La Crosse for the Weekend

Starting today I'll be in La Crosse, Wisconsin at another conference for work. We're leaving this morning and will be up there four hours later. I should be a pro at this now, but for some reason right before I have conference to go to, I'm always running around like a chicken with his head cut off, making sure I have everything, getting all of my laundry done, and picking out everything I'm going to wear.

It can be kind of stressful and nerve-racking sometimes, but it's fun going new places and seeing new sights. La Crosse is a river town and looks kind of similar to right here in the QC in Illinois. I guess in the summer months it looks like this.....

(Image from here)

But unfortunately it's February and we're supposed to get a bunch of snow soon. So it may not look quite as nice. I'm kind of tired of seeing snow by now. Hoping the weather cooperates while we're traveling and we are able to get everywhere we need to be with no issues. Crossing my fingers and hoping for a good conference! 

Spring Touches

Is there a cure for the winter blues? I'm about to go crazy being stuck inside for days on end. I guess since it's not spring yet outside, all we can do is bring it inside, right? And what better way to do that than with bright colors and lots of florals?

Some people are completely anti-silk flowers. But I have tons of silk flower arrangements around the house, and I'm all for a good one! Something nice and bright that brings in a pop of color is the perfect touch to a room, and best of all, you can leave it out year long! It never wilts or dies.

I keep my silk flower arrangements out all year, even in the winter. It's a nice reminder that spring is just around the corner. :)

I picked up these silk flowers from Wal-Mart this winter and put this arrangement together for super cheap. Just a few large pink blooms was all I needed, mixed in with a little faux baby's breath here and there. Complete with a simple glass vase, and there you go! It brightens up the kitchen and adds a nice little pop of color. 

Bright frames have also been a weakness of mine over the last year or so. This yellow frame in my mini gallery arrangement was also from Wal-Mart last year. I still love the nice pop of color it brings to our neutral walls!

I don't think I'll be able to take that yellow frame down for a while. You know I love to switch these frames up quite a bit, but I'm really loving our current arrangement with our engagement photos added.

I'm also still in love with my white pitcher and faux lime green hydrangeas. I got these flowers quite a while back, and they've been a staple in our living room ever since. They're a little pop of color, but at the same time they just go with everything and every style. Traditional or contemporary - these flowers are super versatile.

I really cannot wait to see some real hydrangeas outside! And pink blossoming buds on trees lining the streets! I'm getting Spring fever, I tell ya.

What are some touches in your home that make you think Spring?! Are you pro faux flower like me? I am definitely planning on incorporating some real ones inside, too this year. We're starting a flower garden in the yard and are growing our own flowers for the wedding. It will be an experience! Hoping it all works out. :)

Tux Shopping

So yesterday we had our first tux appointment for the wedding. I say first, because it seems like it's going to take a few more until we figure out what we want! To say the least, it wasn't too succesful. We made a 2:00 appointment at Men's Warehouse, and we quickly realized that it didn't matter if you had an appointment or not. There were just two tux rental consultants, and they would help you when they were done helping everyone else. Losing our patience and a little frustrated (there were no chairs in the store so we had to stand the whole time), about 40 minutes after 2, it was finally our turn.

I could tell from the get go it was going to be a frustrating appointment. Trent and I already disagreed about what we wanted for tuxes. For the most part, we both want a charcoal gray color for the guys, but Trent is set on being different. There's one nice dark gray tux at Men's Warehouse that you can rent (The Vera Wang), which I think looks fine, but Trent doesn't want to look like every other guy - he wants a more "flashy" look. The girl who was helping us convinced us that a suit would probably be the way to go, since there weren't too many rental options for tuxes available in what we wanted. The bad part about Trent buying a suit, is that it is probably going to be more money, and the other guys would either have to buy the same one, or they would rent or buy a different style and wouldn't look the same.

To say we were a little overwhelmed and indecisive at this appointment would be an understatement! We decided to get Trent measured and try a gray suit on to see what it looked like. We thought trying some things on might help us decide what the best option would be. So he tried on a suit, but...there was no "wow" factor, and he wasn't impressed.

I didn't think it was bad, maybe with a lighter tie, but is a suit like this formal enough for the wedding? It looks like he's going to a business meeting or a funeral. It just didn't seem like we were getting anywhere, so the girl sent us over to the retail suit department to look at some more options.

This seemed even more overwhelming (so many options, do we even want to go this route? Wouldn't renting all the tuxes be a lot easier?) We talked to a guy there for about 5-10 minutes, and finally just decided we need to do some more looking, maybe look online, and at some other stores, before putting in stone what we want.

Who knew tux shopping was going to be so difficult? It seems like it's going to be similar to finding my wedding dress! This may take a couple of months...so that's where we're at with tux shopping! Tux or suit? Who knows! And for Aaron's (the best man) outfit, I'd like a subtle pop of peach, maybe in the tie and the boutonniere. But to my disappointment, Men's Warehouse didn't have the David's Bridal color Bellini as an option in the guys' formalwear yet. Apparently it's a new color for 2015. So they don't even have a peach color. Looking at the swatches they have there, I thought that the Petal color would be close, but the girl said that it's actually a light pink. And unfortunately the coral color is too bright. 

Looks like we may have to look around and do some color matching ourselves for the tie! And we might try some other tux rental places, since this one only really had one good tux rental in the color we were looking for. I said the honeymoon has been the hardest thing about wedding planning so far...this may come close!

On the plus side, I picked up my veil yesterday. Another piece of the ensemble complete!

Selling Stuff Online: My First Month

I may not have worked on many crafty or house related projects lately, but I've been doing a lot of two things: wedding preparation, and getting rid of things! I've recently started an attempt to get rid of old clothes and items that are just laying around the house. An early spring cleaning, if you will. I've put some of my nicer, brand name clothing on a site called Threadflip, and I've been putting pretty much anything and everything on eBay. Not a whole lot, but maybe 8-10 or so items at a time, during a 5 day period. I could have just taken everything to Goodwill, but I figure, why not try to make a few bucks on things that are just lying around the house? I've never sold anything online before, so I thought it would be fun to try.

I decided against Craigslist or local swaps, since I'd rather not meet strangers in person to exchange items..I know a lot of people use those methods, but ya never know what shady stuff can happen out there! So I just decided to put things up for sale online and ship it out. I started at the beginning of February. I put clothes on both Threadflip and eBay. The verdict? I have yet to make a sale on Threadflip, but I've sold 6 items on eBay so far! I've netted almost $100 on just 6 items, and with shipping costs, I've profited about $50. Not too bad for items that were just laying around the house not being used!

I've found that I really like selling and shipping things on eBay! It's such an easy way to make some extra cash, and it takes a lot less time than I thought it would.

On the other hand, I was kind of bummed that I haven't been successful on Threadflip this first month. I've found myself taking things off of Threadflip and putting them on eBay instead. I really like the clean look of the website, so it's kind of disappointing, but eBay has been much more successful for me!

Here's a peek at my Threadflip closet - much cleaner than eBay, right? Super disappointing, but eBay just has such a larger market.

I'll admit it was a little challenging when I first started a few weeks ago, and it was a learning experience once I made my first sale. But, it was something I learned as I went, and I'm now beginning to get the hang of it. It was pretty exciting to see that first email come in saying that I got my first sale!

Trent's been a big help, taking all of my packages to the post office after I get the items all packaged up and ready to ship. I don't get home until 5:00, so the post office is closed by the time I'm off work. Nothing like that relief to let go of something that's just sitting around taking up space!

Still thinking about having a yard sale this summer, too. Of course the items that don't sell in the end, I will probably end up taking to the local Goodwill...no sense in holding onto them any longer. 

So, that's my latest hobby. Kind of fun finding things to sell, and even more exciting when they actually sell. I highly recommend it! It doesn't have to be intimidating. I've been wanting to do it for a long time, and all it took was just taking photos of the stuff and posting it. Maybe I'll have another update in a couple of months. We'll see what happens!

Make-Up Adventures

Happy Friday! How is everyone's winter going? Ready for it to be spring over here. Only a few more weeks of this stuff, right? Speaking of the winter blues, not too much has been going on in the home renovating department lately. I've just been doing a lot of Ebay selling and make-up experimenting. Ya know, my new projects to keep me busy. I'll have a post up soon about my recent Ebay selling adventures. Time for a (long!!) make-up related post today!

So, a couple of weeks ago, we went to the local Bridal expo and then shopped for a bunch of wedding related stuff. That shopping trip included a trip to Sephora where my sister Haley advised me on a bunch of awesome beauty products to get ready for our wedding. She's been a big help in the beauty department, since I have to admit I'm kind of clueless when it comes to that stuff sometimes. 

But, it's fun to play around with different products, so that's why getting samples is the best way to go when you're experimenting with new products and trying to perfect your look. For Christmas, Haley gifted me three free months of Birchbox, and it was super fun getting these little boxes in the mail each month. Monthly beauty samples, hello! So, needless to say, between these and free samples from Sephora with each order...the past few months, I've been doing a lot of experimenting in the beauty department!

I like to think it's all in preparation for the wedding in August, though it doesn't hurt to look good on a daily basis, too. So I thought I would do a brief little overview of some of the samples I've tried recently and am still in the midst of trying.

First up, these three products:

From left to right - 1. Number Four Lumiere d'hiver Super Comb Prep & Protect, 2. Juice Beauty Green Apple Brightening Gel Cleanser, 3. Davines Minu Shampoo.

The Prep & Protect spray is like a heat protectant-slash-leave-in conditioner for your hair. I've used probably half of the sample bottle so far, and it really is great for wet hair right out of the shower. I spray it on when I have a bunch of tangles, and it detangles it right away. My only complaint about it is it has a strong musty smell! I like my hair products to smell yummy, so it's kind of a downfall, but if you can get past that, it's a great product.

I haven't really used the Juice Beauty cleanser enough to give a review or really see a difference. But I like that it's certified organic, and it smells really yummy and fruity. I plan on using this when I travel so we'll see how I like it as I use it more.

I don't have too much to report about the Minu Shampoo either, it seems like it's a good shampoo and the smell isn't too bad. It's hard to tell if I've seen any results, since I've been using it interchangeably with my Aveeno shampoo. But no complaints yet!

Next up, the make-up! Some of these are products that I've purchased from Sephora and have just started trying, but a few of these, like the eye liner and the concealer, are Birchbox samples.

First, the Miracle Concealer, I've used quite often already. It said something in the description like, 'a little goes a long way,' and that's definitely true for this! I don't think it hides things the best, but it goes on really smooth and I really like the texture of it, so I've been using it everyday. And it blends really well with my other make-up. I still need a concealer with more coverage on top of my foundation, but this is great for underneath.

So I'm pretty much in love with this Supergoop CC Cream. Just started using it a few days ago, and I am loving it. I've been using it as my foundation under pressed powder, and it matches super well with my skin tone. This is the first CC cream I've ever used and it is a great color correction cream. I like it better than my BB cream, so might have to upgrade!

Next is the Too Faced Chocolate Soleil bronzer. I bought this from Sephora in a pack with the Too Faced mascara. Both came recommended by Haley. And I love both of these! My favorite thing about the bronzer is that it smells like chocolate. And it gives me a little tan, too, of course. The Too Faced mascara might be my favorite mascara yet. You can see that I also have the Make Up For Ever Smoky Extravagant Mascara, also from Sephora, that I've been using for a while. This was my favorite. Now, it's kind of being replaced. :) Both are great, but the Too Faced mascara is a bit more dramatic, and I like that.

The two items beneath the mascara are Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner, and the Brow Wiz brow pencil by Anastasia Beverly Hills. The eyeliner was a sample, and I'm not really a fan of liquid eyeliners. They're a little too harsh for everyday, and I try to apply them for special occasions, but I'm not really used to it yet. Liquid eyeliners can be difficult to get right sometimes, so they kind of scare me! This one is ok, but I feel like it has kind of a greenish tint to it - like it's not fully black. So that was one weird thing I noticed about it. The Brow Wiz on the other hand is pretty awesome! Another one of Haley's Sephora recommendations. I've always been scared of brow pencils too, but this one looks really natural and is just fine for everyday. It's a new part of my daily beauty routine now.

On to the Skin products...

I'll just give a brief overview for this one...there's the Clinique acne cleanser, which I got in a little sample kit - these products really work well, but I've found they're super drying (lots of alcohol and salicylic acid), so that's the only downfall for me. The Bobbi Brown Instant Long-wear make up remover works great - I've only used it on my eye makeup so far, but it is gentle on eyes and takes it off really fast. I LOVE both the Murad spot fix, and the Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream. They both work really well, and I plan on getting more when these samples are finished. Good staples to have in your skin care regimen. I'm kind of neutral on the Philosophy No Reason to Hide Transforming serum, and the Real Chemistry Peel mask. I haven't noticed a difference with the Philosophy serum, and peel masks tend to dry out my skin. So I could probably do without both of those products. As for the Urban Decay eye shadow primer, I have several samples of these - some are anti-aging, some are shimmery, etc., and they're really nice. A small amount lasts all day long.

And finally...the perfume samples! Most of these are from Sephora, but there's a couple in here from Victoria's Secret.

I haven't even tried all of these yet (I have enough to last me several months at this point!), but I love both Victoria's Secret scents - Dream Angels Heavenly - an oldie but a goodie - and Noir Tease - great for nights out. I've tried Viktor & Rolf's Flowerbomb and it's not too bad. Trent has a sample of the Spicebomb cologne, and I think it smells really good. Hanae Mori is the little black sample - I've worn this, and it's not bad either. I'm looking forward to trying all of the others!

Well that was kind of a long beauty review, but this is kind of my life these days...trying lots of products and perfecting my skincare routine six months out from the wedding! Not sure what I'll be doing for my make-up, if I'll be getting it done professionally, or if there will be some DIY make-up going on! We'll see.....

Tux appointment tomorrow and picking up my veil! Super excited to get a couple of more things out of the way!

Valentine's Day 2015 Recap

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone! Valentine's Day has become one of my favorite holidays, because Trent always goes all out and makes me dinner at home. Every year it's something different, but we always have that tradition.

Last year, he made stuffed peppers and got me roses delivered to my work. We had dinner at home and then went to a Mallards hockey game. See our 2014 recap here. In 2013, he made veggie lasagna.

This year was a little different, because most years Valentine's Day is on a weekday and we both have to work all day and have to wait until I get home to have our dinner and celebrate. This year, it was on a Saturday, so we got to spend the whole day together. It was a perfect day! I woke up to this on the kitchen table:

I told him the only things I wanted for Valentine's Day were The Best of Me on DVD, and a cookie cake. If there are two things I love, it's cookie cakes and Nicholas Sparks movies.

We each had a card for each other. My present to him was his wedding band, and we already picked that out a couple of weeks ago. 

He got me flowers a little early...a few days ago he picked them up after work. Aren't they pretty?!

We did things a little bit different this year - since neither of us had to work, we had all day to stay home and get ready for our "dinner," so Trent cleaned the kitchen, and we both got ready and dressed up. It was like we had our own little fancy dinner date.

While I was in the living room waiting for Trent to get everything ready, Trent was cooking pasta and making everything look all pretty.

He had Frank Sinatra-like music playing and it was really cute and romantic. He does this every year but it always looks a little different.

This year our meal was cheese tortellini with butternut squash sauce. It was really yummy! And we had red wine to drink and cookie cake for dessert. :)

It was like we had our own private table in a fancy restaurant, without leaving the house.

Oh, and of course Saleen stood watch by the table, like always.

After dinner, we watched my new movie, The Best of Me. Our first time seeing it. Soooo good! But really sad, too! Overall, a great Valentine's Day! It would be nice if all Valentine's Days were on the weekend... a nice change. 

And a bonus, Trent cleaned the bathroom today. Our house is officially clean thanks to him. Woo hoo! Staying in again today. Friday night we went out to a trivia night thing with my parents, so it was nice to have the rest of the weekend to just relax at home. Back to the grind tomorrow!

The QC is Famous!

Anyone else from a small town or community knows that it's extra awesome when your city/region is featured on a TV show or in a national headline. You really feel like your town is famous. No joke. So imagine my surprise last night when I got word that the Quad Cities was on one of my favorite TV shows!

So awesome! Love me some House Hunters. Haley texted me just in time and we got to watch almost the whole episode. It's so weird when you're from a fairly small metro area to actually see that on national TV. It was a good episode, too. I always get totally jealous of all of those nice houses they get to tour (and eventually buy/live in). Nudging Trent as we speak to get to work on all those renovations on our list! Teehee! ;)

Day Out and Antiquing in Galesburg

Hope everyone is enjoying their week! I had a pretty nice weekend. Saturday we had a few errands to run. We went to the bank in the morning, then headed to town for lunch and a little shopping. Cherry Street Restaurant and Bar is one of our favorite places to eat in Galesburg. I dream about the veggie pizza with alfredo sauce! Plus the walls and ceiling are pretty eclectic. Old fashioned tin tiles on the ceiling with playing cards everywhere, and exposed brick walls. And the occasional Moose head here and there.

It was nice to get out and eat a yummy lunch. We totally almost devoured the entire pizza.

After lunch, we did a little of one of my favorite activities...antiquing! First we checked out the fairly new vintage shop downtown called Dig. I'll admit, there's not too many "hip" places in Galesburg these days, but this shop is one that I'd been wanting to go to and it was pretty cool! They had lots of unique vintage items. It was a pretty small store though, and I didn't snap any photos while we were there. Nor did I take anything home with me. But, it was fun to look!

We then stopped by an old favorite...the Antique Mall. This place is huge. If you can't find anything here, you're not looking hard enough!

I always find a couple things when I come here. There's multiple rooms and floors full of every item you can think of. So fun to look around. I did take home two small items I'll be using at the wedding:

A pretty little serving plate and a mini white milk glass bud vase to join the extensive wedding collection. I had to, it was 2 bucks. I think the plate was $4. Adding these to my wedding centerpieces!

See how pretty?! It's pearlescent! :) So those were my finds of the day. It was a fun little day antiquing...and then we ended it with grocery shopping and a couple of movies at home. The Liam Neeson movie, A Walk Among the Tombstones, and The Theory of Everything. Two great movies!

The rest of the weekend was spent doing my taxes (yuck..but it's done!), and posting things for sale online! Yep, I started putting my clothes up for sale on Ebay and Threadflip! I had never sold anything on Ebay before, and last week I started putting some old clothes up there, and I've sold two items so far. Slowly but surely, I'm starting to sell and learning the whole process! It's pretty fun. I hope to blog about it once I get a little more experienced selling things online. Cleaning out my closet has been a long time coming, and with spring right around the corner I've been starting to do that.

We're thinking about having another yard sale early this summer - maybe in May when it gets nice out. And before we're scrambling to get things done right before the wedding! I've added a link on the sidebar to my Threadflip closet if you want to check it out. Basically cleaning out my closet majorly, and this is just the start. C'mon, shop my closet. You know you want to!

Not Always Hunky Dory

I know that here in the blog world we tend to emphasis the eye candy, sugar coat things, post about all the good things and leave out all the bad things...but let's face it. Life isn't all rainbows and butterflies! Just like everyone else, bloggers have good days and bad days, and our houses are a mess more often than not. And I'm here to reflect a little about those everyday curveballs today.

I can tell you that in 2015 so far (just over a month in) we've experienced more than our share of everyday problems in our household. If it's not one thing, it's another! And we don't even have kids. So I can totally sympathize with those who do, because I'm sure there would be even more curveballs thrown daily with that one. But, here we go.

New Years Eve: Frozen Pipes
Let's see. New Year's Eve we woke up to find that there was no running water in the bathroom whatsoever. The toilet didn't flush, and nothing was coming out of the faucet. I got ready for work with no hot water, since the only water we did have in the house was ice cold water in the kitchen sink. The verdict? Our pipes froze from the below zero temperatures we were experiencing. And Trent found that the cause was a gap near the foundation where the repair guys didn't seal it properly. So, Trent ended up sealing the gap with some insulation. We've been good ever since.

Mid-January: Mouse in the House
If that wasn't a pain in the butt, a couple of weeks later, we discovered we had a mouse living with us. We're no strangers to those little creatures - I've seen them in the kitchen before, but it's pretty rare, and it had been a while since we'd seen one.

But last month we found little holes chewed through oven mitts, and little mouse droppings in our kitchen drawers! Gross, right? Luckily Trent saved the day again. We bought a mouse trap and caught the little guy, and Trent cleaned out all the drawers in the cabinet the critter could have been hiding in.

Feb. 3: Trash Nightmare
The bad experiences didn't stop there. Just last night, I changed out the trash in the bathroom and kitchen and set the trash bag in the kitchen next to the dishwasher for Trent to take out like he always does on Tuesday nights. Well, after we'd been out of the room for a little while, we go back into the kitchen to discover that Saleen had gotten into the trash bag and eaten her way through every little scrap of pizza, leftover hummus, the rest of my yogurt from my lunch, through paper towels, and everything else you typically throw out in your kitchen trash. It was all scattered all over the kitchen floor! And this was at about 10:30 at night. Scarily enough, there were even pieces of glass in there from a wine glass that had broken. And Saleen had a little blood on her paw. We were not happy campers. Luckily she's ok though, and we got the mess cleaned up late last night. I am definitely just taking the trash out myself when I change it now, even if it's below zero outside!

So, moral of the story...as many good times that we've had in this little house of ours, we have those nightmare days here and there, too. After this past month's disasters though, I'm hoping they get fewer and further between in the coming months!

Bridal Expo and Wedding Shopping Weekend

It's Super Bowl Sunday again! And I'm super excited to see all of the commercials. (The game, not so much...) I haven't watched any of the commercials online yet because I wanted to wait to watch them during the Super Bowl. :) We have gotten a ton of snow overnight, and it is still coming down today. We could get up to 10 inches! Needless to say, we probably won't be heading out and going to any Super Bowl parties...maybe just walk across the street to the neighbors' - aka Trent's aunt and uncle. :)

This weekend was full of productive wedding shopping and idea-gathering, and today I thought I would share a little from our adventures yesterday! Last year around this time, we attended the Davenport Jaycees Bridal Expo, getting ideas for my sister Haley's wedding. This weekend we went again, this time for my wedding! I brought along my mom, Haley, and Trent as my partners in crime. We had a good time and did some other wedding-related shopping afterward, too.

Like last year, there were a TON of bakeries and cake shops at the expo. Of course, Trent and I have already booked our cake shop - Olde Towne Bakery. But that didn't mean we couldn't look at ideas and taste some of the yummy cakes and cupcakes there!

These cakes were definitely my favorite of the entire expo. I just wish I could remember which bakery this was because it totally slips my mind! We saw way too many that day. I thought these were the prettiest, though.

We got our share of sugary sweets yesterday, that's for sure. We sampled tons of cake - my favorite-tasting one this time was a toss-up between the strawberry-filled cake from Olde Towne, and the salted caramel frosting on the cupcakes from Hy-vee. Yum!

I didn't take any other photos at the expo, but it was overall a good time, and we did a lot more than just cake tasting. The main thing we were wanting to get done is to register Trent for tuxes. We signed up with Men's Warehouse and will be making an appointment to try on suits and tuxes and get that taken care of soon. I also wanted to stop by the Pure Hair Studio booth, to talk about some wedding hair and make-up options, and I'm really glad I did! I got a few tips and ideas and just may be making an appointment soon!

It's always fun going to Bridal expos, because you never know what you'll learn, or even what you'll do. I got a free ring cleaning, got some wedding hair ideas, a lip gloss application, and even participated in a magic trick! Like always, it was fun and productive, and I definitely recommend going to one if you're planning a wedding.

After the expo, we headed to the mall to do a little shopping. Haley and I spent the majority of time in Sephora. I love this store but always get so overwhelmed at all of the different make-up options! She's kind of a make-up enthusiast, so she gave me lots of tips and ideas for the wedding. I had to take pictures of some of the products so I could remember what to buy for next time.

Apparently the Make Up for Ever brand makes a great foundation, and it's a good matte foundation for photos. I use their mascara, but have never tried the foundation before. Definitely on my list to do.

Haley recommended the Too Faced bronzers...they smell like chocolate! I'm planning on trying their mascara, too.

This Amazonian clay blush from Tarte is supposed to be great. I will definitely be trying this soon. I use a Nars blush now and want to switch my everyday blush, since I feel like the one I have is more for evenings and going out. It has lots of little glitter in it, and I want a more matte one for everyday.

I am definitely in need of a brow pencil of some sort. I've never really filled my brows in before, and that's something that I probably need to start trying. I've always been a little scared of it looking "fake", or not getting the right color. So some experimentation is needed! Will probably be trying the Brow Wiz from Anastasia Beverly Hills soon.

After getting a ton of make-up ideas, I met back up with Trent and we stopped at Helzberg to look at wedding bands for Trent. We found the perfect one almost immediately. 

The first one we saw and Trent tried on was the one we ended up purchasing! It's a 6 mm tungsten band, and the size was even perfect, so no ordering was even necessary. It was the perfect ring, really classic and looked like it was made for him. We took it home that day. So excited to have that done! It's my Valentine's Day present to him. :)

After the mall, we all ate at one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Lunardi's, then Mom, Haley and I headed to our appointment at David's Bridal for Haley to try on bridesmaid dresses. We have a really small wedding party - no flower girls or ring bearers, and only one bridesmaid and groomsman each. Another way of keeping the wedding a simple, intimate, mostly family gathering. So Haley is my only bridesmaid that I needed to pick a dress for. This made it pretty easy...whichever dress looked the best on her is what we went with!

And this is the style that we ended up going with. Again, this is the first dress she tried on! None of the dresses she tried on afterward looked half as great, or fitted her as well. Instead of the royal blue color though, it will be in this peachy color:

The hardest part was choosing the color of the dress. The colors that were too light, weren't as great with her skin tone, but I wanted to keep it in the pink-peach family, and the coral colors were a little too bright for the look I was going for. So peach (or Bellini) it was! Yet another thing checked off the list. That's what I love doing these days..

Looking online afterward, it looks like this will be the dress, though the color looks a lot different online (much more orangey):

I like the look of the long dress, even though the wedding will be outside in August. I think it looks a lot more romantic and elegant and fits with the vintage-meets-modern style we're going for.

Overall, I feel like we were really productive yesterday, and I love seeing even more elements all coming together. Getting even more excited!