Advent Guest Blog!

I did a guest post for my dear friend Ryn at Styled By Ryn!
She'll have advent posts all month so keep checking her out and show her some love!
You can follow her in instagram as well @rynb and look at her Etsy shop Maude C.!

You can check out her blog here.

Fall Party!

Some Jack O' Lanterns I made. Templates here.

I want to get this out there before Thanksgiving is over and the world prepares for Christmas!
My extracurricular activities (such as updating this blog) have been seriously hampered by the fact that I am now in school. I am studying Graphic Design at the Art Institute AND continuing my full time job. I am definitely excited for Christmas break!!!

I had a fall costume party and wanted to share some of the decorations I made.
My goal was to make it fun and fall but not Halloween-ey. I found this styled shoot and that was it!

Unfortunately, I was so focused on getting my costume together after school and before the party that I didn't get very great pictures of the set up.

Here are the shots from the styled shoot by Love Me Sailor, Mr. Caballero, and Geronimo Balloons in L.A. originally posted by 100 Layer Cake.

I mean. Beautiful right?!

I ordered one chocolate brown and one orange 30" balloon from balloonsfast.com and these gold foil baking cups, borrowed all of my mom's silver serving dishes, and decided to make everything else for the decor.

I plan to write up a tutorial for the balloon tassels soon and will link it here.

I had orange crush to drink with gold pipe cleaner curls, some beautiful french macaroons that I found at Trader Joe's, a tassel garland made from gold ribbon and tissue paper tassels, a silver bowl of clementines, and Gluten Free chocolate cupcakes (this recipe but with GF all purpose flour) with salted caramel buttercream icing (this recipe with coarse salt sprinkled on top).

A couple other people brought caramel apples and some fall doughnuts and we had a sweet time of it!

I also whipped up a vanilla cake with the help of a friend's recipe and cake frosting tools because there were a couple birthdays coming up.

For the cake topper, I cut triangles of brown paper, wrote Happy Birthday on them with gold paint marker, threaded them through with white embroidery floss, and tied them to kabob skewers.
The cake is decorated with gold stars and edible glitter.

I dressed up as Frida Kahlo complete with a light unibrow and mustache:

Happy Autumn Everyone!! (Even though it's pretty much over…)

Mark Your Calendar!

My (now husband) hates the term 'Save The Date'. So we didn't have those to prepare people for our wedding, we had 'Mark Your Calendar's. :)

I was going to do away with them all together because everyone that needed to know our date early for travel plans, etc. already knew so I considered it an unnecessary expense. However, my darling had such a good idea and was so excited that I liked the idea as well that I felt we had to send them.

My husband could be termed, what I refer to as, an Über Nerd. He has extensive knowledge of space travel, past and present, listens to lectures and podcasts on astro physics for entertainment, enjoys tinkering with legos on a regular basis, reads comic books (Marvel not DC... heaven forbid you should confuse the two), etc. I love all of these things about him and encourage him not to hide his 'nerdy' interests. (He also is an avid mountain biker, has his private pilot's license, and has other more active (and expensive) hobbies. I love a very multi faceted man).

With that explanation through, he suggested using a comic book cover with likenesses of us as our Save The Date Mark Your Calendar. I had him pick a cover he liked and my art school sister went at it in Photoshop.

I had it printed on post cards with our wedding date info on the back (I used Alphagraphics and picked them up locally) and we received a huge amount of positive feedback! And my husband was so excited that I used his idea. Win win!!

Here is the original cover that we chose:

The Defenders #4

And here is ours:

Pretty good for amateur work, no? (notice the ring detail)

Here's a pic of us for reference:

My Perfect Fireworks-less Wedding Dress

I had a very interesting time with my wedding dress. I was hoping for an obvious, tearful, fireworks moment when I put on 'the one' but I never got that. If this is the case with you, don't feel like there's something wrong with you (or your dress selection!). You definitely shouldn't have to settle, but not everyone has that magical moment. I read an article that I wish I had bookmarked that helped me a lot. It said that sometimes what makes the dress special and 'THE dress' is that it's the dress you've chosen to get married in. It's not always the dress itself that is inherently meaningful, it's the meaning you give it. I clung to that when I was going through my wedding dress journey.

I really didn't know what I wanted starting out but as I began trying on gowns, I quickly started seeing what I didn't want with no noticeable pattern as to be any help at all. I realized that I probably wasn't going to find something that I liked off the rack. It was going to take some customizing before I really felt like it was 'me'. After several dress shop visits, I eventually decided that I wanted a fairly poufy dress with a calf length high/low hemline so I could swing dance at the reception.

I ended up making an appointment at the last minute for a sample sale at Bliss Bridal Salon in Fort Worth, TX. The girls that worked with me were personal, cheerful, and upbeat and, since it was a sample sale, the prices were very reasonable.
I cannot emphasis clearly how anti-climactic my decision moment was. When I had the dress on, I felt pretty and comfortable. There were lots of other dresses that I had tried on that looked good on me but were just inexplicably wrong. Basically, this was the first one I had tried that wasn't a 'no' so I went for it! I was so nervous about my decision that as soon as I got in the car I burst into tears. I think it was partially relief at having that huge decision over, but also how unsure I was because I didn't have 'a moment'. My mom didn't burst into tears when she saw the dress, I didn't get misty eyed. I just calmly said, "Yeah. This one's good". And there it was. The material was my favorite part. It had a natural linen-like quality while remaining sheer and dainty. It's hard to see that in the photos.

The gown I chose: Watters Austin

The dress I bought was several sizes too large and full length with a train so next were the alterations. That in itself was a journey! They made a mistake on the hem and the high and low were not centered. After they removed the whole bodice from the skirt and centered the levels (also waving the fee for the whole thing) I finally had my dress!

The article I read was right. The fact that it was MY DRESS made it so special!! And my husband loved it!

My sisters helping me get my dress on

My shoes are Poetic Licence. I had custom ankle straps made.

My veil was custom made by GlamorByDesign

First Dance

She lives!

Aha! I'm still alive!
I've been married for almost 5 months now and it looks like I'm ready to rejoin the world again. :)
I am loving being married and we have been spending all our free time doing nothing together which, after a year of wedding planning, has been EXACTLY what we both needed.

My excitement has been building about posting all the DIY projects I did for my wedding to the point that I can't wait any longer!
For a little sample of how it all turned out, check out where we were featured on Green Wedding Shoes.

It was a huge honor to be featured as I had looked at a lot of the Real Weddings on the GWS blog for ideas while planning our wedding, which basically ended up being my Pinterest board come to life! (And I'm not ashamed to admit it)

Of course, I could not have done half of what we did without the help of my amazing friends and family. It really was a group effort. I can't say enough what talented and amazing friends I have!!!

<3 Caitlin

Engagement Photos

Here is a sampling of our engagement photos!
Our friends were gracious enough to let us do the shoot with their Stearman bi-plane.

Please go and visit the wonderful, amazing Evie Marie Photography's site to see the other stunning photos that she has taken! Better yet, hire her for your next photo opportunity! In addition to being over-the-top talented, she is a dear friend of mine.

(click on photos to see them larger)

Onward

We are getting so close to our wedding date!! Only 74 days!! So many things are coming together so beautifully. I have such wonderful help and support! Now, that doesn't mean I haven't had a few tearful moments of frustration and stress or at least one night of actively and purposefully casting my worries and cares on Jesus so I can get some sleep (1 Peter 5:7). It has been an exercise in refusing to fret or let worry and stress take over and choosing to trust. And deciding to think about how thankful I am that my Father is almighty and He loves me so much, has put such wonderful people in my life, and wants my wedding to be wonderful (Psalm 37:4). So in spite of what is still not settled, I know that everything is going to work out wonderfully and my wedding will be a beautiful testimony of how wonderful and lovely my God is.

With that written, please agree with me in prayer that any issues with our venue will be settled now. I know that my God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20).


Linking up for Living the Journey:




A photo of me and my perfect fiancé from our engagement session: