i'm embarrassing | vlog

Some warnings:

1. This video is almost 20 minutes long. I wasn't joking when I said I'd send you something if you made it to the end.

2. We didn't know iMovie existed until AFTER we made this in photobooth. So not only is it 20 minutes long...but there's also a huge delay. Maybe just close your eyes and listen? I'd probably like you to do that anyways.

3. A like to talk...a lot.

Hope you enjoy - if you don't, just be nice in the comments! I'm off today and heading to find a pool now so I can take care of my disease  - muchtoopaleness. It's a serious thing. 

i want to be a party planner

I mentioned last week that we were going to see my best friend Alex for the weekend. She lives in Shreveport which is just a quick three hour trip up north. 

Friday night we didn't do much, just went to dinner and then over to her boyfriend's house to take advantage of his AMAZING back yard. It was cold out, but he had an outdoor heater, so that with some blankets made for an amazing night. 

And seriously, aren't they precious? Stephen is hands down the most perfect guy for her and I'm so happy that she's happy. 

Saturday night Alex co-hosted a party for Stephen's birthday at his co-workers house. Shreveport has an area called South Highlands and I just fell in love with it. They are all older homes (think plantation-esque) that have been restored. The party was in one of these homes, and I left wanting it. I wish I would have taken more photos of the house, but I had a lot of wine and somehow forgot. 

We're just not going to talk about how much I need a tan. And some whitestrips. And a haircut. 

The co-host, and homeowner, is above with the birthday guy. Brian went above and beyond on this party. Alex and I brought the appetizers and he was in charge of desserts. He made homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream and vanilla ice cream. All by himself! The mint ice cream was probably one of the best I've ever had - and I love me some ice cream. 

The first picture are chocolate truffles that Alex made. Do yourself a favor and make them now - recipe is on Pioneer Woman. 

The next two photos are making my mouth water out of control right now. They are casino cakes and they are the best thing I've ever put in my mouth. And I'm not a huge chocolate fan - they were just THAT good. I honestly didn't think much of them, and almost didn't have one. I'll be needing Alex to ship me some ASAP. 

And then, like most parties do, it got a little out of hand. As in, I didn't remember that last photo until I just loaded it into here. 

I also decided that I would like to just host dinner/cocktail parties every weekend for the rest of my life. It was so much fun! We made stuffed mushrooms, anti-pasto skewers on rosemary branches, caprese pops, bruscetta and bacon dip. Saturday afternoon was spent in Alex's cute little kitchen getting prepped for the night while listening to JT. I loved every second of it and am so glad that I got to spend some down time catching up with my best friend. We don't get much of it due to life getting in the way. 

wedding wednesday

We're almost getting to pictures of the actual wedding! That makes me excited but it also makes me want to cry because I miss that day so much. I cannot believe that it was EIGHT months ago. Eight very happy and amazing months, yes, but I just loved that day so much. Can someone invent a time machine so I can repeat it?

Rewinding a bit. I decided to have all of the bridesmaids get ready at my parent's house since it was about 5 minutes from the church. My mom's hairdresser came over at 7 and we got to it. Uhh yea...SEVEN AM. You see, it was either a 2:00 or 7:30 wedding time at my church. I wanted a four hour reception, but with an hour long full mass (and they're always more than an hour) and the reception venue closing at midnight, that wouldn't have been possible. So we opted for the 2pm ceremony with the reception from 3:30 - 7:30. It worked out perfectly and everyone arrived at the reception closer to 3:30 anyways due to the ceremony being delayed - but that will be in another post ;) 

Back to getting ready. I'm still not sure how I didn't wake up with a massive hangover, those margaritas pictured last week were FULL of sugar - bad news, normally. Maybe it was the excitement? I'm not sure, just extremely thankful. I was not so lucky on Sunday morning. Most of my girls came over around 8 for hair, but there were a few who had others do it - which worked out because there were 12 girls needing their hair done. 

I originally was going to do my makeup myself. I had it done for my portraits and just did not like it AT ALL. It wasn't me, and I wanted to feel like myself on my wedding day. My older sister, the genius she is, wasn't going to let that happen. She found a freelance Mac artist who only charged $60 each. Everyone else wanted to charge $200 each bridesmaid and $350 or something INSANE for the bride. Not even including location and transportation fees. That should be illegal. 

Not only was Lynn AMAZING, but my photographers happened to show up an hour or so early and they got to capture some of the getting ready process. I am so glad they did, this was such a fun time. 

Everyone needs a little last minute eyebrow plucking, right?

My favorite shots from the morning are the ones through the cosmetic mirror. He's pretty amazing with that camera.

They laughed at me for getting into the pool, but they didn't know what they were missing out on. August in Houston is HOT. I needed that cool off time. Also, two bridesmaids are missing in this picture because A took FOREVER when they went to give him his gift. I love this picture - we took all of our photos in that very spot for all the high school dances. Full circle!

Speaking of presents - I love my reaction to what he gave me. Pretty much the best present ever - even if I don't know how to use it yet :)

I was lucky to find a trolley company in Houston. I knew after my sister-in-law's wedding that I HAD to have one.

It first brought all of us to the church and then went and picked up the guys at the hotel - they got ready in my parent's suite there.

Then we played the waiting game. The boys were a bit late due to A not knowing how to put in contacts yet (he got them just for the wedding), so after we took all of our group shots we just sat around and played with Reid in the bride's room.

This was just before the bridesmaids left to walk down the aisle. I'm laughing in the shot and now, because somehow - even though they were IN MY HANDS - I left the rings in the room and didn't realize it until I sat down on the stool during the ceremony. Thank goodness I caught my sister's attention and she sent someone to get them. Yep, I was that bride.

Thanks for making it through the worst post ever! All over the place and a bajillion pictures. Next week I'm going to introduce my amazing wedding party...and then I'll finally get to the good stuff, I promise :)

carolina in my mind

Little did Alexa know that she inspired my post today with talking about that song yesterday. Well, it also made me cry, but it was a good cry. 

And we're also going to pretend that he's talking about South Carolina in the song and not North Carolina. Mk? Good. 



Helene's precious little sister blogged about her amazing Italy trip today, so if you want something super exciting to read, go read that. But I hope you like this one, too!
I didn't have any plans for my freshman year spring break. Looking back that just seems insane, doesn't everyone go to Gulf Shores and go crazy nowadays? I was going to just go home and hang out. With my parents. CRAZY, I know.
At one point during the spring semester I went to Paris, TX with my new best friend Kasey to visit her family one weekend. They were talking about their spring break plans to go to Kiawah Island, SC and what do ya know, I left that weekend with spring break plans.

I guess I should mention now that Kasey had a twin, Calley, so it was the three of us and their parents. On an 18 hour car drive from Paris to Kiawah. In a Camry. This trip is just oozing with fun, huh?

We went into Charleston twice because it was a little too cold still to spend every day on the beach. This was during the Notebook craze, so clearly we had to stalk every place they filmed the movie there. They filmed the scene where Noah runs out of the bus on Broad Street, which is the second photo above. 
I absolutely fell in LOVE with Charleston. I'm pretty positive that had I graduated from college as a single lady, I would have moved there immediately. And wouldn't have any money in savings right now most likely, but in a city like that, who cares? 

We also went into Savannah one day to eat at The Lady & Sons. Of course we didn't anticipate the line, so we ended up eating elsewhere, but I also fell in love with Savannah. I'm pretty sure you could take me to any quintessential southern town and I would fall in love, though. 

We did meet some boys on the beach one day that were on spring break at Appalachian State. We all basically fell in love with Tyler (still friends with him on Facebook, so random) and he, being the Kiawah expert, took us on a bike tour one day. He said that the house above was where they filmed the Notebook.....but that could have just been something he told all the ladies he met at the beach. Who knows, still a gorgeous house!
The end of the week left me with a love for Charleston & Savannah that has yet to go away and a need to take a trip somewhere for a week by MYSELF to recover. I don't know how I was thinking that trip would end good, we all wanted to kill each other by the end. I mean, DUH, don't go on a trip with your new best friend and her twin that involves two 18 hour drives in a Camry. They will read your text messages and then still act like you're the best thing that ever happened to them. But that's a different story for a different day. 

pantie party

Like probably everyone in bloggity land, I like to online shop. Most of the time that consists of me putting a bunch of things in my cart/bag and then quickly exit out of the page before I buy it. Except this morning I did not do that and now I have three adorable shirts coming my way! If you've never shopped at Hazel & Olive, go now. And then just thank me later. 

One of the shops I frequent is Tobi. I've bought four things from there so far and have been really happy with the quality of the dresses and top I own. But every time I go through the new arrivals, I always do the little confused head tilt thing to a lot of the items. And I say to myself - "self, who buys these things? and where do they wear them?" It's all just very confusing. So of course what so I do? I blog about it so you can be confused with me. 

But first - put this song on and let sweet little JT serenade you. Sweet, sweet love. And then go backthatazzup.

What kind of bar (or club I guess) would I have to frequent to know that this outfit would be OK? And I'm sorry, but a zipper that goes ALL the way down the front is just asking for some frat star to bet someone to come up to you and unzip it. And let's face it, if you're wearing that out, you probably aren't wearing anything under it. 

Oh look, a bow! Oh wait, it covers NOTHING. I do not understand how girls wear bikini bottoms like this. Who wants a wedgie all day?

Let's go shopping! In my underwear!

I could maybe see someone wearing this top as a bikini top with a maxi skirt to go read on the beach. But homegirl doesn't look like she's going to the beach. Also, it seems that she is wearing underwear, too. Are these girls going to a pantie party?

Who styles these looks? Also, side butt must be the new side boob.

Don't mind me, just wearing a bra to pick up some hotties tonight.

If you wear things like this - sorry. But no, not sorry. Who are you and where do you go in things like this?

Moving on. This weekend we didn't have any plans until yesterday when I was emailing with my bestie friendie Alex and we decided that A and I should join her and Stephen in Shreveport. And since he woke her up with a text this morning that said "Happy Friday!...And I can't wait to meet your friends tonight" - I think we made the right decision! I haven't met him yet, so I am over the moon excited to spend a nice weekend with them. She's the best and she deserves the best, so I have to go make sure he's the best, of course. 

Most - ok ALL - of my crazy college stories involve Alex, so I'm sure I'll be back Monday with some shenans for y'all. Or probably just some really attractive pictures of us, like this one from her birthday a few years back. We're really cool people. 

madness, y'all

I may like bows and glitter and monogrammed everything, but I'm a sports girl at heart. And I don't mean playing sports, because that's hard, I mean watching sports and getting really invested into my teams. 

As in I could probably tell you every single fact about FSU football and baseball. Really invested usually means way too invested. My dream (that I probably stole from my sister if I'm being honest) was to be a sideline reporter on ESPN. And no, not Erin Andrews, the BETTER Erin Andrews. And I look pretty without makeup, she does not. And she's a Gator so she automatically just sucks. #sorryimnotsorry. That plan didn't work out so well because there's a once in a bajillion chance of anyone getting that job. Sam Steele Ponder got the gig because she worked at ESPN Zone just after college and happened to wait on an executive. Seriously, I don't have that kind of luck. Her luck is freaking amazing - she married Christian Ponder last year. 

Moving on to March Madness. Everyone knows what this is and usually participates in a bracket pool. I do too, and I always win. No really, it's true. Last year at work everyone made fun of my bracket because it was TERRIBLE at first, but then I swooped in and won it all. So if you have a terrible score during the first round, do not fear, you can make it up in the later rounds! 

I get REALLY competitive during this whole thing, too. Last year A and I took it up a notch and the loser had to buy the winner whatever they wanted. Naturally, I won and he bought me the prettiest Kate Spade watch ever. Had he won, he requested I get him an EZTag so he could go through the tolls in Houston. booorrringggg.

I've already started picking out what I will get when I win this year. Because I will. I'm loving the Lilly tops for spring/summer, so I think I should get this combo:

Scallops, eyelet, polka dots AND ruffles? I am dying of adorableness. All of these need to be in my closet right now.

A hasn't decided what he wants, but he probably shouldn't because he's not going to win and I don't want him to be sad. 

So, go hoosiers!