Time flies...

I cannot believe we have just a little over 6 months to go! I am getting SO excited! It feels like this year has gone by so incredibly fast! It feels like it was just yesterday that Matthew proposed and it was Almost 9 months ago! I'm so ready for our day and I can't wait to be married to such an amazing person!!!!

We have finally made all the decisions we can make up to this point. We have the florist, we have a DJ, we have our invitations picked out! We also decided where we're going on our honeymoon and that we want to go right after the wedding!!!! It's been so long since either of us have been on a real week-long beach vacation and I think we'll be ready. Thankfully, Matthew has a few people working for him and feels comfortable trusting them to handle the business while we're on our honeymoon!

Now we just need a food tasting which won't be until probably December. So far this planning process has gone pretty smoothly... aside from a few minor speed bumps. I feel like we've had an awesome support system in my mom giving as much advice as she possible can, Matt's mom who's always willing to come to appointments, my sister who's trying to plan an awesome bridal shower & bachelorette party, and Matt's sister who's advice and ideas are amazing!

In non wedding news, we celebrated my nephew's first birthday this weekend!! I cannot believe he's one already! I can still remember just a year ago, dropping Teddy off at my mom's. Matt and I were going to Vegas to celebrate his brother's 30th birthday. I specifically told my mom I was worried Amber would go into labor while I was gone. She laughed and told me that would never happen! Feeling reassured we boarded the plane. Upon landing I turned my phone back on and sure enough had several voicemail messages from mom. "Amber's having contractions." "Amber's going to the hospital, you sure picked a good time to leave town..." ...Umm... someone promised this wouldn't happen!!!

Can you believe that little man went from this tiny little 3 lb 9 oz baby boy ...

....to this adorable little toddler!? 

A Very Productive Week!!

I'm very relieved this week because I was finally able to book a florist! Matthew and I met with Jan from Flowers on Orchard Lane this past Sunday and L-O-V-E-D her! She was so awesome. She took my ideas and made them better. Most of the other florists would allow me my favorite flower (peonies) in my bouquet but to keep costs down would not use them anywhere else. Jan is using them EVERYWHERE!! We also came up w/ the idea that we would have the bridesmaids alternating between 4 different bouquets. My original idea was to have each of them in a different bridesmaid dress but when that proved to be too difficult to accomplish, I wanted them to have something that made them stand out amongst each other. I told Jan about my idea of wanting them each to have a different bouquet and she agreed that it was a really fun idea. In order to keep costs down (and not to stray too far off course), we decided that there would be 4 different bouquets for the girls and any one bouquet would be used twice. <--- I hope I explained that in a way that's easy to understand. :)

Also, I found a bridesmaid dress!! Aside from picking a florist this was my main concern. Nothing I looked at seem to go with the look I have in my head. Last week while Pinteresting ;) I googled "Champagne Bridesmaid Dresses." I've absolutely googled bridesmaid dresses before but never in my wildest dreams thought to filter it again by adding the word champagne! It was definitely an epiphany! So much easier to pull up a site and have a dress pop up in the color you want! Now if only all the samples at the stores would come in my color too, life would be perfect! Everything I had seen prior to finding this dress either seemed too formal or too eighties! Hehe :) Last weekend a few of my bridesmaids and I went to the store where THE dress is located and tried it on. It looked great on one of the girls because it fit her a little better. I do feel as though once the girls all have it in their own size it's going to look great on all of them. I haven't told them that this is THE dress yet so... SURPRISE!!! That's the dress!! I love it so much I want one for myself. Here's a pic!!














Cute, right? I love the high neck line, I love how it's pleated, I love the flower, I love the color. Everything about this dress seems just perfect for our wedding. I can't wait to tell ALL the girls and get the dresses ordered!!

As I am blogging this evening I'm waiting for the future hubs to finish showering after his long day at work so we can have our first meeting with a DJ! I am very excited about meeting with a DJ from this company. I know 3 people who used a DJ from this company at their own wedding and none of them have anything bad to say about them! Hopefully the person we meet with with exceed our expectations of what we're looking for in a DJ. It would be so nice to only have to meet with one!! :)

Hi, My Name Is Mandy...

...and I'm addicted to Pinterest! Seriously, I love this site! You'd be addicted too if you glanced at it just once! I have my future sister-in-law, Marie, to thank for my Pinterest addiction. Thanks, Marie! :)

Not only is Pinterest awesome for wedding planning, it's also very useful for home decorating ideas, DIY projects, and learning how to cook - which is what I'm doing today! Ok, ok so i'm not really LEARNING how to cook because I guess I already know how to do that, let's just say I'm becoming a better and more experienced cook! I don't think Matthew will complain about this down the road!

Friday night Matt and I made our second ever recipe from Pinterest. The first we really didn't like! So after a lot of searching and thinking about what wouldn't fail... we decided on....... BUFFALO CHICKEN BITES!

They were absolutely a success. As soon as we have a house or more space in our apartment for more than 5 people we will have our friends and family over and these will definitely be on the appetizer menu! They were quick and easy to make and I still can't believe how yummy they were!
Buffalo Chicken Bites - Recipe





Since my future hubs is golfing today I thought I'd do a little more in the kitchen. Today I'm making a Pepperoncini Beef Roast in the crock pot. This is not a recipe from Pinterest, but I might have to add it if it turns out how I think it will! I got this recipe from a friend at work who made it for a potluck months ago. I begged and begged for the longest time for a copy of the recipe and she finally gave in! YES!!! This roast is ideal for a cold fall day and as it's cooking it smells so good (I hope it tastes as good as J's does)!! shouldn't be much longer until it's done! Matt should be home just as the roast is finished!

I also decided that since I haven't done much baking lately I would bake some pumpkin muffins! I did find this recipe on Pinterest but altered it just a little. These are pumpkin muffins, but I turned mine into a pumpkin cupcake. I thought it seemed a little boring as they were so I made a buttercream frosting to put on top! I am not allowing myself to have one until Matt gets home... so I hope he hurries!

Also, the recipe for the pumpkin muffins did not include a baking temperature OR a bake time. Nice, huh? I made up my own. I baked these at 375° for about 25 minutes and that seemed to have done the trick.. I'll let you know how they turn out!

Pumpkin Muffin - Recipe