sarah & tristan say i do

I'm hoping to post some of the professional pictures from Sarah's wedding, but I had a few good ones on my camera that I wanted to share. They show some of the "behind the scenes" action better anyway :)

 

 

"Ta Da!"

Our hairdresser thought this was the look to go with, but luckily we talked her into doing a little more :)

 

 

 

 

Isn't she beautiful?!

I'll try not to say that too many times in this post

 

 

 

 

Love the braid detail

 

 

 

Our sister, Hannah, did Sarah's makeup (Hannah's a pro!)

 

 

 

 

Sarah's dress was beautiful, but not as beautiful as she is (awwww, sniff sniff)

 

 

 

 

Sarah ordered roses and freesia wholesale and then let me arrange them for her boquet.

 

 

 

I just love how simple and stunning the two flowers are together!

 

 

 

of course, lace and ribbon detail was a must :)

 

 

 

I also got to "bejewel" Sarah's shoes based on an etsy inspiration pic she found

(I'll do another post on the shoe bejeweling process in the near future)

 

 

 

Mom and I getting Sarah into her dress

 

 

 

 

We had trouble with the last button, but I made sure to omit all the pictures of mom and I sticking out our tongues... apparently that's what we do when we concentrate... thanks for that, mom :)

 

 

 

Sarah, you are stunning. period.

 

 

 

 

Me, Sarah & Mom

(dingy basement lighting, boo)

 

 

 

Dad walking Sarah down the aisle - isn't this a sweet picture?!

 

 

 

First married kiss

 

Oww Oww !!!

 

 

 

Reception centerpieces

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah made a bunch of these balls for decorating the pews and reception using a punch to cut out the flower shapes from sheet music and then pinning each flower to a styrofoam ball - cool huh?!

 

 

 

For the reception they had a "drink bar" where you could add all different flavors to your tea or lemonade... it was tons of fun to try flavors out!!! My favorite was strawberry and rasberry in lemonade, thanks Kevin for coming up with that one!

 

 

 

 

My brother, Eli, made Sarah & Tristan's wedding cake.

It was as delicious and it was beautiful!

 

 

 

 

I think Tristan was worried about getting cake in his face, haha!

 

 

 

Sarah used a rubber stamp to decorate the cake forks and make them extra special!

 

 

 

My sisters, April & Adina, came all the way from Texas!

 

 

 

O yeah, and here's a shot of Kevin & I

 

 

 

What beautiful memories... I even gave a speech and didn't bomb it, even though I almost passed out just practicing!

 

 

Congrats Sarah & Tristan!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



punta cana - part 2

One of our days in Punta Cana we did an excursion to learn about what really goes on in the Dominican Republic... since everyone doesn't lay out on the beach every day.

These open buses were our transportation. It rained a lot.

But really that's ok, because of all the days to rain we were still able to be out doing somthing rather than just watching spanish tv. No I did not understand anything in spanish other than numbers and yes I sometimes watched it anyway :)

Our first stop was a sugar cane plantation

Here I am trying some raw sugar cane

(all the while thinking how I could use it to make a cupcake!)

We also got to see how to roll cigars

and Kevin was happy to test if they were rolled correctly :)

Next we visited a local house

(this is not the house we visited, but a similar one that I took a picture of later in the day)

Everyone pretty much grows their own food and if they have any extras they sell it on the street for extra money. They grow coffee, cocoa, all types of fruits, their own sugar cane, cinnamon...

This is one of our tour guides cheesing for the camera

(he is holding a cocoa pod)

The cocoa beans then get roasted and ground, much like coffee.

Here's a really short video of the process, it was lots of fun to watch them in person!

Once they ground the cocoa it was mixed with brown sugar and cinnamon and then they let us taste test

it was yummy :)

I skipping all the pictures of fruit growing in their back yard... but there was lots of it and it was so yummy and fresh!

Next we ate lunch at an open-air restaraunt in the mountains.

It was a beautiful spot!

This pic is to try and show how bumpy the roads were... but I love bumpy roads!

I have always been the kid in the back of the car yelling "Daddy, go faster!!"

Or telling Kevin it's ok to be a little air-born on the hills back home. :)

Next stop was horesback riding - I was paired with a horse who was a free spirit, but insisted on being at the front of the group - we bonded instantly :)

Our last stop for the day was an absolutely beautiful local beach

 

Kevin tried boogie boarding and I just enjoyed the clear water

What a fun day exploring the local life in the DR!

welcome to the jungle

I had a great time planning and hosting Owen's jungle theme first birthday!

Seriously, I love to do this party stuff... especially the dessert table!!!

 

I made this bunting banner with scrapbook paper and then displayed in on a large picture that I wrapped with a neutral gift wrap.

 

 

 

 

Gahhh, I couldn't wait any longer to show you this super cute snake!

I just sliced sub sandwhiches into small appetizer size pieces and laid out the pices with a litte curve to them on the food table to look like a snake. I used toothpics to put on the olive eyes and cut a red pepper to look like a tongue. So easy and so cute!

 

 

 

 

Here's an over-view of the food. Main table is snacks and drinks and the buffet to the left is desserts

 

 

 

I hung some streemers from the ceiling and cut a few jungle leaves from scrapbook paper to jungle the place up a bit :)

 

 

 

 

A closer look at the food table. Mostly veggies and fruit so guests were able to justify splurges at the dessert table - haha!

 

 

 

 

I attached zebra scrapbook stickers to one of my punch jars and simply poured in green hawaiin punch and pepple ice (I buy pebble ice at Sonics) for this fun colored "jungle juice"

 

 

 

 

For the water bottles I removed the labels and then wrapped the bottle in zebra packing tape. This was also really simple to do and I love the impact it makes!

 

 

 

Finally a shot of the desserts!!!

 

 

 

 

The cake pops were pretty darn cute!

At least it was pretty easy to tell what they were supposed to be :)

 

 

 

tigers

 

 

 

 

lions

 

 

 

and monkeys!

 

 

 

I have the bakerella cake pop book and used that for my directions with just a few tweeks.

 

 

 

Of course you can't have a party without cupcakes

(at least not in this household!)

 

 

 

 

The cupcakes were vanilla or chocolate with a marshmallow creme filling and green-vanilla buttercream - YUM!

 

 

 

The cupcake toppers were actually dollar store stickers that I stuck on scrapbooking paper and cut around. I hot glued the cut outs to toothpics to finish them up.

 

 

 

Animal crackers were a must for this jungle party!

 

 

 

THE CAKE: This adorable monkey cake is a very yummy banana cake with chocolate buttercream. I found the directions for decorating it here and just made a few changes... for instance I made mine a double layer... cause doesn't that sound soooo much better than just one layer of delicious banana cakes?? I found the banana cake recipe here and I would highly recommend trying it out for yourself!

 

 

 

 

Owen also had a little chocolate smash cake to enjoy.

 

He started out nice and slow

 

 

 

 

but then mommy got involved and things went crazy!

 

 

 

 

must eat more cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very happy sugar-high birthday boy: love him!

 

 

 

Just can't believe how fast a year has gone by, I remember when this little dude was born as if it were just a few weeks ago... sniff sniff. Yay for happy memories!