We Got Hitched!

It was the most beautiful day, we couldn't have asked for anything more perfect. What an incredible feeling - the outpour of love from family and friends; repeating vows as old as time; seeing all of our hard work planning for months and months pay off. I keep replaying it all over and over so that I may never forget a single moment.
The father-daughter dance:

photos by Jenny Jimenez

Busy, busy bee

My little sister was in town this weekend and she helped me knock off a ton of item's off the to-do list. One of those was a hair trial - nothing like a good cup of coffee, good company, and some Arrested Development marathon action to make for a great Saturday morning!

Monkey Business

My handsome lil boy got his first summer shave this weekend, and wow - did he look good!

Bout's

Is it just me, or is 'boutonniere' a really difficult word to spell? Anyhow, I got an email last night from one of my BMs of a mock-up boutonniere she made for the wedding and I LOVED IT! Here is her awesome husband modeling it :)

bachelorette mayhem

My best-ies are throwing me a bachelorette party and I have no idea what the festivity entails, other than a postcard I received in the mail that said "We may all be miles apart...". I'm still not sure what I'm going to wear to the shindig but this is a good candidate:

from here

DIY Soap Bars

These are so stinkin' cute and would be such a thoughtful welcome gift for your guests!

found it here

As if I wasn't busy enough

My sis is coming to visit me this weekend and we're going to bust out a ton of wedding projects while she is here. On the list are ceremony programs and I'm totally loving these:

from here

walking down the aisle

With just a few weeks left, we still haven't decided on ceremony music. I know it will all come together :)

Someone suggested this version of Canon in D:

Apparently my occupation comes home with me

I'm dubbed the "slavedriver". We worked on the deck the ENTIRE Memorial Day weekend trying to get it done before all of our family and friends join us in the next couple of weeks.
That hole is where this huge old tree used to be that the previous homeowner built the deck around. That tree freaked me out whenever we had a good wind come through because you could hear it sway back and forth from inside the house. The guy who chopped it down told us it was a good thing we did because it wouldn't have made it another year. Eeek! No worries, we've planted 7 trees in the front and back yard to make up for chopping it down.

His bling

When Steele and I first started looking for rings for him, he really wanted a dark (preferably black) tungsten ring with some bling in it. He found this ring that he really loved, but when we tried contacting the vendor they never returned our messages.

Crappy picture of it since now it's apparently sold out:
Bigger picture of it, but with the wrong color of diamonds:
Anyway, we went around to many local jewelers to see if they could find this ring or something like it, or even attempt to make it. After many rejections, Steele was pretty bummed and gave up on looking. He finally came around a few months later and we decided to stop in a jewelery store just to have a peek. As luck would have it, they had a new style in that he really liked, so he tried it on and 15 minutes later we were walking out of the store with this ring:

Sorry, don't know where I found this one!

And my non-pro version of it after being shinied up this weekend! So excited he'll be wearing it in a few short weeks!

Puppy Love

Chloe:Riley:
And the latest addition, Bailey, trying to befriend Gonzo - the grumpy cat.

Rehearsal Invitations

Since our wedding invitations were so time consuming, I wanted to put together something much, much more simple for the rehearsal invites. I even considered not sending any out, but my love for paper was much too great!

I printed these on regular cardstock I had leftover from the invites and was able to fit both pages on just one sheet. I used a Martha Stewart craft punch for the top page and made sure to align the red underneath so it showed through. After placing the first page on top of the second, I used a rectangular punch I found at Michael's and tied a knot through the two punches to bind the pages together.

I had some leftover scrapbook paper that I traced an envelope template onto by carefully disassembling an envelope I had around the house in the right size and then cut and folded to make envelopes. And voila, they were off!

I'll have two please!

Thinking some freshly squeezed lemonade would be a yummy homemade drink for an outdoor wedding or summer picnic!