mardi gras in new orleans

this year i was lucky enough to go to new orleans for mardi gras with two of my besties, unfortunately the boys couldn't make it. i got to say it was unlike any other experience and tons of fun! ~ po boys and wine at the store, catching beads on bourbon street, throwing beads from the balcony, meeting new friends, beignets at cafe du monde, etc, etc, etc.~ and i'm pretty sure we've hit up every club on the strip. i snagged these photos from tracy, check out her post on our experiences and the do and don'ts of mardi gras. (p.s. they're definitely not in order)

some things are meant for just us.

with all the crazy technology and ever-increasing forms of social media, keeping up with the world can be quite difficult and time-consuming. between blogging, tweeting, fb, vimeo/youtube, all the fashion sites and even constant updating of our wedding site, etc, etc, etc,... it's hard to remember to just sit back and enjoy, when all i want to do is constantly record w/my camera(s) the special moments that are going on.

tanner reminded me a week ago that "some things are meant for just us" but i constantly forget that and am back - working away on my cell phone apps, computer, ipad, etc.

this valentines day, our 5th one spent together before we become man and wife, i decided to ditch technology for the night(or at least i tried to, i mean i did manage to snap one picture last night). it was refreshing as my sole focus was on "us". 

we started the night out, right after work, heading to downtown orange. he surprised me by making reservations for dinner at citrus city grille restaurant. he ordered the filet mignon and i ordered the rack of lamb and we shared the two. afterwards due to the chilly weather we decided to ditch the ice cream parlor trip that he had planned and instead ordered a creme brulee (asked the waiter to make it a la mode) and had coffees to warm us up. 

we headed over to the block at orange and watched the vow, (i'm so glad it wasn't half as terrible as the time i took him to see mama mia)and ended the night back at home with the heater on. it was such a sweet romantic night and he definitely made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. i can definitely get use to this! 

       

home-made photobooths

happy valentines bloggers!!!


i'm sure you've all become members of pinterest, and i'll be the first to admit that i have a problem - i'm a pinaholic. 


you can find me here!


i've been putting together boards and now am overwhelming myself with wonderful ideas from idea boards, which i can only actually pull a few to use for our wedding. 


one of the must have diy projects is a home-made photobooth. we were actually really excited to make one for ourselves, but came across an ad posted by connie on weddingbee and we're able to score this "free" smilebooth backdrop that she had created and used for her own wedding! it's missing the bunting, so i'll have to add that myself, but she did include the fringes and a few extra goodies. thanks connie, you're a wonderful diy'er bride and we can't wait to use this smilebooth! (i hope you don't mind that i posted the pics you sent from your wedding)

and here are some other wonderful wedding/party photobooth backdrop ideas:

days like these

the winter season has been kind of lagging here in the oc, and although people keep telling me that i'm not missing out, i've been begging tanner to go snowboarding for like ever. 

with the hectic wedding mish-mosh of diy projects, collecting of decor pieces, and other wedding/work-planning, church, etc. we haven't been able to find time to do any extra-curricular date activities. finally, he decided to ask for a day off which had us (plus my little bro) driving to mammoth thursday night to meet up at a condo/cabin with viv and j. however, viv didn't board with us the whole trip and instead stayed and chilled in the cabin, meeting us for lunch.

and so we had three days of boarding, what a dream, it even snowed on our last day! now, back at work, sore and tired, but so worth it!