Wedding number 3!

Here's an iphone snapshot of BL and I at the wedding two weeks ago. Don't know why I didn't use my camera, the resolution is awful... The wedding was fun. It was one of BL's college friends. I liked getting me meet more of his friends. We also took a detour and stopped at IKEA! BL's first time, and he liked it. This is similar to what I wore to the wedding:

Wedding #3 by simplysuz featuring a twist dress

Wedding number 4!

 This weekend's wedding was a dear friend of mine from our Bible Study group.

At least one out of six weddings

This is the outfit I'm wearing to an upcoming wedding that BL and I were invited to. Believe it or not, we have 7 weddings to go to before our own. I am really excited to see how everyone else does things, and enjoy being a guest. I'm in one of my bridesmaid's weddings (three of them are getting married between now and then!). 

Wedding guest outfit by simplysuz featuring tear drop earrings

Sweater, $20
Rsvp kitten heels, $69
Hobo handbag, $101
Vera Wang tear drop earrings, $14
Ring Neck Sateen Dress Assorted Colors, $55

What I've been up to

Ahh, life... it catches up with you sometimes, doesn't it? I moved into a new apartment last weekend, and it seems like I was saving up so much to do and plan until "after the move." I still have a ton of organizing and re-arranging to do, and the new apartment came with a lot of maintenance issues (tub leaking, laundry room leak, no cable hook up, mail key didn't work....) All of that stuff takes a lot of time to get sorted out!

So besides moving, I've also been working on a wedding website

It's for the wedding party and our families to keep up to date on all of the plans we're making. I used Blogger and chose a simple template with pages for all of the different categories.

Then I started a blog redesign, but haven't finished it yet (as you can see, it's half new and half old...)

Anyone else really sad about Picnik closing? I'm going to have to go back to using Picasa and Aviary. hmm, or maybe something else.

oh and, Working, Working, Working.... as always, I have to pay the bills. :)

My health has been pretty good. Bl and I talk a lot about how we learn all the time how much extra Hydrocortisone I'll need for different things. Like the day I moved I took 15 mg extra throughout the day and while I was drooping with exhaustion by the end of the day, it seemed to ward off any Addison's symptoms.

Thyroid-wise, I seem to be doing ok on 100mcgs of Synthroid. I had a doctor's appointment this week, so we'll see if my levels prove I need more or not.

I was hoping the Synthroid would help spur on my metabolism and I would lose some weight, but not much change there. I counted calories for 3 weeks straight in January and lost 8 lbs. But then I had some stress and ate a bunch of fried food and gained it back. The root of this problem is my lack of discipline in sticking to a healthy diet... and my lack of exercise. Losing weight has to become a priority. If I use you guys for accountability on that, you won't mind, will ya? BL has been kicking up the exercise in his life, so that's good motivation. I just need to stop making excuses and work out.

On a final note, what would we do without Pinterest?? Before I was engaged I was pinning decorating images like crazy. Now that I'm stalking wedding websites, Pinterest is so wonderful for keeping track of inspiration. Here are some of my favorite pins from the week: (click on each caption to go to the source and to see the pictures in a larger size.)

Wedding Channel

BHG.com

Ana White

The Wedding Channel

PaperFashion.net

Style me pretty

Complex Cardigans

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

Stitchy Date

 

From Lindsay Dud's Etsy Shop

A Bike Ride and a Party

I'm not one of those girls who has always daydreamed about her wedding day, planning everything from the dress to the entertainment. I'm sure I'll have ideas about what I want when the time comes, The only thing I'm sure about right now is that I don't want a huge, long ceremony. Maybe when I get married someday I'll not be nervous to stand for a long time, and I'll have more stamina when I am anxious, or maybe I won't be anxious at all!

My issues aside, this cute wedding caught my eye. In fact what a cool idea for any kind of party!! They rented bikes for all of their guests to ride to the reception picnic at a park, then to an ice cream shop for desert, and later on to a botanical garden for the final toast.

I love her dress! tiers of ruffles with a yellow sash

Her bouquet is made out of enamel broaches and pins

The bride and groom rode a tandem bike

The guests decorated their bikes before the reception

Vintage sheets were the picnic seating

What a causal and fun reception!!

Yum!

So cute.

 All pictures from Martha Stewart Weddings