Wedding Planning

All my life I have thought about what my wedding would be like. It may have been kind of a weird thing to think about and informally 'plan' in your head growing up, before you are even engaged.

Some things I plan in my head all the time. Future house plans, baby names, nurseries, weddings, my next car...

Weird?

Well, the chapter of my current life book is on the wedding plans. It's a whole different ball game when you are actually engaged and actively planning your wedding. Decisions are hard. Way more hard than I thought they would be. I'm generally the planner person of my friends when it comes to shindigs and gatherings. It's easy. However, I turn in to this indecisive person when it comes to my own wedding. I think 10 months was just too long of an engagement for me to handle with all of the thoughts and planning. My gears have been turning for far too long.

Ideally, I would have had a four month engagement - max! Quick decisions would have probably helped me. Now, I'm stuck with tons of photo albums on my phone with hundreds of photos in each. Hair styles, jars, table decor, plate placement on the food table to put the dirty (well not dirty dirty) fork people use to scoop pulled pork. Weirdness! But it's thoughts that have to happen. I try to think "well, you can just decide at that moment." WRONG! I would be a mess. My type-A could not handle a plan for the dirty pork fork. (Those of you at my wedding, I want you to pay close attention to that fork and know that a lot of thought went into it - kidding).

Some people say the wedding planning process is stressful. I wouldn't really call it stressful. Decisionful. That is what I would call it. The only hiccup (stress) in this whole thing was really the DIY invitations. They posed a bit more hiccuping that I thought, but in the end  it all turned out (with a few extra trips to Staples, Kinkos and Office Max) but they turned out great and I was quite pleased.

You may wonder where the photos are for this post. Well, I've decided not to really reveal much about the actual wedding. I'm generally an open book about everything with my plans, but now I've decided as it gets closer to 'best day ever' to keep more things a surprise. There are things I'm planning that no one knows, not even Michael - it's pretty fun!

What's in my makeup bag

I made a post two years ago of what was in my makeup bag. At the time I thought it was kind of silly. Now I look back and like to see what changed from them to now. A few ol' trusty products are still in play and I would probably die if they were discontinued.

Exhibit A - still in my bag is my Benefit Lemon Aid under eye primer. It's actually a lid primer but I use it under. Best stuff ever!

Also still in my bag is my yellow Mary Kay concealer. I've used this since middle school and have never found a better concealer. Ever. I actually just ordered more just in case I run out. I also need to be well stocked before the wedding.

Have I really held on to this cheapo Target eyelash for over two years? I've swapped the little pad but that's it...

New stuff?

MAC. I had never been a MAC person. I had a few eye shadows and tried a few things in the past but embraced their 30-day return policy.

In the past month I have switched to their eyeliner, foundation and powder. I also got one of their Paint Pots for Christmas, which I use as an eyelid primer.

MAC Studio Fix powder in N4.

MAC Studio Fix Fluid foundation in NW13.

MAC Pro Longwear eye liner in Rich Experience.

MAC Paint Pot in Painterly.

Before, I used Clinique's Even Better foundation and felt like it didn't stick around throughout the day. The MAC does. The Clinique Extreme eyeliner also was about gone by the time I left work...but not the MAC. I still feel kind of like I'm cheating on Clinique. That is basically all I have known since middle school. I am slowly learning to not be such a creature of habit and explore outside of my comfort zone - and what'll'ya know - it has worked out for the best!

 

Since starting this post (two weeks ago - I'm so had about starting and saving as a draft) I have added a Smashbox Photo Finish foundation primer to my routine after moisturizing (Clinique's Even Better oil-free moisturizer). It's the 'light' version and supposed to help control oil throughout the day. I'm not sure it makes a difference or not yet.

 

Lipstick? Well, yes. I keep those in my purse instead of my makeup bag. Since 7th grade I have stuck to Clinique's Tenderheart and Black Honey and those are still the two I hang out with today. Have we really been friends for 17 years??

So there you have it. My secrets exposed.

Wordless Wednesday

The Big 3-0

Well, 30 happened. I am no longer in my 20s and it feels pretty weird. Someone asked me this morning how old I turned and 30 just didn't want to come out of my mouth.

Ahh, the dirty 30.

I have had a blast celebrating with my nearest and dearest.

Our crew of 14 went out to Eastern Shore Lanes for a bit of bowling. Sadly I did not get a shot of the whole group. I even had my D5000 ready with my remote...which I must add was in my super awesome birthday gift from Stephanie. 

I love love love my new Jo Totes camera bag! Love!

My sis-in-law-to-be surprised me and came in from Navarre with my fur-niece and fur-nephew for the night. I told her to come stay with us while hubby was away, and was stoked she actually did! Sadly, I failed to get a picture. 

For my actual birthday Michael and I

ventured over to Felix's for some delish seafood. The choice was all mine when it came to where to go eat. I wanted somewhere new part of the day, the I thought it was a great opportunity to travel far for food, aka. across the bay. We ate at Master Joe's for sushi the night after we were engaged and it was devine. After a long day of thinking, it was Felix's. I had the barbecue shrimp with green beans (best ever) and Michael had crabmeat stuffed whitefish. We will definitely be back there soon.

We had quite the view. While we were munching on our fried calamari app we almost whitnessed three raccoons get eaten by a huge gator. One even jumped off the gator's nose what looked to be about 10 feet in the air. It was crazy!

I almost rejected the bib when they came and put it on me. Our waiter assured me I would need it and he wasn't lying - it was covered in splatters!

Happy 30s to me!

Happy New Year

2014.

Ahh, the year of turning the big 3-0 and getting married. T-minus 12 days ntil the dirty thirty.

So, I'm going to come back to my post about Christmas. I have yet to plug in my Nikon to pull my pictures over to my laptop. Alas, another post from my phone. 

To say goodbye to

2013 and welcome 2014, we ran up the road to hang out with our crew at Carol and Linc's house along with some of their friends. It was a great time filled with good food, fun and fireworks. I am glad I was inside for the firework fail. Out of Carol's kitchen window I saw sparks and lights going across the entire yard. I thought 'man, fireworks are just becoming way more advanced each year.' Come to find out an entire $100 bag of fireworks caught fire by mistake and everyone outside took cover, shielding themselves with patio chairs. It was the premature finale of all finales (yeah, I must not have loaded my keyboard to put the apostrophe above the e here on my new phone).

11:58pm, and I am handed some cheap champagne for the New Year's toast. 

Our first photoshoot of 2014 went a little something like this...

Then this...

"Come on, let's take a real one." 

Psyke!

Almost...

I'll call this one the 'I'm marrying this guy right here in less than 4 months' face.

Finally! 

Happy 2014!