Finding Flowers

I'm sure everyone agrees that flowers can make a huge impact on a wedding. That makes them a huge part of wedding planning (especially since they aren't cheap). I have found a bunch of ideas I love, so I can use these as inspiration. We don't really have a lot of areas that need decorating at our location, so I don't know how many flowers I'll be able to incorporate, but I'm loving these ideas nonetheless.

Baby's breath is super affordable so you can use a ton of it and still get a great look:

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I have also been loving pink flowers lately, and anything that looks super soft:

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This entire arrangement reminds me of Villa Blanca - a crazy gorgeous restaurant in Bev. Hills owned by Lisa from RHBH

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And then pink flowers mixed with blue, LOVE it!

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I also visited Longwood Gardens this weekend, so I'll be posting more flower pics very soon, I'm sure!

Registry Gems

Through all the craziness that comes with planning a wedding, I keep forgetting that people will give us presents! It is so weird/exciting to think of all the goodies we might get. We made our registry forever ago, but we still love every single thing on there, and have added a few more fun things along the way. I wanted to show off some of the random things we have on there, because we definitely added a few things that aren't your typical registry item! We also tried having a few items on there that aren't from huge department stores. Plus, a few of them were things I didn't know existed before we made our registry and they're just too cool not to mention.

For starters, I found "fairiy doors" on etsy. They are just little vinyl things you can apply to your wall above the molding (or wherever you like) and it looks like a fairy's entrance to the room. Ridiculously awesome.

Another thing I have been loving are the cute new options for measuring cups and spoons. Anthropologie had a few great options.

I also realllly thought it would be fun to get a Wii, so we could play Just Dance and use Wii fit. It is one of the things on our list that I have a feeling we won't get (which is totally fine), but it would be so fun!

For another "small business" find we have this great driftwood wreath:

I thought this would be great in a guest bathroom:

Making the registry has definitely been fun!

Blueberries and Cream Puff

Wednesday was my manager's birthday, so we all made treats to celebrate! I made a blueberry and cream tart because her husband told another one of our manager's that her favorite fruit is blueberries. I had made this once before and loved how light and summery it was, so I thought it was perfect since we're already getting such warm weather. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (8oz), thawed

1 egg

3-4 tablespoons sugar

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup heavy cream

zest of a small lemon

about 2 cups blueberries

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 and roll out the puff pastry as much as you can. I use one of my flexible cutting boards, sprinkle some flour on it, and roll out the pastry on there.I usually make it so that it fits my cookie sheet pretty well width wise. Then I put parchment paper over the pastry so that I can flip the cutting board and dough over onto there; I find that easier than lifting (and usually breaking) the dough. Use a butter knife to score a border around the edge of the dough. You want to leave about 1 inch of space for the "crust." My edges are never straight, but you want to score the edges in a straight line. Sprinkle about 1 tbsp. sugar onto the edges/crust pretty thickly, and then sprinkle some of the middle of the dough as well. Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes; it should get pretty crispy but definitely not burned. 

While you wait for that to be done, but the cream cheese and heavy cream in your mixer and beat until smooth. Then add the lemon zest and 2 tablespoons sugar and continuing beating until smooth again. That's it for the cream portion!

When the pastry is done int he oven, it will be really puffy - don't be concerned! I was the first time. Take the butter knife and cut through the top layer of the pastry where you scored it before it went in the oven. Push the middle square down so that the middle of the pastry is flat. Let that cool completely before you spread the cream mixture into that middle portion. Then, add the blueberries and you are done!

Rolled out, with straight lines scored.

Once it is out of the oven, you can cut through and push down the center like this.

The cream mixture! Doesn't look like a lot, but it goes far.

It doesn't have to be pretty when you spread it out, because you won't be able to see it.

Just try to make sure its fairly evenly spread.

Add the blueberries!

Done :)

Korean Beef!

I have to start this recipe off by giving full credit to my friend Isabella, who gave me this Korean Beef recipe after she made it for us a little over a year ago. I have always loved Korean BBQ, so she and her husband made this for us and passed along the recipe. They are Korean and I believe it's a family recipe of his, so its a serious winner. I have found that you don't have to really be to precise with it for it to turn out perfectly. For example, I used 5 lbs of meat this time around and it tasted pretty much the same as when I have used 1/2 as much meat. It is always super delicious and popular, and has a pretty unique flavor. So here goes:

Ingredients:

Boneless Short Ribs 

(I've been using chuck roast instead when I want to save money)

About 1/2 cup Soy Sauce

1/2 Onion, chopped in large chunks

3-4 chopped up Garlic Cloves (I often double this)

1 cup Sugar

1/2 tbs Ground Pepper

1/2 Korean Pear (or a Kiwi) in chunks

Sesame Seed Oil

Instructions:

Wash the meat and cut it into squares. I do squares that are about 2"x2". Put the meat into a large mixing bowl and pour in the soy sauce. It should be a generous amount of soy sauce, but shouldn't be drowning the meat. From my experience, it is best if all the meat is coated, but you can only kind of see the soy sauce piling up below the meat, like in the picture below:

The meat chunks

The amount of soy sauce I find works best

Add in the onion, garlic, sugar, pepper and the Korean Pear. Mix everything together:

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap for a couple hours, and then mix in a bit of sesame oil about 1 1/2 hours before cooking the meat. It should look like this when you are ready to go:

Put in as many pieces that will sit flatly in the pan, and flip when ready.

When it's done.

This time we served it over rice, but sometimes we do tempura veggies as an appetizer and don't have any room left for sides. Since we did 5 lbs this time around we thought we would have a ton of leftovers, but we didn't! Seems to be a theme when Korean Beef is made.

Sunday Funday; 3/18

Sunday is the only day that Zach and I both don't have to work, so we are making a concerted effort to do something great every Sunday. Well, this Sunday was packed. We woke up by 9:00 am and decided to go on a walk with my mom. It was still cool and grey out, but according to my mom's step-counter-thingy we went 2 miles. I don't exercise...ever.. so I was pretty impressed with myself. Then I made delicious scones that can be found in the nearest Wegman's refrigerated aisle:

Yes, I sprinkle sugar on top of the scones. Don't judge. Then Zach decided he wanted to go check out a car, which is right by Wegmans and my mom had to go shopping, so we decided to all head over there together. We go to dealerships allllll the time, so I'm a little over it, but it was fine. We got home and I started marinating meat for some Korean meat for dinner, which I will share the recipe for later because it is DELISH. 

Right when I thought I was going to retire for the night (about 2:30 in the afternoon), Mark and Maddy texted Zach about heading to Great Falls for a walk. I love that we can finally spend time outdoors, I seriously love Great Falls and taking hikes/walks, and Mark and Maddy are pretty awesome so I sacrificed my couch time. It is a Sunday after all, we have to do something great. We had so much fun with them, as always. It is so nice having another couple that both of us really like hanging out with. Hopefully we will get to share more Sunday Fundays with them :)

Never gets old.

Checking out Mark's super cool old camera

Mark somehow spotted this snake in a tree above us, which I thought was gigantic.

No one else thought he was that big..

1 Year Engaged and the Tasting

This past weekend Zach and I had our food tasting for the wedding on the 1 year anniversary of us getting engaged. The food was so much better than I expected, and I had pretty high expectations. I was looking forward to it for 2 weeks, and it was so much fun. We brought Zach's mom, my parents and Connor and it was a great afternoon. We have also had a recurring theme of ice cream and movies this week. It's dangerous, but sooo delicious.

Zach surprised me with this on Friday night :)

Bad picture because I just held my camera in the air and snapped it. 

FYI, the white chocolate raspberry truffle is RIDICULOUS

"Travelling Bride" Kit

I have seen a bunch of different kit gifts circulating the internet (and by internet, I mean Pinterest). None of them suited exactly what I needed for Hannah's bridal shower, so I created my own. I thought it would be perfect for her because she has to fly home to visit us since she lives in Cozumel with her fiance. I think it would be good with a few tweaks for other brides as well, if they don't live locally or for when they go on their honeymoon. I included a bunch of little things that would be great on the flight and for her to have one she landed, and threw everything into a carry on bag.

The majority of the bag's contents. I laid them out so I could figure out how to pack it all in. I also added a little string of Tootsie Roll pops "so her ears don't pop" during the flight.

I included a tank that matched her wedding color - lavender. I tied some purple ribbon around everything and taped on a little piece of card stock with a description of what it was for.

Apparently sunscreen is a luxury item in Mexico

I should point out that Hannah is my little cousin. Don't love buying her lingerie and VS gift cards! Vom-it. But I thought adding a gift card so she could get something more concrete for herself was important, since some of the things in here were just fun, small things.

I threw in a picture frame, but without a picture so she could use one from the shower. I also include some gummy candies (plus a bag not pictured here) that are her faves. The aloe socks are something I've always wanted, and I hate how cold and drying the air is on planes. Lastly, I think every bride on the planet loves VS's Sexy Little Bride collection, so I had to include one of those tank tops.

This was one of my favorite ideas. Since she is flying home to her fiance (and pretty soon her husband) when she leaves us, I thought it would be nice for her to have tiny little bottles of perfume that she is allowed to bring just for the flight. Best part? You can usually get these for free at Nordstrom.

The gorgeous bag that I packed it all in!

This was seriously the hardest part! Trying to get everything in there and actually looking decent takes a lot of organizing, and then reorganizing. I wanted to have some pieces laying over the edge (some of the lingerie and the tanks) and I also wanted all of my labels to hang out:

The bride digging through her gift.

Showing off some of the little parts (this was a little tub of Whipped Body Butter or something, which complimented the aloe socks so her hands didn't dry out!)

I think she loved the gift, and I got a lot of compliments on it. Hannah and her sister's said the gift perfectly described "me," which in my mind means that I am a total nerd with a lot of time on my hands! Actually, to be honest, it didn't really take me a ton of time, it just took a while to figure out what to include.