Me & My Husband {Thirteenth Edition}+A Giveaway Winner!!

So, I  don't know if any of you remember these posts I was doing a while back. If not, you should go check them out! I will be continuing the posts. There are only four or five questions left so enjoy it while it lasts! ;} 


Today's question is: Honeymoon: Where did you go? Was it good? ;)


So this is going to be a pretty boring one! Sorry everyone! We went to Sedona, AZ for our honeymoon and stayed in a little hotel. It was pretty nice with our own personal jacuzzi! That was the fun part! We had a super short honeymoon though and didn't do much. I don't even think we have pictures of us on our honeymoon! We took a couple at some of the fun places we went to eat but they are all on Race's phone. It was really nice though. We turned off our phones and just enjoyed being together nonstop for a few days.  We were married Friday morning, in Sedona by 2 or 3ish, spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Sedona, and then headed home on Monday. Our honeymoon wasn't much but it was perfect for us and for the amount of time that we had. And honestly, I was just really excited to get home and move in together! Someday we'll probably head out on a cruise and do something more honeymoonish and it'll be a blast! But our mini-honeymoon was just wonderful!

Now before I leave for the day I want to tell you 

something I am grateful for. And that would bemy job. I am 

so grateful to have a job but I also grateful for 

what my job is.  I get to sit in an office for a few hours a week

and answer phones. I am lucky to like the people I work 

with, to like answering phones and helping people

solve their problems. And I absolutely LOVE typing. Weird , maybe

but I do love it. I love the sound and seeing how fast I can

 type. Is anyone else weird like me? Anyway, I 

am lucky to have a job. And I am grateful that I can help my 

family in this little way.

  

This picture displays what I do at work. Take pictures of the flats I wear basically every day and make collages. Jealous? Your probably should be! ;} Happy November everyone!

Oh wait! Before everyone heads out I have a giveaway winner to announce! So, I used random.org for this but I don't know how to do the whole picture thing to prove that I didn't pick my favorite person so you'll have to trust me! The winner is comment #19. Kaitlin Graff! Email me at emsmilesss {at} gmail {dot} com. If I do not get an email within the next 48 hours I will pick a new winner using random.org. Congratulations Kaitlin! 

Me & My Husband {Twelfth Edition}

Continuing from this post: this post.

Question 12: Favorite part of the day and least favorite part of the day. {Can be anything}


I'll get the bad out of the way and then move on to the good. :]


First off there wasn't anything absolutely terrible. Mostly there were just some funny, weird things that happened. 


1. A bug flew up my nose right before we headed into the temple {while we were doing pictures, 13th picture down, here}.
2. Race was in the process of some crazy tooth surgery and was actually missing a tooth at the time of our wedding. He had a flipper tooth at the time which made kissing over the altar and for pictures a LITTLE bit weird. It was still good though. And, he has a tooth now {not a flipper} so kissing is grrreat! 
3. We got stuck in traffic on our way to our honeymoon destination! 


I think that's all. Those are such small things compared to what a WONDERFUL day it was. 


And now to the good things:


1. Sitting and talking quietly together in the temple before entering the sealing room. 
2. Getting advice from the temple president on love and marriage. 
3. Entering the sealing room to see the faces of so many people we love there to support us. 
4. Giggling lots while taking pictures. 
5. Not being stressed about ANYTHING once I saw Race.6. Making sweet promises to each other for all eternity.

Pretty much everything about our day was good. We didn't have our reception the night of our wedding which we loved. I think that it really helped me not to be stressed about anything. And we were glad that we got to head straight to our honeymoon destination after a quick brunch. It was a good day! And we are coming up on one year next weekend. I can't wait! We are headed to Lake Powell for the weekend and then might be ending it in the valley with my family for a mini family reunion. It will be a good weekend. :]


Oh, for that weekend I was THINKING about having two or three guest posters. I just wanted to see if anyone was interested...and IF anyone is then they should give me some tips on how I would go about setting up a guest post...because I have never had a guest poster or been a guest poster. So, let me know. And have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Edit: I think I now have enough guest posters for next weekend but I LOVE the idea of guest posting and would love for anyone who is interested in doing it at some point to let me know so that next time I'm away I can ask you! You can email me at emsmilesss {at} gmail {dot} com. Thanks so much everyone!

Me & My Husband {Eleventh Edition}

Continuing from this post.

Question 11: Your song and/or the first song you danced to at your wedding: share a music video or lyrics if you can!

Race is super into music and had quite a few songs that reminded him of me. We chose one of those songs for our dance but honestly we didn't even end up having our "first dance" until our reception after all of the guests were gone. I think our true first dance was in our itty bitty first kitchen {it was really a hallway with a tiny sink and stove} while I was trying to cook Race dinner and getting frustrated. He pulled me away from everything and danced with me to no music. It was romantic and one of my favorite memories of being married. Mmm I love that boy! Anyway, the song we chose to dance to at our wedding was "If My Heart Was a House" by Owl City. 

Other songs we considered {some jokingly, most seriously} were: 

"Smother Me" by The Used

"Heaven Can Wait" {acoustic version} by We The Kings

"You Shine" by The Morning Of

"Te Quiero" by Belinda y Otros

I am sure that there were others that I just can't think of anymore. I love dancing with my husband though. And I love when he sings cute songs to me. :] Random side note: At Race's family reunions every year they have an awesome dance with square dancing and the two step and other cool dances like that. Last year while we were engaged we went to this and it was our first dance together and apparently someone asked Race's mom where we learned to dance. I guess they were impressed with our skills that I didn't even know we had. Well, more that Race has. Anyway, I felt really cool after that. And now I want Race to take dance classes with me somewhere. It'd be lots of fun! 

Now I'm listening to our wedding reception playlist. Good stuff. :]

Me & My Husband {Tenth Edition}

Continuing the questionnaire from this post:

Question 10: The cake/food: I love food. So tell me about what you had at your wedding!

We really didn't have much food at our wedding/reception. After we got married we had a brunch with all kinds of yummy breakfast foods. It was laid back and delicious. At our wedding reception we had cupcakes, snow cones, dinner mints, and then lemonade and water to drink. I THINK that's all we had but I honestly can't remember. I ate maybe one cupcake and then someone brought Race and I snow cones with lemonade mixed into them. They were delicious! I don't at all regret not eating food at our reception. We spent the whole time talking with all the wonderful people that came to support us in the beginning of our marriage. It was quite the relaxing, low-stress night.

{Sidenote: I have recently been realizing that I am not even close to a food connoisseur like so many other bloggers. I like food just fine but I am not incredibly in love with any foods/desserts. Yeah, I know it's weird.}

I guess I might have Race add something to this post about what he thought about our wedding food although I'm not sure that he really ate much at our reception either. 

Did any of you other married couples realize that you didn't have the time to eat anything at your receptions?    

Me & My Husband {Ninth Edition}

Question 9: The reception: Where was it at? Show us some pictures! What day did you get married? {From this post}


Race and I were married on September 3, 2010. We did not have our reception until September 25, 2010. We did this so that we were able to have a little bit longer of a honeymoon before we had to head back to Flagstaff to get all moved into our apartment and get back to school. We were married at 9 AM, had a delicious brunch with family and friends that were at the temple, and then left for our honeymoon in Sedona, AZ. It was so nice to get to leave right after eating and start our honeymoon so early in the day. 

Our reception was two weeks later, the day after my brother got married. It was a crazy weekend for my family! Especially for my mom. She put so much work into my reception and it turned out beautifully. We had it in our front yard on our lawn/driveway. It was super laid back and Race and I were able to relax and enjoy talking to our guests. I am so grateful for all the service that went into putting my wedding reception together. People from my home ward, my family, and my parents all put so much work into making this a special night for Race and I. 

This was the detailing on the tables. My mom cut out all of these cute little hearts and found the adorable, perfect fabric.

My mom and aunts also made the cute fabric banner and hung up the pictures along our garage.

 

 

This is the top of my gorgeous cupcake made by Amy Gregson. 

 

Some of the table settings:

The food table.

 

 

Our "Guest Book" drawn by my sister-in-law Nikki. She is such a talented artist and I love the way our guest book tree turned out.

 Here is the whole thing put together with some of our guests. As you can see, we were just out on the street but it was perfect for us!

{Photos by Jessica Downey of Sierra Studios Photography}

Me & My Husband {Eighth Edition}

Filling out the fun questionnaire from this post.


Question 8: The little accessories: You know, veil? Shoes? Jewelry? What did your bridesmaids wear? 


I loved all of the little accessories at my wedding. I did not have a veil but I did have the most gorgeous jewelry ever! It was made by Coreen Hennig, a lady and good friend from my home ward. I had not even thought about what jewelry to wear and she offered to make some for me. I came to her house two days before my wedding and she had made the most GORGEOUS pearl necklace and earrings. They honestly made me feel like such a princess. Whenever I wear them now they remind me of my wedding day and how special I felt. I am so grateful for Coreen and her sweet gift to me. 

The Gorgeous Necklace:

 

The gorgeous earrings:

I knew that I wanted red shoes for my wedding {red is my favorite color} but I could not decide between heels and flats. I found a pair of red flats at Charlotte Russe that I liked but wasn't sure if they were fancy enough for a wedding. They were $8 though so I knew that I couldn't pass them up. I headed down to the valley to go shoe shopping at the mall and I looked for hours for some cute red heels. I didn't find anything that I liked {My little sister Gelsey came shopping with me and she couldn't believe how picky I was being}. I finally gave up and "settled" for my cute $8 red shoes. I am so grateful that I did though because they were so comfortable, I wear them lots now, and they photographed BEAUTIFULLY! And I like bragging that I got my wedding shoes for such a good deal. :] I got so many compliments on my cute red shoes and I love them so much!

 

 

I already talked about what my bridesmaids wore so I won't really do that again in this post. I'll just put another picture up and say that I have the cutest, most stylish sisters/sister-in-laws ever!

Finally, I wanted to talk about my hair. I had it done by Alisha Jacobson De Kruyf. We grew up in the same ward and she was willing to get up ridiculously early in the morning to do my hair before I headed over to the temple for pictures. She was so sweet and I loved how my hair turned out! I'm pretty sure the only direction I gave her was that I wanted it to the side and curly. She made it look so good and I love it in every single picture! It makes me want to learn how to do hair so that I can do people's hair for their weddings. {I actually did do my sister-in-law/best friend Jasmine's hair for her wedding day. I liked it--but I am not a professional and just got lucky! :]}

 

 

 {Yeah, I made cool faces on my wedding day :]}

{Photos by Jessica Downey of Sierra Studios Photography} 

Me & My Husband {Seventh Edition}

Filling out the questionnaire from this post.

Question 7: The dress: Was it what you always imagined? Did you have it made for you? White or ivory?  


I had no idea what kind of dress I wanted. I had no idea what kind of dresses would look good on my short body. I researched online and came across some things I liked but I did not think they would look that great and I was beyond cheap and was not going to spend hundreds of dollars on a dress I was only going to wear once. I went dress shopping one day and it was so discouraging. Every dress I tried on fit weird and weighed a TON! I was going to have to alter them all so much and it would cost even more money and there was no time to get the alterations done. I did learn through research and trying dresses on that I loved lace, I loved buttons and I loved sleeves down to my elbows. When I tried on my mom's wedding dress though it fit my body PERFECTLY. It was a tiny bit too long but with heels it would be great {I didn't end up wearing heels but it still worked out just fine :]} The one problem was my mom's dress looked like this {minus the train}: 

My mom got married in the 1980s and almost all of her sisters' dresses looked like this too. :] {My Aunt Paula made my mom's dress!}

Anyway, we changed quite a bit of it. My mom is a great seamstress and she helped make it just how I wanted it. We were able to leave most of the dress in tact. My sister-in-law Jasmine had the brilliant idea to cover the bottom of the dress with a lace skirt that could be removed and didn't ruin my mom's dress in any way. Launa Geren, from my home ward, helped to change the sleeves a little bit. She shortened them to elbow length and lined them so they weren't see through. Here is what my dress looked like after all the changes{I hope you're not all sick of the billions of pictures of my wedding!}:

 Race and my mom admiring my dress. 

I love the small details in the back. The buttons from my mom's original dress, the sash, the tiny little bow tying the tip top of the buttons together, the thing across the top to keep the dress on my shoulders. So many of the details were added for practical reasons but I love the way they came together and really gave my dress character.

 I love the lace you can see in the bottom of all of these pictures.

 My dress was perfect for twirling!

 This picture shows the gorgeous sleeves.

 This picture shows some of the top lacing details.

 Here's an up-close of the buttons on the back. And my man's sexy hands! ;]

And finally, here is the dress in its full beauty and glory!

I loved EVERYTHING about my dress! It came together better than I ever could have imagined and I know that I will love looking at pictures of it for years to come. I honestly hope that someday one of my daughters wants to wear it--even if she wants to change it all up too.


{Photos by Jessica Downey of Sierra Studios Photography}

Me & My Husband {Sixth Edition}

Continuing from this post.

Question 6: The colors: Show some of the flower and colors you used.

The inspiration for my colors came from some shoes I saw at Target. Also, red has been my favorite color for years and before it was red it was yellow. So that worked out well. Here are the shoes:



And here are some pictures of my flowers, Race's boutonniere and some of the cute reception decorations that my mom made. Also, I had my bridesmaids pick out their own outfits in the colors I chose and they did an awesome job and all looked so dang good so I'll put up pictures of them too! {My mom found paint swatches* that were the same as the shoes and gave those out to people trying to dress in our color scheme. The paint swatches were nice because they showed colors that were not exactly the colors we were going for but they were colors that looked good with our main colors.}

In this picture you can see Race's boutonniere:

The next few are pictures of my gorgeous bouquet made by Shelley Winters in my home ward. She made the bouquets at my reception as well.

Below are my gorgeous $8 red wedding shoes. {Charlotte Russe}

This is a flower outside the temple that matched our colors perfectly. :]

The following pictures are of my bridesmaids and their super cute outfits/shoes. {My mom made my youngest sister's cute dress}

The rest of the pictures are from my wedding reception. My mom and aunts made all of the decorations and it looked AMAZING! I was not a big part of my wedding decorations at all because I wanted it super laid back {we had it in my front yard}. My mom went above and beyond with everything and I was so impressed! I am so grateful for all the hard work that she did and I am still trying to find a way to repay her for it!

Amy Gregson made the gorgeous HUGE cupcake for Race and I and all of the cute little cupcakes for our guests. They were DELICIOUS!

More table decorations and gorgeous flowers by Shelley Winters.

Mmm...look at those cupcakes!

{Photos by Jessica Downey of Sierra Studios Photography}


*These are what I meant by paint swatches--I'm still not sure if that's the right word--my mom just went to Home Depot and grabbed a few of these to hand out. I highly suggest doing this if you have people trying to find your wedding colors to dress up in.