Dear Santa, I'm old...

A couple of weeks ago my mom asked me to make a Christmas wish list for Santa (Don't judge) and after I finished compiling my list, I realized one thing. I am old.

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Dear Santa,

This year for Christmas I want...

1. Tall black Uggs.

2. A gift certificate to home depot

3. New curtains for our bedroom

4. Outdoor fire pit from Lowe's

Thats pretty much it. It's not the most exciting list, but for some reason, it excites me.

This year I sent out our first Christmas cards as an engaged couple! I got them at Shutterfly and they were really easy to make and super affordable.


We used our e-pics that we took very prematurely, but I found a deal I couldn't refuse with an amazing photographer. More on that later though ;)

Was anyone else surprised by the items on their Christmas list?

Hair club for brides

The detail that is making my heart flutter today is head gear...Or head wear. Whatever. Veils and such. After stumbling upon an amazing video over at Style Me Pretty I really started to think what I wanted to do with my hair. I naturally just thought I would wear a veil and be done with it, but after seeing so many wonderful options, I don't know how I will pick.

The first look I love is the bohemian look. I think I would be able to pull this off simply because our wedding is on the beach and will probably be a little less formal that a ballroom wedding.

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Sold here on Etsy: Little Honey Pies

I love this look so much, it gives me butterflies in my stomach.

The other look I really love is the mantilla veil. Ever since I saw a picture of my mom at her wedding with a cathedral mantilla veil I knew I wanted to do this also.

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I just love it all! Maybe I will make a compromise with myself and wear the veil for the ceremony and my flower wreath for the reception! Can you even make a compromise with yourself? Hmm...Never mind.

Are you wearing a veil? Hair flower? Sweet headband? Nothing?

Tie one on.

Hello girls! Sorry I have been MIA this past week. Work gets crazy around the holidays. I have always been a fan of belts, so it's only natural that I would love belt accessories that you can add on to your wedding dress.

Here are two of my favs from Rheem Acra(Source)

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Those little accessories probably cost more than 300 buckaroos so my goal is to find some super sweet deals on bridal sashes.

This little pretty is only $89.00 on Etsy here

If you're looking for a lil more bling, here is your ticket.

Sold here

This one is kinda nautical and very pretty and sparkly!

This beauty is only $150 and it's sold here

Annnnnd, for the girl who wants everything.

This belt has bling and beauty! I'm in love. And get this, its only $35.00!!!! Holy cow. This might be one of those things that I just buy and then find a use for later! You can buy this beauty here.

Ummmm...PS: love the ruffles on this dress...where can I buy it?

What special accessories are you planning to use on your wedding day?

Save the date hankies!!!

Hey yall! Hope you had a great weekend. My weekend was very productive, in fact. I mentioned last week that I got my "Vintage hankies" in the mail and I promptly got started washing them and ironing them out. I am so happy with they way they turned out! They are better than I could have hoped for! Check it out...

Here's what your going to need for this endeavor.

1. Ink Jet printer (mine is like 5 years old and worked perfectly)

2. Vintage Hankies- I bought mine here on Ebay. I highly recommend this seller. The shipment came so fast and they came all the way from China!

3. Scissors

4. Cotton pillowcase (do NOT use an ironing board... I don't know why, but the box said so. I tend to believe boxes)

5. Fabric Transfers (I used Avery brand Light Fabric Transfers)
Make sure you get the Light Fabric Transfers for light cotton/polyester fabrics.

The first thing I did was mess around on Microsoft Word to try and come up with a pretty design for the hankies.

I found a free clip art of a palm tree and sampled a ton of fonts from DaFont before I came up with a design I was happy with.
Here is the final design.

Then, I realized that if I was going to screen print this design, I would have to figure out a way to flip the image so it would print backwards. I googled this and most of the solutions I found were to change the settings on the printer. This didn't work for me. If you have a Mac, the solution is much easier. Simply open the image in "preview" and click on "tools" at the top of the screen. Then select "flip horizontal" and Voila, We're in business!Now, it's time for printing!

I arranged the design in groups of 4 because...that's how many fit on one page :D

Make sure you put the paper faced down in the printer.

Bad things happen if you print them the other way. Yep.

So after I printed them out, I cut the design out as close as possible.

I decided I wanted to put the design on the corner of the hankie, that way it would look pretty when I folded it.

Then I ironed on the design. The instructions say to firmly press down on the design for 45 seconds. This time amount seemed to work pretty well.


Please excuse our floor tile, I truly believe it was cool in 1970 :D

After you iron on the design, let it sit for 2 minutes and then slowly pull the paper up.
And now, for the finished product...



*drum roll*



Yay! I am so excited with how they turned out! I can't believe I actually successfully accomplished a DIY project! I feel like I can take on the world now.

So, now all I have to do is figure out a cute way to display and send them. I have seen some cute ideas, but that's another blog post in itself. Do you have any DIY projects that you especially proud of?

Music to my ears.

When I was little I saw a Barbra Streisand movie called The Mirror has Two Faces. I don't remember what the movie was about, but I do remember the name of a cheesetastic song that I was sure would be my wedding song one day.

Soooo corny, right? Also, I'm not really sure why The Notebook is playing the background... Sorry about that.

Anyways, my tastes have changed a little since then, so I have been thinking about what our "first dance" song will be. Right now my favorite is Magic by Kenny Chesney. It's perfect for our island wedding and I have never heard anyone else pick this song.

But what about the father/daughter dance, you say? Well, an obvious choice would be I Loved Her First by Heartland.

But sadly, this song makes me want to break down into fetal position. Which is not really the look I am going for on my wedding day.

I found the perfect alternative for my dad and I. You Are My Sunshine! Specifically this version of "You Are My Sunshine" by Elizabeth Mitchell. My dad and I used to play this song as a duet on the piano when I was little and every once in a blue moon we will bust it out just for fun.

This song makes me tear up, but not cry like an infant, so I feel like its a good fit.

What songs did you pick for your round of dances? How did you narrow it down?

My flavor of the week.

My latest obsession has lately been ideas for outfitting my bouquet. There are so many pretty things you can do with the handle of the darn thing, I'm not sure how I'm going to pick which one I really want.

The first being the classic ribbon & bow.

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Nice, simple, understated and classic. It's just not me though.

The next thing I came across was the handle wrapped in lace.

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Oooooo So pretty! And it goes well with my "Vintage Beach Chic" wedding

Then I saw this...

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Yep! That's a hankie wrapped around the stems!

I. Die.

I love this idea so much and since I will be attempting (and hopefully successfully executing) my save the dates on hankies, I think this idea is perfect!

I will most likely go with something more like this for my bouquet though.

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Perhaps my new last name initial monogrammed in blue? And maybe throw on a starfish broach for good measure. Since we will be on the beach and all.

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Too much you think? Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and buy it anyways cause its $9.00 at Sears.

Hopefully all the thought and planning I am putting into the details will make our wedding look amazing in the pictures. I really believe that even if I am the only one who notices them, it will make me feel so good to see my plans come to fruition.

What special details are y'all planning?

Dress shopping round 1

So you must be thinking....This girl is straight up cray cray! Yep, its true, I went dress shopping over a year before my wedding! Granted I didn't buy anything , but I got a really great idea of what I love...and what I didn't love so much. One lovely Saturday morning my MOH Petit Four and I set out on a wedding dress adventure. Now, without further adieu...The dresses!

Oh wait...one more thing.

The first salon we went to was the Bridal Salon of San Antonio. We were so excited and happy since it was our first appointment of the day. They had us look through this big closet of dresses which were kinda hard to sort through. The consultant was rude, but we trucked on and tried not to let it bother us. Here is what we came up with.

This was the first dress! I liked it, but I think we decided it would be too much for the beach.

So, after the first one, I told the consultant that I wanted something a little simpler. This is what she gave me.

As you can see from my face I was ready to punch the consultant in the face take the dress off and try on another one!

I think I actually liked this one, but it was $6000. Figures.

Our appointment lasted like 26 minutes at this place. I may be an amateur but aren't they supposed to be longer? I have seen enough Say Yes to the Dress episodes to know I was jipped!

We wont be going back here.

The second place we went was Mayfair Bridal. This place had TONS of great reviews so we were really excited venture in. The place was small, and there was another bride there with 12 of her closest family and friends. They had nice dresses, but they were impossible to find! Also, only a couple of the dresses actually fit me, so I felt like a total porker.

I saw this dress in a magazine and I loved it on the model. On me, not so much.

Here's another one that was just 'ok'

This is what I thought I "should" wear, since we are having a destination wedding. After actually trying on a light, flowy, airy dress, I'm not so hung up on what I "should" be doing. Haha.

I didn't even want to leave the dressing room in this one.

This pretty much sums up this dress appointment, hahaha, not sure what's going on with my hair.

The final place we went was the most amazing wedding salon EVER!!!! They had so many dresses and our consultant was so sweet. This was at the Bridal Galleria of San Antonio. I pretty much loved every single dress I put on here. My mom and grandma joined us for this appointment.

Totally NOT what I thought I liked. But I loved it :D

This dress was amazing, and it made my mom cry! I loved it, but I think it might be too hot for the beach. I was sweating like a pig while trying on the dress in an air conditioned room...sorry kinda graphic heh.

Don't I look so much happier at this place???

And now, for my most favorite dress from the whole wide day!

Pronovias- Finesterre

I really didn't want to take this dress off. It fit perfectly and it felt soooo good. I felt like a dream!

Check out that train! soooo pretty.

The most valuable part of the day was realizing that most of the dresses I was swooning over, looked absolutely hideous on my bod! When did yall start dress shopping? When did you buy your dress? Did you ever have dress regrets?

*All pictures are personal pictures unless sourced.