Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

Over the past few weeks I've had the chance to check out two local flower shops- Angie's Flowers & Debbie's Bloomer's. Visiting the shops may have seemed a little premature, seeing as how we still don't have a official date for our wedding, but I still wanted to get a rough estimate of how much I would need to set aside for our floral budget.

In addition to getting a feel for cost, I also wanted to meet the vendors to see who I like & who I feel that I can trust with "our big day." While both vendors I have met so far were extremely nice, I was shocked by the news that one quoted me at almost double the price of the other. I'll leave which one ended up being the pricier option up for guessing...

At the end of the day, I don't know if I will end up choosing either of these florists because I still haven't gone to visit Fiori Flowers, with whom, you may recall, I fell in love with at the Bridal Show.

As long as we're on the topic of flowers, though, I've been thinking that I would love to have a purple colored bouquet. I've been looking around and the photos pictured above are a few of my favorite choices so far. Any early favorites?

Obsession: Crystals

I can't say enough about my fascination with crystals. To me, they are just so elegant. Plus, the natural reflection of light they provide makes me happier than any color scheme. Right now, I'm obsessing over this champagne table & the perfectly centered manzanita tree that comes draped in more crystals than I can bare.

Outdoor Wedding

After some searching around El Paso, I pretty much have my heart set on an outdoor wedding. What's still up for debate, though, is whether we'll go for Grace Gardens, a backyard reception in the Upper Valley, or even some other great location. One unique idea I found was to get married at one of the local pecan farms. These pictures are from a ceremony & reception which took place at a pecan orchard in New Mexico and I'm in love. The scenery is so romantic.

Instantly added to my checklist of things to look into... 

Obsession: Custom Bridal Hangers

I saw this picture on Style Me Pretty today- one of my favorite wedding blogs. I'm trying my hardest to figure out where I can order one of these hangers of my own. I would love to have a picture like this...

Bridal Show

On Sunday, January 16th I went to the Days of Remembrance 21st Annual Bridal Fair at the Convention Center. My mom, Marc's mom and my friend Christian tagged along to help me hold all the fliers. Overall, I'm glad I went. It was a great opportunity to see (almost) everything that El Paso has to offer in the way of wedding vendors. At the same time though, the way that most of these vendors present themselves was somewhat disappointing to me. I don't think that I've ever seen more poorly designed fliers and handouts until this event. I'll admit that ever since I started dating Marc, co-owner of Ghostlight Creative, I've become somewhat of a "graphic design snob" (haha thanks Marc!) but to me, I think the impression that your printed materials give off is HUGE.  If you aren't willing to spend the extra dollar to present yourself & your business well, then why would I expect you to put in the extra effort to present our wedding day as nicely as possible?

But despite those minor letdowns there were still a few local companies that presented themselves to be really high quality.Here are the links to a few my favorites vendors from the show:

Fiori the Flower Studio- The guy at their booth he was so full of energy & nice plus he loved my idea of using manzanita branches in the centerpieces.Their blog showcases a little bit of their work and I can't wait to see what they can suggest for me.

Mod Creative Events- Super cute lounge furniture and sugar bars. Plus, they're blog is one of the cutest local wedding blogs I've seen yet.

Kara's Bridal- I absolutely loved all the dresses they had on display. Just one caveat- the model/ representative was flirting it up with some guy the whole time that Christian and I were waiting to talk to her. I ended up walking away with no info. Womp, womp...

Elite Events- They had some really stunning cakes and table setups on display but the guy wouldn't give me any information or ranges on prices. To make matters worse I came home to find that they don't have a blog, website, or Facebook. Looks like I'll have to book an appointment to get even the slightest bit of info...

Inspiration Board

Today, I visited TheKnot.com and made this cute little inspiration board. It was a fun project & the layout turned out pretty nicely. I would say however, that the site didn't give me much flexibility in choosing my "inspirational categories." For example- the fake groom was a necessity, mine is much better looking haha.

I'm loving the color combinations though. I'm thinking lots of crystals, accompanied by light shades of blue, cream, and lavender would look fresh and elegant- especially if we decide to go with an outdoor wedding...

Bridal Blogging

After some debate, I have finally decided to start tracking my wedding planning adventures. . . publicly! My friend Farzad told me that it's always good to keep a journal, whether its for memories or just for keeping a log. I guess mine is mostly for the memories.


I definitely have a ton of wedding obsessions right now and I especially love to look at pictures. I figured this could be a great places to post the things I fall in love with along the way to our big day.

I was particularly inspired to start this blog by one of my (ΔΓ) sorority  sisters- Brianna Haggerty, now Brianna Cannon. She and her husband were recently wed and I had the good luck to stumble across her adorable wedding blog while perusing Facebook. I found so much helpful information on her site! But on top of that, it was so refreshing to hear about planning from the viewpoint of someone I knew a.k.a. a normal bride-to-be, not just a planner. I'm hoping that my posts will be able to do the same for someone else.

One of my favorite pictures of Brianna & her now husband, Eric. Visit her blog at http://blissfulbridebrianna.blogspot.com/

The Proposal

For those of you who may not know, Marc & I met at Abundant Living Faith Center where we are both volunteer teachers in the Children's Ministry. On the day we met, I called my best friend Sarah and told her I had just met the guy I was going to marry but "he didn't know it yet."
It took him about a year to figure it out.

On December 8th, Marc picked me up from work and told me we were going to Las Vegas RIGHT NOW for my birthday (Dec 24th). I brushed it off and didn't believe him- That would be way to big of a surprise! It probably took him about 8-10 times of telling me, "No, I really am serious" before I started to get excited.

With intrigue,  I asked him what I was supposed to do about work (it was a Wednesday afterall).  He simply replied, "I already took care of it." I then asked him about my clothes (a slightly larger concern) and he told me he had already packed my bags for me and they were in the trunk of the car. I was overcome with complete excitement by the point and my face was starting to hurt from all the smiling.

We flew out about 2 hours later. We had in flight cocktails and made plans for going out later that night. When we arrived at our hotel, though,  it turned out that Marc had other plans for the evening.

I went into our suite to find the most beautiful bouquet of flowers, chocolate covered strawberries and champagne waiting for us. My response:  "Wow! This is the most amazing birthday surprise...EVER!"

Marc poured us two glasses of champagne & proceeded to toast, "To Us."

But what about my birthday?...


Well, that's when Marc proceeded to tell me that this amazing surprise wasn't really a birthday surprise. He got down on one knee and pulled out the most beautiful diamond I had ever seen- a cushion cut (*exactly what I had always wanted*). He then told me millions of amazingly sweet things but to be honest, I have no recollection of most of them!

I was just so excited to get to the part where I could finally just say "YES!"


We celebrated in Vegas for the next four days. Another one of the highlights of our trip was our engagement dinner. We went to the Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace (Bobby Flay's restaurant) and it turned out that Bobby Flay was there himself- what a perfect meal to start off a perfect life together.

Bobby Flay at our Engagement Dinner

Marc's proposal was so exciting and such a big surprise! Everything was beautiful & so well thought out.
 I can't wait to marry him.