a beach down in Mexico

We got our honeymoon in before our first anniversary!  It was a little tricky to plan since we had to move some pre-scheduled vacation time around but once we got the okay we booked a little getaway down to Cancun.  We spent 5 days there at a beautiful new resort and took in lots of sand and sun.  Love that it was just over a 2 hour flight from DFW so we weren't spending too much precious time traveling.

Oh, I miss the ocean more than I thought.  Even if I'm not IN the water, I really like being by it.

 Trashy beach reads + all day daiquiris = perfection

 A little adventure day out zip lining, cave exploring and on the ATVs

My apartment pool could not compare to the one at the resort.  I may need a pool boy/bartender here, hmmm.....

Mr & Mrs ...

We've got our wedding photos back from our awesome photographer Morgan about a month ago and thought I'd share some details from the day.

Chad was superman getting those chairs set up, busting out string to help get them lined up perfect! Glad it wasn't me :) Fresh Designs did our flowers, which were more beautiful that I even expected them to be. I made my hair pieces and earrings. I'd tried to make my own bracelet with spoon handles, but found one on Etsy that I fell in love with. Chad's aunt and uncle's backyard was the ideal place to have the ceremony. Their garden served as the perfect backdrop with all the trees and flowers they'd taken such care of over the summer in preparation for our wedding.

While Chad set up the ceremony I set up the reception space. It was in the ballroom upstairs at The Baxter Hotel in downtown Bozeman. It'd recently been renovated and had air conditioning put in -- which was a huge life saver as it was 80 that day in Bozeman! The staff there worked with us to make delicious huckleberry/strawberry lemonade drinks that were served to guests as they arrived. And Chef Sarah Knecht and her team had an array of mouth watering appetizers through the evening. She made our cake too, which was fantastic!

My mom and grandma had some time before the wedding and got our favors put together. We did magnets in our wedding colors (colored paper + flat sided marbles + modge podge + magnets). They packaged them up and got some activity bags ready for our littlest guests to keep them entertained. Rather than a traditional guest book we opted to customize a couple of Jenga sets so we can look back at it all whenever we play.

Chad and I chose to do all our photos before the wedding so we weren't held up getting to the reception to our guests there waiting. I was having a hard time coming up with something to use as a backdrop for the ceremony but saw something similar to this on Pinterest and knew that fit just right for how simple the ceremony would be. So glad we had a friend in Bozeman with some connections for finding a door to refinish (we actually ended up with a newer but kind of damaged door) for the look I wanted. My bridesmaid Kelly came to town early and she and I painted/sanded away and groomsman Luca helped with stapling all the flowers to it. It was a fun place to have our "first look" before getting to the rest of the photos.

To spare you all the ceremony photos -- like I said, it was pretty simple -- Dad walked me down the aisle, there was a reading/prayer/vows/rings/kiss and then back down the aisle with Chad!

Our wedding party was the best! We had such a great long weekend getting to catch up with everyone at last night out parties/rehearsal dinner/getting ready for the wedding and reception. So lucky to know such awesome people!

And we get to do it all again as guests again next year for Lance (Chad's brother) and Pam's wedding in September in Montana and our friends Justin and Emily in Texas!!

HITCHED!!

We had a beautiful week in Montana and the most perfect weather for our wedding August 13th in Bozeman. I'll post more about the wedding later, but that's why I've been MIA. Just got back to town and getting back into some kind of routine before we move into a bigger apartment in a couple weeks : ) Hope to post a little bit before all that happens. Until then, a picture from our ceremony and a picture of us the day after after a super relaxing float on the Madison River.

48 DAYS ....

Okay .... it's time to start getting some stuff done! We've been checking on RSVPs, narrowing down song selections, finding Chad's ring, etc -- putting together all the last details we can here.

What I had in mind for my hair has finally materialized and I'm so happy to have that done, as well as making myself some earrings. I've got a bracelet idea in mind as well but it's gonna require some more tinkering. There's a couple different pieces I made to put in my hair and then made some smaller ones for any of the bridesmaids that want them.


So ready for this day to be here, to be in Montana, to see family and friends, to put complete trust in all the vendors we're working with to create our vision and enjoy the day with Chad!

ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS

We finally got to see some of our engagement pictures and they are amazing!! We got to work with a super fun photographer, Morgan, who I knew before we even were engaged I wanted to have do the photos. To see a couple more from the perfect evening we got in Montana click on the picture above. To check out more of Morgan's stuff click on her logo!

CAKE ON THE BRAIN

Back in Fort Worth after a trip to Montana for Easter/wedding planning/catching up with friends and to Indiana for my brother's graduation. Both were a lot of fun and the perfect little break after being in Texas for nearly 8 months!

We got a lot of stuff done for the wedding. It was super great to meet with everyone helping put together our big day. And we had a perfect evening for our engagement photos after having to postpone to windy and gloomy weather earlier in the week. Can't wait to share a few of those here ...

So far we've not put a lot of thought into our cake. The chef we hired for the reception asked about it and we threw out a few ideas. Very excited she's willing to do the cake as well, as that cuts down on the running around we'll have to do or worrying about another vendor. We decided on a few other things, but lately I've been looking at lots of pictures to get an idea of how it should look.

Here's a few of what I'm liking right now and have a few others in mind too. We'll see in about 3 months what the final design is!

JUMPING UP AND DOWN ON THE INSIDE

Most of you know that I'm a "selective" eater (very picky!)-- but I am so so excited about planning the food for our wedding. Talked with someone tonight about preparing an amazing menu and feel so much relief to have found her! It's taking all that I have to not wake Chad up to start coming up with ideas to give her so she can brainstorm from there. Seriously elated!

WEDDING INSPIRATION: HAIR PIECES

A little Etsy inspiration for my wedding hair piece. I have started collecting little things (buttons, different clips, netting, etc) to start playing around with. Thinking about doing smaller ones for the wedding party, like the little purple and blue ones (but in yellow or a gray). We'll see how it all comes together!

WEDDING: INSPIRATION BOARD

I've known for quite awhile what I wanted for wedding colors - citrus and slate - and have been keeping clippings of anything I've come across for ideas. Although there's 300+ days until our wedding I have quite a bit planned already (layout, centerpieces, bridesmaids dresses, plus some!). So . . . here's a little sneak peek, some of actual things I've picked out and a few other inspiration ideas : )

PS -- the big day is set for August 13, 2011 in Montana!

BIG NEWS #2: WE'RE ENGAGED!

Along with all this moving to Texas stuff I've been waiting for an engagement ring. Chad and I have been together for 4 years. Last summer I started nagging that I'm a little more than over with waiting any longer and when talk of moving came up the beginning of this summer told him I would not be going anywhere with him until he proposed.

We've had a summer busy summer and plenty of opportunity for him to ask, but he's a perfectionist when it comes to planning and nothing seemed quite right to him. After we'd decided on moving he starting planning that on the night before we left he would have everyone over at my grandparents for one last little goodbye party and that in front of everyone he would propose. He didn't tell anyone this was the plan, and for various reasons, no one was really able to make it on the night of. We still had things to do that night and I was pushing to get out the door, so before we left, he said he couldn't wait any longer to ask, got down on his knee and pulled out a little white ring box. And after the week we'd just had with packing and loading our Uhaul and everything else I pretty much cried through the whole thing. I said yes ; )

There isn't a date set yet. There's plenty of ideas in my head. Once things seem a little more settled with things in Fort Worth I can imagine how much time I'll be thinking of our big day.