DIY: Feather Boutonnieres

We are officially three months away from our wedding day!!!!!! I am a litttttle excited, can you tell? :)

With the wedding being three months away, it's officially crunch time. Most of my weekends are packed with a either a shower, a bachelorette, a wedding or something else important... so, time is definitely ticking away. 

Most of our wedding is DIY, so that means we have many projects we have to get done to make sure our wedding is exactly the way we envisioned it! To-do lists are my favorite, and I do my best to keep Jamey and I focussed on what needs to get done, and when it needs to get done. I wanted to feature one of our recent DIY projects: Boutonnieres! I got this idea from one of my favorite blogs A Beautiful Mess. 

I love feathers, so much so that I have a tattoo of one on my arm! I knew we'd incorporate feathers into our wedding somehow, and I am so glad Jamey was on board for incorporating them in this way.

Jamey & I with the feathers we bought from a local Native American shop

Jamey collecting twigs from a nearby park

Some of our family helping with making the boutonnieres

The finished product. LOVE!

We are so happy with the way these turned out and can't wait to put them to use on our big day! The best part was that it was completely affordable, relatively easy & they'll last forever!

Thanks to A Beautiful Mess for the great idea! Do you have any DIY projects that you've done that you love? Share below! :)

XO,

Brenda

on being a bride-to-be

Thursday marked two months of being engaged (whoo-hoo!). It honestly gets more and more exciting each day. We can't wait to be married! Despite a few bumps along the way, we have remained pretty stress free. We were afraid of being buried in piles of stress and to-do lists, but we have managed pretty well so far.

So far these are the things we are able to scratch off our check list:

• Venue & Date (JUNE 22nd, 2013)
• Photographer
• Baker (we are only having desserts)
• Bridal Party
• Colors 
• Honeymoon (Victoria, Canada)

This is all so exciting because it's only been two months and we feel we've made such great progress! Today, I'm going to highlight one of the big things I checked off my to-do list: bridal party. Asking my girls to be in my wedding was a very exciting thing. I wanted to make it meaningful and intentional, so I put a lot of thought and time into making it perfect. I wanted to capture the friendship that I had with each individual girl. I am all about photos and reminiscing, so I definitely knew I wanted to incorporate that. I looked online but I was just not satisfied with a lot of the ideas I saw. Here is an example of the way I asked my friend Alex:
*each of them were the same set-up/structure

I took a thin piece of wood and put adhesive stickers on it-

then I painted directly over it-

after it dried, I peeled off the adhesive stickers-

then I drilled two holes on the top and put twine through them-

I made a book of six photos, making them consecutive oldest to newest-

(The rest is self explanatory...)

Then I wrote a letter explaining how much they meant to me
and why I chose for them to stand up there with me on our special day-

Then I packaged it up and watched them open it! :)

& that is about it! I was so honored that each of my bridesmaids said yes. It's such an exciting, life changing season for me, and I could not imagine going through all of this without them. 

To my beautiful bridesmaids (Becky, Al, Megan, Bea, Nicole & Tran), I can't wait to continue walking through this season with each of you and celebrate like crazy on June 22nd, 2013!!

XO,

Brenda

making a house a home

“A house is a home when it shelters the body and comforts the soul.” 

-Phillip Moffitt

We moved into our apartment in Orange, CA about two months ago. We had been anticipating this move for several months, and once it was all finalized we were all ecstatic! We love our apartment, and we love our city. Coming home everyday has never once felt dull or too familiar. Yes, it is comfortable and it is our home, but I love that I have not gotten used to it yet. I hope it stays that way for a while.

Even though we loved our house, we still felt like it was not quite home just yet. So we decided before we got too comfortable, we should get on the ball of decorating it, and setting things up. I am beyond glad that we did that last week. Already, I feel a world of difference when I walk through our apartment door. It now feels like home. There is something about decorating and getting creative that truly makes a house a home.

Here are some photos of what we have set up in the last week:

[Becky, Brenda, Katlin]

 I love the sense of feeling at home in your house. It's a blessing to live here, in this season, I am really happy. I even went to a friend's yard sale this morning to pick up a few more house items. I love it, it's never ending & that is the best part!

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend. It's lovely here in Sunny Southern California, so much so that I am about to go spend some time at the beach with one of my favorites!

XO,

Brenda