Bridesmaid Dresses

The wedding is just over 3 months away and I realized...I don't really blog too much about the details of the wedding, but I definately want to remember them. So lets just act like I just got engaged and am making super quick decisions about everything. Here is how I decided about the bridesmaids dresses...

Originally I was all about gold . Not just any gold though I wanted a gold dress that was vintage looking. I told each of the bridesmaids they could pick any dress they wanted just had to be this vintage gold color. Here was my inspiration. Ms. Cameron Diaz:

Or maybe something like this dress...

Well we looked for the first couple of months and found it was extremely hard to find a dress for everyone that was

A. Vintage Gold

 B. In their size

 and C. Not really expensive.

I was given many suggestions...

-Change the color

-Make them wear the same dress

-Find a gold color at a bridal store and let them pick their dress in any style.

All great ideas, but not what I had in mind. I really wanted something different for my wedding. Not the typical bridesmaid dresses. So I kept looking. We went from gold to a more tannish color.

Inspiration : from Green Wedding Shoes

How gorgeous is that?

We found many dresses in that category... but the biggest problem was that the cream colors were getting to be too close to the color of my dress and at the time I was worried about how that would look. I wasn't worried about sticking out just wanted the colors to pop more. Sooo everyday, my best friend and I would gchat back and forth with links to dresses that we found online. ALL DAY!

We started coming across taupe colors. We actually found the cutest dress for $88 dollars from Ann Taylor, but we waited a couple of days and all the sizes were gone! I was so upset! I thought finnally it was over! But, it was not.

My favorite store - Anthropologie had some really cute dresses, but the one that I really like didn't come in any color close to the ones that I liked. It was black and had ruffles. I thought it would have been perfect for the wedding if only it came in Taupe. Taupe had become my new favorite obsession.

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!

Not a week later Anthro added a taupe color for that dress. It was divine, meant to be, heaven-sent.

We ordered them all within the next couple of days. I am so in love with this dress!!

I am doing very neutral colors for the wedding with accents of green and Lavendar so I think that the colors off the bouquet will really stand out with the dresses. I can't wait to see how it turns out!!

Cakes, cakes, cakes

Because we were shopping around for a wedding cake, I decided to try my skills at a homemade yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting....Martha, you failed me again!

So the actual cake itself turned out ok, but can you tell from the shiny glow how buttery that icing is? The recipe, from Martha's blue cooking book, called for 5 and a half sticks of butter with only 6 ounces of chocolate! Being the beginner that I am I didn't second guess how much that was. I mean after all it was called buttercream icing and I couldn't really remember if I had tried that kind of icing before. Yuck!!

I might try one more recipe from her book and then pass it on to someone else for better luck. Does she really have so many people test the recipes before she prints them? I can hardly agree with that.

See ya later butter cake.... you were disgusting!

My fiance' took me out for a special dinner one night last week. There was no special occasion. He just called me at work and said we had reservations at seven.

To thank him, I made a yummy peach cobbler...

The peaches were perfect!

But, he said it was too much like cake and not enough like cobbler? I don't really get that; I thought it was great.

I made it for my brother and his wife over the weekend and my brother said it was the best he ever had. :-)

The first attempt was a little cakey...but it was good!

How do you like your cobbler? More like cake or more like pie?

Vintage Finds

I've been stocking etsy for all things vintage since I can never seem to make it to a vintage or antique store when they are open. Anyhow I ran into the most adorable store on Etsy and here is what I found for my wedding!

I plan on using the train case at the top for on our gift table for the cards. I am going to decorate it with other vintage items such as the sheet music and the antique school books. I also found some neutral colored silk threads on old wooden spools and a vintage spool holder on ebay. I am having so much fun looking for the vintage decor we are going to use for our wedding! Let me know if you find something fabulous too!

60th Birthday Celebration

This past weekend all of my family drove to Gatlinburg from 4 different states to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. My mom rented a house in the mountains and it was gorgeous!

The ride to Gatlinburg was also extremely beautiful. The roads were extremely curvy and almost made me wanna throw up, but we made it there right before the sun set. My brother fell asleep, but his son was a soldier. He made it the whole way without a nap to see Grandma and Grandpa.

Our first day in Gatlinburg my dad said he wanted to go to Dollywood so we made the short drive and stood in a very short line to get tickets. My parents bought the tickets (Thanks again!) and while doing so met a Dolly fan who thought my mom was Reba and wanted to stand as close to her as she could...

She was a cute Dolly impersonator... shape ups and all.

I had so much fun on all of the rides! I can honestly say this was instantly one of my favorite amusement parks. I was pretty skeptical since it was Dolly Parton's park. I really didn't know what to expect. However, the rides were quality, the food was inexpensive and delicious, and the employees were very helpful and friendly. I would definitely suggest everyone go there at least once.

Unfortunately it rained throughout the day so we spent a lot of the day under covered picnic areas. My niece was pretty upset that she was too short to ride one of the rides and she didn't get over it for a world record 2 hours. That's a long time for a 5 year old!

Her uncle tried to block her from the paparazzi that emerged when we all noticed her cute pouty face. Poor thing she was mad! Next year Laura Dora, just gotta grow a couple more inches.

The little ones were very tired so we decided to take a rain check.

We came home to a gorgeous view of the Smokies and a rainbow. Breathtaking...

The next morning we decided to shop the city. I was sort of disappointed. It was so touristy and every 5th store was selling the same thing. There most have been 14 fudge shops, 12 old time photo shops, and gift shops galore. We did get to stop by a sky lift and ride up the side of a beautiful mountain. Absolutely worth the 12.50 per person that I thought was craziness.

There was so much to see up there. I was shocked with views. I think I'm so entertained by the mountains because I have lived in Florida most of my life and haven't spent a lot of time around other terrain. 

My fiance' has practically seen the world, but he too enjoyed the views at the top. 

Our little nephew enjoyed other things at the top...

So cute! The little man had a root beer and drank every drop!

Our other cute nephew did a little dance on the umbrella pole. 

We took one more amazing picture of the view and then we road back down.

We had an unforgettable trip in Tennessee - one of my favorites.

Goodnight all!

Smargasbord

Because I've been a busy bride I figured I would do a post that encompasses my last two weeks....

Mr. Incredible got me some gorgeous lillies. He knew I was looking for blue flowers for the wedding and so he brought these home. I will not be using them in the wedding, but I did love them as my centerpiece for a week.

We saw Strausburg the "phenom" pitch against the Braves. Shane got to see what it feels like to sit in the crowd with the fans. He was pretty upset by the time we left, he's very ancy being injured.

 We had "family dinner" with everyone at Ru San's in Buckhead. We welcomed a new member - Jay who provided most of the nights entertainment with his jokes. The rolls were so big you could barely fit them in your mouth - as demonstrated above. I thought the sushi was pretty good. Not my favorite, but certainly better than most places. 

We went to the Lake House where we got engaged and enjoyed spending time with my fiance's parents. 

The weather was mostly overcast all weekend, but we did get to go fishing once while were were there. 

We rescued a turtle who had so much algea on his shell that he couldn't swim. He was also hit by a boat so there was air getting under his shell and we think it was making him float. We took all the algea off and he was able to swim right under. Hopefully he goes on to live a long happy turtle life. :-)

After a long day we caught one nasty mud fish and thankfully it jumped and unhooked itself so we didn't have to touch it. We were fishing for crappie and bass, but we picked up a bottom feeder. Better luck next time I guess. 

It's been a great couple of weeks. Looking forward to another great couple of summer months!