Wedding Blogs

realsimple.com

Wedding Blogs are everywhere! there are good ones, great ones, and strange ones... of course you always have websites like theknot.com, real simple weddings and marthastewartweddings.com , but here's a list of my favorites that have something different to offer.

100 Layer Cake
Ruffled
OnceWed
Simply Perfect Weddings
Southern Weddings Magazine
Snippet and Ink
Style me Pretty
The Wedding Chicks
Green Wedding Shoes
Emmaline Bride
Love and Lavender
Lovely Bride

Wedding Music Ideas

Martha Stewart Weddings has some great wedding music playlists on their website.
Classic and Surprising Wedding Music Playlists 

from Marthastewartweddings.com

 Click through the slideshow to find the links to the different playlists. BLand I haven't talked too much about music yet, but we'll probably have to include a little country because that's his favorite. I'm a fan of piano and cello music for the processional, and during the reception I hope to mix in some vintage Ella Fitzgerald, along with some upbeat love songs too.

It's so nice to be able to play the music right from the web page you're on and not have to go searching for it. There are a lot of music suggestions out there, but most of the time they just list the song and artist. Have fun!

Shoe Dilemma

I've been dreaming about blue wedding shoes almost since BL and I started dating. for some reason, I just love the idea of some bright blue peeking out from under my wedding gown. Here are some pictures to show you what I mean (all pictures found on Pinterest):

source not known

source not known

style me pretty

style me pretty

When I saw these shoes on BHLDN.com I thought I had found "the ones"

Why?

1. They are the "right" blue
2. They are low heeled
3. I love peep toe sling-backs

But.... they were $280!!! there was no way I was going to spend that much money on a pair of shoes. Not a problem, I'll just search out another pair for a more affordable price:

These are from 6pm.com

But I wasn't having much luck finding wedding worthy shoes. There are lots of flats in teal and turquoise, but nothing in the electric blue shade I'm searching for. And nothing that seemed dressy enough. Here are some perfectly wedding worthy shoes, but the heels on these babies are waaaay too high.

So when my dream shoes went on sale for $160 I was caught off guard. Am I willing to pay $160 for shoes for my once in a lifetime wedding day? Are they really what I want? What would you do?
buy the expensive ones? or wait and hope to find something just as good for half the price?

Proposal Story!!!!!

Ok, here it is, finally! The story of the night BL asked me to marry him, and I said YES!

The weekend of our one year anniversary was the first weekend we had to spend together, with no plans, and BL wasn't scheduled to work in a long time. So I packed Brody in the car and headed north. We talked about just enjoying the time, not making any big plans or anything (!).

We both love Pei Wei, so I thought we should try PF Changs on Saturday night since BL had never had it before. We had a great dinner. We talked about life and our relationship over lettuce wraps and shrimp and chicken. I admitted to him that it's been hard not having the future all planned out in front of us, and that it can be a struggle for me at times. I said that I was working on trusting God and trusting him. He said, "I hate to see you worry, what can I do to help you trust me more?" I said, just to pray and keep me updated if things change for him. I didn't feel a ton better after that, but it was a relief to be even more open about my feelings than I had been before. I was trying to protect him from increased pressure if he knew that I was struggling. He's already stressed enough... but he was glad that I talked about it. He kept asking if I felt better, and if I was ok. I was ok, just thoughtful and a little ashamed that I wasn't strong and confident despite the uncertainty of the future. I told him that it was just something that I was going to have to work on.

Then we went home and listened to music and danced and got all romantic- just talking about the last year and how blessed we feel to have found each other. We started telling each other things we love about each other. After winding down a few minutes later, he said "You know what else I love? your ring...."

I was confused, but assumed he was talking about the ring I wear all the time on my right hand, and started to talk about that, and he interrupted me and said "No, this ring..." and pulled out a big sparkly ring from his pocket!

I was stunned. I was completely speechless for about 30 seconds. I cried and laughed at the same time, and then he said, "Will you marry me?" and I said, "Of course I will marry you!!" At that point I remember thinking that my voice didn't sound like my own and I felt like I was floating. He put the ring on my finger (it fits perfectly) and we hugged and kissed and laughed for a few minutes before we finally had to sit down and take it all in.

We didn't call anyone until the next morning, it was nice to just revel in the moment and tell each other over and over how happy we were. I couldn't put my thoughts into words and I was glad that he hadn't done in a huge, extravagant way, because then I would have known it was about to happen. This way, I was totally caught off guard, and I will always treasure those moments when I was truly and genuinely surprised.

Looking back on the night, I feel silly about out conversation we had at dinner. But most of the concerns I had shared are pretty much gone now. (imagine that...) I still need to work on being content in each day and stage of life, but there's something about being engaged... I feel like it gives me a new sense of security, and it gives me permission to plan and dream about our wedding. I kept myself from doing that too much before then because I didn't want to get ahead of myself.

Now we're wedding planning and I'm loving every minute of it! My pinterest page takes forever to load because I've pinned so many pictures in the last few weeks.


P.S. If you'd like a Pinterest invite, let me know!

Blue and Green Notebooks

Here's what my desk at work has on it right now:

The blue binder is for wedding planning and the green binder is my planner. They're sitting right at my side, ready for any random thoughts or notes.

I'm loving my planner. I ended up buying pre-printed calendar pages because I liked the tabs they came with. Other than that, all the pages are ones I've shown you here and here or scrapbook paper.

Here's a peek into my planner (blurry pictures from my phone...)

Pen loop from the Container Store

Month page

Amy Butler paper

Tabs... pretty colors get me every time.

The layout I settled on for my weekly pages

New Planner Pages!

Here is my second installment of printable planner pages. To see the complete list go here.
and to find the other pages go here.

First, here is my Weekly Grocery List. This is just what I normally buy each week with room to spare.

Weekly Grocery List

Second,Master Grocery List

Third, WW Points + Tracker

And if you'd rather have a plain old one: Diet Tracker

Here is my Prayer List
I use this to keep track of things people have asked me to pray about. I currently keep a list, but I don't plan on using names on this list so that if someone happened upon my binder they wouldn't know who I'm talking about.

Then, here is my Shopping List

I use this for things I want to buy, but aren't groceries. Such as socks, craft supplies or a sweater for Brody....

Next is my list of things To Save For

This is a list for Goals



So there ya go! A few more pages checked off my list.

Fabric Find: Posy in Blue by Rebekah Merkle

This one is so vintage, I love it! Found at Moona Fabrics, part of the England Swings collection.

Sparkly Surprise

Some of you might know that I've been dating a handsome guy I call BL here on the blog-a-log. (BL is a family nickname that seems to fit for blogging purposes...) This weekend was our one year anniversary and he surprised me with something pretty and sparkly and... well it looks like this:

That's right, we're engaged!!!!  I was completely surprised, not expecting a ring this soon. It's amazing how many emotions I've experienced since Saturday night. Shock, amazement, wonder, love, intense giddiness... I have felt so blessed and overwhelmed and speechless and ready to burst and and and.... 

I want to remember all of this, because it is such a special time. I had no idea...

I'll work on writing proposal story for all of you, so stay tuned for that! 

Thoughts on this thing called blogging...

from bhg.com

Blogs are amazing. Really, they are. Some people spend hours on Facebook or Twitter, socializing, keeping up with friends, sharing their lives.  Blogs are more personal, more creative, less filled with farmville and other time wasters... On blogs, it is easier to avoid content you don't like.

I read blogs that make me smile. I read blogs that are encouraging, blogs that are written by women that I can relate to. Reading blogs makes me think, strive to be better and love people more. I learn about travel, sewing, being a woman of God, dealing with disease, having a sense of humor, fashion, and so much, much more. Blogs written by authentic people make me realize that we are all dealing with something. We all have struggles and deal with them in our own way.

What are some of your favorite blogs? Check out my list of Blogs to Read to see mine.

A Thursday kind of week

Happy Thursday! 

 Thursdays are my most tired days of the week, so today I have tried to do things to keep my energy level up. Including:

• listening to Christmas music on Pandora (Gene Autry and Bing Crosby anyone??)
• Planning out what I'm going to do tonight (who am I kidding, I do that everyday at work)
• writing with my peppermint scented candy cane pen (33 cents at wags. yup, I bought one for each of my work buddies too.)
• adding new clothes to Polyvore (take a look at my latest versions of my work uniform---> below)

Winter wardrobe uniform #2 by simplysuz featuring cashmere tops

My winter uniform by simplysuz featuring cz earrings

I haven't been successful lately at losing weight. I stopped gaining right before my RAI, but I can't seem to lose any. So I've still been wearing a lot of skirts to work. They are so much more forgiving than pants as my weight fluctuates. I almost bought two pairs of khaki pants at Old Navy this week, but my budget won out over the $42 I would have spent. Plus, their pants don't last very long so it was probably wise to wait ( and maybe a little bit more motivation to lose weight? as if I don't already have enough...)

Brody has been with BL this week. I've missed him. At night I've been cold since he's such a little heater, and when I get home the apartment seems so still. BL sent me this picture on Monday of what Brody had been up to:

See those little paws??? so cute.