I decided to switch up my header, just to spice things up. This is a picture of my parents' "herd" of longhorns, up at our house in Muenster. Are you in the market for a longhorn? Feel free to give my folks a call and arrange to bring one of these guys home to your backyard. Check 'em out at Double N Cattle. (Or, looking for a website designer? My sister is your gal).
This past weekend we debated switching up our wedding venue and date. My mom found a ranch that hosts private events about 20 miles from the church we'll be getting married in, so she went to check it out with my dad and sisters. She calls me Friday morning and insists that this is THE place we've been looking for and that we must book it right now, but they aren't available on our date. But they do have a Saturday in June open. So I call the priest. The photographer. The WP. The future in-laws. (All while in the car driving out to the lake for the weekend.) And everyone is free on the June date. So we decide to go check the place out when we get back into town on Sunday. It was a very charming, very rustic ranch complete with some goats and a miniature horse. They had a ballroom that had the right look, but it was just too small. Even though the owner (who could not have been any nicer) swore they can set it up for 270, I just couldn't imagine us all crammed in that space. So we decided to forgo it and stick with what we've got. I'm relived because the idea of switching everything and notifying everyone already involved was nerve racking. But I am also bummed, because the ranch and the people who owned it were fabulous.
Well, Gus is demanding my attention. He's pretty cute, so I guess I'll go play with him for a while :)
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Organize in Style
I love organization. I am a pro at making lists and crossing things off as I complete them. I love taking notes and making files. I once spent an entire morning at work reprinting the labels on all my files at work, so they would all the the same color and in the same font. So it's no surprise that when I got engaged, I wasted no time starting my Wedding Binder. Mark and I each snuck home some sheet protectors from work and he snagged me a big white binder. I spent the next couple of months filling it with pictures I had torn out of magazines and printed off wedding sites online. I got some dividers and made some sections, but it has already become such a mess that I've already abandoned it. It has no rhyme or reason anymore and filled with a lot of pictures and colors that I'm not even considering anymore.
Today I stumbled upon Russell and Hazel and fell in love in about 3 seconds. Their free PDF files of every list you could possibly need as you plan your wedding are pretty fabulous. Their binders and paper products are quite pricey, but I couldn't resist the black and white patterned binder and ordered it, telling myself that every bride deserves a nice Wedding Binder and this one will of course keep me right on track with all my planning. I cannot wait until it arrives in the mail!
Today I stumbled upon Russell and Hazel and fell in love in about 3 seconds. Their free PDF files of every list you could possibly need as you plan your wedding are pretty fabulous. Their binders and paper products are quite pricey, but I couldn't resist the black and white patterned binder and ordered it, telling myself that every bride deserves a nice Wedding Binder and this one will of course keep me right on track with all my planning. I cannot wait until it arrives in the mail!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Part 2
So are you all on pins and needles about my quest for the perfect dress? I had every intention of wrapping that one up quickly, but then life got in the way. It tends to do that! Just so we can move on to other topics, here is the abbreviated conclusion!
First a back-story. In 2007, I was attending a wedding of one of Mark's best friends. This was maybe the second or third time I had ever hung out with his college crowd, and I was more nervous than usual about the wedding and making sure all his friends liked me. I wanted a new dress to wear for it, so I started out on a hunt. My biggest problem was price - I realllly didn't want to spend more than about $50 on anything new, so I was looking for a good sale. As I searched and searched and couldn't find anything that fit in my budget, Mark started tagging along and offered to split the cost of a dress if it was too pricey. We found nothing. We must have gone to four different malls and it was zilch everywhere. I was getting discouraged and wanting to give up and just find something in my closet, but Mark made me forge on. Out of sheer desperation, we wandered into the BCBG section of Macy's. This was really a bad idea because let's face it, we didn't stand a chance of finding an inexpensive dress there!
I had been bypassing any dress that was over $100. Mark kept trying to get me to try them on, but I wouldn't even let him spend that much on me, so I refused to give them a chance. But by this point, after days of looking and countless stores, I humored him and tried on about three different dresses, all $200+. It was at this time that we found The. Perfect. Dress. It was navy blue with gold detailing and it was the perfect amount of both dressy and casual and it was just beautiful. They didn't even have my size, but I tried on one size smaller than I usually wear and was even able to zip it up. The sales lady assured me it fit perfectly and did her best to talk me into it. Yes, I loved it. Mark loved it. He said he would buy it. But at $250 i refused. He kept insisting that it was a great dress and totally worth the price and he didn't mind getting it for me. Now I'm all for letting him spoil me a little every now and then, but that just seemed absurd. I'm not the kind of gal that would ever spend that much on a dress. So we left it behind and I sulked about it quietly for a good month or so.
Ok, back to the current story. I'm searching for a dress for our party and the mall has failed me. I head up to McKinney after work with Mark one day and we stop at the outlets in Allen to see what they have. We park at JCrew and proceed to make our way around the entire shopping center (in the 100 degree heat no less!) and go into store after store after store. We give everything a chance. If it looks like it sells dresses, we go in. I think I tried on a total of three total and none are even remotely what I'm looking for. No one has summer dresses! We made our way down the last row of stores and Mark wanted to go into Brooks Brothers. It's then that I spotted the BCBG store, which I had forgotten was tucked away in the back corner of the mall. We went in, felling hopeful.
The store is arranged by color and we worked our way around, pulling more and more dresses from the racks for me to try on. This one's cute! And so is this one! I remarked how much I loved BCBG and Mark commented that he knew that because remember that one dress? I stopped mid rack as it came back to me. The perfect dress. I told him I was surprised he even remembered that dress, much less what brand it was! I even joked that maybe it had made its way to the outlets by now and that we should keep our eyes out for it. We worked our way around the store and finally made our way to the blue section. I sarcastically told Mark to look for it as I was sliding some dresses across the rack when Bam. There it was. The perfect dress. Navy with the gold details. Marked down significantly and - the entire store was an additional 50% off! And it was in my size! I grabbed it in disbelief and added it to the growing stack of dresses to try on.
I must have tried about 12 dresses and they were all fantastic. BCBG, how I love you. The navy dress was not at all what I was looking for for our party - it was much too fancy. But I found an adorable little strapless summer dress that couldn't be more perfect. I walked out of the dressing room with this dress and the navy one. I told Mark that I felt like God had put this dress back into my life and I was not going to walk away from it twice! So I bought them both. Or rather, Mark bought me the navy blue one after all, two years after we first found it in the mall.
So now, all this girl needs is some great shoes to wear with my new party dress! Whew!
First a back-story. In 2007, I was attending a wedding of one of Mark's best friends. This was maybe the second or third time I had ever hung out with his college crowd, and I was more nervous than usual about the wedding and making sure all his friends liked me. I wanted a new dress to wear for it, so I started out on a hunt. My biggest problem was price - I realllly didn't want to spend more than about $50 on anything new, so I was looking for a good sale. As I searched and searched and couldn't find anything that fit in my budget, Mark started tagging along and offered to split the cost of a dress if it was too pricey. We found nothing. We must have gone to four different malls and it was zilch everywhere. I was getting discouraged and wanting to give up and just find something in my closet, but Mark made me forge on. Out of sheer desperation, we wandered into the BCBG section of Macy's. This was really a bad idea because let's face it, we didn't stand a chance of finding an inexpensive dress there!
I had been bypassing any dress that was over $100. Mark kept trying to get me to try them on, but I wouldn't even let him spend that much on me, so I refused to give them a chance. But by this point, after days of looking and countless stores, I humored him and tried on about three different dresses, all $200+. It was at this time that we found The. Perfect. Dress. It was navy blue with gold detailing and it was the perfect amount of both dressy and casual and it was just beautiful. They didn't even have my size, but I tried on one size smaller than I usually wear and was even able to zip it up. The sales lady assured me it fit perfectly and did her best to talk me into it. Yes, I loved it. Mark loved it. He said he would buy it. But at $250 i refused. He kept insisting that it was a great dress and totally worth the price and he didn't mind getting it for me. Now I'm all for letting him spoil me a little every now and then, but that just seemed absurd. I'm not the kind of gal that would ever spend that much on a dress. So we left it behind and I sulked about it quietly for a good month or so.
Ok, back to the current story. I'm searching for a dress for our party and the mall has failed me. I head up to McKinney after work with Mark one day and we stop at the outlets in Allen to see what they have. We park at JCrew and proceed to make our way around the entire shopping center (in the 100 degree heat no less!) and go into store after store after store. We give everything a chance. If it looks like it sells dresses, we go in. I think I tried on a total of three total and none are even remotely what I'm looking for. No one has summer dresses! We made our way down the last row of stores and Mark wanted to go into Brooks Brothers. It's then that I spotted the BCBG store, which I had forgotten was tucked away in the back corner of the mall. We went in, felling hopeful.
The store is arranged by color and we worked our way around, pulling more and more dresses from the racks for me to try on. This one's cute! And so is this one! I remarked how much I loved BCBG and Mark commented that he knew that because remember that one dress? I stopped mid rack as it came back to me. The perfect dress. I told him I was surprised he even remembered that dress, much less what brand it was! I even joked that maybe it had made its way to the outlets by now and that we should keep our eyes out for it. We worked our way around the store and finally made our way to the blue section. I sarcastically told Mark to look for it as I was sliding some dresses across the rack when Bam. There it was. The perfect dress. Navy with the gold details. Marked down significantly and - the entire store was an additional 50% off! And it was in my size! I grabbed it in disbelief and added it to the growing stack of dresses to try on.
I must have tried about 12 dresses and they were all fantastic. BCBG, how I love you. The navy dress was not at all what I was looking for for our party - it was much too fancy. But I found an adorable little strapless summer dress that couldn't be more perfect. I walked out of the dressing room with this dress and the navy one. I told Mark that I felt like God had put this dress back into my life and I was not going to walk away from it twice! So I bought them both. Or rather, Mark bought me the navy blue one after all, two years after we first found it in the mall.
So now, all this girl needs is some great shoes to wear with my new party dress! Whew!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Always There When You Don't Need It, Never Around When You Do
Ladies, I know you know all about this phenomenon/curse. It applies to all kinds of things - shoes, jewelry, books, jeans, bras, anything. For me, it is always the same thing. Dresses. If I am just strolling around the mall, perhaps looking for a gift or a new strapless bra or even tagging along with Mark while he shops for new work shirts, I will without a doubt find tons of cute dresses - sundresses, cocktail dresses, maxi dresses, formal dresses - and they will most likely be on sale for a decent price. Whenever I don't need them, have zero events planned that require a new dress or just plain can't justify spending the money, I am surrounded by many adorable little dresses. I'm not even seeking them out, I just find them. Sometimes I even try them on and ponder wistfully if I should buy them. There's always going to be something that comes up that needs a new dress, right? But, more often than not, if I don't have a reason or event or purpose for the dress, I just leave it and mentally remind myself to check that store the next time I need a new cute dress.
Well those days inevitably always come up, usually a lot quicker than you think they will. Weddings are the obvious events. I can always wear a dress in my closet to the many, many weddings I attend each year, but it's fun to get a new one every once in a while. Whenever I'm a bridesmaid (4 times so far, with 2 more on the calendar), I love to get a new dress for the rehearsal dinner, since it's my one chance during the weekend to wear my own sassy little number. Weddings are great excuses to buy yourself something new. So now that I'm the bride, I'm practically giddy with the idea of all the little splurges I get to make on myself this year.
Next month, my aunt and uncle are hosting an Engagement Party for Mark and me. We've invited everyone in our wedding party, as well as our closest friends and family. For the past couple weeks, once the invitations went out, I've been looking forward to shopping for a new dress to wear to the party. I've even been delaying it to an extent, because I didn't want to buy something too far before the party and then have the novelty of the new dress wear off before my big debut as the Bride to Be. But this past weekend, I could wait no longer. On the way home from the bridal show on Sunday, I stopped at the Galleria to hit up all my favorite spots: Nordstrom, JCrew, Zara, Banana, Macy's and any other stores that drew my attention. Well, I spent over two hours at the mall, going to EVERY SINGLE STORE and could find nothing. It's that weird time of year where, even though it's the middle of July and 105 degrees outside, all the stores are bringing in their fall sweaters. All the cute summer dresses were put on the clearance racks weeks ago with only slim pickings left. I grew more and more distraught as I left store after store without even a remote possibility of a winner.
That night I started to panic. What if there aren't any summer dresses out there anymore? I could wear one that's in my closet already, but that's no fun. And as the guest of honor (well, co-guest of honor) I wanted something really special. The party is a casual, backyard BBQ kind-of event (although we're serving Mexican and not BBQ) and we aren't expecting people to dress up (plus it will be August in Texas, still super hot!). I wanted a cute sundress or something short and summer-y. What if I couldn't find one?! I plotted to hit up all the little boutiques in town after work each afternoon, determined to leave no stone unturned.
Well fear not my friends. I did not only find the perfect dress, I found THREE perfect dresses. And I bought all three of them. Stay tuned.
Well those days inevitably always come up, usually a lot quicker than you think they will. Weddings are the obvious events. I can always wear a dress in my closet to the many, many weddings I attend each year, but it's fun to get a new one every once in a while. Whenever I'm a bridesmaid (4 times so far, with 2 more on the calendar), I love to get a new dress for the rehearsal dinner, since it's my one chance during the weekend to wear my own sassy little number. Weddings are great excuses to buy yourself something new. So now that I'm the bride, I'm practically giddy with the idea of all the little splurges I get to make on myself this year.
Next month, my aunt and uncle are hosting an Engagement Party for Mark and me. We've invited everyone in our wedding party, as well as our closest friends and family. For the past couple weeks, once the invitations went out, I've been looking forward to shopping for a new dress to wear to the party. I've even been delaying it to an extent, because I didn't want to buy something too far before the party and then have the novelty of the new dress wear off before my big debut as the Bride to Be. But this past weekend, I could wait no longer. On the way home from the bridal show on Sunday, I stopped at the Galleria to hit up all my favorite spots: Nordstrom, JCrew, Zara, Banana, Macy's and any other stores that drew my attention. Well, I spent over two hours at the mall, going to EVERY SINGLE STORE and could find nothing. It's that weird time of year where, even though it's the middle of July and 105 degrees outside, all the stores are bringing in their fall sweaters. All the cute summer dresses were put on the clearance racks weeks ago with only slim pickings left. I grew more and more distraught as I left store after store without even a remote possibility of a winner.
That night I started to panic. What if there aren't any summer dresses out there anymore? I could wear one that's in my closet already, but that's no fun. And as the guest of honor (well, co-guest of honor) I wanted something really special. The party is a casual, backyard BBQ kind-of event (although we're serving Mexican and not BBQ) and we aren't expecting people to dress up (plus it will be August in Texas, still super hot!). I wanted a cute sundress or something short and summer-y. What if I couldn't find one?! I plotted to hit up all the little boutiques in town after work each afternoon, determined to leave no stone unturned.
Well fear not my friends. I did not only find the perfect dress, I found THREE perfect dresses. And I bought all three of them. Stay tuned.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Reasons I Hate Living in an Apartment: #712
The people who are currently living above me are loud. Really loud. Are they walking around wearing scuba flippers up there? I can hear them pounding around up there all hours of the day and night. Are the constantly dragging very large pieces of furniture across the floor? Hammering nails into the walls at 2 AM? Running laps around all 700 square feet of living space? I've started either keeping the TV turned up very loud or having my iPod plugged into my ears at all times. Which means I miss a lot of phone calls, but at least I can choose what is blasting in my ears.
End rant.
My weekend of absolutely zero plans other than laying around and perhaps painting Mark's kitchen didn't quite go as planned. Friday afternoon Mark's best friend from college called to let us know he was in town for a wedding and wanted to hang out. We were already discussing making dinner at home and heading up to Home Depot to look at paint colors when this little call threw a wrench into the whole plan. We still hit up the paint department, stared at the 1,000 different squares of color for about 20 minutes, finally blindly picked two and got samples, took them home and put them up in the walls and then Mark mowed the lawn while I feel asleep. Since we didn't hook up with his friend and his GF that night, we made it a point to see them Saturday. They were staying at the Gaylord out in Grapevine, so we met them up there and spent about six hours at the hotel's FABULOUS pool with a beach bag full of illegal cans of beer ($4.50 per drink at the bar? no thank you). We left with great tans and no desire whatsoever to pick back up the paintbrushes (although we do have about 5 different patches of colors on the walls currently: picking a color is so hard!) We went to bed early with plans of hitting up the paint department early this morning to makeup for our lost time.
But then, this morning when I checked my email, my friend and fellow Bride to Be had emailed to see if I wanted to go to the Dallas Bridal Show today. Woo! So I sent Mark on his way and told him he could paint the kitchen ANY color he wanted at this point, and I met Laura for lunch and an afternoon of DJ's, Latin Cover Bands, Cake samples galore, balloon arches, veils, free drawings for a wedding day makeover and about 280 different chair covers. Whew. It was really fun and also quite exhausting. By the last row of booths, our bags of giveaways and brochures were so heavy that we had the drag them out and we avoided eye contact with every vendor we passed. I did manage to sign up for a "free" facial from a Mary Kay consultant, create a registry at Bed, Bath and Beyond (with nothing on it yet?), and enter for a chance to win a Bachelorette Party at... get ready... Texas Motor Speedway. Oh joy. Laura informed me on our way out that she was giving everyone a fake phone number. Hmm. Smart.
But really, the bridal show was fun. I felt like I was a part of this exclusive "Bride to Be" club and like all the girls there had that same happy engagement glow. Plus, I did find some really cute bridal boutiques that I hadn't even heard of before, many of who I for sure want to go check out for dresses. And the lady at the LuLu's booth even snuck Laura and I one of her coveted coupons, even though she swore they were only for referrals. I think we smooth talked her pretty good :)
When I talked to Mark earlier tonight he hadn't made any paint decisions yet. He figured I needed to come be a part of the final decision. But one thing we do know - our little kitchen project will involve some chalk board paint. Stay tuned for that one!
End rant.
My weekend of absolutely zero plans other than laying around and perhaps painting Mark's kitchen didn't quite go as planned. Friday afternoon Mark's best friend from college called to let us know he was in town for a wedding and wanted to hang out. We were already discussing making dinner at home and heading up to Home Depot to look at paint colors when this little call threw a wrench into the whole plan. We still hit up the paint department, stared at the 1,000 different squares of color for about 20 minutes, finally blindly picked two and got samples, took them home and put them up in the walls and then Mark mowed the lawn while I feel asleep. Since we didn't hook up with his friend and his GF that night, we made it a point to see them Saturday. They were staying at the Gaylord out in Grapevine, so we met them up there and spent about six hours at the hotel's FABULOUS pool with a beach bag full of illegal cans of beer ($4.50 per drink at the bar? no thank you). We left with great tans and no desire whatsoever to pick back up the paintbrushes (although we do have about 5 different patches of colors on the walls currently: picking a color is so hard!) We went to bed early with plans of hitting up the paint department early this morning to makeup for our lost time.
But then, this morning when I checked my email, my friend and fellow Bride to Be had emailed to see if I wanted to go to the Dallas Bridal Show today. Woo! So I sent Mark on his way and told him he could paint the kitchen ANY color he wanted at this point, and I met Laura for lunch and an afternoon of DJ's, Latin Cover Bands, Cake samples galore, balloon arches, veils, free drawings for a wedding day makeover and about 280 different chair covers. Whew. It was really fun and also quite exhausting. By the last row of booths, our bags of giveaways and brochures were so heavy that we had the drag them out and we avoided eye contact with every vendor we passed. I did manage to sign up for a "free" facial from a Mary Kay consultant, create a registry at Bed, Bath and Beyond (with nothing on it yet?), and enter for a chance to win a Bachelorette Party at... get ready... Texas Motor Speedway. Oh joy. Laura informed me on our way out that she was giving everyone a fake phone number. Hmm. Smart.
But really, the bridal show was fun. I felt like I was a part of this exclusive "Bride to Be" club and like all the girls there had that same happy engagement glow. Plus, I did find some really cute bridal boutiques that I hadn't even heard of before, many of who I for sure want to go check out for dresses. And the lady at the LuLu's booth even snuck Laura and I one of her coveted coupons, even though she swore they were only for referrals. I think we smooth talked her pretty good :)
When I talked to Mark earlier tonight he hadn't made any paint decisions yet. He figured I needed to come be a part of the final decision. But one thing we do know - our little kitchen project will involve some chalk board paint. Stay tuned for that one!
Friday, July 10, 2009
365
One year from today, I will be GETTING MARRIED!!!!!! I am so excited that this one year mark has already come. Time really is flying by. Now I better get the ball rolling on the wedding planning. I can't use the "it's still over a year away" excuse any longer. My WP BFF is going up to Muenster with me in a couple weeks so we can start coming up with our grand design plan for the ever-so-dull church hall. We found out last week that we cannot hang anything from the ceilings in the hall (even though when we booked, I specifically asked if we could and was told yes, grr) so we're having to get even more creative now. My good friend (and b-maid) Stephanie called me late last night with her own personal solution to this dilemma, something she saw on the Martha Stewart Weddings cover.
Balloons! Huge balloons with little lights inside them, to make them glow. It could work. I'm going to look into it, along with WP BFF. Another option is to build some sort of HUGE arbor/canopy/tent to put over the dance floor, and hang lights and lanterns from it. My dad assures me that he will build me ANYTHING, so it's also on the list.
Tonight Mark and I are going to celebrate our Pre-Wedding Anniversary and let the countdown officially begin!
Balloons! Huge balloons with little lights inside them, to make them glow. It could work. I'm going to look into it, along with WP BFF. Another option is to build some sort of HUGE arbor/canopy/tent to put over the dance floor, and hang lights and lanterns from it. My dad assures me that he will build me ANYTHING, so it's also on the list.
Tonight Mark and I are going to celebrate our Pre-Wedding Anniversary and let the countdown officially begin!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
From Flab to Fab, Update: FAIL
Ok. So maybe this will start up NEXT week. With Mark's brother still in town, this was just not working out this week. I'd much rather tag along to dinners out and spend the evenings watching DVR'ed episodes of Conan with the boys, rather than hit up the gym. Sigh.
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