon
Bottom: Teal damask maxi skirt
Shoes: Teal flip flops

I LOVE this maxi shirt. I'm trying to find more than one way to wear it (beyond the coral button up I  bought to match it - you'll see that combo at some point in this challenge, I'm sure). I think this works, but I don't love it. There's just something about a maxi skirt that I feel needs a tucked-in shirt. Maybe it's just me. I tried to tuck in this shirt and it did NOT work.

Also, random fact - I've lost some weight recently due to some health things and I kind a feel like these empire tops do not do me the same service they did when I bought them.  I was about 20lbs heavier when I bought these shirts and they helped slim me down. I'm thinking it's time to look for a different style of shirt that works for me now? Maybe? we'll see...

ANYWAYS. that's all. :o) ciao!

Ambition

So, if you have talked to me at all recently then you know that I am about to live out being an "army wife." In t-minus 10 days, (not that I'm counting or anything. ;) ) my lovely Army Reservist husband will embark on his two-week Annual Training (aka AT) that will cause him to be gone 27 days.

But wait, you say, you said two-week training but that your husband will be gone for 27 days! The math doesn't work you say! And in that, you are correct. See...normally AT is only two weeks out of the summer. However, my lucky, lucky husband's section got put on the advanced party AND the clean-up crew. Therefore, he's going to be gone for 27 whole days AND still have to do his normal weekend drill the weekend he comes back in August. So it's almost like he'll be gone for 28 days (I won't really see him that Sunday after he gets back...)

I knew this would be the life, and really 27 days isn't that bad especially when he could be deployed at any time for a long, long time. This will just be a taste of what it could be like....but that doesn't mean I'm excited that he's going to be gone for so long so quickly after getting married. sigh

ANYWAYS. I have all this pent up ambition of things I want to do while my dear husband is off gallivanting around an Army base in another part of the country. I have made 5 fairly lofty goals for myself to do while he is gone and I'm telling them to you to help me be accountable for them or something. :o)

so, without further ado I present my 5 Goals to accomplish while the husband is gone:

1. I have been given the opportunity to participate in a little mini-dance workshop put on by one of my colleagues/friends in the dancing world. We're going to get together twice a week in the month of July and then have a little performance at the end of the month. I'm really excited about this!


2. I am going to make my own 31 for 31 fashion challenge. There will be more details coming on this by the end of the week (I hope!) and you can totally participate with me if you want. ;)


3. I am going to re-do our Master Bedroom. We are still using the same bedspread from when I was single...and while nice it is showing some wear and tear. SO I am going to redecorate! This will include making new pillowcases, duvet cover for said bedspread, painting the nightstand and hanging some pictures and such. I MIGHT just buy a new sheet/bedspread set....but only if I can find what I want for a good price. I will post more on my plans on this at the beginning of July. I have a Pinterest board on it and everything and I'm really excited at the prospect of this project.


4. I have a ton of recipes that I have printed off from websites and such and I want to compile ALL my recipes into one place. I'm thinking that instead of a book I'm going to do a box w/recipe cards. BUT that's subject to change. I plan on working on this project all month long when I'm not dancing and watching all of my guilty pleasure shows. ;)


5. Finally I have been collecting ideas for crafty projects to do for a long time and have a dozen or so on a Pinterest board. My plan is to complete at least THREE of these ideas while Allan is gone. I'm not sure which ones yet, but I'll post about them when I figure that out. I plan on doing these on the weekends. 

Whew. I'm going to busy! I also want to work out on a regular basis and possibly work on our Wedding Album...but we'll see how that all goes down. I do know that it's going to be hard, but so rewarding at the same time. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? :o) ANYWHO....if anyone wants to play with me let me know! I'll definitely be wanting to play with my girls!

Happy Father's Day!!

I am so lucky for the several great men in my life, but today I want to give a shout out to two of my favorites. ;)

First, my daddy.

My Dad is amazing. He is definitely the best dad I could have asked for and I am so blessed to call him mine. :) He has been my rock during the tough times. He makes me laugh and is always there when I have questions about life things. In love you dad!!

Second, my handsome husband. 

Allan is an amazing father to Lindy. He is so attentive, loving, and kind. Seeing him interact with his daughter was one of the many reasons why I knew I wanted him to be my husband and father of my children. I know he is going to love our kids to the moon and back.  

So there you go, I love the fathers in my life. Happy Father's Day!!!

Married! And it feels SO GOOD!

So....I kind of disappeared for a few days there huh? ;) There's something about getting married that will do that to you...lol.

Anyways, we're back from our honeymoon and have plunged feet first back into the real world. It feels nice not to have to worry about so many things on a daily basis anymore. I love that I don't have to leave my sweet husband every night anymore and that "anything goes" these days. It is a GREAT feeling.

I want to do a full-on review of ALL of my vendors along with pictures and what not, but that might be a little slow in coming. For now I just want to say that my wedding day was so lovely and perfect. Our small ceremony was just wonderful and I pretty much cried through the whole thing. :) My family is amazing and we had great  fun partying it up after dinner. I have the best husband ever and I am so excited for all the adventures we get to enjoy for the rest of our lives. :o)

Don't worry, I'll be back with gusto...in the mean time enjoy this picture from our formal photo shoot. Ciao!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Day of Love y'all! :o) I definitely feel like the luckiest girl alive to get to marry that sexy man above in 42 days!. :o) He's going to be all mine and there's nothin' you kids can do about it!!!

Time

I have been thinking a lot about time as of late. It's interesting to me how at times time seems to fly by and yet at the same exact time it seems to crawl. Someone commented on my Facebook post about this that I notice this phenomenon because of an upcoming wedding....and they're probably right.

However, I have noticed it at other times in my life. I think it comes from being fairly busy day to day with all the different things going on and on in life. Pair that with the excitement of something big (or even little) coming up, some event that I'm looking forward to and thus you have the fast/slow conundrum of time.

You know what I just though? "Sheldon Cooper would get a kick out of my philosophical thinkings right now. I bet he would have some scientific explanation...." ha ha ha ha. I love the Big Bang Theory.

Anyways. That's all. Life is good. Sometimes it seems to be going by fast and at other times it seems to be crawling by (like right now! Took my ring in to get it re-sized so I'm not afraid of it falling off and I have to wait until SATURDAY to get it back. I want it to be Saturday NOW.)

Hope y'all have a great day!

P.S. Look for the upcoming goal re-cap post (with pictures? perhaps!) and a few other fun things that I have up my sleeve. :o) Ciao!

Once Upon A Time....

I got engaged!!!!!

That's right! It's officially official! I'm getting MARRIED!!!! I am so excited and stoked to get to marry my best friend. Last night was AMAZING.

It all started shortly after we both got home from work, Allan suggested that we go to the Blue Iguana for  dinner. This restaurant holds a lot of memories for us as it is one of the places we went near the very beginning of our relationship (before we were officially dating, in fact). The food was delicious as always.

After dinner Allan suggested that we go to the Gallivan Center Outdoor Ice Skating Rink. This was something we had seen as an idea to do this weekend, and I was so excited to get to do that with him. :o)

At one point I gave Allan a really hard time about not having a ring yet...and he teased me by suggesting that it would happen up in his hometown because he knows the area better over there. Not five minutes later we were on the ice again "dancing" in the middle and he looked at me, told me he loved me and I said, "I love you too!" and he then said "really? well then...." and he got down on one knee pulled out my ring and asked me to marry him.

my ring. this picture doesn't do it justice. It is gorgeous!!

:) :) :) :) :) 

I said yes and that folks, is how I got engaged to my best friend last night! I'm so excited to start the process of planning this wedding and start our life together. :)