Easy, Adorable Centerpieces and a Wedding Story

A few weeks ago, we traveled to Branson, MO for a sweet wedding.  My dear (and VERY creative friend), Jane, made these awesome centerpieces for the wedding!!

How cute are those??? Mason jars of various sizes, wrapped in burlap, lace, and twine.  With tea lights in the bottom.  And on a few tables, we placed our bridesmaid bouquets in one of the jars. Simple.  Gorgeous.  Oh and the tree "disk" that they were on was pretty cute too.

 So I've been saving EVERY glass jar we empty in the kitchen with the full intention of recreating these this summer.  Now I don't have a dead tree to cut up, so I'm thinking I'm going to use a variety of old (and hopefully tarnished) silver trays to hold the jars.  I have some burlap already, looking at garage sales for some old lace curtains to cut up (thought that would be cheaper than buying at Joann's), and I need to get some twine.  But I think I can make LOTS of these centerpieces for less than $10.  Sweet!

Here is a close up of the beautiful bridesmaid bouquets... all green. Love it.  I probably won't use flowers in mine... all candles. And actually, for our outdoor party, I"ll probably get some citronella candles, double duty!   But I think simple white daisies would look super cute as well.

While we're looking at the wedding centerpieces... thought I'd share a few more of the wedding pics.

This is why I miss living in Branson.  Look at that view.  Takes my breath away these days.  I took it for granted for so long.

 Me and the Mr.  Man he looks good.

 The wedding party... isn't the chapel adorable!!  The girls got ready in the small building on the left... it was a GORGEOUS day, until we were supposed to head to the chapel for the wedding.   Then for about 30 minutes, it POURED down rain! We rain to the chapel under umbrellas.  There was awesome thunder echoing off of the lake throughout the ceremony.  VERY dramatic. VERY movie-esque.

 The sweet couple!!  LOVE THEM!!  Such a testimony of  FAITH, God's TIMING, God's PROMISES and God's GOODNESS!  Oh man oh man, does it make me excited to see what He is going to do next with them!

 They probably don't love this photo, but I wanted you to see the front of the chapel. Gorgeous!  Great view of the lake from the front windows.  AND when it was raining, it was super cool looking!  Maybe not what the original plans were, but I liked it. 

And that was my fun wedding trip to Branson.  Hubby and I met in Branson working at a summer camp.  I lived there when we started dating, actually I was roommates with the bride in this wedding.  So we have a TON of memories in Branson. BUT we haven't been back since we've been married.  It was a great trip! We spent the car ride home considering how we can move back.  Don't think it's going to happen, but Branson sure has a soft spot in our hearts.

Friends Thanksgiving

The Saturday before Thanksgiving was the FIFTH annual Friends Thanksgiving!  We LOVE this time with friends to eat and talk and enjoy the holidays before things get really crazy!

I love that this event is a potluck and everyone brings the most amazing food!! 

This year I only made the turkey and the drinks! Which meant tons of time to do the fun stuff- like decorate the tables!! (and worry about how to find enough tables and chairs to seat 25!)

The Dining Room

I had to add the folding table to the end of the dining room table to make it all fit.

And even though we use our nice china and crystal... I borrow from my mother-in-law and so it becomes a hodge-podge of really pretty stuff!  Love that!

I went simple with the napkins this year... I saw this in a magazine and loved it!  Just folding them into a rectangle and then cinching them with a pretty ribbon.  Maybe a thicker ribbon would have made a bigger impact, but I just used what I had in fall colors :)

Some tables had orange flowers, some had pumpkins!  Again, just a hodge podge! But it works!

The Sun Room- We used our normal round table (just added a couple of chairs) and then added this folding table as well. (Had to remove a big leather chair to make room)

I think this table was my favorite this year.  Loved the colors and the rectangle centerpiece.

This table was adorned with pretty placemats and a brass tea set.  (I need to remember to purchase a round fall colored table cloth for next year!)

In the kitchen... we took out our tall bar table to make more room.  The bar table is great for morning coffee, but not so great for serving food from.  So it went to the garage, and in came this folding table.   By this point I was out of tablecloths! SO I found a clean white sheet and added an embroidered table runner (made by my great-grandma).  The turkey and ham ended up here.

This sweet vignette sat in the kitchen all season. I really enjoyed it each morning, it's nothing special, but I liked how I (finally) put it all together on a white tray and it just tied it all together! So simple- but I just figured that trick out!

Since I did NOT have to do most of the cooking... I got to spend my time on fun things like this!  The food labels! I bought these pumpkin place card holders at Pier 1 after Thanksgiving last year (which meant huge sale!)  I cut up some yellow card stock, printed these cute Thanksgiving labels (thanks Pinterest) and hand wrote the food item. I had some leftover circles of scrapbook paper from the invitations, so I threw those on for more color.

The Drink Station- I always do this on the washer and dryer now! I love that it moves some of the serving action out of the kitchen.  I made hot apple cider (YUM!), I made some sweet tea, and I set the coffee maker to start at the beginning of dinner.  Done and done.

 My favorite chalkboard!  this greeted guests at the front door.

The Turkey!  turned out quite nice this year! I only ate a few bites because I loved all the side dishes so much!

all of the food! What a feast!

Honey baked ham and turkey! 

the BEST jalapeno creamed corn you could ask for! Great sweet potatoes!  Delicious dressing! 

Mac n cheese!  Green bean casserole! Salad! Rolls!  (are you hungry yet??)

The end of the night...  It doesn't look as messy in the picture as it did in real life.  But when I walked by I thought, "now THAT is Thanksgiving!"  Empty glasses, forks, napkins, etc all strewn about the table. love it.

This  year the party ended early.  Turns out our friends are entering into parenthood and have baby sitters at home or they were pregnant and very tired. So Ty and I were able to get the house cleaned up and get to bed at a very decent hour. 

It was a blast! I love how it has evolved over the years... we had 1 couple who came to our first feast and then missed all the middle years and returned this year.  The wife said to me, "Wow.  Last time we were here we all fit at the dining room table. Now you've added 3 more tables!! People just kept coming in!"  I love that!  Hoping for many more years of feasting to come!

Amazing Invitations

When I was in 2nd grade, I met a girl name Megan. She was so cool. She had pretty blue eyes and her brown hair was always styled so cute. even in 2nd grade. Her mom would take the front inch or so of hair and french braid it across her head, making a headband of hair. I was amazed. I wore my stringy hair straight and long and stringy.

I immediately decided Megan was cool and knew I wanted her to be my friend. She must have liked stringy hair, because she became mine.

And that was the beginning. We were inseparable for all of elementary school (except for a few weeks when a "3-way" best friend necklace was involved). Anyways, Megan moved to Texas after 6th grade. So I immediately decided that I liked country music and I visited her a few times each year.

The friendship has amazingly lasted all this time. Of course we would sometimes go a few months without talking much, but it's that easy friendship that always picks up right where you left off.

Fun thing is that we now both live in the same city! So we're 22 years older and still best friends.

And Megan is now engaged! Super fun times. I should have known that her wedding invitations would be more than fabulous- I mean she always had more than fabulous hair!

So here is a blog dedicated to Megan's invitations. If I had known how cool they were all going to be, I would have saved the shower invites too. (but I didn't).

The Save the Date...
(sorry for the small image)

The paper is actually cream colored and torn on the edges. And you can just barely see a tan image in the background of a chapel in Santa Fe. (because the wedding is in Santa Fe). I love the brown and turquoise colors!

Even the back is cool. If only you could see the tree at the bottom- there is a blue M + R on the trunk!! Oh the details just thrill me!

And then the wedding invitation arrived. Simple, yet sophisticated!

Have you every seen such fancy writing??? a true piece of art- in words!

Next was the fun bachelorette weekend invites! Even the itinerary was cute- but I didn't include a picture of it.

And just when you thought it couldn't get any better. This cute package arrived in the mail.

The WEEKEND invitation...

Here is it untied. WOW. (her brother drew this amazing picture.) I mean are you kidding me??

Oh yes, it is an accordion fold. Here it is unfolded. amazing.

Here's the back. So so cute.


A picture of the newly engaged couple. (You may notice that the bikers drawn on the fabulous picture have on the same color shirts and bikes as Megan and Roy in this picture. DETAILS!)

A note from the couple...

The map on the back. Even the map is a work of art!!

I didn't get close ups of the weekend details... but I promise it's going to be a blast!!

A welcome dinner on Friday

Pool and Picnic Party on Saturday afternoon

Spirit of Santa Fe (rehearsal) Dinner Saturday night

Wedding on Sunday

Send off Brunch Monday morning

and each event description includes a time, place, attire, and activities. And for this many "attire" options, they included an "attire card" (man I feel fancy and special!)

(I'm personally looking forward to wearing my "fun party dress" to the Santa Fe Chic Spirit of Santa Fe dinner!!)

And a special invite like this requires a very special reply card. so many choices! so many boxes!!

Maybe one of my favorite things is that each event also equals lots of yummy food and dessert!! I've been talking with Megan throughout the planning process and I know all about the food and cakes... and I'm excited!!

Seriously though- how cool are these invites? I hope they amazing factor comes across over the internet- because I hold in my hand my new favorite invitation. And I plan on using it someday for something awesome that I'm going to do. I'll keep you posted :)

It's Official

I'm 28 today!! Yeah!! And the birthday festivities have officially begun! Last night, my Bible study friends made a wonderful Mexican Fiesta dinner for me!!

(no one wanted to pose for pictures, so this is what I'm posting of them, it's their own faults)

yummy chicken enchiladas! Thanks Kimmy!

Delicous dessert with creme and blueberries!! ( I had two)

Kim and Jill cleaning the dishes. (FYI - Kim cleaned all the dishes, Jill did one at the end and I took the picture then. So don't think for a minute that Jill equally cleaned. - and she wanted me to tell you that)

No pictures of me because I was taking them all. Off to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL sunshiney day!! With my birthday today and Ty's birthday tomorrow- we have lots of fun things planned! More updates soon :) Until then, you can find me eating cake and not feeling bad about it!

Race for Wishes

This past Saturday morning, we went to the Make-A-Wish Race For Wishes! (That's a mouthful!) We went in honor of Travis and were a part of the award winning TEAM TRAVIS!

Here's the starting line for the big 1 mile walk and later the 5K run. (and just FYI, 5 K means 5 Kilometers, NOT 5,000 miles. Thank you Michael Scott).
There was a GREAT turnout! It was a huge race! everyone had smiles on their faces! Everyone there is connected to a wish kid somehow... and that's one thing that really bonds us all together!

Here is Travis with the boys from his class (Travis is in blue- all the wish kids wore blue shirts).

This is Julia, Travis's mom, with one of our favorite kindergartners!! Jay-Jay!! They are both Texas Tech fans- hence her "gun" pose, no she is not trying to shoot the photographer.

Travis and his older brother Trey. Trey was in my very first 3rd grade class ever! Oh he is so fun!

Ty and I! Please dont' look at my hair. Yes I went out in public looking like that. I had a soccer game Friday night at 9 pm and got in late and showered and went to bed with wet hair because it was basically midnight and this is what it looked like when I got up. But I was going out to "run" so I couldn't take another shower and really fix my hair. don't judge me.

The proud parents- Robert and Julia

Ty and his parents!! Great Team Travis Supporters!

Here I am at the end of the 5K- see I did run! And yes, my hair looks worse now! after my soccer game Friday night, my legs were pretty sore. I had the intentions of trying to win the 5K for my age group, I quickly gave up those goals and just tried to finish.

This may be my favorite picture from the morning. Trey and Travis ran the 5K with their dad, but after I finished, we see Trey running up to the finish line, alone, and without his shirt. Julia yells out, "Trey, where's your shirt?" His response was a shrug and "don't know." And he just kept running. love him.

There's Travis coming up to the finish!! he's the little one on the left in the light blue shirt. Would you guess from this picture that he currently has a broken back? no, I wouldn't either.

Robert coming to the finish line behind his boys (and carrying Trey's shirt in his left hand :) ) Robert is quite the accomplished marathoner and tri-athlete, but he just ran this one with his boys- sweet memories. Also a favorite picture- this one of Travis says "I just ran so hard, leave me alone." I love when kids act so so soooo exhuasted. But then of course are bouncing around moments later.

Here's travis in with all the other wish kids from the race. Pray for them. I am certain they all need it.

Trey- the proud brother- and clothed again.

Team Travis won the award for largest team, EVER! We had 89 members! WOW!

Julia and Travis with their award!

The end.