Ben's 24th Birthday

Since Christmas, I've sat awake at night waiting for Ben's birthday, planning what I would give him, how I would make it special.  His birthday was yesterday, finally!!! So After much going back and forth trying to figure out whether to make cake or pie, I decided to make both.  Maybe it was overkill, but it was completely worth it.  I wanted to make Ben's first married birthday to be one to remember, to be special.  I ended up having to make my own decorations out of computer paper, floss and wrapping paper tape so Ben wouldn't wonder why the budget was messed up this month, but I think it turned out pretty well.  I enjoyed decorating and baking and putting his little "party" together.  I can't wait to do it more often.

For dinner we had pomogranate margaritas and Pad Thai and for dessert we had chocolate coconut cream pie and carrot cake.  Have I mentioned how much I love pinterest?  I find the best recipes there.

I was super excited to make this cake! I haven't made one since we got married, so I haven't been able to use the super amazing cake stand that Kim and David got us for the wedding.  I'm so mad that I hadn't used it until yesterday. It made decorating so easy! It turns on the base so you can decorate from all sides!!

 
I told Ben that his cake is starting to look like one an old man would have because the candles cover the whole surface! I can't believe we're almost halfway through our 20s already! When I met the 14 year old Ben 9 years ago I never thought this day would come so quickly.

 

After all was said and done, I think Ben had a pretty good birthday.  I had the use of such little resources, and I hate to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty proud of what I accomplished.  I hope this gives a little bit of insight into how much potential I have to plan more events in the future.

Where's the Website?

The website is not up.  That's probably the most obviously stated fact ever in the history of facts.  I could make so many excuses for why my husband and I have not put it up: waiting for certain pictures, trying to get the HTML to work, Ben's increasingly crazy schedule.  The truth is, we just haven't been working on it. 

Part of the reason is because I'm in desperate need to move back to my home state of Texas.  I really never thought I would say those words, but the longer I am out here, the longer I'm away from everyone I care about, the longer I'm away from the heat and the Texas sunset and the open skies, I just keep getting more and more depressed.  I miss my home so much, and I miss all of the people in it.  So I've been avoiding the website.  Instead, I've been sitting next to Ben while he checks his email, hoping and praying every night that this time, this day, he'll get some good news about a job in Texas. 

Anyways, in the meantime, I've been doing research.  Since the Twitter account happened, I've been looking up Wedding blogs, florists, event planners, photographers and anything else I can find in Texas.  I'm trying to find the best of the best without actually being in the area.  It's all I think about.  I seriously don't go to bed at night until I've completely planned out a dream wedding complete with the Texas sunset in the background.  It's not that I'm opposed to traveling for weddings.  In fact, I would LOVE to travel for weddings, no matter where they are.  I just can't wait to get started and to get back to my Texas.

Other than wedding stuff, I literally spent the entire weekend (meaning Thursday through Saturday) watching the Draft and looking for my Aggie men during every pick, and starting Saturday, I've been watching the NBA finals.  There are such amazing reasons to love spring..

Rainy Day Floral Practice

The rain started last night at around eight, and it hasn't stopped since.  It's so beautiful and soothing.  And since my husband is the most amazing man ever and knows that I have an obsession with flowers and brought me home some after his long day of work, I just had to spend the morning arranging them.  It took me a while to figure out how to get my tulips to look perfectly straight against the hydrangeas instead of being squished against the side.  But finally, I was able to find a happy place. 

Ben proceeded to take the most amazing pictures of my various arrangements, and I am in such shock at how beautiful they look.  Can I have really created these center pieces? I guess I did.  I guess I'm good at something after all.

Finally Jumped on the Twitter-Wagon

Since Twitter first started to become popular, I have tried to resist getting sucked into another form of social media.  I've been through the best of them, the sub-profile for AOL instant messanger (wow that seems so old), the Xanga, the Myspace, and finally, I got sucked into Facebook.  But until now, I have diligently stuck to my guns and ignored Twitter.  Or I had.  Since my recent decision to go for it and become a professional planner, I realized that I need all the help I can get.

So I caved.  I have to say that, at first, it was more complicated than I thought it would be, and I really started to feel like those people I've joked about for so long- completely out of touch with technology.  But now that I've gotten the hang of retweeting and hashtags, etc., I'm really starting to like it. I've been following Brides Magazine, The Knot Magazine, Style Me Pretty (a wedding blog).  Basically everytime I find a florist or baker or photographer or anything wedding related (let's be honest, I'm obsessed), I follow it. 

Today Style Me Pretty tweeted about a beautiful wedding they'd posted on their blog, and I fell in love.  The white linens, the white napkins, the bride's dress and her bouquet were all gorgeous, simple an elegant.  So I thought I'd share it with all of you. 

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1hSu9J/www.stylemepretty.com/2012/04/18/new-zealand-wedding-at-parkhill-estate-by-meredith-lord-photography/

And that's not the only one.  Because of Twitter, I'm surrounded by wedding inspiration all day long.  I just can't get enough.

Wedding Planning... with Skype!

Over the past few months, I have been working on a dear friend's wedding.  She is super sweet and amazing, but she is also super busy.  She's a nurse and spends her days/nights working with adorable little babies.  She's also down in Fort Worth, TX, and well, I'm here... in Maryland.

So... we decided that it would be best if we set up a skype-date to better plan her wedding and have a face to face discussion about what both of us has accomplished up until this point.  It took a while to get coordinated, but finally we were able to both be at our computers at the same time!

It was absolutely amazing! I am so glad we finally did that because now I feel such a relief finally getting everything set out on the table rather than both of us assuming the other was getting emails/facebook mesages.  Thank God for modern technology! Now I feel like I really can plan any event from Maryland for as long as I have to!

Wedding Etiquette Tips

Hello all!

It is such a lovely spring Saturday in Maryland! The sun is shining, the flowers are in full bloom, and naturally, I'm sitting inside of my apartment. What can I say? The pollen up here drives my skin crazy!

But enough about that!

Today I want to talk about vendor etiquette, no not the etiquette your vendors should use! Quite the opposite actually! Let's talk about how a bride and groom (or really anyone planning any sort of event should act).

Scenario: You are a bride emailing venues, photographers, DJs, florists, cake artists etc. You get emails back from them all, maybe even interview them, but when it comes down to it, you only choose one. What happens to the other ones?

Now you may think, "I didn't email that _____ that I wanted to use him/her for my wedding, so she/he should understand I'm going in a different direction! Right?"

Wrong.

It is very important that when you decide on a vendor, you have the courtesy to call or email the others and let them down easily. They might be holding your date for you and losing business! Sure they don't work for you, but think about how many other brides they could be working for!!

You may think it is a waste of your time, that you're too busy to email all those vendors! But it only takes a short email. It can even ben one you've composed once and changed the name and profession in! Just remember that these amazing vendors are all very busy too! One wedding is stressful! Think about how many they are involved in at one time!

It's easy, it's nice, it's respectful! Please love the people who work for you! They are amazing, hardworking vendors who deserve to be treated right.

Now, that wasn't too painful, was it?

Lovely Yellow

This year, yellow is one of my absolute favorite wedding colors. When I'm on pinterest, which is very often, I find myself swooning over all the gorgeous pale yellow that I see. I'm obsessed! And as we get more into the swing of wedding season, this obsession of mine will only get worse. There's just something so cute, light and friendly about the color of the sun, something that screens life and love. Yellow is perfect for outdoor and indoor weddings. I can see it with grey, white, purple, pink, navy blue and teal! I can see it coloring mason jars as the beautiful petals of daffodils and orchids, splashed with the soft and beautiful fullness of ranunculus and daisies.

The more I look at and talk about the color, the more I am tempted to plan yellow weddings, engagement parties and shower! I'm tempted to make lemon bars and cakes and tarts! I'm so in love, I might just go on a pinning spree tonight and pull all of my favorite yellow weddings. I could decorate my entire living room in yellow today and be completely happy!

Don't get me wrong, I am in love with pretty much any color that can be used in a wedding, which is pretty much every color, but I guess I'm on a yellow kick right now!

As a side note, don't forget to check out my page on facebook! It shouldn't be too long before the website is up, and I can't wait to post a link!