Don't Stop... Get It, Get It

Go ahead and call our wedding, the never ending up-date of weddings. We're about to celebrate our 8 month anniversary, but that will not stand in my way of updating you with more details. I'm going to continue to sing this little jam in my head until I finally get everything posted to this blog. Don't Stop, Get It, Get It. 

I shared some pictures here, and talked about our invitations, here. If you're more of a movie watcher, here's our wedding video trailer. This post is a run down of the details.

Since we were getting married, literally on top of a mountain, we didn't want to make our guests get all the way up there just for the ceremony. So we hosted a "pre" cocktail hour before the ceremony. I've mentioned that we got married in a cloud in past posts... and I feel you'll gather from these pictures that I wasn't kidding... this is what it was supposed to look like... below is what it ended up looking like.



But the coolest part? This cloud that engulfed us, has since become one of our very favorite parts of the day. Sure, we wanted our family and friends to see the beautiful view that was behind us... but there was something so special, romantic, magical about getting married in a cloud. Honestly? Now... I wouldn't have had it any other way. We really embraced it and we really loved it.

One of our favorite summer time treats is oysters, so we offered our guests oysters, some other snacks and drinks before the wedding. I LOVED that we did this - it was so us. We love hanging with our friends outside and snacking and drinking... and it's exactly what we let them do before the wedding. We had a guy there playing acoustic guitar, which only added to the atmosphere. Even though we didn't get to be there, I think our guests enjoyed it so much. It made the weather a little more bearable.

 

We had flowers every where... my girls and me were carrying flowers, we had flowers hanging on fences, we had flowers hanging on chairs... and the only rule was they had to look natural. There was no color in our wedding, my girls wore champagne dresses, so the flowers were where we brought it to life. And they turned out perfectly. I could look at these pictures all day. Being married in the middle of nature, we didn't want anything to take away from that.

I especially didn't want the chairs to take away from it... so we went with black ones. I know a lot of outdoor weddings do white, but I loved how classy the black chairs looked. And they didn't stand out... it was like they belonged.

My stepdad worked hard to build the arbor that we used at the beginning of our makeshift aisle. My mom helped him too. And that? Well knowing that their love for me built that... and knowing that every single one of our guests, our family members, our parents, our friends... us, walked through that? Well that holds a heck of a lot of love then. It's in my parents garden now, but one day when we get a house, we will get it moved to our garden. I may even make C move it to the front yard when we bring home our kids for the first time... I just imagine this little gem will be part of our lives for a long, long time.

For the reception, we held true to our natural theme. The centerpieces weren't over baring, and the linens were beige with hand-painted/eclectic candle holders. My mama and I painted 100+ holders and we just loved the way they turned out.

People ask if anything went wrong with our wedding... and honestly, I say whole heartedly - no. It was so perfect, it was the best day ever.. the best weekend! I'd relive it over and over again and never change a thing. Though, if more than 24 hours in a day was an option, well I'd go with that... it just wasn't near long enough. As more time passes, I hang on to these memories more and more. I'm thankful we will have them for years to come.

Valentine's Day Goodies (and some promo codes!)

Linking up with Five on Friday with a list of five Valentine's Day goodies! 

We're not huge valentine's celebrators around here. We don't do gifts, just spend some fun quality time together and stay away from the packed restaurants. This year we'll be cooking dinner at home and splitting a bottle of wine, and nothing beats that in my book. 

But I do love any chance to look at pretty gifts (especially when it means sharing them with you and being able to give you a promo code for a few of them!!) 

1. Ashley Brooke Designs Coffee Mug: In general, I am a huge fan of ABD and these mugs have completely won me over! She has a ton with cute sayings, but this "dream big darling, really big" one seems like the perfect way to start your day! 

2. The Cozy Project Natural Coffee Cup Cozy: That cozy little cup holder looks just so... cozy! I think it's the perfect thing to add to your Valentine's Day wish list. 

3. Cup of Love Latte Mug: You guessed it, I love this a latte! The big chunkyness of the mug looks like the perfect mug to curl up by the fireplace with, with a cup of hot chocolate. Use ECLECTICALLYE for 10% off your order! 

4. Emily Ley Simplified Planner: I just received my Simplified Planner last weekend and I'm already in love! I can't keep this secret to myself, you need one too. Go order it and let it's perfect self keep your 2014 organized.

5. Small Knot Ring from Sweet Olive Jewelry: I ordered this ring for my Maid of Honor and one of my Bridesmaids after they busted their butts on an incredible bachelorette party for me. My MOH wears it all of the time and gets constant compliments on it! It's such a precious ring, I wish I could buy one for everyone. Plus, Amy was a dream to work with! And she's giving you 20% off with code ECLECTIC20!

If I don't stop talking about this list, I'm going to end up with something off this list for myself before next Friday. What's on your Valentine's Day list? Hope you have a great weekend!

Easy DIY Art

Any fans of Bower Power out there? 

Of course there are. If you haven't read her blog before, read two posts and she'll quickly make it to your daily reads list. This specific post is about a DIY art that I tried, that she calls knife art.

Pretty much anything DIY related scares me away. I always love the idea of it, but just don't have the confidence. And if it doesn't scare me away, I normally am bored with whatever I'm trying to create 30 minutes in. But this little project? I executed from beginning to end (it was took just the right amount of commitment to keep me entertained) and am very pleased with the result. 

Focus your little eyes to the colorfulness on top of the bookcase. 

In love? Me too. 

This is our den area (read, the room that I hang out in to blog and stay out of my husband's way when he has to work from home) It might not be the perfect home for them, it took a while to even find that place for them. But they sure added a pop of color to what was a rather boring white space, so I'll let them stay. 

Katie Bower has a great tutorial on how to make this here. 

Did mine turn out as well as hers? Well, no. But they still put a little pep in my step when I see all of those beautiful shades of blue and green staring at me. 

My favorite part about it is how the colors blend so perfectly imperfect. There's no math to how to do it, which is probably why it was so enjoyable. You really just can't mess it up. 

(again her tutorial gives the play by play). 

If blue and green isn't your thing, it would really with any color scheme. I just happened to have the same colors she used on hand. She also has hers on one longer canvas, and mine is broken up on two shorter ones. Again, just happened to have those canvases. Which means this project happened with out a trip to Michael's!

This might be just the perfect project for those of you stuck at home with more snow days! Or for those of you that are like me and like a good, easy to complete DIY art project.

Snow > Atlanta

I'm sure you've heard, Atlanta is faaaareaking right now over this snow storm that hit us. I'm talking, it took people 12 some hours to get home (a commute that would normally be 20 minutes), a baby was born on the interstate, and there are STILL people stuck out there. In this big city sometimes, it's easy to forget that there's a lot of heart here. People were offering strangers shelter last night, handing out free hot chocolate. Atlanta, I like you and I'm happy to call you home (even if we don't know how to handle winter weather). 

Home Depot, Target, Whole Foods and Kroger stayed open last night offering stranded people a place to stay. It really is just a complete shock what ended up happening last night.

I left my office at 1:25 yesterday... at 2:05, I had gone 3 feet. That wasn't even beyond my office building, so I pulled back into the parking deck, put on my Hunter boots and on my way I went walking through Atlanta to get home. It was about a 30 minute walk - which beat my husbands 2 hour commute home (again, that normally takes us 10-15 minutes). I was so happy to see home. 

                       

My walk also meant that I deserved a little stop at Whole Foods for some snow day necessities. It was a wise, wise decision.

I love snow. As in I was giddy with excitement all morning waiting for it, as in I was practically skipping through Atlanta as I walked home yesterday, but I hate it so much for the people stuck on the roads still. There were even kids stuck in school last night! A slumber party at school? Honestly, those kids probably think it's the coolest thing ever.

Of course The Weather Channel has been running constantly since I got home from my trek down the road. And we filled our stomachs last night with Taco Soup and Mexican Cornbread. What else does a person eat when there is snow on the ground?

Atlanta is completely shut down today.  It is so quiet, but the sun is out and the snow is still beautiful. We're on the couch and getting a little work done from home.

                            

Thankful for this adult snowday, but praying that everyone finds their way home soon. I've waited 3 years to see it snow in Atlanta... and boy, did this storm deliver. Stay warm and safe, friends!

How To Survive a Cold Monday

Hope you all had a great weekend! It was a good one for us.. we were all sorts of bums. There wasn't much productivity besides the fact that we finished Breaking Bad. Lazy weekends are some of my favorite. 

I feel like this is the point in winter where we all start wishing for warmer days. It has been colder than normal here in Atlanta this winter. I know for a lot of you, you're probably waking up to beautiful snows this morning, and here I sit saying it's cold and you're all "pshht it's -30 here" I hurt for your cold-self, I do...but dang it I am jealous of your snow, it's just cold and windy here. My rule is if we have to deal with the cold, we should at least get some snow with it. 

Today we actually have a high of 50 but tomorrow is going to be a warm high of 31 here and when I'm cold I do things like look back at pictures like this to make me feel warm. Which is why today seemed like the perfect day to walk down memory lane of one of our beach trips last year. And it's Monday, and who doesn't like pretty pictures of a beach to survive a cold Monday?  

So grab a cup of hot chocolate, curl up by the fire and watch the snow fall while we pretend it's warm and we're at the beach...

Back in September we flew up to Raleigh to meet some friends and drove to Figure 8 (near Wilmington, NC) to spend the weekend at our friends' beach house. 

It was the very best getaway, at the very best time. We had been married for a month and had been facing the reality of going back to work after our Honeymoon in Hawaii, and a quick beach get away seemed to be the perfect thing to look forward to. 

While it was quick, we made the most of it. Including a whole day on the beach with a full cooler and Catchphrase. You can't keep this duo from a good game of Catchphrase. If you're with us, you're playing. 

That little gem of a picture above is one of my very favorite of C. 

In between grabbing a drink from the cooler and it not being my turn in Catchphrase, I started a little seashell collection. There's something about seashells. I really wanted to bring these home with us and put them in a glass jar. But I didn't think far enough ahead and didn't have anything to carry them back in. 

I am a mountain girl, through and through. I normally complain about how annoying I think sand is. But something about the beach has recently crept into my heart. I think it's mostly because the weather was pure perfection the weekend we were there. I can't stand being hot, but being on a beach with a nice breeze is our jam. I don't think this family will be traveling in the dead of the summer anymore. We're saving our trips for the summer and fall (...until kids' school schedules rule our calendars). 

If we weren't on the beach, we were in this hammock. I'm aching to be back there. 

Our friends' house also had an outdoor shower that overlooked the marsh and I watched the sunset there one night while taking a shower. I mean, come on. How could we not want to go back there? 

Hope you enjoyed this mini-virtual warm getaway. Cheers to a good week for you all :) xo! 

Wedding Paper Love {Our Invitations!}

Say it with me... better late than never. 

Now that we've celebrated our 5th month anniversary of being married and all I've shared are a few pictures here, I think it's high time you see our invitations.

When it came to our entire wedding, natural continued to be the running theme. Which was no different when it came to designing our invitations. I knew I wanted the subtle champagne color and some flowy font for our names.. but crisp and clean lines for the rest of it.

It took me longer than I had anticipated to find the perfect person to work on this with. I talked to at least 25 different people... and then I found Anastasia Marie! And y'all, she lives all the way in Oregon. Which just makes me sing even more of her praises - she was such a JOY to work with. I teased that I must have been her most high maintenance customer ever ;) but even with the time distance of being on completely separate sides of the country, she was a jewel. I am so thankful to her and how she made my vision come to life. I cannot recommend her to you one-day-brides enough.

She has a great Etsy shop as well - be sure to check it out!

*all images from Anastasia Marie

Beautiful Weather and Beautiful Things

It was a 3-day weekend for me, as my office chose to celebrate MLK yesterday. And to that, I will say Happy Birthday to him all day long for an extra day off work :) I'll also say thanks, because the man made an impact and for that I am grateful.

Atlanta decided to participate in beautiful weather this weekend before it threw us 30 degree temps this week. And between that and my first day being in the office on a Tuesday, I was a happy girl.

Adding to the happiness were these flowers of beauty that I stumbled across at Trader Joe's. I went in for sweet potatoes and came out with flowers. Hey, they were only $3.99 and they have brought our apartment that much in happiness.

We had 107 errands to run this weekend that we had just kept putting off... errands are exhausting when you live in Atlanta. They just are. What should take 10 minutes, takes 50 because of the amount of people that live in this city. And when errands exhaust you, you go to the nearest burger & beer joint you can find. I told you this post had beautiful things in it. Calories don't count on the weekend, so says I.

If you're ever in Atlanta, try Grind House... great burgers. They have been featured on Food Network for their yummyness (that's a word).. and those burgers do not lie. If I had taken this picture approximately 5 minutes later, that tray and beer would be empty. Oh, and there's something to be said about the onion rings as well. Order them!

The rest of the weekend was spent watching Breaking Bad. We're addicted (good thing to the show, and not the contents of the show, am I right?). It's 180 degrees different from any world that I live in. I constantly find myself saying to my husband "Do these things ACTUALLY happen in real life?" We have embarrassingly watched too many episodes in way too short of time. We're on the last season and it's a good thing, because every episode basically gives me an anxiety attack. It's bad for my health - we need to see the series finale soon.

When we weren't watching Breaking Bad, we were finding any reason to be outside. As we strolled through our neighborhood, I got this shot of The Swan House, which was where one of the scenes in Hunger Games was filmed. It was practically like Jennifer Lawrence and I were hanging out. I now consider us BFF's. Atlanta has become a huge place for movie filming, and I'm constantly on the hunt doing some celebrity stalking. No sightings yet, but I come so close all the time.

Did anybody else get a break from errands with a burger and beer this weekend? Or are you finding yourself watching Breaking Bad? Soooo good.

I'm taking Friday off this week, and with yesterday off too... that means a 3 day weekend. So don't let me complain about any amount of time I spend in the office this week. Deal? Hope you have a happy week!

Five on Friday

Happy Friday!

Simplified Planner - I finally made the heavy weighted decision on which planner to get for 2014. Really,  it's sad how much of my attention goes into picking out a planner every year. But planning on paper instead of my phone is my jam. I'm so excited to get my Emily Ley Simplified Planner in the mail in February! A to-do list and a lay out schedule of the day? Swoon. This thing had me at hello.




Golden Globes - I feel like it's Hollywood's personal birthday gift to me that they scheduled the Golden Globes the night of my birthday. Way to make a girl feel special, anything else I get won't even come close to matching that. I love a room full of celebrities and am really looking forward to Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler hosting again this year! I love all award shows, but the Golden Globes wins me over every year.

                              

Wedding Pictures - Did you see my post from yesterday? I finally shared some of our wedding pictures! I figure if I'm going to make you wait for 5 months to see them, I might as well go as far as reminding you that they are there :)

Gone Girl - Have you read this book yet? No? Go fast to the closest book store! And for those of you that have read it, even better news... saw this week that they are coming out with a movie in October. And, it has Ben Affleck in it... as if I needed more reason to go see it.
                         

Weekend Plans - Since I've declared the whole weekend my birthday there's a lot of fun taking place... mostly eating. That's the beauty of living in Atlanta, you've always got somewhere new to try for dinner, and 9 out of 10 times it's going to knock your socks off. Here's to celebrating my 25th year of life!

Any big weekend plans? Will you be on your couch Sunday night with a glass of wine and the golden globes like I will be? And don't forget... go get Gone Girl and let it be your weekend read during this cold and rainy weather. Hope it's a wonderful weekend wherever you are!

Go link up with the Five on Friday fun, here. 

My Groom and Me (wedding pictures)

We're almost 5 month old newlyweds and I've only shared sneak peeks of the wedding on here... so let's get to work. There are so many other pictures to share... but it seemed appropriate to start with pictures of me and my groom. I'll do a real run down on the details of the day and the weather escapades later.

I can't stress enough how important I think a photographer is on your wedding day. When it comes down to it, that's the memory you have in your hands... not what chairs you used or how much money you ended up spending on the flowers (we saved a ton of money here!).

                           

There's just something to be said about having these memories, in their perfect most rare form. That was important to us, a photographer who could capture the day... without making it look overly photoshopped and fake. Natural, was the name of the game when it came to our entire wedding. 

People go back and forth on whether to do a first look, and to each their own,  but for us it was a no brainer... we wanted the first time we saw each other to be just the two of us, nothing holding back our emotions.. instead of 200 people watching us as we saw each other for the first time. And let me say, seeing each other before the wedding took nothing away from how wonderful the walk down the aisle was. I just don't think you can go wrong with whatever you decide on when to see your groom.
Regardless of when it is, it'll melt your heart and be something you remember forever.

I talked touched on the weather here when I talked about our rehearsal dinner. When you choose to get married outside, of course one of the main concerns is weather. You can see for yourself from our rehearsal pictures (isn't that some perfect weather?!) that the weather didn't exactly cooperate per say for the ceremony... but we got married in a cloud on top of a mount, and to us, that became extremely cool. Mystical was the word people kept saying about it. 

So what should have been in the back ground of this picture is a beautiful mountain range in NC... but we felt some extra love and hugs from the cloud.

Makes my heart warm to see these pictures. It was a good day. Even after a short 5 months it's nice to go back and re-live the love and memories from our wedding day.