#133: Getting Ready

The day of my wedding began with me waking up alone in our hotel room, heading to the gym for a quick stress-relieving workout (while avoiding all sorts of family members that were in the lobby for breakfast), grabbing a quick bite to eat, and then heading to the salon with my mom and MOH to get beautified.  Check out the cute hoodies my MOH made for the big day:

 

How crafty is she???

My mom and I both had our hair and make up done by Alayne at Make Me Fabulous and let me tell you – that woman is a miracle worker!  She is THE best and an absolute blast to be around.  Love her!

Clipping in the extensions…

Final touch ups!

While we were at the salon getting gorgeous, the boys were back at the hotel doing a little bit of this…

(note the football game on in the background)…and an awful lot of this:

Aren’t I one lucky girl?? 

 All photos by the super-talented Sarah Smith.

#132: the day before

Despite having a super small wedding party (just the Best Man and MOH) B and I thought it was still important to have a rehearsal prior to the wedding.  We probably could’ve gotten away without doing one, but I think it was good to just give everyone a sense of where they would be coming from, standing, etc.

We were probably in and out in under 30 minutes but I felt a bit more prepared after walking through it once!

After the rehearsal we headed over to the Ripe Tomato (one of my favorite places back home) for dinner with the rest of the families.  Our rehearsal dinner was definitely a bit more casual than some of the others that I’ve attended in the past, but the food was sooooooooo good and we had a fabulous time thanks to B’s parents!  B and I did get up and thank everyone for all their love and support during the entire planning process and gave our gifts to the Best Man and MOH.  B gave his Best Man a really nice set of poker chips with a carrying case and a set of custom beer steins with a picture of the two of them on it (don’t ask!) which he was really excited about.  After much debate I ended up giving my MOH a small white Coach purse and a pair of custom-made damask earrings that I purchased on Etsy to go along with our damask theme.  Figuring out the gifts was a tough process – I can only imagine how challenging it must be for larger bridal parties!  I guess I can understand now why alot of brides end up buying jewelry for their bridesmaids to wear on the big day!

Following dinner, B and I rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and headed over to our reception location to drop a few things off and touch base with the owner one last time.  Once our errand was complete, we said goodbye and B headed out for some drinks with his friends and I headed back to our hotel room to attempt to get some sleep.  We opted to stay in separate rooms the night before the wedding mostly so that I could use our suite to get ready in the next day.  I think it was a great decision because not seeing eachother at all really added to the excitement of the wedding day (or at least it did for me)!  Not that I needed anymore excitement…

#131: entertaining the guests

Back when B and I were in the early stages of planning for the wedding we came to the conclusion that we wanted create more of a weekend experience for our guests most of whom were from out of town.  Our original idea was to take everyone hiking the day before the wedding, which we did end up doing (more on that later), but we also wanted to have some sort of initial meet-and-greet for our immediate families as they had never met before.  That’s right - our immediate families including our parents had never met prior to the weekend of the wedding.  Apparently that is somewhat out of the ordinary especially to people in Texas who typically invite both sets of parents to dinner immediately following their engagement.  Is that just a southern thing or am I completely out of the loop?  In our defense, we got engaged in California and our parents live in Indiana and New York so bringing everyone together would have been a bit of a challenge.  Either way, we figured that it would make the weekend a bit more enjoyable if our families were able to spend a little bit of time together prior to the festivities.

My parents were kind enough to offer to host a casual dinner at their house for both families and that’s exactly what we did.  Nothing fancy.  We set up some card tables in the family room, added some basic table clothes and flowers to brighten things up, stocked the fridge with a good amount of beer, and served up some homemade food buffet style.  On the menu:

Appetizers – taco salad dip and cream cheese with raspberry chipotle sauce (served with crackers)

Main Course – salad, baked ziti, grilled chicken, and fresh italian bread

Dessert – fruit pies from a local farm and an amazing chocolate cake baked by my sisters future mother-in-law

I made almost everything myself in the hours before everyone arrived which turned out to be a little more stressful than I would have liked, but in the end everything worked out wonderfully and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Side note: empty tin cans with the label removed + some ribbon + random mixed flowers from the grocery store = super cute and easy table centerpieces.

The next day most of B’s relatives joined us for a hike up Prospect mountain as planned.  There ended up not being as many people as we were originally thinking so rather than putting together a big spread for lunch everyone just ordered their own subs and B’s dad drove them up the mountain along with those family members that couldn’t make the hike.  It ended up being a gorgeous day and the view at the summit was well worth it!

 

The hike was definitely a great hit and we all worked up quite the appetite for the rehearsal dinner later that evening!

I’m really glad we had a few extra activities planned because it gave us the opportunity to really spend some time with our out of town family members that we don’t get to see very often.  I know a few of them commented that they really appreciated having the extra time with us and I think it was well worth it.  In my opinion, there’s nothing worse than travelling for a wedding and then only getting to see the bride and groom for a few hours at the ceremony and reception.  Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely enjoy being able to share their “big day” and wouldn’t make the trip if I didn’t truly feel that way, but those are typically people that you don’t see on a regular basis anyway and it’s nice to be able to spend a little bit of extra time with them.  To each their own I guess!

#130: 2010 – the year of the budget

The last 6 months of 2009 involved quite a few hefty expenditures (house, wedding, honeymoon, and holidays) and as the new year approached B and I decided to take a closer look at our expenses and develop a monthly budget to get things back on track a bit.  Neither one of us are crazy spenders by any means, but we do like to eat out a bit more than we probably should and have some plans/savings goals we would like to achieve.  I should note that when we got married we chose to not fully combine our finances and are still maintaining our own separate accounts in addition to a joint checking and savings.  I know alot of people feel differently about this sort of thing but it made sense to us at least for the forseeable future – we can always re-evaluate at a later date!  Basically the way our finances work is that anything that is truly joint such as our mortgage, groceries, various household bills (like electricity and cable), home repairs, and nights out on the town are all paid out of our joint account and everything else is kept separate like our student loans, doctor bills, and car payments.  It might seem like a somewhat confusing way of doing things but personally I think it makes perfect sense.  To each their own I guess!

In developing our budget for 2010 we had a few goals in mind:

1.  Save money for a trip to Europe in 2011.

2.  Continue being able to eat out (something we both enjoy) but try to cut back a bit.

3.  Allocate money for the never-ending list of home improvement projects we’d like to tackle.

B took the reins on this little project (seeing as how he’s an accountant and all) and after reviewing our expenses from the previous year he was able to come up with something that we were both able to agree on.  It will be interesting to see how things play out over the course of the next few months especially with regard to goal #2.    Although B has taken on the responsibility of officially tracking our expenses with his fancy spreadsheets, I was a huge fan of Sara’s method over at 2000 Dollar Budget Wedding and will be carrying an index card in my purse to track more of the day-to-day type expenditures.  I figured this would be an easy way for us to always know how much we have in the “bank” regardless of our physical location.  We will also be utilizing our Entertainment Book as much as possible to maximize our savings.  I’ll be sure to report back at the end of the month to let you know how things went!

Do you follow a budget?  If so, how do you stay on track?

#129: happy new year!

I apologize for being so negligent of this sorry excuse for a blog – not that I think anyone even noticed.   One of my 3 New Year’s resolutions is to either update this thing regularly or kick it to the curb, so we’ll see how that goes!  I’m personally not big on the whole resolution thing but I thought it was fitting.  My other two resolutions are equally as exciting: to take a multi-vitamin and to drink more water.  Watch out kids – it’s’ going to be a big year!!

Although I’m not big on resolutions, I do like to use time of year to reflect on all the things that happened in the previous 365 days.  This past year and decade for that matter included several huge milestones in my life such as graduating high school AND college, relocating to Dallas, buying my first car and house, and of course getting married.  Pretty crazy, huh?  I’m not sure how the next 10 years can top all that but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens! 

One super exiting thing did happen in the past few weeks though.  We finally got our professional wedding pictures so be on the lookout for the wedding recap and all the juicy details!!!

Hope your new year is off to a fabulous start!

#128: anybody want a dress?

Since I somehow ended up being a 2 dress bride, our guest room closet is currently overrun with wedding gowns (ok well maybe that’s being a little dramatic, but you get the idea).  In an effort to reclaim some valuable storage space I’m looking to sell my original dress that I never wore.  It’s an Eden Bridal’s gown, strapless, size 6 with beading along the top and the hip-line.  If you or anyone you know might be interested, let me know!!  Any and all offers will be considered!!  Here are some pics to refresh your memory:

 

#127: new find

I’m always on the lookout for ways to spice up my time at the gym (especially my “dates” with the treadmill!) and I recently came across a great site called MotionTraxx that offers free podcasts of workout music.  Free, upbeat workout music??  Sign me up!  I promptly signed into iTunes to check out these podcasts and let me tell you – they are fantastic!  I love being able to zone out a bit during my workout and just move to the beat of the music.  They also have some interval training podcasts that I highly recommend as well.  Seriously people, this is good stuff!!!  Oh, and for those of you that don’t use iTunes it appears that the podcasts are available directly through their website so you can download them right there.  You can thank me later!

Also just as an fyi – I created a new page called ‘Workouts’ where I’ll be logging my adventures at the gym.  I need to do a better job of tracking my mileage to make sure I’m not setting myself up for injury by running too much too soon so I figured I might as well share it with the world.  What can I say, I’m just generous like that!  Ha ha. 

Do you keep track of your mileage and various workouts? 

#126: hawaiian adventures – the final hours

Before we knew it, our time in Hawaii came to an end and it was time to pack up our stuff and make the long trek home.  We had one final breakfast at the hotel and took a short walk along the beach in an attempt to take it all in.  So sad!  It was really hard to believe that everything we had spent the last few months preparing and planning for was coming to an end.  You spend soooooo much time counting down the days until the wedding and honeymoon and before you know it, it’s over!  We really had a wonderful time in Kauai and felt it was the perfect place for our honeymoon especially since it was more of a quiet location without all the touristy-stuff you probably find on some of the larger islands.  As we were making our way to the airport we were commenting that although we loved it in Kauai we doubt we’ll be back, or at least not anytime soon.  We were able to hit all of the “big” things on the island so other than some more hikes and snorkeling there wasn’t much else left to do.  I would like to come back to Hawaii at some point though to see Maui and some of the other sites, but I think Europe is next on our list.

Do you ever re-visit places or do you prefer to go someplace new?

I actually have mixed feelings on this one.  There are a few places that I love going – Laguna Beach being one of them – where I could go every year and be perfectly happy, but there are so many other places that I really want to see that I might like even better.  Maybe I’m a creature of habit and that’s why I am always drawn to places where I know and where I have happy memories of.  Come to think of it, there are very few places that I’ve been that I really have no interest in seeing again.  I think the only places that would fall into that category would be Fort Lauderdale and Atlantic City.

Anyway, the honeymoon was fantastic (as expected) and I did not want it to end!  It really took some time to get back into the swing of things, especially after being out of work for a good 3 weeks!

Well that’s it folks!  Hopefully we’ll get our wedding pictures from the photographer in the next few days so I can give you a recap of the festivities and how everything turned out.

Until next time….

#125: hawaiian adventures – day 5

Since we had spent most of the previous day in the car to and from the canyon, we decided to take a day off from our sightseeing adventures and relax by the pool.  It was heavenly!    We spent the day reading (I brought ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ with me on the trip), napping, and sipping frosty beverages of the adult variety.  Can’t get much better than that!!

Later that evening we had dinner reservations at the Beach House which B had made weeks in advance.  The restaurant is known for it’s gorgeous sunset views so the place books up pretty quick during “prime” viewing hours.  Unfortunately for us, our reservations happened to fall on a slightly cloudy evening so the sunset was not quite as gorgeous as it could have been.

 It was still beautiful though and dinner was outstanding.  For my entree I selected the Grilled Portobella Mushroom (marinated in balsamic and sweet basil vinagrette, served with grilled asparagus and roasted vegetables) and it was divine!

The balsamic dressing they marinated the mushrooms in was soooooo good! Even B agreed that this was an excellent dish.  He was quite pleased with his entree as well, but it was a bit too fishy for my taste.  Dessert was once again a slight disappointment – we ordered the Molten Chocolate Desire and while it was good it was no where near the best we’ve ever had.  Oh well.  We had a lovely time and this was definitely one of the best meals we had on the island! 

Up next: Our last full day on the island.  *sniff, sniff*

#123: pot roast success!

I’ve been trying to use the Crockpot a bit more as it’s so nice to come home and have dinner ready rather than cooking after a long day at work.  I stumbled across this blog – A Year of Slow Cooking – that is full of Crockpot recipes with easy to follow instructions and decided to take a stab at my first-ever pot roast.  I must admit I’m not a huge pot roast fan, but it was something I haven’t had in ages and sounded perfect for dinner on a cool autumn evening!

The recipe was ridiculously easy:

3 Packet Pot Roast (found here)

• 1 packet ranch salad dressing/seasoning mix
• 1 packet italian salad dressing/seasoning mix
• 1 packed au jus gravy mix
• chuck roast (I used 2.5 lbs of meat)
• veggies (I threw in about 2 handfuls of baby carrots, 1 yellow onion cut into chunks, and 2 white potatoes)
• 1-3 cups of water

Trim the meat of any visible fat.  Put the veggies in the Crockpot followed by the meat.  Combine all 3 seasoning packets in a small bowl and pour over the meat (flip the meat to cover all sides).  Add 1 cup of water and cook on low for 8 hours.  About 20-30 minutes before eating, add 2 more cups warm water and flip to high.

This turned out delicious and the house smelled FANTASTIC when we got home from work.  The meat was nice and tender and the veggies were cooked perfectly.  The only thing I would change would be adding the water at the end – 2 cups of water was entirely too much and made the sauce a bit too thin.  Next time I make it, I plan on only adding one cup and seeing how that works.  Either way, this one was a keeper!!