Bridal Shower!

I have no idea where to begin with this post because I am so thankful for everyone that came to my bridal shower this past Saturday. They spoiled Joe and I with such sweet gifts and cards that made me want to cry, in the most happy way possible. My mom and sisters have been spending their past few weekends planning and shopping for my beautiful shower.

My shower was thrown at my maid of honor's house which is my sister, Connie. Everything was perfect. From the food, strawberry jello shots, games, conversation, and of course the famous "hippie juice" we all had a great time.

We played who knows the bride best type games which got some really good laughs.

Picture overload time:

 Gifts for the guests ~ Mason jar cups, and Sees candy chocolates.

My favorite thumb print cookies from Smith's Bakery.

I think my mom refilled this jug of hippie juice at least twice, everyone loved it that much!

Make it at home, you won't be sorry!!

I did may or may not have had four cups of this so called juice. No regrets. If you eat the liquor infused strawberries that's really what will do you in. 

My friend who drove to town just to come for the day! 

My heart is so happy after being surrounded by people who truly love Joe and I. I cannot wait until the wedding when we will all be together again and this time for the big day. It really was a huge reminder how close the wedding is getting! 45 days!

Give Me Sleep.

Not being able to sleep is like my worst nightmare. I am a complete grandma when it comes to sleep, and I need my 8+ hours in order to feel alive. The only sleeping problems I tend to have include my night terrors, but that's for a different time. So imagine my surprise that I now randomly have some sort of insomnia that started this past weekend and I just cant kick it.

I woke up in a complete panic Friday around 4am and started writing notes in my phone regarding the wedding. A bunch of jumbled words on questions to ask different vendors. The notes look like a caveman wrote them. For example: "Cake people leave boxes." or "Walk after ceremony?" 

The smallest of things have me up at night and and I know it's stress and nerves of getting everything done on time. School starts this week as well and let's just say that's not helping one bit. I actually have butterflies in my stomach because of how close the wedding is. Trusting in God is my saving grace when my anxiety tries to get the best of me. 

I know that in all reality that we have accomplished so much and that everything will get done. I doubt I will shed a tear over something not being perfect. If I cry, I'm going to be crying tears of joy when I get to see Joe at the end of that isle. No matter the decoration or the seating arrangement the end result is the same; I get to marry my best friend. 

Source is from pinterest

Let's hope this sleep thing comes back to me so I can get my much needed beauty rest!

Beauty Box Five | Radiant and Remarkable

My favorite time of the month is when I look in my mailbox and see a blue little box filled with new products to try out! This month Beauty Box 5 has put together a box that encourages you to be radiant and remarkable.

The cost is $12/per month with free shipping for a box delivered right to your door of five deluxe samples.

Purlisse pur~protect SPF 30 | A lightweight moisturizer with SPF. I have received so many Purlisse products lately so I will definitely be passing this along to one of my family members and I know they will enjoy it!

La Fresh travel lite makeup remover wipes | You can never have too many makeup remover wipes in my opinion. I like to keep a small pack in my bag. I have received the La Fresh wipes before and was not a fan of the smell of the other package I have but these seem like the smell is a bit more mild. 

Nanacoco Lip Gloss | I received a really pretty bright pink color. Although this color is a bit out of my comfort zone for lip products I really liked the consistency and that the gloss wasn't sticky. 

Novex brazilian keratin | I am always down to try out products that will help nourish my hair so I will definitely be giving this a try this week! 

Style Essentials nail polish | This nail polish is a blue-ish glitter nail polish. I may be able to use this before the summer is over. 

Beauty Box 5 is also having a promotion going on where you can add 10 free samples to your order by just paying for the shipping! Check it out HERE!

*I was sent these products for a review on my blog, all opinions are my own.*

The Details. | Wedding Wednesday

The month of August has already proven to be one of the most productive months of wedding planning yet. We aren't even halfway through the month and I feel like we have all of the major aspects of the wedding planned. Now the little details on the other hand will be the death of me, over dramatic: I know. 

My mom and I were in the car the other day, talking about the wedding of course when I mentioned doing a bouquet toss and needing to order the garters. She said how she had completely forgotten about those two things until I mentioned it. I had too, actually. The smallest of details are the hardest things to remember when I'm trying to remember not to overlook anything major! 

The rest of the list besides paying things off:

-Find hair and makeup person. 

-Order garter set

-Order gifts for reception

-Bridesmaids dresses (happening on Friday)

-Put together bridal party gifts to give at my bridal shower

-Make a complete list of songs for wedding/reception 

-Find shoes, jewelry, veil. 

-Alterations and under garments for dress.  

-Order Joe's ring

-Book hotel rooms

-Decide on seating chart - Table numbers 

-Set up transportation for after the wedding.
-Find a day of coordinator 

The 23rd is my bridal shower and I am way too excited to see this party that my mom and sister have been working so hard at planning. I know it'll be beautiful. Plus some people are coming from out of town for my shower that I cannot wait to see!

If you married/engaged ladies can give any tips or see anything I may be missing please let me know. Being the oldest in my family, and not having any friends that have gotten married I need all the advice I can get! Also, at what point did you take your dress to get altered?

I am vowing to take time this month to relax, focus on my health, my family, and especially my fiance for these special moments before we get married. I know how much work my family is putting into this wedding as well; without them I would be insane. 

At this time next month we will be able to get our marriage licence, how crazy is that!?


Linking up for Wedding Wednesday!

A giveaway to brighten your Monday!

Well it's Monday again, but don't be too upset because below is a giveaway that I think everyone will enjoy! Who doesn't love cold hard cash? I know I do, especially with back to school, wedding season, or just some new shoes you've been eyeing everyone can use some extra money. All you have to do is enter the rafflecopter below!

Rachel | Melissa | Laura | Sierra | Ashley | Jules | Heather | Becca | Kelly | Christine | Holly | Kolbi | Morgan | Rachael | Rebekah | Allison | Jenny | Vivian | Kelly

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll be back for a wedding Wednesday, and tomorrow I'm trying out a new hairdresser so hopefully that goes well! 

Five Favorites

1 | Coming to terms that this semester I can only manage two classes. Last semester I took four but with the wedding literally right in the middle of the school semester there was no way I could take a full course load. So I switched my two classes to online so I don't have to worry about going to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays like the spring semester. This is a huge relief for me.

2 | Maybelline Fit Me concealer This concealer has been my best friend lately. I use it with my damp Real Techniques sponge and it blends so easily. It never cakes on me, which never happens! Hands down my favorite drug store concealer yet. I use it for my under eyes, nose, and anywhere I want to highlight as well.

3 | Finally finding a part of my girls (sisters & mom) gifts for helping so so much with the wedding, and for being in the wedding! Etsy is always the solution lately. I can't wait to share once I give it to them and all the other goodies I find to go with it. I'm too impatient to wait to give it to them on my wedding day so I'm doing it at my bridal shower.

 4 | This chalk board that my mom found at Ross a couple weeks ago. We are going to use it at the reception after the wedding and it is huge! It may not look it from the pictures, but it weighs a ton and it goes up to my belly button. I need to figure out where to get colored chalkboard pens and an easel that will hold it (any ideas would be great).

5 | We finally got some rain in this town. Since we're in a drought we haven't been watering our lawn whatsoever and the grass is straight up yellow and crunchy. We get a little too excited when it rains.


What are some of your favorites lately? 

Linking up for Oh Hey Friday!

Wedding Wednesday | Invitations

Happy hump day all. It's AUGUST! Only two more months! Now that the invitations are officially out of my hands and into our friends and families, I can finally share the details of our invitations and RSVP's. 

After debating and pretty much being dead set on using Wedding Paper Divas as our vendor for invitations I changed my mind, and for good reason. Since we are having a small wedding we only needed to order about 50 invitations because most of the people coming were couples or families. When you order a smaller amount of invitations the price actually increases on each individual invite and RSVP card. After realizing that the invitations I had my heart set on would cost 4+ dollars each and then another 2-3 dollars for each response card I knew I needed to find an alternative. 

I felt as if spending about 6+ dollars on each invitation was a bit much considering we still had to mail them and put stamps on the RSVP's. I'm on a budget y'all. Plus I know for a fact that the extra saved money could go to much better use. 

I also wasn't pleased that WPD doesn't offer personal customization without an extra cost. I knew after searching on Etsy that it was the way to go. I found a really great shop called from Britni at "papernpeonies".  I just had to pay for the template and then also for printing/shipping of course and then she took charge and we conversed about all the little details and wording. She had the option to only pay for the template and print your self but after the problems I had with our save the dates, I wanted a professional to do it. She printed, cut, and shipped everything with the envelopes for a great price. 

When I received the box I was so impressed with the quality of the shipping and how fast everything came together!

Tips for the RSVP cards:

I used my wedding notebook and dedicated a page to numbering each family being invited starting with number 1 and ending with however many invites are being sent out also adding the number of people that are being invited from each family. We then put the same number on the bottom corner of the RSVP with the filled in number of people being invited so there will be no confusion (for us and for them).
Example:
1. Smith family (2 invited)
2. Andrew family (4 invited)

P.S - I'm glad I checked with the post office before adding the twine around each invitation. If you plan on adding any weight to the invitation check with the post office to check if you need to add extra postage. 

What do you think? Where did you get your invitations from, and how did they turn out?

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday

A self proclaimed bag lady.

I am a self proclaimed bag lady. Ever since I desperately wanted  needed to carry a handbag, I did. I love getting a new purse and putting all of my belongings back in a neat order. I'm a freak like that. I remember for my 16th birthday I still thought Juicy Couture was the ish and my dad bought me one. I had never had an expensive bag because duh, I was only 16 but I was so proud of that pink velour bag. To this day I love me a good handbag. Oh, and I like the biggest of handbags. I have my small cross body bags for going out or whatever but pretty much every day you will catch me with a huge bag. I need my stuff, guys.

I recently scored this Steve Madden bag at TJ Maxx for about 40 bucks, and I love it! TJ Maxx always for the win.

Que the Iphone photos...

(Front)

(Back)

 I love bags with at least one outside pocket. I stash my phone and a chapstick in there so I don't have to go through my whole bag to find my two most needed things.

Here's the overview of the inside. I'm a bag lady who likes bags inside of bags - don't judge me.

I usually have a third makeup bag if I need to carry any extra makeup for throughout the day.

Orbit bubblemint gum - Why yes that is the car cup, I keep it in my bag because it's my favorite and I go through one of those like crazy fast.

My notebook because it has everything in it and all of my to-do lists!

My beloved Nivea chapstick and NYX buttergloss (I have another one in this bag as well)

Tokyo Lotus & Apple Blossom from BBW lotion; it's my fave.

PINK body mist

And sunnies of course, which are Steve Madden and I scored from TJ Maxx once again!

The junk that is inside my smaller polka dot bag:

Two mirrors, just in case one breaks I guess.

A tide to go because I'm messy.

Fruit snacks because I get really dizzy and hangry when I don't eat. I always have a snack in my bag.

Hand Sanitizer because I don't like germs. Plus it smells like strawberries.

Two rewards cards I just got that haven't found their way into my wallet. Mostly because my wallet can't hold much more.

More lip products, some pens, tissues, headphones and a USB flash drive (this comes in handy all the time), and band-aids.

I have to mention that most of the time I have half empty water bottles, Peppers leash & dog toys, and a ton of other really weird things. Since this is a new bag I haven't had a chance to clutter it up yet!

What's the weirdest thing you keep/have found in your bag?

Routine is boring.

Lately - Life has been pretty routine with work, wedding planning, and preparing for another semester of school. But on Friday my mom and I decided to take a day trip to the beach. If anyone needed a day of relaxation it is my mom. She is the hardest worker I know and even on her days off she is running around catering to everyone else. Since we don't usually get days off together, this was something that we had to do (pretty much for our sanity).

 Morro Bay is our favorite place and the last time I had went was my birthday. It's been a million degrees  ranging from about 105-109 degrees here lately and mixed with the worst humidity. I literally have an afro all. the. time. Going from that to 70 degree weather will make you never want to go back home. Huge hair at the beach is something I can deal with. 

Clam chowder and fish & chips were calling our name.

I think our little day trip was just what I needed to remember that life doesn't have to be so routine all the time. More trips are in the future. Of course not until after our wedding; we need to save every penny until then, because paying for a wedding is crazy expensive.