wedding planning | cake tasting

Last Saturday Mike, my mom and I tried out some delicious cakes at A.J.'s Fine Foods, and we decided on the best three awesome choices. 

Marita is the cake decorator at the A.J.'s that we went to, and she was the best! Super friendly, excited, and talented. She also... got me. Something that I think may be very hard to find. Through this process, I have found a lot of different people with a lot of different attitudes. Thankfully there have been a few more good experiences than bad ones {a win in my book}. Marita, and the cake tasting was a great experience.

We ended up deciding on not one giant wedding cake, but three delicious cakes. Let me tell you all about them:

1. Raspberry Champagne: white cake, light and fruity, covered in a butter cream and whip cream frosting blend.
2. Cannoli: white cake, cannoli filling with mini chocolate chips, same frosting.
3. Chocolate Cannoli: chocolate cake with the same cannoli fillingm and same frosting. 

The amazing thing is the cost of three cakes is much less than the price of one "wedding cake." Who says you need to have just one traditional wedding cake? As with all things "wedding" cake is no exception, you get charged more, because you'll pay it. For those wanting a traditional cake, A.J.'s really did have excellent pricing, but Mike and I were looking for something a little more informal, and non-traditional. The three cakes that we picked were a third of the cost of a traditional cake. 

Here are some inspiration images for the style of cakes Marita is going to create for us.

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polish please | atomic orange

I don't know about everyone else, but I had a lovely day today. Super Bowl Sunday is one of the SLOWEST days that you can get working retail, and today was no exception. If the the bowl didn't keep people in, the the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and the afternoon rain sure did. I always volunteer to work every Super Bowl because, let's face it... I am NOT a football fan. I would much rather watch the puppy bowl! 

It is nice knowing that you are going to have a slow day heading into work, you can map our your day, and get SO MUCH DONE. This year was made even better when we finally had a guest walk into the store around six p.m. and say, "There is almost no one out their shopping, I guess someone said that there is some sort of big sports game on today." I kid you not, that was real! 

After my leisurely day at work, I decided to head over to Target since I needed some more nail polish remover {something that I can go through quite quickly}. Target was nearly EMPTY! I love a nice relaxing stroll through Target to wind down after work. I had planned on just getting the remover, but couldn't help but make a pit stop over in the women's clothing. I resisted, and was very proud that I didn't pick ANYTHING up, but then... the shoes. It's not my fault that I was just thinking that I don't have any "Spring-like" ballet flats, and flats happened to be buy one get one 50% off! I picked up these two beauties:

I know they are totally adorable, comfy, and completely necessary in my life!

After I picked up these cuties, I thought that I should end my evening with some new polish. So I grabbed OPI Atomic Orange, a polish that I picked up last week when Ulta was having a polish sale.

How awesome is this color?!? I think that it is even prettier in person. I am not a huge "orange person." But for some reason I really love this color. I also got a chance to try my other latest purchase, Essie First Base Coat. The top coat that I use {and love} is Essie Good to Go, and I love it. I have tried a few different top coats, and just really love the consistency, and true rapid dry quality that this top coat has. I hope that I like the base coat just as well.

I never knew that safety orange could look so good!

 

polish please | Logan

I wanted to show off one of my free Zoya polishes, this one is called Logan {also the name of my little bro}. I had been looking for an emerald green, and I just had to get this one because of the name. I am really glad that I did, because this color is gorgeous.

Emerald is Pantone's "Color of the Year" for 2013, and is in the color trend report for spring seen here:

  

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wedding planning weekend

I had Friday and Sunday off this past weekend, which was wonderful for wedding planning. Friday started with a meeting with my mom, we went over some ideas for setting up for the reception and how we are going to set up the ceremony. We also went over ideas for decor, and may have even finalized some plans. We wrote down a list of places that we were going to go that day which included Costco, A.J.'s and The Home Depot... yes that is right, HOME DEPOT!

I have heard great things about Costco's flowers, but didn't really know anything about them. I started researching online where they have pre-made collections where you can chose the colors, and pieces that you need, and they are shipped to you. 

I deciede to stop in at Costco and get some more information from the store {I always prefer speaking with someone face-to-face, a lot of the time they tell you things that you may not have even thought of.}. My mom and I stopped in, and were very happy to find an actual person at the flowers! Janice was super helpful, and incredibly nice. She had so much information and ideas, I think that this could be the best option for our budget, but we can still get great looking flowers. Here is a little "insta dump" of some of what I saw at Costco.
 

purple, green and white

gerbera dasies

spider mums

hydrangeas

After Costco we headed to A.J.'s the cake decorator was so nice, and energetic! It was obvious that she loved her job and was more than happy to help and make whatever we want. I still need to schedule a tasting, but I am really excited to get our cake from A.J.'s.

Lastly, on Sunday Mike and I met with officiant, who we both loved, and made it official. It's almost like we actually have a wedding in the works. Getting some of these things accomplished is really taking a load off my mind. I am no longer a little ball of stress, woohoo!

polish please | little brown dress

Something super-duper excited happened today... my Zoya polishes came in the mail today! Woo-hoo!

https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/016E3CED

Here are the polished that I chose when I ordered my three free polishes from Zoya to start off this year on the right foot. The colors are Lyric, Logan, and Faye. More to come with these later.

The polish that I have been rockin' for the past few days is  Essie Little Brown Dress. I paired it with a gold glitter alternating the glitter on the tips and cuticles, and completely coated my middle finger. This was very easy to create, and the brown polish actually covered in ONE COAT! Unheard of, I know, that is what made this one of my favorite manis to date. 

 Here is the instagram photo, please forgive the worn tips, this was taken today after the men's floorset. Long day, but so excited to end it with new polishes!

pinspiration | wedding table

Mike and I have actually started planning this wedding. Research is being done, emails being sent, and phone calls getting made. I am seriously overwhelmed, it's really hard to even know where to start. I know this doesn't sound that surprising, but if you have never planned a wedding before, you don't really know what you are doing. We have so many people {family and friends} that want to pitch in and give us a hand, which is amazing, but even getting that under control can be very stressful. Today I actually made some head way and narrowed done vendors to get more information from. I finally feel like I am making progress.

I am not going to bore you all with anymore talk of research and emails, on to the pretty pictures!

Now that I have a better idea of table rentals, I wanted to show some inspiration that I have found for some DIY table decorations for the upcoming nuptials. 

Paper:

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Candles:

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I already have a bunch of glasses / vases that I plan on incorporating into centerpieces, so what I go with may be a mixture of the two ideas.  

save the dates

So, I actually sent out our save the dates in the beginning of December. With the holidays and work taking up a big chunk of my time, I wasn't able to post them until now. I showed you all my inspiration of save the dates on pinterest here.{Although until this very moment, I thought that I had blogged about them, I guess that I was busier with work and life than I originally thought.}

As you all know, Mike and I are trying to make this wedding happen on a budget. So we decided that I would put together the wedding stationary myself. I had a few things working in my favor; I do have a little bit of a creative bug, Photoshop knowledge, and a mother who is a graphic designer. Although not everyone may have these things, there are always low cost options and templates you can use to created something that you love within your budget.

I picked up the supplies that I needed at Hobby Lobby; card stock, and envelopes, and of course I used my 40% coupon like always. Other than that all that I needed was a computer, plenty of printer ink, Photoshop, a straight edge and an X-acto knife.

 I also did a little research before I created our save the dates. You can look into how much it cost in postage to mail your save the dates, square cost more. Also check to see what size your envelopes can accommodate. The envelopes that I picked up were 5" x 7", which means that I could make this invites 5" x 7" and still have them fit because the envelopes actual measurements are 5.25" x 7.25".

Now I need to get started on the invites and response cards. Well, that and everything else.

polish please | leopard

I had picked up some more polish at Ulta the other day with the gift card that Mike game me. One of the colors was Zoya Dree, the other was OPI Don't Pretzel my Buttons.

Again, I couldn't wait to use both colors, so I had to use them at the same time. The colors are very reminiscent of camouflage, which I thought about doing, but when surfing the webs I found inspiration on the China Glaze website. This is when I decided to do a leopard mani. I had seen a few that I liked on other sites, and ended up following a tutorial that I found on Chalkboard Nails.

I used my two new colors, China Glaze Liquid Leather, and one of my dotting tools {I used the dotting tool with the smallest points} to create the look. After painting on the base coat and two coats of the base color I added Essie Good to Go fast dry topcoat. The topcoat allows you to work a little quicker, but the mani was a little time consuming. I also practiced on a piece of paper first to work on my shapes, spacing and amount of polish to pick up/ put down with the dotting tool.

I put the contrasting spots on with the larger side of the dotting tool, making random shapes and making sure that they were not perfect. I also made sure to have them "fall off the nail." With the small end if the dotting tool I "framed" the colored spots with black, making sure to have each spot look a little different. I added some extra just black spots in between the colored spots and added more topcoat.  

new year, free polish

I was over on one of my favorite nail blogs, and noticed a post about about free polish from Zoya. I ordered my three polishes today; what a great way to start the new year! I haven't tried Zoya polish yet, but I did just pick one up the other day on sale at Ulta. This will be the next polish that I try. Zoya is supposed to be long lasting, so I am very excited to give them a try!

STARTS MONDAY, JANUARY 7th 2013
A New Year Calls For New Color! 

Zoya Nail Polish wants you to SHINE in 2013 by rocking your unique style - on your nails! Pick any 3* Zoya Professional Lacquer shades to instantly update your nail polish wardrobe for the New Year!

Offer Valid Monday, January 7th (10AM EST) through 11:59pm EST January 13th ONLY Pick 3 bottles of Zoya Nail Polish for FREE* ** just pay shipping & processing charges of $10. 

Use Code: ZOYA2013
Want more?...
Receive FREE Shipping*** with any Zoya or Qtica purchase of $25 or more (same code)!
Here's How...

1. Add at least (3) Zoya Nail Polish shades to your shopping cart, along with any additional items you wish to purchase.
   
2. Enter Code ZOYA2013 into the coupon code field in cart and press "Apply Code".
3. Complete Check-Out, Review & Submit Order.
   

* Promotion Excludes Zoya Nail Treatments, Gilty Pleasures and Spring 2013 Lovely & PixieDust Collection colors 

** Terms and Conditions 
Shipping & Processing Fee of $10 applies. Valid online at www.zoya.com 10 AM EST, 01/07/13 through 11:59pm EST, 01/13/2013. Continental US only. Not valid in conjunction with other coupons, codes or promotions. Returns or exchanges of promotional items not permitted. Art of Beauty is not responsible for incorrect addresses, credit card entry errors or errors associated with declined credit cards . Code must be entered at the time of purchase. Please allow up to 4 weeks for shipping if volume warrants it. Limit 1 promotional order per account.

*** Free shipping available on orders of $25 or more only.  

Act fast, and try Zoya for only the cost of shipping! What colors are you going to get?

https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/016E3CED

polish please | pink polka dot

I made it through all of 2012 without catching a single cold. Then there is 2013, one day it and I caught what was going on at work. I did manage to paint my nails in between naps, and I used some of the polishes that my mega best friend, Shawna, gifted me for the holidays. 

I used Essie Bachelorette Party as the main pink, Essie Beyond Cozy is the golden glitter, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls is the white, and the light pink is Essie A Splash of Grenadine. I used the opposite ends of a dotting tool to get the different sized dots. 

It feels a little Valentines-y to me, but I really wanted to try the new colors. Thanks mega best friend!