standing in the gap...

This past week God has been gracefully convicting me concerning my prayer life. Recently my prayers have been shallow, selfish, and seldom. I know the importance of prayer, and I have seen the power of it in my own life. But sometimes when life is going good, and I have no urgent crisis that needs taken care of, my prayer life can start to dwindle. But what God has been opening my eyes to is the fact that there is plenty of crisis and devastation around me that still needs prayer. My lack of prayer for others says a lot about my heart condition, and what its saying isn't good. What its saying is that I’m not loving others the way that I should. I’m not caring for others the way that I should. God started to point this all out to me last week as I started to hear about the devastation happening in Egypt. – I am going to be honest and let you know that I understand very little about the circumstances surrounding the recent violence, and nothing about this post is meant to take a political stance, but what I do know is that every time  I turned on the news, or clicked on MSN I saw a new death toll. And each time that number grew, God began to chisel away at my heart, until eventually it was broken for the people of Egypt. Hundreds dead. Hundreds who had wives, husbands, children. Hundreds who probably did not know Christ. And I, foolishly, in my own comfort thought that I had nothing to pray for.

My mom was the one that first introduced me to the term “standing in the gap”. Three and a half years ago my brother was diagnosed as bipolar. And in the height of his sickness Tyler’s faith had faded some. His life had been turned upside down and he was confused and angry. During this time, my mom came to me with this verse from Ezekiel. And she told me that if Tyler can’t build up a wall for himself right now then we are going to do it for him.  That is probably the strongest my prayer life has ever been, and the closest I ever felt to Christ. During that time I was almost constantly in prayer, standing in the gap for my brother, and desperately pleading for God’s help, His healing, His rescue.  And God responded, every single time. God constantly showed us his power, love, and mercy. It was a difficult time for our family, but God received so much glory through it all.

I am very thankful for the blessings God has given me and my family. I am so thankful to be in a time of peace and comfort. But I must not be blind to everyone around me who is in a time of hardship and trial. God longs to give us our hearts desires, what if our hearts desire was for others? If I believe that God is faithful to answer our prayers, then why am I not praying for things that are important? Why am I not passionately pleading for those who are hurting?

Today my prayer is that my heart be softened, that my love for others abounds, and that my eyes are opened to the needs around me. I want to go to God with big requests, expecting big results. I want God to use me for his glory. I want spend my time building up a wall and standing in the gap for people who desperately need someone to fight for them.

Here are some other verses on prayer that God has been using to convict me, and make my heart more like his:

James 4:2-3 “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

James 5:13 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

Isaiah 30:18 “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you, therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of Justice. Blessed are all who wait on him.”

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

-holly

inspired design...back to school hipster...

For this week's inspired design I decided to do a dorm edition for all of you college students, like my husband, gearing up for a new semester. I am calling this design "the back to school hipster". The color palette is made up of soft pinks, blue, mint, yellow, and beige. The soft pastel tones of this palette help bring an instant cozy feel to the room and will brighten up even the drabbest of dorms.

The design is a mixture of vintage cool, and modern hipster. The result is a fun, and comfy room that will be the envy of every other girl on your hall.

patchwork quilt...$169.00
bicycle wall art...$135.00
mustache push pins...$3.30 (for pkg of 8)
we are young pillow...$20.00
yellow triangle pillow...$20.00
hipster glasses pillow set...$28.00
mint, over the door, vanity station...$89.00
mint, vintage style microwave...$749.00

The pink vintage mini fridge is an actual vintage piece, and therefore extremely difficult to find, but if you like this, I found another mini fridge that has a similar vintage feel. you can find it here in multiple colors, including light pink!

Also, the pink display/storage cubes shown on this design board are hard to find in America. I found these on Ebay. They are coming out of the UK, but can probably be shipped here for a little extra money. Or you could buy this set at target and paint them pink yourself!

Dorms are not always the easiest room to decorate. You have to be careful about what you hang and how you hang it, you can't paint, and you have to work with the furniture you are given. Here are some addition tips on how to make your dorm feel like home...

img. from: http://www.juxtapost.com

I love the idea of draping some fabric over your bed. Fabric is always an easy way to add softness to a room and help it feel more cozy. And this is a great idea because it can help provide a little more privacy if you are sharing your dorm with a roommate.

Another way to soften the room while adding a little bit of whimsy and fun is by hanging paper lanterns from the ceiling. These are light and easy to hang withr out causing any damage. Not to mention they are super cheap! you can often find these for $1 each! Hang several together in a cluster at varying heights to create a strong visual effect.

img. from: www.inarkansas.com

Wanting to add some more color to your space? read this article with 28 decorating tips to brighten up your rented home. It has several great ideas for adding color in a temporary way.

Have fun decorating your dorms, and I hope everyone has a great semester!

Is your dorm room creative and inspirational? Share it with me, and if I like it I just might feature it on my blog!

inspired design - Duck Dynasty...

This week's design inspiration comes from one of my favorite quirky TV shows, Duck Dynasty!! Season 4 of Duck Dynasty kicked off last night and it got me thinking. For those of y'all that don't watch Duck Dynasty, you need to start, its hilarious. But let me fill you in...the show is about a big redneck family that became multimillionaires from their duck call making business. The guys in this family have big scruffy beards and are crazy hillbillies that spend all their free time hunting. Somehow they all managed to snag BEAUTIFUL, classy wives. 

photo from www.realitytea.com

I started thinking.. (Even though I am sure this is not the case) what if they had a similar issue as me, where their husbands wanted to have an input in the home decor? What would that house look like? How could you possibly mix the tastes of cute, preppy stylish women with dirty, bearded, redneck men? Here is the solution I came up with...I'm calling this style the sophisticated hillbilly!

deer head...$335.00

coral chair...$349.00

drift wood lamp...$503.80

sheep skin rug...$197.99

stag print pillow...$20.00

coral damask pillow...$20.00

wood coffee table...$1,495.00

black tuffed sofa...$4,867.00

The entire design was centered around the black and white print paper deer head. Its a bold piece that immediately sets the tone for the whole room, and it is the perfect mixture of classy and country. I started off by keeping with the black and white color scheme. Black and white is classic, timeless, and so easy to work around. If you ever get tired of the design its easy to completely change the feel of the room by changing accessories and pops of color, while being able to keep the basic pieces of your room. I also wanted to stay with a natural material palette, which is why I chose to go with a leather sofa, sheep skin rug, and wood accessories. So while the selections have a sleek and sophisticated look, the materials help give the space a  manly, "hunting cabin" feel. I then added in the coral chair, pillows, and flower arrangement to add a soft feminine touch to it. When you put all of these together you get a soft, modern, take on the hunter's decor.

For those of you who love this look, but are on a budget, I found an awesome DIY tutorial on making a paper deer head. the best part about this is that you can completely customize it in any color or pattern you wanted!

To see the tutorial, you can go to the chroniclebooks blog.

I love the idea of taking two opposing styles and putting them together. Do you know of any designs that do this? share them with me!

-holly

brown sugar balsamic glazed pork loin...

It has been a long tiresome week so far… on Monday night our sweet little puppy child was sick and on two separate occasions in the middle of the night we had to get up to tend to her. And then, on Tuesday night there was a major thunderstorm that woke me up multiple times. I know that we desperately need the rain here in west Texas, and I am very thankful for it, but I need my sleep or I get cranky, emotional, and unpleasant to deal with. Normally I love coming home from work to cook a nice meal, but on Wednesday all I wanted to do was lay down. I was just too exhausted to even think about putting a meal together. And it is times like these that the crockpot is my best friend. I had been wanting to try this crockpot brown sugar balsamic glazed pork loin recipe for a while, so I figured now would be the perfect time!

Almost all crockpot meals are easy, dump it in and forget about it meals, but this was one of the easiest and most delicious recipes I have tried! It took me less than 5 minutes to prepare the pork and put it in the crockpot to cook all day, and then after work it took me 5 minutes to put the glaze together. And it came out so tender and flavorful. The glaze is absolutely wonderful and would be great on chicken too! The original recipe suggested moving the pork over to a frying pan to caramelize the glaze, while I am sure that is delicious I chose to forgo this step (because I was too tired and lazy to do even that!) and it was still great! Also, one pork loin is way more than me and my husband can eat on our own, but Jon pointed out that this would make a great sandwich, so we have lunch already figured out for today! Double win!

My suggested pairings: steamed vegetable medley (I used one of those microwave steam-able bags, which are great for lazy days such as this!), and a dinner roll.

Enjoy!

-holly

jalapeno kettle chip crusted chicken/ spicy jalapeno ranch dip...

I must be having some serious spicy cravings this week, because almost every meal I have chosen has had a kick to it! I saw this recipe on Pinterest and I knew that I just had to try it! Jalapeno Kettle chips are one of my favorites! I would have never thought to use them to bread my chicken, but I am so glad that Tina, over at My Life as a Mrs. was smart enough to think of it! I followed her recipe for the chicken exactly as it was. The only thing I made minor changes to was the Jalapeno ranch dip. To see Tina's full chicken recipe you can go here!

I have my own jalapeno ranch dip recipe that I perfected a long time ago. It is very similar to the one Tina has on her blog, but a few small additions make all the difference in the world...What's my secret? Pickle juice! weird, I know! But for years I would try to make my own ranch because I am not a fan of the bottled ranch you by at grocery stores. My favorite ranch is from Chili's. I love to dip their chips in it! Once again, weird, I know! But don't knock it till you try it. Anyways, I cannot even tell you how many copy cat recipes I looked up trying to get my homemade ranch to taste like Chili's ranch. But it was never quite right, there was always something off about it. Finally, one day I came across a post that suggested putting 1-2 table spoons of dill pickle juice in your ranch. I tried it, and sure enough, it worked! So now anytime I make any form of ranch dip I put in some pickle juice!

Here is my jalapeno ranch recipe...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mayo (use real mayo, not miracle whip, this was another mistake I made for months when trying to perfect my ranch recipe)

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup jalapenos, canned

2 tsp. jalapeno juice

1 tbsp. dill pickle juice

1/2 pkg. dry ranch mix

pinch of fresh cilantro

dash of cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. put all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until smooth and well blended

2. chill in refrigerator over night, and serve.

suggested pairings for the chicken: steamed broccoli in a cheese sauce, roasted potatoes

enjoy!

-holly

trash to treasure- a side table makeover...

I am a poor girl with expensive taste. I like nice things, but currently I have a Walmart/Target/Ikea budget. But just because something is cheap, doesn't mean it has to look cheap. When money is tight you just have to get creative. And that is exactly what I did with my bedside table... 

I found this night stand at a garage sale for 2 dollars. TWO DOLLARS!!! It was a little banged up, but I knew a fresh coat of paint and a little embellishment could take it from drab to fab. Plus who in their right mind would pass this up for only 2 dollars?

I happily loaded my new table into my car and took it home, and that is where the magic began. I started off by painting it white to give it a nice clean look...

Then I cut out a piece of fabric so that it would cover most of the top, leaving about 1/2" of the painted white wood exposed...

I sprayed the back of the fabric with a spray adhesive, and carefully centered the fabric on top of the table and smoothed it flat...

Then I added furniture studs all the way around to cover the edge of the fabric...

I was so delighted with the finished product! It has a clean, sophisticated look, and all in all it cost me about $17!! You cannot beat a price like that!! hope you enjoyed this transformation! 

Do you have a trash to treasure transformation? Share it with me!

the Anders' abode...

Decorating our apartment has been quite the unexpected challenge. I love to decorate and one of the things I was looking forward to most about married life was officially becoming the “queen of the castle!” Up until this point of my life, my decorating powers have been very limited. Between birth and the age of 18 I was living in my parents’ home where I only had reign over my own bedroom, and even there my decorating was still basically controlled by my mom, who had the checkbook, and therefore all the real power. My 5 ½ years of college were spent in a dorm, apartment, and rent house all of which came pre-furnished, and all of which I could not paint the walls. So my decorating was limited to hanging pictures on the wall, and throwing pillows on my pre-chosen furniture. So after Jon popped the question I started daydreaming about our future home and all the power I would have! (Honestly these daydreams started WAY before he popped the question; they just grew more intense after we became engaged.) However, within minutes of walking into the first store we were registering at, I realized that my dreams were not going to be my reality…

I walked into that Target assuming that all relationships have a similar dynamic as my parents – My mom does all the decorating picks out all the pillows, paint colors, and accessories. My dad doesn’t care. He has no say in the decorating, because he doesn’t want any say. He approves the big purchases and then happily watches sports as my mom rearranges furniture – I walked out of that target fuming mad and utterly confused. Jon wanted a say in everything, and we couldn’t even agree on something as simple as a soap dispenser for our bathroom… Now, looking back at it, we laugh. It all seems so silly and trivial, but at the time neither one of us was laughing. I had to learn to let go of some of my power; it is OUR home, not MY home. And Jon had to learn to put a little more trust in me. This was a challenge for both of us, because our styles are nothing alike… Jon is going to school to become an accountant, meaning he is NOT a creative, out of the box thinking, big, bold personality type. He is very much in the box, and in my honest opinion, his style of decorating is way too safe and boring. I am a way out of the box, lots of colors, lots of patterns, lots of fun, type person. So you could see how this would be an issue. I had to tone down my original ideas and find a happy medium between our two extremes. And Jon had to learn to trust my “creative mind” when I would suggest something he just couldn't picture. This was the first major challenge we faced, but we are starting to find that happy place. One that has pops of color to satisfy my wild side, while still being calm and classic to match Jon’s laid back style…It is still a work in progress, but we have our whole lives to figure it out

one of Jon's registry selections

one of my selections

The second major challenge is the temporariness of our current home. Jon has two more years of school left, and after that we are thinking about packing it up heading for the mountains. Jon misses Colorado and wants to move back, and I just want to be where he is. So… since Jon is still in school and only working part time, and we might be moving in a couple years we decided the best decision for us at this stage of life is to rent an apartment. Likewise, a lot of our furniture is stuff we may or may not keep when we move – either way most of it is not items we see hanging around for years to come. This is just the stage of life that we are in right now. The starter phase, as I like to call it. So, we want our apartment to feel homey, and inviting, and comfortable and we want it to fit our personalities and our lifestyle. But with the temporary state of everything we own, it’s hard to justify putting much money into anything. (Plus, we in the “starter phase” don’t have much money anyways!) And so our challenge has become the task of making our apartment a nice temporary home for us to enjoy for two years, without breaking the bank. When looking for apartments one of my “must haves” was being able to paint the walls. So that is one easy, and affordable way we have been able to make the place “ours”. Also, most of the artwork displayed throughout our apartment I have painted or made myself, this way we can save some cash while being able to tailor our art to our exact style and needs!

Here is a quick tour through our apartment for you to see what we have done with the place so far!

In the living room we used mainly blues, yellows, and greens. These are all calming colors, and I was able to have fun with our art work, while using a “natural” theme throughout. We then softened things up with light tan and cream drapes. It’s fun without being too crazy!

In our bedroom we went for a little more classic feel. We used a warm tan tone on the walls. Our bedding is gold and a deep maroon we use white and black for simple, classic accessories. The headboard gives me the drama I crave, while the warm and simple color palette keeps Jon relaxed and happy.

In our bathroom we wanted to use a different color palette than what we used in our room, but one that would complement the bedroom. So we chose dark brown, with a gold-ish yellow, and pops of orange.

For our guest bathroom we wanted a calm, spa – type feel. So we used lots of white, with light blue. I plan on painting the walls in here a light gray but haven’t got around to it yet. Once I do I will show you the updated version!

  

For our second bedroom I dreamed of a luxe, 1920’s, art-deco study, done in dramatic dark grey and emerald hues, with black and white and silver accents. A place to curl up under a big fluffy blanket and sip on an amaretto sour (my current favorite cocktail) while reading a good book.  Sounds wonderful doesn't it, girls? – Jon dreamed of a mancave, a place to set up all of his sports memorabilia, and video games… Jon won… it took me a while to give in, but Jon uses that room way more than I do. The desk is in there, and that is where he works on homework. We didn't have space for the Xbox and Nintendo in our living room set up, so he hooked them up to the TV in there, and before I knew what hit me, it was a mancave. But this transformation didn't happen until after I had bought a fabulous black and white rug that was going to be perfect in my study…so what we have here is a wonderful rug surrounded by boy things. Oh well, maybe one day when we get a house I will get my study, and that rug can finally get the sophisticated home it deserves…

That’s it! Still a big work in progress, but its home.

enchilada chicken spaghetti...

Tonight I decided to be true to my roots and whip up a quick and easy tex-mex dinner! I found a recipe on Pinterest for a chicken spaghetti recipe that used Rotel. I was intrigued... So I took the recipe and adapted it some to make what I am calling enchilada chicken spaghetti. to view the original recipe you can go to Just a Pinch Recipes. Here my version of the meal:

Ingredients:

1 can of shredded, cooked chicken breast. (you can cook and shred the chicken yourself if you prefer)

1/2 of a 13 oz. pkg. of spaghetti (I used whole wheat spaghetti)

1 can Rotel (I used the "hot" Rotel but you can use original or mild)

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz. of Velveeta (about 1/4 of the block)

2 tbs. butter

3-4 green onions, chopped

1/4 cup sour cream

chili powder

ground cayenne pepper 

garlic salt

Directions:

1. cook the pasta until soft, drain and set aside

2. In the same pot, melt butter and saute the green onions for about 2-3 minutes

3. add in can of rotel, can of cream of chicken soup, chicken and spaghetti and mix well

4. cut the velveeta into small cubes and slowly stir into the spaghetti until fully melted

5. stir in sour cream

6. add chili powder, cayenne pepper, and garlic salt to taste. (I do not want to give you exact measurements here, because its best to slowly add until you find the amount that tastes best to you. I like mine really spicy so I added more of the chili powder and cayenne pepper than most people would probably want - including my husband! oops!)

7. serve and enjoy!

(this recipe feeds 2-3 people)

my suggested pairings: corn, tortilla chips, and margaritas!

enjoy!

-holly

a running partner...

If you accidentally stumbled upon this blog post hoping for exercise advice let me go ahead and warn you that you have come to the wrong place. There are very few things in this world that I like less than running. I wish I was a health nut that loved to exercise, but I hate it so much that recently the only way I’ve been able to make myself “work out” and get my heart rate up has been through playing just dance on our wii. I am pathetic, I know it, and I am totally ok with it! What the title of this post is referring to is 1 Corinthians 9:24 “Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” 

There are a couple of times that scripture uses a race as a metaphor for our earthly life; a great race that takes perseverance and faith. When you get married you are signing on to be your spouse’s running partner for the remainder of that race. It is fun to have someone to run with. Someone to share the small everyday victories with, someone to offer support in the failures, someone to share in your passions, dreams, and goals. But being someone’s running partner comes with big responsibilities.

What makes a good running partner?  

1. Encouragement / support
2. Keeping pace
3. Fighting till the finish

When someone is training to run a marathon they have to do a lot more than just run every day. They must develop a whole life style that is going to help them finish the race. They have to watch what they put into their body. Too much junk food and not enough water will slow them down, and possibly make them sick. They have to stretch before and after to avoid pulling muscles, and they have to stay committed to a daily routine. No one wakes up one day, and without any training goes out and runs a marathon. Why not? Because our body’s cannot accomplish such an amazing feet without months of preparation. You have to build up stamina, get calluses on your feet, build muscle, and work up the self control to continue even when you want to stop. It’s the same with the Christian life. We don’t wake up one day and just decide to stop sinning and be this awesome person who puts others before ourselves, and is always loving, never hateful, never bitter, always truthful, and always compassionate. It just doesn't happen, because our bodies, our minds, our hearts, are naturally sinful. It takes faith and perseverance, a lot of prayer and dependence on God. We trust that he is training us for this race. That he is giving us the tools we need, that he is strengthening our self control. We trust that he is going to see us through the end, but we have to understand that we have to work hard to get to the end. And we have to protect ourselves from bad habits and patterns that are going to slow us down. So lets look at the good habits we need to adopt in order to be the best runner, and running partner that we can.

1.       Encouragement / Support.

As mentioned earlier, I hate working out. However, I am much more likely to follow through with a fitness plan when I have someone that is doing it with me. That way we can hold each other accountable and encourage each other when the other wants to quit. When you are married you have someone to partner with in every aspect of life. Do you need your husband to get you through the race? No. God is more than we will ever need when it comes to love support, and encouragement. We should never look to our husbands to be the sole provider of this in our lives. Nor should we expect ourselves to fill our husband’s every need in this area. God is always the one you should look to, but I like to see it more as God using my husband to fill my needs. That is not always the way God chooses to fill those needs, but it is certainly a way in which he often chooses to bless me. Likewise, I want to be the avenue in which God chooses to bless Jon with encouragement and support. I want to be available for God to use me in my husband’s everyday life. But in order to give out love, encouragement, kindness, and compassion, you have to be filled with these things first. It’s a beautiful cycle of us going to the father to be filled, and then turning around and pouring that out into other people in our lives. Make a habit of going to God often with prayer and petition (Philippians 4:6) and getting in the word to hear God speak and be reminded of his grace, love, and mercy, and who you are in him. When both you and your spouse are doing this then you are able to give to each other. When one gets down, the other has the strength to pick them up. Build yourself up in Christ so that you may have the strength to build others up.

2.       Keeping pace.

Since running has never been my choice of exercise, I am not 100% sure of what one looks for in a running partner, but I would think you would want someone who kept pace with you. Someone that doesn’t slow you down, or leave you in the dust, but rather runs with you; when running together you each push the other to do better, to run faster, to run longer. That’s what I want in a life running partner. I pray daily for both mine and my husband’s personal relationship with God. I want us both to grow together, to help each other draw near to Him. In order to maintain a healthy growing relationship that is an earthy picture of Christ’s love for his church, we must both move forward. One of us can’t be left behind. We have to push the other to run faster, longer. This is why me and Jon have developed the habit of getting in the word together every night. While I hope that we are both seeking him on an individual level, I think it is also important that we seek God together. That way we know where the other one is, how they are doing, how they are feeling. We read one chapter a night. Just one. And then we talk about it. We talk about what it means to us, how we interpret it, how it challenges us. It takes us about 15 minutes before we go to bed. 15 minutes a day isn't very much; I am sure even the busiest of people can find 15 minutes. This brings us closer to God, but also closer to each other, and keeps us on the same track. This way we aren't each running a separate race, but the same race, together.

3.       Fighting till the finish.

It is much easier to NOT finish a marathon than it is to finish one. But the reward is at the end, so if you want your medal, you have to keep going. God tells us that he creating in us the perseverance we need to finish the race, so we can have faith that we do. But I don’t want to just finish, I want to finish well. Life is going to have its fair share of up-hill battles. It’s going to be a fight. But it is a fight that is worth it. Fight for your marriage, for your family, for your relationship with Christ, for your husband’s relationship with Christ. When it’s hard, keep going; when it is easy give thanks and catch your breath! But always run. And don’t just run, run to win.

-holly

photos taken by Jordan Washer Photography

The beginning of my happily ever after...

I thought the perfect way to start off a blog about my adventures as a wife would be to tell you about the day that this whole adventure began. June 15, 2013 was the day that forever changed my life, the day that I made my best friend my permanent partner in crime. I know that it’s totally lame and cliché to say that it was everything I dreamed it would be, but it was…I could not have imagined a better wedding. Everything fit our style and personalities perfectly and it was surprisingly a stress free day! Once the day finally came I was so thankful to just be done with all the planning and ready to get married. But even though by the end of our 9 month engagement I was so over wedding planning, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the process. In fact, I've decided that I totally would love being a wedding planner. It was an amazing thrill to see nine months worth of little individual projects come together to create one big event! Watching all the details come together to complement each other, and then being able to share everything with our family and friends was so rewarding. So now I would like to share part of that with you!

On the days leading up to, and of course the day itself, the bride receives a constant shower of compliments. It’s a nice (although probably unnecessary in my case) stroke to the ego. And it helps keep you positive and upbeat in what can often be a highly stressful time. While I’m certainly not complaining about being told that I am a “gorgeous bride”, or that I “look like a princess”; I am pretty sure that people are required to tell the bride that on her wedding day. The biggest compliment I received was that my dress looked like me. I had several people tell me that. And it always made me smile, because it did, my dress looked like me. It was soft, elegant, classic, and quirky all at the same time. And it was nothing like the wedding dress I had imagined myself in. before walking into our first wedding dress shop I told my mom I knew exactly the style I wanted. A-line, simple, and NOT a puffy princess dress. And yet the very first dress I tried on, was a big puffy princess dress, and I fell in love. Yes, the dress I chose was the very first one I tried on. I tried on at least 20 others, in every style you could think of, but I could never get over that very first one. Even though it was nothing like the dress I had originally imagined, it was me. It was a dress I felt comfortable, confident, and beautiful in. It was the very first wedding decision I made, and it taught me right away that things didn't have to turn out exactly like my wedding board on Pinterest, but the most important thing was that I stayed true to who I was.

The reason I was first attracted to my dress was the material. It was tulle with a pin dot pattern. You don’t see polka dot wedding dresses very often, and I loved the uniqueness of that. I decided to take the polka dots and run with it, so I developed a subtle polka dot theme. The flower girl dresses were made out of a fabulous polka dot lace I found at a local fabric store and luckily my new mother-in-law knows her way around a sewing machine and offered to make the dresses for me. I asked my cake lady to add little white icing pin dots all over the cake, I used a polka dot sheet vellum over the programs to make them a little more fancy, and I found the perfect table cloths to use on the cake and sign in tables. It was the perfect amount of fun to add to the elegance. It brought personality without looking like a 5 year old's birthday party (I love polka dots, but you got to watch out for that, kids birthday party is never the feel you are going for!)

I cannot begin to tell you how stunned I was by the flowers at my wedding. I told my florist I wanted fun, summery, and colorful. I gave her a list of flowers that I liked and a list of colors, but overall it was a pretty open “do what you want just make it look good” kind of deal. And she did not disappoint! They were breathtakingly beautiful and it really helped bring everything together. Our main colors were coral and blue. The blue was specifically requested by Jon, he wanted to wear a blue tie to make his eyes pop. (Actually he first asked me if he could wear a baby blue suit and we compromised to tie). Blue wasn't originally part of the color palette I had imagined but I had to remember that this was not just my wedding, but Jon’s wedding too. I got on board with the whole blue idea once I started seeing pictures of fabulous blue succulents used in weddings! I researched some and soon realized that those succulents where died blue, that was not their original color, and using real succulents  and getting them in the blue I wanted was probably going to exceed my floral budget. But I didn't let that get me down. I bought plastic ones from Hobby Lobby and spray painted them blue, and then gave those to my florist to incorporate into the bouquets. Real succulents have a plastic feel and look to them anyways, so it wasn't obvious that they were fake, and I was able to get the exact blue I wanted while pinching a few pennies! And mixed with the colorful arrangement of live flowers they turned out great.

I could probably go on and on about my wedding and the various details, but I know by now you are bored with my stories. In fact, if you are anything like me you probably aren't even reading this. You bailed out halfway through my ramblings about my dress and are now just scrolling through to look at the pictures. So I will let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves. But while we are on the subject of pictures, aren't they fabulous?! If you are in Texas and looking for a great, affordable wedding photographer check out Marcie Meredith Photography – she took all of my wedding day pictures and I couldn't be more happy with them! My individual bridal portraits (shown at the very beginning of this post) were taken by my BFF you can check her out at Jordan Washer Photography! (she couldn't photograph my wedding because she was busy being one of my Matrons of Honor!) Both are very talented photographers that I would highly recommend. Hope you enjoy the rest of my pictures. If you are currently planning a wedding my advice to you is to have fun and be yourself! try not to stress to much, at the end of the day, if you married the love of your life, then you had the perfect wedding! Let your love keep things in perspective, its the person you are marrying, not all the details, that makes the day so special. Good luck and God bless!

-holly