Roatan, Honduras

All images from Barefoot Cay facebook page 

That's where I will be for the next nine days!!!

If you missed my last post, I'll fill you in on something... I got married last weekend!!!

We decided to take a week in between our wedding and the honeymoon to recover, write thank you notes, and pack before heading off. Let me just say, this week has dragged on! I'm sooo excited our honeymoon is finally here!

We'll be jet setting bright and early, at 7am, and will be arriving in Honduras at noon. We'll be staying at a very secluded cay in the Southwestern side of the island called Barefoot Cay.

I'm looking forward to snorkeling, couples massage, renting scooters, zip-lining, and drinking frozen drinks.

*This resort is huge on diving, and it looks really fun and pretty! But some of you may remember this post, and how I learned that diving and I are not very compatible... Well I haven't completely given up on it. I might give it another shot when I get there. Wish me luck ;)


Follow me on instagram and twitter for updates throughout the trip!

hey guys...

I got married this weekend!!!

Just thought I'd check in with y'all... thanks for all the love on instagram and twitter. Don't worry, I'll be back here to update y'all with full details of the big day, although it's going to be a while before I get my pictures back. Here's a little teaser to hold you over (stolen from facebook)!

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I'm still on cloud 9! What a beautiful weekend. Can we do it again?!?

10 Days

Guys... I get married in 10 days! It's kind of surreal, really. I've been waiting almost 15 months for my wedding day, and now it's just 10 short days away! Crazy.

Anyways, I'm sure you can only imagine how busy I've been these last few weeks... Sorry little blog! You've been neglected. But I wanted to update y'all on some things... A lot has happened since I got my wisdom teeth out. Mostly just pictures of my dogs, and preparations for the wedding.

• See, pictures of my dogs! Gotta love a Melvin montage. Mac kinda got snuffed on this post. But I did get him looking emo in the middle.

• I took my bridal portraits! 
• I celebrated Easter

• I watched Scott work on his smoker. Can't wait for the puppy to be done! 

• Went to Aly's wedding. Gah, she made a beautiful bride. We've been planning our weddings together ever since we got engaged last year. It's been so much fun! Her wedding turned out so beautiful too. 

Props, surprise, ugly face(I won that one), and normal...

I stole this picture from Aly's facebook. I can't believe I didn't manage to get a picture of her! But seriously, how gorgeous is she!?! Isn't her dress is amazing?!

• Made my rehearsal bouquet... Ok, I didn't make it, but my aunt did :)

• Made my escort cards.

• Ordered a canvas from Costco for half the price at Walgreens. Success in my book!

I can't wait to share more wedding updates with y'all. Be looking for my bachelorette party post in the near future.

I have to link this post up with Shanna today because it's REALLY random!!! Whoop Random Wednesday!

Bridal Shower

Hello friends, I am back and ready to share my bridal shower with you! I finally got the pictures back, sorry they weren't taken with a fancy camera, but they're pictures nonetheless!

Let me tell you, my friends and family know how to make a bride feel loved/blessed/special... Like I'm overwhelmed by the love these ladies showered me with last Saturday. We made memories that I will cherish!

The day went something like this...Everyone arrived between 2 and 2:30. We munched on yummy chips, veggies, dips, taquitos, nuts and wraps oh and I can't forget the sweet bundtini's (pictured below). We played a few games, one of them being "Guess how many" and the other "How well do you know the bride" quiz. Some of the answers were hysterical. My MOH scored the highest with 10/15 right. Needless to say, it was pretty tough! We then went on to opening gifts, my bridesmaids being first. They scored custom hangers for the day of, and coach purses...They were upset they didn't get two piece velour suits, but a purse would suffice. Then it was my turn to ascend the mountains of gifts set aside for me. It took quite a bit of time, but I'm oh so grateful for them. Our house is starting to look more and more adult with all of our new matching goodies! Matching silverware, dishes, drinking glasses, wine glasses, and list goes on. SO MUCH FUN!

Ok, now are you ready for a boat load of pictures? Here you go!

Me and my bridesmaids with our dress of hangers. Isn't it funny how Bailey and Anne are wearing pretty much the same thing?! Down below is me and my mom and my two grandmas, maw maw and mee maw! I love those ladies.

Pictures of my bridesmaids opening their gift from me and some other shower guests... Love baby Elliott!

Some highlights: hot plate, "Scott & Brooke Hamilton" wall hanging, white wavy bowl, "Austin" apron, Butter dish!, "Hamilton" tote!, and antique bracelet. 

 

My rehearsal dinner dress, a new bathing suit for the honeymoon and a VS gift card ;) and much much more!

Last but certainly not least, pictures of me with the shower hosts.

My mom, Aunt Sally and Aunt Kim put this shower together for me and I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out. From all the little details, to the special gifts I received. Speaking of which, I wanted to share two special things I got, that I will be wearing on my big day.

First being diamond stud earrings. Let me give you some back story. I chose my date to be April 20th, because I wanted April, and a Saturday, and it also my Aunt and Uncles Anniversary. I thought it would be special to share our Anniversaries. This was the note I got with the earrings:

"I am so happy you have found such a wonderful man to share the rest of your life with. As we go forward and share our 'Anniversary Day' I'm sharing with you a gift that I received from Uncle Jeff many years ago on one of our Anniversaries. I hope you love them as much as I do. I wish you health and happiness and a little 'sparkle' for the future!" 

I can't come up with the words for how thankful I am. I was completely shocked when I opened these up. and yes, there were tears shed when I read this to everyone...It made me quite emotional!

That's not the only piece of jewelry I opened up... My mom passes her 150 year old antique bracelet down to me. It was given to my grandma from her cousin when she was little girl. It was then given to my mom for her wedding and my Aunt Kim used it for hers. I adore this heirloom bracelet, and will wear it as my something old on my wedding day.

Wow, sorry for such a long winded post. If you stuck around, I thank you! It was oh so fun reliving that day!

Weekend Shenanigans!

This weekend was a blast, to say the least! I am counting my blessing on this Monday morning. I saw/felt/gave so much love over the weekend. Let me recap!

Friday started off by catching up with my BFF, Bailey. She came into town for my bridal shower, so it was fun giving her all the deets on the wedding plans thus far. We also took a surprise trip up to iFly for her Boyfriend's Belated Birthday celebration! It's an indoor skydiving facility(seriously, what will they think of next?!) If you're in Austin, I highly recommend it. Scott and I didn't get to do it this time, but watching them was hysterical! I can't wait to try it myself! Lord knows I won't be doing the real thing!

 

How awesome is that?!

Afterwards, we went to our neighborhood hole in the wall, and it was like a high school reunion! So fun running into everyone there, just like old times.

Saturday I celebrated my good friend Aly, at her Bridal shower. I love that girl! We've been planning our weddings together ever since we got engaged and I can't tell you how awesome it's been to share advice, struggles, celebrations with someone else going through the same thing you are. It was great seeing her and all of our friends together.!

Later that day, it was my turn! We had actually planned our showers on the same day, imagine that! They were at different times, so it worked out nicely. My shower was hosted by my mom, Aunt Kim, and Aunt Sally. They did such a great job! I was so surprised with how everything turned out. But more on that later this week. I can't wait to show y'all the pictures and share some special gifts I received. The ladies in my life  really know how to make me feel loved!

Just a preview of the little bunt cakes that we had. They were so yummy!

Sunday I witnessed my in-laws beautiful vow renewal. It was their 40th Anniversary. What inspiration! I'm going to do a special post on that too!

I hope y'all had a fun weekend as well!
I'm linking up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans!

Wedding Update: wedding crafts

I realize that I haven't been around these parts in quite a while, but I did want to show you what I've been up to!

Wedding planning is in full swing now, and I've been having fun crafting and giving personal touches to some big day details...

A few weeks ago, some of my family got together to help me with our wedding guest favors. I had this vision of making take away flower seed packets ever since we got engaged. I figured since our wedding is in April I could go with the theme "Spread the Love." This is how they turned out.

I got the stickers and the little paper bags from where else, etsy, for a very reasonable price! Find the paper bags here. The stickers here.

We chose to do escort cards rather than placement cards for seating. Since we are having a buffet, it's easier to just have tables than a specific seat. This is what I've come up with.

 I jazzed up little clothes pins. I'll use them to hang the tags on the line.

I got the inspiration from pinterest, here. I found the tags from etsy, here and the clothes pins/flowers from Hobby Lobby.

When I went to look for guestbook ideas, I saw all sorts of cutesy things like finger print trees, little note card trees and recipe boxes. Really cute! But I thought it was a little out there for my guests and my style, so I went the more traditional route and got a guestbook. It was really cute as it was, being crochet, but I wanted to give it some customization for our wedding colors. Here's the finished product.

What do you think? I hope you brides(or future brides) found some inspiration from these ideas!

Wedding Update

I started this blog shortly after I got engaged and realized I haven't posted any official updates on how wedding plans are going. Sure I've posted here and there about wedding related things, but not a full blown out post. So if you're interested, stick around. With only 72 days to go, we've gotten quiet a bit of things done. hallelujah

When is the wedding? April 20th.

We've been engaged a little over a year and one month. I seriously can't believe how fast the time has flown by! Each new day closer to becoming Mrs. Hamilton.
The great thing about this engagement is that it has been, relatively speaking, stress-free! I only say this because we booked probably 80% of our venders in the first 1-2 months of being engaged. Only now have things started to pick up.

We picked our wedding venue first, just as every wedding guide says to do.We went with Green Pastures, an Austin original. It's a beautiful Victorian house that sits on five acres of land tucked away in a neighborhood off of South First Street. It's well known for their delicious cuisine, beautiful and historic estate, and the peacocks! This place really is a gem! I couldn't be more happy to be getting married here.

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Photographer: Allen Doberenz, hands down, was our first option for our photographer. Since it was over a year out, we were able to book him and we are so glad we did! He's easy to work with, reasonably priced for his amazing work, and he's personable and makes you feel comfortable. We had no idea how our engagement pictures would turn out, because heck, it's a little awkward having someone take pictures of you for three hours. But he's magical or something because they turned out awesome! I posted a few pictures from our engagement session here. I recommend Doberenz Photography for any of you Austin brides. He's the bomb!

Ceremony & Reception: we’re having both our ceremony and reception at Green Pastures. They offer multiple locations for the ceremony. We wanted it to be outside because we are both pretty "outdoorsy" so we went with a great big area underneath oak trees. The reception is inside their great room.

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Colors: soft pink and navy blue. Originally, I want just soft pink, but my MoH talked me into throwing a splash of navy blue in the mix. I am loving this combo too! I've actually seen these colors a lot lately, but someone is always going to have your color combo, no matter what it is, so you just have to deal with it.

Flowers: I had the HARDEST time finding my florist and finally hit gold with Exuisite Petals. For some reason, every florist I called never wanted to contact me back. I guess they didn't want my money? Oh well, it all worked out in the end. This is an example of what I like. Lots of spray roses, garden roses, and peonies! Love the lambs ear too.

Caterer/Cake: these are both included in your reservation with Green Pastures. Have you ever eaten there? If you have, then you would know that you wouldn't want any other caterer than GP. And holy jackpot, they make both the bride and grooms cakes!! Whoop! I love the simplicity of this cake. I'm hoping they can recreate it for my wedding :) I'm not sure what I want the grooms cake to look like yet, but they have a lot of options to pick from at GP.

Rehearsal dinner: we’re having our rehearsal dinner at Z'Tejas down on 6th Street. There is a separate house next to the restaurant that they rent out for parties, which is perfect for this occasion. I plan on making a picture slide show to play during the dinner. The Hamilton's are hosting. :)

Save the Dates:We used Wedding Paper Divas for all of our stationary so far, including our save the dates! We went with the postcard style, which saved us from stuffing envelopes and a little bit on postage, score!

Invitations: I finally get to show you what our invitations look like! We sent them out at the end of January, so it's safe to show everyone here :) At the beginning of planning, I found these invitations(on wedding paper divas) and they've been stuck in my head ever since. When it was time to pick them out, we came across a few contenders, but I still loved the first ones the most, so we went with them.

Wedding bands: we have yet to actually purchase mine, but we already picked it out. There is a matching set to my engagement ring, which makes things much easier. We plan on getting it later this month. As for Scott, he will be wearing his grandfathers wedding band. When he tried it on this past summer, it fit perfectly. On the inside it is engraved with his grandparents names and wedding date which is so SO special. I love that it's a family ring. It's a plain white gold band, which is what he was going to pick out anyways. Plain perfection :)

Wedding dress: there's not much I can share about this, but I will say that it's a Tara Keely dress, I got it at Blush bridal, and it's white :). I also posted about it here. I have purchased a lot of other accessories to go with my dress so far too, which include: veil, hair comb, earrings, shoes, and garters.

Wedding party: we wanted a fairly small wedding party and that's just what we got! We each have 2 bridesmaids/groomsmen and my maid of honor and his best man. We are also including our friends Thane and Amy as members of our wedding party because Thane so graciously agreed to marry us. He is on the ball and already got certified to be our officiant. We couldn't be happier. It's definitely more our style. Oh, the bridesmaids will be wearing this dress, and the groomsmen will be wearing khaki colored suits.

Honeymoon: we’re going to Roatan, Honduras!!! This is actually the first time I'm announcing this to the public! I know you're probably like "what, Honduras?" BUT omg it's beautiful there. I said from the beginning that I wanted a beachy honeymoon with adventure in the mix. Honduras will provide both of those things and more! I want to expand on this topic in a separate post, so be on the look out for that!

A rather lengthy post, but I hope that helps some of you future brides in planning. I have enjoyed checking all of these things off our growing list of things to do. Some of these topics I will be expanding on after the wedding ;)