My Illinois Bridal Shower

Two weeks ago I had my shower back home in Illinois with all of my family and friends.  This was actually a big source of stress for awhile, but it turned out just fine!  My aunts and grandma drove in from Wisconsin for the day, and another aunt left her brand new grandson and drove in from Indiana.  Most of our close family friends were able to make it, and all 5 of my bridesmaids were there!

My bridesmaid Arin, and her mom made all of the food and it was absolutely delicious.  Because of an invitation mixup, we ended up changing the shower to my parents' house, so unfortunately they had to bring over all of the food and decorations.

 How cute are the margarita glasses for candy??  She found them at Walmart...and let me keep them afterwards! Can't wait to fill them up this summer =]

I didn't get a picture of all the yummy food after it was put out, but I did remember to take a picture of all the presents before I opened them.

We played a couple of games before opening the presents.  One was a how well do you know the bride type game.  Everyone had to answer questions about what my favorite color, band, etc was.  I didn't even know some of the answers! haha I'm not really one to pick favorites.  The other was famous couples in history.  You had to complete the couple after Arin said the first name.  She ended up giving out prizes in a really cute way.  She had little bundles of flowers in a vase, and the winner had to pick one.  There was a tag tied around the stem with a number on it that went with a prize.  It was a neat way to do it.

Then we moved on to presents =]

Here's the obligatory present opening picture...but only one:

A garden hose and home for it...Mr. T loves it =]

Our friends and family really spoiled Mr. T and I.  Here are some of my favorites for the day.

Don't mind the cheesy smile...I was excited! I got all 16 place settings of the china I picked out from my mom and her mom.  There was actually a mixup and they shipped the wrong pattern, so that is currently getting sorted out.  Mr. T totally doesn't get the concept of china, but I'm excited to use it in a few years when we're all settled in and having family holiday dinners.

See that wooden sign? It has our last name on the top =]  My boss ordered it for me through work.  It's from a company called Meissenburg Designs.  You can see some more options here. And I love the planter...I can't wait to get it into our backyard.  We got one of our silverware sets...it's service for 4.  Inside the blue box is a gorgeous crystal bowl.  A woman I've known for almost my whole life got it for me, and inside the card she said she got one as a young bride and thinks of the woman who got it for her every time she uses it and that she hopes the same would happen for me.  I told her most of my childhood memories are tied to her so there's no way I could forget about her.

I got my cake serving set and toasting flutes to use at the reception.  They're called "With Love" by Vera Wang Wedgwood.  I found the little charms at Hobby Lobby on sale for $2.50  They say Bride and Groom.

I got all of the stuff for my bathroom.  I just painted it, so I can't wait to put all of this in.  I actually got two sets, so I returned one and bought a matching toilet paper holder, shelving system for above the toilet, and two hooks to hang towels on.  Can't wait to see it all come together!

We also got a meat thermometer, foldaway griddle, cookie sheets, pyrex pans, electric can opener, serving platters, a second sleeping bag, lots of cheap kitchen stuff to take camping, a folding step stool, a beverage dispenser, and some other awesome things.
And the last thing, that I didn't actually get to open, and I don't have a picture of:
A KITCHENAID MIXER!
I'm so excited =]  My aunt came straight from her daughter's house from visiting her new grandson, so she didn't have a chance to get it from her house.  But it's from her, her daughters, and my great-aunt.  She's going to bring it to the wedding.  I can't wait to see it.  I actually don't even know what color it is.  I'm registered for the stainless steel one, so we'll see.

I've got just a couple more pictures to share with you from the day. 

 I threw together some vases of flowers to decorate the house with.

My beautiful cake.

Arin and I with the ribbon bouquet she made for me.  I only broke one ribbon while opening presents.

The lineup of gifts I gave to all the bridesmaids.  The totes are the ones I made for them.  I wrote up a post awhile ago.  I was actually cutting and sewing all of those handles the morning of the shower.  Just a little stressful!

And here's my favorite picture of the day.  All five of my girls modeling the cute towel wraps I made for them to wear the morning of the wedding.  Can we all just take a second and see how cute we are?! I love my girls.

That's about it! Sorry this post was such a long time coming.  It's been half finished in my drafts for awhile now.

A Dress For My Next Shower

The other day I decided to go shopping to treat myself for my weight loss and the success of my Etsy shop since opening up.  The plan was to buy a bunch of cute tops for the summer, maybe a couple pairs of shorts, cute shoes...you get the idea.
Well I ended up spending almost more time shopping for Mr. T and really enjoyed it! But along the way, I ran into a little corner of Kohl's that sort of surprised me.  Apparently Lauren "LC" Conrad has her own clothing line at Kohl's.  You don't want to get me started on her (what is she famous for anyways?) but this time I can't complain.
I found an absolutely adorable dress that I just HAD to buy!  I was planning on just wearing the same cute white dress from my MN shower to the one I have coming up this weekend, but after seeing this dress, all bets were off.

It was marked at $60 and I decided I was going to buy it even though it was a little pricey and totally unnecessary.  Then I looked at the rack when I came out of the dressing room and saw that it was 45% off dropping it down to $35.  And I had a 15% coupon on top of that, so it worked out wonderfully!

I took it home and attempted to take some pictures of it.  Sorry they're kind of crappy, but Mr. T is always at work so I couldn't have him do it.  (And I can't find it online anywhere to show you!)

I love it! It's all sequin-y and gorgeous!

Oh and p.s. my cousin had her baby on Saturday...on her own birthday!! What an awesome birthday present.  My parents were planning on going camping over the weekend but about an hour into the trip my dad got sick so they turned around.  Once they got back to the house my mom left for IN and made it to the hospital a couple of hours before she gave birth.  So here she is with Brady Thomas.

My Minnesota Bridal Shower

I just got some pictures back from Mr. T's mom, so I thought it was finally time to share with you guys the shower I had at the end of March.

Since ALL of Mr. T's extended family lives in MN, we decided to have a separate shower up here with all of them.  His aunts went above and beyond planning and getting everything together.  I received the invitation in the mail and all I had to do was show up that day!

My mom and Mr. T's mom drove up from IL on a Friday night and stayed through until Tuesday.  It was really nice having them both around.  Mr. T's mom went to visit her family on Saturday and then left to see her other son after the shower on Sunday and Mr. T was working so I got to spend a lot of time with my mom...which equaled a lot of shopping!
We meant to get to the Mall of America two different times, but it never happened because we got sidetracked with other shopping instead.

But anyways, back to the shower.
My mom and I showed up on Sunday afternoon to Josh's aunt's house.  We got there a little bit early so that I could say hi to everyone as they got there and introduce my mom since none of them had met her yet.

She decorated with cute flowers that matched my colors...I loved the centerpiece!  There were even green and white balloons out front on the porch so people knew where to go.

Both sides of the his family got to mingle.  From previous family functions, every one had met multiple times before, so they enjoyed getting to catch up.

We sat down and played a couple of games and then moved on to presents.  Opening presents in front of a bunch of people while sitting in a dress is a little challenging and awkward!

Then we all went and ate a delicious spread of food that Mr. T's aunts and cousin put together.  The shower lasted probably 2 1/2 hours or so before everyone started heading out.  My mom and I stuck around and chatted with his aunt and his cousin's fiancee for awhile before heading out.
All in all, it was a great day and it was nice that my mom could finally meet some of his family.

Here are a few more pictures from the day.

With Mr. T's cousin's little daughter Lily.  She is going to be a "junior bridesmaid" in her uncle's wedding in October.  She's so cute!  She was the only other person in a dress that day =]

With Mr. T's mom's mom.  We call her Grandma Bob.  (p.s. notice in all these pictures my cute outfit?  I bought the dress at JCPenney's and talked my mom into buying the green cardigan at Kohl's for herself and letting me wear it for the shower.  And I bought new shoes!)

With Mr. T's mom and Grandma Emmy trying to sneak out of the way in the background. (It's her mom's 80+ year old ring that I wear as my engagement ring.)

With my mom, future mother-in-law, and my spread of gifts.

Favorite presents from the day?
I don't know if I can pick a favorite.  We just used the pizza pan and pizza ingredients last night for the first time and it was awesome!  I'm also super excited about our sleeping bag and camping stove.  I would HIGHLY recommend the Calphalon 5 piece baking set from Target, it's amazing!  I'm also loving the new Crockpot so I don't have to burn myself on our old one anymore.
They all did a great job, and I didn't end up taking anything back!

Did any of you have a separate shower with your fiance's family??  How did it go and what were your favorite gifts?

So I Might Be Just a Little Bit Crazy...

Wedding planning is taking over my life.  There's no other way around it.  I've got piles upon piles of stuff in my room at home, and in my apartment at school.  I've found it spilling over into other things that I do, so much so that I've even started a "Wedding Shower" folder in with all of my other wedding stuff.  It's got cute ideas for decorations, food, invitations, etc.

Do you think this is bad?  That I more or less want to plan my own shower?  A shower that hasn't even been decided upon yet?  You'd think it could be a part of this whole process that I'd give away freely for everyone else to do, and just show up and have a good time.  But no, not me!

Chances are my mom and sister will throw me a shower, since she's my maid of honor.  And that means that it will more than likely be at our house, or at least in our town.  And that means I can tell them all of the wonderful things I'd like for them to do!  Maybe make my own invitations, hint at them and guide them along for decorations and food.  This could definitely be interesting.

So just for good measure, I thought I'd share some of my ideas with you.

I was looking online for napkins for a future project, and came across this collection at Party City which would be perfect for my shower.

It's the perfect color and super cute.  So cute, in fact, that I decided an inspiration board should be made.  Don't ask me where I come up with this time in between all of my classes and tests and such, because I honestly have no clue.

These plates would look adorable on top of black tablecloths.  Hint, hint Mom and Sis!!

And you've already seen the cute little recipe cards I came up with to include with the invitations.

And I even went as far as coming up with an invitation idea to go along with the recipe cards.

(obviously none of my real info, but you get the idea)

We have a cute little bay window in our dining room that a nice spread like this would look cute in.

So yes, as you can see, I'm a very anal, detail oriented kind of person.  And apparently this aspect of my wedding isn't safe from me.

Any one else out there a little bit crazy like me??  What can't you keep your hands off of?

DIY: Recipe Cards

I love cooking, or attempting to anyways.  And I'd love to be that domestic housewife that has dinner ready for her hubby when he gets home from work.  Some days anyways, definitely not every night.  But I'm definitely lacking in the creativity area.  I've got a few fool-proof recipes in my repertoire, but we tend to rotate the same things from week to week.

So before I leave home I want to copy over a bunch of my mom's recipes and I'd also love to have guests bring a recipe with them to whatever showers are thrown for me.  I want to send recipe cards out with the invites so they all match and can be put together in a cute little book.

I came up with the following cards, they all measure 4x6".  They all coordinate, but each is a little different.  I can't wait until I can put them all together and see loved ones' handwriting each time I use their recipe.

Feel free to borrow any of them!!