Wishing Tree

I told you guys a while back about the inspiration I got from Laura over at Saying "I Do" to do a Wishing Tree. Hers turned out so great and I thought it was such a cute idea and I knew that we had to have one at our wedding. After talking with Laura about it and asking her what she did with all of her tags afterwards, she so kindly offered to send me her left over tags. They were perfect. The only changes we made to them were switching out the string to match our colors. 

The tree part proved to be a little bit more difficult. I looked at all of the craft stores and any store that sold Christmas decorations for those branches that already have the lights on them. Well after much searching, I decided not to go that way because of the how much it would cost. They weren't cheap so we had to find another alternative. Well, one day I was sitting in my office and I looked out the window to see that our maintenance guys were trimming branches off of the tree outside my work. I immediately ran outside and asked them if I could have the branches. They said yes and they bagged them up for me and we took them home. We cut them down with a pair of shears and they were perfect. We then added some jeweled garland and voila! We had a Wishing Tree!

I made the sign for the Wishing Tree by using the same poem that Laura used. I think I changed one or two words, but for the most part it was the same. I printed it on a really pretty paper that I picked up from Hobby Lobby and I put it in a pretty frame that I bought from JoAnne's.

The tags that Laura sent us with a different ribbon.

Some of our guests filling out the tags

The crystal garland 

Overall we had about 30 something tags that our guest filled out with advice and well wishes for us. I wanted to share a few of our favorites with you. 

This one came from Lou's husband and actually almost made me cry

This one came from by boss who has been married for a very long time

Our Wishing Tree was a big hit with our guests. We got a lot of compliments on it and we loved reading all of the tags the next day. It was a very cheap and easy project that provided our guests with something to do and just one more way to make our day that much more special. 

What do you think of our Wishing Tree? Are you planning on doing something similar for your wedding?

P.S.

I still have about 60 or so unused tags, so if anyone is interested in them, let me know and I will pass them along to you.

Table Decor

It is finally that time. I can now start recapping the reception and all of the little details that went into it. I am going to start with something that was very easy and very low stress. This was probably the case because I didn't have to set up any of this. Our venue and our florist did all of the set up which was very helpful and made my life that much easier.

Our venue provided all of the linens for the tables and the chair covers and sashes. Our tables had a chocolate brown overlay with an ivory underlay and fuchsia pink napkins. They also provided us with the square mirrors that were placed in the middle of each table for our centerpieces to sit on.

Our centerpieces were very simple, but they really made the table. We had three different sized round cylinder vases on each table. Each vase was filled with a submergable led light that was covered by clear rocks and filled with water. Sitting in the water were two pink calalillies that cris crossed each other. And to complete the look there were teal rose petals sprinkled on each table around the centerpiece. And of course each table had a hand made table number that was framed. 

Our head table did not have as much color as the other tables did. It had white linens with fuchsia pink napkins and brown rose petals sprinkled all over it. I liked that it was different from the other tables. 

I loved how our tables and our centerpieces turned out and not having to do a ton of set up for them was even better. The staff at our venue along with our florist did an amazing job and I could not have been more happy with how it turned out. 

Happy Birthday to Two of My Favorite People!

Today is a very special day in my family. Two of my most favorite people in the world were born today. One was born 50 years ago and the other 4 years ago. 

Happy Birthday to the most amazing Mom that anyone could ever ask for! She is my best friend and I don't know where I would be without her. She gives the best advice you could ever ask for. She is loving, caring, beautiful, crafty and smart. 

With each passing day, I see myself becoming more and more like her and that is something that I am very proud of. I hope that I can be as great of a Mom to my future kids as she has been to me and my brother. 

Me and my Mom when I was little

Me and my Mom on my Wedding day

Mom helping out on the day of the Wedding 

Me and my Mom at my College Graduation in 2010

I love you Mom!! And I am so blessed to have you in my life! And I love that I am just like you and I can't wait to have kids so that I can be an amazing Mom to them just like you were for me! Happy Birthday!!!

And Happy Birthday to my adorable, smart, beautiful and free spirited niece Kelsi!! It seems like it was just yesterday that you were born. I can't believe how much you have grown over the last four years. You are such a spunky little kid and I love every minute that I get to spend with you. I can't wait to see you grow more and more with each new year. 

A month old

She was the cutest duck that I had ever seen!

First School Picture

I love you so much Kelsi! You are such an amazing little girl and so full of life. I hope that I have little girls like you one day that are just as smart and beautiful as you. And I can't wait to see what you have in store for us as you continue to get older and more spunky. Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!

P.S.

I hope you like your present even though Ken looks like he has Justin Bieber hair :)

She wanted a Wedding Barbie.

Why does he have Bieber hair?
Remember when his hair was molded plastic?

Foxy Friday: A New Link Up

Happy Friday everyone! I can not tell you how excited I am that it is finally Friday. Now if only 5 pm would get here, I would be a happy camper. And now I guess I will tell you about this new link up :)

The always hilarious and amazingly bad ass K at Down at Fraggle Rock (seriously if you don't already follow this girl, you need to STAT) started a new link up last week to help all of us get back on the fitness band wagon. Hello Foxy Friday!!! I completely spaced taking my before pictures last week so this is technically my first week, but this is the second week of Foxy Friday. So if you are wanting a little bit of inspiration with your fitness goals, head on over to her blog and link up with the rest of us.

I can't believe that I am getting ready to post these pictures for all of the world to see, but after taking them, I realized just how unhappy I really am with my body. You don't realize how bad it is until you see it in a picture I guess. Yuck! These "before" pictures are going to be my motivation. I have to get out of the lifestyle that I am used to and get on the road to being healthy. So here are my "before" pictures...

Ewwwwwwwww!!!!!! Again, I didn't realize how unhappy I was until I was taking these pictures this morning. Just have to use this as my motivation to work harder!

I didn't take any measurements for the week, but I will do that for next week. My weight as of today is 216 which means that I have gained about 7 lbs since I quit doing our Biggest Loser competition at work. I was so good for so long that I lost control afterwards. This is something that I need to work on. I need to reward myself every now and then with something not so great so that I don't go crazy and eat like a pig for long periods of time.

Something that I am going to challenge myself with is Mean Abs June. Some of you may have seen this floating around on Pinterest, but if not than you are seeing it now. As soon as I saw it I thought to myself, "Challenge accepted!!" Barney Stinson anyone? I hope some of you join me in this challenge.

Source: meetmeinthebedroom.tumblr.com via Megan on Pinterest

That is all that I have for today's Foxy Friday. Hopefully next week I will have some great results to report to you guys.

Do you want to join in? Head on over to K's blog and link up! Come be healthy with us!