Wedding Wednesday: Wedding Debt?

If there's one thing I love it's talking about our wedding and married life. When we were planning our wedding, I knew that no matter what we would not go into debt for our wedding. If that meant cutting the budget, food, flowers, then we would do so.

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I saw a girl I knew from school post that they just got approved for a 20,000 loan for their wedding. It made me wonder how many people do this...

A wedding to me is about getting married to your best friend and about celebrating with your loved ones. I think that people forget that this one day will only last about five hours and then its done. Of course you want it to be beautiful, but it should be beautiful to you and your spouse. If that means it has to be smaller, or less extravagant in order to fit your budget then you should feel no pressure to go outside of your means to please others.

Once you are married and the wedding is over, you quickly go back to reality and then realize that all that truly matters now is that you're married to the one that you love. I feel that if we would have taken out a loan for our wedding, I would have knots in my stomach right about now. I have student loans to still pay off, we now have a car loan to pay for each month, and we will eventually want to buy a home.

I'm not saying that this is wrong, I'm just saying that I had no idea that people were doing this in order to make their wedding bigger or better.

How do you feel about loans for weddings? Did you take one out, or know anyone that did? Do you think it's worth it?

Makeup Routine

I am the girl who watches too many YouTube beauty videos and loves Ulta. I typically try and keep it super simple during the work week. You won't catch me wearing fake lashes probably ever, and I love my drugstore makeup. I thought I would share what I use/wear on a day to day because I love these types of posts myself. 

Skincare

Morning: Since I do most of my skincare routine at night and I am usually rushing in the morning, I like to keep it simple. I just clean off my face with a makeup wipe, and apply the same moisturizer as the night before. I don't use any moisturizer with SPF in it on a daily basis because my foundation has it included. If I were spending the day outdoors or not wearing makeup, then I will use SPF on my face.

Night: I use whatever makeup wipes I am using at the moment to remove most of my makeup. I am partial to theSimple brand and Burt's Bees, but I will say that any generic brand works just as good too. Then I will use my Aveeno cleanser to clean everything else off, apply my Simple toner with a cotton round (I swear by this stuff), and then I typically use an under eye cream, and my daily moisturizer and go to bed.

Makeup

Foundation: I have fallen in love with Loreal's True Match Lumi foundation. If you have dry skin like I do, then I think you will love this. I always apply my foundation with my Beauty Blender or my Real Techniques Sponge. 

Brows: which has become one of my favorite parts of my makeup routine. I use the Tarte Amazonian Clay Mouse brow mousse. This stuff is the best. Perfect shade, it goes on so smooth, and its waterproof. I then use my Benefit gimme-brow gel over top. 

Eye shadow: Lately I have been using my Lorac Pro Pallette 2 non-stop. I just use the most neutral shades with a bit of shimmer on the lid.

Concealer: Maybeline FIT Me concealer. $5.00 and the best concealer ever.  I use it under my eyes in an upside down triangle shape, on the bridge of my nose, my chin, and middle of my forehead. You will not look all cake like with this concealer and if you use it with a damp sponge you will be amazed.

Powder/Blush/Bronzer: After my concealer I apply my powder which is also like $4.00 from Rimmel. I use it everywhere I applied my concealer. I then use blush on the apples of my cheek. Hervana from Benefit is my all time favorite because I already have rosy cheeks, and this is the perfect light blush. Bronzer is my life, I would look like a pale ghost without it. My top two favorites are Hula from Benefit which is around $28.00 and the other is from Wet N' Wild and is literally like $3.00 I will admit that they are almost the same exact quality as well.

Eyeliner/Mascara: After my face, I finish with eyes. I truly think that the best eyeliner comes from the drugstore and costs $3.00 Wet and Wild guys, some of their products are awesome. I just line my top lash line halfway and usually apply a nude liner to my bottom water line. Mascara is my number one makeup product that I use every single day. Lately I use both They're Real by Benefit and Maybelline's Lash Sensational. Both are amazing.

Lips: Chapstick is always on my lips no matter what. I have one in every pocket of my purse, all around my house, and at my desk. But typically I always grab a NYX Butter Gloss. They are hands down the best lip glosses and never leave my lips sticky. Plus they can be found at Target and Ulta and cost around $5.00!


That's it! I hope this didn't bore you to death and hopefully you found this post fun/informative. What are your favorite products or anything new I should try?


PS. This post is not at all sponsored.

Birthday Weekend.

Well, I'm back. I turned 23 and I feel a little empty inside that I can't sing 22 by T. Swift and totally relate anymore. But...nevertheless it was actually a great long weekend and who doesn't love birthday cake and food and gifts?

My coworkers were sneaky and planned with my mom a little birthday surprise for at work. They got me my most favorite lunch ever (Chipotle) and a delicious cake. It made for a really good work day.

On my actual birthday I got the best mani/pedi with my sister and then we went to dinner and ate way too many carbs. Oh, and my amazing husband got me the Fitbit I have been wanting so bad lately and chocolates which really means that I'll start taking the Fitbit seriously this week (after I eat all the chocolate). My sister got me the movie Just Go With It which happens to be one of my favorite movies ever, so of course we went home and watched it right away.

Saturday was Valentines day and after work we drove about 45 minutes out to the outlets for dinner and shopping because I am loving our new car and especially love that we have XM radio. It makes throw back jams a daily thing. I started buying new spring clothes because its already 80 degrees here and this girl found two kimonos that are so. cute.

Sunday was another birthday celebrating day. My family had a birthday party for me at my grandparents house which included MORE cake, champagne cake to be exact.

Needless to say, I really need to get on a health kick this week after all of the birthday food and sweets. Maybe not today, but this week for sure. How was your weekend?

PS. Sorry for all of the pictures of cake, I am the worst and forgot to take actual pictures of anything besides cake.

Linking up here.

Pinterest Recipe Wins

I love Pinterest, but we all know that sometimes the DIY projects or the recipes can be a major fail. I have been addicted to trying out new meals that I get from Pinterest because ever since we got married I really enjoy cooking new things.

These are some recipes that I have tried, they were easy, and a major success in our house. I always feel better knowing someone that is definitely not a chef can do them before I try. No one wants to spend hours on a nice dinner for it to be burnt or just awful.

| Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings This was a big hit! It takes about 5-10 minutes to throw everything in the crockpot and it cooks in about 5 hours. An hour before you want to eat, you just throw some cut up biscuits in the mix and it's finished. My mom made this and added vegetables as well.

| The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ohmygosh these were amazing. When she said they were the best, she wasn't lying. Adding that vanilla pudding mix and refrigerating the dough made such a difference. They were moist, soft, and chewy. I'm not a fan of crispy thin cookies at all, so these are the best in my book.

| Crispy Cheddar Chicken We love any kind of chicken in our house, and this is now in our rotation of dinners. This is baked so its not greasy at all and you make a simple sauce that goes on top that makes the chicken that much better.

| Enchilada Stuffed Shells This dinner does take a little bit extra time and effort, but it is so worth it! Seriously, if you are a lover of pasta and enchiladas, you need to make these!

If you have any recipes that you have tried, please let me know!

Ramblings On A Monday.

I haven't blogged in almost a month...Time really is flying. With this being such a short month that only makes it go even faster. I'm so happy to be back that I figure I would just ramble off some updates and thoughts.

| My birthday is this week (Thursday to be exact) and I still have yet to plan anything. If you know me then you know that I usually talk about birthday plans at least a month in advance. So this is weird having nothing exciting planned.

| We finally the insurance claim worked out from the accident Joe was in a few weeks ago, which means we got to spend the entire day yesterday at car lots. I was really nervous, but we have a new car! Hopefully that means we can take a mini trip for my birthday soon.

| I'm still not over the Parenthood finale. It was sad and I cried so hard. Maybe I was over emotional that day or maybe it's because the thought of my own grandparents passing makes me really sad. Probably both. I think they ended it perfectly but I will miss it.

| I start observing in preschool classrooms this week and I am so excited to be back in a classroom again.

| I have spring cleaning brain right now. Our apartment feels like its shrinking and hopefully by summer we will be able to find somewhere bigger. Until then, I am on a mission to organize everything.

| Am I the only girl not looking forward to Fifty Shades of Grey? I've never read the books, but I have heard enough about them to not understand how the book can be made into a movie. Someone fill me in once they see it, because I'm really curious. The soundtrack though, is pretty great.

Well that's all I have for today, but I have successfully planned out another post for this week..so that is a major win!


Linking up here with these ladies!