We got married!

Alright, I am officially the worst.  I have been planning my big comeback to the blogging world for a while.  I have been cooking, baking, doing diy crafts, and creating draft after draft about everything.

And then, I don't publish anything.  I have been so crazy busy that I just haven't felt motivated to put all my creations into a completed post.

However, that is going to change today.  It is a beautiful Sunday, it is Rosh Hashanah, and I have decided to officially come back and share my latest and greatest news.

We got married! After a year and a half of Wedding Planning Wednesdays, our wedding finally arrived and it was spectacular.  Everything was simply perfect and I couldn't have imagined a better day.

We got ready at the McCormick Place Hyatt, took photos at Promontory Point and the Museum of Science and Industry and then had the ceremony and reception at the Bridgeport Art Center.  It was an amazing day in Chicago and a fantastic wedding.  And the best part? Now I'm a married lady to my best friend!!!

Over the next few weeks, I'll let you all know about some of the final details that we worked on in the last few weeks before the big day!  I'll also make sure to update you all on the amazing food I've been making with all my new wedding presents! Happy Sunday!!!

Enjoy :)

Wedding Planning Wednesday: Wedding Cake Sugar Cookies and Bridal Shower Gifts

I had my first wedding shower!  It was so fun.  I was super nervous beforehand and it was a great time.  I feel awesome now!

My mom's girlfriends threw the shower and they did an amazing job.  The food was great, there was a yummy and gorgeous cake, and it was wine party themed.  They had 6 wines that spelled out JODIE B.  How awesome is that?  I got some great gifts and it was just wonderful.

To thank my lovely hostesses, I made some gifts!  I got coffee mugs from bed bath and beyond, and then put a Starbucks gift card and a homemade sugar cookie inside.  Then, I printed off a "Thank you a Latte" card and wrapped everything up.  They loved the mugs and the cookies were a huge hit!

Wedding Cake Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
Cookie:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour (or gluten free flour)
Frosting:
3 cups powdered sugar
2 egg whites
2 tsp lemon juice
optional: food coloring
optional: sprinkles

Directions: 
1. Preheat the oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with a silpat mat or parchment paper.
2. Beat the butter with the powdered sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the almond extract, vanilla, egg, and salt.  Place in fridge for 20-30 minutes.
3. On a clean surface, sprinkle some powdered sugar.  take the chilled cookie dough and roll it out until it is about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut with the cookie cutter and re-roll as needed.  Place cookies on the prepared cooking sheet.
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes and then let cool completely before frosting.
5. For the frosting, beat everything together.  Then, dye the frosting as needed and frost your cookies!  I used the pearl sprinkles to decorate mine.

Enjoy :)

Wedding Planning Wednesday

So we are really winding down to the last few things!

The invitations are printed, we are ordering stamps, and they will be ready to be sent out by the end of the week! My friend Alyson designed them and she did an unbelievable job!  I am so impressed with her crazy skills and I just feel that the invites are so special because she did them.  They are truly beautiful and I can't wait for people to see them!

My first shower is this Sunday!  I can't wait!  I am working on some finishing touches for a little hostess gift and then I will be ready!

The biggest project I am working on right now is getting my gifts together for my bridesmaids.  I decided that I really wanted to wear converse sneakers for the reception and so I had some adorable Bride and Groom sneakers custom made for the big day.  Then, I thought it would be so fun to have all the bridesmaids and groomsmen in converse as well!  So, I bought my girls (and guy) their converse shoes!  Then, I also got them a little bling to wear on the big day!  To put all of this together, I found some tote bags and then I saw this great DIY project over at Design Sponge and I decided that it would be perfect!  I am going to decorate and personalize the totes for my bridal party and then put the shoes and jewelry in the bag.

These tote bags can be found through amazon or other suppliers and are about 60 dollars for 25-30 bags.  Then, I am going to get to work on making them look adorable :) 

Wedding Planning Wednesday

We are about 4 months away from the big day!

Everything is pretty much done, but we are working on fine tuning and small details.

Here is what I have going on:

1. We got our reception shoes!
2. We are in the process of booking a trolley to schlep the wedding party from the hotel where we are getting ready to the venue with one stop in between for photos.
3. We booked the makeup artist and scheduled times for makeup and prep for the day of
4. I found super cute "walking down the aisle" shoes.
5. We met with the Rabbi to go over ceremony details.
6. I am going wedding invite shopping on Sunday to order paper and have our invites printed.
7. My wedding dress is in and my fittings are scheduled.

So, I feel pretty accomplished.  I can't believe we have so much done and I really haven't felt stressed at all.  We have been making decisions, keeping track of a check list and getting things done.  Now, I have some pretty fun stuff to look forward to!  We are sending out our invites in June, my first wedding shower is in May and the other two (yes there are three total) are in June.  Plus, my MOH (maid of honor) has been amazing and she is working on planning the details of my bachelorette weekend and Bri's family is getting all the rehearsal dinner details set up and ready to go.  I can't wait to start celebrating and I am so excited for what is to come.  I am incredibly appreciative of everything people are doing for us and so far it has just been so wonderful.  What a great way to get ready for a wedding!

Wedding Planning Wednesday: Tux Shopping and Updates

He said yes to the tux!  Last weekend, we went to Men's Wearhouse and picked out the tuxes for the groomsmen as well as my groom.  Bri, 3 groomsmen, one bridesman, and me all went together and they all got fitted while I picked out the colors of everything.  It was tons of fun.  I brought a swatch of my bridesmaids color so that we could be confident about matching the color and making sure everything looked nice together.

That same weekend, I also had my makeup trial!  I absolutely loved the way I looked and I am excited to announce that I have found my make-up person!  I highly recommend Jaycie.  She was super nice, I looked amazing, and as someone who hardly wears a lot of makeup, I was excited by how natural I looked and how comfortable I felt.  We had a fancy party to go to that evening the makeup held up perfectly.  I am so excited for the actual day to come around so I can look that amazing again!

And finally, I finished up all 300 of the mini mason jar candles that I started awhile back.  So, now I just have to decorate them!  I am going to go with a thin purple ribbon around the lid of the jar and then I am getting our logo made into a stamp so that we can stamp the lids.  It is going to be super cute!

Now, we have to finish up invitations (we have the designs all complete, but we need to get them printed) and then it's just small details until the big day!

Wedding Planning Wednesday: I decided to make my own weddingfavors...am I crazy?

The title pretty much says it all, but here's the deal:

I decided that since Bri and I like candles and our theme has turned into a sort of rustic/classic loft style, it would be cute to have miniature mason jar candles as our wedding favors.

I wanted something that guests could enjoy after the wedding was over and I didn't want it to be edible.  I felt like a cute candle would be perfect!  So, I got to shopping and as I was browsing the internet, I found that the cheapest mini mason jar candle I could find was about $4 per candle.  We are expecting about 250 for this bonanza and that was just too steep.

Then, I started thinking: I can be crafty when I really put my mind to it...

So I decided that I would make my own.  People make candles all the time.  I priced it out and buying mason jars in bulk, 20 lb packages of soy wax, and 50 piece packages of wicks, ended up being about $1.50 per candle.  Isn't that great???  Then, I decided to use vanilla fragrance oil to make them scented and I was in business.  My mother thought I was crazy, but I already started and I am up to 72 candles!  At this rate (about 24 each weekend), I will be done with all my candles in March and still have plenty of time to decorate them (tie a ribbon around them and stamp our monogram on the lid)!

Here is how they are made:

1. Scoop some soy wax flakes into a large pot and heat over medium on the stove.  Soy is all natural, so don't worry about this messing with your kitchen supplies!  Once the wax is completely liquid, stir in some fragrance oil if you are using it.  Then, using a glass measuring glass, scoop some wax out and get ready to pour into your mini mason jars.
2. Pour a thin layer of wax into each jar and place the pre-tabbed wick into the middle of the bottom as the wax hardens.  This helps hold the wick in place.

3. Once your wicks are in hardened wax, pour more melted wax into the mason jars until they are full.  Let this harden.

4.  Once your wax is hardened, trim the wicks down so that about 1 inch is still above the wax.  Place the lids on and decorate if you want!

The moral of this story is: If you want to make your own wedding favors, I say go for it, just plan it out carefully and give yourself a ton of time to get it done.  When it comes to decorating these cuties, I am planning on getting my "team bride" together so that I have help!  We'll make an event of it and it will be fantastic.

Here is the finished product:

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

Last night we had friends over to ring in the new year and it was a blast!

My little brother bartended (he even made his own menu!) and we had a potluck sort of dinner!  I made my Build Your Own Nachos with Crock Pot Salsa Chicken and my Lightened up Spinach Artichoke Dip.  Everything was a huge hit.  We also had Crock Pot Barbacoa, Baked Mac n Cheese, and, of course, tons of desserts.

We watched the ball drop, played funny charade games, and had an amazing time.

This morning, I made some french toast for my brother and his friend who stayed at our place and now, after some advil :), I am getting ready to hit the treadmill for a bit.

I'm not a huge fan of new year's resolutions, but I do think it is nice to reflect and refocus at the beginning of a new year.  2015 was great.  I ran my second marathon, got a new job that I love, and did a TON of wedding planning.  That being said, 2016 is going to be crazy epic.  First and foremost, I AM GETTING MARRIED!  I can't wait to say "I do" to my best friend and see all my hard work from wedding planning finally play out.  I am also planning on running marathons 3 and 4 and just generally staying fit and eating healthy.  Finally, tomorrow Bri and I have plans to talk with a mortgage broker about moving forward in the process of buying our own place!! I can't believe all this very grown up things are just around the corner and I could not be more excited.  So, here's to an amazing 2016!  Happy New Year!

Wedding Planning Wednesdays

We got our wedding bands!!!  We are approaching the 7 month mark and we decided that since it was holiday season, we would max out on some holiday deals and buy our wedding bands!

We used Blue Nile, which is also the site where Bri designed my engagement ring.  I love this site as you can customize so much, the prices are better than stores, and the customer service is great.  For example, we ordered our rings and had them the very next day with no cost for shipping!! Plus, they will size the rings as well!

His

Hers

Blue Nile also has a ton of great jewelry for all occasions so check it out!

I can't believe that we are only 7 months away and I couldn't be more excited!

Wedding Planning Wednesdays: The Honeymoon

When you are about 8 months away from your wedding date, it is time to start planning the honeymoon.  Some people postpone their honeymoon if they can't go right after their wedding, but we picked our date so that we would be able to go on a honeymoon.  I am super pumped because we are going to Hawaii!!

We are leaving one day after our wedding so that we have some time to recover/pack if we need to. Then, we are spending 9 days and 8 nights in Hawaii.  We are going to be in Maui for 4 nights and then Kauai for 4 nights.  We couldn't be more excited.  We booked our flights and booked our VRBOs (Vacation Rentals By Owner).  We decided to go with VRBOs because we wanted to save a little by avoiding the super expensive resorts and this way we can have a kitchen to cook some meals while we are there (and did you know I like to cook?).  We are also planning on having a rental car while we are there so that we can explore all parts of the islands.

Now here's where you come in.  If you have any recommendations please comment on this.  Anything at all for Maui or Kauai would be appreciated!  Thank you!  We are so excited!!!

Wedding Planning Wednesday's

I am just exhausted.  I don't know what is up.  I think it's probably the weather and how dreary and dark it always is.  But then again, maybe I am just coming down with something.  I don't know.  I just feel like no matter how early I get to bed, I am still super, crazy tired.  Today I am grateful that we have a short day of school (students leave at 2 instead of 4) and then we have teacher meetings until 4.  After that, I have cheer practice until 5:30.  I know this sounds like a long day, but compared to Monday and Tuesday where I stayed at school until after 7, today is gloriously short.  

A week ago, I went in for a hair cut at Seta's Salon in Deerfield.  I have been going there for ages and Courtney does my highlights and cuts my hair.  She is awesome.  This past week when I was there, she also did a sample wedding style for me and I ADORED it.  I mean look:

It's beautiful! I love it!  I am totally going to go with her for my wedding.  Courtney and Seta are going to come downtown to our hotel, do my hair, my mom's hair and any of my bridesmaids that want their hair done.  I can't wait!  Now, I need to start working on finding a makeup person for the big day.  If you have any ideas for Chicago makeup artists please let me know!  I am looking for someone super reasonable as I know that no one in my wedding party wants to spend a ton on makeup.  I feel like I'd much rather spend on the hair and save on the makeup.

Wedding Planning Wednesdays

We booked our honeymoon flights!!!! We're officially going to Hawaii!  We are going to Maui and Kauai and we couldn't be more excited! Now we have to work on finding places to stay and I am pretty sure we are going to look into a VRBO.  Any suggestions?

Also, now that we know where we are going, it would be great to hear any ideas of things to do/places to eat/sights to see.

We have never been to Hawaii and I can't wait! August is going to be one extraordinary month this year!

Wedding Planning Wednesdays

We want to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon.  Ideas? Suggestions? Help!

In other news, the Save the Dates went out, my friend Alyson is going to be designing our invitations (which is the coolest thing ever!) and my bridesmaids are working on getting their measurements taken so we can start ordering dresses!

Things are really coming together.  In fact, I figured planning the honeymoon would be a great thing to do now since we are kinda in a lull in every other area!  Please give me whatever advice you can on planning for a trip like this! We'd love to go to Maui and Kauai and spend about 3 nights in each place. Thanks!

Wedding Planning Wednesday: Invitations

I'm pretty ahead of the game right now.  Invitations don't need to go out until 2 months before the big day.  However, my cousin Jenny is like the DIY Invitation Queen and she offered to meet with me to help me shop and decide on invites.  So far, I have been gravitating towards the ones I found on Etsy, but I have also looked at PaperSource, and Minted.

If anyone has any suggestions for me, please let me know!

I like the look of something more casual or vintage and I don't want to break the bank!

Here are some of the ones I found that I think are great:

Wedding Planning Wednesday: Save the Dates

I ordered Save the Dates!!!

I used Shutterfly and I waited until they were offering a 50% off coupon.  So, I ended up with a great deal.  We are expecting to invite about 300 guests (I know...its huge), and so I was told that I should order 200.  However, it was $2 more to buy 225 and I figured I would do that just to be safe.  I know that you only need to send 1 to couples and such, but I wanted to have enough and I figured they would be a nice keepsake as well.

Here are some of the designs that I was considering:

Plus, we used 3 of our engagement photos on the cards and they look so pretty :)  You all will just have to wait to see the finished product!  OOOH! And, it's a magnet! I can't wait to get them and then start sending them out!

Also, my friend, Caryn, has been calling them "StDs," which I think it pretty hilarious and every time I think about my Save the Dates I giggle a little...but anyways...

Wedding Planning Wednesday

Flower time!  This is a topic that I know very little about.  So, I have been all over pinterest and I have been trying to educate myself.

At this point, we have met with two different florists to get information about options and pricing.  We went to Four Finches and to Pollen.  Both sounded pretty amazing so now we are just weighing our options and figuring out where we want our budget to be.  I think it's pretty crazy how expensive flowers can be!  I am that super practical person who thinks, "Why pay so much for something that is going to die so quickly?"  However, I want our wedding to be beautiful and flowers do have a special way of making everything look magical.  I am also liking the look of something a little rustic with lots of candlelight.  I hope that everything turns out wonderful and I can't wait to share pictures as we start to make choices on decor!

For now, check out my pinterest page and let me know what you think! I love hearing ideas so please keep them coming!

Wedding Planning Wednesday Part 10

I said "Yes to the dress!"

For obvious reasons, I can't post any pictures...However, I can tell you about my amazing experience.  My mom and my bridesmaids who were in town, came with me to Gigi's Closette in Glenview.  A ton of people mentioned this place to me as a great place to look for dresses.  We had a great experience.  Sue helped us out.  She was quite the whippersnapper, but she also seemed to know exactly what I wanted.  She helped me find a dress that I love as well as some accessories I hadn't even thought of!  She didn't let me stray from my budget and gave me some great tips and advice while shopping.  Plus, after we found my dress, the girls tried on a bunch of bridesmaids dresses and we found the bridesmaids dress as well!  This place was great.  You do not need an appointment which I thought was strange, but it ended up being nice because it had a laid back feel to it and you could take your time.  I am so excited and I can't wait to see my dress again!

Here are a few things that I suggest for dress shopping:

1. Bring the right "undergarments."  I bought a bustier that I am probably going to return.  However, it was a nice thing to wear because it made me feel supported and covered while I was trying on dress after dress with other people helping me get them on.

2. BYOH-Bring your own heels.  This might be just for this place, but wearing heels is suggested as the dresses are all so long!  Even if you do not plan on wearing heels for your big day (I am not), it helps to see the whole dress with a little height.

3. Plan an after-party.  You never know when you are going to find the dress so plan a dinner or outing after the shopping experience to celebrate the big find or just to celebrate the experience!  We went out to Caro Mio for dinner!  It was lovely.

4. Stay open minded.  When I got to Gigi's I had this whole vision in mind.  Then, on my way to my dressing room with like 10 dresses, I saw one hanging that I thought was pretty.  It wasn't exactly what I had wanted, but it looked nice.  I started with that one and I finished with that one.  It was the one!

Wedding Planning Wednesday Part 9

We did our engagement photos!  Bri proposed back in December, but we decided we still wanted to do some engagement photos to get some nice pictures for a save the date.

We went with Dennis Lee as our photographer and he has been amazing!  If you are planning a Chicago wedding, he is great and I would definitely recommend him!  We walked around the Art Institute, part of Grant Park, near the Lakeshore Path, and along Foster Beach.  Here is a quick preview!

We had two different outfits and I am really glad we did because we ended up with a nice balance of different looking pictures.  It was really fun to have a photo shoot and I am so excited about all the great shots we ended up with!

Now, I can't wait to create our save the dates and send them out!

Wedding Planning Wednesday Part 7

We have a website!!! It is in the very beginning stages and there is not a ton on it yet, but it is up and running!  We will be adding to it as we go and I am pretty excited about this next big step!

I created our wedding website on The Knot.  It is totally free and they have a ton of great templates for you to get started with.  The other super cool thing is that a lot of the templates are based on invitations.  So, if you want to stick to a common theme, you can create your invitations to look like your site!

As we continue to make plans, we will continue to update our site so that guests can get all the information they might need about our big day!

If you want to see what our site looks like here it is: Jodie and Brian

Great Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

These sugar cookies came out great!  I used them to ask my bridesmaids/bridesman to be in our wedding.  Besides looking amazing, they also taste amazing.  So, here is how these came to be:

When I was in college, I met this girl in one of my dance groups who also had a food blog.  At the time, her specialty was making amazing looking cookies.  Now, she also blogs about clean eating and being gluten free.  Please go check her out at: A Dash Of Megnut.  

Of course, I looked to her when I decided that I wanted to bake these cookies.  I adapted her sugar cookie recipe a bit and then I used a different recipe for the royal icing based on the ingredients that I had at home.  Everything turned out amazing!  I mean, look how pretty those dresses are :)

Bridesmaid/Bridesman Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

Cookies:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp almond extract

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

1 egg

2 1/2 cups flour

Royal Icing:

2 egg whites

2 tsp lemon juice

3 cups powdered sugar

food coloring and sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter with the powdered sugar until well combined.  Beat in the almond, vanilla, egg, and salt until well combined.  Mix in the flour gradually until just combined.  Place bowl in the fridge for about 20 minutes to chill.

2. Once chilled, preheat oven to 375 and grease or parchment paper a cookie sheet.  

3. Take the dough out of the fridge and on a clean workspace, sprinkle some powdered sugar.  Place the dough on the powdered space and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until it is about 1/4 inch in thickness.  Use more powdered sugar as needed so that the dough doesn't stick.  Cut cookies out using cookie cutters and place on prepared baking pan.  

4. Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until the cookies just start to turn light brown on the edges.  Remove from oven and cool.  

5.  For the icing, beat the egg whites with the lemon juice until they are light in color and then bean in the powdered sugar until well combined and the mixture looks smooth.  Divide the icing into however many bowls you need based on how many colors you are using to decorate.  I just did purple, black, and white.  Then frost and decorate as you want!

Enjoy :)

Wedding Planning Wednesday Part 6

The wedding party! Yep, that is what this is all about.  I have bridesmaids and Bri has groomsmen!  We are both so excited.  I had about a thousand ideas of how I wanted to ask my bridesmaids and so I came up with this cute box idea so that I could combine some of my ideas into one.  I went to Michael's Craft store to buy these boxes and then I decorated them.  Inside, I placed a homemade Bridesmaid Dress Cookie, nail polish, bridesmaid/maid of honor socks, champagne, a Team Bride pin, and dark/milk Hershey kisses.  This combined a ton of ideas that I had into one and I think it made for a very cute and personal gift for my girls!  

Will you be my bridesmaid?

Now, I also have a bridesMAN in my party.  My super, amazing friend, Michael, who was also my prom date back in the day is going to be part of my party too!  I couldn't do the same thing for him, so here I came up with:  

I placed this awesome personalized flask that I found on Amazon in the same sort of box along with the champagne, a homemade tuxedo cookie, the Team Bride pin, and the chocolates.  He loved it!  

I am so excited to finally have my bridal party put together and now we can all start planning and getting ready together!