Always Stop to Smell the Roses!

On Saturday I did a little food shopping at Trader Joe's, I couldn't help but pick up some fresh flowers too!

 I HEART Trader Joe's, legit could spend hours in that store wandering. 

They had buckets of gerber daisies in so many different shades of pink, I had to scoop up a few bunches. Then I came across some soft pink ranunculuses that had to be scooped up as well! 

I would LOVE to have Peonies and Ranunculuses in my wedding bouquet.. 

and I would also love to have them in our table centerpieces..

When I got home from TJ's I was surprised with these beautiful roses from Eddie. Looks like I wasn't the only one who couldn't pass up the eye & nose candy that spring has produced! 

I kinda love getting flowers... are you reading this fiance??

Will yah take my picture?

WE DID IT and met our my deadline! 

We booked our photographer and I couldn't be happier with our decision. I found her months ago but didn't quite think she was in our price range. Mostly because she did not include a second shooter with the package that was closest to our budget. I always thought I NEEDED a second shooter but after talking with her my mind quickly changed. She assured me she shoots many of her weddings solo and her pictures attest to the great work she does alone! 

Without further adieu we booked Katie Hall. Go check out her blog and OooO and aHHhh over her gorgeous pics.

My thoughts on booking a photog from across the country:

Firstly, I must admit that I am the most awkward phone person ever. I have been trying to get better about it but I legit just HATE the phone and I mumble.. I get that from my dad!
My awkwardness worked out in my favor because talking to Katie went SO smoothly and I felt very comfortable talking to her. So this MUST mean I will feel equally as comfortable w/ her taking our pictures on the big day and less awkward I hope!

Although of course I wish we could've met her before booking, the phone worked just fine in getting a feel for her personalty!
So there's 1 less thing for me to whine about concerning planning a wedding from across the country.

Let's just hope the rest of the decisions on vendors is THIS easy.

Guinness & Irish Soda Bread to the face!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

We don't normally let Russ drink Guinness but since it's Saint Patrick's day we gave into his whining, he's Irish at heart!

In celebration of this fantastic day I baked up some of my Nana's Irish Soda Bread and wanted to share with you her SECRET recipe, so SHh don't tell anyone!

Ingredients:

5 cups flour

1 cup sugar                                          

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder  

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup sour cream

Mix together dry ingredients

Add to the dry ingredients:

1 C buttermilk

1 C sour cream

and Knead dough for about 5 min.

Get in there!! If the dough is too dry add a bit more sour cream or buttermilk.

Add raisins (opt)  I usually add the raisins but end up picking half of them out when I eat the bread.

Halve the dough and place in two 9in. buttered and floured baking pans 

Make a cross on the dough (I did this but you can't really tell)

Bake at 350 for 50 min.  

Brush butter on the top of bread 5 min. before removing from the oven for a golden color

Devour! Mmm.

A place to hold the rings

Kinda sorta NEED one of these for our wedding day. 

I'm sure most've ya'll are familiar with Paloma's Nest, I just adoreee these custom ring bearer bowls. 

I LOVE that you can use it on your wedding day and then have it as a keepsake after the wedding, a place to keep my ring safe when I have to take it off my finger (GASP!) 

The only challenge is picking what to have written on the cute little bowl. 

A line from our song and our wedding date?

Marry Me, Today and Everyday (lyrics from Train's Marry Me)

Our names and wedding date?

Or a lyric from any other love song I LOVE, this list could go on and ON!

So hopefully the most perfect words to put on this ring bearer bowl will come to me soon, so I can have it my possession! 

Side note- today marks 30 days till Maui! I am going to religiously start working out to Jillian Michael's 30 day shred for the next 30 days. PROMISE! I started tonight and was cursing her out the whole time, she kicks your butt..and I was only doing level 1 of 3... I will keep you posted on the results!

15 months away and thoughts on booking a photog!

15.... 

YAYY 15 months! This expression is more like it!

In 15 months from today I will be marrying my loverboy! 

DOUBLE YAY! 

I'm setting a goal for us this month: BOOK THE PHOTOGRAPHER. 

We need to take advantage of the perks of a long engagement, we have our pick of all the vendors out there. Which is amazing/overwhelming because there are SO many talented people. How do you pick just one, especially when it comes to a photographer!

Pictures are the last thing I want to skimp on, but with that being said, the wedding budget isn't that humongous that we should be dropping serious dough on them!

The style photographer I'm looking for is one that takes a journalistic approach.

 Today I have the morning off, thanks to whoever was responsible for the power outage at my work! With my morning freedom I've been scouring the internet for Boston wedding photographers but I keep coming back to the 2 that I found months ago. One is at the higher end of the budget and the other is pretty reasonable for her amazing work. 

This is going to be one HARD decision so giving us a deadline is a good thing or else I'll put it off foreverr and miss out on having our pick!

And the deadlines begin, I'm sure I will be making more deadlines for us in the months to follow! Eddie better get excited!

Ode to my shoe(s)

ok So I may be a little melodramatic in this post... be warned...

I had a VERY traumatic incident walking downtown yesterday.

This is the ending result:

My FAVORITE pair of cute black heels which I scored at H&M for such a great price are now sadly not part of my ever expanding wardrobe anymore.

I was hit by a car yesterday afternoon, whattt?! Yup this girl was hit dead on. Luckily, all I lost were these heels. 

Moral of the story even if there are NO cars in sight always wait for the crosswalk signal to tell you to cross. ALWAYS! Otherwise a sporty benz could speed up at of NOWHERE and smack into yah. For reals. 

Although a little sore today I received a package from Zappos that I just HAD to try out.

My new Nike Lunarflys + 

They were on sale and still are! These shoes are A-MAZING. I ran 5 miles then another 1/2 mile with Russ when I got home from the gym :) just saying.

Ok now on to the more important things in life.. relaxin on the couch with wine, nail polish and my macbook.

Sorry had to get a ring shot in there, and my awesome self done frenchy! :)

My Wedding Shelves

These shelves are right above our sink in the kitchen. They are filled with my pretty wedding finds/inspirations. 

Waterford Crystal = LOVE. 

We received the Love & Romance toasting flutes for our engagement from Eddie's Aunt & Uncle, I can't wait to use them at our wedding. 

Finally snagged these monogrammed mugs at Anthropology this weekend and I'm pretty pumped about it! They will be filled with flowers and displayed somewhere around our wedding venue, just not sure where yet. 

The pitcher on the top shelf I bought at Marshalls for like 6 bucks, I am thinking I want something like that filled with flowers for the table centerpieces. 

source

Since we are nearing the 15 month mark I'm finally starting to feel good about my ideas for venue decor and I'm not afraid that my style will change anymore so I can start making purchases. YAY! 

15 months WOW. I can handle that, I can't believe how fast these past 8 months have gone by I can only imagine how fast the next year will fly too. 

GO Green or GO HOME

I started thinking about my Saint Patrick's day outfit a month ago.. weird? I take St. Patricks day very seriously. It's not just a day it's a month for me. 

Well really though in my defense, at that time I was trying to find the perfect outfit I was planning a trip back to the east coast, which is now not happening. Let's just say sometimes Ed's job really grinds my gears!

MOVING ON...

I found this shirt on Victoria's Secret that was just PERFECT. Only to find out a moment later that it was sold out online. What do I do? Email my mother that's what! Wait, I should back up. The shirt was part of Vicki's Pink MLB line and the shirt I wanted was a Red Sox one, obviously!
Not this Mariners one which is not sold out and I contemplated buying.. EEEK. Glad that thought left quick!

SO I email my mom asking if she could head to the nearest Vicki's to find my shirt, because out here the only MLB shirts I can get are Mariners like above, nope not going there! 

Mom heads out to Vicki's but can't find the shirt and asks a nice sales girl if they have them. She proceeds to tell her that they do, but they won't be putting them out on the floor until Tuesday (this was on a Saturday). As my mom's leaving the sweet girl catches her and says she's going  into the back to get her one.

LOVE small acts of kindness, turns out the girl was from my hometown GOO Bellingham!

SO here I am sporting my new favorite T thanks to the best mother ever :) She takes St. Patrick's day pretty seriously too.

*side note, just bought these Joe's Jeans at Marshalls. I am IN LOVE with Joe's Jeans now. 

Are you all as big of a St. Paddys day fan as I am?!
My favorite event is taking place TODAY in Boston I'm not a happy girl that I'm missing it so Eddie & I are finding something fun to do in the lovely state of Washington. Today is Boston's Harpoon Brewery St Patrick's day festival, take my word for it, it is AWESOME.