Wedding Picture Preview Video!

Sorry this took me a month to post! I hope you enjoy, I will be posting more pictures next week when the CD of ALL the pictures comes in the mail and trust me when I say this vieo is just the beginig!

Project: Spice Rack

So I have a couple of projects I am working on right now; All of which are kitchen related of course because I should have been born in the 40’s and am OBSESSED with any and all things kitchen.
Anyways this one project is driving me crazy. I am trying to create the most perfect country chic spice rack and wanted to use mini mason jars. I have a cabinet that’s perfect to fit little storage racks for spices because it is right in between the stove and pantry. But Also, I think about maybe having it displayed out of the cabinet or pantry because I use spices EVERY night and on weekends more! So maybe it would be nicer to have it right out in the open for me to access and not have to open doors and things all the time. {Plus I am not so great at putting things away in a timely manor which is why i currently have a hodge-podge of spices all cluttered around my stove.} Unfortunately though, if I want mini mason jars I have only one option...

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OR I could go another route which in my opinion I think is just as adorable … mini apothecary jars :-) AND there are so many different styles!

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I came across these sweet babies while looking for favor ideas for my wedding forever ago and have always loved them and then came across them again looking for ideas for this projects and I love them! They are just so much money {$2 a jar??? ya right} I have been trying to find a wholesaler for them because i don't want the dumb labels and plan on making my own for each one for the spices anyways.

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Oooo and look big ones too for Flour and Sugar! {Though I would want them in white}

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Also as I was looking for small spice jars I came across these fabulous BIG jar better for holding flour, sugar, rice and who knows what else! {Source} {Source} {Source}
Hahah I know jar overload right?!?! I just love them all! I want to have lots of different shapes and sizes because I just love the way they look AND you don’t have to hide them away cause they look FANTASTIC!!!

Anyways, any and all feed back would be awesome and if you have another idea you think would be better please share :-)

Random Emails to My Husband

There is nothing I love more than sending love notes to my hubby. I call them love notes but really they are just crazy ramblings in which to annoy and bother him at work. Now some might think that it is absurd how much I email my husband while at work BUT in my defense I am very ADHD and if i do not say something when I am in the "now" it goes POOF and is gone and mostly like will never remember; thus, the emails .... here are just some from today.


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Hi love,
welcome to work on Saturday the worst day EVER :)
I hope you have a fantastic day cause I LOVE you!
I think we should buy like 4 lobsters and OD on buttery lobster flesh tonight. YAY!

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Dearest P Murph,
Brandi and Paul are having a little shin-dig at their place to night. I would very much like us to attend because I need some socializing. Otherwise I might become an unscocialized, ill-behaved MeggyLou and start acting poorly in public and being crazy around the house and might even start biting. And you KNOW that would be bad because if I snap at a person they could lock me up and maybe even … {gulp} give me the eternal sleep :-o

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To whom it may concern,
I am in need of a payment method so I may go purchase preventative baby control (PBC). If a payment method is not received by 5:00pm today than the chance of a baby increases dramatically.
Thank you for your time.


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{This is not a stalling method in which to distract you from the fact that I have not yet posted promised wedding pictures nor the picture video my lovely photographer emailed to me LAST week .... definitely not.}

Tease Alert!

So I decided I would post a little preview of what is to come once I get my professional pictures.

So I'm sure you can tell I am extremely impatient but and pretty proud of how good I have been about this entire process. It helps that my photographer also showed me some pictures early ... and by early I mean the day after the wedding ... seriously BEST. PHOTOGRAPHER. EVER.

I have the HONOR and pleasure of working with David Mierlcarek who was like a kid in a candy shop when he came to check where the wedding would be held. I can't even tell you how amazing it is and energizing to have a photographer who is just as excited as you about shooting your wedding if not a little more. I may have had to say "no" to a couple of requests (actually just one). Tromping in a pig field when it had rained ALL week WITH the pigs in the field .... no sorry I will draw the line there and ONLY because 1) you would stink the rest of the night and 2) female pigs are extremely aggressive ... oh and the mud is so deep after that much rain we would have all sunk to our knees and i think everyone would have MURDER me.

Speaking of murder here is the sencond picture I received from David, to which I have to say ROCKS!Now if you are wondering what you are looking at I would take a good look in the background and you will see my husbands legs dangling from a tractor. David told us "Marriage isn't all roses". I would have to say I have never had more fun in my life shooting this! Patrick probably not so much but he was SUCH a good sport. The even lined the barrel with some bubble wrap we found in my mom's studio so he wouldn't get his suit all muddy because it was really nasty in there. Also that is mud on my arm not a cut and that was there my chance and just happened to look AWESOME for this shoot.

Next is the picture that made me cry at the airport for about 20 mins .... it's really hard to stop once you start going, people kept looking at me and probably thought someone had died lol quite the opposite. Take a look for yourself.I might be a little biased but I think this is the most beautiful wedding picture I have ever seen and cannot believe it is us. Don't ask me how they got it because there is no light behind us and it is about 10pm and pitch black. He actually had to keep at me about doing this one because I was so tired by this point but I gave in and was so glad I did ... way worth missing my favorite song on the dance floor for this.

Reason #486 why David was the BEST Photographer ever .... we got a package from him about a week or 2 ago and we thought it was our pictures already except it was pretty big. When we opened it we see a 3x2 canvas print of the above picture. A gift from our lovely photographer. Tears again. We now have it hanging above our bed and still can't believe how lucky we were to have such an amazing photographer that genuinely cared about not just our wedding but us as well.

Invitation Preparation!

When I was doing the invitations I had taken pictures fully tending to post about it... hey just cause it took me 4 months doesn't mean I didn't do what I planned to. It just takes me longer to do things sometimes ;-)

So since I ordered my Invitations from Etsy really all I had to do was address the envelopes, the RSVP post cards and put the guest names on the RSVP line.. Since there were no kids at the wedding and only people in a serious relationship were allowed to bring a guest didn't want any confusion so I typed in the names of the guests who were invited on the RSVP line for them :-) Smart I know and worked really great.

Also since I was on a budget I refused to hire a calligrapher to do it. I actually found this wonderful site with free font downloads thanks to Jacin from Lovely Little Details for posting about this site where you can get free fonts to which i downloaded and used for SO much stuff for this wedding. Free = AWESOME!

So here is my little station all set up :-)

Let's make some Invitations!

I got this pearly white ink pad at Michael's for $5

This Stamp; also from Michael's and totally worth the $10 i spent on it.

What did I do with these little lovelies you ask?

WA-La!

I also used them on the brown paper bags that held the homemade chocolate dipped rice crispy treats that were our favors :-) Best $15 I spent!

Our First Returned RSVP post card ... note the space at the bottom for the song request ;-)

I'm MURRIED!!!

That's right y'all I am officially a married woman. Mrs. Patrick Murphy :-)

And yes I know the title is spelled "murried" cause thats how I say it cause it fun :)

If I was left on earth for being sinful than thank god cause at least I got to enjoy my wedding and honeymoon! ;-) But we did also have a beer called Salvation which could have saved us as well. My brother was in charge of the brew selection and decided Salvation would be a perfect beer selection for a wedding held on the day of the supposed Reckoning. We halso had a beer called Red Barn because we have a huge barn ... It's not really red more of a pink barn lol.

So this is the story of the week before the wedding. As you know I live in Dallas and the wedding was back in Bucks County, PA so I went back a week before to help get things ready. Nothing can ever go smoothly for me I swear. I'm marrying a Murphy which has made me ultra pron to Murphy's Law "what ever can happen will happen". Oh not to mention 5 weeks before the wedding I had an accident in the kitchen and gave myself Second degree burns on my right hand fingers. Uhg it was not starting off well.

So like every bride I was checking the weather as soon as it was in the 10day focast. It was a little more important for me being as our wedding was completely outside. We did have tents for the reception but the ceremony and cocktail hour were not under tents and I strongly disliked the idea of having to get married under a tent. But i was also in the mind set that what happens happens and we will deal with it when it does and I refused to let it stress me out.

BUT the weather was forcasted rainy the ENTIRE week leading up to the wedding with rain on the wedding day as well. I kept watching it though and it mostly stayed at 50% but than 2 days before it dropped to 30% ... praise the lord! Although it POURED the entire week almost. The first day back was good and we got tons of gardening done and the next day was good but finally the rain broke at 4pm and finally were forced to stop soon after because of lightning. So the landscaping prep had officially ended that day but everything was gorgeous and I could not have asked for more.

The rain did prevent us from setting up lighting and the tent company didn't get the tents up till the day before! I was rediculous actually but I won't go into it. Not to mention our rental company we got everything else through tried to screw us with the dance floor. When we went in to finalize everything they ask us if we have sub floor for the dancefloor to go on top of.

Ummm what do you mean? Yeh they told us they would not give us the floor without a sub floor and they didnt have any for us because all theirs was rented out. They told us the sub flooring should be provied by the peole we get the tents from but how does that makes sence when you are the people we are getting our dance floor from and this is needed if it rains AND we were never told that if it rains you will need a special sub floorling to go under the dance floor so it doesnt break apart and get destroyed? No one ever told us this and being as there knew it was an outdoor wedding they should have. Basically that day was the worst day, 5 days out. Basically everything got figured out and they eneded up magically finding some for us to use.

Also we decided instead of having the tents in the back yard we would move them to the driveway. Our house isn't a typical house so what you are picturing is not what our driveway looks like. It's red gravel and has a ton of space and actually is surrounded by my favorite gardens on the property. It's like a big jungle! I actually think everything worked out for the best. I don't think the tents would have been half has beautiful if they had been in the yard and this way people weren't sinking in the mud :-)

My mom was really worried about my dress on the red gravel but I was ok getting a little dirty. I had actually bought rain boots that my photographer and I had decided would be awesome and would allow me to stromp through all the mud in the world! Glorious!

Another thing that went wrong but ended up working out was my personalized escort cards that were to be tied around mason jars. See my printer back in Texas kept eating them when I would print the names on them and I ran out of the cards with just 10 people left to do. It was horrible so I had to order more but I had to have them delived to PA because they weren't going to come in time. Well when I tried to print them on my parents printer it was no luck, it straight refused to even recognize anything being in the basket. So than my dad took them to a printer place along with the font type I was using and they could not do it either. It was so aweful lol I know it's stupid now but I was freaking out because these were my babies. They were my favorite detail of the wedding and I had worked so had to get them done only to fall short. What did I do you ask? Well my bridesmaid Heather (who happens to be the most talented painter/artist eveR) hand wrote them out matching the font pretty darn good I must say and saved my sanity.

Heather also made a sign we put at the end of the driveway. See our driveway is SUPER long and you actually cannot see the house from the road so we wanted to make sure people knew THIS was the place. She also made a second sign for the parking lot people had to park in. Yes thats right. We were originally going to have valet and have the cars parked in our neighbors side yard that lines our driveway BUT because of all the rain we could not do that. Luck for us we have a HUGE greenhouse across the street and they let us use it. So people parked and then we have a suttle to take poeple to the wedding :-) I know so great right?! I worked out so great and my brothers friend drove the big van my dad rented to be the suttle so all we did is pay for a one day car rental. SUPER cost effective if i do say so. I'd like to take credit but that was all my smart Dadda who thought that one up. I was thinking a school bus but being as the tents were taking up most of the dirveway there was no way a school bus could turn around. anywear.

I had also planned on making a rice crispy treat gooms cake. Well I forgot to order the square molds to make them so I decided well I will just make them in a thick pan and cut them and than arrange them into a grooms cake. I even got small brown paper bags (againa thanks to my Heatho for finding them) and everyone helped to stamp dandelions onto them so that guests could take them home as a favor!

Yeh that did not work out. It is WAY hard to cut them even and each one the same size so when trying to piece them into a huge tiered square cake it just wasn't working out. So than Rach, or maybe it was even my mom suggested we just put them IN the bags and have our caterer arrange them for people to take. Genius. Good to know I have all these smarties around me :-)

My MOH and brideasmaid Heather and I also decided to get an airbrush tan which was very funny because not only can you NOT get wet for 10 hours but they also dont tell you that when you wake up the next day you are a different race lol I'm serious, I am a pale irish/english gal and I woke up and I was middleeastern lol It was a hoot. After I showered though more than half came off so it ended up being perfect and I didn't look so horribly pale in Mexico either ;-)

I had also bought bubble tubes in which we planne on putting one on each chair for the ceremony so that when Patrick and I walked down the ilse as Husband and Wife everyone could blow pretty bubbles!

Tying these tiny bows was a little time consuming but way worth it I think :-)

Finalizing & Fun

I went home this past weekend to do all the finalizing of the wedding details. I got my trial wedding day make-up done as well as my hair (which were both AMAZING!), went and had lunch with my sister and mom at our caterer’s café and got to talk about cake design as well. I also picked out the linens and tables; if you remember from before my mother and I were butting heads about me wanting family style seating and her and my dad wanting round tables. Well when we finally went to the rental place and saw the tables and looked at pictures (which I have been emailing her btw) she was like “oh sweetie your right that looks so nice”. I WIN! Huge weight to be lifted I must say. Then we both agreed that my centerpiece idea was complicated and we needed to simplify which is why we are now doing simple easy hydrangeas! I have always loved them and thought about doing that in the beginning but then like many things my ideas and thoughts went overboard and complicated. I finally feel relaxed and grounded and not stressed in the least about how everything will turn out because everything has just started falling into place and it is oh so lovely! There were a few surprises while I was home. Thanks to my AMAZING MOH and bridesmaids of course; they through me a surprise bachelorette party on Friday! And yes it was really a surprise; I mean I was in shock for at least 30 mins, to the point where I was sitting on the party bus just staring at everyone lol. They told me I looked terrified and I said I was! HAHA! Honestly though I could not imagine a better bach party, even if we had gone to Vegas. This was so perfect and oh did I mention how they got me the HOTTEST STRIPER EVERRRRR! Hahahaha to all you girls who detest male strippers, I, myself am not a fan but this guy ….. Oh man was he SO sexy and super nice, like not creepy in the least. It’s funny too because I guess when my MOH was picking the guy you had 3 options: Black, White, Mystery Man … and she picked Mystery Man! Hahahaha! Such a super good time I will never forget, and yes I remember the entire night. Then on Sunday they tried to throw me a surprise Bridal Shower but I figured it ALL out and when I walked through the door I yelled “SURPRISE!” hahaha too funny. Nellie, my MOH, made home made cookies and baked brie and then my sister Amanda cooked all this amazing food like sliders and chicken with a Thai peanut curry sauce, and then they got wings from my fav wing joint. I was amazing. Oh and did I mention my MOH also made sangria … Yeh not store bought but actually made it …. Ridiculous! Everything was so great and I am so grateful to have such amazing women in my life to do this for me AND get me amazing gifts! Seriously I am the luckiest bride. You should SEE the custom garter belt (and throw away) they got me not to mention ALL the beautiful kitchen stuff and some good stuff for the honeymoon ;-)

The Suit-uation

So we FINALLY got the suits for Patrick and his groomsmen! It was touch and go there for a while and the dream of having the guys why a suit even flat lined but thanks to the Assistant Manager at the Jos. A. Banks in Highland Park, TX our dream was brought back from the dead! Now as everyone knows that if you died but were brought back you are never quite the same … something changes …. For us I believe the change was fate. I won’t reveal it quite yet but soon. Let me just tell you what happened. We have been looking for MONTHS for not just the perfect 3-piece suit, but one that is affordable. Patrick promise this would be no problem as suits are not in as high demand as they once were since most work places these days are business casual. Well we found this amazing gray (PERFECT gray might I add … that stone gray color) suit at Macy’s. The Alfani Red Slim Fit. Now it wasn’t a 3-piece, in fact it was a suit separate and I did know a vest existed because I had seen it. We Patrick kept putting it off even after he bought the suit for an interview and for the AMAZING price of $220 and this included a shirt and tie …. No vest though. BUT after the interview he went and returned everything! He said there would be another sale and not to worry. Well there were other sales but never as good so we kept waiting. Finally 2 weeks ago I went on a mission to Macy’s. I was determined to talk to a manager and see if they could cut us a deal because we would be buying 6 suits from them. As I walked into the suit department I decided to stroll by the suit just to see what sale was being offered at the moment. Low and behold, hanging on a rack to the side of the suit was a matching vest! Seriously this MUST be fate. So I grabbed the suit AND vest and walked over to the salesman and said “I am getting married in May and the groom and groomsmen are going to buy this suit BUT I have only seen one of these vest can they just order it through the store since it is not sold online either? This was my first mistake because first off I should have talked to the manager. The salesman did not seem to be the most knowledgeable guy … for a couple reasons.

1. The guy said it would be easier is the men ordered them as a 3-piece suit ….. They are suit separates which means they do not come as a package deal. I had to argue this point with him until he dragged me over to the rack and saw that the suit was in fact NOT a 3-piece suit but in fact suit SEPRATES!


2. When we tried to look up more of the vests they are only carried in California … typical. I asked if when the guys ordered their suits couldn’t the store just call California and have the vest sent to their store. The salesman said no that I would have to call every Macy’s in Cali to see which ones carried the sizes we needed and have them ship it to us. This I know not to be true because I have had Macy’s call around for me on a number of occasions. I let it go and took the list of store regardless be tired of telling this man what was what.


3. I asked if because it was for a wedding and we would be ordering so many suits at once would we get a discount. He said, “No Macy’s does not do that.” Exhausted by this man I left.

After Macy’s I talked to Patrick about the vests and the suits. The sale was just for the jacket and pants and it wasn’t very good. It would have been $220 then the vest was $75 and we would still need the shirt and tie, which would probably be another $50. We just could not ask the guys to spend $350 on a suit for a wedding … and that is before tax!

We were defeated and reluctantly unplugged our dream from life support and make the choice to rent the gray tuxes. So last weekend we went to Jos. A. Banks to register for the tuxes. I chose them instead of David’s Bridal because they had gray/silver vests that were not as metallic and shiny as DB’s were. So we sat and gave all our wedding info and the names of the groomsmen and when it came time for the vests I asked because I just had to, “You don’t happen to have the vests that matched the tux do you? I just really hate colored vests and the shiny ones so I want the vest to match as closely as possible.” The guy sat back in the chair and was like “Have you guys ever thought about buying a suit instead of renting?” Patrick and I both looked at each other and said in unison “Yes.” It was a very defeated yes lol. So I than explain to the nice gentleman our ordeal and how it just didn’t work out and would cost to much. So as much as we would love to we could not ask that of our groomsmen. The salesman looks at us and says “Listen I’m the Assistant Manager and we offer discounts all the time for bridal parties on suits, let me just show you some 3-piece suits and see what I can do.” So Patrick and I agree thinking what the hell why not.

They didn’t have any of the 3-piece suits in store but he went on line and pulled up their “Joseph” line of suits. As we looked we found that they didn’t have any true gray 3-piece suits. They had a tan gray and an olive gray but we didn’t care for either. The guy suggested another color that we agreed on (actually I jumped on the color cause I LOVED it) but you don’t get to find out quite yet what it is. All I can say is that something about the suit was a risk and we were a little nervous about how it would look in a wedding setting. Then came the tedious numbers work. We sat as he entered all 6 suits (which were $989 each), we picked a shirt ($60 each) and I found a tie that was beyond perfect ($89 each … yes I know I did not know the price when I saw).Than he started working his magic; He made the suits $199 each! The shirts he made clearance and so were knocked down to $19.99 each. THAN he took that $89 tie, he put on clearance, halved it than made it buy one get one free … each guy will pay $7.50 for that $89 tie! And the best part …. I know you are asking how much better can this get, right? Well Patrick gets his entire outfit for FREE!!! Seriously that men single handedly saved our wedding lol that’s a little dramatic I know BUT that’s how it felt. So yesterday we got the call that the suit was in so after work we went to Jos. A. Banks and Patrick got to try on the suit and see if in fact this is what we wanted.

Time for the big reveal!

So what do y'all think?! I am so thrilled with the way it looked and freaking stolked about the suits being NAVY! If you remeber back in my post "Gray is the new Black" I has said I originally really wanted navy but was shot down. Some times fate works in mysterious ways :-) Also notice the slight pin stripe ... do you guys approve?

Dear Sir...

I hate you Sir and by Sir I mean my printer ... he is a jerk and I assume he is in fact a he because of the jerkiness it is exuding could only be the jerkiness of a dude!

I have been working for HOURS on these wedding invitations and it started off great. We had far less difficulty than when we did the Save-The-Dates. I THOUGHT we were on the same page printer but apparently not. Listen I understand that it is exhausting printing out exuberant amount of stuff when you are only use to being used once in a blue moon. BUT I really need you today. I was counting on you and lets face it you need the work out. Your laziness is starting to show and I'll be honest it is not pretty ... no one likes a fat, dusty, lazy printer sir, no they do not. I would just like a reason why the nice new black ink i bought you yesterday is not good enough for my card stock. Why is it that only a mixture of your precious color ink can stick to this type of paper product? This makes me sad. Not to mention I am 90% sure I have a spare color cartridge for you but in the move, I fear, it has been lost forever. I have searched high and low and through many boxes and yet have found no trace of this elusive spare color ink cartridge. So NOW I am forced to stop and wait for Patrick to get done work so he can pick one up and I can continue.

So since my night of relaxing has be deterred by your jerkiness I am now tell you printer SIR that we are not stopping until these invitations are FINISHED!

That is all.

< 3 Months

85 days to be exact and it is crAzy! I realize I have not written in 2 weeks ... quite pathetic. This isn't just a wedding blog so there really is no excuse. Well actually there is a pretty good one in MY opinion.

See I sometimes (ahem, ALWAYS!) do my blogging while at work, sitting on the phone waiting for a call to pick up. It get quite boring sitting there mostly getting yelled at and turned down so it helps pass the time plus it relieves some of my stress. So anyways about 2 weeks ago the big boss decided to go on a rampage about people using the Internet and email for personal use ... they started accessing people computers and taking screen shots of them so needless to say I have not TOUCHED the Internet or email in 2 weeks be cause they have threatened corrective action and I have worked there a year and have not once gotten in trouble [knock on wood]. We are even unable to use word documents at this point in time because apparently my boss has transformed into Hitler and we now work for Nazi Germany ... I feel like Anne Frank except I don't even have a word document to wrote down my thoughts.

It's just something that happens every time there is a slow month, they like to try and blame it on anything and instead of the weather and lack of need they say "oh it's because people are emailing and on google too much!". I'm not saying they don't have a right to be mad but let be honest and not go on witch hunt.

So anyways lots have happened and changed since last I was on here. My mother finally (FINALLY!!!) found her dress.
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That is the color as well and i think its going to look so great! Now we just need to get these darn suits!!!

My parents also reserved the rentals FINALLY! Just today I kid you not but at least it is done. I have started getting people saying they will not be coming to the wedding so the guest number has dropped a bit but the less the better because that is less money!

We have also decided that we are no longer going to Hawaii for the honeymoon. There are 3 reasons; First reason is because it still really bothers me Patrick went to Maui last week. It was really hard, I think I cried a lot while he was gone and leading up to it but than halfway through his trip I apologized to him for feeling the way I did. I said I could not help the feels I had but I could at least not let it effect us any more than it already had AND tarnish his well deserved vacation. I also decided that Maui had lost that special feeling for me ... I think I had to in order to stop being such a crazy person about him being there. Also we were becoming painfully and stressfully aware that we have no idea how we are going to pay for us once we get there. So i thought of another place that I know we both have never been and want to go ... The Riviera Maya! Not only is is beautiful but it is ALL-INCLUSIVE!!! Not to mention it has some of the best scuba diving! Way better than Maui. I didn't spend all those hours taking certification after certification to NOT go scuba diving. I am 3 certs away from being able to be a Scuba Instructor ... something I have wanted to do since my first class 9 years ago. Anyways we are both feeling less stressed with this decision and happier there for making things with us GLORIOUS!

Oh also my parents apparently HATE the style of seating I want for the reception. They want round tables and I want the family style seating .... my mother said with a round you can talk to everyone around you but at a long table you can not ... I do not see this logic being as the rounds would be too far away to just casually talk to someone. Anyways my caterer (god bless her) suggested maybe doing both. We would do the head table really long to fit the entire party but then have a mix of rectangle and rounds for all the other guests .... I just don't know. It was just so much easier to do a seating chart when I have 6 long tables: One for the bridal party, one for the Bride's family/relative, one for the Groom's family/relative, one for the Groom's parent's friends, one for the Bride's parent's friends and one for both of our friends .... sooo EASY! I even did the chart already lol. But my parents are really unhappy with it. So I am torn between doing what I had dreamed and doing what makes my parents happy.

THOUGHTS PLEASE!!!

Oh also I still don't have a place booked for our rehearsal dinner LoL

Our Caterer = Bliss

Have I told you yet how much I love our caterer?

When I first started my search for a caterer I was a little worried. I didn’t know if we would be able to afford the food we wanted. See having an “off-site” reception is a little different from having one in a reception hall. The food has to come to you and most of the time (95% of the time) it comes pre-cooked and then reheated before it’s time to serve … soooo many things can go wrong, the pasta gets mushy, the meat can get over done … it can be a nightmare, so you have to make sure you either go with food that holds up well or find a caterer that cooks on site.

From the beginning we knew food was at the top of what was important to us …. That and our photographer, he is amazing and another story all together. We had planned on using about 30% of our total budget for the catering and I think we did pretty darn well at staying close to that … there was a brief moment where I thought we were pushing it but thanks to Emily she was able to help us change things to better fit our budget.

Probably from the time I set eyes on her website I knew Emily’s Café & Catering was the one … or at least I was willing to hope she was. The food and feel of all their events was exactly what we were going for. Everything is beautifully prepared, the flavors were unbelievable and yet so simple. They use a lot of fresh local and in season produce, you might not think it makes a difference but it really does.

In July I flew home to meet with caterers, Patrick was not able to get the time off from work so my mom did all the meetings with me. First off Emily was the only one who actually did a tasting on the first meeting. (All the caterers knew our situation but still chose not to do a tasting) Emily and her husband (who is also the chef … lucky gal) own Emily’s Café which is located on Main Street in Pennington, NJ. It is a small café that has this rustic, “neighborhood corner café” feel to it. If you are ever in the area stop by for lunch and some hot chocolate which Patrick described as “rainbows in a cup” …. I pictures rainbows as fruity but he apparently imagines rainbows tasting like yummy chocolaty goodness …. to each their own. Emily is the sweetest woman I have dealt with in this entire process. She just has this really soft-spoken voice that’s makes you feel like everything is going to be alright. I deal with her mainly through email but I can almost hear her calmness through her emails. I know that every time I have a question or concern she is right there is answers and options and never makes me feel like a pain.

As we arrived Emily got us drinks and started us off with some hors d’oeuvres. I had picked out some prior to the tasting but she had added some different ones and one was a date and goat cheese on an endive leaf, drizzled with some balsamic … OMG I can not even describe how amazing these were … it was so smooth and sweet with just a little tang … wow … needless to say it made it to our final menu. Then we were served a Caprese salad … fresh mozzarella layered with red and yellow tomatoes, fresh basil and balsamic vinaigrette …. This is one of Patrick and my favorites. Since we are going with a buffet/station style dinner Emily suggested we serve the salads plated so people go to their seats, kind of bringing everyone together. (see what I mean .. love her!)

The next course they brought out Three Cheese Ravioli in a tomato pesto basil sauce …. Now I am using the word “sauce” lightly here because it was so much more than a sauce. The ravioli were mixed in the “sauce” but it wasn’t a sauce because there wasn’t much liquid … the cherry tomatoes halved and sautéed in EVOO, garlic, pesto and then the raviolis were tossed in it just coating them … the tomatoes were just as much a feature as the raviolis in my opinion and I can honestly say I have never had a better ravioli dish. Next we had our meats which were Grilled Flank Steak served with sautéed baby spinach, garlic and shallots (YUM!) and Pablano Chilli Glazed Grilled Chicken Breast served with vegetable orzo (again YUM!) Everything was so GOOD!

Now you are probably thinking “Megan the food is not going to be that good at the wedding … it’s going to be pre-cooked and then reheated once they get to the site.” WRONG! Emily’s caterer cooks everything ON-site so if it fresh when served. Now you may think “Well the price is probably so much more that way!” Nope … at least it wasn’t for us because we had another caterer we were kind of considering and she was the same price … I even did a price break down and yes Emily’s food was pricier, the other caterer’s service/supplies was more money and so the difference between the two was a mere $6 … I kid you not. I also didn’t factor in that Emily’s includes the wedding cake (of your choosing of course) and the other caterer did not. I do have to rent the outdoor stove but the coast of the cake cancelled that out. So for the same coast as a caterer who cooks everything off-site I get food that is going to be made fresh on-site and that tastes AMAZING.

We are also having a mashed potato station where you can choose between Sweet Potato or Red Bliss Potato mash and all the fixings you can think to go on them! I am sooooo excited about that! Patrick also HATES spinach (as well as peppers, onions and most vegetables I love lol) so we are having a mixed seasonal vegetable side as well.

So here is a break down of our Finalized Menu :-)

As Guests Arrive for Ceremony
Freshly Brewed Iced Tea
*with mint sprigs in mason jars to garnish
Strawberry Lemonade

Cocktail Hour
Passed hors d’oeuvre:
Smoked Salmon Canapé
with crème fraiche and chives

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tartlet

Shrimp Cocktail
with lemon wedges

Endive Spears with Dates and Goat Cheese
with a honey balsamic glaze

Mini BBQ Chicken Quesadillas
with a sour cream dollop

Petite Lamp Chops

Plated Salad:
Heirloom Tomato and Mozzarella Caprese
layered with sweet basil
*microgreens garnish

House Made Rosemary Focaccia Bread

Buffet Main Fare:
Chimichurri Marinated Grilled Flank Steak
sautéed baby spinach on the side

Poblano Chili Glazed Grilled Chicken Breasts
over herbed vegetable strewn orzo with citrus zest


Pasta Station:
Three Cheese Ravioli
made to order with:
Plum Tomato Basil Ragu

Wood Grilled Summer Garden Vegetables
with a basil pesto drizzle


Mashed Potato Bar:
Smashed Red Bliss Potatoes and Maple Whipped Sweet Potatoes
with mixers:
candied pecans, Monterey Jack cheese
chives, crispy shallots, bacon


Oh did I mention that she has been featured in New Jersey Bride (TWICE) and on the all-inspiring Style Me Pretty!!! If you want check out their blog ... they have some really creative ideas they do for weddings and events!

PS: I had a horrible nightmare 4 months ago where everything went wrong; it rained, people came in jeans and t-shirts, no one wanted to dance and just went inside and watched tv, my photographer said it was the worst wedding he had ever photographed. But then the caterer arrived and the sun came out and the food was amazing and then I woke up. Thank you Emily's Catering for being the saving grace to my wedding nightmares!

Procrastination = Death ... of my Wedding

I mentioned in a previous post Décor Obsession, that I wanted low and long centerpieces. Now I have been trying to find pots or any container really that has the measurements I want and fits the price range. Now size wise I would like each centerpieces to be is 3 feet long by 6inch high and 6inch wide at the bottom, and I would like to stay in the $5 range. This is seriously impossible. I can’t even find 2ft long ones in my range. So I decided I was doing to make a Home Depot run and try and make the darn things myself…. well just one darn thing lol I can’t make them all here in Texas because I need them in PA.
So I got a 48x48 board, some wood glue and wood nails …I did this 2 weeks ago and they are still sitting in my garage! Seriously what is wrong with me lol! I have 4 days off last week and I didn’t make the darn thing? Dear god my wedding is doomed!

I’d like to blame it on the troll that live under my couch … yes I know, you thought they live under bridges and eat billy goats, but that’s just one TYPE of troll … this troll steals motivation and lives under couches and/or beds. He must be extremely fat because I have NONE this past month.

Realistically though I think it’s the fact that the wedding is almost 3 months away … 101 days to be exact … FREAKIN OUT … still. The thing is my lovely followers, is that what I thought was our budget and things I thought were IN that budget … well I don’t know if it will work or happen. Patrick tells me it’s going to be fine but I worry because I think he just tells me these things so I do NOT worry … but I do regardless.

I think the whole idea of getting married feels less real now than it did 6 months ago. Which is strange … shouldn’t my impending nuptials be more real as the time grows nearer? I have yet to order my invitations for the love of baby Jesus! My mother has yet to find and order her dress and we have not gotten the suits yet … but Patrick says that is something that does not need to be bought now … I say why not buy them now so I don’t worry about us not being able to find one.

….. hmm I feel like I have blogged about this before so if I did and you are sitting here reading this and thinking “Dear god I have HEARD this before, ENOUGH already!”
I am sorry … sometimes I actually have to go back and see if I have written a blog on a certain topic before … This post was actually suppose to be something entirely different … about my centerpieces actually but as I was typing all this poo-ha came out instead lol so I went with it.

On another COMPLETELY random note; if you have never seen Bob’s Burgers on Sunday nights on the FOX network then you are missing out my friends. OK so I really LOVE this show … I’m pretty sure there have only been two episodes and there hasn’t been a new one in like 2 weeks … but it feels more like a month. It might be a little abnormal how much I love this show… I mean lets be honest here is it normal to think about a show everyday and which you could watch it’s gloriousness? (btw did you know that gloriousness is a real word? Cause my spell check says it is and that makes me happy)

Wow this post has gone to the birds … and to think I had such a lovely wedding related post yesterday … and then this ::sigh::

To an AMAZING Man...

Thank you!

I just need to write a short entry commending my amazing fiancé.

He had a rough day today … he was hoping for some good news but got bad news instead. When I ask him what happened and I tell him I love him and cheer him up do you know what he does? He tries to cheer ME up by making jokes. He doesn’t tell me how he’s sad or disappointed he is or that things are tough right now. He makes the best of what he’s got and even though this was mainly about him, it would have affected our life and wants to make sure I know it’s going to be alright.

He is honestly the most amazing man I have ever known and maybe it’s sappy but his love, caring and selflessness he shows me every day, especially on the hardest days, makes me realize how lucky I am.

Thank you little baby Jesus for such an amazing man to share my life with :-)

Bouquets, Boutonnières, Corsages: OH MY!

I think bouquets are a good place to spend a good amount of your flower budget on. I am using half the flower budget for ours BUT I think it’s important not to skimp on the bouquets because those are carried around all day and in pictures. I’m saving money by using local and in season blooms so that helps. There are some flowers out there that are seriously tempting to use but I have to remember we have a BUDGET and every time I catch myself google’ing pictures of ranunculus and peonies I say NO lol plus I would have to break my no white rule, which I possibly made so I wouldn’t be tempted by these beauties. It’s such a shame too because peonies are one of my favorites! But they are a budget buster if I ever saw one.

For the bouquets I did countless searching on BING, GOOGLE, and The Knot. After what seemed like eternity of looking as lots of boring bouquets (ok some where beautiful but just not my style) I came across this bouquet that I just fell in love with. It looks like you are holding a mini meadow in your hands!

Source

Ok maybe that’s a little silly to say but that’s what it looks like to me! This was what I was going to base my bridesmaids’ bouquets on …. Ok you got me I want them to look EXACTLY like that lol. THEIF! THEIF! I know, I know and I don’t care, besides you can’t paten a flower arrangement so ha-HAA!

The thing is I have no idea what to do for MY bouquet. I want mine to be a grander version on that but I just can’t picture it. I want more purple and bigger flowers, maybe some green spider mums and purple football mums (I kind of have a mum obsession lol I love the textures). I love purple tulips but they don’t go style wise. My florist suggested cool water roses which are beautiful I just have an aversion to roses in general but I probably will use them. Maybe I should just forget mine looking anything like the bridesmaid bouquets …. Nahhh.

Then there are the boutonnières. I found one I love that goes with the girls bouquets perfectly...

Source

but I didn’t think about the groom’s having to be different lol or the fathers and my florist also said the best man has to be different as well …. WTF! Who knew because I sure didn’t? Anyways my florist and I came up with some great options like using purple lisianthus which I love and are in the bouquets.Source

I had suggested maybe using grape hyacinths but our wedding is at the end of the season so we shall see … I just think they are more of a “manly” flower if a flower can be called manly lol. Source

That picture of course is the LEAST manly picture ever!

I’m still not sure about the best man but the fathers are possibly wearing purple freesia...Source

It’s simple and I love the look of it BUT if those grape hyacinths are in season I will most likely do something with them instea…. Both our dads are a true "man's man" if you will and sometimes I think pinning delicate freesia, in purple non the less, might be a little silly. The mothers though I will probably definitely go with freesia, I mean seriously it’s beautiful AND smells good lol. I’m not concerned about people having different flowers and not being SUPER matchy matchy, it is a garden wedding after all ;-)

Mother Nature is a Tease

Last week it was 70-78 degrees and then almost over night it dropped 50 degrees! around 1am on Tuesday we got a crazy sleet storm and it was so windy I thought the dishes on the roof were going to get torn off! In Texas they don't have salt so it is still all over the roads. Yesterday there were clear patches wore down by cars but now it is all covered by snow because last night it started snowing and we now have 3 inches of gorgeous fluffy (perfect for packing) snow covering everything. I feel bad for all the people who came for the Super Bowl thinking it was going to be nice and instead they have this. I know all the Pit and Green Bay fans are laughing at us thinking how ridiculous it is that we don't have any roads or parking lots cleared. Really one big reason why they don't have salt down here is because the roadways are all cement instead of asphalt and the salt will eat away and the cement thus destroying the roads. So I have worked one day this week LOL so crazy to me.

Patrick's parent's flew in last night and are lucky they made it. They had a stop in Chicago too so they are REALLY lucky lol they got like 3 FEET of snow ... I'm actually jealous and would much rather have 3 feet of snow than 2 inches of ice lol.

Today looking at the snow falling I couldn't take it anymore and decided I had to go play in the snow with Penny and make me a snowman :-) Patrick and I had a mini snow ball fight to which he got me in the head but then i got him smack in the bum LOL. Good times :-)

Penny is hating me for making her play with me in the snow!

Wanting to sit but not knowing what to do lolMy little Eskimo Penny....

My snowman has hair!

I think he's pretty darn cute even if he is smokin a cig....

Me and Penny by the pool...

The Big Up-Do

So I have always had this picture in my head of what my hair would look like on the day of my wedding. Romantic, whimsical are what I am going for in my wedding and of course I want my hair to match.

I always tell people what I want but have never shown anyone pictures so this will be a first. I like to mess with my mom so I told her I was going for the "Marie Antoinette look" the like big hair all up and in curls with birds and flowers in it. LoL this tickles me because it terrifies her but to be honest I really no love her hair. It's a work of art to get hair like that. Don't worry I have no intention of actually doing that but I like the feel of it just the same. If you have ever seen Kristen Dunst's Marie Antoinette it's beautiful. Most people don't like the movie, not much of a story line but I love it. The fashion, the style, the food!

LOVE her! And as much as a ADORE her hair i would look ridiculous if that is what I chose to have for my wedding let's just be real here. So began the almost endless search for something more practical and more "me".

Well finally I found what I think to be exactly what I envisioned! I used two different styles since I love the front of one and love the back and side of the other.

Front

Side

Back

I know some people aren't crazy about Taylor Swift but I think she is adorable and her hair is always that natural, romantic, loose style I love so much, even when her hair is down ... just gorgeous.