A DIY Wedding

When Tim and I started planning our wedding I knew that I wanted to take on some DIY projects. I love arts and crafts and it was a great way to personalize our special day. Instead of going the traditional route of choosing wedding colors, we decided to choose a theme. We wanted to go to Italy for our honeymoon so we decided on a rustic Italian theme. Once we decided on the theme all sorts of fun ideas started pouring out! Here's some of the items I made for our wedding:

Boutonnieres for the groom, groomsmen and fathers. So simple to make and they will last forever!

A floral headband for our flower girl!

I made the pillow for our rings using a template I found via Martha Stewart. I love how it turned out!

A lot of the venues we looked at would not allow flower petals, so I decided to make a flower ball for our flower girl. I liked it better than having another bouquet and it was super easy to make! 

I wanted a simple cake (the simple ones always seem to taste better to me than the super decadent ones) and when I found these faux grapes I had to have them! 

I made a "thank you" ("grazie" in Italian) sign to put on the table with the favors for the guests. I used a map of Rome as the background. It's one of my favorite pieces from the wedding. I also built a mini wooden leaning tower of Pisa as a table accent. It was one of the more challenging projects but also very rewarding!

Excuse the poor quality of this photo- this was taken at our old apartment when I was testing out the set up. I found a little suitcase at one of the craft stores and decided it was the perfect card box! I added a few more faux grapes to spruce it up a bit. 

Instead of table numbers we opted to use table names. I drew pictures of famous Roman monuments for each table. Time consuming, but worth it!

Making our wedding invitations was another one of my favorite projects for the wedding. It saved us a ton of money, and although it was a lot of hard work, it was certainly rewarding! I loved the traditional Italian paper- it added just the right amount of color!

One night I stayed up late working on assembling the invites while watching Bridget Jones' Diary. I giggle every time I see this photo- it was a complete accident that I snapped the photo just as they were kissing!

Looking back through all of these photos makes me a bit nostalgic for those days. I put in a lot of long hard hours but oh how it was worth it! 

Did you make anything for your wedding? What was your favorite project? I'd love to hear!

8 Months

As of yesterday, the second day of June, Mr. Butter and I have been married for 8 months! A wonderful 8 months!
And this week Mr. Butter bought me flowers- big, beautiful sunflowers! They make me smile. So I will share them with you and hopefully they will make you smile too.

Are you smiling?

:)

Guess what....

....Or I guess I should say guess who I saw today?!....

Oh, I was so happy!!!!! I haven't seen him in weeks and it's been so unfortunate. But this morning as we were pulling up to the coffee shop I saw him sitting there looking beautiful as always and my heart jumped for joy! I knew it would be a good day, and I was right! He was an omen of all the good things to come out of today. More on that later though...

For now, let's just enjoy the adorableness (is that even a word?) of Mr. Pup. 

xo!

Thoughts on Puppies

I love dogs. Like really truly love them. My voice turns all high pitched and squealy when I see one and I become instantly happy. Oh how I want a puppy of my own!!!! It would make me so happy I wouldn't know what to do with myself! Except smile and smile and smile until my cheeks hurt so bad that I can't possibly smile any more.

Let me introduce you to Bear the Bernese Mountain dog. My super awesome husband found him on The Daily Puppy for me. Yes, my husband loves me very much. He sends me puppies he thinks I will love every day from The Daily Puppy. I am pretty much the luckiest gal ever.

Meet Bear:

I KNOW!!!!! He's the awesomest. He also solidified the fact that I want a Bernese Mountain dog. Do you see those giant paws? And fluffy head? AND THAT TONGUE just peeking out!

Look how sad he is. It's because I'm not there to play with him. Don't be sad Bear! 

Yep, my heart just melted into a big pile of goo. 

Thank you puppy owners for sharing Bear with the rest of the world! He is greatness. 

(all photos of Bear via The Daily Puppy)

You should also meet this little fella:

I met him at the coffee shop I frequent and oh how I fell in love. I saw him every day for a week straight (it was a really good week) and now he has been MIA. Tim and I go by each morning in hopeful anticipation of seeing him, but he's never there anymore. It's terribly heart breaking. 

Come back, my friend!

7 months and Counting

On May second Mr. Butter and I celebrated seven glorious months of being joined together in matrimony. I know, it's silly that we're counting months but I get giddy like a school girl when the second day of each month rolls around and my sweet ginger husband greets me with a "happy __ month anniversary, baby!". Sometimes he kicks it up a notch and surprises me with a lovely bouquet of flowers that he proudly put together himself. So in honor of our little anniversary I am going to share our engagement story!

A little over a year ago I went on a weekend trip to San Antonio to visit with my family. When I arrived back in the Portland airport I was expecting to simply go home and see Tim when he got off work. I was on my way down to the baggage claim and curbside pick up when I spotted a handsome gentleman looking rather dashing out of the corner of my eye. I had to do a double take to realize it was Tim since I was not expecting to see him at all! I was so excited that he made a surprise visit to pick me up and wow, he even brought flowers! I had a good one, that was certain. That good one of mine kept wrapping me up in hugs. It was a little suspicious but I thought he must have just really missed me. As I was distracted by admiration for the gorgeous white bouquet he brought me Tim got down on one knee (in front of the whole world! And by whole world I mean PDX) and held up the most gorgeous sparkly vintage ring for me and popped the question! I am not entirely certain what happened next but I believe I started jumping up and down and saying yes over and over and over. He tells me that I didn't even let him put the ring on my finger, I snatched it up and stuck it on immediately!

Everything after that is a blur. I just remember my cheeks were hurting because of all the smiling I was doing. People always ask us what everyone's reaction was in the airport but neither one of us can remember! We were completely wrapped up in each other and our happiness.

Here are some photos from our engagement session done by the fabulous Kelly Lindmeier of K.Lindmeier Photography:

I love looking back on these. It was such a special time for us. And oh my! Tim's hair was so long!! 

xo!

...

A Case of the Mondays

Yesterday was Monday. You see, Monday and I don't always get along. Yesterday Monday decided to be extra cruel to me. The day began well. The sun was out (good job, Portland!) and my spirits were up! I was ready to conquer the day. But it wasn't long before I was feeling defeated by the no good Monday. 

That is until my loving husband came to pick me up from work and lifted my spirits up with his comforting and encouraging words. Just when I think there is nothing anyone can say or do to change how I feel, he goes and does it. He even suggested we have cereal for dinner! We got 3 boxes of cereal, including the delicious Peanut Butter Panda Puffs, just to make sure we were covered. I am a pretty lucky lady. 

So thank you husband for always making me smile and for helping me look to the future with positivity and excitement.  And for knowing that sometimes cereal for dinner is what a girl needs. You make this little lady pretty darn happy. 

xo!

Mr. and Mrs. Butter

Recently Tim and I celebrated our six month anniversary of being married! We were married in October of last year and it has been such a fulfilling and exciting adventure. I can't wait to see what the next six months of this first year of marriage brings us. It's amazing to see how much we have grown in ourselves and in our love, and to look out at all of the possibilities that lie ahead. 

Here are some photos from our wedding held at the Bridgeport Brew Pub in Portland, OR:

I love this photo of one of my best friends and bridesmaid Liz

My favorite picture of me and my father

Another favorite

Photography by Kelly Lindmeier of K.Lindmeier Photography.

...

What are some of your favorite moments or memories from your wedding day? Some of mine include: watching our slideshow of photos with all of our friends and family (tears, laughter, more tears!), dancing to Brown Eyed Girl with my father, listening to the toast my sister wrote, all of the happy tears, and standing at the altar with my husband as I was shaking, holding his hand, and fighting back the tears.

xo!