Introducing...

Introducing one of my dearest sponsors today! Her name is Rebecca.  Take it away!
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Hi! I'm Rebecca and I blog at Renovating Rebecca. I am a newlywed, dog mom, photography enthusiast, and interior designer. My post topics include decorating, travel, photography, and our wedding (my personal favorite). We got married in May, and I poured my heart and soul into designing and planning our wedding. Even though our wedding is over I like to include mementos from the day in our home. Today I'm going to tell you about how I preserved our wedding invitation.

photo by White Rabbit Studios





I designed my wedding invitations myself (you can see the rest of the paper products I designed for the wedding here), and of course I spent a lot of time and effort working on them. After the wedding was over, I didn't want our invitations just getting thrown in a drawer, never to be seen again. I did some research about preserving wedding invitations, and found a company called Marye Kelley, based in Houston. They make custom glass decoupage trays out of invitations. I found some shops on Etsy that do the same thing, but I liked the options from Marye Kelley better.
Here's what it looks like: 

 I ordered a 8x10 tray and it cost $134. I know that's a bit  expensive, but I think it's worth it to have my invitation preserved in glass. 
Now it will last forever!

I keep the glass tray on top of a bookcase, along with my custom wedding dress portrait that I ordered through Laura

Harris Weddings on Etsy.

This isn't a sponsored post. I just love how my invitation turned out and wanted to let more people know about this company!

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday friends! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I know I sure did.  I am co-hosting with Dateless in Dallas and also linking up for Manic Monday with More Pieces of Me and On the Daily Express.  

Thursday was my bests birthday AND I got to meet her sweet baby boy for the first time!

 

The hubby was out of town for work this weekend so I had the house to myself.  I decided to keep it easy on Friday and clean up/ do laundry around the house.. I know exciting right?

Saturday I went to lunch with a girlfriend and hit the mall right after.  We shared a pitcher of white peach Sangria and it was soooo good.  We went to the mall and did some shopping.
I went home to prepare for the evening.  

I went out to a country bar with some girlfriends, it was a very much needed girls night indeed.

Sunday I literally did nothing all day.  Which was fantastic.  I watched tv, movies, and cuddled with my fur babies all day.  I had in & out for lunch and then steak kabobs for dinner.  Soooo freaking delicious.
 

7.12.14 {The Venue}

Living in California is unlike any other.  Although I have never lived anywhere else, I have traveled to almost every state and experienced what each one had to offer.

Yes California is overpopulated, and the traffic is unlike anywhere else.. well besides New York, but that's beside the point.  The weather here is amazing pretty much 90 % of the time.  It rarely rains or gets cold.  I've had huge Eskimo-style jackets hanging in my closet just begging my attention, but the weather hasn't called for it.  I knew I wanted a summer wedding, but in the past few years August and September have been miserably hot, so we opted for a July wedding-- that way the kids are out of school and it's easier for most to take off work (Since they were coming from all over) and make a vacation out of it.

We couldn't have asked for better weather.  It was warm, and clear blue skies with few clouds.  Around 80 degrees.  We chose to have our wedding near the beach, less than a mile away.  We also knew we didn't want our ceremony location to be next to a pool (like most we looked at were) but we knew we wanted it to be at a hotel, that way the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception would all be at the same location to make it easier on guests.

I fell in love with our ceremony location the moment we stepped foot on the property.  It was a private location on the backside of a peaceful green golf course.  The palm trees swayed in the crisp breeze, the gazebo had an open top to let the beautiful sun shine through, and another bonus-- they had turf grass.   I don't know about you, but when I attend weddings and they make you stand in grass...not an easy task for ladies in heels.  Just saying.

I knew I had to have a memory table at our ceremony.  All four of my grandparents are no longer with us, so I wanted to have their photos displayed.  A few months before the wedding my Uncle passed away which was really hard on us.   We were the closest to that family, and were extremely saddened by our loss.  I knew he wanted to be at our wedding, and to know he was there in spirit is very comforting.



Our ceremony was a dream come true.  
The colors and decorations came together so beautifully. 

We chose to have our cocktail hour central to the hotel.  We had it in the atrium which had a beautiful fountain.  

We also had our reception at the same hotel, on the opposite side of the venue. 
Three locations, yet on the same property.  Pretty rad.

We had a candy bar and photobooth.

Leading into our reception hall, we displayed our guestbook and seating chart so guests could find which table they were to be sat.

The tables were adorned with high and low centerpieces. Some with  manzanita trees with hanging crystals and some with fresh bunches of florals. Of course the boxes that contained them were rhinestone wrapped. 

My favorite part was the Tiffany blue undertones with a a mesh-lace overlay.  Not only that, but there was a chevron pattern in the lace overlay that I noticed as soon as we chose it!  Which if you didn't already know, is one of my favorite patterns.

Our DJ also provided us with our names on a gobo that we had displayed on the wall behind the head table that overlooked the dance floor.

We had the florals that were on our gazebo at the ceremony transferred to be displayed on our head table.  We also had custom menu designs with our wedding monogram logo that I designed. We also had our head table lace overlay slightly different than the guests tables. All the chairs had a tiffany blue cushion to match the tablecloths.

Coordinator: Candice Sanders
Hair & Makeup: Airbrushed Brides
Florist: Jenny B Floral Design
Photographer: Memories by Michael
DJ: Jason Jass - Visions Entertainment
Videographer: Dan - Plug Video
Officiant: Don Johnson

If you missed the first few recaps you can catch up below:

{ Getting Ready }

{ Pre-Ceremony }

{ The Dress and Details } 

:: Wedding Wednesday ::

(Linkup ANY Wedding-related posts!)

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also linking up here and here




 

Weekend Recap

I'm recapping my last two weekends since I never got around to posting about my last last weekend! So now for my weekend recaps co-hosting with Dateless in Dallas! (also linking up here & here)

The weekend of Friday, September 12th, the husband and I head up North where his parents live to visit his grandpa.  He hasn't been doing well so we wanted to make sure to visit with him while we could.  We also went out for pizza and beers that night and watched a few games on TV.

Saturday we went to tailgate before the Fresno vs. Nebraska Football game.  Let's just say Nebraska dominated and it was a good game!  We didn't end up leaving the stadium till after midnight and we were exhausted!

Sunday we went to visit with grandpa all day before we had to head home.  We had a good visit with him.  The drive home however... felt like a lifetime.  We stopped at a diner to grab dinner.

....This weekend...

Friday night I kept it pretty low key.  The hubby went out with a few friends and I wasn't really feeling up to going out.  So I stayed at my parents and watched a few movies with my mom.
Saturday morning we went to breakfast and then I was able to get alot of cleaning done around the house.  Of course our air conditioner just broke, and all of a sudden a million ants decided to be an annoyance so I was also dealing with that.  I went to get my puppys some new tags, since Mickey decided it was a good idea to chew on one of them.  Plus it was time for new ones anyways so I took them to Petsmart with me.  I forgot that on Saturdays they have adoptions and it was jam packed with dogs.  My two fur babies were scared for some reason.  They usually are really good with other dogs.  

It was my dads birthday so we went to my dads favorite restaurant: Woodranch.  We had a few cocktails at the bar before dinner and it was absolutely delicious. Forgive me for not remembering to take photos.  After dinner I went home and the hubby and I watched a movie and crashed right after.

Sunday I went with my mom to get pedi's.  I hadn't had one since the wedding and I was definitely long overdue.  We went to TGIFridays for lunch after and I have been craving a burger for a long-while so of course I had to get one.  I went home after to finish cleaning and the hubby watched football for pretty much the remainder of the night.

 

This weeks meal plan:

Monday: Chicken Enchiladas w/ green sauce

Tuesday: Chicken Stir Fry

Wednesday: Pot Roast (Carrots, potatoes and celery)

Thursday: Sloppy Joes

Friday: Chicken Broccoli Casserole

 

Friday Fall Favorites

I am so ready for fall.  Here in California it's been at least 100 degrees every day.  Which is way too hot no matter what.  I'm good with anything between 70-80.  Any hotter and you've got me miserable.  So as I am sitting here rambling about how hot it is, here are some fall outfits I am swooning over and cannot wait to wear.  That is - if it ever cools down.

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Also this weekend only, get FREE shipping on all items at Lulus!

7.12.14 {Pre-ceremony Photos}

One thing I knew on our wedding day is that I did not want him to see me before I walked down the aisle.  As much as photographers love that extra time, I am very traditional and I wanted to get that moment captured of my dad walking me towards the man of my dreams.  

We started by taking photos of me with my parents, and the each of my bridesmaids.  We also took portrait photos of myself in my dress.  

 Our sweet little flower girl.

I was so happy and excited when we found the bridesmaids dresses.  I knew I wanted something unique and different than anything I have seen before.  Being a bling bride as myself, I wanted some rhinestones incorporated in their dresses without it being overkill.  I knew I wanted them to have sweetheart tops because my dress was a sweetheart.  I thought their dresses complimented mine perfectly.  I love how the color pops!

 There were a few minor issues with the dresses.  A few girls had to get them taken in because they had to order a bigger size for their boobs.  One of my bridesmaids got pregnant (don't worry  she's married) and she had to find another dress because she couldn't fit in the one she originally bought.  It was such a hassle and stressful to try and find the same one in the same color!  I won't even go into any details about it.  Luckily she was able to find the same dress, although she had to pay more for it.  But everything worked out in the end thankfully!

Our hotel had two gazebos.  We got married at one of them and used the other one for pre-ceremony and post-ceremony photos which was perfect because we were able to capture the natural lighting while also having photos in both locations! 

That's a win-win!

I originally dreamed of having a Tiffany Blue wedding, because that's my favorite color.  After Pinterest came about, everyone and their mom decided they wanted a Tiffany Blue wedding, which sucked, so I knew I had to change it and wanted something different.  I also really love Coral as it's my second favorite color and is flattering on everyone.  So I chose Coral to be our main color with Tiffany blue as an accent color.  Not only that but they are complimentary colors and me being the graphic designer that I am, am pretty picky about that aspect so that is what we went with.  I was so happy with how the colors complimented each other so well.

All photos taken by Michael Jonathan Studios

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Morning of: Getting Ready

The Dress & Details

Pre Ceremony Photos