So long for now

Hello friends,
  As we are only 11 days away from our wedding (ahh!!!) I will not be blogging until after the wedding. I have found that just the simplest things these days cause me to stress and I feel I need a break to keep my sanity :-)  I will however be posting many many many pictures of our long awaited wedding day in a few weeks, so stay tuned!

P.S. We Bought a House!!!!

I can not begin to tell you or explain how God has miraculously blessed us and looked after us in this whole process. I feel like all of my posts in this wedding process have revolved around God building our faith and completely blowing us away with his love and countless blessings, but this house buying business was on a whole other level. From leading us to the house, to softening the sellers heart and accepting our (very low)offer the very next day, to the banker lady helping us find about 4 grants that we were eligible for, to the house being as sound as a rock- I mean honestly there is so much I'm leaving out it's incredible.

But Folks, WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I could shout it from the rooftops. God had me sweating a little bit; a month out from our wedding and we were going to be homeless in 30 days. But He prevailed as He always does.

So here she is. OUR little nugget.

OUR FIRST HOUSE!

Now I just needs some Heidi Home Inspiration!! :-)

I'm sure there will be plenty more photos to come, so stay tuned!

March Showers bring May Weddings

So I finally got the pictures of my bridal showers back from my sisters. There are a lot of them so don't say I didn't warn you. I'm a lame blogger and I just FINALLY figured out how to make the pictures bigger... haha

Anyways... My mom flew out from California just to come to my bridal showers, so we planned both showers in one weekend so my mom could attend both!

The first bridal shower was thrown by my aunts. They did such an amazing job. I wish we had pictures of the food! I was so yummy!

   My Uncle heard I was having a shower and thought a shower cap would be a fitting gift. Crazy guy.

 Kait, my trusty stenographer. I had to check on her every two seconds to make sure she was paying attention. It wasn't until later that I realized I had nothing to worry about because she did a perfect job.

 Some of my loot.

Kait loved the wrap job on this gift.

 One of my favorite gifts :-) 

It was due time for a picture of the three of us. It had been a while.

 Hilary! I have her to thank for all these pictures. She was our little photographer that night.

 My mom and her BFFs

Cousins!! I don't know what I would have done without these girls. Invites to tables to pictures. They are so great.

 This is probably my favorite picture from that entire weekend. Grandma T! I love her so much!

My lovely hostess'.  So thankful for them.

2nd Bridal shower was thrown by my soon to be mother and sister in-law! They did such a great job. I wish we had pictures of all the details. They matched the colors with my wedding colors and even had matching cupcake toppers!

  Alisha! Master of bridal shower games :-)

 Mi momma.

 The four girls.

My future family!

Thank you to everyone who played a part in my bridal showers! They were so fun and so thoughtful! I greatly appreciate it!

Count Down and Gettin Doooowwwn

I know I promised pictures of my bridal showers but I left the picture taking up to Kate and Tara. I haven't seen Kate in close to 3 days and we live in the same house, and Tara decided to fly to California for 2 weeks on a minutes notice. So here I am... pictureless.

But today is a good day to blog anyways because

a MONTH from today we will be saying I DO!

Did you hear that folks???

30 DAYS!

I'm not going to lie... I tend to go into a slight anxiety attack whenever I think about how fast time is slipping by. I mean it feels like yesterday that I was saying, "Only 380 days until our wedding!" But here we are, a month out and it's CRUNCH TIME PEOPLE. No more french fries for me. Sigh. I knew this day would come.

So to keep me occupied and not focused on my ravenous hunger, I've been focusing my time on the music. Here's a little taste of what's to come.

Bridesmaid Processional- Re:stacks by Bon Iver

Coldplay Cocktail Hour- Yes, an entire hour dedicated to Isaac's favorite band Coldplay, which will include songs like Viva la Vida and, my personal favorite, Strawberry Swing (Watch that video! It's so cool!)

The Wedding Reception we wanted to have a soft acoustic feel so there will be songs like

I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons) by Nat King Cole, Love by Matt White, and Think of Me by Rosi Golan

For the Bouquet Toss, I got the inspired idea to play Single Ladies by Beyonce. And for the Garter toss? oh, just the theme from Jaws. Nothing too crazy. ;-)

And there's a section at the last half of our reception just for Kate. Yep. She had such a fit that we weren't going to have dancing that I finally said "Fine! But you're going to be the DJ because I'm not hiring one." So there is going to be a Phil and Kate Dj Hour which will have songs like Cha Cha slide by Mr. C, and E.T. by Katy Perry. It should be pretty fun. And I have a feeling Kate will be doing more boogeying than DJ'ing :-)

PS. Check out her fashion blog, KaitKulture!

Approved!!

We met with the bank and we got approved!! Now we just have to find that perfect house :-)

If you know anyone selling a house (that you think a newly married couple could afford) let us know!!

... funny how the things that have been making me the happiest these days are things I would not have given a second thought to 3 years ago. I think this may be what you call 'getting older'.... ew.

Coming soon- Pictures from my bridal showers! Stay tuned!

Home home on the range

We have currently turned our attention on finding a home (not on a range), a little late in the ball game considering we'll be homeless in about a month, but better late than never. We are hoping to buy rather than rent so we've been scoping a few areas out first and seeing what's availible. We've just recently been looking in the Savannah Green area in Normal. A cute, safe, starter home neighborhood. Cute, safe and starter home are exactly the adjectives we've been using when discribing what we want in our first house, so we have high hopes that we can find what we're looking for. We walked through a few houses yesterday, 2 to be exact, but we're still looking for the house that fits us. However there are alot of houses for sale in that neighborhood and more are adding to the market everyday since spring is upon us, so we're still optimistic.

Here are a few of the little nuggets. Fingers crossed and prayers raised high, we'll have a home to call our own before we tie the knot :-)

PS. My bridal showers are this weekend!! I'm so excited!

Gifty Gifts

These are what I'm working on now. GIFTS. You'd think this would be easy... you'd think that the millions of other brides out there would have AMAZING ideas... you'd THINK that they wouldn't give their poor (literally poor after your wedding) bridesmaids and sweet volunteers things like this:

Bobble Heads. Yep. Some girl gave her bridesmaids their very own bobble head.... Ugh. Drawing no inspiration from these weirdos, I had to start from scratch.

These are just a few of the different gifts ideas I came across during my search. Maybe I'm partial but I kind of like... ok, love all these things.

Pearl earring studs. Classic and sophisticated... and only $9.99 on Etsy.com (Shop:Dutchpearl)

I wish I had found these earlier. Maybe it's the baker in me but I probably would have bought every single flavor I could find! I mean who doesn't like cupcakes??? Makes 12 cupcakes. $14.00 at Williams-Sonoma.com

Lasts long and comes in A TON of cool colors. My fave right now 'The one that got away'. $8.00ish per bottle Find a store near you HERE

I promise I'm not obsessed. They just make it so easy to give as gifts! ... plus I may or may not absolutely love all their new scents... :-) 1.6 oz. mini candles are 3 for $5 at Bath and Body Works

It's even the perfect gift size! (Secret Wonderland, stupid name, smells so yummy- I bought one for myself!) 3 for $10 at Bath and Body Works

Williams-Sonoma cookbooks. These may not be for everyone but if the person you're gifting likes to cook, they'll love these. They make cooking look soooo pretty. Prices vary but you can get them for less on Amazon.com

You can't really go wrong with messages. Pretty much a crowd pleaser. Unless you're Chiraptophobic.....confession: I had to look that up :-) If you're like me and need to google that, it's the fear of being touched.

Take care of them footsies. I would venture to say that this is also a crowd pleaser!

Metallic flippity flops- good for after those pedicures... or dancing shoes at the reception! $5.00 at Old Navy

One of my favorites! I just think these bandaids are so stinkin cute! Great for after that long night in heals. $8 at Urban Outfitters.

And last but certainly not least....MY TAKE on the 'personalized bridal gift':

Customized Cosmetic Bags. You can choose your own fabric and even put each girl's name on it.

I think they're so cute.

You can get them for $19.99 on Etsy.com (Shop:Juju Baju)

So there you have it folks. I hope this helps a desperate bride out there looking for inspiration.