Wanderlust Wednesday

I always have a travel itch especially when I see other peoples pictures on social media of them on vacation. I'm linking up with these lovely women Kate, Kerri, & Emily; 2 of whom just came back from Key West and the other from Vegas, lucky girls I tell you! I just wanted to include some places that are on my travel wish list as of late.

 

Dubrovnik, Croatia

 

Bahamas

 

Phuket, Thailand

 

St. Lucia

 

Hawaii

Clearly I am itching to get away to the beach even while I've been watching shark week. What are some places on your travel wish list?
 

 

Weekending {July 4th Edition}

What a long weekend! I had so much fun sleeping in on Friday and not having to worry about work or flying anywhere. Although this weekend was far from relaxing, it was worry free and fun which hasn't been the case for a while. I hope all of you guys had an amazing weekend as well! Also, woohoo for the U.S. Women's Soccer Team beating Japan in the World Cup!!

 

'Murica...

 

Friday like I said, I slept in, but I did manage to catch a movie with my sister. We went to see Inside Out and I absolutely loved it. I thought it was such a cute movie and Bing Bong had me all emotional, love him! I highly highly recommend watching this, even if you don't have kids like me, you would totally enjoy it! Afterwards, I treated myself to a blow out and was absolutely smitten with the results of it. They did such an awesome job and my hair lasted all weekend which was a huge plus!

 

 

Later that evening, my cousins and I headed out for the local festival for some carnival rides, games and bingo!!! We played so much bingo, I'm officially addicted. The pot kept growing each round which made things super competative and exciting. None of us won, unfortunately, but we had a blast! My sister did end up playing a game and winning herself a goldfish, he's adorable and still alive shockingly!

 

  

Saturday (or 4th of July) morning I had to help my bride-to-be bestie with some wedding stuff which took up a big chunk of the morning. Once I got home, my parents and I packed up the cooler and grill and headed out to the festival grounds to hang out before fireworks. We hit up the bingo tent again and lost again. After eating my weight in food and funnel cake, it was time to watch the fireworks. I was really impressed with the display this year and took Helene's advice and tips on how to shoot awesome fireworks pictures, they totally helped and I captured some great shots I think!

 

 

 

Sunday was spent mostly relaxing and doing a little shopping. Shark week started so that's got me preoccupied and I'm excited to get sharky this entire week! Hope you all have a fun and quick week!

Linking up with Biana for weekending!

 

 

Fourth of July Weekend

How it's already the 4th of July weekend is beyond me. I feel like the year is just flying by and I would like summer to come and say hello to Chicago and stick around for a while, we're great I promise!

 

 I wanted to keep this short and sweet by just wishing everyone a wonderful and safe 4th of July weekend!!

 

 

 

 

Wedding Wednesday: Bridesmaids Dresses

Happy 1st day of July!

Today I wanted to talk to you guys a bit about bridesmaids dresses. Now typically for Indian weddings, the bridesmaids wear either a sari or long Indian dress. Traditionally, the Bride shops and pays for the dress while in India, but nowadays the trends have differed. I do plan on going to India for a few weeks early next year to get my bridesmaids dresses. Now I have some ideas on what I want, but it's really hard going to India with a set expectation of what you want because you'll likely be disappointed. Of course I've turned to Pinterest to help give me some ideas. Here are a few of the styles and colors I've been liking.

Clearly I like the pink/peach/navy colors, but they are my wedding colors so this would be a perfect way of incorporating it in. What are your thoughts? Anything you like or don't like about the colors, styles, etc?

Linking up with Meg & Macy for Wedding Wednesday!

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!