Shopping Over the Holiday Weekend

As my food digested on Thanksgiving Day, I contemplated back and forth if I wanted to conjure up the energy to hit up the shopping outlets at 12AM like all the other crazed Black Friday shoppers.  Ultimately, I punked out and retreated to bed.  By Saturday I was eager to get out there and see what the stores had.

I've been in total "home mode" lately.  I can go out with the intention to get something much needed for myself and end up buying something for our future home.  It's all I ever think about- even more than the wedding.

Today, with no particular thing in mind to buy, I stumbled across the perfect wall art to compliment the bathroom set I'm registered for.

This is the bathroom set:



And here is my lucky find for our future bathroom walls:






As I happily made my way to the register, I also spotted these monogrammed butter spreads and needless to say, I had to get them, too:


I'm trying not to go overboard on the "home buying" because my shower is right around the corner, but some things are just hard to pass up.  I'm making a conscious effort to stay away from kitchen appliances, pots, plates, and bedding- but everything else is up for grabs!

Did anyone else do some shopping over the holiday weekend?

Quick Side Note to Share!

All the time I was absent from this blog, I was working on something very dear to me.  Now I feel like it's time I share that with you.  

Topaz Event Design is my event planning company.  If you like what you read here, I can assure you that you'll love my other blog even more.

Golden Moments will continue to be a personal blog of my journey to "I do" and beyond, so please continue to stay here with me!

8 months and counting!

Maybe I'm in denial, but I refuse to believe that November is almost over!  I mean really, where did this year go?!?  I am 8 months away from the big day.  Here's what's been going on:

New Shower Location: BOOKED

Originally my shower was going to be outside, but we had to push the date up to the middle of April.  My mom was a little skeptical of how the weather would be so we started looking for other alternatives.  Our new venue is a blank space and we're going to bring everything in {linens, catering, decorations}.  Last Saturday we went to see the space in person and it was perfect.  I love working with a blank canvas so things are okay in this area.  

I went from not being allowed to know anything about my shower, to knowing only the date and place, to being involved in the planning!  I even have my outfit already.  It's not that I don't like prizes and it's not that I'm a micro manager- I just like to be prepared!  Plus with my career, it would have been really hard to pick a date without telling me.  Soooo, I guess my baby shower can be a surprise in a few years!

Wedding Jewelry:  Almost Booked

Just like my wedding dress, I am having my jewelry custom made.  There's actually a part of my dress that has jewelry on it {I know it sounds weird, but once I finally reveal what my dress looks like it will all make sense}.  I'm going to see my dress designer today to be measured for the part where the jewelry will go, and once I have those measurements I can finally place the order for my jewelry so that all my pieces can match.

Bridesmaid Gifts:  Soon! 

I'm waiting to catch the holiday sales for this.  In fact, I was even considering going to the outlets at 12am on black Friday to see what I can find, but I haven't quite made up my mind yet if I'm going to go through with that plan!

And sadly, as happy as I am about the holidays being here, it makes me a little sad that this is my last Thanksgiving and Christmas at home.  Usually I'm the potato peeler or the collard greens washer & cutter, but this year will be different!  I will have my hiney in the kitchen getting down with momma because I need to be prepared to do this on my own next year in my own house!

Don't get me wrong, I know how to cook, and I cook really good when I decide to cook.  But I've never made a Thanksgiving meal, and honestly, it sounds quite intimidating!  I'll take pictures of my Thanksgiving Cooking 101 course and blog about it!

Stay tuned!

Engage-aversary!

I was just sitting here watching t.v. when I realized that today is my engage-aversary.  Two years!  Can you believe that?  Gosh, it seems like I've been engaged for forever but this is the last engage-aversary that I'll be celebrating.  Next year at this time I will be  married for 2 months!

I remember my outfit, hairstyle, and shoes.  I remember the chilliness in the air as we watched the water.  And funniest of all, I remember dropping down to my knees with Mr. Golden as he asked me to be his wife because they were just too weak to hold me up.

Oh, and let me not forget making an account on The Knot and seeing my wedding countdown in the 900's.  I sit here and smile as I think about how it seemed like it all happened yesterday.  Now in just ten months I'll be walking down the aisle, and even better- in 7 months we should be moving into our new home (fingers crossed on the details and a whole other blog post to talk about!)

Save the Dates: Check!

I've been swamped with save the dates since last weekend.  I was upset with myself because I had intended to send these out at the one year mark, but what the heck!  10 months - 1 year, it's all the same!

I still have a second wave of people to send them out to, but none of them read this blog, so it's okay to show them off today!

I knew early on that I wanted something a little different for save the dates, but I just didn't know what.  Originally I wanted to do a clear photo cube with pictures on 4 sides, the words "save the date" on one side, and then the information on the remaining side.  I saw early on that although a wonderful idea, it would have been way too expensive to print all the pictures and purchase the cubes.  Not to mention, I can only imagine the looks I would have received at the post office when trying to mail them.

One day while at Michaels, I came across clear plastic 4x6 picture frames and a light bulb went off in my head.  I decided to do two pictures side by side on a post card, with the information pertaining to the save the date on the back.  The clear plastic frames made it so that people could see the pictures and the information easily.  Next, I said to myself, "damn, I'm going to need a lot of 40% coupons to get 85 of these things.

I almost gave up on the idea until one day while walking to the store, I came across a picture frame sale in the middle of the street that a warehouse was giving.  Un-freaking-believable is what I felt when I saw that they had clear plastic frames at a fraction of the cost Michaels was selling them for.  I never ran to the bank so fast to draw money!

I took my idea to a print shop and they designed and printed the save the dates for me.  Here's the final result:

click on photos to enlarge

They were still a hassle to mail but the trouble was worth it.  I'm just glad they're DONE!

Engagement Pictures Pt. II

If you'll remember, it took me what seemed forever to find outfits for the engagement pictures.  I kept thinking that I would have to see these pictures forever, so I didn't want anything too trendy and have to worry about hating the way I looked later on.  Mr. Golden and I met at the Gap, so for the first part of the shoot, I wanted something very clean, casual and Gap-ish.  That's why we stayed in the neutral colors.

For the second part of the photo shoot, I wore a long black dress to spice things up a bit and bring in some contrast.  Originally we wanted to do a sunset photo shoot, but our schedules wouldn't allow it.  Hindsight is 20/20 so of course now I have all these crazy ideas of other things we could have done- however, all in all, we had fun and it was a new experience for both of us.  Going through it together has put the flame under our tushies to really go above and beyond when it comes to the trash the dress photo shoot.  

All photos are credit of Jasmine Photography.  Click on images to enlarge.









On another note, tomorrow it's off to the post office I go because the first batch of Save the Dates are ready to be mailed!  

Engagement Pictures!

Where are my manners?  It's been a long time and I've been super busy with...life!  It's not an excuse, but I guess I just lost my blogging mojo for a bit.  It may not be fully back quite yet but I just wanted to leave you with these photos.  

All photos are credit of Jasmine Photography.  Click on images to enlarge.

Shortly after this last picture was taken, we changed outfits and headed to another shooting location.  I'll share those in another post!