our wedding: the bridal party

Gah, I am so excited to share these pictures with all of you! I'm splitting up some of the pictures into different batches to keep it all organized - we had over 600 pictures to pick from, so that would make the longest blog post of all time! So today we are going to talk about our wedding party.

Both CR and I are the oldest of four, and actually have the same number of boys/girls, but just switched! So it goes me, my sister, my brother, and my youngest sister, and in his family it goes CR, his brother, his sister, and his youngest brother. So obviously they were all going to be in our bridal party. We decided to have two more people on either side, as our friends are just as important to us as our family. On my side, I felt really conflicted about who to have, as I've had so many great friends from my past lives. In the end, I asked my best friend Caitlin, who is my friend from medical school, and my friend Lizzi, who remains a close friend from college and marching band. CR had his two close friends from college on his side.

I asked my bridesmaids to be in our wedding last year - I made them little boxes with personalized champagne glasses, champagne, and champagne gummy bears, and gave it to them when I saw them...or in Lizzi's case, I had to mail it to her and ask her over FaceTime.

Having my bridesmaids spread all over the country made it more difficult to figure out details for dresses and so on. I spent a lot of time looking on Pinterest for dress ideas, and online for different bridesmaids dresses. We knew we'd have to eventually buy online, so I really focused on that. In the end, I decided I really liked the look of having everyone in the same color, but letting every choose their own style of dress so that my girls could wear what they felt most comfortable in.  We decided to go with Azazie for the dresses - I love that you can filter by color, fabric type, and then any other requirements. I also really liked that site because the girls can order styles to try on, so they could try several and not be afraid they were committing to one style they may hate. We had a lot of text messages going between the six of us picking out our favorite dresses. In the end we went with full length chiffon dresses in dusty rose. I initially thought my girls would wear knee length dresses, but I liked that with long dresses, you can wear whatever shoes you want, so all the girls could just wear their own sandals and it wouldn't matter. For their bridesmaids gift, I gifted each of them with a simple pair of pearl earrings for them to wear the day of. I wanted to give them something they could use in the future, and I figured pearl earrings are about as timeless as it gets!

The day of the wedding, we had quite the whirlwind of getting ready. We basically had three groups of women, between me, my bridesmaids, and my mother and mother-in-law getting our hair down and our make-up done. Part of my gift to the girls was paying for their hair and make-up - I feel it's a lot to ask someone to be in your wedding, to buy an expensive dress they very likely will never wear again, pay to come all the way out, and then on top of that expect them to drop $150 on hair and make-up, so I chose to pay for the hair and make-up for everyone.  We had groups of us getting our hair done while some of us got our make-up done, and then just round robined it until we were all done. For our hair, we all chose to have our hair put up. When my mom got married 30 years ago, she had roses and baby's breath in her hair, so even though my parents got divorced last year, I wanted to pay tribute to my family, and have all of us have a few roses and babys breath in our hair as well. I'm going to talk about that a little more in a future post, but I love how it turned out. Our make-up was done by Tierney, and I love how she made everyone just look like the best version of themselves rather than a different person all together.

The boys, on the other hand, were a lot less complicated. We decided to have the boys buy navy suits instead of renting. The groomsmen were also spread literally from coast to coast, so again we couldn't do anything local. CR and I went to Macy's, and had him try on a few different navy suits, picked the one we liked best, and then let the boys know when a good sale came around so they could get a good price on it. We had them wear their own white button ups, cognac belts, and cognac shoes, and then provided them with their ties (The Tie Bar from Nordstrom actually has quite a few great tie options, if you are ever looking for inexpensive ties!). They had a bit more work to do before the wedding at the actually ceremony/reception site, so they got ready there!

After the ceremony come the staged pictures. There are lots more of the individual pictures too, but I love seeing everyone together!

^ these goofballs!

Our flowers bouquets were a mix of peonies, english roses, hydrangeas, baby's breath, and greenery. The girls had slightly smaller versions of my own.

my gorgeous sisters <3

bridesmaid dresses: Azazie
groomsmen suits: Alfani
my dress: Augusta Jones 'Yazmin'
bridal hair: Tru Salon, Pittsford NY
bridal makeup: Makeup by Tierney
florals: Rockcastle Florist
location: Twin Silos

just because it's on sale doesn't mean you have to keep it.

Hello, and welcome to the first review post of the year! 😂

Okay, so it's been a hot second, so lets just get to it. The annual Nordstrom Anniversary sale opened to card holders last week...you may have seen a post or two on the internet about it. This is my second year as a card holder, so I was excited to finally get to be a part of the early access group! Like I've mentioned now a million times, I don't wear my real clothes that much anymore as I wear scrubs to work every day, but I still like to buy a few new items occasionally for that life outside of work, and especially if I'm going to get a good deal! So I put in about five separate orders (after that issue with no one being able to order, I got three of the same order sent to me!), and have slowly been annoying my UPS man with all the separate orders that came in! But here's a quick review of what worked, what very much did not work, and what I'm keeping! Just as a disclaimer, some of these things may be currently sold out, but there are so many returns being made during this time that I'd suggest just keeping an eye out and rechecking a few times over the next few days as sizes keep popping back.

Okay, let's do all the "omg I hate this" things first.

our wedding: the invitations

Hi guys! I am so excited to finally share details from our wedding with you guys! You were there with us for the planning parts of it, from picking a venue to finding our photographer to buying my wedding dress to trying to decide what we wanted for decorations, so I'm pumped that we now can share all the pictures from the big day. In the next few weeks I'm going to share parts from the day and the days leading up, from bridesmaids dresses to what I did to prepare for our wedding to decorations to just sharing a few of our favorite pictures. Today to kick it off, I'm going to start with sharing our invitations!

One of the big things we spent a lot of time on was our invitations and everything that comes with that, from finalizing the final guest list to sending out the invites to chasing down those last RSVPs.  I spent sooooo much time thinking about what we wanted our invitations to look like (one of the first pinterest pictures I ever saved was a wedding invite from Minted!), but the actual process of finding the perfect card wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.

You may remember that for our Save the Dates, we were really fortunate to work with Minted, and I was every more excited when we got to work together again on our wedding invitations. Minted has always been my go-to for invitations, Christmas cards, and personalized gifts, so the fact that we got to pick from their wide selection of beautiful wedding invitations was like a dream come true.

I spent several weeks poring over the options. Did we want the classic wedding invitation where there are lots of envelopes and sleeves and multiple things all together? Did I want the 3-in-1 option, where the RSVP is attached to the invitation (and most costing around $1.75 per card)? Did we want our pictures on the front? How were we going to have people respond to the invite, and how were we going to get their answers for what they wanted for dessert? I spent a lot of time playing around with all of the options!

In the end, I wanted something that represented us, to be similar to the style of the wedding, and have it be pretty. I really gravitated towards white backgrounds, lots of greenery, and simple font.

The design we finally decided on was "Paradise" - I love the simplicity of this design! Our florals for our actual wedding were a lot of greenery with pink and white flowers, so I thought this would be a perfect homage to that. I really love that so many details on the Minted designs can be customized when picking out invitations, and you can even request changes to be made! I asked that the Minted artist change the little white flowers to be blush pink flowers instead, which was a simple change that really made the whole invite more personalized and reflective of our wedding day flowers.

My favorite detail? The gold embossing for our names and the ceremony site - a bit of a throwback to our Save the Dates that also had a touch of gold on them. 

My second favorite detail? One of our engagement pictures on the back. I wanted the front to be simple and include all the details for the actually wedding, but loved using one of our engagement pictures on the back. I figured most people would have the front of the card on their fridge or wherever, but this was a way to keep a bit of "us" on the invites as well. We also used the free service of having a wedding webside on Minted so our guests could get a bit more information about the actual wedding day that we didn't include on the invites, like where to stay, the bridal party, and our registry, so that website address was included on the bottom of the backside of the card. 

The cards themselves were printed on a beautiful thick paperstock, and the envelopes were thick and sturdy. We, of course, used the (free!) addressing service through Minted, so we didn't have to hand address anything, and had our address printed on the back of the envelopes as well. I loved the cute little RSVP cards, and getting those back for three weeks was so much fun - I always looked forward to getting the mail! Our dinner was buffet-style, but we choose to do individual pies for the desserts, so we had our guests initial their dessert choice. Here's my mom's - I can't believe she chose berry over apple!

I am thrilled with how our invitations turned out, and am forever grateful to Minted for being such an important part of our wedding planning process. We have loved working with them over the past several years, and will continue to be paying customers of theirs. 

Next up - decorations (spoiler: these little candles were the perfect compromise for a no-flame-allowed venue), and then my gorgeous bridesmaids!

PS. Have you seen Minted's adorable monogram maker? You can download any style, and use it for wedding things (like decorations or print on napkins or whatever), or just as a cute background for your phone like I did ;)

college educated, she graduated

This weekend I traveled to Minnesota to watch my youngest sister graduate from college! She has worked incredibly hard, and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in marketing. Basically she's a genius, and we are so proud of her. 

It's been so long since I last posted an outfit picture! The scrub life definitely severely limits buying and wearing clothes, so I rarely do now a days! I did recently buy this amazing Old Navy dress though and I'm obsessed...so much that I also bought it in black! It fits true to size - I tried on both a tall large and a large, and found the regular length to hit me right above the knee rather than below. The fabric is a thick ponte fabric, so I find it to be a bit more flattering than a thinner cotton material. Overall, probably one of my favorite dresses that I currently own! It also comes in a really cute grey/white strip combo that I'm eyeing...

Dress // Old Navy [exact]

Shoes // Jack Rogers [exact]

Jacket // Paige [very similar]

Purse // Coach via eBay

my daily make-up routine for 4 AM wake-up calls

As a creature of habit, I tend to use the same make-up products over and over again - that's why I've been using the same eyeliner and powder for over 8 years now! But I'm definitely open to experimenting here and there, and have found some amazing new products that I really love. My big goal when I do my make-up is to have dewy skin and brighter eyes - when you get up around 4 AM most days, I need a few extra products to look wide and awake when I may not be! Here's what my current make-up routine looks like - the ones with the * are my favorite "brightening" products!

1. *Becca Backlight Primer // I've had this bottle for about two years, and keep coming back to it. It just provides the prettiest dewy skin as a foundation for the rest of your make-up. It's great for those of us with drier skin!
2. Touch In Sol Primer // I do struggle with enlarged pores, especially around my nose, so I use this mostly in that region to help blur out those imperfections. 
3. Dior BB Cream // My friend Amy started using this BB cream last year and raved and raved about it, so I finally bought it last summer, and have been wearing it every day since then! I apply about half a pump to my skin with my fingers. It's the perfect medium coverage I was looking for, and a little goes a long way! Highly recommend this if you're lower maintenance but want a beautiful medium coverage BB cream. 
4. *Becca Under Eye Corrector // This is one of the newer products I've started using. I have fairly dark circles under my eyes (I've had them ever since I was a kid). This brightens up that whole area underneath your eyes. If I was less lazy, I'd also use concealer, but I try to have a speedy routine in the AM, and this I can just dab on with my fingers. 
5. Smashbox Powder // You guys already know this is my holy grail item. I've tried a bunch of different powders over the years, but none compare to this one. It's the best. 
6. Charlotte Tilbury Bronzer // I bought this on a whim last March, and have used it every day since then! I'm just now getting to the point where I need a new one. The "sculpt" side is the perfect color for light contouring and bronzing - I use this under my cheekbones, along my forehead, down my nose, and at my jawline. It just adds the perfect amount of glow to your face. As soon as I'm all the way done with this, I'm going to buy this kit, as I don't use the highlight side as much as I'd use a blush. 
7. Dior Blush // This blush is so darn pretty - it's one of those that makes a "custom" color or whatever with your skin tone. I don't really buy that - it's just a pretty pink color! I've had this for at least 9 months, and still haven't hit pan. A little goes a long way!
8. *Nars Eyeshadow // I don't have time in the morning for a lot of blending and all the things that come with a lot of eyeshadow. I have this in All About Eve, and it's the perfect lighter colored eyeshadow to bring some light to your eyes without looking like your eyeshadow is that white eyeshadow we wore in 6th grade (or was that just me?).
9. Stila Eyeliner // HOLY GRAIL, please never stop making this eyeliner! I always have at least two back-ups in my collection because I refuse to even try anything else. 
10. *Smashbox Eyeliner // I use this in the pale color for my lower waterline. It's a little trick to bring more brightness to the eyes, and this eyeliner is waterproof, so it lasts all day!
11. Anastasia Brow Pencil // Looooove this brow pencil - the thicker edge means it takes less time to color in my brows. I use this in taupe.
12. Anastasia Brow Gel // A quick swipe of this across the brows keeps them in line, and more defined. It also helps keeps them "on" for longer!
13. Urban Decay Primer // Another item I keep buying over and over again. I've tried several different eyelash primers at different price points, and this continues to be my favorite. I use two light coats, and I never have an issue with mascara flaking. It's my secret for thicker and longer looking lashes!
14. Chanel Mascara // I started using this after receiving a few samples, and fell in love with how long my eyelashes were looking. I previously never liked that kind of brush for mascara, but when I combine this with another mascara, it gets the perfect "long and lush" look I want. 
15. Lancome Mascara // I bought this a few months ago, and am getting towards the end of this tube. It's okay, but I like my Bobbi Brown mascara more, so I'll be repurchasing that once the Lancome one runs out. 

I shot a quick video of my make-up routine. Please forgive the horrible lighting - this was early in the AM, and I just finished a work out, so I'm still a bit flushed from that as well. 

top three [03.04.18]

got wedding decorations on the mind

medical tidbits //

• Bruxism: excessive teeth grinding or clinching. Botox is a form of treatment that can help with that!
• Speaking of botox, it can also help with certain urinary complaints, like interstitial cystitis and overactive bladder incontinence. It involves using a small scope, and injecting 100-200 units into the bladder in 1 ml portions. 
• And since we're on the botox topic, botox can also be used to treat torticollis. Botox: not just for your laugh lines!

I've got my eye on... //

• Everlane's newest tote - the red version is giving me major Mansur Gavriel vibes (the tote I always wanted but never actually went after). 
• A possible contender for my rehearsal dinner dress. I love the florals and the neckline!
• A new pair of clogs for work (in watercolor patent). I can't do the original Dansko clogs, so I'm looking for something with a little more arch support!

on the internet //

• I thought Allie's post about botox was really interesting. I personally have zero issues with Botox (and have been getting botox every 9 months or so for several years), but I found her thought process interesting and think she looks great either way!
• As a girl with a mostly neutral closet, Audrey's tips for incorporating a bit of color into my wardrobe is necessary. 
• How long does it take for your skincare routine to work? 

ask me anything //

• I remember a while ago you posted about compression socks for work. What brand do you use? I am looking for a pair or two!
• I wear these Sockwell socks. I now have like 9 pairs of them, and I wear them to work every. single. day. It's the only reason I'm able to be on my feet for so long! I wash mine in the washing machine, but air dry them so that the elastic doesn't wear out. 
• Do you tweeze/shape your eyebrows or is your shape natural? My eyebrows are blonde but thicker/denser than yours, and I have always been afraid of ruining their shape by tweezing.
• I used to get them threaded about every two months for probably 6 years. When we moved for residency, I moved too far away to see the lady I was seeing throughout medical school, and I didn't really want to find someone knew, so now I just let them be, and tweeze stray hairs here and there! 
• I've been searching for months now and can't find what I'm looking for, so tell me, is there a thing that exists that is more structured than a cardigan but not a blazer?  
• Yes! What you are missing is a ponte or knit blazer. It has the structure of a blazer, which adds a bit more ...well, structure! But when it's made in a knit or ponte fabric, rather than the traditional wool, it's as comfortable as a cardigan. Old Navy always has several styles of this type of blazer (here in black). Topshop has this amazing boucle blazer that I'm now adding to my cart because I love it. It's the perfect mix of structure and comfy that I think you're looking for!

quick sales to mention //

• Old Navy's 35% off everything: I just placed an order! I ordered a new pair of workout pants (they are my favorite brand for workout gear, and basically all I wear!), a new sportsbra, and this amazing striped dress that I really hope works on me!

this week I... //

• Did not go down to Florida as originally planned. My best friend and I planned a little three day trip down to the Florida Keys. I rearranged a bunch of my schedule so that we could make it happen. Unfortunately, my flight was cancelled and couldn't find a new one that worked for our tight timeline, after she had already been down there for 12 hours! We were both super bummed that it didn't work out, and that she had to spend the weekend alone. My take away: never flying Jet Blue again, and never flying on a trip separately! 
• Decided that next week, I'm going to restart BBG - the first round of BBG is 12 weeks, which makes the last week of the program the week of my wedding. Anyone want to join in on the fun? I'm already forcing my sister to do it "with" me even though we live in different time zones. I love spinning, but I need some weights to tone up these arms! 
• Start L&D days again - it's been a few months since I was on the day shift! This is my last time on L&D days as an intern, which is hard to believe we're already nearing that point! Excited to be a part of the crazy again! 

wedding planning: the decorations

Our wedding day is in exactly three months! I can't believe how quickly it's all happening. When you have a longer engagement, you think you have all this time, and then it's 13 weeks away and you're like...omg, what things do we have left to do?

A lot of decisions were really easy - once we chose our venue, it locked a few things into place for us. We have to work with the catering company they partner with, and they provide all of the food, drinks, and linens. Our venue supplies all tables and chairs. That's a lot of planning we didn't have to do! Then a lot of other parts fell into place - we booked our photographer, I bought my dress, we figured out what our bridal party is wearing (more on that in a future post), and re-booked our DJ (our first one flaked on us after having committed to us over a year ago...). 

I had talked to a few florists, and picked the first one I really talked to as I liked their work...and honestly, it's difficult to plan a wedding in a city you aren't from or currently live in, so sometimes you just have to go off "vibes". We had a long discussion about what our (mostly my) vision was for the day. Although we are doing a barn wedding, I did not want to go with anything too rustic, so no burlap, actual barn items, or anything like that. I also feel like "wedding colors" aren't a thing as much as they used to be - I feel like 10 years ago, everyone had very specific wedding colors, and everything from the bridesmaids dresses to the napkins to the invitations to the flowers were all in those two colors. Now I feel it's a lot more fluid, and more about the vibe of everything going together rather than everything sticking to two exact colors. So our colors are really just about being soft and pretty - lots of whites, blushes, gold, and navy. 

So I started pinteresting away, and since nothing we are doing is crazy out of the box, of course there is a ton of inspiration out there. So here's what we're thinking!

For my bridal bouquet, and for the flowers for my bridesmaids, I asked for a mix of blush and white flowers, with a mix of bigger flowers. Peonies will be at the end of their season, so lots of ranunculas, english roses, a tiny bit of baby's breath for sentimental reasons, and then lots of green! My florist's instagram has several of these types of bouquets, so I have a good idea of what it will look like, and I can't wait! The men are going to get simple boutonnieres with probably an english rose. 

All the fingers crossed that the weather cooperates and that we will be able to have an outside ceremony. Our venue supplies the chairs, and has an arch at the ceremony site. Our florist is making a floral piece for the arch (something like the one above, at least that's the picture I sent!), but then I'm a bit lost on what else we should do! I don't want to spend a ton of time buying and making things just for down the aisle, so I'm thinking getting flower petals, and having them be scattered down the aisle. When I brought that up on Instagram stories, several people said that makes it hard to walk down the aisle, so maybe we'll do it like the flowers in the right picture, where they are denser along the chairs. Just a little something to make it pretty, but doesn't require much work (or transport, because we're getting married 5 hours away from where we live). Any ideas? 

The only other real outside directions we are planning on is a welcome sign! I love the style of the one on the right, especially because we could hang it in our entry way at our house! But, we desperately need a sign that says the things on the sign on the left, so...we might have two? Maybe the welcome sign right by the parking area, and then the second one closer to the ceremony? Our guest list is very unbalanced (I have 10 family members coming, CR has 65...), so we need to sit scattered. I also really want the ceremony to be cell phone free, so looking for a polite way to express those requests. My mom and I will be making these, so I'm already looking forward to a little crafting season!

The Christmas after we got engaged, CR's brother made us this amazing set of cornhole. He stained them a beautiful dark wood, and we just love them. It gave me the idea of having several other lawn games at our wedding during happy hour! I just think it would be so fun for our guests. I think we're going to get some of these decals for the cornhole boards, and then make giant jenga and yahtzee, and staining them a similar color. Again, fingers crossed the weather is nice!

For the reception, we are doing long tables instead of round tables. I love the idea of everyone being a bit closer and being able to talk to more people. I feel when you're sitting at big round tables, you can only really talk to your date and the person on your other side, and this way, you're directly in contact with 5 people! So instead of doing a large center piece, our florist is making long green garlands with flowers scattered throughout. I'm a bit nervous about this, as I haven't see my florist make one of these (although they say they do them all the time). My big sticking point right now is that our venue doesn't allow any flames, so I can't have real candles. I still want the pretty light though, so we're currently trying to find some kind of votives to put little fake candles in. I don't want to see the fake flame, but I do want to see the flickering light, if that makes sense! On the edge of the tables, we will have some kind of simple way of displaying the table number. 

The last couple pieces are for displaying the seating arrangement, dinner, and drink menu. I don't want them to look just like the other signs, so we will have to play around with this for a bit. 

Gah, writing all of this out makes me realize we actually have a lot more decisions to make, and projects to do! Hoping that my off-service month in May gives me the time to finish all the little things :)

What are some things you loved about your wedding, or weddings you have been to? Anything I'm missing?