Spring Wedding

Dress - Forever 21 / Sandals - Sole Society / Bag (similar) - Ann Taylor / Necklace - Stella & Dot / Bracelet - BaubleBar / Bracelet (similar) - Loft 

I wore this to the wedding we went to over the weekend. It was about 40 degrees and raining on and off all day, but I decided to go full spring in this fun floral maxi and sandals. Looking back, sandals were probably a poor choice ;) We took these photos in downtown Saint Charles, which I mentioned on Monday is so cute. Lots of local restaurants and shops everywhere - I don't think I saw a single chain! Plus there's a little river that runs right through downtown that was surrounded by flowering trees. I actually wanted to take pictures on the river walk, but got a little shy when I realized everyone from the wedding would be driving past me ;)

I bought this dress on a whim last month, and let me just say, I'm really glad I did! It was so fun to wear for a wedding. Of course, I probably should have figured out the bra situation before the day of - I tried it with a couple different ones but the back was too low and showed the top of the bra (forgot to take pictures of the back, but it has a cute cutout). I basically panicked since we were about to leave and was trying to figure out something else to wear, when I remembered one of my favorite tricks from back in the day - I just sewed the straps a little shorter! I have a short torso so shortening straps usually makes dresses fit a little better. A quick whipstitch (I didn't even bother to cut off the extra fabric, just folded it under) and I was good to go. Those sewing skills my mom and grandma taught me back in the day really paid off!

This was wedding three of the year - seven more to go!

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This weekend...

Crossing my fingers that we're almost to that "May flowers" thing.

This weekend I...

...Went to a wedding for one of Jeff's friends on Saturday afternoon. It was out in Saint Charles, I've never been before and now I want to go back and explore, it has the cutest little downtown! We weren't really sure how many people we would know, but it ended up being a really fun group. Lots of dancing, lots of food, and lots of drinking, what more can you ask for? Oh, and it was about 40 degrees out and raining, but I decided to go for spring anyway and rocked a fun mani I spied last week on The Beauty Department.
...Went out to dinner at Asian Outpost and discovered they had doubled their menu since the last time we went - they added some spicy General Tso chicken wings, so being the wing fanatics we are Jeff and I just couldn't say no ;)
...Felt like we were coming out of hibernation and remembered a couple of places exist on our neighborhood that we had totally forgotten about, like Vice Brewery, and actually made it out for brunch at Waffles, which I don't think we've managed since the fall. Turns out they doubled their menu since the last time we were there too!
...Did a whole lot of online shoe shopping, which sounds like a bad idea except that I can never find my size in stores. I really want some strappy white or silver sandals to wear to my rehearsal dinner, but just as usual, whenever I'm looking for something specific I can never find what I want. Any recommendations?

I hope you had a good one!

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My Sister's Baby Shower

My sister and one of her BFF's 

Last weekend I threw a baby shower for my little sister.  I had actually never thrown a shower before, nor had most of the people invited been to my house before, so I was a little nervous about all of the planning and cleaning and decorating and whatnot. Turns out, it's pretty fun! Well, not the cleaning part, I'm not a weirdo ;)

I decided to go with a rustic theme since that's what my sister originally wanted for her wedding (she ended up just having a really small wedding on the beach) and had lots of wildflowers, burlap, chalkboards, and twine.

My sister is not a fan of shower games, so instead I found this cute set on Etsy - it's little onesies for people to write advice on, and twine and mini clothes pins to hang them up with. Like my (admittedly cheesy) sign? I'm making it a free download at the end of this post!

We also had a onesie decorating station. I bought a bunch of plain white onesies in sizes from newborn-24 months on Amazon and some fabric markers, and had guests decorate them however they wanted. Everyone then hung them up with clothes pins around the room so everyone could see what had been made - they turned out so cute! Weirdly we didn't get any photos of those... (ahem, this sign is also available for download below ;)

Of course we had to have a mimosa bar too, because, you know, Pinterest. I found the big chalkboard sign and little tags at Michaels, and the carafes and beverage tub at Target. I also already had about a million mini mason jars (also from Target) and added some fun straws for people to use. Just for reference, there were 24 guests and we went through 5 bottles of champagne and 7 cartons of juice. 

(sorry, no idea where my apron is from - it was a gift from my sister!) 

For food, I may have slightly overdone it, but we had a little fruit salad bar, nutella pancake kebabs, bacon skewers, mini muffins, french toast stick shooters, mini veggie frittatas, mini cinnamon rolls, and mini donut skewers. The plates and napkins were also from Target

(I was wearing Old Navy dress and Wristology watch) 

I was a little worried about not having defined activities at defined times, especially because we didn't even open gifts (my sister requested that everyone bring gifts unwrapped), but it worked out surprisingly well. People saw the signs suggesting things to do, and just went for it. Also, I told my sister to get food so that other people would sit and eat too ;)

Now, do you want some free signs? Here are the links:

Advice card sign • Onesie decorating sign

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Black & Blue

Blouse (similar) - Express / Pants (I'm wearing x-long) - Gap / Clutch and Heels (similar) - Sole Society / Earrings - BaubleBar / Necklace - Stella & Dot

I recently did a major clean out of my closet (but haven't actually gotten rid of anything yet, there are several bags of clothes sitting next to my closet haha) and discovered that while I have a lot of work blouses, casual weekend wear, and summer dresses, I seem to be lacking in "going out" clothes - stuff that I could wear out to a slightly nicer restaurant for example. I've owned this particular blouse since about 2010 when I got really obsessed with the Express that was a block away from my apartment, but shoved it to the back of my closet and forgot about it for a couple of years (A silver version made it into one of my very early style posts - whatup mirror selfie!). Recently I've pulled it out every time I need to dress up a little. I really like that it's a little on the looser side, perfect for big meals ;)

Also, let's talk about these pants. When did I become the kind of person who wears dress pants out to dinner? This pair, however, tends to toe the line between dress pants and leggings so I think it's okay :) They're super comfortable and stretchy, but made of really thick material and have an actual waist band and belt loops and whatnot, so they still seem appropriate to wear for work events. Of course, I was talking with a friend who's a lawyer who said she could NEVER get away with wearing pants that slightly resemble leggings to the office. Yet another reason I'm glad I'm not a lawyer ;)

Two more black and blue combinations:

 

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This Weekend...

This weekend I...
...Met one of Jeff's friends from college at The Dawson for some fancy cocktails, far more appetizers than were necessary for three people, and a freaking amazing pea salad. I keep talking about pea salads with one of my co-workers - they are popping up on every menu! We declared them the official meal of 2015 ;) Have you had a pea salad?
...Made a Plated meal at home on Friday night (steak salad, mmmmm) and watched Big Eyes, which was a lot better than I expected it to be. I still cannot believe that was a true story, so crazy!! Have you seen it?
...Went to my first wedding dress fitting!!!
...Had to run to Target on Sunday morning for some last minute baby shower items, and found myself in the middle of the Lilly Pulitzer madness. Seriously, I got there 15 minutes after the store opened and literally everything was gone. People. Were. Nuts.
...Spent a lot of time getting ready for and then hosting my sister's baby shower with my mom. We totally Pinterested it out, with a mimosa bar, lots of tiny bites, and a plethora of mason jars and milk bottles. More details coming later this week!

I hope you had a good one!

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Bachelorette Party Gifties

Hey ladies! I've got another bachelorette party-related post for you today.

As you know by now (blah blah blah) I had my bachelorette party in New Orleans last weekend. Traditionally the bride doesn't get gifts for everyone attending the bachelorette party, but I wanted to do a little something something for my girls (and guy!) to say thank you for traveling all the way to NOLA for little old me, so I decided to put together some little gift bags.

I found these adorable gift bags on Etsy from Gold Tinsel Shop and decided to put together some bachelorette "essentials", you know, for all of the shenanigans that were about to go down. I included some custom sunnies, a mini flask, lip balm, Advil, band aids, and Emergen-C. 

The sunglasses were actually my first purchase, I got a white pair for me and pink for everyone else. Don't tell Jeff I told you this, but they were actually his idea. He was looking for gifts for the groomsmen and thought personalized sunglasses would be funny. I stole his idea and ran with it. Sorry groomsmen, no sunglasses for you! These were also from Etsy, from StickyImages.

My initial thought for the gift bags was BOOZE, but I didn't want to just buy a couple of shooters because of the whole liquids on planes thing (turns out it's very easy to get around this - just put them in your ziplock bag with your other toiletries!). So anyway, instead I decided to get these cute little flasks for everyone instead. They were a custom design (also from Etsy) from LaserBeamCreations. The shop also offers pink flasks and created a proof for me with a little tag about the bachelorette party, but I remembered that not everyone likes pink like me (and one of the people coming on the trip was a dude), and thought that if I was getting a little flask for a gift I would much prefer it to not be covered in someone else's name, so I decided to go with a simple fleur de lis. NOLA style. 

Everything just fit in the bags, and they were small enough that I could easily fit them in my bag. Oh, and they were a super hit. Just check us out on Instagram ;)

Have you ever received a gift on a bachelorette party? What did you get?

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All White and Sparkles

Dress - B Darlin

As promised, here's what I ended up wearing for my bachelorette party! Sorry for the low quality photos, it was one of those nights when we thought there was plenty of time to get ready, and then we ended up rushing to hit our dinner reservation, so I had one of my friends snap these real quick before we ran out the door.

You may be noticing that I'm not wearing the dress I shared on Instagram that I was going to wear (I bought it freaking 8 months ago! It's out of stock but you can find a similar one here). I actually decided I love that dress so much that I didn't want to ruin it with a night on Bourbon Street (This one lost quite a few sequins, got spilled on, got rained on, and started turning pink!) so I decided to save it for the rehearsal dinner. Instead I picked up this sequined dress on super sale (I think it's supposed to be a prom or homecoming dress? Whatevs, it fit!) because it was still white and sparkly and fun but I knew I wouldn't care if I ruined it since it was such a good deal. It's weird, normally junior sizes do not work on me because of my bust, but this fit really well. It was a lot shorter than I'm used to these days, but heck, it was my bachelorette party!



We were in NOLA from Friday through the crack of dawn on Monday and were going basically the whole time. We rented a house in Bywater which is next to the French Quarter and kind of a hipster-y neighborhood, so we spent Friday afternoon and night exploring that neighborhood and hanging out. On Saturday we ventured into French Quarter Fest during the day, which was so cool because every time you turned a corner there was another stage with a band playing and people out in the streets dancing. That night is when we got all dolled up to hit Bourbon Street, where I found some hurricanes, did some dancing (including a new dance I invented called "The Crow" which I'm told is terrifying to watch), and tried to say the weirdest things possible to all of the bachelor parties that were out. You know, normal bachelorette party stuff. On Sunday we drove over to Magazine Street to do more exploring and a little shopping and then passed out super early.

I'm pretty sure New Orleans is my spirit animal, and I told Jeff we have to go back. Like, right now.

Oh, and bonus: what I wore to my sister-in-law's bachelorette party:

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Bachelorette Party Dresses

Hey y'all! I get to say "y'all" because I'm currently in the south, and because this post is on auto-post so past me can do whatever she wants. Since I'm juuuuust getting back from my bachelorette party in NOLA this morning, instead of my regularly scheduled weekend recap, I thought I'd share some of my picks for cute dresses to wear to your bachelorette party. Later this week I'll share what I ended up wearing as well as some other bachelorette party tidbits.

Now, just putting this out there: you don't have to wear white to your bachelorette party if you're the bride. Wear whatever color you please! My cousin wore a tee shirt and jeans to her bachelorette party, because she was the bachelorette and got to do her thing. I just so happen to love little white dresses and will take basically any excuse to wear one.

Which dress is your favorite? What did you wear on your bachelorette party, or what would you wear?

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Undone Salad Dressing

I don't know if you know this about me, but I am super, super lazy, especially in the kitchen. I buy pre-washed/pre-cut fruit at the grocery store because I know I'll never eat fruit if I have to do that stuff myself, I'll often plan elaborate dinners only to decide it's too much work and order something instead, and I try to use as few dishes as possible when I cook to avoid having more to clean up, which means I cut a lot of corners (like refusing to use a whisk when a fork can do almost the same job).

This always turns into a problem when it comes to salad dressing. I know I should make my own, it's healthier and cheaper and tastes better yada yada yada. I have all of the ingredients and recipes and even a special salad dressing mixer bottle to use, but when push comes to shove I always reach for the pre-made dressing so readily available in my fridge.

I tried out this quinoa bowl recipe a couple of weeks ago during a Bachelor viewing party/dinner date with one of my girlfriends (because Jeff would never, ever consider a quinoa bowl to be dinner!) and we basically freaked over how easy and good the dressing is. I call it an "undone" dressing because rather than getting out a bowl and whisking all of the ingredients together, you just sprinkle and drizzle everything over the top of your salad. No extra dishes, no extra mess!

This particular dressing is geared towards a southwest salad, but you could easily swap the lime for lemon, take out the honey, or add fresh herbs depending on your preference.

Undone Salad Dressing

You'll Need (for one salad):
Salt and Pepper
1/2 TB Olive Oil
1/4 TB Honey
1/2 Lime

Add a generous amount of salt and pepper to the top of your salad. Drizzle olive oil and honey over the top. Squeeze lime juice over everything. And you're done! I prefer to eat it as-is, but if you prefer you could mix the salad to combine the flavors. Easy peasy.

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White + Floral

Jacket (similar here or here) - Target / Sweater (similar) - Loft / Jeans - Old Navy / Heels (similar) - Sole Society / Bag (similar) - Kate Spade

I don't know when it happened, but I feel so busy all the time these days. This week after work I've been running around like a crazy person trying to get ready for my bachelorette weekend in NOLA (we leave this Friday!!!!), prepping for my sister's baby shower, going to events for work, and even squeezed in a little anniversary celebration with Jeff last night at Green Street Smoked Meats (his pick, not really the most romantic of restaurants but so good!!).

There's little room in my brain for outfit planning, so I fell back on some of my usual spring favorites for Easter this weekend: white denim, the comfiest heels ever, and my favorite floral blazer (can't believe this baby, which I thought was probably a trendy one-off when I snagged it at Target back in 2013, is going on it's third year in heavy rotation).

While people normally wouldn't think tight white pants were a good idea for a big food eating day, I've been trying to count calories this spring, so the unforgiving waist band was a good reminder not to stuff myself silly. I know everyone has crowned Thanksgiving as the eating holiday to end all eating holidays, but I actually prefer Easter. At my grandma's house, Easter dinner always means ham, scalloped potatoes, spring vegetables, and crescent rolls. I'll take that over canned cranberry sauce any day!

Two more ways to wear a floral blazer:

 

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