Up to Lately......

I have not posted in weeks! We have been beyond busy weekend activities.  We had a great Memorial Day weekend with some friends down in Pointe West in Galveston.  It's always a great time to rent a house, enjoy the pool, and feast for days! A few weeks ago we headed down to Fredericksburg to celebrate my sweet cousin Shelby's graduation...much fun! Then last weekend I had a great Junior League celebration lunch with my sweet friends from tea room slavery and on Saturday night we attended Erin and Cory's wedding....here are some pics (all stolen I might add because I am on a severe lack of picture taking kick......)

Tea Room Ladies!  15 Shifts! Wohooo we are done! :)

Theta Family at Erin and Cory's wedding! Wohooo! :)

Wedding Vendor Spotlight: Weddings by Debbie

Last week I got the call that my dress was in.  Part of me was so excited as I have thought about my dress quite a bit for the past six months.  Yes...it takes six months for a wedding dress to come in.  I had planned to lose about 10 lbs before my wedding....nothing earth shattering but just a general "tightening up" as I call it. So, being between sizes on the dress...I opted to order the smaller one.  I am so glad I did...... Thanks to The Dukan Diet (I'll tell you more about it later) I had lost about 8lbs prior to my fitting.  The dress fits like a glove. Not only is this great for my ego...but also my pocketbook. For anyone who has purchased a wedding dress knows that alterations are almost always upwards of $500 so I was so happy that my dress really needs nothing...and thanks to the 4 inch Manolo Blahnik's...yes...I will be "Married in Manolo's" that I don't even need a hem either.  Such amazing luck!
I wanted to also mention how any girl shopping for a wedding dress in Houston should really consider Weddings by Debbie. Back in December when I was dress shopping I went to four places....Winnie Couture, Priscilla of Boston, and Impressions Salon in Highland Village.  See...I was the girl that would find "The One" with every dress she tried on......I have often joked through this wedding planning process that I was "born with a veil on my head".  Each and every dress was perfect and I loved the experience of dress shopping. The Winnie Couture dresses were fabulous but a little too much like evening gowns.  Priscilla of Boston had far and away the BEST customer service....but while I was there...I learned that I did not want a gown with lace...which pretty much eliminates everything they have.  Impressions was oh so fabulous and I had a great time trying on the Jenny Lee, Ramona Kaveza, and Monique gowns....but in the end didn't know if I could justify spending THAT much money on a dress.  Weddings by Debbie was oh so perfect! They have a HUGE selection, let you take pictures (not sharing....:)), and have dresses that range in all price ranges.  My only complaint is the post-process has been a bit difficult.  They have special days and times on alternations.....as well as rules for coming and trying on your dress. I am excited to add the bustle and have it steamed for my bridal portraits in a couple of months!  Details...not sharing.... :)

Bachie Party Fun

Last weekend I was so excited to attend the super fun Bachelorette Weekend of Miss Jennifer Brown.  Jennifer and I go way back...well actually just to 2006.....I was so fortunate to have met Jennifer through Miss Elizabeth Bell after I graduated from Baylor.  I had just moved to Dallas and Jennifer was moving in next door to Elizabeth.  (They taught together in Richardson and had become fast friends).  The three of us shared several memorable experiences as friends...including....running from a drunk guy down Knox Henderson after St. Patty's Day, watching Grey's Anatomy and The Bachelor while making "themed" supper club dinners, utilizing all of my fabulous WFAA perks of free tickets and events...since we were both broke, and a super fun trip to San Francisco in the summer of 2007.  Here are a few pictures:

As you can see we have many wonderful memories together.  I am sad that I will have to miss her upcoming wedding but was THRILLED to be a part of her Bachie Weekend!  We began the weekend down in Galveston!  14 Girls stayed in one two bedroom/one bathroom beach house down on Galveston's West Side.  So fun!!  The weekend included a fun dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, Spending an entire Saturday on the beach, a hilarious lingerie shower and games including Pornagomi and "Advice" to the Bride, and an all around fun sleepover! Here are some more pics:

Congratulations to the Future Mrs. John Westbrook!  So excited to celebrate with you last weekend and cannot wait to see pictures of the wedding!  :)

San Antonio Weekend!

What a fabulous weekend we had celebrating Harrison's birthday and heading to San Antonio for Matt and Amber's wedding!  We had a great weekend with yummy food and great company with friends.  I must blog about a little stop we made home.....



Yes...this place is what I like to refer to as Mecca. Hello, fabulous!  Even Harrison was a little excited as we pulled into the shopping center.

First Stop...Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, and Crate and Barrel.  If you have been to our house in Houston you know that we furnished it with mostly Pottery Barn stuff.  Harrison and I both love the look of traditional with a little modern edge.  We furnished our house in stages as to avoid having to spend a ton of money at once. We love the quality of PB and feel as though it will last a long time.  Currently we have a list of things left to purchase...nothing too big....a bed for our master bedroom, some rugs, a buffet for my china, etc.  Lately we have been eyeing this rug for our enormous bedroom.  (We have a very long shaped bedroom that we have divided into a sitting area and sleeping area.)
 
We did not really want to pay the $150 for it but this was really what we liked best....We had talked about just biting the bullet and buying it.....

Oh we bought it all right...AT THE POTTERY BARN OUTLET!  For $35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And we were able to find it in chocolate brown to go with our newly monogrammed Restoration Hardware bedding! :)

I am so excited and the room is almost complete!  Unforunately, at Crate and Barrel we did not find the bed that we have been wanting...probably a good thing because we have no idea how we would have gotten it home.......
Here it is....

Fabulous, huh.....It's hard to tell in the picture but it has this great nail head trim.  I really love it! 

Another item to cross off our list....Our home stereo system!  One of the HUGE perks of our house was that it was already pre wired and set up with a completel home stereo system.  We have a huge surround sound set of Bose Speakers as well as speaker systems withing the ceiling in every room and out the pool as well. The previous owners left everything but the receiver system. The outlets in San Marcos had a Bose store and we were happy to pick up that last piece as well!  Now for the fun part of attempting to wire it together and blast the music!  One more thing off the list of stocking the house! 

Our next big item(s) are things for the walls.  If anyone has any ideas for art I would love to hear them! I don't want too many canvasses with pictures but some unique items like mirrors and decorative things as well.  I have a few project ideas that I will blog about soon. 

Finally, I am in huge need of silver frames.  ANYONE have any good ideas for those?  I am starting to collect them for our wedding pictures in five months......I think I want to do all silver for the display frames in the house and then do wood ones with mattes for the walls. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend Mother's Day! :) Have a great week!

Wedding DIY Project: Drink Straws!

For those of you who know me, know that I am a huge fan of DIY.  I think it's because growing up my father always painted the house himself, refinished furniture himself, and landscaped the yard himself.  I think it's been passed down to me...and while Harrison and I did attempt to paint the house ourselves.....the help of a professional really came in handy. I knew from surfing the Internet and reading Style Me Pretty (aka..the most addicting wedding blog around) that there were several DIY projects that I wanted to tackle.  Hopefully I can share all of them on here one by one starting with The Custom Drink Straws!  :) A while back I came across these pictures from a wedding blog. 

I thought this idea was so cute!  Harrison and I have not yet decided if we are going to do Open Beer, Wine, and Champagne for our wedding or if we are going to do a full open bar.  We have decided on a Signature Cocktail, regardless of what we choose.  Now...I am keeping the details of the "Signature Cocktail" a secret...but you will need a STRAW to drink it.....

Tip...Buy the extra long ones!  You will learn (if you choose to make this project) that you want enough room for people's lips and for it to stick out of the drink so you can attach your cute flag......

Oh My Paper Source.  PURE HEAVEN.  I could spend all day in that store and still be inspired to do cute craft projects.  They have THE BEST cardstock and pretty papers to make cute little signs....like this.....

Now the finished product will stay a bit of a secret....but you get the idea.   You just cut cute little squares or triangles to wrap around the straw and can attach anything fun! I liked how in the picture above they used the initial of the last name...super fun. 
Hopefully the straws and the cocktail will be a hit at the reception....we are still trying to think of a name to call it...however Ulbik and Tucker don't really mesh too well when combinging with "Rita" or "Hito" or "Tini"...common cocktail enders.  Hopefully we won't serve a drink at our wedding called the "Tuckbick Tini" and something more inspirational will come to us.

We'll see. :)

Another Vendor Spotlight: Bella Bridesmaids!

I am not sure about yall but one of the things I LOVE is amazing customer service.  I will tip 30% at a restaurant if they go above and beyond.  As an Advertising Account Executive I know how important personal interaction is first hand.  Which brings me to my next vendor spotlight...Bella Bridesmaids.  Sigh.  It is the best store ever. Hayley and Lindsay are so fabulous.  The store has a HUGE selection and a friend of mine put it best when she said it was the only place in town without a polyester section.  After doing quite a bit of internet research I knew that Lula Kate was the designer for my bridesmaids. I loved that she had such a wide variety of skirts, colors, fabrics and tops.  I am pretty sure I changed my mind at least five times on one of those things during the course of the planning.  I ended up picking five different styles (well, actually four....but none of them liked one of my choices) and let the five of them select which dress they liked best and which they felt flattered each of their styles.  They could select:

The Alex Dress

The Bridget Dress

The Meredith Dress

The Sophie Dress



The Christy Dress....my favorite! :)

I'll let you wait and see at the wedding which girl picked which one......After going back and forth on colors and looking at a ton of different shades of colors, I decided on a classic Navy Blue.  I think it will photograph well and provide a great backdrop for flowers of ANY color.  Which I am still changing my mind on daily.... :)

Engagement Pictures AND Wedding Vendor Spotlight!

So...one of the reasons for starting this blog was my desire to highlight ALL of my FABULOUS wedding vendors.  I will be keeping some things secret as I want some wedding surprises but really wanted a place to thank all the special people/companies.  First spotlight...Katie Norris Portrait Arts.  Oh. My. Fabulous. I remember a few months before we got engaged stumbling upon the KNPA blog.  I spent a good hour that night looking at all the posts before I realized that I wanted her as my wedding photographer. I think she was the first call that I made after we set the date because I know how fast good vendors fill up.  I did do my due diligence and compare other photographer's packages but in the end Katie was THE BEST.  I wanted a package that included engagement and bridal pictures but the most important part was that it included my wedding album.  Most other packages did not include an album and it was an additional...and exorbitant fee in some cases.  Secondly, Katie, like myself is a BAYLOR girl!  Which pretty much just sealed the deal.  I loved that she was flexible on coming to Houston for our engagements and for the wedding and did not have a long list of requirements.  It made things so much easier on me. The first week in March we had our engagement shoot and I could not be happier with the images. Here are a few favorites...there are more on her blog.

So this is probably our most favorite.  Since some of yall who have seen the pics have asked.....I am wearing a Kate Spade Vanilla "Josie" dress.  Harrison's Burberry tie was my Christmas gift to him last year to accompany all of his "lawyer" suits. :)

Our second favorite....in downtown Houston.  I am actually wearing a Lula Kate Dress from Bella Bridesmaids! :) Which will be my next vendor spotlight! (Side note...I realize that 99% of yall care less about what I am wearing....but I know that at least one person will email me and say "where did you get that dress..."...because I am often that one person that emails others and asks....I just thought I'd provide the information... ) :)

  This was the picture for our Save The Date! So fun!  I knew I wanted a cute concept with props and a cute way of displaying our date.  KNPA actually did the design and printing for the Save The Date's.  She was great about putting together multiple different concepts and then playing around.  Also...because I am neurotic I am really picky about all paper products (invitations, save the dates, programs, menus, etc.) all having a signature look or theme or some way to pull them all together. Katie was great about working with some of our designs that a graphic designer worked up for us and keeping it all together.  THE BEST was the presentation of the cards and the cards themselves.  They were shipped in the beautiful brown box with a white ribbon and the paper quality on the Save The Date's was amazing.  I addressed and mailed them all immediately. 

Last Picture for here!  I loved the lighting on these.  This was towards the end of the day in Memorial park.....A favorite as well.
Long story short....if you need an amazing photographer...who is also the sweetest person you will ever meet...Katie Norris is your girl! :) Call her!