Better Late Than Never: Wedding Shower Recap

I know, I know. I've been slacking on my blogging duties (among other things), but I have been so crazy busy this past month. The wedding is ONLY THREE DAYS AWAY. I know. I can't believe it either.

Anyway, I never told you all about how the shower went. Well, let's just say, I have an awesome maid of honor, who also happens to have an equally awesome mom. They put on a wonderful wedding shower for me and Brittney.

Probably the biggest hit was the food, (which is also my personal favorite). I preprepared a lot of food before hand but there was still a lot to do the morning of. 

You see those super cute petit fors over there on the right? Yeah I slaved over those and they were delicious!

We also had a sangria bar. We had red and white to choose from and you could top it off with your favorite fruit. They were both delicious as well.

So, after everyone got a bit to eat and drink, we played a few party games and handed out door prizes to the winners. The prizes consisted of things like wine, soap baskets, gift cards, handmade jewelry, and more. 

We played the very well known toilet paper wedding dress game where everyone split into teams and made a wedding dress out of toilet paper. These were the contestants:

I, personally, think they all look fabulous, but the belted dress took the prize!

We all had a lot of fun playing games and just catching up with friends and family! So, I'm going to leave you with a few pictures of all the fun details of the day!

The cupcake wedding dress I put together! 

Details

Only 3 more days now!

Brittney and I with my aunt, Cherish, and mother, April.

Mrs. Jean, the host of the party, had such beautiful flowers blooming in her garden!

Brittney and my little sister, Emma!

Everyone enjoying the beautiful weather!

My groomsman and his girlfriend Jenn!

Thanks for reading!!

Burgundy

Houston Museum of Fine Arts

I know it's been about a month since I have blogged, but we have been quite the busy couple these past few weekends!

A few weekends ago, my grandparents made a visit to Houston. Our first visitors!! The three of us visited the Houston Museum of Fine Arts downtown. They happened to have a Impressionism exhibit. One of my favorite Art Eras! There were plenty of famous paintings by well-known painters. Here are some of my favorites:

Dancers In The Classroom - Degas

Edgar Degas is, is by far, one of my favorite painters. He painted beautiful paintings of dancers. I had never seen a Degas in person until I visited this exhibit, so I was thrilled. I was also surprised to learn that he did sculpture as well. There are very few of his sculptures displayed, and I got to see one of them!

Little Dancer - Degas

One of my other favorites is Claude Monet. He used a lot of beautiful vibrant colors and his paintings really stand out. These two were my favorites of his at the exhibit.

Tulip Fields at Sassenheim - Monet

The Rock Needle and Porte d'Aval - Monet

This painting happened to be the collector's favorite. It was colorful and strangely captivating, yet the only subject matter was an onion. 

Onion - Renior

Lastly, my favorite piece that wasn't in the impressionist exhibit was this mobile. It was so beautiful to see one of Caulder's sculptures in person.

The museum was wonderful! I can't wait to go back again. To wrap up the day, we met Brittney at a little turkish restaurant downtown called Pasha. It was delicious!

The next day we went to the Woodlands to visit the Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival. There were TONS of booths set up with artists from all over the country showing off their handmade art. There was every genre of art I can think of. We couldn't even get to it all. It would've taken us days to see all of the wonderful things they had there. Not to mention, the scenery was beautiful too.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and we can't wait to have them back for another visit!

Thanks for reading!

It's The Little Things

I have gotten back into wedding planning mode because it dawned on me a few days ago that the wedding is ONLY 67 DAYS AWAY. I feel like I still have so much to do! 

I wanted to tell you about a few of the details I have knocked off my very long To Do list.

One of the hardest choices to make was deciding on my shoes. I love wearing heels, but they get very uncomfortable after a while. I didn't want to go barefoot during the reception nor did I want to try to keep up with a second pair of shoes. I also don't want to be taller than Brittney because she kind of hates that. I knew I wanted purple shoes. It's obviously my favorite color. So when I found these, I had to get them! 

They are the perfect height and I love the oxford style! Menswear for women is one of my favorite fashion trends out there. I got them from the always wonderful ModCloth website. I pretty much envy everything on that website and want it all in my closet right now.

While on the subject of my outfit, I also am torn between having a veil or just a headband of some sort in my hair. I love the way veils look in pictures but I find them very traditional and this wedding is far from traditional. I was trying to find  something that I could wear in my hair that matched my dress well. I though about birdcage veils but those don't work with the style of my dress in my opinion. I found this simple ribbon, pearl, and crystal headband that matches the sash on my dress perfectly. It's pretty and fits the simplicity that I am going for. 

I also can't decide which way to wear it! I found this on Etsy and there are so many great ones to choose from. It was hard to pick!

In the beginning of the planning process, I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the time to plan out favors. I kind of didn't see the point of them. While at a friend's house, I saw a koozie favor she gave out during her wedding. I loved the idea. So I did a little online shopping for koozie options and found one that matched our theme and colors! 

I found these one Totally Wedding Koozies. They have hundreds to choose from and all customizable! They have more than just wedding themes too. I thought these were perfect as favors because our guests can use it for years to come!

Another detail Brittney and I decided on was the cake topper. I had originally picked out one of those silver monogram cake toppers. I liked it but when I stumbled upon these, I loved them! 

I felt the wooden detail would look really great on top of our cake. What is even better about these, other than being hand made, is that they are made out of pine trees that are killed by the deadly Pine Beetle infestation. Putting these trees to use helps stop the spread of these beetles. They are cute and environmentally friendly! Each one is unique and will have plenty of perfect imperfections. I found them on Etsy, specifically Timber & Stich Decor Co. They make plenty of things besides cake toppers. Their custom wooden signs are super cute.

I have found a theme emerge from all the tiny details in our wedding: nature! From the wonderfully fragrant lavender and the environmentally friendly cake topper to lake front ceremony, it all seems to flow quite nicely together. That was something I didn't quite expect considering I am no wedding planner. Another nature based detail is our guest book. Brittney and I had two very wonderful friends  tie the knot in August of last year. They didn't have a guest book but they did have every guest hold a stone during the wedding, send silent wishes and good thoughts, and put the stone in a vase at the end. I liked the stone idea but wanted a guest book as well. I am going to have every guest sign and/or write a message on a stone as they arrive at the ceremony. 

Now, I didn't just completely steal our friend's wedding idea. I actually have somewhat of a collection of rocks, crystals, and fossils. I have some from all over the place. Shells from the East coast, rocks from the glaciers in Alaska, crystals from Yellowstone and Yosemite, and fossils from all over. They don't have any meaning other than being pretty to look at and a little souvenir from the places I've visited. These rocks that our guests sign will, however, have meaning. And they will be displayed proudly in our house as a reminder of all the people who travelled from near and far to share our special day.

Thanks for reading!

Burgundy

Petit Fours: Round One

In my last post, I had mentioned wanting to attempt to make petit fours because ordering them from a bakery is so dang expensive. Well, I made that attempt today, and let me tell you, it's not easy. No wonder they charge so much.

I went the cheap and easy way out this time around and made them with boxed pound cake. I chose pound cake because it is firmer than normal cake. I think I will make the cake from scratch next time around. It turns out even firmer than the boxed kind does.

Anyway, I made the loaf cake and it turned out really beautifully.

I then cut this into roughly 1 inch thick slices.

I then cut the edges off and cut the slice in half.

With these slices, I made cubes. Thankfully, this was a trial run, because these cubes weren't perfect. 

I only used about half of the loaf, because I wanted to have some left in case I needed to try again. This made about 16 cubes.

Next, came the hard part. I put wax paper under my cooling tray to catch any spills made. I heated up a bit of store-bought icing for about 10 seconds and put a bit of food dye in it. The first three cubes I iced by pouring the icing over it. I quickly learned that this wasted a bunch of icing. Although there was a lot of icing running off of the cubes, the tops of these looked nice and smooth.

However, the icing didn't completely cover the sides.

So, I took a different approach. I stuck a fork into the cubes and tried dipping a few of them. This worked fine but did not give the nice finish to the tops and left fork holes in them. 

I iced the last few cubes by dipping then pouring more icing over the tops. This made the tops smooth like the first but just didn't have the outcome I wanted. I kept in mind that this was a trial run, so I just continued to have fun with it!

Some looked better than others and that's ok! They will get eaten anyway!

I put a few white pearl decorations on the best iced ones as a final touch. 

So, the next time around, I am going to change a few things: 

1. I am going to do a little online recipe digging and come up with a really good icing to use that will be easy to make and pour.

2. Put a cookie sheet under they cooling tray to catch any run off icing to reuse.

3. Work on my cube cutting skills

4. Make the icing more lavender, less grey.

All in all, it was fun and they tasted great! They turned out kind of cute too!

Til next time,

Thanks for reading!!

Burgundy

Who Doesn't Love Bite Sized Food?

As you know, the theme of this shower is a tea party. Tea is not the only thing we will be serving. Food is a big part of the party too. We wanted everything to be bite sized, because, well, who doesn't love bite sized food? While Melanie and I spent most of our time shopping, (can you blame us?) we also spent a good bit of time planning out the food. I wanted it to match our theme so we tried to come up with food that you might see at a tea party. One of the first things that came to my mind were petit fours. You know, those deliciously adorably tiny cakes? 

Yeah, those are expensive to order. I have expensive taste, what can I say? So, sometime next week, I am going to take a crack at making them myself. They can't be too difficult, right? And of course, I will document every step via iPhone and ya'll will hear about everything, mishaps and all.

While on the topic of desserts (because sugar is the best food group), we decided we will also have scones (how British of us) and those cute cupcake wedding dresses made out of mini cupcakes (not very British of us).

As far as food goes, we are planning on having finger sandwiches, mac n cheese bites, a spread of crackers, cheese, fruits, and dip. But that's not the fun part. Drinks are the fun part! To be specific: Wine is the fun part! I wanted to have a sangria bar set up. Similar to this:

We are going to have both red and white made with ginger ale and peach juice along with a spread of fruits so you can customize it. We even bought some plastic flutes to put the drinks in (also for a steal, but that's a whole other story in itself).

For those that don't want to drink alcohol, the drinks will be just as fun. Of course we will have sweet tea, because no southern party is complete without sweet tea, but we will also have lemonade. Did I mention, the lemonade is going to be PURPLE? Why, you ask? Because it's cute and I want to, that's why.

Don't you agree?

I cannot wait for this party. Melanie and I both agree that we should probably start a party planning business pronto. 

Thanks for reading!

Burgundy

Wedding Shower Crafty: Part II

Melanie and I were busy all week long planning the wedding shower. We shopped tip we dropped and ended up spending very little money! One of the paper crafts we finished were the banners. These banners are very similar to the ones I will make for the wedding. They turned out so cute! this one is my favorite.

This one will be hung as part of the back ground for our Photo Booth! I found this template on pinterest of course, but they didn't have numbers. We had to type those up ourselves. It wasn't too difficult to get them the right size so these would be very day to make at home!

Rather than buying clothes pins to attach them to the twine, we punched 4 holes in each and threaded the twine through. It was so simple! I hope to find a place for this one at the wedding. I just love the heart!

Another thing Melanie and I worked on were door prizes for the games. Most of them were store bought. Only one did we have to make ourselves. I saw this idea online and thought it would make an adorable gift. We bought a simple canvas bag at the craft store for $1 (it was half off! yay for sales!). 

We made a heart stencil and used a pencil eraser dipped in 4 different shades of acrylic paint to give it the ombre effect. I might have to make one of these for myself!

I don't want to give away any other prizes now, but will post all about the shower come April!

We bargain shopped our hearts out last week and found lots of great steals. One was this super cheap and cute chalkboard that I definitely plan on using for long after wedding festivities. It was only $15 at Marshall's! We had planned on making our own with chalkboard paint, but I couldn't pass this up. I do love a good bargain.

There are going to be plenty more decorations and it is really going to turn out cute. Hopefully, our guests will enjoy themselves as much as we did planning it!

Thanks for reading!

Burgundy

Wedding Shower Crafty

I know it has been over a month since I have blogged but this week will be full of updates! My Maid of Honor, Melanie, is in town for the week! She is here helping me plan and get stuff ready for our wedding shower in April!

We have been planning this wedding shower for a couple of months now and we decided on a tea party theme! Of course, the colors match those of the wedding.

The item that sparked this theme idea was our unique hot tea favors. Melanie found a website, Design A Tea, where you can design your own tea, loose or in bags, by choosing a base tea, picking your flavors, and adding any herbs and spices. Their delivery was super quick and they even included a complimentary flavor. If you are a hot tea fan, then both of us definitely recommend this website!

We packaged these tea bags in little ivory boxes and labeled them with personalized stickers we ordered from Vistaprint, my go to site for all things printable.

One of the most popular games at showers is the one where you try to refrain from saying a certain key-word, in this case, "wedding". If you hear someone say the key-word, you take their necklace. Whoever has the most at the end of the party, receives a door prize! Today, Melanie and I were on the hunt for the perfect charms to make necklaces out of for this game. We found some plastic wedding rings which worked great!

We also practiced making a few decorations. The first we attempted were the tissue paper poms. This one ended up a little small but practice makes perfect! They will look so cute hanging from the trees at the shower location.

One of the last things we worked on today was the backdrop for the photo booth we will have set up. We took a few colored rectangular table cloths and cut them into strips lengthwise and knotted them onto some string so they wouldn't bunch in the middle. It turned out great so we pulled out some of the props we bought and snapped a few pictures!

Melanie and I had a lot of fun being crafty while still being budget friendly today! Stay tuned for some more wedding shower updates this week. There will be plenty!

As always, thanks for reading!

Burgundy

Decatur Frames Photography

So, I realized last night that I haven't told y'all about our photographer! 

I have known Lindsay for quite a few years now and when I found out she started a photography business, I knew who I wanted. She is absolutely great at what she does. Although her business, Decatur Frames Photography, is fairly new, Lindsay does great work. She is based out of New Orleans and her style of photography is exactly what I am looking for. It is not your run-of-the-mill portraiture that you see every day on Facebook. There is a real-life vibe that I get from her photos. Not too posed or stiff, very natural and go-with-the-flow. She doesn't just capture people either. She is great at capturing images of the beautiful gulf coast and giving viewers a feeling of what it means to live there. Or at least that's what I get from her pictures! Here is just a sample of some pictures from her website:

Copyright Decatur Frames Photography

Copyright Decatur Frames Photography

Copyright Decatur Frames Photography

Copyright Decatur Frames Photography

Copyright Decatur Frames Photography

These picture do not even scratch the surface of her beautiful collection of pictures, but are some of my favorites. Check out Lindsay's website with the link provided at the top or find her on Facebook. I really cannot wait to work with her! 

Thanks for reading!

Burgundy