'Tis the end of the season.

If you know me at all, you are well aware of my love affair with those dates that fall between September 1st and December 31st. It really is in my most humble opinion the most wonderful time of the year.

You have back-to-school shopping, colors changing, and the glorious, glorious start to college football.

Beautiful, right?!

You also can start wearing all those thick sweaters, boots, pea coats, and scarves that oh so conveniently hide those extra pounds that you put on by consuming all those delicious apple pies, pumpkin breads, spiced ciders, and caramel corn.

Who needs a Yankee candle when you have fall baked goods?

And of course that means the celebration of the ever under-appreciated holiday of Halloween by visiting the corn maze, watching Hocus Pocus, and making the house look festive. 

I was particularly fond of the mini pumpkins on the candle sticks idea that I stole from Pottery Barn (at the Michael's and Trader Joe's price). Also notice the top left photo was taken prior to Hubs' band mates cleaning us out of candy.

After eating our way through November, the house quickly transitions into the winter season. Hubs has a theory that I decorated the house in dark neutrals, blues, golds, and burgundies so that it would always look like Christmas, but I just think it was a lucky chance ;-) 

Being surrounded by all of this beauty and love couldn't have come at a more necessary junction in our lives. The season, and all that it brought, provided so much comfort and solace during the emotional upheavals of this past month.

And so...

...it might be the end of a season, but hopefully a needed inspiration for a fresh January beginning.

Brunch with the bride.

This past November, bestie blessed me with a bridal shower! The theme was "Brunch with the Bride" and was put together in a palate of ivory, metallics, and blush to complement the fall season. It was a perfect excuse to eat all the carbs!

First of all, aren't the invitations precious! Once again, bestie and I tweaked wedding invitations into shower invites. Much classier and they come with an online template. Plus they were crazy on sale at Michael's! 

We used tons of my mom's old silver to serve on, plus some gems that she found at the Dollar Tree (to which she always reminds me that, "It's only a DOLLAR!". Silly Mom.) Not to mention there were all the donuts and bagels a girl could hope for. Have I mentioned that I haven't met a carbohydrate that I didn't like?

Look at the delicate antique lace and the sparkly potpourri that bestie also gave out as favors! I am also being won over by the beauty and effectiveness of bud vases over full arrangements. More bang for your buck!

 Look at that concentration! Unlike so many horrors of cheesy bridal showers past, bestie planned cute games that totally took advantage of my addiction to celebrity gossip websites.

  
In the end, brunch makes for a happy bride and bridesmaids...not to mention a happy kitty who gets to reap the rewards of leftover gift bags ;-)

Strike a pose.

This past spring, hubs-to-be and I had engagement photos taken by the wonderfully talented and extraordinarily sweet Kaela Lee at Kaela.Mey Photography. I cannot tell you enough about how professional this lady is and how tickled we were with the end product.

Neither hubs-to-be or I adore having our picture taken (I prefer to remain on the taking side), nor can anyone really argue that being photogenic is one of our strong suits. Therefore, having engagement photos taken was not high on the proverbial wedding priority list.

Looking back now, I am so happy we decided to have them done and so grateful that Kaela was able to make us feel totally at ease in the moment. Not only was it a great way for us to become acquainted with the photographer who would be working our wedding, but it also gave us great practice posing and being comfortable in front of the camera. I cannot be a bigger advocate now of having engagement photos done with your photographer before the wedding.

The end product were pictures that perfectly captured who we are and I am so excited for Kaela to be there on our wedding day. (I even used her to help capture bestie's bridal shower!)

And without further ado...

Summer Lovin'.

So this last August, the bestie got hitched and let me tell you it was one big, beautiful family affair! The ceremony got the whole bridal party choked up (including my own hubs-to-be who was a groomsman (-: ), the setting was divine, and we danced the night away to live music on the lawn. Just the way a summer garden wedding should be.

Now the pressure was on that day. Not only was the weather bi-polar, taking turns between 100 °F and torrential rain, but I STILL needed to finish my maid-of-honor toast AND I was doing bestie's makeup for the day. Phew. No problem. I got this. 

Photo by Me

Didn't she look like a gem?! (Mostly because she's gorgeous. But I think my makeup skills helped a little). 

And her something borrowed was a pearl bracelet that my momma had given me!

Photo by Heather Espana

As I had mentioned earlier in my post about bestie's bridal shower, the colors of the wedding were grey and yellow. The bridesmaids wore grey Bill Levkoff dresses and yellow wedges and the groomsmen wore yellow ties, grey suspenders and argyle socks. Cute, no?

Photo by Me

Photo by Heather Espana

Now speaking of that bridal shower, a lot of the pieces I put together were able to be reused at the wedding! Like those yellow chevron table runners that were my first sewing project EVER...

Photo by Heather Espana

...totally got rocked at the bridal party table.

And all those Izze bottles we saved...well I painstakingly de-gooed the labels and washed them out while bestie spray painted them white so that they could be reused as bud vases for arrangements of credpedia and Queen Anne's lace. 

Photo by Me

Photo by Heather Espana

Even the cupcake toppers were reused to decorate the dessert table and my adorable galvanized ice bucket found a second life.

Photo by Me

By the end of the day we were exhausted, but all totally filled with love.

I know, I'm such a cheese.

Photo by Me

 ***Please visit photographer Heather Espana's blog for more breathtaking and stunning pictures!