Artichoke Love!

Whew! I'm back. I've been out of ton visiting with my grandpa and have had a lot of fun. Of course, being in a little Southern town can be very frustrating seeing as internet/wi-fi is not existent in his little town!

Anyway, I figured I'd give you all something to drool at (found here via projectwedding).

All I have to say is WOW! You know, I love to look at bouquets, and I find myself particularly drawn to ones with a textured look. Sure, a bunch of roses are great, but give me something a little different and I'm happy. I love when bouquets have berries, fruit, twigs, or anything a little unique to build that texture.

So speaking of unique - here's a bouquet with artichokes! It's amazing, it's different, it's fantastic! Enjoy! (I know right - Artichokes! It's so cool.) I would love to know what that leafy green stuff is, to the left of the artichoke. Anybody know?

Bad Day Blues

So it's been a rough couple of days lately. Calling Mr.TB and leaving him some whiny/crying voice mail helped a little bit. It also helped when he called and told me he'd help and try to fix some things for me. It's hard living and hour & a half away from each other when we used to live together. It's reassuring though, knowing that on the worst of days, talking to TB helps me lift my spirits some. I know he's always there for me.

And although the future Mister does his best to make me feel better, I also had to take it into my hands. . . So I did this and this:

Although, I've been trying hard not to spend $ moola $ due to this lame unemployment, sometimes a little self indulgence is totally necessary. And there was a special today so I paid $39 including tip. And, as much as I need cash because I am making none, it lifted the black cloud following me around so I definitely think it was worth the money.

And, on top of everything, my toe nails & finger nail are now a pleasant apple green (opi's "apple frozentini to be specific"). Very summery, in my mind :).

Keep you spirits up everyone.

H & D's Wedding and What We Learned

Bridesmaid LS [Mr.TB's freshman year of college RA & a high school friend of mine - small world], myself with a ridiculous headband/flower, and a beautiful bride HH [my freshman yr RA, a floor above LS & Mr.TB]

So, on May 24th, good friends of Mr.TB & myself got married! DD and HH (how weird is it that they both have double initials) tied the knot in their home town (only 15 minutes away!) and it was gorgeous! It was super exiting because HH & DD were the first in any of our group of friends to get married! A day after they got engaged, they came down to visit TB & I down at our University for a weekend (and cooked us dinner, DD is talented). Awesome. Either way, I feel like I'd been waiting for them to get married FORever! They're so in love and its always great to see people have happily ever afters!

They even let me design their invites! Which was very fun and exciting! It was nice to hear complements from guests :).

Not HH & DD's invites, but a runner up. See [more] for yourself at www.colorcoated.etsy.com. Don't worry, HH's design isn't for sale :). They're super custom, eh?

Believe it or not, Mr. TB had never been to a wedding before! In the [almost] four years together I'd never seen him dance. It's true! He has even said that "he doesn't dance", but everyone dances at their friend's wedding! Long story short: he dances, we danced, we're in love, other weddings make us think about our wedding and it's the best feeling ever.

But, more importantly, (especially now that TB has wedding experience) we did "work" too. We made sure to make notes about their [amazing] day to remember for our big day.

1) Tea - Many weddings have a coffee station available, especially during dessert. HH & DD had the coffee and they had a thing of hot water along with a small basket of all kinds of different tea bags. It was great! Especially for people like TB & I who don't drink coffee, the tea was a nice treat!

2) Music - HH was orginally not happy with her DJ because he didn't play the songs off of her 'do play' list. Although, he did play good music, he seemed to play it by 'decade.' There was 40/50s, followed by 80s, the 90s, and followed by the super current music (hello lady gaga). The older folks at the wedding were really into the early music, and the 'younger' crowd (such as myself) were very excited about the music towards the end of the reception. TB & I learned that we want to mix up our types of music. That way, it may keep more people on the dance floor because all the songs will be mixed up and they'll be excited to hear their songs in between other songs.

3) [No] Buffet - The Buffet was nice especially because Mr.TB got to go up and get more food :), but ultimately, we learned, it's not for us. HH & DD had a lot of kids at their wedding so I think it was nice that food wasn't wasted because the young ones could just take how much they wanted to eat. The youngest people at our wedding (at wedding time) will be TB's lil sister (13) and my cousin S (20) so needless to say, no kids. We decided not to do a buffet because we had been seated at the last table (14) and it seemed like everyone else got to eat before we even got our food.

4) [Cut the] Cake - First off, I love cake and their chocolate cake was AUH-MAZE-ING! Anyway, immediately after entering the reception (to heartily applause, I might add), HH & DD walked to the center off the dance floor where the cake was so they could cut it. I know that the servers want to get the cake cut & ready to go, but I definitely want to cut ours after dinner. I don't know why, I just do. This might not fly with our venue though - we'll see. We might just have to cut it early.

5) Appetizers - I used to be totally against appetizers, but Dad[zilla] kept saying that we had to have them. Also we couldn't have 2 appetizers, we have to have 3. This would mean adding an additional $6.00 per person for one cocktail hour of appetizers (that I would be busy taking pictures during so I wouldn't even get to eat them). Regardless, HH & DD had appetizers (bacon wrapped apricots & cheese stuffed artichokes - YUM), and we loved them. Spending an hour with people we didn't know (and while we were hungry), the appetizers really helped! They were so yummy and the fantastic waiters just kept bringing more and more trays of them around. Definitely awesome and definitely fun . . . so we're definitely having appetizers (and happy to pay the $6).

That's we learned from our great friends, but it's definitely exciting to start look for our own wedding.

Oh, and DD even asked me & TB when our day was going to be at his weddng. So sweet, right? Love it.