Saturday Shopping

Woo, it's the weekend! We had a date night last night because it is restaurant week in Pittsburgh and tonight we are headed out to dinner with some friends which will be fun! We are trying to do some organizing today and I might go out to a few antique shops to check out what's 'new'!

If you didn't know, J. McLaughlin is having a HUGE sale. I have never seen prices this low, it's crazy. I ended up ordering a few things for my fiancé (to give to him for Valentine's Day) and spent way less than I would have on one item at full price. I'm trying to hold off on buying clothing for myself because I do that way too often, but there are some realllllly good deals and beautiful things. You can always expect the highest quality from J.McLaughlin! This cashmere scarf is just $60 when you use code EXTRA40 at checkout (shipping is free, too). This faux fur leopard coat ends up just $138- it looks so much like the one I have and wear often! 

Home Interior Update

Love this piece SO much. 

I need a piece like this for under our TV except longer (the longer length is tough to come by, especially in vintage furniture!)

I love this image. Our bathroom is very white and I love the idea of adding in darker wood to warm up the space. 

Source: One// Two// Three// Four// Five

I thought it would be fun to chat interiors today! We have been in our home since April 2019 so we will be hitting a year in no time. I feel like we just moved in and now we have basically lived in it for all 4 seasons! 

I'll be honest, before I moved in, I envisioned myself having every inch of this place 'finished' by the year mark. The reality is that it is nowhere near that. There are so many 'projects' left on my to-do list. I'm not really disappointed, though, as I am more than OK with taking my time to assure I do things correctly and don't 'cheapen' out on something. 

I also find myself decorating in spurts. When we first moved in, I was gung-ho, then I started to travel a bit late spring and summer so I slowed a bit, then kicked it back up this fall and then basically didn't do anything during the holidays. Now I'm more focused on our upcoming wedding so decorating is still taking a back seat.

We did, however, just have our wallpaper installed (finally!!!) in our powder room which makes a huge difference!!

So here are the things we need to do... 

My two biggest priorities are to get two more pieces of furniture. One, we need a console of some sort for under our living room TV. I had a dresser under my TV in my apartment that worked out perfectly. I was tight on space and it was nice to have that extra dresser for my sweaters. Plus, it was perfect for the size of my apartment TV as well as the wall it was on. Said dresser is currently sitting under our living room TV in our home. For one, it's far too small for the wall it is on and our new TV. Second, it's very much a dresser and I'd like something more interesting (preferably an antique). Third, it truly still houses my sweaters!! I seriously have not found ONE single item that works for this space and I have been scouring antique places, online, etc. When I do find something perfect, it's usually not long enough for the space! So we'll s ee because I would really love a piece ASAP for storage purposes AND because we bought a beautiful frame TV and we haven't hung it yet because we are waiting for the piece before we hang it. 

- The second piece of furniture that I would really like to get is a china cabinet of some sort. I say 'of some sort' because I don't love the look of most traditional china cabinets. A lot are too farmhouse and then there are a lot of versions that just truly look cheap. Some traditional ones are in the wrong stain- I have been finding some beautiful antique ones but a lot of them are in the wrong stain. I mostly find them in cherry and that just doesn't work with anything in my home. I then found the Resplendent Crow and she has the look I am going for... she takes vintage, high-quality pieces and lacquers them! Normally, I'm not into painted wood, but I just love her work. I might snag one of her pieces, but I haven't committed to anything yet... the under-the-TV piece is just definitely more of a priority! 

- I need to order 2 upholstered parsons chairs (or something along those lines) as our head chairs at our dining room table. Right now we only have 4 chairs- I found my dream chairs on Facebook Marketplace and will likely never be able to find 2 more (although I keep an eye out!), so I'm mixing. This is just laziness on my part- these kinds of chairs are pretty inexpensive and easy to find. 

- I need to get the 4 dining chairs cushions redone. They are too low and I have fabric that is perfect for them! This is another lazy thing because I have the fabric, I just need to find somewhere to have this done! 

- We need to re-hang our basement TV. This is driving me INSANE. We hung it way too high and it's just been like that since we hung it. If it gets hung properly, our basement will really be shaping up. I haven't done this because I need my dad or fiancé to help with this and I just haven't been able to make it a priority! It's a cozy space but we never go down there because (see below)...

- I need to get rid of the junk that is down there in that room. We have a spacious garage with tons of storage space but instead, I've just been using the finished basement room as a catch-all for random stuff. I need to pack that all up (get rid of some stuff) and move it into the garage onto storage shelves. 

- We need to hide the cords from our bedroom TV. We are almost completely finished with the bedroom (although I'll forever be tweaking, let's be honest) but the cords drive me insane... again I need my dad or fiancé for help with this one so I just haven't gotten around to bugging them about it haha! 

- I need new light fixtures for our powder room and a new dining room chandelier (currently both are boring and unattractive builder-grade fixtures). I have not found anything that I love, and if I have, it's a lot more than what I want to spend. 

- A new lamp for the living room. I'd love a new lamp for our living room! The current one is fine, it's a nice chinoiserie style blue and white lamp. I actually love it but I think I could do better for the space! I haven't found one that I love more. 

- I want to find an indoor plant... I am not a huge greenery person. I love flowers but I do not have a green thumb!! I am honestly considering finding something like a fake fiddle leaf fig tree or something like that because I'm also concerned about a 'real' plant attracting bugs. We'll see- if anyone has any good faux plant recommendations, let me know!

- I want to layer the rug in our living room with a sisal rug and then get a matching rug for the dining area so the space flows. I don't mind the rug in our dining area so I just haven't gotten around to sorting out the rug situation. Also, the thought of moving all of the furniture to put the new rugs down is enough to keep this pushed down towards the bottom of the list, ha!

- I want to change out all of the interior doorknobs. They are boring builder grade. 

- Eventually- I want to grasscloth my office. I say eventually because this is truly the last thing on my list and it will be a bit before it moves up. But eventually!

A lot of you always ask me for decor pieces I am loving so I thought this post would be a great time to round up some items! 

Lately

Tweed Top// Leather Leggings

Suede Pumps// Gold Flower Earrings 

We are over halfway through the month of January! Wild! Did you all have a good week? I started mine off with a meeting at our wedding reception venue and I am SO excited... not that I wasn't before, but hammering everything down took a lot of stress/anxiety off of me and really there is very little left to do until our actual wedding day!!

Other than that, this week has been pretty 'normal'. Tomorrow at Orange Theory we have a 1-mile benchmark which I'm excited about! Then, tomorrow night we have a date night planned downtown which will be fun! Otherwise, this weekend I fully plan on playing catch up on some work that needs to get done as well as a few house items.

Wearing: I wore the outfit above out to dinner with friends this weekend. This Tweed Top is a favorite of mine and currently on sale. I suggest sizing down as it runs big. 

Eating: I tried the fruit buttons at Trader Joe's in both mango and strawberry mango and they were SO good. A nice sweet treat to have on hand. 

Drinking: I picked up this dirty martini mix at Fresh Market last week. It's literally just olive brine and for some reason, it tastes even better than the actual olive brine with olives. I definitely recommend this! 

Sale-ing: Club Monaco is still having an incredible sale. The prices are the lowest I have seen in a very long time. Love this cashmere v-neck and I truly can't believe the price on this coat (look at those buttons!!!)

Sale-ing II: This bone/white combo is one of my favorite pairs of Jack Rogers and I can't believe the under $60 price. Scoop these up while you can!!

Watching: I'm currently watching Cheer on Netflix and I love it. I was a cheerleader in middle school and high school so it's fun to know a lot about what they're talking about. 

Listening: I love my Winter 2020 playlist! It has some great upbeat and chill songs.

Wallpaper// Mirror 

Loving: We had our wallpaper installed this weekend and I love how it turned out!!! It completely transformed our boring little powder room! I'll do a full post about it once I take proper photos and get a new light fixture but this is just a little snap that I took once it was all finished on Saturday! I can't believe this little powder room took about 8 hours to complete... I am so glad we didn't try to do it ourselves. Crazy! 

Loving II: I am often asked about the diamond bracelet that I wear every single day and I came across an under $100 cz version that's a great budget option that gives you a very similar look.

Windmill 'ashtray'// Monogrammed Tissue Box

Loving II: You guys all loved this delft piece that you spied in one of my instastories this past weekend and I ended up finding the exact same piece on eBay. There's only one so act fast if you want to snag it. I keep mine in our bathroom as a jewelry catchall! 

Wanting: I love this nautical swimsuit that is under $100. I also love these beautiful gingham and leather gloves which are on sale! This floral dress is calling my name!! 

Pittsburgh-ing: This weekend we went to Cinderlands in Lawrenceville and we loved it. I'm totally late to the game as this has been opened for a while now but it did not disappoint. My burger was delicious but the fries stole the show. They were salt and vinegar fries which sounds a little weird but they were some of the best fries I have ever had! 

Quoting: 'Talk about your blessings more than you talk about your problems' // See more of my favorites, here. 

Wedding Wednesday: Update

Similar Jacket (another similar one)// Pants// Pumps

Goyard St. Louis Tote

We are almost to the wedding day... when I say almost, I still mean we have months to go but it is close! We have been engaged for 13 months and sometimes I feel like I've been planning our wedding forever and other times I'm like wait, didn't we just get engaged yesterday?!

I just had a meeting on Monday at our venue to nail things down and my dad snapped the photo above for me! The meeting made me feel even calmer and more relaxed. One of the things I'm happiest about is that I chose a venue that 'handles it all'!

Since we are getting so close, I thought I would do a sort of brain dump to bring you all up to speed and share my emotions/thoughts with you guys since I haven't really done much Wedding Wednesday stuff since before the holidays! 

Thankful

It is an overwhelming feeling to know that people are making all of these reservations and travels and effort to be there for us. It is a huge reminder of all of the wonderful people we have in our lives and how lucky we are. 

Non-Traditional

I would consider myself pretty traditional in a lot of aspects of life and even down to my personal style and home decor. On paper, our wedding will be pretty traditional- at a church, then at a private club, we'll have dinner and dancing, etc. etc. But I think what has surprised me in a big way throughout planning our wedding is how there are a lot of traditions that just don't suit me or me and my fiancé as a couple. I'm not going to name them or go into detail because I obviously wouldn't want to offend anyone! I have found that a lot of them feel antiquated. It's not the really 'big' traditions because, with a lot of the bigger traditions, I get that they are to honor the past and more of a symbol than anything else, but it's more of the minutiae or smaller traditions that I have found just aren't my vibe. This truly surprises me because, for the most part, I really like traditions! 

Lots of Work

Planning any event is a lot of work and I 100% knew that because it was literally my job at one point. However, I had no idea about all of the stuff we would have to do for our church ceremony- that was never anything I coordinated during my job so this was all new to me. I just wasn't expecting so many tasks and meetings and all of that! Just as a small example, we each had to take a 175 question quiz and that alone took a few hours for each of us. It was an insightful survey but it was time-consuming! The one nice thing about the church, though, is that you are not permitted to bring anything in from outside- so like flowers, etc. So this made the planning side of things easy since we aren't allowed to decorate or whatnot. This is not really a complaint, just an observation of something I was not expecting! I would guess this varies heavily from church to church and even more so religion to religion. 

To-Do

We don't really have too much left to do! It's a lot of little things (that likely didn't even make the list) and things you can't do until certain days and times. For example, I have my first dress fitting in February (I'll have at last 3 fittings) which is so fun and exciting!! I did a 'what we've done so far' post back in May and I am SO glad I did it because it is neat to look back on it and see how much more has been done! Here is what was left to do in May and I'll cross off what we have done since...

What needs to be done:

- Seating chart

- Dress fittings and alterations
- Rehearsal and shower dresses altered 

- Menu Tasting, Cake design/tasting

- Pre-Cana 

- Choosing Linens 

- A dress for MOH and a dress for MOB 

- Groom Tux (he has a tux but he wants to get something different/special for the wedding)

- Rehearsal dinner outfits for both myself and Andrew

- Invitations  

- Invitation verbiage to be edited/reviewed 

- Calligraphy (invites, escort card, etc.)

- Wedding paper (ie. church programs, escort cards, menu cards, thank you cards, etc.) Everything is picked out, just waiting to move forward. 

- Morning of wedding outfits for my mom, sister, and I

- Andrew's wedding band (we picked it out, we just haven't gotten it yet). 

- Honeymoon (we have started researching but haven't done anything in terms of actual planning- we probably won't book anything until around the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday)

- Registry list made public (we have registered at two places but haven't made the registries public just yet (too soon)

- Meet with florist to discuss what we want (scheduled but hasn't happened yet)

- Edit verbiage for church programs and discuss with priest/ music director

- Welcome bags for out of town guests 

- Gifts for MOH/BM and MOB/FOB, MOG/FOG, and ring bearer/flower girl

- Playlist for when the band takes breaks (they do this on their own, but instead we requested to make the playlists... I've started this but won't finalize until very close to our wedding day)

- Best Man needs to be asked (waiting for this to happen in person!!)

- Flower Girl/Ring Bearer Outfits picked out/ordered 

- Ask readers and ushers for the church (we have chosen who we want to ask but have to actually ask!)

- Decide on First Dance/ FOB dance/ MOG dance songs 

- Marriage License 

- Figure out what we are going to do with Henry (if anyone has any ideas, let us know! If we have to board him, we will, but we are trying to figure out something different because we prefer not to board him and we are also still trying to figure out a way to get Henry in some of our wedding photos so if he is boarded we wouldn't be able to do that). 

- Lots of little touches that I will leave out because this list is ridiculously long (and I want an element of surprise, ha!)

Hindsight

I've mentioned this before, but I originally envisioned a 12-month engagement as we got engaged in December and I thought we would have a December wedding. However, that didn't work out due to church/venue availability so we are having a longer engagement. I was a little annoyed with a longer engagement as 'over a year' sounded like sooooo far away, but in hindsight, I am SO happy the timeline worked out this way. I truly can't believe we have already been engaged for almost 13 months. We have had ample time to plan and it's all been very 'chill'. I have never once felt rushed to make a decision or anything of that nature.