In my red, not so high, heels?

Last night was date night with the mister,
I'm so fancy that I required Long John Silvers!

Not only did we have dinner, but we even went to Five Below & Michael's. 

He's great, right?

We did some wedding planning and found these lovely items:

Burlap table runners, baby's breath (Which I just love love love!)

Some mason jars, and some adorable woodwork.

Oh, speaking of woodwork, be on the lookout here soon for my Honey's creation!

Not only did we go out and scope wedding supplies, but we even had the opportunity to craft!

Personalized "TOMS"
Or, for me, knock-offs for $5 at Five Below.
They had almost every color in almost every size.
For my creation, the hardest choice was my typical problem,

PINK or RED. Better yet, what color fabric markers would I need?

I grabbed the red and rushed on out to Michael's in search of black and white fabric markers.

Freehand, I got my Disney on and drew and Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse.

The result? Some kick ass new kicks!

& Look:

They even match our matching tattoos!

How cute & comfy!

Hoppy Easter!

 Hope everyone had a good day and counted all of their blessings!

Happy Easter from Jason & I.

Take a look at some of our Decor!

I just love Easter!

(P)inspiration Boards!

Hello, loves! 

On Wednesdays I have a seriously long break in between my classes, long enough to blog something up and share it with you! Ok, maybe it's a little more simple than that in this case!

Today, I decided to explore some pinterest and gather some pics together to make up some inspiration boards based on different themes of weddings. Honestly, it was harder than you'd think!

Either way, four lovely themes came to my mind first when I decided to make boards:

Beach:

Rustic:

 Vintage:

& Princess:

At one point I was considering combining Vintage and Princess because they are so similar, however it's easier to view them apart because of some distinct decorative differences. 

If you would like to see any other themes than the ones I have made, feel free to request them!

Mr. and Mrs. Elsey!

Today, I am so beyond happy to introduce Angela, from Harper, Home, and Happiness!I am completely obsessed with her blog, so after reading this, check it out!
I was thrilled when Diana asked me to do a guest post for her on advice for the bride-to-be! Well, really she asked me to talk a little about my wedding and experience as a Bride, so this is my take on it :) So, as a woman who enjoyed wedding planning waaay to much and would give everything to relive the day, here is some advice on how to make the best of your experience. 

Right after we said "I DO." September 30, 2011  

For starters...plan the day for you and your fiance, no one else. Of course you will take advice, suggestions and ideas from friends and family but remember, this is YOUR day. This is a day to celebrate the love and union between you two, make sure your day reflects that.

Spend a lot of time with your new husband at the reception. I am very traditional in the belief that every bride and groom should try to greet each table and thank them for coming, but…you may not get to every single table and that’s ok. We had a 300+ person wedding so we made sure to at least get to the tables of people we don’t see often. After that we danced our asses off and talked to people as the night went on. Don’t loose out on time you won’t get back.

Mimosas are a wedding morning must have. Or, in my case as you will see below, a game of pass the bottle..either way. Enjoy a morning cocktail with your gal pals!

Let your fiancé help with the planning too but don’t push him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. Can we say pre-wedding fights? No thanks. Derek told me his idea of a perfect wedding is whatever I wanted. But, he of course wanted to be involved in the cake tasting, venue selection, menu choices…include your man on things he will enjoy.

If you have great food and a stocked bar, your wedding guests will be happy. On this topic, choose a signature drink. We had a fall wedding so we offered captain and cider as our signature cocktail (everyone LOVED it). The hall manager called me the next day because she found it hysterical that my 350 person wedding went through 26 fifths of Captain Morgan alone..not including the other liquor/beer/wine people drank. She said we drank the equivalent to a 700 person wedding! Now, choosing a unique cocktail doesn’t mean your guests too will get shift faced, but it’s a cute touch! And as far as the food…people remember bad wedding food!

Just say no to cheesy wedding music. Need I elaborate?

Be thoughtful when choosing guests seats. Keep the drinkers by the bar and the old folks away from the speakers.

Feed your vendors..How did you feel the last time you went 8 hours without eating?!

Limos are classic but are usually very cramped…and hot..you don’t want to sweat off your beautiful makeup. Look into buses or a trolley for your big day. This was my only regret..We had a limo, the driver was an asshole and not to mention he showed up with the wrong limo..but if that’s the only thing that goes wrong, no sweat.

Discuss bridesmaid attire with your gals before any decisions are made. These girls are your best friends, you want them to stay that way. I told my girls, “only you know what makes you feel beautiful.” So, if they wanted to do their own hair and makeup, fine by me..and they were a big part in the dress selection. Remember, they have budgets too. Don’t give them a gown selection of outrageous prices. That’s just mean.

Have a professional style your hair and makeup. You will be too nervous, excited, jittery, etc…I loved everything about my hair and makeup. But, I almost went down the aisle with no makeup at all! My makeup artist had a death in the family the morning of my wedding, someone very close to her. She was an hour late and I hadn’t heard from her. I was crying and researching on the fly airbrushing I could get done..she finally called (I felt horrible for throwing such a tantrum) and she sent a backup girl to do it. And, it turned out amazing.

Make a “must have” wedding photo list for your photographer and a “do not play” list for your DJ. SOOO glad I did this. But, tell your DJ if he does get a request to go ahead and play it. You want your guests to enjoy themselves.

 one of my must have photos. Antique cop car at our reception. This was a must because we both work in law enforcement

Another must have. We were married on a Military Base to honor my husband's job in the Air National Guard. American Flag picture was necessary.

Choose your wedding favors wisely. No one wants an ornament with your name on it. We bought $1 Michigan lottery tickets, attached a brand new 2011 penny and made awesome velum envelopes with our wedding date and monogram on them. They read “wishing your riches from the Mr. and Mrs.” PEOPLE LOVED THIS!! Some people won money!

Water-proof mascara is a brilliant thing. I cried like a baby..and still looked flawless :).

DON’T FORGET YOUR MARRIAGE LICENSE! We did..yep..I forgot the damn thing at the house. Luckily, one of the groomsmen’s wives was still around when we were taking photos and ran back to our house to get it. We were fortunate the house was so close to the church. Don’t make this mistake.

Pick a first dance song that has a special meaning to both of you, not just one of you. Ours was “lost in this moment,” by Big and Rich. When we had first started dating we were in the car and that song came on. Derek looked at me and said, this would make a great wedding song someday. I always remembered that, and every time we heard it, we thought of each other. It was a no brainer.

 

Enjoy planning, this is the most exciting time of your life. I truly miss being a "bride," you can't get this time back so have fun and be true to yourself! Happy Wedding Planning!!

Also, check out my Esty page! We make beautiful custom seating charts for your event! Printed in our office and shipped to your home :)

Please be Seated Design

  

Jamie & Andrew!

Hello, lovely readers! Today I have one of my college friends blogging for me!

Make her feel welcome!

Meet Jamie!

I met my fiancé in high school and we have been dating for almost five years. Andrew popped the question on December 18, 2012 at our very own Christmas celebration. We decided since we both had off of work we would share the night together and exchange our Christmas presents. He had made dinner, steak on the grill marinated in teriyaki sauce with baked potatoes and broccoli. We enjoyed dinner, by candlelight in his apartment. We finally decided to each open some presents; he went first with a Pampered Chef goodie basket. Then it was my turn; he picked out this medium size box, no way was it a ring box, and I opened it. The box was a piece of exercise equipment that he had shown me a couple of weeks before. Upset and slightly disappointed, I asked him why I was getting this. Silly me, I should have opened the box, so I did. Inside was a smaller box, the size of a ring box, and I got all excited and tears began to form in my eyes. I opened the box to find the ring missing and him getting down on one knee to ask me to marry him. 

My ring was inside a box of chocolates, Dove my favorite kind. 

The funny part of the story is that he was so afraid to ask my parents who he is very close with. He ended up asking my dad and mom only minutes before I came over (his apartment is on my parents land, within walking distance).

 

We are planning our wedding for May 14^th, 2014 at my parent’s farm. Although we are not doing much planning right now, I am looking at Pinterest and have attended a few Bridal Expos for ideas. We have decided our colors will be purple accented with orange. We are going to have a rustic theme and plan on going to yard sales and auctions this spring/summer for some rustic looking props and decorations for on the farm. We have also started to clean up the barn so we can have the reception in the barn! We have also started our guest list and asked most of the bridal party to be in our wedding. We plan on 150-200 guests at our wedding. 

My advice to other young engaged couples is to enjoy the planning of your wedding and all of the small, yet important details of it. For instance, asking your bridal party to be your bridesmaids in a once in a lifetime offer made to those friends you just cannot live without. The looks on their faces are priceless. 

Also, give your fiancé time when making decisions; I know that Andrew gets overwhelmed with many choices very easily. And finally, include him in your decisions, this is his wedding as well and it should be his perfect day too! 

Thanks, Jamie! It's nice to see someone else who is planning a rustic wedding!

Can't wait to see more details and hear more about your yard sale and thrift finds!

Wedding Advice from a Newlywed!

Today, my semi-newlywed cousin, Terra, is here to share some tips and advice with us engaged girls!

Seriously, how pretty is she?!

1. Create a budget (unless you are rich and have all the money in the world)

2. Research and get ideas for center pieces, invites, flowers (be creative and crafty and try and do them yourself to save money)

3. Get engagement photos - you can use them for date savers if you send them (we didn't to save money). However I did use the engagement photos to hang on the wooden frame that we made ourselves and had at the bridal shower and at the church.

4. This a big time big time tip, make sure that when you meet with someone, like the person making the cake for instance: Know what you want and have samples/printouts of what you would like the cake to look like. It saves you and the other person time if you are organized and have made your decisions before hand.

5. BE ORGANIZED. Get boxes or plastic totes to start putting your wedding stuff in. Designate an area to have everything in one place. Label the boxes so you know what you have in them.

6. Make lists of things you need or need to get done. I know from my experience I felt very overwhelmed and felt like I was forgetting things.

7. Take pictures of random things so you can put them in your wedding album or scrap book. I took a screen shot of Brent sending me a text that I thought was cute about seeing me at the alter. Another picture was of me putting the invites in the mailbox.

The one moment of my wedding day WAS when my father and I were standing alone waiting for the song to start and us to walk around the corner and down the isle. At that moment I got butterfly's in my stomach and looked at my dad and he said, "are you ready" and as we started to walk and when I looked up and saw Brent, this overwhelming feeling came over me. My Husband-to-be looked so handsome and I couldn't get over how lucky I felt to be marrying him. It truly was a magical day and one I will never forget.

REMEMBER:

The process of getting everything together for the wedding goes so fast. The day of the wedding goes even faster. I had a friend tell me something that I thought was very informative. She said "Stop and enjoy the day, try and remember things because before you know it, its over," Oh, she was totally right.

Here's a little inspiration from her wedding!

Christmas Eve Engagement!

Hi everyone! Tonight, I have a very special guest blogger who is here to talk about her engagement and wedding planning so far! Please feel free to comment/message me and I will have her answer any questions you have for her! So, welcome Taylor!

Hi Girls!

I am very new to the whole blogging thing but Diana has asked me to kind of give a background on what my fiance and I have been up to and how the wedding planning is going!

My fiance, Daniel, is from North Carolina. He is an Exercise Science major and I am a Communications major. Him and I met each other at Liberty University. We have been together for a little bit over a year now. We are planning on living in North Carolina after we are married. We are both graduating a year early just so we can start working right after the wedding!The engagement happened on Christmas Eve! Daniel and I had planned for him to come up to PA to spend Christmas Eve with my family and I and the day before Christmas Eve he told me he would be working all day Christmas Eve and would not be able to make it. During dinner that night with my family, my dad got a call from someone and he told us that he had to leave the house. Well, my dad came back to the house about twenty minutes after and asked us if we were ready to open our Christmas presents. Of course, we got excited, and my dad asked me if I wanted to open my gift from Daniel because he told me Dan had my gift shipped up to PA. I sat down and opened my gift and to my surprise it was an Ipad Mini!!! My dad told me there was instructions that came with it so when I opened the Ipad there was a video on the screen. I pushed play and it went through this whole story of how I was the treasure and the engagement ring was the key to the treasure. In the video Daniel gets the ring stolen by his friends which in the movie were zombies, because we love love love The Walking Dead! At the end of the movie he finally gets the ring back and he walks to his car and the video said 5 hours later... which is the amount of time it takes to get from Liberty University to my house in PA. Then a picture of my front door appeared on the video and as the door opened in the video Daniel walked through my front door! I was so surprised and crying and he came over to me and got down on one knee and said, "Taylor I love you so much, I want to grow old with you, I want to have a family with you, and I want to serve the Lord with you!" Then he asked me to marry him! I was so excited. I love the ring so much. He did a great job! ;).

Wedding planning is going great so far. The wedding will be May 31st, 2014 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The resort we are having the wedding at is The Breakers Resort.
So far we have our venue picked out, our menu, the DJ, I picked my dress out, and we have our centerpieces and colors figured out. Daniel and I are starting to think of ideas for our save the date picture, and we have the guest list pretty much done. The only thing I am really worried about is the photographer. I have a couple of people in mind but I have yet to pick one. Our wedding will only have about 125-150 guests. Most of the wedding guests are our family or friends from school. The wedding party is 8 bridesmaids and 8 groomsmen. We are having one ring bearer and two flower girls.

That is most of the planning we have done for now! 

If any of you girls have questions about planning feel free to message me or contact me! 

Thank You Taylor!

Something Old, Yet, Something New!

Wedding binder update time, lovelies! 

It has been about 5 months since I first revealed my planning binder, May I just add that this has been a serious life saver when it comes to talking wedding? It is so simple to just be able to pull out my binder with all the things that inspire me and all the ideas I would like to try and just show anyone who is interested, or, maybe not interested in the slightest bit, (I feel like I should hashtag this SorryNotSorry.) 

Willing or not, this binder sure is a conversation starter and a wonderful example of how organization can make the planning experience so much easier. 

Since October, I have added many more categories and items that are actually extremely important to this process, for me. But this honestly depends on who you are and what you find to be the most important aspects of your wedding. 

So, now for some inspiration for you brides-to-be!

Wedding Overview

○ Overly creative & over-decorated title page consisting of wedding colors and theme

○ Example of invitations

○Countdown Calendar 

○Marriage License requirements and how to announce your engagement/wedding in local newspapers

For The Bride

○Bridal store locators, by state. 

○Wedding Gown inspiration

○ Accessories, Veils,  Bouquets

○ Hair Style and Make-up ideas

○Contact information for hairdressers, bridal shops, florists, etc. 

For The Groom

○ Tuxes & Boutonnieres

○Wedding Bands

Wedding Party

○Bridesmaid/Groomsmen Attire

○Flower Girl/Ring Bearer Attire

○Various Bouquets & Boutonnieres

○Potential Vendors contact information 

Ceremony & Reception

○Venue information

○List of questions to ask about venue (there will be more about this soon.)

○Favorite readings, vows, and ring exchange passages

○All potential vendor and venue contact, pricing, and regulations

○Cake & Catering information 

○Photos of inspiration for the cake

○Inspiration photos for the ceremony and the reception 

○Potential music lists 

○Favors and gifts 

Photographer

○This isn't necessary but pictures are VERY important to me

○Photos of pictures you would like to have taken

○Inspiration for the photographer

○Potential props 

○Photographer contact information

Registry

○Places you would like to create your registry at

○List of items for your registry

Pre-Wedding

○ Budgeting Tips

○ Ways to save

Post Wedding To-Do

○ Change your name

○Thank you notes

○Go through photos 

○Complete your registry

○Preserve your gown!