Wedding: what I've been up to lately

Y'all.

I'm getting married in less than 55 days. 

Craziness, I tell you. 

Let's chat about what's been going down. 

Cory and I have chosen our wedding bands.

Silly as it may sound, I first fell in love with this Sydney Evan's love ring for it's uniqueness and simplicity, but I instead found a classic diamond band to go with my engagement ring, and let me tell you, I want to wear it, like, right now. (I'll still take the Sidney Evan's one too though!)

I found this Rope Vase DIY on Green Wedding Shoes Blog, and it gave me some more inspiration for what I already had in my mind for table decor. Although I'll be scrapping the neon for coral and grey, I really like the overall look of having clusters of wine bottles housing bundles of baby's breathe. 

Did I mention that I have one of the best friends/bridesmaids ever who is helping me with all of this?! 

I found my wedding earrings via Anthropologie. 
I love how delicate they look, and they didn't break the bank.

I have my wedding flowers booked and ready to go, and sent in this photo as my inspiration.
 I chose a blend of peaches, mango, and corals for my bridesmaids with more creams and peaches for myself. 
Flowers were never the number one thing on my wedding list, so I'm placing complete confidence in my florist and will not see them until the day of the wedding. Although I cannot wait to see the finished result! 

And the best thing I've accomplished for this wedding is changing my figure.
29 pounds and 15 inches are gone, people!!
I'm happier, healthier, and a stronger gal than I was 8 months ago.
Oh yeah, and the above photo was taken at my gym. They don't play around.

And that, my friends, has been some of the fun stuff going around here (well, besides my bridesmaids gifts which I LOVE, but one of my girls has a blog of her own - hi there, Erica! - so I can post their gifts just yet). I still have tons of more stuff to do, and I'm so thankful for the family and friends who have kept me level-headed through this whole thing. 

xoxo,

Recipe: Cake Batter Blondes

Thanks to following @southernsocial on Twitter, I now have a new recipe that makes my sweet tooth sing. (Well, it never takes much, but I digress.)

Now I will admit, I'm used to baking my stuff from scratch.

So when I followed the recipe by Girl Meets Life, and she said to use a box of cake mix,
 I freaked at how easy these were to make and how they were just wayyy too good. 

Ingredients:

one box of Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix

1/4 cup canola oil

1 egg, beaten

1/4 - 1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup white chocolate chips (not optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat your over to 350. Girl Meets Life's recipe called for mixing a yellow cake mix and 1/4 cup of sprinkles together, but I went with Funfetti, because, well...that's what it is already.

2. Pour cake mix into large bowl and make sure to break up any lumps.
3. Mix in oil and beaten egg.
4. Because this cake is suppose to be dense, I alternated adding in my milk and chocolate chips just so I wouldn't have such an arm workout mixing this sucker. (And I ended up using the full 1/2 cup of milk.)
4. Place batter in a greased 8x8 cake pan.
5. Bake for 25 minutes until the edges just turn a golden brown.
6. Cool for a full 20 minutes or more before you start cutting. The gooey center needs to set. You may think they are not done when you first take them out, but trust me, they are!
7. TRY NOT TO EAT THE ENTIRE THING.

I'll be trying this next with a box of dark chocolate cake mix. 

Yum.

xoxo,

Review: July Birchbox

kinda, really late with this review...whoops!

Birchbox, have you been reading my blog reviews?

I just feel like you have been listening. ;)

Because this month's box rocked..almost competes with my affection for my March BB. 

Let's get on with the goods.

stila | lip glaze
Jouer | Luminizing Moisture Tint
beautyblender | the original beautyblender sponge

Harvey Prince | Hello perfume
Tea Forte' | minteas
Birchbox Exclusive | earbuds

I have to say that I love every single thing in this box.
The perfume smelled amazing and fun.
The lip balm was a great neutral shade.
I finally received a BeautyBlender sponge! (Still waiting to use it since I don't use liquid foundation in the summer.)
Earbuds were a nice little perk.
 I love some tinted moisturizer and those mints were interesting to try to say the least.

Did you notice what was missing? 
A HAND CREAM.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

xoxo,

Call Me? Maybe?

How I forgot to show you this, one might never know BUT it has to be said that my girl, Kristen, had a pretty joyous bachelorette trip. And being that we were in New Orleans, it wasn't surprising to run into a fellow bachelor trip or two...

 the random bachelor & the bachelorette

OMG, WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THIS MYSELF?!?

And yes, ladies, that is the dude's real number (so he says...not one of us tried it).

HYSTERICAL.

 When we weren't spending our time getting ready, going out, or pounding the pavement, we usually found ourselves doing one particular thing...

munching on homemade butt cookies. Duh.

Happy Wedding Week, Kris! Can't wait to start the bridesmaid festivities tomorrow!!!

xoxo,
 

This Weekend

I went to go measure different areas of the Woodruff-Fontaine House for our wedding decor.

and maybe practiced walking down the aisle a few times... ;)

On Saturday, I went with one of my bridesmaids, Kristen, to go antiquing and came across these two lovely little silhouettes. I'm picturing a big cluster of old frames holding an array of different items for a wall design once Cory and I find a home. These two are just the beginning!

And lastly, I carved up a delicious watermelon. 

Perfect snack for the current temps, no?

xoxo,

Friday Five

This iPhone case from one of my favorite illustrator blogs, Paper Fashion, is now on my wish list. 

And this one, and this one, and this one too. 

This Target dress is a steal. (And of course, I love the coral and gray combo!)

I've been burning my Capri Blue Mandarin Mango candle from Anthropologie, 
and it's the perfect scent to make me think I'm on a fancy island 
instead of landlocked in 104 degree heat in Memphis.

And I sound completely biased, but how can you resist this dopey face?

I'd like to think that if Aspen could talk, she would sound like Doug the dog from the movie Up.

"Hiiii there!" 

And speaking of cute mugs, here's another of my 9 week old nephew, Wes,
sporting a sweet onesie that I bought him. 
He's going to be wooing the ladies one day, that's for sure. 

xoxo,
 

Friday Five

Yeah, I know it's suppose to be five, but whatever. Pretty run of mill week over here..

1. Hanging with my little family :) As you can see, Aspen loves to play.

2. and cuddle...

3. and also hug..there's lots of hugs going on around here. :)

4. and DUH...I'm headed to Nawlins', y'all! Packing is always the worst...


Catch you later ;)

xoxo,

now back to your regularly scheduled program

Hiiii there, friannnns. 

Long time and almost no chat. 

Sorry about that, folks. Seems I've dropped the ball in keeping y'all in the loop.

Things have been quite busy around my neck of the woods: work, planning a wedding, planning a bachelorette party for one of my own bridesmaids, and having a pup and fiance' that lovesss to spend their time with me....all of this certainly makes the time fly by, I tell ya!

But in a nut shell, this is what I've been up to:

Another insanely talented friend started her own blog, Dueling Mediocrity. 

If you like beauty, cool tunes, and maybe a little bit of snark thrown in, you will love Alli.

Trust me, she's taught me a thing or two!


My coworker, Molly, and I are now officially obsessed with the song "Call Me Maybe." 
What used to get on my last nerve I now find hilarious with the rewritten lyrics by @hipstermermaid.
Some of my favorites include:

And this upcoming weekend I'll be traveling to New Orleans to celebrate Kristen's bachelorette!

Plan on seeing many videos of "Call Me Maybe" to ensue on the six hour car ride down there.
Something along the lines of this one...and yes, we have been practicing for this.

xoxo,

Review: Birchbox for Jet Setting

With June being a vacation seeking month, this Birchbox was devoted to the jet setter.

So far I really like this month's box, but just like others before it, I have a few things I'm just not excited to receive. 

Eyeko | Fay Eye Stick - Although I like where they are going with this, I don't think I'll be smudging my beloved eyeliner any time soon. I'm going to try my best to use this on my waterline instead. 

Comodynes | Self - Tanning Intensive - When I first opened the box, this was the first thing I saw and I'm very excited to try these towelettes. Really, I need to do a whole blog over what sunless tanners I use. I have so many!

theBalm cosmetics | Stainiac in Beauty Queen - I'm into lip stains right now because of the heat (yet a whole other blog post), and this one was great for building up color. My lips are naturally pale so I can use all the color I can get!

tili | Bags - Fitting with the jet setting theme, these bags are the exact size needed to travel your liquids through security. While adorable, I don't think I'll be purchasing any.

Likewise | Facial Moisturizer + Sun Protectant SPF 50 for Normal to Oily Skin - While I normally cringe at the thought of another moisturizer, I think I'm a little intrigued over this one. It's mostly for the fact that they describe it as a hydrating toner to mattify the skin. I figured this one I could give a shot. 

Birchbox Man Extra | John Varvatos Star USA cologne - Not sure if Cory will be up to trying something new (he's pretty set in his ways for this kind of stuff), but we will see. Every time I read it, I think 'MERICA. ha 

What was in your box this month? 

xoxo,

Wedding: Bridesmaids Dresses

Is it just me, or do you find it ok to start unpinning items from your Pinterest account once you purchase them? Like for example, I've started taking down my wedding dress inspirations, and it's not because I am afraid to find something better, but because I now know that none of these could compare to what I feel when I see my dress. (Alright, maybe it is just me...I'm a cheeseball like that sometimes.)

Same goes with bridesmaids' dresses. I had all of this inspiration come through on Pinterest, but more likely than not, they were always sold out or something from a collection years ago. (Not a good sign, y'all.) If you want to see my previous inspiration, you can look here and here. Luckily, I was able to finally find one that I liked, and felt right for the low country wedding I am going for. :)

So now that all of my bridesmaids have their dress, here you have it! :) I ended up picking an actual dress from Anthropologie (and by actual dress, I mean that it was not made to be a bridesmaid's dress...y'all this was harder than I ever expected), and I loved it so much, I even bought myself one too! ha 

Being that my colors are coral and gray, I adored the color combo, and I'm happy have this part of my wedding checked off my to do list. Who would have thought finding the bridesmaids' dresses would be more difficult than my own dress??

Now on to the groomsmen...I'm thinking light gray suits and bow ties. Wish me luck...

 
xoxo,