#Reverb12 - Your most Significant Expenditure?

Got the email for today's #Reverb12 prompt, and got excited. Something I could actually write about and quantify!

What was your most significant expenditure in 2012?

The best way to describe my most significant expenditure is with a picture.

A heartfelt discussion, a change of plans, and 28 days notice led the Caveman and I to move our wedding date up a whole year and get married in the most amazing way ever! The craziest part of the wedding planning is that for 2 weeks after we made the decision, I was on a business trip in Sacramento, CA. We decided on the last day of July that we were going to get married the last Saturday in August, and it was a whirlwind of planning immediately afterwards.

That weekend, I went dress shopping. On Saturday, I went with my good friend and tried on a handful of dresses that were OK, but nothing really outstanding. I decided on a dress that was pretty and in my price range, but would have to go to a different store to get it in my size. On Sunday, I went to the second store with the Caveman's Aunt and Uncle. I tried on the OK dress, but then Aunt pulled a dress that I loved off the rack. I was nervous to try it on, because it was outside of my price range, but she insisted. Putting the dress on was like magic. I felt like a princess. I truly felt beautiful and I immediately started crying! When I had to choose which dress to get, I said I would buy the OK because it still looked good on me and I could afford it. Aunt and Uncle asked me if I really wanted the other dress. Of course I said yes, but with the wedding date moved and the lack of funds, I just couldn't afford it. That was when I really started crying, because they offered to cover the additional cost to get me the dress I loved!

After that, the whole wedding process just snowballed to completion! We had our marriage license and wedding venue selected within 5 days. And during the 2 weeks I was in Sacramento, so many family members stepped in to help!

My grandma took on taking care of food and place settings, she even helped create the post cards for the guest book idea we used. My Aunt helped house things at her place and put things together. The Aunt and Uncle that helped with the dress, made our wedding cake. The other Aunt handmade my veil. Caveman's mom made the bouquets. His Grandma cleaned up my dress and fixed all the loose beads. She even sewed on little clasps so that the small jacket would stay clasped to my dress! My close friends handled music. Caveman's former youth pastor did the honor of being our Officiant. and our 2 best friends agreed to step in as Matron of Honor and Best Man. And even on the short notice, our originally photographer (the amazing Luminous Photography by Krystal) wound up being available to cover the event. It was like all the pieces just fell together.

I will admit that there were some hectic times. There were moments where I felt like things were getting TOO out of hand. We changed  the date by a whole year, and agreed to keep the event super small and intimate, but that didn't stop people from trying to grow and grow and grow the plans for the day. We agreed only immediate family and the super CLOSEST of friends only. I felt bad that we couldn't invite everyone we wanted to, but time, venue, and finances just wouldn't allow it!

It cost us all our savings. Especially since we did it only a month after moving. It was the largest expenditure we had all year, and was worth every penny we spent. I've shared a few pictures over the last couple months, and have been meaning to write about our wedding for ages - now I have! and I will end this with a slideshow with TONS more pics of our magical day! Caveman and I could't be happier!

How to plan a wedding in 28 days!

While not ideal, it is possible to plan a wonderful wedding in just 28 days!

As I stated in an earlier blog, on Friday July 28th during the 6:30am walk to the bus station so we could go to work, Pre-Hubby turned to me and asked "So, you think you could find a wedding dress in a month?" and the ball started rolling! There were factors that went into making this quick decision (and no, i'm not pregnant!) but I don't regret it one bit! Before I got to work at 7:30 we had picked a date, made a tentative plan, called my mom, called some of his family, and started the process of planning a wedding!

And the most difficult of all the planning? The Venue. Since we were originally planning a wedding for a year from now, we had chosen a venue that wasn't cheap, but also wasn't super expensive like most places. It was beautiful and on the water. As soon as we bumped the date up, that venue went right out the window. Why? 2 reasons:

1. The venue was almost $1000 to rent for 5 hours. Planning a wedding in 28 days, when we had just nearly drained our savings to move 2 weeks prior, left us with maybe $1000 for the WHOLE event.
2. It was already booked! Duh - people book these places a year in advance!

So, I resorted to plan B - a beautiful park near the water. It shouldn't be that hard to find a park that has a covered picnic area and a small bit of privacy for us to throw a quick ceremony and enjoy time with family. With so many options available, I figured I'd find just want I needed in no time. WRONG! I called at least 10 different city park offices and looked up/researched/questioned over 100 different parks from Mukilteo all the way to Lakewood. Boy was it hard! Most places were booked all day or all day except for 1-2 hours. and that just wouldn't do.

I kept my bestie updated with all my struggles in finding a park and she reminded me of a beautiful park in Steilacoom that she had looked at with her sister-in-law when she was was planning her wedding. I knew it was a bit of a drive from where we live (about 2 hours) but in relation to most of the people that would be coming, it was a great location. When I called and asked if it was open for the morning (I originally wanted a wedding at 11am) I was told they were booked. I started to get discouraged until she said "But the location is available from 5pm until the park closes at 10pm"..... Really? I know it is in the evening, but its RIGHT on the beach and its beautiful and its open?! AND... its only $80 for the rental?? SOLD!

This whole process took about 4 days to complete. From calling all the places, researching options, finding the right one, and then having Pre-hubby drive all the way down to the venue to check it out and pay the deposit. The best part was that when he got to the location - he LOVED it!

And then it became real! there was no turning back! We'd locked down a venue and the rest would just fall in to place.... sorta!

That's all for this week! Next week - the dress! And man was it a gorgeous dress!

Have a great day everyone!

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

Guess Who's Back?

Welcome back Blogging friends! Or should I be welcoming back MYSELF?! Boy has it been a wild 2 months. Can't believe so many things have happened and I haven't had a chance to blog about them and share with you all! First, lets recap the last 2 months: Got accepted to a new apartment, packed, moved, cleaned, started unpacking, decided to get married in 28 days, started planning wedding, left for 2 week (hellish) business trip in Sacramento, came home, got married, still unpacking!

Yup, that about sums up the last 2 months! A whirlwind of crazy and fun and so many emotions! I know I posted a quick blurb with some pics from the wedding, but other than that I haven't posted since we started the move! Here's a little run down on where I've been!

Let's start with the move! Oh the glorious move! So much packing, so much cleaning, so much stuff!! Where does it all come from?! And how does it all fit in one place but never the next? Packing was an adventure and moving took far longer than expected! We ran into every bump in the road that you can imagine! And after we got everything OUT, we still had to clean the old place! Even though we started moving on June 11th, we didn't get fully out of the old place and cleaned until the very last day of the month! We tried scheduling a walkthrough of the old place, and the complex wasn't willing to work with our schedules. Needless to say, they did the walkthrough on their own and are trying to vastly over charge us for "damages". I'm still working with them, over a month later, to get things resolved but am optimistic for a positive resolution soon.

The new apartment, is fun! Its bigger, 2 bathrooms, and has covered patio that has full paneling all around. It makes it easier to just put the dogs on the back patio and let them enjoy the sun and be outside. Its not a yard, but that is the goal for next summer! Hopefully things go our way next year! In the mean time, I'm still unpacking and trying to find homes for everything. Even though the place is larger, I feel like the amount of room there is to place thing is smaller. We don’t have drawers in the kitchen, except a couple small ones for utensils and dish rags, which means I don't have a home for my Tupperware right now. Its sort of all over the counters! I do love the layout of my kitchen though! It has a center bar area with the dishwasher and sink and small counter. I just envision how useful it will be when we have our annual Christmas Eve party! Or even better, the Halloween party we are having this year! FUN!

So in addition to the big move that didn't get finished until the last day of July, I spent the first two full weeks of August in Sacramento with a co-worker and my boss. Well, boss was only there the 1st week. We are doing some new work lately that required us to be onsite at a clients location and remeasure the whole building! THE WHOLE BUILDING!!! That included 8 standard floors, a basement, 2 penthouse/roof levels, and a whole new site plan that included renumbering their parking spaces and redrawing their parking boundary fence. It was a government building, where the immigration offices are located, and in many of the areas we went to we had to be escorted with people following us around as we did our measuring with laser devices. It was 10 hour days on site to get all the measurements we needed. And even then, we found we missed spots after we got back. It was rough, it made me want to cry, but all in all, it was a wild adventure! Some of the roughest days were when I had to go back to the hotel and work on stuff for my client back in Seattle, because I didn't have anyone who could do the work in my absence! It added 4-5 hours to my days sometimes. It was exhausting! As a bonus though, I did get a slight tan because of the heat and lounging by the pool and I got to drive over to Reno to visit my Grammy and my aunt. It was definitely good to see them. Especially since I decided a week before leaving to have my wedding a week after I got back, and my aunt wasn't going to make it. It was nice to see her and mini-celebrate with her!

So, wedding! A wedding that was planned for August 17th of 2013 wound up happening on August 25th of 2012! A Lot of factors went into making this decision. I started planting the seed in June with the Pre-Hubby that we should just get married in August. Small, simple, intimate, immediate family only. I was tired of the stress that was coming along with trying to plan a party for under 100 people without spending a fortune that we didn't have. Additionally, his Grandpa was having heart issues and had to have a triple bypass surgery. He tried acting tough, but you could see how worried he was that something was going to happen and Grandpa wouldn't make it. Regardless, he kept telling me to relax and keep planning what I wanted and we would find a way.

Midway through our move, we got a call that Grandpa had a heart attack and was back in the hospital. His Grandpa is as important to him as my Grampy was to me. And when we saw his grandpa a week after the heart attack, he just looked defeated. While we were, and still are, praying that Grandpa would be just fine, I could sense that Pre-Hubby wanted to make sure that his Grandpa got to see him get married. And heck, if he came through everything fine and lived long enough to see grandchildren, it would just be a bonus! Again, I mentioned we should just get married in August. We didn't have to have a big party, we were both worried about his Grandpa's health, and for my family that was out of town, we could get them over really quickly.

So, on Friday July 28th, on the 6:30am walk to the bus station so we could go to work, Pre-Hubby turned to me and asked "so, you think you could find a wedding dress in a month?" and the ball started rolling! Before I got to work at 7:30 we had picked a date, made a tentative plan, called my mom, called some of his family, and started the process of planning a wedding! I won't bore you with all the details (I'll save that for the Wedding Wednesday posts) but things got planned quick, family stepped in and helped wherever they could, and we wound up having the most amazing wedding, on the beach, at sunset, that I ever could have asked for. My dream sure came true! I had my family, my closest friends, and married the love of my life who is no longer Pre-Hubby, just Hubby (I call him Caveman)!

And now, I'm back at work. No honeymoon, that will wait until next year. While it didn't cost us an arm and a leg to get married, it did deplete all our extra savings. So, we have to save up to take a nice vacation to Florida next year! As you can imagine, the chaos of the last 2 months has not fared well with my Fitness goals. And I slipped WAY off the wagon. But knowing that all the stress that I would have endured for a year of planning is done and over, and I can just live my life every day with just normal day struggles, I'm at a better place to get back on board and "trim the fat"!

Fitness Friday will start back up tomorrow, where I will re-evaluate my goals. Getting married changed my outlook a lot on my fitness goals! Not sure why, but I feel like something just clicked in my brain! More on that tomorrow!

Savory Sunday will be back this week with a yummy new dish! I've been eating out FAR TOO often in recent weeks. With my kitchen almost in order after the move, its time to get my culinary skills to work by making up a delicious new treat!

And Wedding Wednesday! I wanted to share the wedding planning as it was happening, but we kept the whole thing a secret from everyone except immediately family. I'll spend a few weeks (maybe longer depending on how detailed I get) going through the different planning steps and how we wound up NOT going broke for our dream wedding!

Lots of rambling, lots of grammar errors, but lots of adventures! If you stuck around during the Hiatus - THANK YOU!! If you are just joining - WELCOME! I can't wait to get back into a normal blogging rhythm and sharing my many adventures with you all!

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

SURPRISE - I got Married!

Don't have time to write about it at this moment, but here are some pics to keep people busy!

Holly and Josh's Wedding

Peace and Good JuJu, Holly

On Hiatus while Moving

The Many Adventures of Hef will be on Hiatus for the next couple weeks! I am currently in the middle of a rapid speed move! How rapid? We were approved on Thursday and get the keys on Tuesday! My internet connection will be down for about a week and I will be packing, unpacking, and cleaning during that time! I will be back in a couple weeks with more great recipes, fitness followups, and of course Wedding news (big things coming!)

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

Trying to win my Dream Dress - Won't you help?!

This is my pathetic plea! I don't normally do things like this, but this is probably my only chance to get my dream dress!

If you've read any of my posts, you understand that I don't come from a rich family, I don't have lots of money, and I live a rather average lifestyle. But its my life that I'm completely happy with! Since becoming engaged, I'm realizing just how expensive the whole wedding planning/process is.

I know we will have to have a budget wedding, and the vision I have is totally doable! I think I've finally settled on a venue too! The one thing that really concerns me, that is most important to me, is my wedding dress. A budget wedding doesn't really have the wiggle room to plan for my dream dress. Not to say my dress is outrageously expensive, but its over my budget. This means that I will probably have to settle for a  very pretty dress, knowing that its not truly the one that I want!

And what is my dream dress? THIS is my dream dress!

The Ariel Disney Princess dress from Alfred Angelo's Disney Bridal collection! Its absolutely gorgeous and everything I want in a dress. Its just the right shape and style to make me look great on my wedding day! I stare at the dress a lot and I can completely envision myself wearing this dress down the aisle! But alas, it is outside of my budget.

That's where the HELP part comes in! I recently found a contest through Pear Tree Greetings, the company we are looking at to do all our wedding invites and other stationary items, to win $1500 towards my dream dress. That is more than enough to cover the cost of the Ariel Dress! The contest rules stipulate that I must enter a picture of Pre-Hubby and I and tell our engagement story. After that, I am to get  friends to vote for us! For the first two days after I entered, we were in the lead, and now we are bordering on 5th place! I need to be in the top 5 to even be considered for the grand prize!

The contest is held on Facebook. You have to go to the contest page and vote for the couple you want to win. You can only vote ONCE during the whole contest. I need as many votes as possible to win this dress and would love if you all would vote for us and share with your friends to vote for us as well! Vote for us here! You may have to like their page in order to vote, but I know people who have unliked the page afterwards and the vote still remained! If you see this picture, you know you are in the right place!

Pre-Hubby and I all dressed up in Vegas!

EVERY VOTE IS FOREVER APPRECIATED!!! And any shares with your friends and votes from them are greatly appreciated as well! Please help us win. I want nothing more than to wear my dream dress on my wedding day!!

Thank you to everyone!

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

To do or Not to do - Engagement Photos?

I've been in a battle with myself since the Pre-Hubby and I got engaged.. should we do Engagement photos or not?

To me, I feel like everyone I know has some sort of photo session shortly after the engagement and before the actual wedding. But is it worth it? Is it cost effective? Remember, we're trying to have a fun but budget friendly event. So is this something we can cut for the sake of saving money?

And then I found the following photo and I realized we MUST do an engagement photo session.

The photos, by DWJ Studio, were just amazing and made me FEEL happy! I realized that I wanted that for myself! I wanted those photos, that memory, that happy moment before the crazy begins! I want it to remind us that we can have crazy fun together.

I immediately started looking up other engagement photo ideas! I was filled with ideas and thoughts, and so much wonder. I wanted pictures of us making a heart shape, pictures with the sunset, pictures on the beach, pictures running from zombies (so awesome, right?!) and so much more. Then I realized I had NO IDEA where to start!

So I emailed the above photo to my photographer friend at Luminous Photography, who we want to do our wedding day photos, and said this is what I wanted to do! At the end of our Washington summer (which only lasts 3 weeks here, so its gotta be planned perfect!) I want to do a small session with Pre-Hubby and have these wonderful memories to take us all the way to the big day! She said she would help find locations and I got so excited! I know for a fact that I want some photos taken at Kerry Park, the place that Pre-Hubby proposed!

Now, I just wait. I need to find a couple relevant ideas I like, order some awesome color powder, get white t-shirts, and plan a fun day at the end of summer for photo fun!

So let's hear it! Did you do engagement photos? did you do a theme, or just have fun with it? If you decided against them, why? I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts!
Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

Searching for Wedding Venues

I'm gonna make this short and sweet and share with you all 2 of the venues I am leaning towards for the Pre-Hubby and I's wedding. Both are water-view venues and located in the Seattle area. They are both gorgeous and great fits for us, as well as our theme! I'm hoping we can make a final decision on one of these places within the first couple weeks of August.

First up is Golden Gardens Bathhouse. Located at Golden Gardens park in Ballard, WA, this place is my absolute favorite! Its RIGHT on the beach and is absolutely gorgeous. The pictures I've seen of real life weddings that are held at this venue are simply stunning. Its got the water view and beach setting I want, and that old school flair that I want. Back in March, right after our engagement, Pre-Hubby and I went to the park to take a look at the place. Of course there was an event going on when we got there, but we were able to wander around the outside, take a look at the open meadow where ceremonies are typically performed, and wander along the beach. I was in love!

My only concern is that this place is a hot venue and because of this, they have rolling lotteries for reservations. That means that since we want our wedding in August 2013, we have to submit our application before August 1st of this year. They will perform a lottery and if our application is pulled for that day, we have 3 days to submit the $250 deposit. If we don't get pulled, we just don't get it or we have to choose a different date. Also, this venue is a mandatory 8 hour minimum rental, plus a handful of other fees because for being a venue in a city park. Still within our price range, but slightly discouraging to think about. Here are a few of my favorite photos of this venue.

The second place that's hot on our list is Lake Washington Rowing club. This is a last minute find that never came up in my initial venue searches. The pricing is great, the venue is big, and its right on the water. This venue includes a large rounded patio/deck that the woman said many people have chosen to get married on. It provides a great view of the dock and the water and there is a small spark/walking trail nearby. The other advantage of this location is the picture opportunities. This place is 2 blocks away from the famous Fremont Troll. I think it would be awesome to have wedding photos taken there!
While this place is well within our budget, and allows for a rental for the WHOLE DAY (12+hours) with just one fee, they require a much larger deposit to reserve the space (1/2 of the rental fee and a $150 cleaning fee that is refundable as long as the place isn't trashed). That's a lot of money to come up with in a short amount of time, just to reserve the site. The plus for this site though, is that its not as popular as Golden Gardens, therefore we can potentially wait longer to reserve it and have our date still available. Here are some photos I love of the Lake Washington Rowing venue.

So there you have it. Our top two venues. I'd love to know what other people think of them, so let me know your thoughts. I'm really excited to take a second look at each of them in person and really narrow down which one we want to decide on. SO EXCITING!

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

Beautiful Philadelphia Wedding!!

So, I know I still haven't posted about my vacation to Philly, but there was a reason I traveled 3000 miles from home to the city of Brotherly Love! WEDDING!!

In August of 2002, I hopped on a plan and flew to Central Pennsylvania where I attended my first year of college at Penn State. It was good times. I was far from home, which made me terribly homesick, but I met some great friends that I still have to this day. When I left after that year (i moved back home for school), I promised one of the girls who had plans of going to law school, that if she ever made it and graduated law school I would come back for it! Sure enough, 4 years ago I flew to Pittsburgh to watch her graduate. And now, almost 10 years after we became friends, she got married!

I could go on and on about the ceremony and reception, the food, the desserts, the dancing, the people I saw that I haven't seen in 9 years, and the new friends I made. However, I really just want to talk about one piece of the ceremony that I really enjoyed.

You know that part in movies, when a couple is standing at the alter and the priest says "If any one objects to these 2 getting married, speak now or forever hold your peace?" I've never been to a wedding where it was said exactly like that, but at this wedding, it wasn't said at all! Instead, there was a part in the ceremony called "The Support of the People". The Reverend began by talking about how marriage is tough and there will be many struggles. He also mentioned that there will be times that you will want to give up, but you must remember that you have made this commitment together and must work through it together. And then the cool part started.

Reverend Max then looked out into the crowd. He stated that friends and family are just important to a couple having a successful marriage. They are there to help the couple remember the good times and assist with the struggles the best they can. Through their support and friendship, they must stand by this couple through it all. Then he asked everyone "Will you stand by this couple and help them in the good and the bad, and support them in their commitment to each other?" To this, everyone responded with "WE WILL".

This is something I would love to have done at my wedding. I think its important that a couple have a great support system around them. I see so many couples who just give up when things get tough and walk away without remembering the reason why they chose to marry the person they are with. Without friends and family around to help put those minor annoyances with your spouse into perspective, some people walk away from their greatest love for the stupidest reason.

So tell me, do you have a great support system to help you through the tough times? Did you do a similar event at your own wedding? I would love to know if other people did similar things during their ceremonies!

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

I'm going on VACATION!!!

So, no Wedding Wednesday post today because I'm going on vacation!

In less than 12 hours, I will be leaving my lil apartment and my puppies in the care of a friend while me and the Pre-Hubby hope on a plane and head to Philadelphia!! One of my good friends from my 1st year of college is getting married (does that count for Wedding Wednesday?)! I'm excited to see people that I haven't seen since I left Pennsylvania 9 years ago. Even more exciting will be the fact that Pre-Hubby will be with me to see the people I talk about!

I will try to get my Fitness Friday post up this week, and have a guest spot for Savory Sunday! Other than that, I'm offline until I return next Tuesday! Hope you all have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

Themes and Colors, oh my!

I would be lying if I said I didn't start thinking about wedding plans within MINUTES of getting engaged Its true! After the crying and the hugging and calling my mom, I started thinking about colors and people and food choices!

Like most girls, I had been "planning" my future wedding for years! I would gather pictures online, write down ideas on post its, and cut out things I liked from magazines or ads. One of the things I always loved about weddings was the theme. The theme of a wedding, or the color choices, really helped tell the story of the couple getting married. Back in the early stages of planning my dream wedding, I wanted a winter wedding focused on a dark red color. I felt it was very sensual and also bold. I even found a beautiful dress that was traditional white with red accents. The dress has become far more popular over the years.

As I look back at those early dreams, I realize how much I focused things around my high school. I was dreaming of a wedding with dark red and silver, and my high school colors were crimson and silver. I loved my high school years, but that would have been a little too odd!

As I got older, and my tastes evolved, I thought about how I wanted to feel on my wedding day. I wanted a man who loved me more than anything. I wanted the sun shining and the ocean in view. I wanted to feel breezy and carefree! And since my favorite color is Orange, EVERYTHING would be orange! I can see my bridesmaids cringing right now! I bet they are glad I didn't decide to go that direction!

One day, I found the Disney Bridal Collection by Alfred Angelo and my heart immediately clung to the Ariel dress. It would go with the beach scene I'd always imagined. It was light and breezy. It was beautiful! So I clung to that image, and when I met my Pre-Husband, I could see the two of us getting married, and me in that dress!

After we had been together 2 years, the topic of marriage came up a few times with me and the Pre-Hubby. Usually it was in some sort of joking manner, but nonetheless, the subject had been discussed. One of the common things brought up was how we should have a pirate wedding. We would have our officiant dressed like Jack Sparrow, and we could have all our guests dress up. As cheesy and nontraditional as it was, it was perfect for the two of us! We were fun people who enjoyed the cheesy things in life! And the Ariel dress would go perfect in this setting.

10 minutes after getting engaged, I turned to the love of my life and said "So, now we need to start planning our beach-y pirate themed wedding!" and he was totally on board! It was great! We started with a simple color scheme of turquoise, sandy brown, and white. Then, we started looking up decorations we could use. We found treasure chests, fake gold coins, small bags of jewels, and even tons of props we could buy for a photobooth to be set up at the reception! I always knew I didn't want a lot of flowers, or any at all, in my wedding. Because of this, when looking for decorations I focused mainly on the reception tables and small decorations. If we were gonna do a pirate theme, I still wanted to keep it classy. Sadly though, that theme didn't stick around.

After a month of looking things up and trying to hash out other parts of wedding planning, the Pre-Hubby had a stroke of genius. It started with the realization that we couldn't have a traditional first dance with the song that is "Our Song". You see, our song was chosen on a drunken karaoke night by random. While the song is PERFECT, its not one you can have a nice dance to! Here, take a listen for yourself!

So we decided we needed to pick a song that meant something to both of us and that we could dance to. That led me to start looking up songs by the man himself, Mr. Sinatra. Sinatra is a love that we both have. And it extends to all the old classic singers - Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Bing Crosby. As we listened to "The Way You Look Tonight", my Pre-Hubby jumped from off the couch and starting spouting off wildly "We have to change the theme! I've got it! Rat Pack! We have to have a vintage rat pack wedding. I can wear a pin stripe suit, and we can play all Rat Pack music during the reception." I have never seen this man so excited about something like this. And with that, I couldn't say no! I knew it was a wonderful idea. I knew it was something that would really reflect us and would help make that one day even more special. We settled on the same turquoise color, but added black and silver. A Rat Pack wedding theme was born.

So there you have it! The process I went through to get to my wedding theme. I still intend to keep it classy and only have light touches of that Vintage Vegas feel. It helps that the Pre-Husband and I just spent 5 days in Vegas for a friends wedding! It helped me gather more ideas on how I could pull the whole event together. Did you have a wedding theme? Or did you just choose a color scheme? What process did you go through to get to the end result? I wanna hear from you!

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

How do you start planning a wedding on a tight budget??

Since getting engaged in March, most of my free time has been in relation to the BIG DAY! The ideas are all circling my head. Something I've dreamt about forever is finally going to become a reality!  What I thought would be a great time quickly turned into the worst version of 20(thousand) questions EVER! As I've posted previously, everyone wants to give their unsolicited advice. And everyone has questions for things I just can't answer yet. Whew, what a headache!

Once I got a handle on the fact that this is MY wedding, and the only people I need to make happy are me and the man I'm going to marry, I was able to move past the annoying questions and focus on what I've always wanted. But it's not that easy.

How do you plan a dream wedding on a very limited budget? The Pre-Husband and I will be paying for the wedding ourselves. And until recently, we were a 1 income household. This means that although we now have 2 incomes, we have a lot to catch up on financially before we can even begin to start paying for wedding stuff. With that in mind, in order to start our planning we had to break down the things that were most important so that we could begin somewhere.

First, I have always wanted to get married on the water, or near it. I pictured sand beaches, nice weather, lots of fun. This is the one item in my "if I had a dream wedding where money is no object" plan that I will not sacrifice for. This will mean we need to look for inexpensive venues near the water in Seattle. Do you see the problem? Seattle is a pricey city that rains more than it has sunny weather! We will have to be creative in our venue searches and find something that we can afford that meets the criteria that is the MOST important to me.

Second, we decided we wanted something small and intimate. We only want the closest of family and friends. And that meant cutting down a big large guest list to those people that truly mean the world to us. Our preliminary list was a bit overwhelming, and more than 2/3rds of it was for my side (I have lots of family!) In a perfect world, I would invite all my friends and every last cousin and family member. But I know that the more people I invite, the more room I will need, and the more food I will have to purchase. (I'm on a tight budget, remember!?)

The last thing, the date. I want an outdoor wedding. I'm a sunshine kind of girl! Hard to believe since I've lived in Washington my whole life (and still haven't run away to warmer climates - but that's a story for another time)!  However, we want a date that means something to us, and also one that we don't risk the chance of rain. Financially we know that we will have to wait until 2013 to get married - but from there, where do we go?! We're still deciding (but its a toss up between March and August)!

So, how did you start your wedding planning? Did you pick a site and go from there? Did you have a large budget or a strict one? What were/are the most important things for your big day? I want to hear from you!

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

Blog Revamp!

I told myself at the end of 2011 that I was going to begin blogging more. I have so many ideas in my head, and often times I have every intent to put them down in writing, but I always forget or time just slips away from me. Over the last couple of weeks, I've been talking with a friend about her own blog. It made me realize that I really haven't committed myself to blogging and we are already 1/3 of the way into the year!

So, I tried coming up with a new blog template. However after multiple attempts, I decided to keep the layout of my current blog with a couple of updates. To keep myself dedicated to my blog, I've come up with 3 topics that are important in my life, and thought I would share them with you all! Here is a little bit about each topic.

Savory Sunday - I love to cook. I have so much fun in my kitchen. Whether I'm making something from scratch  or following a recipe, I can whip up just about anything. And I don't just cook. Baking is what I TRULY enjoy. I love baking cakes, cookies, cupcakes and cake pops! I've taken some decorating classes and make yummy desserts for my friends, family, and co-workers. With that said, every Sunday I will make something new. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or even a fancy dessert! And I will share the recipe and process with all of you!

Wedding Wednesday - Did you know i'm getting married?! WELL I AM!! Back on March 3rd, the love my life proposed! It was the sweetest thing ever. And ever since, my head has been spinning! So much to think about and plan. Rather than try and tell everyone individual about the joys and troubles in my wedding planning process, I figure I'd spill it all here. Each week will feature another adventure in Wedding Planning! And it will BE an adventure.

Fitness Friday - I could stand to lose a few pounds. Well, a few times a LOT. I spent the last few months of 2011 beginning a weight loss plan. I lost almost 30lbs. Since then, I've been at a standstill. I have recently reevaluated my weight loss goals and started using an online, free website called Bodyrock.tv to help me drop these pounds. What better way to get Wedding Ready then by knocking down these pesky pounds and fitting into a beautiful dress!? Every Friday I will talk about my adventures in fitness. That will include diet info, exercise, and my weight-loss progress.

So there you have it! An update to the blog, and consistent writing! I want to share my life, because my life is one large adventure! I hope you enjoy, and don't forget to comment if there is something else you want to see!

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

All this planning is giving me a headache!

I feel like my head is going to explode! I've always wanted to actually PLAN my wedding. not just look at pretty things and cut out pictures of what I wanted, but actually get engaged and plan my wedding.

Now that I AM engaged, and planning my wedding, I just want to cry! So many things to think about - so many people with their opinions and advice - so many people will be offended by the date, the people included, the people invited... EVERYTHING!! Its just so much!!

Right now, I am having the hardest time finding a venue. If I find one I like, it either costs a lot or requires you to use their special caterer that charges a ton of money for practically nothing. If I find one that doesn't require a caterer, they are either booked, or super pricey just for their venue. and ones that I find that don't require a caterer and aren't pricey - book super fast or require a ridiculous down payment just to secure the place.

MY HEAD IS SPINNING!!!

On the plus side - I have decided on colors and a theme! Going with the Aqua/Turquoise color family and a vintage Vegas/Rat Pack themed wedding! Its going to look amazing!!

More details to come....

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly

I'm getting married!!

So, now that the news is out to all my friends and family - I can finally make a post of the most amazing day of my life (to date)! This last Saturday, March 3rd, the love of my life proposed!

Josh and I celebrated 3 years of being together this last Friday, March 2nd. Although we had plans to go out on Friday, we eventually decided to celebrate on Saturday so that we weren't fighting Friday traffic or crowds at the restaurants.

All dressed up for the night! (the flash hurt his eyes!)

So, Saturday came and we had a nice day. I went to Zumba, he played video games - it was a great day! That night, we went out for a nice dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory (DELICIOUS!!) and a then Josh planned a fun drive to Seattle. When we first got together, we used to take late night drives to different scenic sites around Seattle! It was a lot of fun and way for us to just get away, be somewhere quiet and just talk. I didn't know exactly where we were going until we got there, but Josh had driven us to Kerry Park. For those that don't know, Kerry Park has THE BEST view of Seattle, period, and is one of my favorite places to go! The Space Needle looks huge from the viewpoint. It is absolutely beautiful!

The view of Seattle from Kerry Park!

By the time we got there, it was already 9:30. It was super cold, and VERY windy! There were quite a lot of people there at first, but it started to get empty and quieter. That didn't last long, because eventually party buses filled with high school kids all decked out for prom showed up! I asked a couple times if we could get going, maybe go get some hot cocoa, because I was FREEZING!! Josh kept telling me not yet and to wait just a minute. I was starting to get irritated! This guy was making me freeze my butt off!!

Finally, he grabbed my hand and lead me down the little path on the far end of the park that lead to the old cobblestone street below. Its a secluded cul-de-sac with a small opening in the trees that frames the Space Needle, and NO ONE around! He told me to look behind me, and I turned to see the city view with all the buildings and the lights (SO pretty). When I turned around, he grabbed my hand and said "I've thought of 101 ways to do this. And I know you're supposed to have a speech or something prepared, but that's just not me." He got down on one knee and finally said "Holly, will you Marry me?" Of course I started crying and of course I said yes! My tears started to make him tear up, but he maintained his manly composure! :)

My beautiful engagement ring!

The ring is a family heirloom from his mom's side. It belonged to his Great Great Aunt, and then to his Great Grandmother. I'm so happy and excited, I don't even know what to say. We're not in a rush to have a wedding right away, but we do want to get married sometime next year!! I can't wait to share all the planning fun with my blogging family!!

That's it for today....

Peace and Good JuJu,
Holly