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!

Weekend Wrap-Up

The last weekend before Christmas was definitely a busy one filled with lots of joy.

 

On Friday some of our 'crew' of friends journeyed up to Birmingham to catch Moon Taxi. Moon Taxi is one of those bands that probably appears to anyone. We have 40-somethings in our crew who love them, and a five-year-old who sees these guys (Trevor especially) as I did with NKOTB when I was eight.

 

 It was a fan'flippin'tastic show!

 

After the show these clowns and myself journeyed around Birmingham. One of the places we stopped by had a photobooth. You know the kind in the mall made for two people? Well, try five. $3 of Ashley's money well spent thanks to the laughs this experience brought on.

 

Michael. Rhonda. Chris. Ashley. Me.

 

::Insert typical photobooth comment here::

 

The next day we headed the one of my favorite restaurants - The Cheesecake Factory. The only thing missing was my 'dear' friend Stephanie. I think I ate enough for her.

 

The shepher's pie was amazing.

 

As was the vanilla bean cheesecake.

 

 

After we ate more than we should have I ran in a favorite store or two there at The Summit. Friends who I knew were ready to get home and long lines were my saving grace against spending money that I didn't need to on things I didn't need.  If a certain Stephanie were there with me, I'm sure I wouldn't have left Anthroplogie empty-handed.

 

Once we got home Saturday we had about an hour to get ready to head to the Saenger for the Charlie Brown Jazz Christmas. We had a very merry time, as always.

 

 

Sunday was nice to have an open agenda. Christmas shopping - check. Grocery shopping - check. Rain - double check.

 

I had almost forgot to make some of my Christmas goodies. This year was vanilla bean infused sugar. After slicing open and scraping out the beans from two pods, I was covered in little black, amazing smelling specks. Fragrance companies can try to replicate the smell of vanilla, but nothing compares to the real thing.

My cinnamon toast this morning was excellent!

Tour of my Tree

I love Christmas. Everything about it! The smells, decorations, shopping and getting to bring a tree into your living room to hang out for a month or so. Every year my favorite part about Christmas is getting my tree.

 

However, my MOST favorite part is getting out my box of ornaments to hang on said tree.

 

 

Unwrapping each ornament is like unwrapping a present. You have no idea which one you are opening. I like to take a moment when I open each one to think about the memories from when I purchased it. I buy a new ornament every time I go on vacation. I will nearly miss the boat because I'm still shopping for one. Once I had to end up buying a keychain to convert to an ornament because there was no time left to find one.

I like to keep the 'filler' ornaments on my tree to a minimum. If I only had my special ones hanging my tree would be pretty naked.

These are some of my most special ornaments hanging on my tree:

 

 

 

From Chelsea Market (home of Food Network Studios) in NYC

 

 

My first visit to St. Thomas in 2012

 

 

My first visit to the Cayman Islands, 2010

 

 

This is a friendship dove from the movie Home Alone. I gave the other one to my DEAR friend Stephanie. (Just FYI, there is a big difference in a dear friend and a dead friend. I'm very glad Stephanie is not dead, as I originally mentioned in this post. Major typo right there. She is very much alive!)

 

 

I've been to Atlantis in Nassau twice, and both times we were so rushed to get back to the ground transportation to return the ship. I missed out on my ornament twice! Thankfully Stephanie went back and snatched this guy (and three others) up for me.

 

 

Michael's first cruise, and my first visit to Jamaica; January 2013

 

I love pickles. Like the commercial for Pier 1, 'find what speaks to you.' Well, this guy in there spoke to me.

 

 

Boston trip for the Francis/Darcus wedding, November 2011. Enjoyed ourselves at the Sam Adams Brewery.

 

 

Self explanatory.

 

 

McGuire's, Pensacola.

 

 

New York City trip so long ago. 2006 maybe?

 

I am remaining a W last namer, but this guy has represented the Wilkins/Williams household for a few years. Next year it will just be Williams :)

 

 

Second visit to Grand Cayman.

 

 

I have one of each of these ships; the Oasis and the Allure of the Seas. Just like the ships, these ornaments are huge...and require a very sturdy branch to hang from.

 

 

This was my favorite ornament growing up. My mom gave him to me a few years ago to enjoy from my tree.

 

 

St. Maarten

 

Cozumel

 

Costa Maya, Mexico