Married, Honeymooned, and ready for Christmas!

We did it! Our wedding in Virginia was over 2 weeks ago, I can't believe it. Everything went perfectly, our venue was amazing and took care of all the extra details. The ceremony was beautiful, Bryan's uncle did such a good job! Our DJ was fabulous and we happily danced the night away. I'll start recapping with pictures and vendor reviews for any other ladies getting married soon.

I will only say this, Etsy was my savior!!!

Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We were on the tail end of our honeymoon in Napa/San Francisco so we decided to have a Chinese dinner in Chinatown, it.was.delicious.



For shoppers still looking to pick up a few gifts or holiday accessories, Pottery Barn is having an amazing one day monogram and free shipping sale on tons of great products. I scooped up a few things for our friends, family, and apartment!

After Party

This is my post wedding/after party dress! I can't wait to wear it--though it's going to be pretty cold out, maybe with black tights?

Skincare Love

I know it's been forever! since this bride to be has checked in for a recap of well...anything. I'm going to try to start back up with wedding details since the big day is less than two weeks away!

First off, skin care, something I used to know nothing about. When we were first planning the wedding I had heard it was a good idea to go all bootcamp on your skin, unless you already had a magical regime--I definitely did not. I started slow using these guys every night to take off the day:



Then I decided to spring for something I had been pining for:



The Clairsonic! is amazing. I am really a believer in this product and after using it daily for about 2 weeks I could tell my skin was softer and nicer with more of a glow. I didn't have any weird reactions to it, no bumps or irritation, just taking off the older skin cells and exfoliating like it was going out of style. This was my major skincare routine change and it worked amazingly well.

So I thought about doing facials for a more intense kind of skincare prep right before the big day. Instead I decided to try out the Boscia Black Masque from Sephora and now I give myself facials at home twice a week. There is a reason everyone is raving about this masque, it really cleans your skin and purifies amazingly well. I think this is still sold out at the Sephora website, I nabbed mine from the local Nashville mall.



There you go--my skincare regime revealed! What are some of your favorite products?

You're invited...

So we have hit the 3 month mark until the wedding, can you believe it? The summer is flying by at lightening speed, even working at home--which I did not anticipate. My days go so quickly that I hardly have time to put on a real outfit, not involving pjs, and throw some makeup on. Bring on the wedding panic, we have no invites! I have been looking at invites for months and months, secretly before B and I were even engaged!

I hate everything, I don't know what it is--I feel like the wedding invite sets your expectation about the event, which I know is ludicrous, however after much website surfing and serious lamenting I found the ones.

Enter Etsy. I usually think of Etsy as a clusterbomb of stuff that usually scares me away(they need to organize that site!). BUT I loved the idea of supporting someone's local business and actually talking with the person who would make our invitations. I also thought prices might be more reasonable on the site, check!, yes they were (depending on what you're looking at of course). I was never under the delusion that I would make my invites, props to the people who have craft skills, this girl knows her limits. I just wanted something beautiful, simple, and elegant.

I found my dream invite and Amy at Amy Olsaver Designs, http://www.etsy.com/shop/amyolsaver, has been wonderful to work with. I saw her monogrammed styles and fell in love. She also customized our colors exactly and was open to any kind of changes that I wanted to make. I would recommend her to anyone looking to incorporate monograms into their wedding, either labels, favor boxes, or invitations.

Back from Hiatus

Between vacationing to South Carolina, packing up our old apartment, and moving 10 hours from Richmond to Nashville it's been a crazy past month! But I'm back, blogging from my home office, and so happy to be a Nashvillian.

I would include some new pictures of our apartment, however, it's still a bit of a wreck. There is a lot of organizing, decorating, and buying new household items to come! Hopefully I'll be able to spotlight some of the new projects along with our Nashville, and other Tennessee, adventures.

Here are a few things I'd like to tackle in the weeks to come:


Organizing my closet! I love the idea of framing pictures of your style icons for instant inspiration.


There is now sand on my growing list of house must haves--I love this idea for makeup brushes.





I really want to do a gallery wall above our big couch in the living room--I have collected tons of black frames so I just need to work up the courage to start!

Packing for a Mystery Bachelorette

My bridesmaid ladies, and other friends, are planning a surprise Bachelorette party for me this weekend! I don't really know where we are going, or what we're doing, and everything going on right now I'm so thankful to not be involved in the planning at all (totally going against my majorly type-A tendencies)--major dove love going out to everyone!! I have a few surprises for my friends as well--I just can't wait to see everyone and have an amazing, relaxed time wherever we are.

I've also decided I need to start planning some outfits for the upcoming weekend. I'm pretty sure it's going to be HOT wherever we are so sundresses are my new best friend. After another weekend in my hometown, with a jcrew warehouse sale--yay!, I picked up a few more essential items. Here's what I'm thinking:


a Metallic Beach cardigan, for cooler summer nights


I have been dying over these shoes since they came out and luckily snagged a pair over the weekend-


Love this simple, breezy dress


This jersey ruffle dress is so comfortable


A big straw hat will definitely be necessary to save me from the heat

Friday cannot come soon enough!

Hey Mambo, Italian Dinner

I just bought the Everyday Food cookbook and I think I have been wrong all along...maybe Martha and I will be friends!

I tried the 3 Tomato Spagetti, which I was unsure of as there are only a few ingredients and it was a breeze to make. It turned out really well with lots of flavor! A perfect light summer meal--

Ingredients:
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound spaghetti
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato oil (from oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes)
4 cloves garlic, minced
¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes with juice
½ cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 pound cherry tomatoes, halved

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti according to package directions.

Heat 2 tablespoons tomato oil in a large saucepan over mediumheat. Add garlic and crushed red pepper; cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add canned tomatoes with juice and sun-dried tomatoes. Simmer gently over medium, stirring occasionally and breaking up canned tomatoes until thick, 15 minutes. Add cherry tomatoes; simmer until soft, 10 minutes.

Drain spaghetti, reserving 1 cup pasta water; return pasta to pot. Add tomato mixture; season with salt and pepper. Toss, adding pasta water as desired (I did not end up adding any). Serve immediately (and cover gratuitously with parmesan cheese!).


I also really like this cookbook as it's broken up by season--easy peasy.