wedding cake ideas

it has been quite the hassle searching for and finding the perfect wedding cake. marcos and i have been debating whether or not we want to have a cake. we were thinking to supplement the cake with some really cute and chic cupcakes. they're easier to eat and then people can take them home.

we found a few little cakes that we though would be cute and we had decided that we would get them. we then found the most gorgeous cake while working with our wedding planner at our venue. of course we had to call the cake creator and see how much the cake would cost and it was upwards of $400-$500 - i know that's not too bad for a wedding cake, but i just didn't expect to pay that much for a cake for 35 people.

so at this point, we have an appointment to sit down and meet with this lady tonight and i will bring her some of my ideas so that we can get the perfect cake, and still have it be gorgeous. here are some really broad ideas for wedding cakes.


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wedding photographer

marcos and i have been searching for a little while for a quality photographer for our wedding. we found a few that we might be interested in and started reaching out to them to find the best option for our needs.

while we were searching, we found an amazing and super talented photographer, emily lesher, and we fell in love with her style of photography. we were nervous that she might have already booked the date that we needed and if her prices would match with our budget.

we spoke with her this past week and we have actually signed a contract and put down our down payment! we are so thrilled that we are going to be able to work with someone who is so talented and so personable. after speaking with her on the phone, we both got a really good vibe from her and we're excited to meet her soon!

things are slowly falling into place for our wedding and we couldn't be more excited! visit her website here to see her wonderful work!

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table no.'s

as i was browsing for extra 'things' to put on our tables at our wedding reception and after looking at candles and votives and flowers and just stuff... i naturally came across pictures of weddings and was able to look at some of the decor that other people had used.

i forgot about the table numbers!!!

i couldn't believe it! and i found some really cute ones in adorable off-white standing frames. i did my research and looked high and low for the perfect frames and found that they are available at ikea. i found some that were used for about $2.50 each and then looked them up on the ikea website and found something that was super exciting!

these adorable little tolsby frames were available at ikea, right down the street from my home for a whopping $0.99/each!! i couldn't believe it! i ran into the bathroom and told my showering fiance that we HAD to go to ikea ASAP!!! so of course we did and i got some perfect little tolsby frames for a perfect little price! and i plan to use them like so...


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mexico

i have been away for the holidays for the past few weeks on vacation. i  first off want to thank everyone for all of their comments while i was away!! it was so fun to get back and read all of them!! but, i wanted to share a few pictures and stories from our recent cruise to mexico... enjoy!


marcos and myself were going to go on a cruise about a year ago... we ended up canceling the cruise and therefore had a $500 credit. when christmas started rolling around this year, we decided that it would be something fun that we could do. neither one of us had been on a cruise and we had the credit, so why not, right?

we scheduled our cruise and made it to long beach, ca on saturday december 18, 2011. when we got checked in and finally got to see the ship, it was amazing. it was so huge! i was a bit nervous to be out at sea, in the middle of nowhere... it was just a tiny bit scary. but we did it! and we had the greatest time!

this was the view outside of the deck where we ate lunch on the first day. it was so pretty and the water was so dark. it was scary to think that we were just out in the middle of the ocean on a ship and just to think of everything that was below us, was kind of creepy.

after 1 day at sea, our ship arrived in cabo. we went through the crazy process of getting off the boat and on to the tenders so that we could reach land. after walking may 1/4 of a mile, there was a little stand with some cute pictures of little baby lions. we knew exactly what was happening. as we walked closer we discovered that some people in mexico had purchased 2 little baby lions and were charging tourists to hold them. of course we had to do it.

these little baby lions were the cutest things... they made the funniest sounds, too. nothing like you would think a lion would make.. it was more of a squeal than a 'meow' or a 'roar'. it was funny. after holding him for a few minutes, he became agitated and he was set in the crib with his brother for the next group of people to hold him. it was really a fun experience.

the next stop we made was in puerto vallarta. when we got off the ship and walked just a few hundred feet, there was a man who had a baby donkey and was charging a small amount to hold the donkey. and of course i had to do it!! just look how cute she was. although her hair looks super rough and wire-y, she was incredibly soft and she was the sweetest thing! she was just plopped on my lap and sat there. she didn't move or fight at all. she was adorable!!

marcos played in the casino on the ship a few times. i lost my $10 and he played with $20 one of the first days on the ship. we later went back to the casino and he went in with $30 and came out with $150. i was pretty excited. :)

this is a short clip of some pictures i took outside of our balcony. the water was so gorgeous.

we had a really good time on the cruise. the only complaint that i would make is on the way back from puerto vallarta, we had 2 days at sea. by the second day at sea, we were so ready to get off of the ship... it was just really boring that last day. all we did was sleep and watch movies! ha. but i would definitely do a cruise again!

i hope that all of you had a lovely holiday season!

mini wreath holiday cards

i saw these cute cards on another blog a few weeks ago (and i actually posted about them here)... i wanted to do them so bad because i thought that they were super unique and really adorable. so last night, i went over to wal-mart and got the supplies with my fiance.

when we got home, we put some of them together and thought how cute they would be hanging around a bottle of wine for a cute christmas gift for friends and family. so... of course i had to share my cute little idea... and give you the link to those adorable baby christmas wreath cards!!

cruise for christmas

marcos and myself decided that we would go on a cruise, just the 2 of us, for christmas. we need to start packing so we can leave right after work on friday and drive to st george. we will stay with his family for a few hours and then head to california on saturday. i am super excited. i have never been on a cruise. i have never been to mexico.

i hope that all goes well and we love this cruise, because if so, we're thinking of a cruise for the honeymooooooon.

thank you for all of your awesome comments about the finals yesterday. i think it went decent. i'm not 100% thrilled with it, but i don't think it went 100% terrible, either.

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happy friday > happy weekend

have a fabulous day!

clothes for him >

marcos and i decided that we don't want him to wear a tux to our wedding. it's just 'not our style'. so we have been searching high and low for a super cute suit for him to wear that would fit our style and fit him well. we found this faded black suit from jcrew and thought that it would work well with our wedding colors.

we are headed out on a cruise in 8 days and we plan on taking some time in california to find a jcrew wedding and take a look at this suit. we are super excited!


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wedding favors

marcos and myself have decided what we want to do for our wedding favors. we were trying to think of something that wasn't ghetto and something that wasn't tacky and something that our guests could really use and enjoy.

we went searching online for the perfect favors that would fit our style because the last thing that we would want to give someone is a little bag full of m&m's. i would rather not give a favor than give something that wasn't 'us' and wasn't memorable.

so we came up with this idea. well - we found this idea. and i wanted to share!!


what favors did you give your guests at your wedding?

presenting > our wedding flowers

this weekend, marcos and myself sat down for to make a tough decision. after many hours of contemplating what would fit our style and how we would make it work with our venue... we decided on our wedding flowers.... the ones that made the cut are the ones that we now present to you as...

it's amazing how everything is really starting to fall into place.

wedding checklist:

1. dress - purchased
2. ring (mine) - purchased

3. ring (his) - found
4. venue - selected
5. suit (for him) - found
6. bridesmaids dress - found
7. flowers - found
8. caterer - looking
9. guest list - chosen
10. honeymoon - looking

11. invitations - (should be done)

12. colors - selected

13. hair style - selected

14. shoes - looking

15. cake - selected

16. wedding favors - selected

i'm sure i'm missing a few things... but they'll fall into place sooner or later! happy [late] monday!

the venue +

so yesterday, the fiance and i woke up and went on the search for the perfect venue for our wedding. seeing as though our wedding is going to be TINY, probably around 40 people in attendance, we wanted something that fit our needs. we went to a few places and found that they didn't really fit our style and wanted something more simple, yet elegant. also - there were a lot of places that wanted to charge us for a whole day when we only will need to venue for about 3-4 hours, maximum.

we had made an appointment to go see the sleepy ridge golf course and their amazing venue and we were so thrilled that it was more of what we were looking for. they don't have the greatest pictures on their website, but there are some gorgeous videos of some other weddings that took place there, and i just had to share. enjoy!

password is: McClain (case sensitive) 

Renae {+} Kenny // Sleepy Ridge Highlights from Chris McClain Productions on Vimeo.

// wedding dress \\

so i got my wedding dress last night... i didn't think that i would find the absolute perfect one on my first night of trying on dresses, but i did. and i am so in love with it. it's so simple and perfect and just my style. more pictures to come. ♥

wedding ideas

my fiance and i decided this past weekend, that we didn't want to elope anymore. we want to have very, very small wedding. just for our immediate family. so, we started looking for some cute wedding ideas and i ran across this wedding from 'style me pretty' and completely fell in love. i love the colors, i love how simple and small it looks. of course, ours would be up a scale, being able to accommodate about 40 people.

we are very excited and are starting to plan for sometime this spring! our date will be decided soon! tomorrow i will show you what we found for our center pieces... just you wait!

+++ new things

about 2 weeks ago, marcos and myself invested in a brand new, gorgeous kitchen table. we had been wanting one for a long time because our kitchen had been occupied by a treadmill for far too long. it was just about time...

we went searching for the perfect kitchen table and found a few used online, but they were asking [what we thought] was quite a bit for something used. we ended up going to oak express one weekend, just to look and see what we could find.. we weren't sure that we would find one that is our style and if we did, we were scared that the cost would be over our budget.

we fell in love with a square counter height table. it can fit 8 people when the leaf is in use. we had to have it. so we bought it. 

since then, we decided that we need something on the table, too. it cannot just sit there and not have decorations. this was really the first time that we got to decorate anything in our home. we have kittens and we didn't want to risk them ruining our decorations, so we've only ever bought pictures and things that were tall enough to keep out of their reach.

but - we are going for the 'rustic' kitchen look. if you have any ideas or suggestions, they're welcome!


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halloween costumes

ever since we first saw "Up" in theatres, we thought that marcos looked just like little russell. so when halloween came around, of course, we had to dress him up like him. 
we didn't decide until the night before last friday that we were going to dress him up for our work party, but i think that it turned out pretty good. take a look!

My Ring...

so, as promised, i have put a picture of me and my ring. it's gorgeous. you can't tell from this picture but it is a circle cut diamond atop a circle halo, atop a cushion halo.

i am in love with this ring. it's sooooo gorgeous. but i have some sad news.

the reason that i do not have a magnificent picture of this ring, is because...

my boyfriend got the ring a few weeks ago, and to keep me from finding it in our home, he kept it at his brother's house. while his brother was wearing it (ha) he noticed that there was a tiny little stone missing on the profile of the ring...

at this point it was too late to send it back and have the jeweler fix it as marcos wouldn't have gotten it back in time for his planned proposal. so he proposed and told me that eventually we would want to have it fixed.

i didn't want to have a piece missing and it tore at my brain knowing that there was something missing. so on tuesday evening, after only 3 days of having the ring, i parted with it. the jeweler is fixing it as we speak and i am going to be able to go pick it up tomorrow!!!

i will have more pictures then!! but you can kind of get the idea here... ps - sorry about the crazy hair and tired eyes. it was late!

So... uhmmm...

i got engaged this weekend... ya know. no big deal ;)

pictures to come!

looking forward to school . . .

wednesday marks the day that this fabulous bag is going to show up in the fossil store at the fashion place mall in salt lake city, utah. wednesday marks the day that my boyfriend gets to run up to that mall and pick it up so he has a bag to carry his laptop and books in to school. wednesday marks a very important and exciting day.

i just absolutely love this messenger bag. it's super chic and it looks super good on him, too. i am really excited for him to get his hands on this bag. he has been dying for a messenger bag for quite some time now and he has saved his allowance and has decided that he must do it.+++

Happy 4th!

this post is going to be about 3 posts rolled all into one. it's going to cover the fun things that marcos and myself did this weekend and some exciting news that i want to share with you!! to get started, we're going to give your our amazing red raspberry and strawberry jam recipe. enjoy!!

ingredients:

3 cups crushed raspberries/strawberries
5 1/4 cups sugar
1 box fruit pectin
3/4 cup water

instructions:
1. Crush your raspberries and strawberries using a potato masher.
2. Add sugar to the berries. Set aside.
3. Stir fruit pectin and water in pot. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil high rolling boil for 1 minute.
4. Stir berry mixture into pectin mixture. Boil high rolling boil for 5 minutes exactly.
5. Take jam off heat and ladle jam into jelly jars. Let set for 24 hours before serving.

Enjoy!!





marcos is what i like to call a 'halfsie'. he is half mexican and half  caucasian. now this little guy loves mexican food. he loves street meat, pozole, corn tortillas with every meal... etc. now me, coming from a family that considers cheese enchiladas a mexican dish, i had a very limited knowledge of some of the more 'exotic' mexican dishes. but one place that i used to visit frequently when i was a child was casa bonita. they make the worlds best sopapillas. when i tried to explain what they were to marcos, he had no idea. so i decided that it would be fun to just make some and show him to see if it recalls any memories. so, below you will find marcos making some sopapillas.


>>> recipe

and now for the big [yet tiny] surprise.......

as you all know, marcos and myself introduced a new kitty into our home named suchi last week. we found him online and completely fell in love with him. we knew we had to have him. so we brought him home and we noticed that he was getting kind of lonely. at his young age he needed a playmate to keep him company while we were at work as we work everyday from 10-7... he wasn't getting proper attention.

so we contacted the breeder that we got suchi from and asked if she still had his little sister. luckily for us [and for suchi], she was still there. so we got in our car and found our way back up in salt lake to get yet another cute, adorable perfect kitten.

now - we thought long and hard about what we should name her but we thought that the cutest option would be to rename suchi to sushi and name our female kitten saki. we love them. and their names are kind of fun!









well, i hope that you enjoyed this super long post! i'll be back tomorrow with some more exciting news about allister bee in the blogging world. i wish everyone a very happy 4th of july. be safe tonight and have tons of fun!!


ps. today is our 27th month anniversary!! i am the luckiest girl alive!! i love you marcos!!!!