Popping In For an Update

I'm sure we're all grateful that today is Friday, right?! Yes. Just popping in real quick today for a little update on our lives and how things have been this week...

First of all, Jeff and I have both been sick all week long. Mine started last Saturday, and his started around Tuesday. And we can't seem to shake this! It's just a cold or a sinus infection (for him), but it's annoying and it's just time for it to scoot it's way out of our lives. Yet here we are, still both suffering from it's silly little symptoms. Here's to hoping this stuff moves on sooner rather than later.

Next, Jeff bought me a new phone!! My iPhone 4 was over two years old, and really start to slow down, biiiiiiig time. It was super slow and annoying, and it was always full. Like 1,000+ photos really take up that much space?! But anyways...he surprised me last week and bought me a brand new MotoX, that's all personalized and in pretty colors and stuff. It's awesome. And I'm loving it! And it does cool things like make AutoAwesome pictures in Google, like this one:

Such a a pretty, sparkly Christmas tree!!

Tomorrow morning we are going to go to the matinee priced showing of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, so tonight, we'll stay home and get cozy with a blanket and a bucket of popcorn to rewatch the first movie. And I for one and super stoked about that. (Both the Friday night at home, and the Saturday morning plans, that is...) I read "The Hobbit" over the summer, so everything is much cooler now that I know what's going on. Plus, I just always like reading a book before seeing the movie, and try to make sure that happens pretty much every time. So now I'm really looking forward to our little "double feature" movie dates tonight and tomorrow!

In case you don't follow me on Instagram (you totally should, because I post on there a lot more than on here lately, and it's usually really cute stuff...), then you don't know I've been attempting the #fmsphotoaday challenge this month. Today is Day 13, and I've missed about 3 or 4 days. But whatev's - at least I'm trying! And it's still fun anyways. Here are my top 4 favorites so far this month...

Top L: R is For.... // Top R: Green // Bottom L: Tiny // Bottom Right: Silver

And we finally got our wedding pictures back from our photographer! We looked at them last night, and there are some truly beautiful photographs. We also have a ton from a friend of Jeff's family who did a great job as well. So over the weekend, I'll spend some time sorting and organizing, and then I'll be sharing pictures all over the place! Yay!!

Oh, and in case you missed Wednesday's post, I'm in the process of renaming this here blog. Go check out that post, and leave me some feedback, mmmkay?

Well anyways, that seems like enough for the day. I have a long day of work ahead of me, and then a nice little relaxing weekend is definitely in store. And hopefully with some more rest, Jeff and I can both kick our colds in the bootay, and be better by Monday! Oh, and maybe we can get a little bit of Christmas shopping done too, because holy cow, it's in less than two weeks now. Sheesh time flies. Am I right, or am I right. Happy Friday to all of you lovelies! :)

Much Love,
Halie

Party for the Bachelorette

Well my sister finally found her camera that we thought had just up and disappeared! Turns out, it was buried deeeeeep  in the cushions of their reclining love seat. So even though three or four of us had dug around in there, it wasn't actually discovered until Megan sat in it and reclined it all the way back. She then heard something hit the floor (and after freaking out for a second, thinking it was an animal or something), she looked under there and was surprised to see her shiny black camera! Hooray! So now I can finally share the last wedding recap from her wedding weekend - from her bachelorette party! (Well, it probably isn't truly the last, because I'm sure I'll share some of the professional shots once we get those back.)

For her bachelorette party, we kicked Bo out of their house, and we had a slumber party with the bridesmaids, and two other girlfriends of hers. I made us spinach artichoke dip and brownies and set up some other snacks, and one of the girls decorated with streamers. Then we played games and had snacks and watched movies and just had lots of fun! Oh, and then we also made the bouquets from all of her bows from showers and presents, and I pretty much sucked at that. Luckily though, one of the other girls was awesome, and she helped me out :)

If you're new around here, or just missed one of the recaps, and you'd like to check them out, here are all the links:

Bridesmaids Luncheon // Rehearsal & Dinner // Morning of the Wedding // Ceremony // Reception

On Friday morning, we woke up and I made everyone cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and we played with their dogs while they baked. Then we all got dressed and ready, and then went to get manicures and pedicures, on Megan! So sweet :) We really did have such a fun time all together, and it was a great time to spend with all the girls a couple of days before the wedding. So glad I was able to plan something that Megan really enjoyed and that her bridesmaids and friends enjoyed too! And now I can scratch another thing off my list of goals for the year, because this was one of my goals, along with a nice shower for her - and I did both of those things!

Preview of the Reception

She had a lot of cute ideas and things for her reception, and everything ended up looking really cute. We did a pretty great job doing all of the decorating and everything ourselves, and we were very pleased with how it all turned out for her big day! And once again, I can't wait to get all the professional photos back and see all of those! We ourselves didn't even get pictures of everything completed, so I can't wait to see it all it's glory!

I wrote that for them, and made the bows too :)

Groom's "cake." But it's a cookie cake, because he doesn't really like cake that much, but he loves this stuff!

Guests made their own bags of popcorn to-go as the favor, that said "Thanks for poppin' by!" Wish I could copy this!

Giving our toasts. And Zach's toast blew mine out of the water. It was so good!

Everything for her wedding ended up beautiful. The decorations, the flowers, the cake, and most importantly, the bride! She was gorgeous, and I was so proud of her and happy for her. I was so very blessed and happy to have been her Maid of Honor, and I'm so thankful she gave me that opportunity! Now I can't wait for her to get to do all of this for me, as my Matron of Honor in October!

Right now, they should be getting ready to return home from their honeymoon, and I'm already excited to see her and hear how everything went. I can't wait to hear all about what they did and how gorgeous the Virgin Islands were, and see pictures! I feel like a little kid whose big sister was gone away to summer camp or something, rather than the 25-year-old big sister, whose little sister just got married and went on her honeymoon! I'm just so excited for her!

Peek of the Ceremony

Obviously I wasn't taking any pictures of my own during the ceremony, so I only have a couple that I was able to swipe from a couple other people. The majority of these come from our friend Allison, who is also the mama to the precious flower girl and adorable ring bearer. And then a good amount also come from my sweet fiance who set up some video cameras (unbeknownst to us!) and was taking pictures! Glad I was able to gather up at least a few shots of the ceremony while we wait for all the professional pictures to come!

If you missed the last few recaps, you can see them here: bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and getting ready the morning of the wedding.

Look to the left, behind the white wall, and you can see us singing, while they do the sand ceremony on the right!

I'll be so excited to see more of these once the photographer sends them all back to Meg! Tomorrow will be the last recap with a few shots of the reception. (Unless of course we ever find Megan's camera, then I'll eventually show you some bachelorette party pictures too! Fingers still crossed for that one...)

Pampering the Bride

Saturday morning, the day of my baby sister's wedding, we grabbed all our bags of clothes and cosmetics and extras, and headed out. We stopped for some coffee of course, and made it to the church by 9 a.m. Megan had asked Kaley (her brother-in-law's girlfriend) to do her hair, and so she arrived early too. After the tears had dried from reading letters from Bo, my mama, and myself, I did her wedding makeup for her! Which ended up looking great, if I do say so myself! She was definitely getting pampered by all of us, and getting waited on hand and foot! Can't wait for that to be my turn ;)

Then all the other girls started arriving, and we all helped each other with everyone's hair and makeup. We played music and laughed and had a good time! And then we finally got Megan in her dress, and us in ours, and we set off to have the bride and bridesmaids photo shoot!

We had a good time taking all the photos before-hand, and I just can't wait to see how the professional ones from the photographer turn out! Unfortunately we have to wait about a month or two, so that stinks, but we'll be so excited once they are finally ready! And tomorrow will be a tiny sneak peak at the ceremony, with just the few pictures I was able to swipe of that :)