Bachelorette Weekend

Before I begin today's blog post, I want to take a minute to ask everyone to please keep the wife, son, family, and friends of Trooper Steven Vincent in your prayers. If you haven't heard the story, click here. This whole thing was such a senseless and ridiculous tragedy....everyone is in shock. I didn't know him, but he was a fellow marathon runner and everyone who knew him said he was an all around awesome guy. People don't realize how their actions affect not only one person's life but the lives of MANY people - in this case, Trooper Vincent was the father to a 9 year old son. If you think about them throughout the next few weeks, please lift them up in prayer.

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This past weekend, the bridal party of an upcoming wedding spent Saturday and Sunday in Natchitoches, Louisiana for a bachelorette party!

What's an out of town trip without a stop at McAlister's for sweet tea? YES!

Well all crammed into an elevator with two luggage carts - not an easy task, I tell you!

In total, seven ladies were along for the fun! The bride is (obviously) the one with the crown on her head!

The evening began with shopping and dinner, followed by a lingerie shower and lots of fun games! 

Like our shirts? I found inspiration from google, cut the designs out from the silhouette, then ironed them onto the shirts! Love how they turned out!

We can be a little crazy sometimes! :)

Bridal party!

We ate dinner at a really good Italian restaurant and had fun with a little photo scavenger hunt while we were at it! 

Team Bride!

We stayed up way too late and laughed a LOT on Saturday night! Fun times all around! 

On Sunday morning, we stopped by the Steel Magnolia's House (from the movie Steel Magnolias) to take a few pictures and say hello!

Lunch was at a really good seafood restaurant called Papa's - the cup says Mama's but we were really inside of Papa's - they are sister restaurants and Mama's caught fire the evening before.

What does one order at a seafood restaurant? A turkey burger, of course! Whoops.

Anyway, it was an overall fun weekend and I enjoyed visiting Natchitoches again (it's been quite a while)!

Have you ever traveled out of town for a bachelorette party?

Wonderland Themed Bridal Shower

This past weekend, we threw a friend of mine a Wonderland/Mad-Hatter themed Bridal Shower and it was adorable! So much so in fact, I had to share with you here! :)

Let me also start off by saying that this bridal party was incredibly creative and had a lot of input on this shower...so everything you see here was a collaborative effort!  

The bride's wedding colors are green with bright Gerber daisy flowers...so that's where we started our planning process. The themed colors for this shower ranged from hot pink, teal blue, and lime green to orange and yellow. As a Disney fan and lover of all things bright and colorful, this shower was right up the bride's alley! 

The room we utilized for the shower was the Glass Foyer of my church. It's a large room that fits plenty of people and has a ton of space. The only downfall - it has a ton of space which means we had to be creative with the decor.

We gathered all of our ideas from Pinterest and decided on two table centerpieces:

The clock centerpieces were set to the time of the shower and the time of the actual wedding. I liked that touch!

I also loved the added detail!

Instead of the traditional guestbook alone, we also added a teapot for everyone to sign.

The favors were bags of tea!

A friend of one of the bridesmaids had an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party for her child and let us borrow some of her extra decorations! See...the roses are red and we didn't even have to paint them that way! :)

My BRF also let me borrow some of the decor from parties she's thrown in the past...lucky for us, it all worked!

This was probably my favorite area of the entire room!

Loved this sign! 

The bride and groom have dated for four years and were engaged at WDW, so these pictures represent their relationship over the course of time. There's also one picture of each bridesmaid with the bride in there as well! (A few hidden Mickeys are scattered throughout the tree as well, but you can't see them from this picture!)

 Another fun touch was the photo booth!

Guests of the shower had a great time taking pictures here!

One of our games was the ring game...and some women were out for blood! It was hysterical!

We had a wide assortment of food, but these were my favorite...

The ideas here were also found on Pinterest, by the way! 

This hostess was incredible! I asked her to make sandwiches and we would arrange them at the shower. She asked what I was thinking so I sent her a picture and she made it happen!!  Thank goodness for creative people! :)

This was a super delicious sandwich "cake"...it had chicken salad inside which I'm not usually a fan of, but it was good!

Last but not least, the cake....oh the cake!

My friend (and fellow bridesmaid) Mackenzie made the cake and did an INCREDIBLE job! This was her first topsy turvy cake and it was adorable!  

The bride loved it!

After the bride broke a bow, I informed her of the old joke...the amount of bows you break is the amount of kids you'll have...

She took extra care from then on! Teehee!

I was laughing at her here because she was carefully ripping the paper around the bow so she wouldn't break it!

Overall, the shower went off without any issues and we all had a great time! This shower was completely different from anything I've ever helped with in the past and I loved it!!

Have you ever helped to host a shower? Do you enjoy throwing parties for people?

Fitness Friday–1/2

A few weeks ago, I admitted to the fact that I was having trouble keeping up with my training during the holidays. It was pretty bad, y’all…

I was also having flashbacks to the December (of 2011) when my IT Band issues first began – on top of those December festivities, one of my best friends was getting married and I was the Matron of Honor…so needless to say, my training suffered then too.

Putting those dismal thoughts away, and not wanting any problems to arise (like an angry IT Band) this close to another race, I somehow managed to get myself out of my rut and get out there anyway.

Currently training for:
Louisiana Half Marathon
Rock ‘n’ Roll NOLA Half Marathon
Glass Slipper Challenge

Saturday – 14 mile run with my BRF
Sunday – Rest Day 
Monday –  3.25 miles with Jason 
Tuesday –  I was super sleepy this day so I slept after work instead! 
Wednesday – 3.5 miles
Thursday – 3.25 miles with Jason 
Friday – 4 miles (on schedule)

After Saturday’s run, my IT Band did feel a bit upset with me. I also attended a baby shower after the run and I wore shoes with a slight heel (BIG mistake)! Since then, I’ve babied my knee and only run incredibly slow or briskly walked with Jason. Ice, foam rolling, and Bengay patches were my best friend this past week. I guess this Saturday’s run will be the test run on how it’s feeling. Actually, it’s felt fine since Sunday so hopefully that’s all behind me now!

How was everyone’s New Year’s Eve? We spent our time at a friend’s house and really enjoyed ourselves!

We played games and ate until we couldn’t eat any more. Thank goodness all of those holiday sweets will be OUT of my house after today!!

On New Year’s Day, my mom and I shopped at Dillard’s (with all the CRAZY insane people), then Jason and I were invited over for the traditional black eyed peas, cabbage, and ham dinner at their house. I ate just enough black eyed peas and cabbage to say I had some (not a fan of either)! The ham, cornbread, and veggies were super tasty, though! :)

So tell me, how did you spend your New Year’s Eve? Do you wait up until midnight?

American Cancer Society Gala 2014

What a weekend! I am worn out but I wouldn’t trade a minute of it!

On Saturday night, I attended our American Cancer Society’s annual Gala – this year’s theme was Old Hollywood.

I absolutely loved our table centerpieces!

This was one type…

…and this was the other!

We also included a red carpet runway as guests arrived. Our photographer stood at the runway like paparazzi!

My friend Katie – she seriously rocks. Jason had to work and didn’t arrive until later in the evening, so I have no pictures of us together. Sad times.

Finger foods at the “before” party – it was delicious! Actually, ALL of the food was delicious!

A few event revenue enhancers at our event included a photo booth…

…complete with props…

….each person received a printed picture, and they were given the option to post the photo to facebook and/or email it to themselves! Loved it!

This is me with my best friend literally forever…Jane!

Another enhancer was the Candles of Hope table – guests could light a tea light in honor of a survivor or in memory of a loved one who lost their battle with cancer.

Not pictured here (because they all sold super fast) are boxes that were filled with area restaurant gift cards. Included with each box was a ticket which would give you a chance at college football season tickets to our local University!

Our silent auction was located in another corner, but I never got around to it for pictures.

My awesome survivor friend Erin and I were Emcee’s for the evening!

For starters, we accepted awards on behalf of the Academy. It was rather funny if I do say so myself! :D

We also helped our guests see the impact that ACS has made in our area – from not smoking in restaurants (at all) to wigs, transportation, patient assistance programs, etc…

Our guest speaker was a cancer survivor of 10 years – she was diagnosed in 2004 with stage for colo-rectal cancer and is still surviving today! What an amazing story!

To cap off the evening, a local band rocked the house – no really, the are incredible! They are called the Flamethrowers and are the area’s hottest and most sought after band at the moment. I loved them!

Oh yes, I almost forgot about the black and white movie that played on the overhead screen (silent of course)! Nice touch, huh? :)

What do you think of Gala’s? Have you ever attended one? Do you like to get dressed up for fancy events? (I love it!)