Minted: Wedding Programs

I am just going to be honest with you and tell you that I looked at all things wedding even before Matthew and I got engaged. I couldn't help it! It's all of Pinterest and the internet and I, of course, loved every minute of it! One of my favorite websites to always browse on is Minted. Around Christmas time I would look through all the gorgeous Christmas cards, I would look at the wedding section year round, and when we got the key to our apartment I started looking at all the art pieces they had on there!! Seriously, there is something on there for every season of life. Whether you are graduating, getting married, having a baby, or just wanting to decorate your home, they have it all! Whenever I get on their website I save stuff like crazy so I can go back and look at it. Lucky enough for me all I have to do is go to my "favorites" section on their website and see what all I have favorited/saved. Here are a few things I have favorited recently...

country florals wedding programs

chic romantique wedding programs

Seriously, these are too cute!!

banner and branches wedding program minibook™ cards

As you can see, we haven't quite nailed down which design we like best for our programs. We are still going through each one to see which one fits us best. There are so many to choose from... So how about you help us decide!! Do you like this design better?  It definitely fits our wedding colors. It's simple and absolutely beautiful. Such a classic, I think!!

or this design better?  It's different from any program that I have ever seen at a wedding and I really like that! I love the earthy tones it sets off and the layers add to it and make it fun!

Also, please look at these ADORABLE save the dates!!

I love the font used on there and the "Save OUR date" instead of "Save THE date" Kinda making me regret not sending out save the dates!!!! Minted has been in many magazines such as,  The Knot and Better Homes and Gardens, as well as featured in the Washington Post. I know some of you gals out there are engaged and are searching daily for new ideas and all things beautiful so I wanted to share a little of what I have found!! *This post is sponsored by Minted, however all opinions are my own*

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Minted: Wedding Programs

Entryway Ideas

Every since we got the keys to our apartment I have been dying to decorate.
The Lord is teaching me patience on this one :)
 While Matthew has been baching it up at our place until I move in after we are married I have been searching Pinterest and blogs for decor ideas. One thing I really want to do is add a console table in our "entryway". Matthew liked the idea of it and is on board with it, too!  We don't really have an entryway because this is a one bedroom apartment but there is plenty of room for a console table.

I would love to have somewhere for us to drop our keys, phones, and mail all in one place when we come in, and make it easy to find these items on our way out. I also thought the idea of a mirror above the table on the wall would be cute and helpful. Last minute mirror checks before heading out for the day! Its a huge blank wall so a mirror would go perfectly there!
 If we add some cute decor to it and style it up a bit and I think it will really add to our living room as well.

Here is what it looks like now. It will go on the wall that the air freshener is on. 

(I forgot to take a picture when I was there last so I had Matthew send me a picture this morning lol. Thanks, babe!)

and here is the mirror we bought last week at Kirkland's that I mentioned on Friday. 

I just LOVE it and love it even more that is was 50% off!

Now here is the console table we picked out! We found it on Amazon for a really good price, and it will match the color of our living room furniture!! 

So here is what we are thinking for our "entryway"

I am so excited and I've been looking at different ways to style it on Pinterest. There are so many cute ideas!

We also are wanting another one. Call us crazy but we love it!

This one would go in our dining area. We got the idea from the model apartment at our apartment complex when we did our first tour!

Here is the picture from the model apartment

and this is our dining area now. We are wanting to put it on that back wall (beside the back of the door) I think it will also really add to our dining area. 

Here is the table we found on Amazon. It's black which will match out dining set perfectly!

 Both console tables are cheaper on Amazon. I found them on other websites for $100+  than they are on Amazon. Gotta love good ole Amazon!

Here is what we are thinking for this one.  Just something simple, probably not as much on it as the picture below but something similar to this. We don't wan't it to look cluttered.

Above it we are going to add some of my antique plates we have left over after our wedding

Except they won't be plastic plates ;)

We'll only put up between 6-8 plates, depending on the sized of them because I don't want it to be too much. 

And that's all the ideas we've been throwing around for console tables!

 Do any of y'all have an entryway or did you make your own "entryway"?

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Entryway Ideas

Wedding Wednesday: Registering

About a month ago Matthew and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to start our registry there. The week before we went I did a lot of research. I read a lot of blog posts and tips from Pinterest. From what to register for and what not to register for, to what to ask and how many of items to register for. We decided we would register at 3 places. Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, and Amazon.

 I went through and made an Excel spreadsheet of things we needed and the quantity of the item. Then I went through most items and read reviews (seriously, I have read so many reviews I probably talk about them in my sleep) on them and found the best prices between the three places we are registering for and then that's where and how we decided to register for that item.  I almost feel guilty registering for some of this stuff, I mean towels that cost more than $10?!?! Matthew had to keep telling me that we need to register for things that are going to last for 5+ years instead of 6 months. I think that's also why I did so much research and found the best prices between the three because I would hate for someone to spend a lot of money at Bed Bath & Beyond or Target when we they can get it cheaper through Amazon or vise versa. Surprisingly, Amazon didn't cost less on some items, so we registered for those things at the store it was cheapest at.  I had read a lot of people get stressed out while registering and it's anything but fun so I tried my best to avoid that because I wanted it to be fun!! I emailed Matthew the spreadsheet a few days before we went so he could see what I had came up with, and he added some things he thought we needed. I also made sure we had lunch before we went so we would have full bellies and no one would get hangry... ;) We got to Bed Bath & Beyond and the lady walked us through everything and answered any questions we had. She was very chatty, but helpful! She offered to walk with us, but that would have stressed me out so we told her we would just browse and scan on our own lol.   I pulled that spreadsheet up on my tablet before we began and then just went through and marked the items off as we scanned them!  Matthew did all the scanning so that I could focus on marking things off our list. His exact words, "I'm like a scanning sniper". lol. We had a lot of fun and I enjoyed picking out things that we could possibly be using in OUR future home together...so exciting! It still took longer than I thought it would. We were there for about two hours, 30 minutes of that was probably spent listening to the lady who helped us...like I said, very chatty :) I was too focused and in the registering mode to take pictures while we were walking around, but I did ask the chatty lady to make our picture at the end. You would have thought that I asked her to give us her first born with the look she gave us...apparently that was new to her? She thought we were crazy for wanting a picture, ha! While she was taking our picture she told us about how she was taking a photography class so she knew how to take great pictures....well let's just say the picture turned out awful lol. Blurry and taken at a weird angle so we look like we are towering giants.  So, no picture from our first round of registering, but we are going to Target this weekend to register so hopefully we'll get a better one on round two! Any tips from you married ladies?!  Is there something we should definitely register for that most people don't think about?  Anything that you registered for but still don't use?  Any and all tips are welcomed :)

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Wedding Wednesday: Registering

Weather Channel - Pictures

I don't know about y'all but every now and then when we get a little slow at work I like to browse the web and see what's new. I look at news articles, read up on blogs, and I always find myself going to The Weather Channel's website. They have a section on their website of "Photos" They have different categories to look at and I end up looking at them allllllllll. They have the picture and then where it's at up under the picture and then a little history behind it below that. Call me a nerd but I love looking at these pictures and seeing/reading about what is out there!!
Here are a few I pulled from their website...

Thor's Well at Cape Perpetua on the Oregon Coast. (Flickr/Bill Young) 

Near the city of Morondava in western Madagascar lies a surreal forest of majestic baobab trees, jewels of the island country’s landscape. Tourists flock to this famed road, a protected zone, where the baobab, often called the 'upside down tree,' reaches a height of up to 80 feet tall and are up to 800 years old. (ALINE RANAIVOSON/AFP/Getty Images) 

The Wave is a tumult of striped, fossilized dunes that look like petrified surf hidden away in Coyote Buttes in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, near the Arizona-Utah border. It is famous among hikers and photographers for its colorful, undulating forms, and the rugged, trackless hike required to reach it. (Thinkstock) 

Yueyaquan is a crescent-shaped lake in an oasis, south of the city of Dunhuang in Gansu Province, China. The depth of the lake, 

a popular tourist spot, had decreased over the years as sand encroached on the site but in 2006, the government started to fill the

 lake and restore its depth. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)  

Planted in the 18th century, the Dark Hedges is a tunnel created by intertwined beech trees that were planted in the 18th-century. (Flickr/kanbron) 

The Marble Caves (Cuevas de Mármol) are located on a peninsula of solid marble bordering Lake General Carrera, a remote glacial lake that spans the Chile-Argentina border, according to Atlas Obscura. The patterns that give the marbleized effect were caused by 6000 years of wave erosion. (Flickr/jvieras)  Seriously, can y'all imagine visiting these places?? Or even better, photographing them?!  It's a little hard for me to imagine that these places even exist because I have never seen anything like this, but they do, and now I want to travel the world and see them all!!  It's crazy to me that people can see this and still believe there isn't a God. So crazy. So if you get bored today go check out the rest of these pictures!! Happy Tuesday!

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Weather Channel - Pictures

Wedding Planning + A New Car

This weekend was pretty busy. Friday night was great until I got completely lost...we'll get to that in a minute. I mentioned Friday that we were going to have a singing night in a cave (Cumberland Caverns). We got there and started singing and it was INCREDIBLE. There aren't many words to describe it. I am just so glad we were able to go and do this. We had a really good size group go, too!

I drove to the caves instead of taking the bus so that I could just drive home after. 

Long story short I have no idea where my GPS wanted me to go but it took me down a bunch of back roads and I ended up going in a complete circle a couple of times. I hit the same possum, twice. Got pulled over and completely lost it in front of the cop because I was so stressed out from being lost. The poor thing probably thought I was a basket case, and decided to just let me go. I finally made it home about an hour and a half later than it should have taken me, and crashed as soon as I hit my pillow that night. 

I have gotten turned around plenty of times while trying to get somewhere but I have never been completely lost like I was Friday night. I have always depended on the GPS on my phone but now I am having some trust issues with it!!

Saturday, I woke up in a better mood than Friday night. Thank goodness!! My parents had bought my sister a new car as an early birthday/graduation gift. The car she has been driving was my old car I had all through high school. It was O L D, had way too many miles on it, and sounded like it was fixing to fall apart. She will be commuting abour 45 minutes to and from for college in the fall so they knew there was no way her car was going to make it.  My dad got it last Wednesday and kept it hidden at our Nannie's house in her garage until Saturday! Saturday he brought it home to give it to her. He asked her to come outside and help him get something out of his truck and when she walked around the side of the house there it was! I got her reaction all on camera and it was priceless!

 It's a used car but it has low mileage and my parents got a good price on it!

  Later that day all the groomsmen were coming to town to get their suits for the wedding sized and ordered. Matthew's dad grilled hamburgers for everyone and his mom fixed dessert! We all headed to Men's Warehouse after to pick out everything. Matthew had picked the suit out online already and it was buy one get one free. So the $500 suit was now $250 for all of them. This is the same Men's Warehouse where Matthew's family always gets their suits so they know the guy there and he is always so much of a help to them. Well, he ended up knocking down the prices of the suits to $199 each! So our guys are buying a $500 suit for $199 for our wedding, and the best part...they get to keep it!! We decided not to go the renting route because all of the groomsmen will wear this suit again, for work or to church, so it was just smarter for them to buy than to rent it! We also picked out the ties. I wish I had gotten a picture to share but everything was happening so quickly that I wasn't able to. I am very relieved that we were able to get all 6 groomsmen in at the same time and able to get that checked off the list!
117 DAYS!!!!!! 

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Wedding Planning + A New Car

Friday Ramblings

Happy Friday! Since I have a lot to share I'll share in list form - Tonight I am going with the SOC to The Cumberland Caverns for a singing. I haven't been there since I was in the 5th grade so I am excited to go and see it again. Even better, a singing night, if y'all have been around here then you KNOW singing nights are my favorite.  Singing in a cave...can y'all imagine how that's going to sound?! Here are some pictures I found online of Cumberland Caverns

- We are going Saturday to pick out the groomsmen suits! Well, we already have them picked out we are just going to get them. They are on sale at Men's Warehouse so they are getting a pretty good deal! - Matthew and I HAVE to get our passports this weekend. I don't know why we but we just keep forgetting about them.  - I am hoping to finalize our guest list by the end of next week, so I am going to work on it this weekend when I get some free time. I designed them and we are having them printed through Vistaprint and they are having a good sale going on. I have already priced them and with this sale we can get our invitations and RSVP for over $100 cheaper so we will be ordering them before this sale is over! Also,Vistaprint sends plain white envelopes for free! -The weather this weekend is supposed to be really nice and I am so looking forward to that! Bring on that warmer weather and sunshine!!!! - HAPPY 1ST DAY OF SPRING!!  Can't wait to break out my sandals and white pants :)

- Today is food day at work, and this months is a salad bar. I am a little too excited about this! Currently counting down the minutes until it's my lunch LOL - P-Hood (what Matthew and I call it) or also known as Parenthood...we are obsessed!! I remembered hearing a lot about it back in January when the finale aired so over the snow days I decided to start watching it. As of last night I am in the middle of season FOUR! It is so good and I got Matthew hooked on it, too! I usually can't get through an episode without tearing up lol

- Kirkland's...I can't stay out of that store!!!! We bought a mirror there this past week and it was on sale! I absolutely love it and can't wait to get it hung up! I'll share more on that next week! :) Have a good weekend!! 

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Friday Ramblings

My sister's last formal

This past weekend was my sister's last DBS (high school sorority) formal. She has gone the past three years, and it's been fun watching and helping her get ready for them. 

She borrowed the dress from a good friend since she is going to her senior prom next month...dresses are EXPENSIVE!

She went with her boyfriend of almost a year!

The group she was going with went to one of their friends house to make pictures since it is GORGEOUS! It was raining most of the day but the front porch was big enough and made for a great place to make most of the pictures! Seriously, beautiful white porch. 

Mady asked me to do her hair. I thought at first she just wanted to curl it and put it half up, so I agreed. Then she said she wanted to wear it up. It turned out better than I thought but I was definitely nervous about it!!

We actually practiced the weekend before to make sure we found an up-do she liked  and if I could do it lol. We tried on up-do and it was just not working...at all. So we went with another one and it turned out a lot better. I told her she couldn't lay down for the rest of the week until her formal so it would last ;) It was a good thing she chose to do an up-do because the weather was gross on Saturday! Now, I just need to learn how to do this on my own hair and we will be set!

We ended up going on Sunday to get her prom dress...it is so cute and she looked great in it! 

It was a busy weekend but we had a good time!!

I can't believe she is a senior and will be starting COLLEGE next year. Next month she turns 18! #proudbigsister

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My sister's last formal

Wedding Wednesday: Junior Bridesmaids

My two youngest sisters, Samantha (11 years old) and Macy (10 years old), already knew they were going to be junior bridesmaids in our wedding this July. They are past the age of being flower girls but not quite old enough to be considered a bridesmaid. I knew that they had to be included in the wedding somehow, so junior bridesmaid it is! I asked my bridesmaids with boxes filled with goodies, but wanted to change it up a bit with my junior bridesmaids, flower girls, and ring bearers. I haven't gotten around to "ask" my flower girls and ring bearers yet, but their parents know. Hoping to do that by the end of this month or early next month! I wasn't sure how to change it up exactly and almost had decided to just do the boxes for Sam and Macy until I saw Michael's had the cutest wood pieces. I bought the wood piece and then found their letter to go on it. The letter was already white, so I just painted the wood piece and then hot glued the letter on. On the back I wrote "Will you be my junior bridesmaid?" 

I wanted to give it to them that same weekend but knew I couldn't work on it at home without them seeing. I told a little white lie and told them it was decorations for our pie table at our wedding...the "M" for Matthew and the "S" for Shelby. Worked out perfect and they bought it ;)

I got ready to leave Sunday and they were helping me carry out some stuff to my car and I asked them to hold them. I told them to check the backs of them because I was afraid I had set them in something and got it on the back and that's when they read it. Their reaction was adorable and they were really excited! We grabbed some pictures really quickly before I had to leave. When I came home the next weekend they had them hanging up in their rooms. So sweet!

Now just 122 days until we are MARRIED! Thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes last Wednesday for Matthew's birthday. He appreciated all of them!

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Wedding Wednesday: Junior Bridesmaids