Crisis Averted

Well I had one of my first INCREDIBLY stressful moments during this wedding planning. We have been so fortunate so far because most decisions have been easy. Perk of planning a wedding so soon? You have to make decisions, which makes it easier! So the crisis tonight was bridesmaid dress related. The place we found the bridesmaid dress sells out of sizes/dresses SO quickly its unbelievable. The dress went on sale a few days ago, but had all of the sizes still in stock yesterday. I got online this evening and 3 sizes were already gone, including size 2! I have some tiny girls as bridesmaids, so I panicked. After about 2 hours of back and forth with one of my cousins, and finally hearing back from two other bridesmaids that they had actually already ordered (thought they hadn't)... everything is fine. One of my bridesmaids even got 2 dresses in case one didn't fit her, so we have an extra dress in case something happens! And we can just return whoever's doesn't fit since we have the extra, even though they are sold out. I literally thought I would have 1/2 my girls in this dress, and the other 1/2 would have to find a different about 2 hours ago. Now, everything is wonderful again and the girls will all match! Phew.

Getting Closer

The last few weeks have been crazy busy with wedding planning. We have gotten so much taken care of, but still have some pretty important stuff left (invitations!). I am finally starting to feel like the major, hard decisions are behind us though, so now I just have to stress about whether or not the right decision was made :) You know, typical me.

So, an update on the list from a few posts ago:

Pick out a venue

Set a date

Send invitations

Finish wedding website

Find a dress

Find shoes and accessories

Find bridesmaids clothing

Find clothes for Zach

Find clothes for his guys

Food tasting & menu selection

Cake tasting

Choose flowers & decorations

Decide on music

Buy thank you cards

Plan honeymoon

The BIGGIES from the past week have been selecting Zach's outfit, the bridesmaids dresses and the groomsmen's clothing. After you find the venue, I think the clothing is the most stressful portion. We also found a few decorations, but have many more to come!

Lastly, we had SO much fun picking out the guys clothes. The girl that helped us (Savvy was her name, and it was appropriate) was so much fun and we were laughing the whole time. The guys gave us fashion shows and we pretty much claimed the entire back of the Tysons store for ourselves.

And no, we did not buy these.

Date Night: Hooked

My best friend Kristen is SO awesome at giving gifts. She has a great knack for finding things that people will really enjoy. This year, for xmas, she got me Zach and I a 4-course dinner for 2 at Hooked. We love sushi, and it doesn't get much better than Hooked. Also, she knew we would love to go DO something, rather than just an item. She was right - we had a blast. We rarely go out to dinner, let alone treat ourselves to such a nice meal. THANK YOU Kristen. Now, I just need to give her MY xmas gift (which has been sitting by the stairs from my room for 2 months now).

My 1st course: Spicy Yellowtail  and Seaweed Salad

Zach's: Calamari and Spicy Shrimp Tempura

Zach's 2nd course: Waikiki Roll (coconut shrimp inside)

My 2nd course: Sake poached, sesame crusted scallops

My 3rd course: Neptune Roll (tempura lobster tail!)

It deserved two pictures

Zach's 3rd course: Crab Cakes

And to finish it all of, we both got a Flourless Chocolate Torte and Tropical Tapioca

Well, Zach got 2 tapiocas, because I wasn't interested

And despite my kind and generous gift of sharing my tapioca with him, he still threatened to fling whipped cream at me.

But it wouldn't have been a normal night if he hadn't.

Red Velvet Cookies

Every time I have made Red Velvet Cookies at work, I get asked for the recipe. Yesterday I made them because it was Zach's manager's birthday. I decided that this time, I should go ahead and post it on here. This is a seriously easy recipe, and having the mixer makes it even better. This is actually the reason Zach thought to get me the KitchenAid for xmas, because he was sick of having to help me stir when my arm got tired :) So here goes:

You need:

A box of red velvet mix

1 1/2 - 2 cups white chocolate chips

1 cup flour

1 egg

2 sticks of butter


Edit: Zach thinks I should share how AWESOME these are with cream cheese frosting to dunk them in. He is right. Add that to your ingredients list.

After you preheat the over to 350, mix the butter until soft and fluffy. It is much faster/easier if you have let it sit out a bit to soften, but I rarely plan that far in advance. Once it is softened, it should look like this:

Then you want to slowly mix in the cake mix and the flour. I alternate between the two, but I don't think its crucial that you do it one way or the other. It is going to look pretty dry along the way.

Once it is all mixed in, add the egg and mix until that is fully incorporated. Then you can go ahead and form small balls of dough and start baking. *Note: do not make these right before heading out to an event, or anywhere that you don't want your hands to be stained red. Also, I apologize in advance for how ridiculously bad (worse than normal) the picture below is. I was about to shove them in the oven when I decided to grab the camera and snap a shot.

I have seen a few recipes recommend cooking these for anywhere from 5-10 minutes. I usually get to cook them for at least 12 minutes, so I recommend keeping your eye on them. They should look kind of crackly on the outside once they are done.

I have also seen recipes that call to use white chocolate chunks, instead of chips, but I find that the chips are much easier. They are seriously SO delicious and I get compliments from everyone that tries them. I have even had people offer to pay me to bake a batch for them. 

My Girls

Now that I have my dress, it's time to find the bridesmaid dresses. Since my dress is casual, I want to make sure I find a dress that will look great and appropriate on the girls, but isn't too dressy or traditional. I also don't want it to be incredibly expensive. Here are a few of the options I love so far:

www.inweddingdress.com

www.freepeople.com

              

www.victoriassecret.com

www.victoriassecret.com

www.etsy.com

www.urbanoutfitters.com

This last one, the Urban Outfitters dress, is probably my favorite so far. It is such a hard decision!

Cinnamon Sugar Nuts

With all of the warm weather periods we've had lately, I have a feeling spring is going to be coming very early this year (tomorrow should be 70!). So this past weekend I made one of my favorite snacks for cold weather, so I could get one last batch in while there is time. I have made cinnamon almonds and walnuts throughout winter, and I got a TON of walnuts for 50% off so I chose to make those. They are super easy, here's how:

Combine a cup of sugar, 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon and 1/4 cup water in your skillet.

Throw the nuts on top and start cooking! Make sure all of the nuts get covered in the mixture and stir constantly.

Eventually the nuts will start feeling like they are sticking together more and are harder to move around the pan. They will also start to look more dry:

Once it starts looking like the image above, just stir for about 30 more seconds to make sure all of the nuts are finished.

And them eat them until you can't anymore. They are always super popular when we have people over!

Yes to the Dress

Brace yourselves people... I actually found a dress. I have been frantically searching for the longest time, and was very discouraged. I didn't want anything too bridal, but didn't want anything too casual either. In case you weren't aware, that's a major task. I recently was searching Sarah Seven dresses online, and found that a bridal store near me carries her dresses, and a bunch of other GORGEOUS gowns. So Kristen, my mom and I went there this morning and I tried a bunch on. Some were long, some were short, all were incredible. I am not going to reveal too much about the dress I chose here though, because I don't want Zach to know too much. I didn't take any pictures of the store, but it was beautiful and such a nice experience. They had great music on, little snacks out, it felt very private and the staff was wonderful. Here are some pictures I found on yelp.com:

These two pictures show where I tried on dresses, and the couches that my mom and Kristen hung out on.

Soliloquy Bridal Couture

And they had sooo many fun accessories! Didn't buy those yet, 

because there was just too much to choose from.

Now time for invites, bridesmaid dresses, and the guys clothes!

Flower Girls

Since Zach and I are having such a casual wedding, it wouldn't usually require flower girls. However, my little cousins Keira and Kyla were practically my little sisters while we lived in California, and I am SO happy they can be involved in the wedding. Ever since they heard we were getting married about a year ago they have wanted to be flower girls, and now they'll get their way. I am letting Donna and the girls pick their flower girl dresses (because I don't really care), but I have found so many cute options for them to start with. Here are a few I thought were share worthy:

gap.com

chasing-fireflies.com

jcrew.com

jcrew.com

chasing-fireflies.com

So Much To Do...

..and a little more time.

Yesterday I found out that my aunt Donna wouldn't be able to come to a wedding on April 22nd. We had a list of people to call before we set the date, and she and Mitchell were on it, but we didn't hear back from them right away (busiest people ever). She is definitely a mandatory guest, so we decided to push the wedding back a bit. 

The next few weekends wouldn't work either, so we are now thinking early June. I am actually totally comfortable and fine with this, because it just gives us another month to plan everything. I think we would have been fine getting everything taken care of by April, but a little extra time won't hurt. I have a list of things to take care of pre-wedding, so here is what we have and have not already done:

Pick out a venue

Set a date

Send invitations

Find a dress

Find shoes and accessories

Find bridesmaids clothing

Find clothes for Zach

Find clothes for his guys

Food tasting & menu selection

Cake tasting

Choose flowers & decorations

Decide on music

Buy thank you cards

Find mini honeymoon location


I will be trying on a Sarah Seven dress and going to a jewelry show on Saturday, so hopefully we can get a few more things crossed off this list!

Party in Purcellville

Yesterday we (Zach, my parents, Connor and I) went out to Purcellville to check out the private dining options of a restaurant called Magnolia's. We had been there for my parent's anniversary last year and had so much fun. The restaurant is gorgeous and the food was delicious so I checked out their website as a wedding option a few weeks ago. When I saw their loft area I knew this could be a really good option for that, but still had a few concerns. We looked over all of their menus, and even though we liked their dinner and lunch options, we reallllllly wanted to eat pretty much every hors d'oeuvres they had. This was before we had decided to do a more casual wedding, so I didn't even consider that as an option. Once we decided to go that way, I knew Magnolia's was the place we had to visit.

Online they only show their loft and outdoor area as private options, but once we got there the event manager shows us a "banquet room." Let me start by saying that I hate banquet rooms. It sounds like such a typical wedding venue, without any personality. Well, we were pleasantly surprised when we walked in, because this room felt very cozy. At first we were considering doing the reception down there, but once we saw the loft we knew it was as perfect as I thought it was from the website. (We originally ate in the dining area downstairs, so we hadn't seen it in person yet) That was when Zach came up with the perfect idea to do our ceremony in the banquet room, and the reception in the loft. One of the things we love about using that area for the ceremony is that it has a nice stone fireplace. When my parents got married they used a restaurant as well, and did their ceremony right in front of a fireplace. We hadn't planned on doing that as well, but it just made Magnolia's even more perfect for us.

For picking the date, we had a few Sundays we were choosing between. Our first option was Earth Day (April 22nd) and as of right now it looks like we will be sticking with that weekend. We like the idea of doing it on Earth Day, and it just seems like a good time for us. Now we just have a LOT of planning to do, and I have to frantically search for a white dress I love. 

Car Fanatics

Last weekend Zach, my parents and I went to the car show. We were primarily there to see the foreign cars, like Lexus and Audi. I personally ended up being more interested in the American cars, maybe because I didn't have high expectations so I was easily impressed. Just a couple weeks ago Zach, my mom and I went to the Lexus dealership to look for a new car for me or Zach and we didn't have any other kind of car in mind. After this car show, we literally went right over to the Jeep dealership because we fell in love with the Patriot and the Compass. We know we need an SUV (or at least a larger car) since we are going to have kids soon. We are pretty sure we will end up getting a Compass Limited, but want to check around a few other SUV options first. 

We also saw a ton of really cool concept cars. We had so much fun checking everything out, and the cars coming out in the next few years are very different looking. For example, one of the cars out this year, the Hyundai Veloster, only has 3 doors. It was so cool looking, and we totally would have considered it if we didn't want an SUV. Here are some of the cars we saw:

This was one of the first concept cars we saw, which I thought was cute, but it ended up getting blown away.

Look how tiny the trunks are on the Smart cars Fiat!

(Oops! Thanks Zach)

Hilarious.

Checking out one of the Wranglers, we didn't get a picture of me in my fave - the Patriot.

They had the coolest displays, showing the bottom of the cars or the engines.

Ford's concept car.

A car split in half to show safety features. I stole this picture idea (with a crash dummy) from a little boy.

He was a creative genius.

One of Toyota's concept cars.

We <3 Lexus. These were all on spinning platforms, hence the bad pictures.

At the end they had a lot of antique cars for sale, which were so cute. I decided that this was the one I wanted once Zach becomes a plastic surgeon and we're RICH!