Tags!!

I know I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE Etsy. I recently came across a shop that sells digital downloads and for those of you not exactly sure what I'm talking about, here's the info! People that have an eye for graphic design submit samples in their store and if you like the sample, they will alter the image to your specifications and then email the jpeg to you to use however you'd like! You can use them on invitations, favor tags, save the dates, or whatever else you'd like.

Behold our favor tags! We'll print these out and tie them onto the ornaments we'll use as favors. Yay! Total cost? A whopping $6 bucks! Not spending hours trying to do something similar and getting super frustrated with photoshop? Priceless!

Workin' on my Fitness

With engagement pictures looming, dress shopping right on the horizon, and the thought of being up in front of a ton of people, I knew that it was time for me to get my butt in gear. Since Taylor and I started dating in 2007, I've gained about 15 lbs. This number is not all that huge, but the fact that I'm 5'2, it's made a difference.

I've ALWAYS been skinny. For example, I didn't even break a 100 lbs until the end of my sophomore year in High School. My metabolism was outta control back then! I used to eat McDonald's french fries ALL the time, not to mention at LEAST 3 times a week my boyfriend and I used to go to McDonalds for breakfast. Then I came to college......so long teenage metabolism!

I really struggle with eating healthy mainly due to the fact that I HATE veggies. I've NEVER liked them at all and the only thing i'll eat is green beans. Pretty pathetic huh? This leaves me with exercise as pretty much my only option of getting back to a weight that I'm happy with. Another thing? I HATE working out! So obviously the odds are against me!

My friend Erica and I are partnering up to get our butts in gear. We are trying new classes (bosu, zumba, step, cardio kickboxing) and hopefully by the time we take our engagement pictures, I'll have the tone body that I've never had. That's my problem, I used to be skinny, but it wasn't a "tone" skinny.

Don't believe I've gained some weight? Here are a couple of pics for your viewing enjoyment :) This is how I looked on the day Taylor and I met......literally! For those of you who don't know, Taylor and I met at a Halloween party!

And here is Taylor and I in Charlotte for Suleika's wedding back in September. Look at those arms! You guys better buy your tickets now, because hopefully in a few months you guys can all come to my gun show! Hahahaha! :)

They Were Cones!

I love that line in The Wedding Singer when the limo driver hits the cones during the obstacle course while showing off to Drew Barrymore! So in an earlier post, I told you about some cones that I'd purchased as well as a bunch of ribbon. The plan is to create these:

out of these:

I'd like to put these on the same table as the cake and all the other sweet treats! When I got engaged, Lins (the baby seeeester) gave me a HUGE stack of bridal magazines and I found the idea in Martha Stewart Weddings and fell in love with it! :)

I splurged!

So I've had my heart set on something special for my wedding, but I didn't think we'd be able to afford it. This past weekend my Mom and I went to a bridal fair here in Lubbock and the item I wanted was there AND if you booked it at the bridal fair then you receive a 15% discount. What did I splurge on? One of these!
Not this one exactly, but you get the point! Guests get to take their own strip of pictures with a monogram and the date of our wedding on it and Taylor and I get a CD with all the pictures on it for us to keep! I'm so excited! :)

Decorations Galore

Since we're getting married in December, we wanted to have a Christmas like theme without having an over the top Christmas wedding extravaganza! We chose black and silver as our primary colors with red accents. Right after we got engaged, the plan was to hit up all the after Christmas sales for some good deals. We hit the jackpot and several places, namely Hobby Lobby, Target, Wal-Mart and Pier 1. We didn't pay full price for anything and almost everything was 50% off. I'm most proud of my Pier 1 purchases though, we got a whopping 75% off! For now I have everything stored at my Mom's house and to keep track of things, we organized everything last weekend and I took pictures of what we've purchased thus far. Here we go:

These "sticks" will be spraypainted (probably black) and will be arranged in vases with Christmas ornaments.

Speaking of ornaments.....

Lights!

The red candle holders will go in the windows to the entrance to cathedral. The silvery things in the bin are miniature wreaths that we will place on the table and place an ornament in it. On the ornament itself, we'll attach some kind of sentiment thanking people for attending our wedding. These will be the wedding favors!

The red boxes towards the back are snowflake picture holders that we will use to hold table numbers. We'll spray paint the red and green picks to use in the centerpieces and the red birds will probably be used on the Christmas trees.

Just a few different accents to be placed on tables ie. gift table, food table etc. See those 3 trees in the back? Paid less than $5 bucks a piece at Pier 1, they were originally $20!

Ribbon, lots of ribbon! I'll explain later why! And those cones? Yeah I'll explain those later too!

Out of all my purchases, I'm probably most happy with these. Two 7 foot pre-lit Christmas trees that were 50% off at Wal-Mart after Christmas. Two for the price of 1? Yes please! And see those tree skirts? Those were originally $65 a PIECE! After the 75% off sale at Pier 1? About $17 each! My favorite part of the tree skirts are the little red birds in the design which matches perfectly with the other bird aspects I plan to include in the wedding. And as you can see, my Mom's dog Maggie was pretty pumped too! :)

Total spent? Less than $400! If we'd have paid full price we would have spent upwards of a $1000. The good thing about a lot of the stuff we purchased, is it can be used after the wedding as home decor. I'm pretty proud of myself :) In my next post, I'll explain how I intend to use some of these goodies!

The Legacy

For those of you who don't know already, Taylor and I have set a date for our wedding. We picked December 4 of this year and I'm proud to say that we have checked off a TON of things on our wedding to-do list!

Shortly after our engagement on October 9, we found our venue and booked it. We chose The Legacy for a number of reasons. 1. The size....it once was a Presbyterian church, but a few years ago, the YWCA bought it, renovated it and now use it as an event space. The place is huge, it has a cathedral that seats 400, with adjoining reception hall that seats 350 (not that we're planning on having that many people, but it gives you an idea about the size) 2. The overall look....it looks like a church and feels like a church, but has some hip and edgy updates 3. The price....a lot of venues in Lubbock are super expensive.

For example we looked at 2 other venues, none of which were NEAR the space the Legacy offered and they cost approximately $400 more than what the Legacy charges. Here's the kicker though, these other venues have to be set-up with chairs for the ceremony, and then set-up immediately after for the reception. This means people literally have to move out of the way in order for the tables to be pulled in. I didn't want the hassle of all this plus for a cheaper price, I'd rather have 2 seperate spaces!

Here are some pictures I took of the venue: This room is located right outside the bridal room. (See that door? That's the entrance to the bridal room) This is probably where my Mom/Memaw/Dana (Taylor's Mom)/whoever else will hang out here prior to the wedding.

And this is the bridal room, isn't it pretty??

This is the entrance to the cathedral. Where those tan colored candles are, we're going to have these really pretty red votive candle holders as well as two miniature silver Christmas trees.This is the inside of the cathedral from the balcony and the second is a close-up of the altar. Isn't the organ beautiful?

Here is the reception area. You will notice some doors on the left, and doors on the right. These doors lead into two separate areas.This is the room to the left of the picture above. We'll probably have our cake set-up in here and we'll have some tables set up in here for people that don't want to be so close to all the music!This room is to the right of the picture above and will probably be where we'll have the food and bar set-up

Taylor and I really lucked out and I can't wait to blog about the decorations we've already purchased! :)

Holiday Re-Cap

Hard to believe that the New Year is already here...well not that hard since yesterday was my first day back to work since Dec. 22! I love all the time off at Christmas that the University allows, but it went by WAY too fast and it makes it so hard to get back into the swing of things!

On my last day of work for the year, the forecast called for snow. Now Lubbock sometimes gets snow flurries and what not, but nothing too terribly bad. We figured it would all melt and that we'd be able to get to Lamesa by mid day Christmas Eve, no problem. Haha yeah right! Lubbock and the surrounding areas were COVERED in ice. We decided to hold off for awhile to see if the roads would improve after being traveled on all day. The drive normally takes about 50 minutes tops, but it ended up taking us almost 2 hours to get home. Cars were in ditches and some were even out in the neighboring fields. Crazy I tell ya! Here are a few pictures of the animals out in the snow. This was Sadie and Tupac's first snow experience!

Not Coco though, she's an old pro!

Once we were all safely in Lamesa, we all opened presents. Taylor bought me some gorgeous antique jewelry I'd had my eye on and I'm excited to incorporate it into my wedding attire!

On Christmas night my family gathered around our kitchen table and played games. Among them Loteria (Mexican Bingo) and Toma Todo. Toma Todo is a game played with a toy top. Each side of the top reads in Spanish, put one, take one, take two etc. etc. We played the game with nickels and the goal is to spin the top until it reads Toma Todo (take all) and you win what's in the pot!

That night we also had a lot of fun going through some of my sister's old toys. She was a huge barbie fan so she brought out all her old barbies. She pulled out a couple of them and I dubbed them the Ghosts of Christmas Toys past. When I was in 10 and she was 5 we were IN LOVE with New Kids. I got Jordan for Christmas that year and she got Jonathan. To this day she remains a wee bit jealous that I got the Jordan doll and she got stuck with his brother Jonathan!By the end of the night, Ms. Coco was beat. This was when she jumped on me like a lap dog and proceeded to sleep on me for about 2 hours!

Next came New Year's Eve. A lot of our friends were in San Antonio for the Bowl Game so Taylor and I decided to dress up and hit the town on our own. We took a cab to the Depot District and had a blast. Here are a few pics we took while waiting for our cab to come get us.

Coco was ready to party!

I hope all of you had a fabulous Christmas and New Years!