Tag: wedding planning

Wedding Updates: T-Minus 2 Weeks!

6 Comments

Wow. I cannot believe that we are less than 2 weeks from the big day. It literally feels like just yesterday that we were getting engaged…

picking a venue…

finding my dress…

having my shower …

and partying it up in Portland for my bachelorette party.

Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess, right?! And, while I’ve had a few “bridal breakdowns” (I think all were money related, too!), overall I feel as though I’ve been very calm and easy going about a lot of the wedding plans.

At this point, the RSVP’s have come in, the food & drinks have been decided upon, songs have been picked and the outline of the day/night has been pretty much finalized, which means I’m mostly working on the little details: selfie station props, table number, name cards, gifts for people who have been helping out, signs for welcoming people, signs for the ceremony, signs for Instagram, signs for the selfie station …. you get it! Lots of different little things that I’ve been thinking of. and adding to my list.

Regarding decorations, I’ve always said I wasn’t a big “DIY’er” (Do It Yourself-er), but I’m finding myself doing a lot of it these days- go figure! What I do is look on Etsy, get ideas and then realize that I could do the same thing for a lot cheaper. So far, I’ve been very pleased with what I’ve done… well, except the corn hole boards. I ordered the boards from Etsy and then painted/designed them myself and am not totally in love with how they came out, but I’m hoping people will be more interested in the actual game and not the board designs 😉 If you have any suggestions for ways to spruce them up a bit, let me know! Happy to add more details, but was afraid of adding too much and then not liking it.

IMG_5270

Regarding the signs, I have done a couple by hand, but ended up purchasing a design from Etsy, too, because it looked so good!

IMG_5247

#moberto2016 for print

The dancing sign is to put near the bucket of flip flops that my mom is getting and the selfie one is for the selfie station… duh 😉 I’m so happy with how the Instagram sign came out, as well as the selfie station props that I ordered and am waiting to come in. I plan on getting frames for everything, too.

Instead of doing programs for the ceremony, I decided to do a poster with all of the necessary details:

IMG_5159

As you can see, I’m keeping with the gold theme 😉 Plus, the top part mimics our invitations.

And, since people tend to end up using the programs as fans during the ceremony, I ended up purchasing some little accordion fans to give out to people for the ceremony. I think it’ll be a nice touch!

Elegant White Paper Folding Fans image

While we still have to finalize the seating plan, figure out the readings and write our vows (and I have to get some jewelry, have a final dress fitting, pick up few makeup pieces and other odds and ends like that), I feel like we’ve been making good, consistent progress and at this point I just can’t wait until the day is finally here! We are praying for weather like we had over the past weekend- I would be the happiest person alive if we were graced with that type of weather!

But, in all honesty, even though all of these things are nice additions to the day, I’m trying to not get too hung up on them because at the end of the day, those things don’t matter. What matters is the fact that I’m marrying my most favorite person and as long as he and I are there (ok, and all of our friends and families), that’s all that really matters. I’m not trying to get our wedding on the front page of The Knot or any other bridal site, I just want to have simple, yet classy party 🙂

If you guys have any tips, suggestions, things to remember, ways to simplify something, things you wished you had done or things you wish you wouldn’t have wasted time on doing, please let me know- I’m all ears!!

 

 

Five on Friday {6.3.16}

7 Comments

Good morning and happy Friday, friends! Can you believe it’s JUNE already?! Even crazier, is tomorrow will mark the official 30 day count down until the big day. I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself… which is why there are a few wedding-related topics in this post- #sorryimnotsorry 😉

  • Thirst for Wellness: B Strong Bootcamp- Thirst Juice Co. is launching a summer wellness series that I think you’ll all be very interested in. From their Eventbrite page: Our slogan is “Thirst. For Life.” That means many things, including living fully, joyfully, and generously. Wellness is an essential component to living the kind of life we aspire to. You’ve loved our Sip & Learn events, and now we’re rolling them into a broader series of wellness events. For our Thirst for Wellness event series we’re partnering with some of your favorite Boston fitness pros to bring you great workouts with healthful plant-based refreshments.
    What: B Strong Bootcamp is an outdoor HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout led by Trainer Cassie B., that combines intervals of running with bodyweight exercises for a complete total body cardio and strength workout experience. WHEN: Tuesday, June 7, 2016 from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM (EDT). WHERE: Thirst Juice Co. – 44 School Street, Boston, MA 02108All you have to to do is head on over to this page to sign up ($15 is the cost)! Unfortunately I teach on Tuesdays, so I won’t be able to make it which I’m super bummed around!
  • Bags & Beats– The above bullet was a perfect segway into this topic! So far, I’ve taught 4 classes and it gets more and more fun every class! This past week was especially awesome because I had so many familiar faces in the crowd, including my sister, a coworker and her friend and Athena… oh, and some repeats from last which, which is always the best compliment an instructor can get! GF3 paid me a surprise visit halfway through my second class of the night which was a little nerve-wracking, but he seemed pleased so I’ll take that as a good thing! If you’re interested in checking it out, I’m at GymIt in Watertown on Tuesdays at 5:30 and 6:30pm… with the exception of next Tuesday since I have to travel to CA for work 😦

IMG_5107

  • Summer Eats- With the warmer weather upon us, my appetite has been craving all things summer, including the most amazing lobster roll from the Raw Bar near the Popponesset Inn, grilling and loaded salads.

IMG_5102 IMG_5106 IMG_5112

  • Wedding Songs- We are in full on wedding mode, including figuring out what songs we want the band to play. RM said he thought we should walk in to the reception to the “Marry Me” song by Bruno Mars so I downloaded it the other day and it’s pretty much been on repeat every since! I cannot wait to marry him! Also, do you have any dancing song suggestions you love hearing at the wedding?! Do share!

IMG_5108

  • Monogrammed Jack Rogers– The monogrammed Jack Rogers I ordered for the big day finally came in and I couldn’t be more pleased with how they came out. I got my mom and sister a pair too (they found out about it, so it’s not a surprise) and I think it’s going to be so cute to all have them on when we are getting ready!

IMG_5120

And that does it for me! RM is in Nashville for his bachelor party this weekend- if you’ve ever been and have “must visit” suggestions for me to send to him- let me know! With him gone this weekend it means that I will have time to get {hopefully} some serious wedding stuff done. I have a laundry list of things to do so I hope to be able to really attack that list!

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Questions for you: What was your best workout this week? What’s a song you love to hear at a wedding? Have your eats changed at all with the nicer weather? What is your go-to summer meal? What’s on the agenda for the weekend?

Five on Friday {4.8.16}

6 Comments

Good morning! TGIF, right?! This week has really dragged on for me- no idea why, but it makes me especially happy that it’s Friday (FriYAY, right?!)! Here are some of the topics going on in my head these days:

  • Personalized Cornhole Bags- Etsy is my new best friend these days, which is exactly where I found these adorable cornhole bags. I opted to go with cream and navy with gold lettering since those are roughly the colors we are kind of going with. I also ordered the boards from someone else off of Etsy so once RM paints those I’ll show them. So excited to bring these up to NH for our wedding!

IMG_4532

  • Wedding Invitation Frustrations- Speaking of our wedding- which, btw, is less than 3 months away!!- invitations have been a bit of a frustration so far. I designed them on the PaperSource website and then went into the store in Lynnfield to have them help me with a few things. They timed everything out and said I would see the proofs in 3-5 business days, however, I did not see a proof until 8 business days!!! Seeing how the 23 business days they quoted me to get the final product already put us at the end of April (need to get these babies out by early May), I was stressing big time! I called the store probably 5 times and emailed with them, but I will say that I love the final proof and can’t wait to get them in. Anyone else have any wedding-related issues out of your control that caused you stress?
  • Shrimp Pad Tai- We had another week of Just Add Cooking meals and it was another week of winning meals! The Shrimp Pad Tai was so easy to make and SO delicious that I have a feeling it will become a regular meal we rotate in.

IMG_4555

  • House of Cards- We started watching House of Cards the other night. So far, even though it’s a little slow I’m enjoying it- no violence, which is a nice change of pace from Breaking Bad 😉 Anyone else watch this? Will we love it?
  • BoxFIIT Certification Update- Ahh! I’m getting there! I have only a handful of videos left to film before I’m done and I’m SO excited. I’ve been focusing on taking more classes to get comfortable with the format and bags and things like that. Eliza’s Tuesday night Bags and Body/Beats is such a fun class- something I could totally see myself teaching. If you’re interested in learning more about this certification, let me know- happy to provide more information!

IMG_4546

And that does it for me! As for weekend plans, RM suggested checking out Pepe’s pizza in Chestnut Hill… and I’m not one to turn down a pizza offer so I think we are doing that tonight. Tomorrow I am going to Nicole’s Bags & Body class at The Club in the morning and then doing some mitt practice before meeting up with a few friends to celebrate my bestie’s recent engagement! Whatever you have on the agenda for the weekend, I hope you take time for YOU!

Questions for you: Wedding planning tips for how to stay sane and not stressed? PLEASE SHARE! Did you cook any good meals this week? What are you up to this weekend? Any good workouts?

 

Weekending: Wedding Update & Double Easter Celebrations

11 Comments

Good morning! Hopefully by the time this post goes up, I will have already gotten my butt kicked by Eliza at the Watertown GymIt/EBF studio. As part of the Box FIIT certification I’m working on, I’m trying to get as much class experience as I can with other instructors to help better prepare me for when it’s time to start teaching my own classes- eek!!

This past weekend was another good one- lots of family time with both families which is always a nice treat! However, I am looking forward to this weekend since we FINALLY have a weekend with virtually no plans, which hasn’t happened in forever. I have so many general life things that I want to catch up on, so hopefully I’ll be able to get a bunch done!

After work on Friday I went to the Paper Source in Lynnfield to finalize our wedding invitations. I started them online which helped because I went into the store knowing exactly what I wanted and how it looked, but I was also able to work with a super helpful lady who helped me add more text lines and change the layout a bit. They are super simple, but classy- I love them and can’t wait until they come in! Oh, and the best part? All wedding invitations and related things were 20% off, which really helped keep them within my budget.

Once that was done, I picked up a few things at Whole Foods: pizza ingredients for dinner and quiche ingredients for Saturday brunch with my family. I made this quiche which was a big hit.

IMG_4446

The pizza I made for RM and me was also fantastic- the dough from Whole Foods is so good!

IMG_4447

Saturday started off with a sweaty kickboxing class. I don’t know if it’s because I hadn’t worked out in 2 days or if it was because I hadn’t slept well the night before but the class kicked my butt!!

After class we showered up and headed into the city to go to my sister’s apartment for part 1 of our Easter celebrations. So much food, so much wedding talk, so many laughs! I also brought out my biggest of hair for the occasion 😉

IMG_4453

IMG_4454 IMG_4456 IMG_4462

Oh! And my mom washed her vail and brought it down to see if I wanted to use it for our wedding. I think it will be so special having my “something old” (and something borrowed) as her veil. I just need to find a nice comb to attach it to.

IMG_4460

(and yes, I am a giant next to her!}

We stopped at Branch Line for a few drinks on our way home. As good as the drinks are, we REALLY need to get back there for dinner because everything looked and smelled amazing!

IMG_3730

Sunday morning I kicked off the day with a quickie 20 minute bodyweight tabata workout (I’ll share it with you on Wednesday!) and then went to church. I haven’t been to church since we moved, so I figured Easter Sunday was as good a day as any to start. I hope to get back into a more regular church-going schedule.

IMG_4465

When church was over I went food shopping and got wine and flowers for the Easter dinner at RM’s mother’s house. I didn’t get any photos of the food, but it was quite a feast: homemade lasagna (homemade noodles and everything!), grilled lamb, salad, brussels sprouts, potatoes, peppers and so many desserts. My future SIL’s parents came and when her mom walked in with a bunny cake it made me so happy because my mom always made me a bunny cake for my birthday/Easter!

IMG_4466 IMG_4467

As much as I didn’t want to food prep when we got home, I knew it would be better if I just got it over with!

And that about does it- the weekend came and went way too quickly, per usual! I hope you all had a great weekend and have a kick ass week!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? What did you do for Easter? Did you get any good workouts in? Do you go to church?

Five on Friday {3.18.16}

10 Comments

Good morning! TGIF! This week dragggged on for me for some reason. I attribute it to the weather- the string of gloomy days really got to me. But, today is Friday and that is a very good thing- so here we go!

  • #Runbold– A fellow blogger reached out to me about a really cool opportunity John Hancock is doing for the marathon this year. They are giving people the opportunity to share a running picture with a powerful word that running means to them and then adding the hashtag #runbold. When you do this, you have a chance to be featured on a marathon banner- pretty cool, right? If you’re interested, head on over here for more details.
  • Wedding Food Tasting– Tomorrow morning we are heading up to the Wentworth to do our food tasting for our wedding, which, btw is in 108 days!!! It’s a group tasting for all of the 2016 weddings so it will be fun to meet and chat with other people getting married there. Plus, it’ll be nice to have a little weekend getaway!

IMG_2970

  • THIS Rose Bubbly– My friends Amy and Amanda introduced us to this amazing rose bubbly. I’m telling ya- if you like rose and you like bubbly (Sherri- I’m thinking of you!), you must go get this. I found it at Whole Foods in Lynnfield but the girls have found it at the City Target and a liquor store in Ball Square (Somerville). It’s about $15/bottle but it is SO worth it. So delicious and almost too east to drink 😉

IMG_4312

  • Starburst Jellybeans- I’m a sucker for these bad boys and when Walgreens had a sale on them, I couldn’t help pick up a bag. Why are they so good?!

  • Bags & Kicks- As you know, I’m working on my BoxFIIT certification so my goal is to start getting to more classes. I feel confident in my teaching ability, I just need to get more familiar with the class formats which I think will come pretty easily to me. Nicole taught the class I took and she was fantastic! It was a super hard class, but totally my style. I was able to stay for the second and “shadow” here which was fun. People were very receptive to my cues and help. Can’t wait to teach my own!
IMG_4344
And that does it! I hope you have a great end to your work week!
Questions for you: How was your week? Did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Do you have anything fun planned this weekend? What’s your favorite Easter candy? Do you have a “must try” bubbly?