No excuses...well, maybe just two biggies...

So sorry readers!! I have been so so SO negligent. And for that I apologize.  As the title suggests, two big things are happening in my life (ok maybe just one big thing).  First, and I may have mentioned this before, is that I got a second job.  I have been searching for quite some time now and I finally got one.  So I have been busy getting trained while still subbing during the day.  Once the holidays start rolling around, I will officially be working from 8 in the morning until 11:30 at night. Yup. Life will be rough.  But its only for this year.  I needed a second income for when I start student teaching (stupid student loans) and we've got a wedding to pay for!!  

And wanna hear the second big thing that's taking up all my time? Drum roll please......

Mr. Dizzy and I are going to buy a house!!!

Aghhfksjgajdghh!!!

This was a spur of the moment decision that was made after we turned in an application for a rental house. Once all the adults in our lives realized how much we were going to be paying each month in rent, EVERYONE, including my parents, strongly encouraged that we look into buying a house instead.  So we looked into it and found that, yea, we would be idiots to not buy right now.  With the help of a friend, we got hooked up with an amazing, and I mean AMAZING real estate agent and lender! And here we are, in the very beginning stages of looking for a house! We just got pre-approved for a loan so we are officially shopping!! HOW CRAZY! I never thought we would buy a house this early but I am not complaining.  

I will try my hardest to keep up on this.  If it makes you feel better, I have not even thought about the wedding this whole past month.  (yikes! I have a sneaking suspicion things are going to start creeping up on me!)

Have big things ever completely consumed your lives? Is there anyone else out there taking advantage of all those first time home buyer's perks out there? Did anyone else buy a house a lot sooner than they thought they would?

Best Man Toast with a Short Bride Roast

Because I am so darn proud of Mr. Dizzy's work, I just had to share his toast! He got so many laughs and compliments!

Best Man Speech

Hi, my name is __Mr. Dizzy__, for those of you who don’t know me I’m the groom’s younger brother.

I wanted to start off by thanking everyone involved in making this day special.

As many of you know, __Groom__ has quite the list of accomplishments. I would like to highlight a few now:

__Groom__’s Accomplishments

* First Born

* First Born Male (Able to trade on the family name).

* High School and College Athlete

* Attended The Air Force Academy

* Was awarded MVP of the National Champion Air Force Academy Rugby Team

* First to Get Married

So with this amazing resume, it was very nice of him to allow me, for one day, to be the best man.

Now, growing up, __Groom__ and I had a dicey relationship. It was __Groom__’s duty as an older brother to torment me, and my duty as a younger brother to get __Groom__ into trouble, whether he had done anything or not. With this type of relationship, you can guess, that I learned how to annoy him. I’m amazing at it. I don’t have to look at him, talk to him, I don’t even have to be in the same room as him and I can annoy him. In fact, I am using my Jedi mind powers to annoy him right now. 

So __Bride__, I would love to stand up here at give you advice on how to make my brother happy, but the fact remains that I have no idea how to do that.

 But, you are my new sister, and I want to welcome you to the family, so I’m going to do it the only way I know how. __Bride__, prepare to be annoyed. I’d like to talk about all the things that I don’t like about __Bride__.

Things I don’t like

1. When __Groom__ started dating __Bride__, he decided he was from Texas. Really? Texas? Where is the Montana Pride.

2. She is a better __Family name__ than I am. She can stand up to my sisters. Case in point: Before our family reunion two years ago my sisters provided a list of requirements for __Bride__ on facebook. Let me read off a few of them and __Bride__’s responses.

__FSIL-M__ Wrote: Here are ways your girlfriend can win over your sisters (including __Mr. Dizzy__). . .

Don't spend an hour doing your hair and makeup if we are going to do something outdoorsy!

__Bride__ Responded: -my hair is a mess more days than it is actually fixed

__FSIL-M__  Wrote: Don't treat __FSIL-T__ like a child.

__Bride__ Responded: I don't think this will be a problem

__FSIL-M__  Wrote: Drink a lot and have fun. Get a little crazy, but not annoying!

__Bride__ Responded: I hope you like tequila

3. The third thing I don’t like about __Bride__: When __Bride__ and __Groom__ came to visit in Montana for Thanksgiving, __Bride__ voluntarily shoveled the sidewalk. I never voluntarily shovel the sidewalk. Don’t do that it makes me look bad.

4. But when I sat down to figure out things I didn’t like about __Bride__, it was hard. Which, ironically is the fourth thing that I don’t like about her.

But in all reality __Bride__ is an awesome girl and I am excited to welcome a new sister into the family. I know you’ll fit in great, and I’m looking forward to the family adventures to come. Before I wrap things up I wanted to give you guys some advice for a happy marriage. No I don’t speak from experience, I speak from Wikipedia.

Advice

* Choose your battles, you don’t have to be right all the time

* Don’t go to bed angry

* Don’t sweat the small stuff

* Don’t come home drunk with a dead body

* Always remember how much you love each other right now in this room.

In closing, I’m pleased to say that, __Groom__, it’s time for your mission to torment me to come to an end. You have a new mission now. To make __Bride__ the happiest woman on earth, and I’m confident you will succeed. So finally please raise your glasses to __Groom__ and __Bride__. I can speak for everyone in this room when I say we all wish you the happiness that you deserve.


~~~~~


Isn't that great? Lots of good humor but really sweet at the end.  So perfect!! Nice job Mr. Dizzy! 


Did anyone else sortof grill the bride in a best man speech? What do you think is better... having a memorize speech or reading it from a paper?

Wedding in Texas

 Why hello again! It has been awhile, yes? I almost hate going this long without writing because I get overwhelmed with all the things I need to write! This post will simply recap FBIL’s wedding I suppose. And I apologize...none of these are my pictures! Thank you Facebook.

On Thursday, after two flights and a layover in Denver, Mr. Dizzy and I met one of his sisters in the San Antonio airport.  We shall call her FSIL-M with the M standing for Montana because, yep you guessed it, she lives in Montana. Creative, I know. We got our rental car – a Queen Victoria – which was apparently a quadruple upgrade (man I would hate to see what our original was), and we proceeded to head down to Corpus Christi.  It broke my little heart driving past all the signs directing tourists to the Alamo but we were anxious to see Mr. Dizzy’s family.

{The Alamo exit. Ah my parents made me such a history nerd}

Image via AA Roads

Now Texas was not at all what I expected.  Don’t get me wrong, I heard a ton of ‘y’alls’ and saw a lot of BBQ and Mexican food shacks but I am talking about the landscape. I’m always incredibly embarrassed when I realize how naïve and unaware I am of other places.  For example, I expected to be eating Mexican food while I was in Chile.  I would soon come to find out they had no idea what Mexican food even was (Have you ever had enchiladas?? “Que? Ensalada?” No, enchiladas…never mind).  And when I went to the Hamptons, I was expecting Newport Beach with tons of palm trees.  What did it look like? Well nothing like Newport Beach and nooo palm trees.

{Newport Beach}

 Image via Newport Villas

{Beach on the Hamptons}

Image via Healthy Happy Life

You would think I would learn when my preconceived thoughts about places are constantly disproved. But no…I keep generalizing movie sets to real places.  So of course I showed up to Texas expecting to see dust, cacti, and tumbleweeds (hence the picture on my last post – totally busted) but instead found a lot of green trees and brush.  Squatty trees but trees nonetheless.

{No cactus. boo.}

Image via AA Roads

And those squatty trees were the only thing I saw for our 2 hour drive.  We get to Corpus Christi and meet up with the rest of his fam and have dinner at seafood joint chock full of character.  

Image via Caller.com

 I had to order the gumbo…I was on the Gulf y’all! After dinner we drove north to Rockport where we checked into our hotel, the Lighthouse Inn.  The view was pretty sweet from our room…the bay was literally right out our window! 

Image via Picasa

Friday morning we all just hung out around the pool waiting for Mr. Dizzy’s extended family to get into town.  All of us “kids” went out and got some Texas BBQ. Mmmm yum. We pretty much just hung out at the hotel visiting for the rest of the day.  That evening, I accompanied the wedding party to their rehearsal and dinner.  We went to a little place called Moondog and they put us on a deck above the restaurant for our private party. 

{Sweet party deck, no?!}

Image via Texas Outside

It was a casual low-key dinner with really yummy food (FISH TACOS!!).  See the cute menus they made?

Image via Facebook

FBIL and his fiancé passed out their gifts to the wedding party.  For the guys, they got monogramed toiletries bags from Eddie Bauer (pretty good idea if you ask me) and for the girls, monogrammed bags with lotion and an anklet. Mr. Dizzy loved his gift and proceeded to literally throw away his old toiletry bag that night.

{The whole rehearsal dinner gang}

Image via Facebook

Saturday was the big day!! We got up that morning and sorta split up for the day.  Mr. Dizzy stayed with FBIL and watched football. 

{Go Broncos!!}

Image via Facebook

  I went to the bride’s room and watched the girls as they got their hair and makeup done. All in all, it was a pretty slow moving day.  A lot of hurry up and wait.  Around 5:45 in the evening, I walked down with Mr. Dizzy’s cousin to the ceremony at Fulton Mansion (literally a block away from the hotel).  

Image via Facebook

Mr. Dizzy (looking mighty fine I might add) escorted me to the front row. Exciting! I have never been in the front row before!  They had a string quartet playing for the processional…I really liked how they played Somewhere Over the Rainbow when the wedding party walked out. 

Image via Facebook

The ceremony was quick and then the wedding party took pictures as the crowd left for the reception. 

When we walked into the reception, a Mariachi band was singing! 

Image via Facebook

So much fun…I am always secretly jealous of people who have an ethnic heritage! They had a buffet dinner of fajitas which was tasty.  Then they had a live country band perform for the rest of the evening with a DJ to fill in when they took breaks.  FBIL’s first dance was very sweet…they did the cutest Texas two-step to a country song. Now I won’t go on and on about the details because I am sure most of you truly don’t care.  (Except that I caught the bouquet and Mr. Dizzy caught the garter! Fun!) But I will list some things I liked and some things that worked for them, but I would change for myself.

Things I liked:

An outdoor ceremony that was short and sweet!

Even with all the controversy and grief the bridesmaid dresses gave everyone, I thought they looked nice

Image via Facebook

The casual look of the groomsmen

A printed schedule for photograph times for wedding party and family

Her flower colors

Image via Facebook

A day-of-coordinator

Their centerpieces - mason jars with pretty flowers, tin cans, rustic nature balls, cotton

Cupcakes!!

Image via Facebook

Photobooth! I am so glad we are doing this…but now I have to really figure out how to make it DIY.

Mr. Dizzy’s speech – all our hard worked paid off! It was a great speech!

Dancing and having fun with Mr. Dizzy’s family

Mr. Dizzy’s family bringing out the mustaches

{Gotta love the 'staches}

Image via Facebook

Things I would have changed:

Provide things to do for guests during the ‘down-time’. I felt like I didn’t get to experience Texas the whole time I was down there.

I want to spend more time with family during the weekend.  Not only is quality family/friend time important to us, but I feel it will also give me and Mr. Dizzy a break during our wedding from people catching us up on their life story.

Announcing major events at the reception (i.e. cake cutting, toasts, etc.) so people can be more involved

I want a fun get-away.  No disappearing!

In the grand scheme of things, the wedding was a lot of fun and it was very ‘them.’ I am so glad I was able to be a part of it. I learned a lot but I found one thing to be true above everything else…the details are fun, but in all reality it’s the people who are sharing the day with you that make it memorable.  Which makes me even more excited for our special day!!!  I can’t wait to see you guys! 

Did anyone else go to a destination wedding where they didn't explore? What did you learn at someone else's wedding while planning for your own?


{All Facebook photos are personal photos from family and friends of FBIL}

Yeehaw!

Alrighty folks! I am packed and ready to go for our 6:30 am flight tomorrow morning.  I cannot wait! I LOVE traveling and I have never been to Texas...so excited!! Not only will it be great to visit with future family but this will be my first wedding since being engaged.  I feel like I will see this wedding differently than other weddings I have been to...I will now notice how linens are arranged, how food will be served, how speeches will be given, etc.  I plan on taking mental notes of what works and what doesn't.  This is going to be a great learning experience, I can just feel it! Did I mention I am super excited?!?  I plan on reporting back to you next week! Until then... so long partner. 

Image via Photobucket

Bridesmaid Buzz

Hello again! As I was getting ready to write a post yesterday afternoon, I received a Facebook message from one of my bridesmaids.  She was pretty much just checking in asking me what’s new in my life and how wedding plans are going.  It was then that it dawned on me…I have been horrible about keeping my ladies in the loop!! I just thought I was doing them a favor by keeping them out of the mundane details of hiring a DJ, photographer, etc.  But I failed to realize that all while this time, there have been a TON  of little details that are floating around as well (such as planning a dessert bar, having a vintage-y theme, and so forth).  If I want any of their input (which I do! They are all so talented!), I kinda need to keep them up to date with these things!! So I was trying to figure out the best way to handle this.

I have seen a couple of people create a bridesmaid newsletter on WeddingBee.  I loved this idea but I really wanted to create an interactive atmosphere where we could all chat together. Plus I wanted to share some of the pictures I had for inspiration. So I happened to stumble on a website someone created for their bridesmaids.  Perfect!! So I went to wix.com and created a website last night! I tell you what, I have never heard of Wix before yesterday but I must say they are fabulous.  The program is so easy and common-sensical (yea I made that into a word) and I think all their templates are pretty darn classy.  I wanted to make one that was not ‘wedding’ looking so I found this cute template that was actually used for an online clothing store.  Yay! Who doesn’t love polka dot flats?

So I created five pages: Home, Inspiration, The Wedding, The Look, and How Can I Help?

The Home page I kept simple.  I just added pictures of all the ladies with their names (all of them know each other, except one…who knows no one! So it was more for her sake).

On the Inspiration page, I simply put up just a few of the plethora of pictures I have as inspiration so the ladies would know what look and feel I was going for.  Hopefully this helps so they can give more specific suggestions, keep an eye out for similar ideas, and give them a heads up on what sorts of projects I will eventually sucker them into making!

{Trust me...there are more pics that the 3. This is a slideshow}

On the Wedding page, I just put up a blurb about some of the basics like our venue, photographer, and DJ.  I also put a bit on the groomsmen since they will have to deal with them for a solid day or two.  I also wrote some ideas of what we wanted for our ceremony. I hope to add to this page as time goes on.

{Blurred for privacy}

Then I added a The Look page specifically for how they will be dressed.  I posted some of my inspiration pictures (including a picture of each: real flower bouquet, button bouquet, and fabric bouquet. I’m still undecided on what to do so I wanted to see what they thought!) along with a picture of their dress. I will add to it when we get more components put together.

{Spoiler alert! You are seeing their dress!}

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I put up a How Can I Help page.  I know these gals are so eager to help me out and I hope to put up projects on here as time goes on. At this moment, I am more asking them for ideas but it still gives them something to think about.  I also added a comment box on this page.  I thought it would be a great place to suggest ideas where everyone can be involved.

So that’s what I did last night instead of posting here! I am really curious to see if this website will actually be beneficial…

Did anyone else make a bridesmaid newsletter or website? What other things could I add to the website that would help my girls out?

All photos are personal images

Sweet Treats

Ok I am finally getting around to writing about those desserts I made last week! Let me start with telling you why I decided to make them. 

Last year (around this time actually) it was my grandpa’s 70^th birthday.  To celebrate we decided to have all the family come together for a fun-filled weekend.  Now this is a big deal for this side of my family.  We are not like most families where we get together for the occasional reunion. To put it in perspective, my great aunt flew in and my mom had not seen her in over 20 years. I was ‘reintroduced’ to a cousin my age that I haven’t seen or heard of since I was 8. Yup that kind of family.  So let me reiterate, this get-together was a BIG DEAL. Which means my grandpa needed a ‘big deal’ kind of cake.  I volunteered to make one.

 

Now I dabbled in amateur cake making here and there before but I always just used a box cake mix.  Of course, I wanted to step it up and make delicious homemade cakes for the party.  I had tried once before to make a cake from scratch and it was horrible.  It was sour and dry and extremely embarrassing to serve. I was not going to make the same mistake so I baked cakes the whole month before the party to try different recipes.  And I got some really tasty flavors! But my poor mother claims she gained 10 pounds that month from all the cake we had to sample.

 

And just because I know you are curious, here is the cake…

{Bottom tier: Red velvet cake with a cream cheese frosting made to look like a suitcase with stickers of some places he's traveled. 

Second tier: Vanilla cake with a vanilla buttercream frosting with all the faces of each grandkid.

Third tier: Deep Dark Mocha Torte with a Mascarpone cheese filling and a chocolate ganche glaze with a little man fishing on top.

Top tier: Pumpkin spice cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

And a Rice Krispy chicken on top :)

The eggs were made with vanilla and pumpkin spice cupcakes topped with molded white chocolate}

Personal Image

Now fast forward 8 months.  Mr. Dizzy and I are now engaged and making plans for our wedding. When it came to cake, we decided to jump on the cupcake bandwagon after seeing pictures like this:

Image via Wedding Wire

{Mmmmm Red Velvet}
Image via Wedding Wire

{I love the rustic feel!}
Image via Wedding Wire 

Adorable and way less of a hassle when it comes to serving time. But time passed and I saw people serving pies at their weddings.  

Image via The Wedding Cottage

And then it hit me…wow, I am a horrible person.  Mr. Dizzy is pretty indifferent about cake, but he LOVES pie.  Why the heck are we not doing pie at this wedding?!? So then I saw weddings that had a little of everything! (Amazing what you notice when you are actually looking for something!) 

Image via Wedding Planner

{In gray and yellow no less!}
Image via Hostess with the Mostess

Perfect! So it was decided…we are going to have a dessert bar with cupcakes AND pies and other little tasties.

Nothing more was discussed on the subject until about 2 weeks ago.  It was my mom’s turn to host a Bunco party which meant she had to also supply dinner, drinks, and dessert.  So she asked me if I would make dessert.  Of course I agreed and I asked what she wanted.  And that’s when she dropped it:

“I know you are planning on this dessert bar for the wedding which is a great idea but I really think you need to try your recipes now so I am not eating every dessert imaginable the month before the wedding.  That is not a good time to gain weight. But if you make some desserts now, we can feed them to the Bunco ladies instead.  Plus you might want to put a couple in the refrigerator and freezer to see how they hold up. You don’t want to be making desserts the day before your wedding.”

Isn’t she smart? Yes I think so too (hence the nickname ‘good idea mommy’ that she’s had since as long as I can remember).

So thanks to Pinterest (and a shout-out to my amazing MOH for introducing it to me) I found some amazing recipes that I just had to try.  Now, giving you a heads up, I had every intention of taking awesome pictures of all my desserts.  Unfortunately, the camera did not work that night for who knows what reason (Murphy ’s Law perhaps?).  So I didn’t get pictures of all the nice looking desserts. Instead I had to take mediocre pictures the next day of ‘the uglies’ (the ones that tasted fine but I messed up on aesthetically hence not being served the night before). So I apologize for that.  But I at least got proof that I made them.

{Horrible picture I know}
Personal Photo

{A bird's eye shot of the lemon tart, brownie, and part of the cream puff and raspberry pie pop (along with the filling expolsion)}
Personal Photo

{Cookies are so cute and tasty!}
Personal Photo

A list of the yumminess produced:

Pie Pops (apple and raspberry)

Salted Fudge Brownies

Sugar Cookies

Lemon Tarts

Tiramisu Truffles (not pictured)

Cream Puffs

 Red Velvet Cake Pops (not pictured)

Now I am going to share with you a little bit about what I thought for each dessert.  And because my camera failed me and the pictures above are the only shots I got, I will post the inspiration pictures with each dessert.

Pie Pops

{I used their apple pie filling recipe}
Image via Our Best Bites

{I punched out a heart for the raspberry pops}
Image via At Humble Abode

Pros: They were adorable and got a lot of complements.  They are bite-sized and easy to eat.  They were very tasty with just the right amount of filling. They were pretty easy to make and would be a breeze if I had an extra set of hands.

Cons: I did not seal them tightly the first round so the top crust separated from the bottom.  On the raspberry pops where I cut out a heart, the filling overflowed on some.

Grade:  Visual: B (if I seal properly and figure out filling spillage, it will get an A+!)

Taste: A

Prep: B

Verdict: Absolutely making these. Might try a Huckleberry filling though…

Salted Fudge Brownies

Image via Tasty Kitchen

Pros: Surprisingly easy to make with simple ingredients.  Lots of complements (salt and chocolate seems to be the rage right now).  A “fancy” version of a staple dessert…perfect for a wedding.

Cons: Make sure you let people know there is salt on them. Delicious when you are expecting it, weird tasting when you are not.

Grade:  Visual: A (I don’t know how you can mess up how a brownie looks!
Taste: A

Prep: A

Verdict: Expect these on July 2^nd! They were a hit!

Sugar Cookies

Image via Bee in our Bonnet

Pros: Very fun to make.  Prep should not be hard in an assembly line fashion. Very cute and can be customizable. Everyone likes a sugar cookie.  Easy to store (the frosting dries firm so you can stack them).

Cons: Frosting can take time.

Grade:  Visual: A+

Taste: A

Prep: C

Verdict: These will be there as well!! They are just too much fun to make!

Lemon Tarts

Image via Kelly Neil

Pros: A fruity option for the dessert bar.  Got many complements on the real lemon taste.

Cons: The crust was a bit sticky.  It was hard to eat.

Grade:  Visual: C

Taste: A-

Prep: B+

Verdict: We probably won’t make these.  Even though they tasted amazing, the crust was soggy so we might have to tweak the recipe.

Tiramisu Truffles

Image via Not So Humble Pie

Pros: Bite-sized. A way to include our favorite dessert without having a full tiramisu cake that needs to be cut and served.

Cons: Used alcohol that was not cooked. Weird texture (would have been better if we coated it in a hard chocolate shell).

Grade: Visual: A-

Taste: B- (Liqueur was very strong)

Prep: B

Verdict: Too much time to create something people we not very impressed with.  I suppose there is no substitute for real tiramisu!

Cream Puffs

Image via Bee in our Bonnet

Pros: Everyone wanted to try one.  They looked professionally made.  Extremely easy prep and cheap ingredients. Delicious.

Cons: Honestly…none.

Grade:  Visual: A+

 Taste: A+

Prep: A

Verdict: No shocker here.  We want these to be there. The only question is, can we freeze them?

Cake Pops

Image via Wedding Paper Divas

Pros: Very cute. Bite sized.

Cons: Could not finish because had difficulty with the chocolate (not liquid enough which lead to me burning the chocolate).

Grade: Visual: N/A

Taste: B

Prep: D

Verdict: Not sure if these will be making an appearance.  Since we are having cupcakes we may just skip them.

And if you skipped through all that info about the individual desserts (which I probably would have, not gonna lie) here is the general idea.  The pie pops, salted fudge brownie, cream puffs, and sugar cookies were a unanimous hit.  Everyone loved them.  The others…not so much.

I can’t wait to eat all them again when we pull them out of the freezer! Hopefully they hold up!

What desserts have you seen at wedding dessert bars? Did anyone else use a party as an excuse to use people as taste testers?