Color Inspiration

I am totally inspired by these colors for our own wedding! Perhaps not the yellow of the napkins and jelly beans but those peaches, pinks, pale yellow, and creams are just fantastic and absolutely perfect!

{ Photos by Shelly Kroeger Photography via Southern Weddings }

Greeting Card

Congratulations Joy!

UPrinting should be in touch with you within the next few days with info on how to claim your free business cards. I'm excited to see how they turn out!

Engaged!

More engagement photos!



































{ photos by Punam Bean }

Smile to Yourself

We had our engagement shoot!!!!!!

Our photographer, Punam Bean, took the trip all the way from New York out to our home in Nazareth, PA. It was an insane morning, cleaning the house, picking out what to wear, getting my makeup done, and finalizing other little details (among other things, I wanted to make a flower pin to match my shoes and Nala totally needed a cuter collar), so it was a relief once Punam arrived and we were able to relax a bit.

She helped us decide on outfits and although we had originally planned on doing the shoot around town, she made the call to do 90% the shoot at our house (SO GLAD now that we did a major clean of the house). Mr. was still pretty nervous, but once Punam ordered us to cuddle in bed he realized that this whole photo thing would be easier than he thought! Instead of it being totally awkward as Mr. had imagined (there were no "ok, say cheese!" "and hold that pose...hold it...keep smiling...hold it..."), she made us feel like pros and helped us along the way, giving us prompts for discussions which elicited different expressions, making it much more natural and more genuine. I never felt like I was forcing any emotions, just truly enjoying the time with Mr., Nala, and Punam (yes, Nala made some shots!! Way excited to see those).

Since almost all the photos were taken in film, we still won't see them for a little bit, but the photos we have seen are awesome and make us so excited to see the rest!



{ photo by Punam Bean }

I do have to say that although the entire day and experience were amazing, the best part was spending almost 6 hours straight cuddling with my future husband. I definitely feel like the experience brought us even closer and we have made it a point to have more "us" time, no matter how busy we are.

April Giveaway!*

Isn't it nice to get a card in the mail? Whether it's a birthday card, a holiday card, a thank you note...there's just something really nice about getting an actual card in the mail!

This is a new giveaway for me...once again from UPrinting.com, this time they are offering custom greeting cards!

The Prize:













(50 ct.) 7 x 5" (folded to 3.5 x 5") Custom Thank You Cards with 4 Baronial Blank Envelopes
14 pt Cardstock Gloss coating
Full Color Outside and Blank Inside
Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only. Must be 18 years old and up.

How to win?
Leave a comment here telling me what you'd use the thank you cards for. An additional entry (leave a separate comment please) if you are a follower or become a follower!
Make sure to leave your email address so I can contact you!! If you do not leave any contact information I will not be able to include you in the drawing.

Winner will be chosen at random using random.org on April 27th and will be announced April 28th.

Good luck!

*This is a sponsored post.

Our Shower!

We knew it was coming, just not when, where, how, or what.

We were supposed to be meeting my mom for a long overdue trip to get some wings when a last minute location change made us somewhat suspicious. Wings at a hotel? Um, ok mom. Only, when we pulled into the parking lot, Mr. named every single car there: “Hey, that’s my parents’ car…your mom’s, Aunt Candy & Uncle Billy, Ferd & Larisa…” and so on, and so on.

Add on top of that…when we got inside mom took us to a ballroom outside of which sat a sign, “Kyle & Christen’s Couple’s Shower”.

Uh huh, this was it! We walked inside and saw all our immediate family (some of which drove hours and hours to get there!) and some of our parents’ close friends. How cool!

My mom reads my blog and had done her best to use everything that I said I liked to decorate for the event. Blues and browns everywhere, it really was beautiful! Blue and tan paper lanterns hung from the ceiling,

Even her version of Amy Atlas’ dessert tables!

They served my mom’s famous mint iced tea lemonade (I always know it’s summer when she serves it!) as well as a bunch of desserts made by different members of our families.

My uncle Jim and my mom made lovely speeches. My mom explained to everyone how I have been blogging about our wedding planning (thanks for keeping it a secret, mom :P ), and how she tried to do everything I liked for the shower, even telling everyone about my floral design shower post…only to announce that our florist was coming and going to give a floral arranging class!! Now THAT was a surprise!!!

Sarah from Allium Designs is awesome and I can’t wait for her to do our wedding flowers. She gave us a quick tutorial with some tips and tricks and then circled around helping us all out as we made arrangements of our own. Even most of the guys made arrangements!

The best part about the class wasn’t that we all got to bring something home afterwards, but rather how it completely squashed any sort of awkwardness of the event and brought both families together. People were meeting and talking to new people, working together, getting each others’ opinions, showing off and complimenting the floral masterpieces (ok, sorta) we had all created.

Me, my mom, my fantastic bridesmaid Megan, and our creations!

Everyone and their masterpieces!

If anyone is considering this idea for their shower, I would say TOTALLY DO IT!!!! It was a perfect activity for the afternoon, especially for the bride who isn’t the “just sit around all afternoon and play embarrassing games” type. What started out to be a somewhat awkward gathering turned into a true celebration by the end. It was such an amazing day. The fact that we got presents was neat, but totally not as neat as the feeling of seeing every single person of both families happy and truly enjoying themselves and the afternoon.

{ all photos courtesy of my aunt }

Off to NYC for some wedding details!

Tomorrow my mom and I are going to NYC to pick up my dress! It’s been quite some time since the two of us spent some real quality time together so we’re going to make a day of it. On the to-do list aside from seeing my dress and getting some Vietnamese food:

* Check out prices of linen fabric in the garment district (for DIY table runners)

{photos via this post and Southern Weddings}

* Stop in H&M to check out their Garden Collection – still trying to find outfits for our engagement shoot in 2 weeks!

{images via H&M}

* Visit Regina B’s showroom to be inspired by their hair combs (thanks Mo!) and hopefully find a pretty mother of pearl one within my price range.

{photos via Regina B.}

* Fifth Avenue to visit a friend and to get inspiration for some fierce wedding shoes

{image via Bergdorf}

Way cute, and even more way out of budget.

I’m still in disbelief that I’m going to be trying on MY wedding dress tomorrow. Not a sample, but THE dress I’ll be wearing on our wedding day! Too cool.

Anyone have any other suggestions of wedding shopping spots in NYC we should hit?