My Wedding Report

I love pumpkin bread and think I am going to make some when I get home from work and await all the cute trick-or-treaters. I found the best mix at Trader Joes…just add eggs, water and oil to get some amazing pumpkin bread!

Or…they have some great tasting pumpkin butter for a delicious snack!

One of Mark and I’s first memories together was carving a pumpkin at a Halloween party he threw the day after our first date.  We chose the most complicated design which was a haunted house and it turned out awesome!!  Well this year we decided to carve our own pumpkins…He made an fastastic looking witch.  I on the other hand tried carving bats in my pumpkin and I only made it through 3 before I realized they kind of looked like blobs.  As Mark said…”Well we know that our kids aren’t going to do pumpkin carving with mom!”  I’ll post pictures tonight when our pumpkins make their debut, I think mine looks better when it’s lit (hopefully).

Now who do you think would have great pumpkin carving ideas…Martha Stewart of course!!  Here are some of the amazing pumpkin inspirations featured on her website right now.

In spirit of Halloween I also got Mark some pumpkin beer from Trader Joe’s (can you tell I love that place?).

However…be careful you don’t end up like these pumpkins!! (I couldn’t resist…)

What are your favorite things about Halloween?

First of all…Happy Halloween!!

There are so many DIY ideas in the wedding blog world right now and I love it!! I think I could be on DIY overload and adding way too many projects to the list, but it is so fun to see the creativity. I thought I’d share with you all some of the amazing ideas that I have come across this week.

To start, Mrs. Penguin over at Weddingbee posted about her Top 5 DIY Essentials. As I am trying to figure out what are the best craft supplies to add to my collection in preparation for wedding DIY, this post is so helpful.

I think I may have to go get this X-ACTO Laser Trimmer:

Also I have been looking for what kind of corner rounder to get, and she just so happened to recommend one that seems to get positive reviews in all the comments.

Once Wed always has wonderful DIY ideas. This week she featured the cutest idea for using your monogram on leaves. As you can see you could use these leaves in multiple ways throughout your wedding.

Style Me Pretty had DIY week this last week…which was basically amazing. You just need to go over there and look at each idea because they are all so creative and unique. Here are a few of my favorites though…

Could you ever have too much DIY?? Never! Elizabeth Anne Designs is having DIY month in November. I can’t wait for Monday to see what they feature first!

One of my best friends from college got married this summer and I’ve been meaning to recap on some of the fun details from the wedding extravaganza. One of the best wedding festivities was our girl’s weekend bachelorette in San Diego. We made my house in San Diego the home base and adventured out from there…

When planning her bachelorette party we knew we wanted something special and unique. She’s not one for a long night of drinking and clubbing so we started brainstorming about wine tasting, spas, yummy food and quality time. Well…my dream came true when I found the South Coast Winery & Resort that has all those things! This winery is Temecula is gorgeous! It’s a resort with beautiful little villas, an award winning restaurant and a luxury spa. The Grapeseed spa is located on the winery and overlooks the incredible views of the vineyards.

Photos from Trip Advisor unless noted otherwise

There were so many possibilities for us to do. Here are some of the fun activities that we considered (I included the pricing, but double check in case things have changed):

• Wine tasting in the tasting room with 5 wines and a souvenir glass: $10.00
• Winery Tour: There is a walking tour that is behind the scenes of the winery and includes going through vineyards, the crushpads and having a plated wine and cheese pairing. This usually costs $20 but there is private tours for 15 or more. It might be perfect for an outdoorsy walk and seeing the beautiful scenery…they run on Saturdays at 10:30am and 12:30pm.
• Day pass at the spa with access to all the facilities: $35
• Any spa treatment or spending over $75 automatically gives you access to all the facilities all day

Doesn’t all that sound so luxurious? Well it got better when we discovered Vino Vinyasa!

What is Vino Vinyasa? Here is the description from their website:

” Vino-what? Here’s a “group therapy” yoga and wine tasting session like noneother; and it’s offered to you exclusively at the GrapeSeed Spa. Our talented yoga instructor leads your group on an amazing 80-minute journey. By focusing on the chakras (or centers of consciousness) within your body, your energy levels instantly build, as your sensory journey begins. The class has a specially designed component to this yoga session that includes wine tasting of six specially selected wines for a blissful “Wine and Unwind” experience.”

Can there be a better combination than wine & yoga? After reading about what this experience was all about and talking with the instructor, it was decided that this was the perfect activity. If you have more than a group of 4 you can actually have a private group session. Vino vinyasa cost $35 a person. This was perfect for us because we had a small group of girls and we all got to giggle, talk and enjoy each others company without the worry of disturbing innocent bystanders.

We had the best time doing vino vinyasa! The instructor, Christina Newman, is so much fun and totally tailored the session to our abilities and experience. I don’t have too much yoga experience, but was able to do everything and she helped me with my balance and positions. The 6 wine pairings were so delicious. And just in case you were wondering (I know I was) you do all the standing and balancing positions before you do any wine tasting. I don’t have the highest alcohol tolerance, so crazy noodle positions were not going to work so well after I had a few drinks.

Here are some pictures we took during our Vino Vinyasa session. Our instructor showed us how to do this crazy acro-yoga. She lifted all of us in the air and had us pose into certain positions. It seemed kind of uncomfortable, but was actually so relaxing and felt great on your back. (The pictures are mainly of the acro-yoga, but we do the normal stuff too)

This is me below…

Our wines to taste…

How crazy does acro-yoga look? I am still trying convince Mark to go take a class with me so that we can fly each other through the air…he’s not as enthusiastic as me.

After our wonderful vino vinyasa session we headed out to relax in the beautiful spa facilities. We laid out by the pool, worked on our tans and ordered drinks and lunch from the restaurant.

Later that day we all selected different spa treatments and were able to enjoy ourselves even more. We took a walk around the vineyards and winery to see all the gorgeous scenery. We had the best time just being girlie and relaxing with each other. After all of our spa treatments, we showered and got ready to go out that night.

The rest of the weekend consisted of more quality girl time. We ate some delicious meals, went out for drinks and even did a night out dancing. It was so much fun and I wish I could do it more often.

I’d highly recommend the South Coast Winery for a bachelorette weekend, romantic getaway or just a fun escape. We didn’t stay in the villas, but they looked wonderful.  They also have beautiful facilities for weddings if you are looking for a beautiful ceremony and reception venue. And if nothing else you just have to go and experience vino vinyasa for yourself!

What is your idea of the perfect girls weekend?

I am quickly finding that it is so fun to meet people via the blogging world. It’s like you get to know little snippets here and there and be inspired at the same time. My newest discovery came from a comment that someone left me not too long ago. I had commented on a Weddingbee post about a San Diego photographer and Sarah linked to my website after she saw I was from San Diego to give me some helpful tips! I was able to find her website and was so excited to see her awesome blog.

Sarah runs a design studio in Southern California called Fuzzynk. She has an awesome blog that shares ideas, her designs and other helpful tips. What I really love is that she posts inspiration boards to go with her stationary and paper. Amazing! So I wanted to share some of my favorite things on her site.

I love the personality that comes from using this color combo in weddings.  I stop to look each time I see a wedding with these colors.  They are unexpected, but so fun.

This board was designed from the paper on the upper left-hand corner.  Each detail on this board goes so well together!

I love the sweet design on these pieces.  I hope that I can also create a theme that is carried out from the save the dates to the invitations to the favors.

Look at all these little design “samples,”  I wish I could see the whole collections.  I love how all the elements pull together for a unified look.

Look how elegant these invitations are…

Another beautiful inspiration board…I love the soft pinks and florals.

And last but not least a wonderful inspiration board a beautiful cakes….yum!

You can really tell that she has a great eye for design by what she puts together for color combos, fonts and images. Make sure you go take a look for some great ideas and creativity. Thanks Sarah for letting me share some of your pictures!

All pictures from http://fuzzynk.wordpress.com

Vendor Blogs:
I just created a new page with a list of Vendor blogs. It is just the beginning, but please leave comments with your favorite blogs to check. I’m hoping to get a much bigger list in the next few days.

Are you ready to see what we finally decided on?!? From where we last left off I believe that we had just discovered that we would not be getting married at the Estancia La Jolla to our disappointment… I was feeling pretty frustrated and could suddenly understand why people elope. It was to avoid all this planning craziness and stress. But in spite of all the craziness from our venue hunt there was an upside!

After seeing so many places (Refer to Part I, Part II and Part III for the details) we knew more of what wanted. We wanted a unique location that had a sort of rustic charm, an outdoor ceremony, an indoor reception, not too many onlookers around, an efficient coordinator, local accommodations and nothing that our guests would feel crammed into. To meet the criteria and stay within our budget, I decided that we needed to move further inland or further south. Because of the concern that driving south would be to far for some of our guests (adding an additional 1/2 hour to a several hour drive) we decided to try searching inland. Sure enough I found that pricing was much more reasonable.

Once place stood out in particular and that was the Rancho Bernardo Inn, it seemed beautiful in the pictures and affordable from the packages that I had been sent. I was in San Diego by myself visiting my family for the weekend when I first spoke to the catering manager. She said that if I wanted I could come that day and she would show me around in person before she left. I jumped into the car with parents and fell in love with the location.

The Rancho Bernardo Inn has this rustic Tuscan feel from when you arrive on the property. The property is huge, but each area feels private. While it is a resort it doesn’t feel like a touristy destination spot. It has it’s own charm while being a major resort. There is a beautiful golf course, luxury spa and some amazing restaurants. My parents and I ate dinner there the first time we visited and it was amazing! I have no fear that my guests will have a wonderful dinner at our wedding. But I will stop all my rambling and share with you the pictures…

Disclaimer/Side note: These pictures do not do the place justice, especially since they don’t show the venue set up for an event. Use your imagination and think of all the possibility that is there…Most of the pictures I took personally unless noted otherwise

(Photo Source: Shadowcatcher photography)

I love how lantern hang in the trees and there are all these special spots and benches to enjoy your surroundings.

How great does this pool look? It makes me want to go for a swim!

Our ceremony site is on the Aragon Lawn. I’m so excited for this because at first we didn’t know if we could actually have this particular site** (see at the end for the full story). Here is the ceremony location from afar…

Here is a closeup version. The black trellace has vines and those lantern I love hanging from it. Each side is surrounded by white rose bushes and park benches. The pictures really don’t do it justice.

The cocktail hour will take place on the terrace outside the reception ballroom. The terrace is a shaded area that overlooks the golf course. There are french doors that open from the ballroom. These aren’t the best pictures, but you can get an idea.

Outside our ballroom we have our own private bar area that will be a part of the cocktail hour and somewhere to gather that is inside. Isn’t it cute?

Hung C Tran Blog

From the bar area is the entrance to the Bernardo Ballroom, where our reception will be held. The ballroom has high ceilings with wood beams, wrought iron chandeliers and french doors that open up onto the terrace where the cocktail hours was. It has that simple, rustic and can be molded into our vision for the day.

Photo from San Diego Style Weddings

Photo from Here Comes the Guide

Well that’s all the pictures I have for now. I will try looking for more pictures of actual weddings that have taken place there so you can get a better idea of what everything looks like.

I called Mark from the location describing each detail and the feel I had from being there. He was excited and told me he was supportive of whatever I decided. After deciding this was “the one” we worked with the manager to negotiate the specifics including the Aragon lawn and other details. Before signing the contract Mark and I went to the Rancho Bernardo Inn together so that he could see it in person. He loved it as well (other than the fact than I had coffee spilled all over him from our drive over, so he was very uncomfortable) and we signed turned the contract in before we left the hotel.

So what did I learn?

• That I needed to be willing to compromise. No, I was not getting the coastal location I had originally envisioned, but many of the places I had looked at were coastal regions with no views anyway. I do not have an unlimited budget and I needed to be reasonable.
• Patience, persistence and honesty pays off. During our search I felt so frustrated and at certain times wondered if it would ever work out. However, we did eventually find the location we wanted and were able to make the guarantees (the Aragon lawn) that were important.
• The most important thing is that at the end of the day Mr. Ducky and I will be married and I get to spend the rest of my life with the most amazing man in the world. This sounds so cheesy, but it’s an important thing to remember when I get stressed or disappointed during the wedding planning part.

Have you learned any important lessons along the way of wedding planning? When has your patience paid off?

**The Aragon lawn was actually not supposed to be guaranteed for our ceremony site. The lawn is attached to the fancy Aragon conference center. I would only be able to use the lawn if the conference center was not in use the day of the wedding and that would not be confirmed until weeks before. They could not guarantee the lawn and I’d have to reserve one of the other ceremony sites. I liked the other ceremony sites, but did not love them like I did the Aragon lawn. Well long story short I was honest with my catering manager about my feelings and budget (I could not afford to rent out the conference center for the wedding) and she totally worked with me. I had to be flexible on my date, but it worked out. So be patient and persistent for what is really important to you.

Are you tired of all these “Searching” posts? Well maybe it is a glimpse of how we were feeling that weekend. We were all tired and starting to wonder when we would find what we loved. There were locations we liked, but something did not seem right in one way or another.

So our last location to check out that weekend was the Estancia La Jolla. The hotel is on the Torrey Pines Golf Course which is right by the coast and also home to the Lodge at Torrey Pines and the Del Mar Hilton, which are 2 other beautiful locations (out of our budget). When we drove up the Estancia it was basically love at first site. We loved everything about the place. It had its own unique rustic feel, a gorgeous ceremony site, didn’t feel touristy and we liked the ballroom. We basically were ready to declare it “the one.” It seemed from the menu pricing we could even squeeze it into our budget. However, after talking to the catering manager the next day we discovered the minimum was way higher than we thought. Even if we did the event on a Friday or Sunday it would be a stretch to meet the food and beverage minimum. We were sooo sad!!! We tried negotiating something to work out but it just was not destined to be. However, I’ll share with you some pictures from the location.

Photos from Here Comes the Guide

Photo from Jules Bianchi

So the Estancia La Jolla was not meant to be, that’s okay I still recommend it for anyone that is looking for an awesome location. After moving on from the Estancia La Jolla I continued onward in my venue search. Don’t worry…pretty quickly after I found the perfect location and I can’t wait to share it with you!

I wanted to go through some helpful questions that helped us narrow down our venues and get important information:

• What are your minimums for events? Is it different for different days of the week?
• May I see your catering menu?
• Do you have a fee for the location on top of catering costs?
• Do you have facilities for the wedding party to get ready in?
• Can I bring in my own vendors? Do you have any limitations?
• Is there handicap access for elderly guests?
• How much does it cost to upgrade linens & chairs?
• What parking is available for our guests? valet? costs? (We were quoted $30 a car at one location!)
• How many weddings do you do in a day?
• How long do we have the venue for? When can we start set up? When do we have to be cleaned up by?
• Do you offer hotel block discounts for wedding guests?

I hope that these few posts have been helpful. I took a lot of time to research ahead of time, but then some of it came down to actually going to the place and seeing it in person.

Alright so continuing on the journey of finding our perfect location from where I left off. ( Be sure to read Part I if you haven’t already.)

Mr. Ducky, my parents and I were touring all over San Diego to find our ideal location for the wedding. It was becoming a little frustrating, but we kept going in the hopes that our search would come to an end. (Note: I would not take everyone on this “outing” if I were to do it again. It started becoming a little stressful with so many opinions)

The Crossings Carlsbad
Another location we really liked was The Crossings Carlsbad. It’s a newer location site in San Diego is actually the clubhouse for a public golf course. Their pricing is super reasonable and they have some great packages. While our group would fit, it would be a tight squeeze and we would have to seat some of our guests in separate room connected to the main reception area. Because we didn’t want to have to “separate” a portion of our guests we had to keep looking. (Photos are from their website)

Inn at Rancho Santa Fe
Inn at Rancho Santa Fe is another beautiful location in San Diego. A few years ago some close friends got married here and I loved it. It’s kind of quaint and just really personal. As a personal preference Mr. Ducky really wanted an indoor reception. They have a ballroom, but it is on the smaller size and would not fit a group of our size. So that is our main reasoning for not choosing this location. Also, I have some friends/acquaintances that are getting married here in the next year and for a few of my guests I’d be the 3rd/4th wedding of the year in this location and I thought that was weird. They have a beautiful outdoor reception area and if you are looking for more of a garden wedding I’d recommend looking here. There is big tree that many of the ceremonies take place under and the surroundings are so sweet. I think it is also important to note that the catering managers here seem really great to work with.




Photos from The Knot

The Prado Balboa
The Prado in Balboa, was a little further south in San Diego than we originally wanted. However, weddings there looked so beautiful in the pictures that I just had to look. I really liked that the ballroom was unique and didn’t look like a standard hotel ballroom. When we arrived the location was filled with people and despite the beautiful pictures it did not seem at all private. Above the ceremony location is a restaurant where people would be sitting which took away from the beauty of it. Also, they do several weddings a day here and are on a pretty tight schedule of cycling them through. I really did not like this idea of packing them in (although I am sure it is efficient) so we crossed this location off our list. But you can see in the pictures how pretty it is.

Pictures from Here Comes the Guide

Coming next: Part III and the location that we thought was “the one”

The choice of your ceremony and location is a big decision. It is where a large part of the budget goes and will help set the atmosphere for guests. Your location can be really formal or traditional, really casual and laid back or somewhere in between.

After I finished summer school last year our big thing on the “to do list” was to set the ceremony and location. We knew we wanted to get married in San Diego and I began to research.

Here is some of the criteria we started with:

• Able to accommodate 225-250 people
• Ceremony and Reception at the same location: We did not want our guests to have to drive in between or worry about people getting lost. In Mr. Ducky and I’s experience it is really nice when it’s a “one stop shop.” We also have elderly guests and wanted to make travel as easy as possible
• The place did not require us to use their pastors or pay extra to use their own officiant
• We preferred an outdoor ceremony
• Somewhere coastal would be wonderful
• Not too far south in San Diego as we had a lot of guests coming in just for the day from Orange County and LA (This made it difficult as many of the gorgeous locations in San Diego are further south in Mission Bay, downtown and Coronado)
• Not your usual big conference room: Mr. Ducky and I have done a lot of event planning and wanted to something kind of different that had the “energy” and charm.
• Affordable!

Before we even visited a location I basically investigated every venue in San Diego. (So if you are considering San Diego please let me know because I have a lot of information!) A tough point was the size of our group. A lot of the smaller and more unique locations had max. capacities of 180 or lower. San Diego is an expensive area to get married in and I found that some of my favorite locations were going to exceed our budget. However, one weekend Mr. Ducky, my parents and I went out to go look at some locations in person that seemed promising. I didn’t take pictures myself (I know I’m horrible and forgot my camera) but I was able to find some pictures with research.

Disclaimer: I wrote some mini reviews about our experiences and opinions about the different sites. Please only take them as that and that they may not fit your own opinions about these locations. While each site is wonderful, they did not quite fit what we working for and I tried to describe why in the summaries below.

La Costa Resort and Spa

Picture from Here Comes the Guide

Picture from The Wedding Compass
For those of you that aren’t familiar with La Costa Resort and Spa it is a luxury resort in San Diego and is basically a mini city. I had not realized how much it had grown since I was last there. There were a couple of things at La Costa that did not work for us. First, their regular ceremony site did not seem as wonderful as the rest of the resort. It was pretty small in between hotel rooms and there was a road in the back. They said there would be no cars on it, but I thought the black asphalt still looked odd. There is the orchid terrace for ceremony sites that overlooks the golf course, but it cost quite a bit extra and wasn’t really above and beyond our expectations to pay for that. There was one ballroom that would accommodate our group size and it was nice, but they couldn’t turn the lights on so we didn’t get the best look. The big thing that made us decide against it was how “touristy” it was. Mark did not want to have a bunch or random hotel guests onlooking or our guests having to go through the busy shop areas to get to the ceremony and location sites. I think we decided that after this location, something a little more private was important. If you want to see more pictures here is a slide show I found from the Wedding Compass.

La Jolla Woman’s Club


La Jolla Woman’s Club is a great venue down in La Jolla near the ocean that was very affordable. It is actually a historical site so it’s a little older but has a lot of charm. (My Aunt and Uncles wedding reception was here and according to my parents it still looks the same!) You can bring in catering, rentals everything. We like the site but the main problem was it would be a real tight squeeze to fit our group. We’d have to have the ceremony on the front lawn (as opposed to the side garden where smaller ceremonies take place) which was right next to a busy street where people were walking. The cocktail hour would be split in two locations and even the reception would be tight. If you are having a smaller wedding and want a simple charming location to bring all your own vendors to, I recommend you check this out.

Four Seasons Aviara



Photos from Here Comes the Guide

Photo from Jennifer Dery Photography

This venue was beautiful, especially the ceremony site! It was simply too expensive. One of the assistants showed us around and told us to plan on spending $200-250 per person on food and beverage alone. This did not include a crazy expensive minimum for a Saturday night event. Also, the assistant that showed us around was kind of “snobby” but the main director I talked to before seemed much nicer. If you have a big budget I recommend it. It’s a little more formal and traditional but very pretty. All of the pictures I have seen from weddings here turn out beautifully!!

So based on these few locations our “criteria” was changing. We wanted something more private that was sheltered from public onlookers and hotel guests. An indoor reception area was a “must” so that we would not have to worry about Mark or our guests overheating during the summer. Also, we wanted to find a location with a great staff that we felt like would be enjoyable to work with.

So stay tuned for Part II…

What do you think so far? Did you find your criteria changing as you looked at different sites?

Today is Mark and I’s 3 year anniversary of dating! (Although the specifics of the day are to be debated…)  In honor of that day I figured I should tell you a little bit about our story and how we came to be. Once upon a time…just kidding not that cheese ball! There are lots of funny details and stories, but I’ll try to do a speed version.

Mark and I met my Freshman year at Pepperdine when he was transferring in as Junior.  We both rushed a fraternity and a sorority.  Sure enough Mark’s big bro asked me to be Mark’s little sis during his fraternity pledging process.  This basically meant that I would bring him cookies every one in a while and then we would forever be in the same “greek family.”  (Weird I know, but it makes sense if you have ever been in a sorority or fraternity) However, despite our interaction though greek events and mutual friends we never connected in a romantic way.  I thought he was cute, but kind of a flirt and he thought I was just shy.  What is funny is we actually have lots of pictures from that year being at the same events, taking “family pictures,” and participating in our school Songfest event.

(I don’t have any of those pictures uploaded, so here is one from when he was elected “Anchor Man” by my sorority, but we were already dating.)

So the next year at Pepperdine I went overseas to study abroad in London for the year and Mark was still at Pepperdine. My year in London was absolutely amazing. (I still miss London daily) In that year I had a lot of growth and change in all my travel experiences with new cultures and new people. Mark was still at Pepperdine and was originally supposed to graduate, but ended up needing to stay an extra year since Pepperdine did not accept all of his transfer credits. I think in that year Mark and I both were blessed to have some experiences that made us mature in different ways that would set us up for the following year.

When I got back to Pepperdine my Junior year I jumped right back in to all of my activities, psych major and catching up w/ friends that I had not seen for the year. One night my friend Hayley (my MOH) and I went to a birthday party. It was there that Mark and I first met again and immediately clicked (good thing he had to stay for the extra year). Not necessarily in a romantic way, but “Hey you are fun!” kind of way. After that we kept running into each other. He lived next door to Hayley and was good friends with some of my roommates’ boyfriends. We went to a date dash for my sorority together, but he went with my roommate and I went with his. However, he did impress me with the way he was strangely very good at roller skating…I on the other hand was continuously falling on my butt. (No not b/c I was drinking…just no roller skating skills) Anyways lots of hanging out, enjoying each other’s company and me letting my guard down around him.

(Picture is from the birthday party where we first reconnected that year)

Eventually after a month of hanging out Mark finally texted me after class one night and said “Hey I’m picking you up, meet me in the parking lot.” Being my naive self I thought he and I were going to Starbucks to get my favorite pumpkin spice latte I had mentioned earlier as my “after class plans.” Nope no pumpkin lattes…we went to dinner at a nearby restaurant and thus our dating experience began. Mark shortly after threw a Halloween party to get me over to his house, took me on a roller skating date with his fraternity, to a crab leg dinner at Dukes, a day at the Getty museum and many other fun dates. I had never been so excited to see someone and looking forward to the next time we would hang out. We never had a “DTR” (defining the relationship moment), we wanted to be able to have constantly open communication so we just sort of became exclusive and official…

Now there is a story behind why October 17 is our anniversary.
One night Mark said to me “Hey why is Oct 17 special?”
I replied, “I don’t know it is sort of around when we started dating.”
Mark: “What do you mean sort of…It is”
Me: “No we started a week after that date, I know it”
Mark: Yes
Me: No
more of the same…
Mark: Lets rock paper scissors…I’m right and it is Oct 17, you are right and you can go home and check your color coded planner to see when the actual date is
Mark and Michelle: rock paper scissorsX3 for best of 3
Mark: I win it is Oct 17 for our anniversary!
Me: Fine, it’s Oct 17 but I am still checking
Me: (later that night) Yep checked my calendar it really was the 24th, but we will celebrate Oct 17 since you won…

Thus how our anniversary is now October 17th and any tough decision is still made with a game of “Rock Paper Scissors”

(Picture from Hawaii a year ago and one of Mark’s favorites)

I think that is enough of our story for now, at least you have the beginning and I may tell more later. In the last few years we have both graduated, started jobs, for me starting graduate school, gotten engaged and now are in the final year before getting married.  Today is our last “dating” anniversary before we are married! Crazy!

Happy Anniversary Mark! I love you!

So since things are kind of crazy today with school (its midterm time) and work I don’t have time to post. But I did want to at least direct you to some of my favorite blogs in case you need some inspiration…

Style Me Pretty is featuring pink wedding details this week in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Be sure to check today as she is featuring pink flowers. I love the bouquet on the left below!

Need an inspiration board? Go check out Snippet and Ink
I love the soft blues of today’s inspiration board.

I love getting inspiration and DIY ideas from Once Wed. Today there are directions on how to DIY these adorable pinwheels. Also, if you are looking to buy a dress online be sure to check the listings on Once Wed for some awesome deals.

On the Ritzy Bee blog there are some great ideas on how to throw a “Survivor Soiree” for breast cancer. I love some of the ideas.

Do you love looking at Real Weddings? The Bride’s Cafe features beautiful weddings on almost a daily basis. The wedding today has some great uses of yellow, be sure to look at the bride’s shoes!

Hope that helps direct you to some of my favorite blogs if you have not already discovered them.  Have a good day!