Happy Friday!
My favorite new plaid piece for this fall is from Target believe it or not! It's so easy to throw on over a black dress when going out at night, or wear it casually with some distressed denim and a tee. Wear it open or wear it belted with some cute black booties and you'll have a winning look any day of the week! Happy Friday!
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I was in the mood for some furniture shopping this past weekend, but knew I shouldn't be spending the kind of money that would be necessary to fill up the nook area I want to redo. Instead, Karson and I decided to refresh the desk I've had since middle school with a little sanding and spray paint! The desk was easy enough to take apart. Simply unscrew the top from the metal legs and get to sanding! The chair, not so much! This is where Karson always comes in handy. I would've just covered the black portion with towels and tape to avoid painting since it is elastic, but Karson knew we needed to take it a step further and take the whole thing apart. Always crushing my dreams of a quick and easy project... Overall I am very happy with how the update turned out! The chair is on the brink of being gaudy in my opinion with all of that gold, but there really wasn't any other way around it but to match it to the desk. Might keep my eyes open for something to replace it while out shopping next. For now, I am loving the touch of gold in our little nook! Materials used: Rustoleum paint and primer spray paint in metallic pure gold. Medium grain sandpaper. Wet paper towels or rag to wipe down after sanding. Being a firm believer in recycling dresses, jackets and other items to bring into the next season, I am always trying to find new ways to refresh a look! I used a simple belt and trench coat to help transition my favorite Honeymoon dress into the Fall season! Can't wait to try out some other layering techniques with more Summer dresses, tops and bottoms! Again, the trench is from Riffraff here in Dallas! They are sold out online, but I know they had a few left at the store if you call and ask them to ship! It's the one year anniversary of us closing on our cozy little condo and I thought it would be the perfect time to share some of my favorite makeover projects! Hopefully we can inspire someone else working with a small budget/space to get creative. Nothing feels better than going home to a place that you have made your own and feel pride in! From the light fixtures and mirrors to the marble lookalike painted counter tops, I LOVE our updated bathrooms! If I could have it my way, we would have double vanities and walk in showers, but we made it a little more cheerful with the space we had! We never thought we would find a place in the SMU area of Dallas with outdoor space for our dog to be happy in. Somehow we got lucky getting a small front patio/garden AND a nice little backyard. My mom really got me addicted on perfecting my green thumb and getting rid of some gravel to really bring the flowerbed together! (Can't help but cringe looking at these mantles... what was I thinking with all of those knickknacks?!) Bringing the whole condo from the above taupe to light grey was definitely a test to our relationship... but it only helped solidify that we could make a marriage work if we could get through all that painting ;) I love all of the changes we made in our living room! Mounting the TV on the fireplace really made it possible to rearrange the furniture and open up the space! One thing some people might not think to update that really makes a difference is the blinds! We originally had those outdated skinny aluminum shades on all the windows and doors and changed them first thing after closing on the place. The faux wood makes the place feel so much newer and even cleaner! Our dining room is the first thing people see when walking in and I am so happy with how far it has come! Painting the table, walls, fireplace (and entry way table not pictured), as well as bringing in the rug and hutch really pulled it all together. Have to give credit for the hutch to my mom since she supplied us with it, but we have had so much fun turning it in to a little bar/record playing spot! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the bedroom from the very beginning, but had to share a few of the bed with the updated headboard. We've finally got it rearranged the perfect way and decorated to feel nice and cozy after a long day! That's all for now! If you have been following the blog, you know there have been many other projects along the way, and these certainly are not the last! New floors anyone? On our trip to Vegas for the Magic market I discovered this amazing Street Level Reversible Tote thanks to a friend who had one of her own! As soon as I saw how light weight yet durable this bag was, I knew I had to have one for myself! I opted for the camel and burgundy option, but Nordstrom has so many color combination options that it made it super hard to pick from! It even came with this little zipper pouch for your smaller goodies to go in! Loved pairing the camel side with my trusty animal print romper for work today! If you all haven't gotten started on Christmas shopping yet, this would be a great gift for any lady in your life! The cutest little goodie box April sent with our USB! After receiving our wonderful wedding video, I knew I had to share the love for April Kirby Video! This post is more about sharing our experience rather than some great photos as you can tell from the blurry photos I screen shot from our video above. So please excuse those... April is the sister of one of my best friends since the 8th grade, and when my friends finally convinced me a wedding video was a must, I thought it would be great to help support someone I knew who was starting out in the business. Little did I know how incredibly talented she was and how much she grew in just a year! Not only did she catch moments that I would've never seen the day of the wedding because of my running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but she also had audio from speeches and the ceremony in the video that I will now forever be able to remember. This is something I will always cherish and recommend to anyone getting married! Click the top photo for the link to her Vimeo in order to view the whole video! I also shared snapshots from the video of moments that I am so glad I got to see from another prospective on that day! The cutest package April sent in the mail with our USB! Now that I have shared the wedding prep and ceremony details, there is only one area left to discuss... the reception! For us, we wanted our reception to feel like a big party with all of our loved ones ready to dance the night away. From the lighting to the balloons and flowers, I feel like we chose the perfect decor to fit our dream celebration! There are so many great cake toppers out there that it was truly a hard decision to pick just one. I knew I wanted the classic bride and groom on our cake, but was not willing to spend over $20 for something I would never use again. Since most Etsy and other websites had them for upwards of $40, I decided to go super cheap with this cute little couple I found at Party City for about $6.00. We have a bunch of great vintage gold picture frames sitting around at our office that are never put to use. I thought it would be a great way to mark tables and had Karson make the numbers using the same theme from the programs and place cards! We thought the country clubs front desk would be a great place to have drinks ready and waiting for our guest as they came in from the heat after the ceremony! You really can't beat the Oaks Club Special. YUM! These birch place card holders were so fun and perfectly tied in with our archway from the ceremony! Not only were they great for the wedding, but I now have them holding photos on my desk at work :) I knew I wanted some brass candelabras at the head table, but had a bit of a hard time finding them. That was until I found three different sized options on one of my weekly trips to HomeGoods ;) Our beautiful centerpieces were again put together by Serving Hands. Serving Hands also provided our beautiful wedding cake. The red velvet, chocolate and vanilla layers were all equally delish! The Light up 'C' on the grooms cake table was one of my Nordstrom finds that was yet another great touch! The above Lenox toasting flutes were perfectly elegant for our first sip of champagne as husband and wife. Everyone loved our Shutterfly guest book that I previously shared a post on! Feel free to check out a more detailed post on it here. Even though the ball of flowers did not turn out quite as I'd hoped, our mantle decoration still looked great! I found a great deal on these 13 inch letters at Michaels and glued some Popsicle sticks to the back in order to prop them up. The exit at a wedding is one of the parts that I always look forward to. Whether you're using sparklers, confetti, streamers, bubbles or some other new creative idea, it's always a fun send off. We decided to go with both sparklers and confetti (fire hazard anyone?) to really make it big! The sparklers I found online from Wedding Sparklers for a pretty decent deal. Luckily 4th of July was the weekend after if we had any leftovers ;) Confetti was something I figured I could find on etsy for cheap again, but actually found the best deal on the Party City website. Loved how the pictures turned out with both touches! Of course you can't miss the amazing classic car we were driven off in. The process to find the perfect car ended up being a bit more complicated than I thought since I wasn't willing to pay a ton of money for it. First we contacted the Tulsa Tuesday Cruise group online to see if any drivers were free. We found a friendly couple who offered their Model A but it ended up having engine problems as we got closer to the wedding. They then referred us to the Tulsa Model A Ford Club who we emailed to see if anyone would be free. We quickly got a response from a friendly man named Harold who not only showed up on time at the wedding, but dressed for the occasion! Such a sweet man and we got great photos thanks to him and his car. After only spending $100 for his time and services, I would certainly recommend it to anyone for their special day! I want to give a final shout out to all of our amazing vendors! Flowers/Cakes: Serving Hands Makeup: Faccia Bella Hair: Emily Boyd and Tara Russell with the Swanky Scissor Music/Lights: Banks Entertainment Venue: The Oaks Country Club Rentals: Party Pro Rents Photography: Atria Creative Invites: The Inviting Place and coming soon... Our wedding video by April Kirby! One of my favorite wedding decorations at the reception ended up being a last minute idea I came up with while working market weeks before the big day. I've always believed flowers should be the statement at a wedding, but man were these balloons fun! See below for how we got the look I dreamed up! The ribbons started to look like they were going to be quite expensive when I began my search to get around 350 feet worth. Luckily I found BB Crafts and my worries were brushed away! I was able to get 600 feet of ribbon in the peach, ivory and gold colors I wanted for less money than 300 feet at a regular craft store. Talk about a deal! I think I ended up spending $25 on ribbons. If you are resourceful, you can save the ribbons afterwards and use them to wrap gifts and whatnot later on down the road. Love being able to recycle things like that! I found the 3 foot balloons online from Bargain Balloons. They have every imaginable color you could come up with, as well as different shapes and sizes! This was the pricier portion of the decor idea, ended up around $75 for 30 of them, but when it comes to wedding decorations that really isn't bad. We lucked out on the helium (which is much more expensive than I ever imagined) since our country club had an abundant supply for us. The ribbons and jumbo balloons ended up being such a fun touch for all of our dancing and group photos that evening! Not only are the jumbo balloons a bit more of a classier look than your average size balloon, they really help lighten up the atmosphere and give it that "party time" feeling. Use them at the ceremony, as a statement piece at the entrance of your reception, or even have them as a part of your grand exit! Not matter what you choose, you can't go wrong. Sharing more details from the reception in my next post! Keep an eye out for it soon :) Planning a wedding for the end of June can make a bride very nervous. Temperatures in the 90's being normal for that time of year, and the unending rain we seemed to be getting leading up to the day both continued to put the pressure on for if my dream of an outdoor ceremony would work... Luckily, not only did everything go off without a hitch, but it was 84 degrees just about all day! Man did we get lucky! I'm sharing some of my favorite details we had for our ceremony on today's post to possibly give some other brides some inspiration! As you can see in the above photos, we added something to our ceremony that isn't commonly seen... umbrellas! Originally I had wanted a large tent, but they were just extremely expensive to only be used for 30 minutes max. We still wanted to shade our guests in some way with it being outdoors in June, and that was when Party Pro Rents gave us the idea to use their white 9 foot umbrellas. It was hard to imagine at first (was it going to look tacky?) but in the end I am SO glad we used them. They helped cool a decent amount of the crowd and added to the crisp summer look I wanted for the ceremony! We even had 4 white tables with buckets of water bottles placed around the ceremony site to give the guests another way to keep cool! The archway was another part of the puzzle that I was so excited about! The event rental stores in Tulsa really didn't have much to choose from in that area so I pulled some ideas together from what I had seen online and asked Karson if he thought he and his dad could make my vision come to life. Boy did they deliver! We ordered the birch off of Etsy (surprised?) and were very happy with how smooth the process was in getting it to our home. The white material used for draping over the archway they put together was again rented from Party Pro Rents. Our florist, Serving Hands, put together the beautiful arrangement of flowers to finish off the look! Of course I can't go without saying the beautiful setting The Oaks Country Club provided by the pond certainly helped the ceremony be the beautiful moment I dreamed of. Stephanie and Ava were the event planners that came with the wedding package there and I would've never been able to do all of this without them! They were out sweating through their clothes throughout the whole day to make sure everything was perfect and ready for us. Leaving you now with my favorite quote from the ceremony.... "I love you, not only for what you are-- but for what I am when I am with you. I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself-- but for what you are making of me." By Roy Croft |
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