From my glorious Mexican honeymoon. Photos are currently being uploaded to Flickr, and I’ll have highlights at some point. I’ve been enjoying my life a lot lately, and haven’t really had the time or need to document it…and for that, I apologize. It’s nice to come back here every once in a while, and say hi…and this was DEFINITELY worth a post.

Remember this? Our engagement session by ERay, our photog from NOLA? Well…she has done it again. We got our proofs back today from the wedding. I haven’t posted a lot of photos from the wedding yet, as I didn’t want to post until I had the real ones. The ones that I knew would capture the moments…capture the beauty…capture the fun. And she delivered for sure. If you want to check a lot of them out, you can look at her latest blog post. A taste is posted below. I highly recommend checking out her entry though…doesn’t do my blog justice.  She tells our story and captures so many amazing moments.

We also have over 700 images to sort thru to pull into an album. Such fun!!! Thanks again ERay…I love you tons.

If there is one thing I would have done differently, it would have been remembering to have someone film our wedding. I don’t need a professional video of the event. We even brought our Flip video camera with every intention of having someone in the front rows record at least the ceremony. But we got caught up in the moment, and the excitement of the day got the best of us, and we forgot to hand off the duties. Everything was great, and I have all the memories I need, but hearing our off-the-cuff wedding vows again would be nice. Even hearing the speeches again that our friends and family gave during the reception would be pretty cool. Alas, if there is anything you soon to be marrieds take away from this, record those moments, even cheaply.

My mom however, read a poem she wrote, so even though I don’t have it on video, I have the poem to keep. She has been known to do this at anniversaries, for school, on cards…its what she does, and she is pretty good at it. I debated sharing it, as it is a personal poem to Mick and I, but I figured that this is my way of recording some of my wedding details, so I’ll post it.  At least it’s not embarrassing.

(more…)

Plenty of sun. Word.

With the arrival of my mom yesterday, and the impending arrival of other guests starting in just a few hours…I am not going to have the time or energy to post to The Little Goat. I’m signing off for now, and will be back when the family has left, and I have a new last name. So I leave you with a kitten in formal wear, and if you want to watch my favorite of the Muppet Studios Videos, click here. (It won’t let me embed)

Where has my time gone? Its been a while since I’ve done an Etsy Tag Monday, and I’m guessing its part in fact to my busy planning schedule with a wedding coming up in less than 20 days!! So in typical “this is the season where everyone should be celebrating ME” fashion, my bachelorette party was this past weekend, and I had the best time. We did a quick one night stay in Calistoga, CA., where we sunbathed, took in a mud bath, went dancing, and just generally acted like a ridiculous bunch of girls. So much fun. With that, even though I know its after the fact, I decided to dedicate todays Etsy Tag Monday to last weekend…and it is Bachelorette.

Check it under the cut! (more…)

I wanted to give a thank-you for the mention on The Budget Savvy Bride blog. You remember how I had my whirlwind trip to NY with Jessica Bishop, the Budget Savvy Bride? Remember how we went and she talked about how to plan a wedding on a budget and RetailMeNot.com? Remember that? Well, she talked about her trip and the experience on her blog here. She even gave me and The Little Goat a shout out!!

My favorite feature of hers is one that she does called Frugal Fashion. If only I had dedicated more time to the budget blogs when planning my own wedding. This color combo is so great! If you go and check the feature out on her blog, you can see that all this cost only $198.94!!

image by Jessica Bishop

Thanks again Jessica! It was a blast, and I’ll definitely look you up if I ever make it out to Nashville.

This past weekend I went to LA to have my first bridal shower. It was thrown by 7 of my mom’s friends and 2 of my So Cal bridesmaids. It was way more fun that I could ever imagine! The shower itself was lovely. They put a lot of time and effort into it and I got to see a lot of people that I hadn’t seen in quite some time. You can check out more photos here. I didn’t have a flash going for a lot of the photos, so the background is a bit washed out…sorry.

We played games, ate some great food, and drank some champagne punch. Don’t forget the presents!! That part was pretty awesome too.

The real surprise though was after the party, when my So Cal friends, some from LA, some from my college years in SD, told Mick and I to meet them at a hotel for the remainder of our night.  We showed up to this seedy hotel on Wilshire (the not so savory part of the street), where I got some more gifts, we played dirty Pictionary, and then they revealed the events for the evening. They had rented out a karaoke room in Korea Town, just a few blocks from the hotel. Now I know that its a bit odd for a groom to be at a bridal shower. My mom’s friends wanted to meet him before the wedding. So it worked out that when MY friends took us out, they chose an activitiy that is totally up his alley.

I had never done private karaoke, and to be honest…I don’t think I want to do it any other way from here on out. It was absolutely ridiculous. My friends brought a costume bag, we picked the best/worst songs to sing, ordered some bottle service, and just sang our lil hearts out. You can see the whole set of photos here. I like to sing Careless Whisper by Wham everytime I do karaoke…Whats your jam?

Singing one of Mick's jams...Almost Paradise.

Everyone gave themselves mustaches....not as permanent as ours.

well, not really. If you consider choosing where we go for our honeymoon a tough decision. Its a fun one, but important none the less…especially considering you only get one (hopefully).

Our original plan was as follows. Get away for a little weekend after the honeymoon, maybe head to Sea Ranch or somewhere cute. Then save money and head to Thailand, when its not the rainy season, around February or March. However, we are currently re-thinking this plan, especially with all of the drama going on in Thailand. Sure we could just stay on the beaches…but I want to go where the culture is. I want to head to Chang Mai, and Bangkok, and see all I can. Especially if I’m paying for a trip out there. So…plans are changing.

I have asked many friends for advice as to where THEY went and think we should go..and the responses have been great. Aruba, Barbados, Jamaica, Tahiti, Bora Bora, the options seem limitless. We are getting married in August, and now it looks like we aren’t going to wait till next year to go. We might actually just head out the week of my birthday in September. Sooner than later sounds good to me!! But, the Caribbean is rainy season during that time. Apparently Barbados and Aruba are slightly off the hurricane belt, so those are considerations.  There is also the Mexican Riviera, but those locations are in the Gulf, and with the current state of oil in the Gulf, not sure that’s an ideal location either.

However, I’ve always wanted to head to Costa Rica. Not on the Gulf side, not hurricane season, and we found a lovely all inclusive hotel that includes food, drink, all non-motor water sports, and more!! This site ResortVacationsToGo.com is pretty rad. I think that this is where we are leaning. Its too bad we didn’t think of this a little earlier, as I would have used one of the registry sites like Honeyfund or something similar and registered for a honeymoon. Looks like we are on our own. I am now in love with the idea of going on a honeymoon soon after the wedding…and enjoying the new wedded bliss. Why wait!

This past Saturday I went to a lovely wedding. It was my first of the year, and the first I’d been to since I started my own planning. I couldn’t stop looking at the details. There was no judgment on my end…just observing and checking out the decisions made. The wedding was very different than what I am planning. It was in a church. She walked down to “Here Comes the Bride,” and her dress was an adorable, just below the knee, 50′s looking thing. The biggest difference was that their wedding had 30 people in attendance.

It was actually pretty nice being a part of an intimate event. We felt honored to be the only “friends” guests that weren’t in the wedding party. We got to know the family. We got to “make” the party. The reception was held at a hotel in Half Moon Bay, buffet style, and they treated us with an open bar. Their DJ even told us that Denon & Doyle (our DJ) is his biggest competition. Guess we did something right!

Attending someone else’s wedding just got me even more excited for my own. I still want the details that I have planned, but do realize that the bigger picture is just being surrounded by the friends and family that you love. Hooray for love! A few pictures are below. I liked the way my Hipstamatic shots came out better, but you can see the whole set here.