Peaks, Pits, Praises, and Prayers

Its been a crazy time for the last month with all the getting married, honeymoon, and moving to a new town. We are definitely starting to get settled into the new house but things are still a little chaotic. I am so glad to finally be back in a normal schedule though and to be home. I am loving the married life and being home with my fur-babies right now. So now for my peaks, pits, praises, and prayers of the week.

Peaks- The rain has been SO nice this week, it has rained a little almost every day and we haven't had to water anything and its been really nice.

One of our gorgeous wedding photos! Our photographer and location were amazing!

Pits- The rain. Haha I know how does that make any sense with my peak. Well I haven't been able to get some of the things I really wanted to do done this week because of all the rain. But that's okay its been nice to just spend some time inside with my fur-babies.

Praises- That I have such an amazing husband who has been taking care of us and providing for us. I am so blessed to have such a great husband who is giving me the time to find a job that I really want.

Prayers- Jarr is taking a class this summer and has his first test tomorrow. That he passes and does well and doesn't stress himself out about everything.

What are your peaks, pits, praises, and prayers for the week?

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Wedding Wednesday Recap Part 2

If you missed the first edition of my Wedding Wednesday Recap you can find it here. Today I am sharing with you the second section of Wedding Wednesday posts. I'm going to be sharing my favorite part of each post and giving you a little more information about my wedding. To read all about my love story check out all about me and Jarr here.  Now on to the good stuff!

Week 7- Isle Decorations, this was so fun to look up and find ideas that I liked for our wedding ceremony. I didn't realize how complex some people make their isle decorations but it also made me really grateful that we are getting married outside in a gorgeous location. So little decorations are needed and that makes things a lot easier on us!

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This is by far my most favorite isle decorations. I love the combination of the flower petals and the variety of candles together. I would definitely be doing this if we were having our wedding at night time or when the sun was setting. 

Week 8- How About That Party, this was really interesting for me to look into and see how much people legitimately spend on wedding receptions.  We are planning on having a small reception after the wedding at a house one of our families is staying in so we aren't spending very much money on decorations and it's going to be very informal. These receptions are all really gorgeous though, they just are way out of our price range. 

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I really love the look of this reception with the lights hanging from the trees. I also like how it looks like all the centerpieces are small so you can actually see the people sitting across from you. This is by far my favorite reception that I found. 

Week 9- A Little Party Never Killed Nobody, like I said above we are having a small reception after the wedding and it will be at a house we are renting. So we are doing finger foods and sandwiches with our wedding cupcakes. We aren't spending a lot of money on food and our families are helping us make everything so it's going to save us a ton of money which is really nice. These all look like great ideas though and I think you could find affordable options.

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I like the idea of having food platters set out for everyone to eat buffet style. This is what we will be doing and it seems like it will be the easiest option in our informal setting. I think that you can still have good food and a good time on a budget and that's what we are set out to do! 

Week 10- Let the Games Begin, since we are having an informal reception we aren't having dancing. So we have decided to make some different games for people to play and to entertain everyone. We thought this would be fun for everyone. 

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I really love the idea of this giant Jenga game. I think this would be so much for to play and I'm trying to talk Jarr into making one for the wedding. Hopefully it will work! 

Week 11- Can I Get Your Autograph? I really didn't want to go with a traditional wedding book after seeing all of the cool ideas on pinterest and the blogosphere. So I had a lot of fun looking up different ideas for this post and really got some good inspiration. 

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I really love the idea of having your guest sign a globe where they think you should travel too. I would love to have people do this and then try to actually travel to all of those places. I don't know if Jarr would be up for this, he doesn't like to travel. But I'm sure I could talk him into going with me! 

  

Week 12- Eat, Drink, and Be Married, this was a really fun thing for me to look up because we are wanting to have some fun drinks at our reception. This was a great way to get some good recipes and see how other people have displayed things. I really like the way all of these are set up and I'm looking forward to using this inspiration. 

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I like the idea of having a variety of drinks for people. Some adult beverages thrown in and plenty of fun for everyone! I also love that these drinks all have labels so people know what they are. This is a must for me at any party. 

What was your favorite Wedding Wednesday post or the most helpful?

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Wedding Wednesday Recap Part 1

It is Wedding Week on the blog because I'm getting married this week! Make sure you find out all about our love story here and keep up with all the projects that I have done so far for the wedding. Today I am going to share a recap of every Wedding Wednesday and my favorite design every week.

Week 1- Bouquets in a Pinterest World was perfect while I was trying to decide on what flowers and colors I wanted to use for my own wedding bouquets. I had some ideas going in to it but I really decided what to do with my flowers after this post. To find out exactly how I did my flowers check out making your own wedding bouquet for my tutorial.

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These were by far my favorite bouquet in my post. I really love how there is blue in the flowers and of course since my flowers are blue with my wedding colors this really inspired me to make my bouquet with some blue in it. 

Week 2- The Dress, this post I wanted to help out any future brides with the mess of dress shopping. It can definitely be a disaster and take on a life of its own. After my dress shopping experience I thought of Carrie in Sex and The City and how she said that the dress takes on a life of its own in her wedding to Big. I think that can definitely be the case sometimes but you have to go into it knowing that you might get upset and frustrated.

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I really love this dress. When I first went wedding dress shopping I did not want a ball gown. They are huge and poofy and I didn't want one. But I really like how elegant this dress is. It's also very simple and because its not taffeta it is my favorite kind of ball gown. 

Week 3- Choosing Colors, one of the most difficult choices I think during wedding planning can be picking your colors. Once you decide on them their is no turning back if you have started purchasing things. I think that their are some amazing color combinations out there and some really hideous ones. So I follow the theory if you would decorate your home or a room with those colors together then they work together. 

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I really love these colors together, I think they work really well and this is such a neat combination that most people don't think of. I really like this and hope I go to a wedding soon that uses it. 

Week 4- Location of Love, when you are deciding on a venue their are many things you have to take into consideration. I say, pick the one you fall in love with and then make everything else work. Now this isn't always practical but you only get married once right. 

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I really love how this location has the lights, the flowers, and the trees. This is a great outside venue and I'm sure their are amazing pictures from this wedding. I would really love to see them because I'm sure they are gorgeous. 

Week 5- Favors vs No Favors, this post was really important to me and helped me make some decisions about what kind of wedding favors we were going to give out. I definitely got inspiration from these ideas and I love how unique each one is. We are firm believers in wedding favors and I really enjoyed making ours for our guests. 

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I really love the idea of giving out sun glasses especially for a summer outside wedding. It can get hot and be bright so this is a great idea. You can also get them personalized with your wedding information on them and that would be a great keep sake for people! 

Week 6- Having Our Cake and Eating It Too, picking out wedding cakes was a really fun thing for me and Jarr. We went to a few different places and did tastings which is a blast if the cake is good and really terrible if it isn't. We had both experiences but we are so glad we did it so we could get exactly what we wanted.

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I really love the idea of doing something different then a traditional wedding cake which is why we decided to go with something different. We are really happy with our choice and I'm sure it will be delicious! 

This is part 1 of our Wedding Wednesday recap. Which is your favorite post so far?

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WW- Eat, Drink, and Be Married

It's the last week of Wedding Wednesday!!! To catch up on all the other Wedding Wednesday posts you can go to this page. Or you can visit them like this, week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, week 6, week 7, week 8, week 9, week 10, and week 11. I hope that you have enjoyed all the wedding Wednesday inspiration and that it has helped with you wedding planning.

This week I am talking about a big part of your wedding. The drinks, this can be something that you spend a lot of money on or something that isn't very expensive at all. It all depends on the alcohol and if you decide to serve adult beverages or not. So today I am sharing with you a few different options, a few are adult beverages and some are just different drinks.

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I love the way this drink station is set up. I think it looks really cool and the different heights adds to it. I also like how every drink has some kind of fruit or mint leaves floating in it. This adds so much to the drinks and just makes them look really neat. I also like how they have used stones to write the drink type on. I think this is a must, you have to have your drinks labeled! 

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This drink looks so pretty and it sound delicious! I really like how they added the lime slice to the glass, that definitely adds a nice touch when you are serving guests.  This is something that could be done to adult or regular beverages and I think everyone would enjoy. 

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This drink looks YUMMY! I love kiwi so I was very excited when I saw this drink. This is a watermelon kiwi drink and it looks so good. I really like how you can see all the fruit in the pitcher and it looks like they much have some sliced up for you to put in your drink. That would be a great touch for a party! A bowl of sliced fruit to add to your tea or punch is always nice. 

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I love that these drink pitchers are all sitting on a stump. I think that is such a clever idea! I also really like the hanging chalkboard signs. This is a great idea for a big party and would make things super easy to display if you have enough pitchers and stumps! I also think it is so smart to have those little clothes under the spout of the glasses. This always seems to cause some form of mess so that is such a smart idea!

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This looks delicious and I love that they put all of the lemons in the top of the pitcher. My only concern about this is little hands and fingers grabbing lemons out of the top. In my family that would definitely be a problem.  I also really like the straws in the background. The recipe for this drink looks super simple and I think anyone could make it. 

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I really love the way this drink table is displayed. If I could snatch that stand I would in a heart beat! This is such a unique way to serve drinks and it works perfect in an outdoor setting. Once again I love the fruit in the drinks and I think these all look really yummy! I also like how the pitchers are positions right at the edge of the table so any dripping will just soak up in the ground.


What kind of drink displays do you like to have?

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WW- Can I Get Your Autograph?

Its that time again! Another edition of Wedding Wednesday is here, this week I'm going to talk about something that has become super fun. To catch up on all the previous Wedding Wednesday's go here and find out about every week! I really love all of the new ideas for wedding guest books and I think that this is a great way to get something you can use in your house for home decor or that you can keep for years that isn't just a book with people's names in it. So today I'm going to share with  you some of my most favorite guest book ideas.

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My sister did this and I really loved it when she did. I love the idea of making a book with your engagement pictures and having your guest write you notes as your guest book. The only problem with this is if you have a wedding with 200+ guests this could take a long time for people coming in to the wedding. 

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I really LOVE the idea of using a globe as a guest book. You can have your guest pick a place they want you to travel and sign there. I would try to make this part of my bucket list and visit those places if this was my guest book. 

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This sign is such a cool idea. I really like how they have put the heart with love in it, you could also do your initials or last name. The only thing I would do differently is have my guest sign with a color different from the heart. I think doing two colors would look really cool. 

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I have never seen this at a wedding but I really like the idea of using your wedding date with fun pictures. This is such a unique idea and would look great in your house after the wedding. Plus reading all of the nice messages for years to come would be really nice. 

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This is a super unique idea and could be displayed just about anywhere in your home. I like how they have bigger hearts with the couples names in the middle and then you can write a message or your name on the hearts the guest sign. I think this is super cute and different. 

Which guest book idea is your favorite?

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How to Make Boutonniere's

A few weeks ago I shared how to Make Your Own Wedding Bouquet so today I am going to share how I also made my own Boutonniere's for the groomsmen.  Now I'm going to share the easy slightly redneck way that I made these flowers and you are going to be like well that was simple anyone could do that. Well that's the truth, these are super easy and anyone can do it.

The first thing I did was decide what colors I wanted my flowers to be. Our wedding colors are blue and a pale yellow so I bought a bunch/bushel of blue and pale yellow hydrangeas. Then I picked off the bunches and cut them in half. I didn't want these to be very big but that is a personal preference.

After I did this with the blue and yellow I played around with the arrangements until I figured out exactly how I wanted them to be. Then I did exactly the same thing as my bouquets. I duck taped them together. I wrapped it around the stem and made sure not to go to high so the flowers could move around some. 

After the duck tape I took glue dots and ribbon and wrapped the ribbon around the parts that were duck taped. After making one I decided that I wanted the base part to be a little thicker so I just did a few layers of duck tape under the ribbon to add some thickness. The ribbon I used is exactly the same as the ribbon on the bridesmaid bouquets its just the thinner version. I wanted them to look slightly uniformed. 

See the one on the right, its a little thicker and I liked that better. This was SUPER easy, I'm not kidding it took me like 15 minutes after I figured out how I wanted my flowers arranged to make all of them. 

I have found a slight problem with these though. You have to be careful where you pin the boutonniere through the base. If you go in the middle or too low then the pin will get stuck. It can't make it through the duck tape. But as long as you pin them at the top then you are golden. 

Here is all of my boutonniere's for the wedding! We are only doing them for the groomsmen, we decided against making them for our parents and grandparents. This made things super simple and fast. 

Do you think you could make your own wedding flowers? 

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Home Stories A to Z 
Coastal Charm 

Writing Thank You Cards

Something I have come to appreciate during this wedding adventure is a nice thank you card. I believe that when you get a gift you should always hand write thank you cards to the person who gave you the gift. This is common courtesy and I think that even with the sometimes hundreds of gifts you might get during a wedding you should still write everyone a thank you card.

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So today I'm going to share with you a few tips that I learned while writing our thank you cards for all the gifts we received. Some of these can be used for writing any thank you card and some of these are just things I think make it more personal.

1. Try to have all of your thank you cards mailed two weeks after the event. We wrote all of our thank you cards the day after each of our wedding showers. This made it easy to remember what everyone got us and to make the cards more personal.

2. Always mention the gift you received. If it was money we said, "thank you so much for the card and gift" this lets them know that you did receive what they gave you. It also lets people know you looked at all of your gifts.

3. Try to mention how you will use your gift. With cookware I said, "I couldn't wait to use it in our kitchen." I also said about money, "that it will help with all the expenses of moving/the wedding/the honeymoon."

4. Make sure you spell everyone's names correctly, there is nothing worse then getting  a thank you card and having your name spelled wrong.

5. Buy a box of thank you cards at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. This saved me a TON of time, I got 2 boxes of 50 blank cards and the extra's I can use for other things later.

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6. If you get a gift from a family, this happened a lot with us. We sent one thank you card to the matriarch of the family. So the parents got the card and we addressed it to the Smith Family. This may not be the  most correct way to do things but it was the simplest especially when we didn't have addresses for everyone.

7. Make sure you express your gratitude but try not to be repetitive. I know this is really hard but I tried to mix up what I said in the cards.

Example: Thank you so much for the crockpot. We really appreciate the gift and look forward to using it in our kitchen making meals together. Thank you so much for the support.


How do you write thank you cards? Do you have a special trick?

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Home Stories A to Z
Coastal Charm 

WW- Let the Games Begin

Last week on Wedding Wednesday we talked about the party and how you are going to feed or not feed your guest at the reception. To catch up on all the previous Wedding Wednesday's you can read them here. One thing we also talked about was dancing at your reception and how this can be a major expense. So today I'm going to share with you a few different games that could also be available at your reception for people who don't like to dance or as an alternative all together to dancing. 

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As it's known in the south, Corn Hole is a very popular game and like the above boards show you could easily customize these for your big day. This is a fun game that many people can play and you can really enjoy it while hanging out with friends. 

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Most of us remember this game from our childhoods. It is stressful and takes critical thinking, but it is also a lot of fun to play and looks super easy to make on your own. You could easily customize this to your wedding colors and have this match the theme of your wedding.

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The ring toss is an American favorite. It is something that we have all tried at a fair or carnival and tried to win a goldfish. This would also be very easy to customize in your wedding colors and also to make a bigger version then the one above. This would be fun to set up and see if people could make a little competition of who can get the most rings on a bottle. 

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Another American classic is the ball toss. This could very easily be set up and would make for an interesting challenge for people of all ages. You could also make this customized by putting different colors, your monograms, or anything that might fit with your theme on the cans. 

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Giant Jenga is something that my family already does together when we have the opportunity. You could also write funny things to do on each Jenga piece. So whoever pulls out that piece has to do whatever it says on the piece. These could be funny challenges like do the chicken dance, or walk and quack like a duck for 30 seconds.

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And last but not least something for people of all ages. This checkers board could be set up anywhere and would be a fun game for anyone to play. This board/blanket I believe is available on Amazon and you could make the checkers out of plates and paint them your two wedding colors to follow along with the theme you have. 

Will you have games at your wedding reception? Which one is your favorite? 

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Serenity Now
Coastal Charm 

Wedding Wednesday- A Little Party Never Killed Nobody

As we learned in the Great Gatsby, "there are all kinds of love in this world but never the same kinds of love twice- F. Scott Fitzgerald." So to follow the theme of Gatsby (who I might have a slight obsession with), this week we are going to talk about the party that follows the wedding. What kind of reception are you thinking about having? Will you have food, wine, dancing, and a party for all to attend? This is a tall order of things for anyone on a tight budget, so this week lets talk about the different kinds of wedding receptions.

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I think the first step in deciding what kind of reception you want to have is deciding how many people you will inviting to your wedding. If you have a guest list of 300+ people and a  budget of $3,000 you are going to struggle to have a big reception with dancing, drinking, and a full menu of food. So to narrow down your options you need to look at your guest list and your budget. There are a lot of things you can do to make your budget stretch but you have to be willing to compromise on things. 

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A dessert or candy reception as I like to call them will only serve, that's right dessert or candy. This is good for afternoon weddings as well as people who have a tight budget and would rather spend the majority of the cost on the venue or photographer. At a dessert or candy wedding I have traditionally seen cake, a candy bar/buffet, and maybe a s'mores bar like the one pictured above. This is ideal for a large wedding that would like to keep the budget low. 

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Another option for a wedding is to only have hors d'oeuvres and dessert. This gives you the ability to have small snakes for people so they don't starve to death but it also saves you from serving a full meal. Sometimes this can be a problem though as people will stuff themselves with hors d'oeuvres and there will be a shortage. So this is a tricky situation that you much maneuver carefully. This could also save you money from not serving a full meal but you must be careful with your number of guest as well. 

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To dance or not to dance, that is the question. I personally think this comes down to the couple and how they feel about dancing. If your groom hates dancing then you might not want to make them dance at your wedding. That seems a little rude, but I ultimately think this should come do to each couple and what they think is best for them. 

Generally, dancing is accompanied with a full meal and dessert at a wedding. But if you play your cards right you could just have hors d'oeuvres and dessert. This is something that is expensive though, you might pay for a DJ or a band and either put down a dance floor or section off part of your reception hall for the dance floor. 

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Another option is to have a full buffet or plated dinner. This is the most expensive option but if you have decided to feed the people there are budget friendly options. If you really want to have a full meal for your guest you could feed them buffet style which is usually cheaper then a plated option. Also you can make a lot of food yourself or have it catered by a less expensive restaurant. The hardest part is figuring out what option works best for you and won't make you go over budget.

What kind of party are you throwing?

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