Weekending with a Wedding

Happy Monday folks. It's almost July and Chicago still hasn't gotten the weather memo that we're supposed to have moved onto summer and not be stuck in spring. We just keep getting more and more rain, pretty soon we'll be competing with Seattle with the constant rainfalls. This past weekend was so much fun and exhausting all bundled up in a 3 day bundle! My really close family friend (who is practically like a cousin) got married over the weekend and it was such a blast celebrating with her and everyone else there. It was truly a beautiful wedding and I wish I took more pictures, but the ones I took will have to suffice. You can enjoy the picture while sipping on your coffee this morning because lord knows I need plenty of coffee to get me through this dreary, rainy Monday!

I went to the new Blow Bar that opened up for a cute braid on Friday

 

Day before the wedding festivities

 

Gorgeous wedding decor

 

My 2 favorite women

 

Car selfies are a must with us

 

My gorgeous sister and I at the reception

 

Stunning decor to compliment the equally stunning bride and new husband

The cutest guy at the wedding (he's obsessed with this book because he chews on it constantly)

My pretty sissy and cousin sissy, they overpower me even when I'm wearing heels

 

Party atmosphere on the dance floor with all the glow lights

Bride and I with a grainy iPhone pic to end the night!

 

 

This adorable face says it all, why does the weekend have to be over and all the fun be done??

The venue that the wedding and reception were held at is actually the exact place I'll be getting married July 16, 2016!!! It was so great being able to see the place set up and seeing how my vision can come true for my own wedding next year. I can't wait!!


What did y'all do this weekend? Linking up with the beautiful Biana for weekending!

 

 

Loves & Hates

I got tagged to join in the fun by the beautiful and always sun kissed Kate to list 10 things I love and 10 things I hate. I'll also be tagging 10 bloggers to join in on the fun and keep this going (my apologies if you were previously tagged).

 

Loves:

 

1. My fiance

He is seriously my rock and I can't imagine living this life without him. I can't wait to finally put this long distance thing behind us next year and be married living our lives together in Texas!

 

2. Ecards on Pinterest

These are just the funniest and most true things ever, who couldn't use a funny pick me up on the reg?!

 

3. Starbucks

I can't get enough, no matter how long the drive thru line is, I will wait in it to get my white chocolate mocha (nonfat, no whip).

 

4. My engagement ring

I know I know, I sound super vain and shallow right now, but I had been dreaming about being engaged for years and years (see: since I was probably 5) and now that I have the most perfect ring for me which was given by the best fiance a girl could ask for, I'm just so giddy. I also can't stop staring at it constantly!

 

 

5. Trashy reality TV

The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise, The Real Housewives of wherever, Botched, Rich Kids of Beverly Hills, all of it and any of those shows get me so sucked in I can't stop watching. And I damn well enjoy it and admit I watch them, no shame in my game.

 

6. Country music

I love it all and am obsessed with Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean, I want to see either of them in concert so badly!! I'm so happy that I'll be moving to Houston which seems like the mecca of country music compared to Chicago, bring on the cowboy boots and line dancin!

 

7. Netflix

I seriously can't live with my subscription. It's like an addiction, but binge watching on weekends when you have nothing better to do, is there anything more perfect in the world?!

 

8. Sephora

Being the makeup hoarder that I am, I have invested so much money in my makeup and am proud of the collection I have. Sephora has a lot of my monies and will continue getting it so long as they never go out of business or stop selling makeup. Also, getting your makeup done there is just magical.

 

9. Traveling (borrowing this from Kate)

I haven't traveled to half as many places as Kate has, but there are a lot of places on my travel list and I can't wait to finally knock some of those spots off. Even when traveling stateside, I absolutely get giddy with excitement of seeing the sights and being a total tourist!

 

10. Mexican food

This is my weakness. I can seriously eat it daily if given the choice. My love of soft tacos at Chipotle runs deep. Thank god my mom is an excellent mexican food chef and that I'm moving to the birthplace of tex-mex next year!

 

 

Hates:

 

1. Waking up so early everyday for work, it seriously is the worst.

 

2. Chicago's bipolar weather situation...it literally cannot make up it's mind on if it's summer or not

 

3. People that can't read my body language, like I'm pretty sure my body is telling you to stop talking to me and go away, why can't some people get this??

 

4. People who talk AT others. You don't own anybody so stop talking to people like you do!

 

5. Terrible drivers. Oh man this is a big one for me, I get some bad road rage sometimes and can't stand it when people are just stupid when driving.

 

6. Allergies.....go die!!!

 

7. Cold weather. I'm not talking 30 or 40 degree weather, that I can handle, I'm talking negative 30 with a serious wind chill factor, go away cold.

 

8. People who pass gas in public (I'm looking at you coworker that knows you do it while talking to someone and then proceeds to walk away like nothing ever happened leaving a stink bomb in your trail...not cool)

 

9. Facial hair. Seriously why couldn't we all be born hairless on our faces with perfectly shaped eyebrows 24/7??

 

10. Dry-heavers....ew gross, no thanks go away!

 

 

I tag...

 

Pamela- Sequins & Sea Breezes

 

Biana- B Loved Boston

 

Katie- Katie Elizabeth

 

Meg- My Borrowed Heaven

 

Macy- To Travel & Beyond

 

Myra- The Little Aslam

 

Amanda- Meet @ the Barre

 

Lisa- Showered with Design

 

Helene- Helene in Between

 

Rachel- The Rachael Way

 

 

I hope you girls will join in on the fun and if you do I can't wait to read it if you do join!

 

Thanks again Kate for tagging me!

 

 

Wedding Wednesday: Bridesmaids

Happy hump day folks! Today's another week of Wedding Wednesday with Meg & the newly married Macy. She looked gorgeous on her wedding day, congrats pretty lady to you and your new hubby!!

 

Now I've touched on my girls on the big day. I picked each girl for a different reason and because they all mean so much to me. I have two of my best friends who I've known for 15years combined!! Then I have 5 of my closest girl cousins. We've all grown up together and have gotten so close as we grew older. Then finally I have my sister who is my maid of honor. I've known her for 25 years and she is hands down my best friend for life. She knows my deepest darkest secrets and we've gone through thick and thin by each others side, so I couldn't imagine not having her as my maid of honor.

  

 

These are my amazing girls and I can't wait to have them all together for my wedding since I haven't seen some of them in 2 years!!

 

Now the most fun part of wedding planning, besides asking my bridesmaids if they would accept the responsibility, was figuring out gifts to give them. I wanted them to be logical, something all the girls would love, and have a slice of me for them to remember long after the wedding festivities are over and done with.

 

I decided I wanted to make tanks for the girls to wear during the bachelorette party, now it was just a matter of what to write on the tanks to help represent our theme for the party which is beachy! I browsed Pinterest and came up with "Brides mates" which was a fun play on words and went seamlessly with my theme.

I'm thrilled with how they turned out and I can't wait for all the girls to see them and wear them on my bachelorette party in Destin! The best part is they they only cost less than $5 a piece to make!

The next thing I got was something I've always wanted because not only are they adorable, but they are practical when the girls are all getting ready in the morning for the wedding. I got navy blue floral silk robes from his great Etsy boutique based out of Florida. I love that they offered a set of 8 and only cost me about $150 with shipping and everything! I can't wait for the girls to wear them and for all the pictures we'll get in them.

I haven't taken a picture of the robes yet, but here's the image from the Etsy site of the navy one I purchased.

Sorry for the super cruddy quality of the picture, but that's what happened when I zoomed in.  They also each came personalized with each girls initial on the front of the robe, I think it's a sweet touch they will love.

Now the last part of my gift isn't really there yet, mostly because I have no clue what I wan a do. I know I want to do something that's not wearable since I've already got 2 of those, but I've been tossing between bath products (who couldn't use more of those) and mugs. I saw this cute idea of a diy mug, but I'm not sure how well mine would turn out which worries me. 

This is so cute and a great personalized item for each of the girls. If I can figure out how to make it turn out like this, I'll totally do this. If anyone has tips or suggestions they are more than welcome!

So there it is, a breakdown of my bridesmaids gifts. Any ideas or suggestions please leave in the comments below! 

 

 

Weekending

Hey folks! I'm sort of relieved this weekend is past us because boy was it exhausting!! Not only did I work the entire weekend, but I had a birthday party and out of town guests whom I visited in the city. Let's just say, staying out past midnight when you have a 6am alarm the next morning does not appeal to me at all anymore.

  

Friday my sissy and I went to the newly renovated AMC theaters to watch Jurassic world. Can I just say I thought it was awesome and there could have been an hour more of that movie and I'd be totally ok with it. I loved the throwback to the old movies and the guy towards the end that saved his two margs while running from the dinos, talk about priorities!! If you are thinking of watching I say go go go!

Saturday after work, I headed downtown to the Wrigleyville area to meet up my friends for a trolley ride around downtown for a friends birthday. Now if only the weather cooperated, it would have been a fun night. As soon as I headed out to the city, it started drizzling and I said oh well that I can handle...well that was until it started downpouring when we were walking to the trolley. We couldn't even enjoy our stops that much because of all the lightening storms going on, places like Millenium Park/The Bean were off limits. Even though it downpoured basically the entire night, we made the best of it and embraced it after a while. We ended up getting out in the rain at Buckingham Fountain and taking pictures because they still had it lite up and it was gorgeous!

  

  

Sunday I was busy running errands and trying to enjoy the beautiful weather we had. We celebrated Father's Day with my pops, but kept it super low key just the way he likes it. I posted this picture to social media yesterday and I teared up remembering my cousins sweet 16 when my dad really wanted to slow dance with me, I was a brat then and reluctantly slow danced with him. It was the one and only time we've slow danced and it just made me think about a little over a year from now will be the second time I slow dance with my dad, at my wedding!! Little things lately have been making me sentimental and I know I'll be a blubbering mess at the wedding this weekend!

My sister and I headed down to the city to meet up some friends from out of town for deep dish. It was delicious of course and we headed out to The Aviary afterwards for cocktails. This place was so different from what I expected and what I'm used to. It's definitely an interesting place to try out and experience new things, but a little bit out of my comfort zone. They do have a speakeasy downstairs by the restrooms that we asked our waiter about. Apparently it can only hold about 12 people and they have some of the oldest bottles of whiskey, dating back to 1902!! Unfortunately they were packed last night so we couldn't head down there, but just hearing about it was pretty cool.

 

Now the drinks, they are a whole different ballgame. You don't go to this place and order a rum and coke or white wine, no no, you order the craziest concoctions of ingredients blended seamlessly together to create a very unique cocktail.

After heading home (late), I was exhausted and passed out almost immediately only to wake up again and start a fresh new work week. I wish I could say I have a break coming up, but this entire week will be a busy work week and I have a very close family friends' wedding coming up this weekend so I know I will have lack of sleep and exhaustion during that, but hopefully it'll be well worth it. I just keep thinking about Sunday and how I'll (hopefully) get to sleep in!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and work week ahead, I'm linking up with the beautiful Biana for weekending!!

Fave on FriYay

Woohoo, we've made it to Friday! Even though I'm working all weekend, I'm excited that the weather is finally warming up and staying consistent enough to say we're in full blown summer. The big news around these parts is the fact that the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup Championships again this year. They have won 3 championships in the last 6 seasons, which basically means they are a dynasty. I'm not a terribly big hockey fan, but I'm most definitely a Chicago fan regardless of the sport. Trust me the whole city is going nuts in celebrating and this has been all that people have been talking about lately. That's probably one of my favorite things about Chicago, the fact that it rallies behind all their team regardless of where your loyalties lie.

I unfortunately didn't go to the parade and rally yesterday because I had work and if I called in sick, they would totally know. I was totally ok with this because the crowds looked insane and being stuck in that much of a crowd just doesn't appeal to me. If you haven't seen pictures of what Chicago streets and Soldier Field looked like yesterday, here's a good idea.

2 million people showed up to show their support and celebrate the win, that's just insane...

These pictures were borrowed from the Chicago Mayors Office FB Page and the Chicago Blackhawks FB Page.

Now let's get onto Friday faves, linking up with the gorgeous Amanda!

Favorite recipe

I love veggie burgers and am excited that I found a easy to make recipe for veggie burgers that can easily be frozen and grilled at a later time.

recipe found here!

Favorite song

The video is a bit weird, but such a catchy song!

Favorite purchase

I got these silky kimono robes for my bridesmaids and I cannot wait to give it to them. I purchased them from this Etsy shop and was so thrilled with how they turned out and the quick shipping plus they were super affordable for the quantity purchased!

Favorite funnies

this is me basically anytime I have to go out wearing anything but yoga pants and a shirt.

i just die...where does one find those kitten sized glasses?!

seriously, what else would I be waiting by the sign that says "Please wait to be seated"...

always...

my puppy fever is at an all time high in the summer when cute puppies are everywhere!!

omg, but seriously?!?

You Probably Don't Know...

When Helene has a link up, it's just an unwritten rule that you have to somehow participate. I think the summer it's harder for bloggers to actually sit and write a blog post up so having fun link up's to join definitely makes it easier to post when it's nice outside, except for in Chicago where the rain just keeps on pouring. Anywho, her link up is basically where you can spill your secrets or things that people probably don't know about you. It's a great way for new and old blog readers to get to know me better and I find those are my most popular posts.

You probably don't know...

{I can be overly emotional at times}

{I get anxiety in huge crowds, just not a fan of them}

{I have a severe case of wanderlust and want to travel to so many places}

{I met my amazing fiance on match.com...it really works if both parties put in equal effort}

 

 

{I have a birthmark on my right cheek that is pretty dark, but the magic of makeup can cover it almost flawlessly. Sucks that I can't go anywhere without makeup really or else people think I have a black eye}

{My real name isn't Nikki, it's Namrata. Nikki is just way easier and everyone in my life calls me Nikki, I've actually never been called by my real name}

{I don't have a ton of friends, but I'm totally ok with that because the ones who are in my circle have been there for a while and we've gone through thick & thin, I couldn't imagine life without them}

 

{I'm a hugeeeee believe in love. All the aspects of it, I love love...even the cheesiest kinds}

{I actually hate the taste of alcohol, white wine is good, but that's really all I drink nowadays}

{I'm terrified of moving to a new state without my immediate family there. I know it's going to be a different start of an exciting chapter, but leaving my mom, dad & sister scares the crap out of me. I'm just cherishing the next year I have with them as much as I can}

{I'm very very terrified of spiders. Like I will cry and run to the other room until someone has removed the spider completely. I'm gonna be such a joy for my fiance when we're married, I know}

{I have some serious baby fever. I know 85% of having babies is not glamorous or something anyone wants to deal with, but I just can't wait to be a mom and have my own little babes to snuggle with}

Ok I think that's enough for today. I felt like once I got through the first few, more just kept spewing out so thanks for reading all that. This was so much fun and hopefully Helene has more fun link-up's like this one soon!

 

 

Wedding Wednesday: Bridal Party

Happy Wedding Wednesday! I'm starting to think this is my favorite day of the week next to Friday! Linking up with the lovely ladies Meg & Macy!

 

I wanted to share how I "proposed" to my bridal party. Most of the girls who are my bridesmaids are my lovely cousin sisters who I'm extremely close with so that was an easy decision that I wanted them by my side when saying I do. My fiancé doesn't have any small kids on his side so choosing ring bearers and flower girls was all on me, this was made easy by have 2 a piece for the role. I'm so excited for our wedding to see our awesome bridal party. My fiancé is also still in the process of picking his groomsmen, but probably won't be "proposing" to them in any such way besides sending a text asking them to be a groomsmen...men have it so easy sometimes!

My first resource in finding creative, but inexpensive ways to ask my bridal party was of course Etsy. I didn't wanna do anything crazy because I already had an idea of what I wanted to get as bridesmaids gifts so keeping it simple was key. After searching and searching for cute cards I finally found "the ones" that were perfectly me. Next was to order them, print them out along with pictures of me with each of the girls. I added some confetti in the envelope to add some sparkle because duh! Here are ,y final results of all the cards...

Bridesmaids cards 

Flower girl & ring bearer cards

All my girls and little kiddos have accepted to be in my bridal party and I cannot wait to celebrate with all of them in a little over a year!!!

What did you do to "ask" your bridal party, any gift suggestions for the little kids?

 

 

Weekend Recap

Alas, another Monday is upon us. I seriously can't believe how quickly the month is already flying by, it's going to be 4th of July before we know it! I had an exhausting weekend since I was hosting my besties bridal shower on Saturday. Luckily the weather in Chicago held up for the most part, only downpouring at the end of the party, thanks rain gods. We threw her a Breakfast At Tiffany's themed shower and I couldn't be happier with how all of us teamed together to make it an incredible shower. I'll let the pictures just do the talking for the rest of this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday was a catch-up day with sleep and laundry being the main points of the day. How were y'all's weekends? Linking up with Biana for weekending!