A Spring Couples Shower

Weddings will be a reoccurring theme on my blog - not only because of my interest in building a career as a wedding planner, but also because I am smack dab in the middle of the wedding "curve." We are in that stage in life when it feels like almost everyone is getting married...and I LOVE it! It's so fun. Two of my very best friends are getting married in April and May. I am having a blast attending showers, parties, and bachelorette celebrations in anticipation for their weddings.

Recently, we had the honor of helping to host a couples shower for Emily and Sam, who are getting married in April. You can also see where we celebrated Emily's Bachelorette weekend here. I had so much fun heading up the design ideas as well as throwing a party with some of my favorite friends. We were so happy with how the party turned out - I wanted to share the deets. (Please forgive the photo quality - I had to take them on my iPhone)

Some of the hostesses - Katie, Emily (the Bride), Kimberly, Me

Here's the cute invite that Katie and Kimberly had designed. We chose to keep the decor simple but wanted to evoke a casual, spring vibe. Rather than a true "theme," we decided to stay color-focused, building on the fun invitation. 

The couple that hosted at their house have a super cute outdoor patio that I was dying to use. Luckily, the weather was so pleasant that night. We set up a dining table and bistro tables for guests to mingle around and prop on to eat. We lit the patio with lanterns and votives. The guys looked at me like I had lost my mind when I told them I wanted to have string lights run from the house out into the yard. I may be crazy, but I was serious!! They were so precious with all their stunts to get the lights hung for us. I wish I had taken pictures. Lighting just makes an outdoor party!

We topped the tables with grey/white striped runners and sashes for the bistro tables. For the flowers, I used some bright tulips, spider lilies, and hydrangeas.

And of course, I made a couple chalkboard signs for here and there.

Kimberly put together a super tasty Southern menu. We had: pimiento cheese, bourbon meatballs, mac n cheese bites, chicken and waffles with pepper jelly syrup, and boiled peanuts. For dessert, we had mini pecan pies and apple pies. It was all delish! We served all of the food out of white servingware (putting our Juliska wedding gifts to good use!).

Both of our soon to be brides, Katie and Emily

Old sorority house roomies (and best buds). Emily, me, Bethany, and Katie.

New Blog Series

I'm excited to announce that I'll be starting a new weekly series on the blog, that I hope you will find interesting!

I think it's fair to say that the creation of Pinterest was *life changing.* Yes, I said that. Some may argue {life changing} for the worse, but I personally love the benefits. So much so that I'll admit, I sometimes wonder: "what did I do with my free time before Pinterest?!" One thing is for sure, it made the nights alone go by much easier when Brince and I were still living 100 miles apart before marriage. Also, as a bride and wedding planner from the Pinterest era, my eyes were opened to a new world of possibility with wedding design (sorry Mom and Dad- I blame Pinterest). It is enhancing, engaging, and inspiring, while also sometimes distracting!

I'm the first to say that I "pin" with good intentions for DIY projects but have a low completion rate compared to my pinning rate. However, I'm looking forward to sharing with all of you the success stories, or lack thereof, of my Pinterest inspired projects. I'm also hoping this will motivate me to actually get started on some other things I've pinned. We'll cover everything from wedding projects, recipes, home decor, and maybe even fashion (who knows!). 

Also, I love hearing other people's Pinterest-inspired stories, so if you have a good one, send it my way! I may just feature it on the blog!

A Girls Weekend in Asheville

My girlfriends and I had a BLAST in Asheville, NC this weekend celebrating our bride to be, Emily!
We couldn't have asked for a better weekend - the weather was beautiful, the city was lively, and we partied hard for this lady's last days as a bachelorette!

Emily is one of the absolute sweetest people I know, which is very apparent by the number of gals who wanted to celebrate with her for her bachelorette party! There were 16 of us there...quite a gaggle of ladies! We got lots of stares walking down the sidewalk, and I think it's because people couldn't decide if we were a full cheerleading squad or a girls choir. Although many of us didn't know each other before the weekend, everyone got along great.

We stayed in a really awesome hotel right in downtown. Aloft Asheville is a super swanky eco-friendly hotel. It's even pet friendly! I'm already planning a trip back to take Cooper with us!

Look at this cute little coffee bus out our hotel window!

On Friday night, we ate at Seven Sows. The food was super tasty. Here's our rather large dinner party.

Then, we hit the town for some live music and drinks.

On Saturday, we had a great brunch at Limones and afternoon cocktails at Carmel's Kitchen & Bar. I balanced out my coffee with a bloody mary.

Then, Emily's sister Liza had planned a beer tour for us.

We rode a party bus around to the local breweries and enjoyed getting to taste the local brews. I was pushed outside of my normal comfort zone of extra light beers and was pleasantly surprised with the different flavors.

Our beer tour guide was really sweet and knowledgable, although I'm not sure how much of his information any of us retained... gimme another round!

Of course Saturday night ended with...more drinks and dancing!

We love you Emily. I'm glad I got to celebrate with you as you capped off your single lady days in style! We can't wait for Emily and Sam's wedding in April! Cheers y'all!