Q is for Costa Rica

No I didn't have too much salt water while in Costa Rica...Steven did.

 He told me to name the post "Q is for Costa Rica" ...we'll pretend he's right. 

Anyways I'll have to share more photos when my mom stops hoarding them. 

BUT...holy guacamole! Costa Rica was AWE-some! 

We didn't want to come home...

we went horseback riding, surfing, fed monkeys, went on nature hikes, 

did some extreme water rafting, and ziplining, snorkeling, deep-sea fishing, and sailing. 

I know...sounds relaxing huh? yeah...maybe not.

 My family doesn't do vacations, we do adventures haha. 

We seriously only slept in one day.

I can't WAIT to show pictures! 

Also - for my fellow Provo-ers...Downeast is having their warehouse sale at the Provo Mall.

Ummm four dollar shirts anyone? yessss ma'am!! 

who doesn't love a sale?

P is for peace out!

Haha alright...so remember how I told you I'm back and I have all these super cool stories to tell you? Well ya'll will just have to wait a week cuz well...

I'M GOING TO COSTA RICA! 

can I say awesome?!

via pinterest

Yay for parents and frequent flier miles...ahhh frequent flier miles - you are my best friends! 


So I will be leaving tomorrow and won't be back for about 10 days! I'll make sure to take a TON of pics and have a hoard of stories...like ziplining 400 ft above the jungle floor? Yeah....telling Steven to bring an extra set of undies for himself. I think he's afraid of heights.... ;) we'll see how he does...


Anyways its off to bed for me...we've gotta wake up early! 


Love you all! Have a fantastic week this week! And if you feel like leaving me some love while I'm gone...post a comment asking me a question that you are just DYING to have answered :)  ...ok maybe not dying - that would be pushing the creep factor, but maybe we could say curious about? yes...that's less creepster. 

via pinterest

stay sweet....yes I just used that - yearbook cheesiness, you secretly like it. plus I know you've all written it at least once! guilty? I thought so...

O is for officially married

I know, I know...I said I'd be back tomorrow. I'm sure your faces looked a LOT like that cute little girl waiting for Steven and I to arrive.

BUT...before you start throwing your tomatoes...I'm pointing the finger at Steven. So Steven likes to get greedy and take me away from all of you. He also has incredible persuasive skills and convinced me "blogging should only be every other day" ....but we made a deal, if the crowd gets too big and wild - I'm doing back to back days. psssttt...I might sneak an extra day or two ;)  because well...come'on he's stolen me for months on end from all ya'll!

Ok ok...stop the pouty faces....the Reception:

so the food LOOKED great...haha but I actually never got any. I was doing my 'thang out on the dance floor all night...I actually didn't realize my own wedding was coming to an end. Poor Steven...he wanted to munch on this stuff... BUT we did get a piece of our FUNFETTI Wedding Cake! It was so SO good...I wish we would have taken more! But we of course saved the top layer for our anniversary...I can't wait to snarf it down. It eyes me down with its funfetti deliciousness everytime I open the stinkin freezer... 

And I loved our centerpieces! My whole family spent time making them (um yeah, they are awesome!) . We used glittered branches, white roses, delphinium, and the 'ice look' in the vase is actually crinkled cellophane we stuffed in with the water.Then my mom cut up some chair sashes and looped the fabric into the extra spaces. I told you she was magic... SO PRETTY!

Our wedding favors were SO cute. We put candy inside them and had them labeled. We got them from Smarty Had a Party...seriously gals THIS is the place to get anything and everything for a FANTASTIC price! 

Our cake was done by cakesbydonna. 

                                                                                                                                                                                             

Then after the cake we had the Daddy Daughter dance and Mom and Son dance. I LOVED dancing with my Dad...he hates dancing haha so I've never really gotten to dance with him before. He is actually a pretty darn good dancer! *hint hint Dad...dance more with Mom *cough cough*  
We danced to "Best Day" by Taylor Swift.

Then I got to dance with Steven...

We danced to one of my FAVORITE songs...I stumbled on it accidentally. I bet you haven't heard this version...their views on YOUTUBE have started to get higher though...they should be famous!!
It is Caroline County

The lyrics were absolutely perfect for us :)

The rest of the night was a wonderful fantastic blur...

The Reception place was so pretty too! They're new in town...its called StoneGate Arts Center in Pleasant Grove, UT...right down the street from where we got married! 

Then of course Steven's 'single' roomies (ladies??) wrote us a song...they couldn't keep straight faces. Pretty sure everyone thought Steven, I and the boys were crazy...the song was all made of inside jokes. My favorite part was the chicken cluck...that created a few strange faces from our audience haha

And LAST but not LEAST...we were leaving. 

Our ORIGINAL plan was to do this:

My mom ordered a bunch of 'Tangled' lanterns for our wedding take-off. Turns out they are SUPER cheap because China makes them all the time. EBAY my friends...EBAY The picture above is from when my brother and Jamie were testing one. We didn't want to catch anyone on fire at the wedding...haha. On our wedding day it turned out to be too windy, so we couldn't do it. You can see the package they come in haha...Steven's holding it.

And AlphabetSoupers...THAT was my absolutely-positively-perfect day.

N is for Newlyweds Part II

Good Morning!

where were we...oh yes - I was in my hairdresser's dress putting on my makeup. Well I traded that dress in for a more fancier whiter dress and THEN I got married :)
...that's MY favorite part

some people were just a bit impatient though...

via Rob Higginson

we weren't too long...so don't worry

via Rob Higginson

And for the rest of the day I was super happy and livin it up on cloud 9

via Rob Higginson

yeah...I was really happy...

via Rob Higginson

maybe a lil too happy...haha

via Taylor Jay Photography

And my momma and sis looked SO gosh darn pretty that day

...seriously I didn't see one bad hair day on anyone. 

And see that dress my sis is wearin? Yeah we got ALL the bridesmaids dresses from Forever21 (see earlier post for all my gorgeous bridesmaids)! They were the PERFECT color. Then we had the girls put whatever they wanted with it...as long as it was within the wedding color range. I wish we could have gone for a more mismatched looked...but again - that periwinkle...IMPOSSIBLE. We were lucky to find it on just one dress. But I LOVE the mismatched bridesmaids look, DEF I recommend it! It made it really easy too! Just find a dress and let them put a bit of their personality into it!  (example pic via Pinterest)

 My grandmother also stringed together a strand of pearls and made the bracelet I'm wearing. She wasn't able to make it to Utah to come to my wedding...so it was nice having her there with me in a way :) AND it completed my something old, something new and something blue tradition. Blue of course was the shoes, old was the pearls restranded from Gma, and then the borrowed....well that's a secret to be revealed later - it's quite a story. 

via Taylor Jay Photography                                                                            

And my flowers were SO pretty...I have them dried and in our room now. They smelled SO good :) 

via Rob Higginson

The flowers were done by the Veranda in Provo- I'm convinced they also have magical powers.  All I did was take this picture to the right in and told them that I wanted something like it. Um they look better than that picture! I was SO excited!  That's what I did with most of my wedding...I showed everyone pictures of what I wanted and everything worked out perfectly! 

via Taylor Jay Photography

Well after hugs,kisses, and lots and lots of pictures

...it was off to the reception....

TO BE CONTINUED

N is for Newlyweds Part I

Alright...as promised...my perfect day. Part I of course....

December 30, 2011

Seriously people - could I have asked for more perfect weather?! 

It was almost 60 degrees in the middle of winter in Utah!

I absolutely LOVED my wedding! 

My dream wedding had always been to have a Cinderella winter wedding. Yes, I'm a Disney fanatic and secretly want to be a Disney princess at Disneyland (Um who WOULDN'T?!)

...No we did not ride out in a carriage

...ALTHOUGH that was an option the reception center had haha. 

My wedding colors were: periwinkle, white, silver and black and we somehow magically found everything in the perfect colors...and ladies - periwinkle has got to be the HARDEST color to find...seriously everyone must define periwinkle differently

...we searched through every haystack the world had to offer! 

But basically what it comes down to is: my mom has magical powers. FACT.

via Rob Photography

Ladies...let me introduce you to the Bridesmaids! Haha I had to put up this picture because we could NOT stop laughing..we had "successfully" ( we'll pretend )

held our serious model faces for the picture ...yeah that didn't last very long. 

Alright so RE-wind! So luckily I have this entire day heavily documented because

my best friend got married about the same time

...can I say bride wars anyone? Haha yeah Hollywood doesn't happen in real life

...so no blue hair for me thank you very much. 

Alyssa and I basically took a kazillion pictures on our phones and kept sending them to each other. 

haha funny thing is: she IS blonde and I'm brunette. Perfect? Um yes!

Hence Text #1: "I magically found the perfect periwinkle shoes!" picture 2 DAYS before my wedding

why yes I about peed my pants when I saw these guys at Nordstrom Rack

And of course Text #2: "Check out my hair!"

YEP that is my hairdresser's dress I'm wearing. Yes, I'm a dingbat for not realizing that I needed to put my makeup on and everything BEFORE I put my dress on. 

Text #3: "I just did my make-up!"

And of course I have the same pictures from Alyssa while she's getting ready haha

...perhaps I'll have a my best friend's wedding post-a-thon? 

Basically it was the start of a magical day

I mean how wouldn't it? I got to get ready in this room:

And you wouldn't BELIEVE what the reception looked like. Seriously, by the end of this post-a-thon....you will be convinced my mom has magical powers

...I have NO idea how we did this on a budget wedding. 

Until tomorrow ladies...

M is for Mrs. not Miss

via Rob Higginson Photography

I know...everyone's been wondering what I've been up to.

Little me? Well I went off and got myself a new last name and ring on my finger.

The best part? I get to spend forever with my best friend Steven. Yes - I've been spoiled while I've been gone...

So now you want answers...well lucky for you I'm back to my bloggin self.

I'll let you in on the happiest day of my life, the story of my special dress, the proposal
...and last but not least "The Meet-Up" story. 

BUT...it all starts tomorrow, because me and the hot pad have one of those marathon all-day-long-never-ending dates. And cue: stop feeling like i've been hit by a brick wall...yeah i wish.

via Taylor Jay Photography

TUNE IN tomorrow Alphabet Soupers! Yes, you've been labeled. :)

ahhh...i missed you all! good to be back.

2sday Tuesdays

Hey everyone! I barely made it for 2sday Tuesday this week!
I kind of went on a little adventure this weekend


and then i barely took any pictures because I was having too much fun

BUT

here it is:

feast your eyes on the middle of nowhere. Rexburg Idaho :] it seriously is the most gorgeous place...pick any season. I went up for a wedding reception, my old roomie was getting married! So it was nice catching up with all the old roomies! Then the rest of the weekend I got to catch up with this girly:

Ashley is one of my besties from highschool! So of course we partied this past weekend. Our adventures consisted of haunted swings, tubing down the river, and hanging out at the lake, and watching someone drive their car into the lake, and O sleeping in an abandoned apartment. 

WHAT a weekend

And I wore my FAVORITE outfit to the wedding. 

skirt: delias cardi: NY&CO necklace: NY&CO lacy cami: Aeropostle

Tiffany cute outfit: top:F21 skirt:Target

I love my lacy cami, I feel like it makes any outfit! They're everywhere right now too, so I'd go pick one up!

Also, I was introduced to a BUNCH of new bands that completely blew me away. Here's one of them:

2sday Tuesdays

it's 2'sday again!

so my awesome/lovely/stinkin cute girly friend came up to visit this week!

our families have been super close since...who knows. so it was really good to see a familiar Texan here in Utah...so naturally we did a photoshoot together right? yeah...cuz that's what every normal person does.

99.9% of pictures we took were goofy of course. but hey we tried. we both couldn't stop laughing. i picked the most normal ones...you're welcome for sparing you

hat: papaya necklace: CherryLane boutique 

tank: Banana Repub Outlet Cardi: Nordstrum Rack Capris: Kohls

 

shirt: Buckle jeans:older sissy's closet!

necklace:NY&Co. earrings:Target ring:James Avery

P.S. see the super rad photoediting? Yah those were taken with an iPhone app. Maile told me about it and we used hers...best 1.99 spent right? It comes with a bunch of different "lens" so the pictures have different styles. Maile said you have the option to buy more lens, but they aren't super fantastic.So if you buy the app, I wouldn't buy the extra lens...cuz you prob won't use them much. The ones that you get initially are the best she said.

The app is called  

Hipstamatic

pretty rad huh? Mhhmm...thats what i thought

p.p.s so excited, my cut from my little adventure is finally starting to go away. woohoo!

p.p.p.s don't forget to link up 

what you wore for 2sday Tueday!

R is for romper

you hated them when you were little...right? how do I feel about them now?

um. i want one. 

the best thing about rompers is layering them with different things and making them look even cuter! which means if you get the right color then you can wear them for summer AND fall.

For instance, the whole tights under the romper dealio

yeah i know...i want those boots too. 

another look with the romper I like is the blazer

but lemme guess, you have the classic problem of: 

"they look so good on a hanger, and no-so-good not on a hanger"

yeah, i've been there...trust me.  I feel like body type totally matters with these suckers.

if you have a long torso...im sure your thinking.."whhaa?" yeah thats because these things always look good on you. 

if you're petite like me then listen up: I've found that the banded waist rompers look the best. 

when you're at the store I recommend this...ONLY look at the different styles of rompers (high waisted, where the drawstring is, V or swoop neck, length of the straps) grab a bunch of different styles (even if you hate the print) then go try them on. only look at how they fit you not the overall look. This way you'll be able to tell which style looks best on you and go from there. 

it saves time so you can go stuff your face since your new romper hides that food baby of yours now.

 eh kinda...depends on the style of the romper. 

Lets call it the i-can-get-away-with-eating-anything romper style.

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