I'm baaaack...

I know I said I wasn't going to blog at all until after we get back...

But I had to sneak on here to share with you what we got in the mail today...


Isn't is fabulous?! I just love it!!! I had seen something similar on Etsy and was thinking about making one...

But now I don't have to!!! I love it!!!

Things are pretty smooth around here. I just finished up with our ceremony programs and went with my mom today to get a manicure and pedicure...

My pedicure is already ruined...go figure...

OH well...

Time for me to relax and do a few other things...

I can't wait for Saturday!!!

Only 2 MORE DAYS!!!

I leave you with this...

Well, today is my last day blogging until we get back from our Honeymoon.

I'll miss you all! ha!

No offense, but YEAH RIGHT! :-)

We will be traveling to Sunny Jamaica for 5 glorious days.

OH yeah, and we'll be tying the knot! This Saturday!

I leave you with this wonderful, deliscious, mouthwatering picture. Eh, I'll even give you a recipe! I might just have to try this when we get back... Doesn't it look so awesome?!

Unfortunately, I'd have to eat it all by myself (ooh la la!) because my soon to be Husband isn't one for sweets.

Gasp...I know...

source

Chocolate Souffle

the article says the best way to do this is to make it ahead of time and then just pop it in the oven when you're ready for it

2-1/2 T. Unsalted Butter
5-1/2 T. Sugar, divided
1 t. Cornstarch
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips
4 Egg Yolks
7 Egg Whites (6 if baking immediately)
Confectioner's Sugar

Chocolate Sauce:
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 heaping tablespoons of chocolate chips

Prep:
Butter a 1-1/2 quart souffle dish. Make a paper collar about 3" high. Butter and sugar it slightly then press to the buttered rim of the souffle pan. Now sprinkel a little sugar coating in the souffle dish.

Base:
In a heavy pan, slowly add milk to cornstarch, stirring constantly until smooth. Keep stirring and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate, 2 tablespoons butter and 3 tablespoons sugar. Stir until melted. You can put the pan back on low heat if necessary. Remove from heat. Stir in egg yolks one at a time. Cover in plastic wrap. May be kept refrigerated up to two days in advance.

Whites:
Whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold in 2 tablespoons sugar, and beat to stiff shiny peaks. Stir 3 or 4 tablespoons into the base to lighten it, then using a spatula, gently fold (not stir!) the lightened base into the egg whites.
Pour into the prepared souffle dish. Smooth the surface with your spatula. Refrigerate up to six hours. Bring back to room temperature before cooking.

Baking:
Place the souffle on a cookie sheet in the lower third of a preheated 350 degree oven. Make sure it has enough head room to rise! Bake for 25 minutes for a soft center. No peeking! Be sure not to bake more than 30 minutes as an over-baked souffle will fall.

Sauce:
Heat the cream in a heavy pan. When hot (not boiling), add the chocolate and stir until melted and smooth.

Serve:
Serve the souffle straight from the oven. I place my souffle dish on a folded towel to protect my serving plate underneath. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar or cocoa powder as shown. Serve the warm chocolate sauce on the side.

A slight change in plans

Little Miss Ava (our cute little flower girl and my niece) came over last weekend and decided to try on her flower girl dress.

Good thing. It didn't fit!!!

I didn't freak out or anything and didn't pay much for the dress. I was just worried that I wouldn't be able to find something reasonable that I really liked.

I headed out to Burlington Coat Factory in search, not sure if I'd find what I was looking for.

Well...

I did. and

I FOUND SOMETHING EVEN BETTER!!!

I love it so much and I just can't wait to see Ava in it!!! It even came with a matching little dolls dress! It is so beautiful and it's simpler than the other dress I had. I'm so happy that this happened. It happened for a reason!





What a cute little doll dress!

Long time no talk

I know I have been horrible with posting (*ahem, zizi nikki and jordan) but it might just have to be sporadic from here until mid February...sorry peeps (Ava kept saying that yesterday...ha!) but I have a wedding very rapidly approaching.

One I may or may not have had a minor freak out about just tonight.

Any who...I leave you with two pictures from my Bachelorette Party Night. A night that I had so much fun with...it's almost sad that it's over!

Don't worry, we were good. No strippers. Only men dressed as women singing pop songs and dancing choreographed dances. And singing and dancing on a stage. Fun times, maybe even the best of times!

I promise I'll share more about the night very soon. For now...I have other things on my mind...such as I have to refigure the seating chart and have that and money to the reception hall by Saturday.

I know it's really nothing I can't handle. Heck, I'm sure I'd even finish it rather quickly (considering there is a rough draft), but that is how this little mind of mine works. It freaks out over irrational things (i.e. cleaning, dirt, my inbox?!...do you see a problem here?!).

Isn't she lovely...isn't she beautiful! ha! I had a great night and was even all decorated. Bless all my sweet friends.
The group minus Anita - she met us out...so good to see her!

Not to rub it in or anything...just my peace of mind - BUT, three weeks from now at this very moment, me and my husband (love it!) will be in sunny warm Jamaica (knock on wood it doesn't snow us in and keep us here...). I simply can't wait!

T minus 21 days

I was going through my 'ring shots' and came across this one. I don't know why I didn't post it with the rest. I simply love it. You can tell that it's on a ruff surface. I hate the top of that table...but it gave the picture some character. Hm...me likey!

Now that it is after midnight...we officially have 21 days left until our big day!

I can't wait for the day to come! Now that it is so close, it's almost like...get here already!

Tonight (Saturday - it is past midnight!) is my bachelorette party! Yay! I can't wait...it should be a great time! I'll be sure to post pictures!!!

Hope you are all having a great weekend.

Sorry nothing is all too interesting! :-)

We should open a bridal shoppe...

...cause if we did...WE'D BE RICH!

Seriously!

Ryan and I have been trying to think of what kind of business we could get ourselves into where we could work for ourselves. I told him we should open something that has to do with weddings. We would make major dough then!

Honestly, EVERYTHING (and I don't lie here) is just jacked up in terms of prices and what not.

Which brings me to the tiaras and veils that I tried on during my wedding dress hunt.

Oh the wedding dress, that's a completely different subject in terms of money! Luckily, I knew what style I wanted and found my dress online for a VERY reasonable price!

Okay, back to the tiaras and veils.

The tiaras are no less than $75 and go well over the $100 mark.

The veils I was trying on were almost $200! Can you even believe it?! All for a few fake beads and some tulle?!

That's why I'm sticking to making my own 'hair decor' and finding a cute and practical veil somewhere else!

Plus, I think it'll mean more if I make some of the things on my own. And I'm going to make Ava (my niecey aka the flower girl) a matching hair piece to mine. Too cute!

Wedding {check}

Yay! We went to Zales today to get our wedding bands! What fun! Excuse the 'outlet' part of the sign...they actually had the ring that I wanted there...and if we could get it for cheaper, well then, duh?! :-) I can't wait for them to come in! I'll post a pic after the wedding :-)

Pretty cake

cake courtesy of here...check it out, she makes some cute cakes!

Isn't this such a pretty yet simple cake?! We were originally planning on (well I was) a plain white cake with maybe some pearl decorations on it. Since I've seen some cute cakes with black (one of our colors) bands around the tiers...I may be leaning towards something different like that. Just an idea. And I found this cake and it looks so yummy and pretty! Minus the pink flowers...

Ode to my Bridesmaids

I thought that since it is getting closer and closer to our wedding day (can you believe half of the time has gone by between our engagement date and our wedding date?!) that I would do a little tribute to my bridesmaids.

Here goes...

Jessica and I met, well I'm not quite sure when. We officially became friends around 6th grade. Jessica and I spent many a nights on blow up beds, sleeping in school rooms. We traveled to quite a few states together with our youth group attending Group Workcamps where we would help fix up peoples houses that were less fortunate or too old to do it themselves. As teenagers, we spent many days sitting around her kitchen table just hanging out and talking. These reasons and so many more are why Jessica is my Maid of Honor.

Dawn and I were apparently in the same class in 1st grade...although I don't necesarily recall, we had some unkind words shared. We became the best of friends during 5th grade and were pretty much inseperable. I remember calling her throughout our junior high years for any tiny little thing, every couple of minutes.

Jenny and I didn't meet until I came home from ISU. I went back to work at the salon and she was working there. I'm not quite sure how our friendship blossomed, but it was a match made in heaven. We are very similar kinds of people which is helpful in so many ways. I would do anything for her and know she would do the same for me. Jenny is getting married just a few months after us and it makes it kind of fun being able to plan a wedding with your friend.

Stacey is my soon-to-be sister-in-law and I wouldn't ask for a different sil if I had to. Since the first time I met her, I have just felt so comfortable around her. She has the nicest soul and it seems she never gets mad or upset. She is a sister and a friend and I am so glad that I can call her family.

Katie and I have known eachother since maybe middle school. We had a mutual friend, but never necesarily hung out, unless you count the Little Miss Mundelein Paegent! We then went on to highschool and middle schools meshed together and Katie became one of my good friends. I love her for always speaking her mind. Plus, she likes me make me drink more than I should...haha! :-) I remember fun lunch breaks during highschool, walking over to Katie's house to hang out.

All of these girls hold a special place in my heart. I wish I could have 10 bridesmaids so that I could put all the women near and dear to me in my wedding party. I look forward to our wedding day for obvious reasons and I am just so grateful that these women accepted the invitation to support me and share our day with us. I love you guys!

W is for WEDDING!

Now, I normally don't do this.

Writing about particulars regarding the wedding, that is.

I don't do it because I kind of want it to be special and I want it to be more of a surprise when people arrive/attend the wedding. I don't want everyone to know exactly what is going on before it even happens.

BUT...I got these really cute cards for a REALLY good price. If I don't use them, I don't use them, but I thought what the heck?! We are going to use them as our place cards for seating at the reception. I'm going to put the name on the top center/right side and put the table number inside the hearts. I think they are SO cute!!!

The bells don't exactly ring all too loudly, but the thought it there!

I'm going to take them apart though. I want to laminate them and switch out the white ribbon for black...our colors are black and red...exciting I know! ha! I'm a big fan of black and it's a winter wedding...and it's our wedding, so technically we can do whatever we want! :-)

Our wedding website

Check out our wedding website by clicking HERE!!!

Hopeful Romantic

I have something to admit. I'm a romantic at heart and very sentimental! I'm not ashamed though. I have been looking up photographers online and browsing their selection of wedding pics and every time there is a sweet, beautiful picture of the bride and groom...I just get flutters in my heart thinking/waiting for our moment of that to come. I was even reading through vows on theknot.com and it litterally almost brings a tear to my eye.

Just thought I'd share!

Why is this so hard

I thought that for our cake topper we would be all modern-and-stuff with our cake topper and get one of those cool monogrammed ones with an M (for my future last name incaseyoudidntknow!). When I presented this idea to my Mister, he said he thought we would have a traditional one with a bride and a groom, that is unless I really wanted a monogrammed cake topper. I, being the nice future-wifey that I am (ha! no I really want him to have a say in things too...it is OUR day) agreed to do the traditional cake topper.

I honesty don't mind at all, I'm glad that we are doing that. Now I am on the search for the perfect bride & groom cake topper and you know what...they all stink! It's like they are all from the 70s or 80s! Are there no 'modernized' traditional wedding cake toppers?! And if there are...can you tell me where they are?!

The thing is we don't really have a 'theme' so to say. My girls dresses are black and the flowers are red. Our favors are heart shaped cookie cutter deals. So I suppose a heart would be our theme? The pic above is cute in an old and gaudy way I guess?! I like simple things and feel like all of these are all too done up.

Be on the look out! Let me know if you see something cute! I have blonde hair and the Mister has blonde-ish/brown hair!

I dream of weddings

post edit: see I told you Blogger is making me mad...it happened again, my formatting isn't working now! Boo!!!

I know I haven't mentioned it in this here bloggy, but I've been having random dreams about OUR WEDDING. Each time I have one, they haven't been very pleasant. Don't get your undies in a bundy...they haven't been horrible either. Each dream is usually a different wedding (different wedding details), but the same scenario plays out in it's unique kind of way. The wedding always seems to be taking place earlier than it is supposed to. Which means we are NEVER prepared. In each dream I am usually running around in a panic because I didn't really know that the wedding was happening that early. I, of course, am dressed in my dress and my hair is done, but we are missing SO many details.

In the dream I had this morning (all while hitting the snooze button multiple times...yes, the dream kept happening in between that), my hair looked horrible, it was falling down, we didn't have wedding bands, I had NO ride to the ceremony and everyone else had left with out me. Oh it was horrible!!!

I'm sure this is all just planning worries and making sure we have it all done. And don't get me wrong, I am in NO WAY worried about anything at all about the wedding. It must just be my psyche playing games with my head while I'm sleeping! I just thought I'd share...and I wish they would stop happening...it's getting kind of annoying! :-)

I think this is fate

First off, this post is for you, Jen! I haven't posted in awhile and she was bugging me....just like I was bugging her when she didn't! What can I say, I'm addicted to reading blogs and if there is nothing for me to read, well I get bored! Ha!

Secondly, I found THIS awesome blog, and I am just literally peein' in my pants you guys! It's like a blessing in disguise. Oh my gawsh, I am just SO happy! You see, me and my future hubbs were starting to frett a little bit. We have a budget that we want to stick to for our wedding. I roughly added up all of our expenses and it came out to way more than we wanted to spend. Which led me to make the comment, "I wish we wouldn't have signed our reception contract and we could just have gone somewhere and gotten married. It would be SO much cheaper." To which my future hubbs agreed. I mean, realistically, weddings are such a waste of money. Of course I want the white dress and the big wedding and the beautiful, magical reception, but I don't want to have to pay for it and I don't want our families to have to pay for it. Can't we like, win the lottery or something?!

So, back to my point, the blog that I found suggested looking on EBAY for wedding dresses. You can bet your bottom dollar I went right on over to EBAY thankyouverymuch. And guess what...I found dresses, in my size, that were similar to how I wanted them to be, for very considerable prices!!! This is just amazing....I am SO glad that I found that website. Let's just say that I have A LOT of reading to do tonight.

P.S. I am SOOOOO mad at Blogger right now! I have switched my setting so that means a new paragraph. Well, Blogger obviously gets to decide when there are paragraphs and when there aren't. Arghgh! Frustrating, Blogger, really frustrating!

This is what I feel like we are enclosed in right now. Note: it is currently in the season of SPRING people!!! Luckily it's not sticking to the ground much. WTF?! Where is the sunshine? Where is the (at least) 50 degree weather? Where is that smell of Spring that I should be smelling right now?

On another note, I have agreed to do a little weight loss group thingy. I thought it would give me a little motivation to know that others were doing it too. My goal is not too high. I would LOVE to lose 10 pounds. FYI...I have gained a total of 12 pounds since I've moved in with my honey. I guess there is just more temptation around and the comfort of being with that one person.

Today is just a lot of random things that I can think of. My mind is all sorts right now because of the weather and just because :-)

I was talking with my co-workers (and friends, come to think of it via email) about plants and the fact that I can't seem to keep them alive. I have this huge plant (no flowers) that my mom has grown and repotted. I CAN seem to keep that alive, but I think it's only because it's older and not so young and able to die easily. My main problem is....I FORGET TO WATER THEM. I don't even necesarily forget to water them...I think about it and either a) I'm not at home and CAN'T water them or b) I tell myself I'll do it tomorrow and, well, tomorrow comes and goes. Seriously, I have killed an Easter Lilly in a matter of 1 1/2 weeks...WOW! I did remember and ACTUALLY did it...to water the plants this morning....so I give myself brownie points for that!

What else do I have to share...oh, we signed our 'contract' for our reception site for the wedding. We also picked out all of our flowers and met with a photographer (man are they expensive...but I guess I'm also cheap!).

Have to get going....trying to work and blog...doesn't work all too well :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day, I decided to give you some luck with my very own leprechaun! Here he is! What a sport! Ha! I had home put on my green jacket so I could take a picture for the blog! Ha! Isn't he cute though, I mean seriously?!






In one year from now, I'll be Irish. Well, my last name will be!








We had a very eventful day today. I had a doctor's appointment this morning. Then we went to meet with a photographer and a florist. We still have some shopping to do on the photographer aspect of things, but we found our florist! Yay! I'm am SO excited. Every time we do something that has to do with the wedding, I want it to be sooner. Time will fly from now until then though, I'm pretty sure of that! I feel like we accomplished so much today! The flowers will be gorgeous!




*I just realized that I like to use the exclamation mark and the ... (dot, dot, dot) thing quite often*






In honor of St. Patty's Day made some corned beef and cabbage in the crockpot this morning, so it is smelling up the house, in a good kind of way! Mmm...can't wait for dinner!