Be Our Guest

My friend Miriam and I have known each other for over 15 years now. We met in middle school and were fast friends. We have seen each other through the high school years, we were college roommates and even worked together after college. We have been together for a lot of life's big moments and I was so thrilled when she asked me to be Co-Maid of Honor at her wedding.

Miriam has always been a fan of Beauty and the Beast, and we even went to see it in 3-D last winter, at least we could be adult about it by going at a dinner theater night showing and ordering a bottle of wine to enjoy during the movie. Although, in hind sight this might not have been the best plan, insert tipsy twenty somethings singing along with Lumiere and the rest of the house mates to "Be Our Guest" at the top of our lungs. 

Anyway, when it came to planning Miriam's bridal shower, I knew that I wanted to somehow incorporate the Beauty and the Beast theme without being overly toddler. My friend Rachael and I worked hard to develop a parisian themed bash for the bride and it could not have been more fun!

In sticking with the theme, the invitations and color scheme included red and gold yellow. We pulled out a spread of the "characters" and added in a picture of the bride and groom an a framed copy of the invitation.

The entry way

The characters

We had a fantastic spread, thanks to Rachael and her parisian themed menu.

Delicious red wine marscapone cupcakes

The mimosa bar

The bride, getting the party started!

The bride and the high school girls.

We had a wonderful time celebrating Miriam and her upcoming wedding and I can't wait for this weekend's big bachelorette party and to stand by her side next month when she says, "I do!" 

Love,

Malia E

**Man, I really need to get better at this whole taking pictures thing!

Can I Get a WAHOOO!!

The house has appraised over our offering price and we close next week! I couldn't be more excited!

I don't want to jinx it and post a picture so you have to wait until next week.

So stoked!

Love, 

Malia E.

Will You Be My Bridesmaid?

The first step to having the wedding of my dreams is making sure that all my best ladies will stand by my side.

For awhile, I was debating just having my sister and J's sister stand up for me but the more I thought about it I knew that looking back I would be sad to not have pictures of me with all my girls. So, from a  bridal party of two I jumped to a bridal party of eight. Eight ladies, I know, that's pretty crazy, but between high school ladies, sorority sisters and family I couldn't not have eight. Eight, who all mean the world to me and who I can't imagine not being a part of our big day.

Once my mind was made up about having all my ladies by my side I knew that I wanted to come up with a unique way to ask them. I had been searching the web and immediately when I came across these vintage hankies on Wedding Chicks I knew they had to be a part of it all.

After many hours of pinterest searching, I knew I also wanted to incorporate elements of kraft paper, lace, baker's twine, chalkboard and a personal message for each of my girls. This is what I came up with.

The materials: 

Lace Tape

Baker's Twine

Chalkboard Pen

Chalkboard Tags

Kraft Paper Cards and Envelopes

All from The Paper Source

First, I wrote a note on each card.

Next, I added accents and tied the hankie to the card.

Finally, I sat back and smiled at myself for coming up with an awesome card for my maids. I love that while they were the same concept for each of my ladies they were also slightly different through the personal notes that I wrote for each girl and the slightly different hankie patterns and fonts. I wish I had ironed these before taking the pictures but you get the idea. 

I hope you like them as I much as I do!

Love,
Malia E

House Hunting

Whoa, did HGTV have me fooled that in 30 minutes or less we would have seen three amazing houses, chosen one as our perfect place, put in an offer and before we could even order coffee at the local Starbucks we would hear the fantastic news that we were the owners of our dream home.

That certainly hasn't been our experience, but after seeing houses all over our dream neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods, putting in four different offers only to find out that someone else has a more preferred loan type or straight up cash, (Seriously, who is walking around with $400,000 cash in their pocket?) or dealing with some ridiculously shiesty characters we just might have found the one. Fifth times the charm, right?

So, here's hoping that within the next couple of weeks, mind you we have already waited three weeks since putting in our initial offer, we might actually be closing on our very first place!

Keep your fingers crossed!

Love,
Malia E

Wig and 'Stache Bash

OH.MY.GOODNESS. I have the most amazing friends!

I think my friends have been ready for J and I to tie the knot almost as long as I have. Awhile ago I noticed a bunch of wig and mustache themed invites pinned on my bestie Kelly's pinterest board, with the caption M+J? and I knew we were in for a treat.

Kelly is my party planning idol, seriously she's amazing, and she always pulls out all the stops so, I knew the second that she offered to spearhead an engagement party for us that we would have the best time! Kelly and another bestie, Sarah thought of everything from invitations to cute little coozies.

invitations

coozies

I wish I had taken more pictures of the fantastic decor and dessert table but here are some that I did capture and that great family and friends have posted on facebook.

getting ready

at the bash

with my bestie, Kelly

with my future mother in law

with my future sister in law and my little sister

with my family

Kelly kicking off the karaoke, stone sober, that's a real best friend. She rocked it!

our first duet

it's not a party until there is a "Baby Got Back" performance

feeling the groove

really getting in to it now

We had such a good time and could not ask for better friends and family. Super thanks to Kelly, Sarah and the set up crew for all of their hard work. We love you!

Love, 

Malia E (and her pink haired karaoke singing alter-ego)

Need more? Check this out!

The Year We Did Everything

2012 is quickly shaping up to be the year where we do everything, all at once, no stopping, just keep on spiraling into adult hood and holy moly, I have never been more excited or STRESSED OUT!

Whatever little bird told us that we should get engaged, buy a house, plan a wedding, both work full time and take graduate classes at the same time was insane!

Well at least in my eyes. J is so easy going it almost stresses me out more just from pure envy of being so laid back. I'm so lucky to have him to ease my exhaustion and anxiety. So together we push on through with fingers crossed that we end the year with a new house and our dream wedding day in the works!

Wish us luck!

Love,
Malia E

He Proposed!

And I Said Yes!!! At least I said yes after I got over the shock! I can't believe he pulled it all off!

Jon and I met in college and were just friends for years. It wasn't until the last few months of undergrad at George Mason University that friendship turned to flirting and then it was months before flirting turned to texting, then came casual dating and eventually came the realization that we just didn't want to date anyone else. So, after 6 years of dating, 2 years of co-habitation, experience overcoming some of life's biggest hurdles and disappointments and countless memories of good times we are making it official.

The proposal was a total shock. Jon has been seen many times over looking at me and saying," I got you good chicken f*$%er!" And, I have to admit he certainly did.

After months of trying to get Jon to agree on a plan for his 30th Birthday, I finally put my foot down a week before and told him we were going to grab a keg two kegs, hit up Costco for bulk burgers and dogs,  send out a last minute E-vite  and call it a party. And a party it was!

Jon has great friends so there was a great turn out of fraternity brothers, high school friends and family and the party got off to a great start. My dad manned the grill and Jon and the guys guarded the kegs. We drank margaritas, played corn hole and caught up on gossip. We had so much fun that time flew by and so as many were getting ready to head out, I ran inside to grab the cake.

We sang, made fun of Jon for hitting his 'old man' 30's and then Jon told me he wanted to make a speech. I found this fitting as he is an 'entertainer' so I stepped out of the spotlight to let him bask in the glory of being the Birthday Boy.

And to my surprise the spotlight was flipped back on me....

You can't see much, but needless to say, I was completely shocked and of course, after the tears and shock subsided, I said, "Yes!"

Let's end with a close up.....

Ahhhh!!! So excited to be marrying my best friend!

Love,
Malia E