A Memory Of Us

Today I am wrapping up the wedding posts for the month with a post all about engagement pictures! I was on the fence about taking engagement pictures when we got engaged as I just was not sure we really needed them. However I am SO glad we have them! It's nice to have some casual pictures of Tyler and I that were not taken on an iPhone and it gave us a chance to get to know our photographer, Tina Norman of In His Image Weddings, better. If you would like to see more of our engagement pictures, head here!

In today's post, I am going to be talking all about what to wear for your pictures. Tyler and I only did two outfits, but I have some friends who did three. Our photographer did not put restrictions on our number of outfit changes, but some may so make sure you look at that when you are planning what to wear! Additionally, you will want to make sure you include the time it will take for you to change when making your schedule for the day of pictures. The last thing you want is to run out of time for actual pictures because you spent too much time changing and touching up your makeup or hair!

Outfit Number One: Getting Fancy

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Engagement pictures are a great excuse to dress up and take pictures. I think it's important for at least one of your outfits to be more on the fancier side. However, how fancy you go should depend on you as a couple. If you typically wear cocktail dresses and your guy sports a suit frequently, that would make sense for your pictures. Or maybe you aren't a dress fan, and dressed up to you means a pair of nice slacks and a blouse. Whatever your style may be, try to choose one fancier outfit. Tyler and I opted for khakis and a button down for him and a nice shift dress for me. It was fancier, but still felt like us.

When choosing your outfits, stay in the same color family. Tyler and I both have blue eyes, so whenever we wear blue it makes our eyes pop. It made choosing a color scheme for this outfit pretty easy haha! Pick a color you feel comfortable in, but also something that coordinates with what your fiance is wearing. You should look like your are paired together. Make sure you pick comfortable clothing as you will most likely be walking around, sitting down, standing up, etc. I would also recommend staying away from anything too trendy for your engagement pictures. This is just a personal preference, but I wanted our pictures to have a classic feel and I did not want to date them by wearing anything too trendy.

For You: Shift dress, fit and flare dress, midi skirt and a blouse, dress pants and a blouse, etc.

For Him: Khakis and a button down, a suit, dress pants and a sport coat, etc.

*Add your style to your outfit through accessories. Think jewelry for you and suspenders, a vest, a tie, cuff links, etc. for him!

Outfit Number Two: Keep it casual

If you dress up in your first look, I think your second outfit should be casual. Like I mentioned above, I love having nicer pictures of Tyler and I that weren't taken on an iPhone. What you wear here will depend on the time of year you take your pictures, as it wouldn't really make sense to be in jeans, a sweater, and boots in the middle of July! (If you can smile through the heat in that more power to ya haha.) Tyler and I took our engagement pictures in September so it was the start of fall, which made it perfect weather for jeans,flannels, and boots!

For these pictures, we stated with Tyler's outfit and chose the flannel he would wear first. This way, I could choose a top that matched one of the colors in his shirt. Fun fact, I was actually supposed to wear a different top for these pictures but got something on it while I was packing it to leave for pictures so I had to choose something random before we left haha! I personally really like how it looks for one person to be in a patterned top and the other person to choose a top that matches a color in it. I think they look really nicely together. The pattern adds visual interest, and as long as the other person is in something plain it won't make the pictures too busy.

For You: Jeans and a plain top, a casual dress, sun dress, etc.

For Him: Jeans and a flannel, shorts and a polo, jeans a plain shirt, etc.

*Play with color here and accessorize for the season!

Outfit Number Three: Make it personal

Tyler and I did not take any pictures in a third outfit as we just did not see the need. However, I do know quite a few people who have taken three outfits! You could easily do one more casual outfit or one more fancy outfit. Just switch up the colors and picture location so that the outfit change makes sense. I personally have seen many people do a third outfit in something more personal to them. For example, if you are taking pictures on your college campus where you met, both wear a college t-shirt. Or, if you are huge fan of a sports team and they are a big part of your life and relationship, wear a shirt for your team. One of my best friends is an Oklahoma fan and her husband is a Nebraska fan so they took pictures in their respective shirts and they turned out so cute! A girl I work with and her fiance bought a house right before their engagement pictures and ended up taking some in their new house which was such a fun idea! I think it's important for your engagement pictures to reflect your relationship, and this third outfit is a great way to show who are you are as a couple.

I hope this post helped you choose an outfit for your engagement pictures or just couple pictures. I really love our engagement pictures and keep telling Tyler that I want to book a session with our photographer again just to take some more pictures even though we don't have any special occasion haha!

I hope you all have a great day!
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our wedding - Wednesday, April 27, 2016

what to wear for your engagement photos

Today I am wrapping up the wedding posts for the month with a post all about engagement pictures! I was on the fence about taking engag...

what to look for when choosing an all-inclusive resort | how to choose an all-inclusive resort | all inclusive resort | how to choose an all inclusive resort for your honeymoon | how to pick a resort for your honeymoon | a memory of us | honeymoon planning tips

In keeping with the wedding theme this month, today's post is all about planning your honeymoon! (One of the best parts of planning, in my opinion haha.) Tyler and I went to the Dominican Republic for our honeymoon. You can read all about our trip here and watch our Dominican Republic travel diary here.

We chose an all-inclusive resort for our honeymoon. This was actually our second time to an all-inclusive resort. We had previously gone to Mexico with some friends. It is easy to get overwhelmed when looking at resorts because they all look amazing. Below are some of my tips that I share with any friends or family when they ask how to choose an all-inclusive resort. Your honeymoon (or any vacation, really) should be perfect, and hopefully you will love your resort if you follow these tips!

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1. Use TripAdvisor: I use TripAdvisor pretty much for every vacation. It helps pick a hotel, tourist activities, restaurants, and more. (We used this frequently for choosing restaurants during our recent trip to the Cayman Islands.) I think the most important thing to use TripAdvisor for is to see pictures of the resort. Hotel and other travel websites are using the best photos possible. There normally isn't anyone in them, they are very staged, they only show the good. I love looking at TripAdvisor's traveler photo section for a resort. It shows you pictures that other guests have taken there, so you can get a real idea of what the resort and grounds look like. Reviews of the resort are also helpful, however I suggest you take them with a grain of salt. Some of the complaints I have read about a resort before on there seemed very trivial to me. However, if I notice more than 2 negative reviews on the first page (which is the most recent reviews) it definitely gets my attention and makes me want to investigate it further.

how to choose a resort for your honeymoon

2. How many restaurants does your resort have? This is an important thing to look at, especially if your trip is longer. Some resorts we looked at only had three restaurants, so we immediately tossed them out of the running. This could potentially work if you were only going for three nights or something, but you would definitely be bored and ready for something new if you were staying longer. Typically, one of those restaurants is a buffet that is open for breakfast and lunch, so really that leaves you with two choices for dinner. I would recommend choosing a resort that has enough variety so that you don't have to repeat a restaurant for dinner ever. (Or if you do have to repeat, hopefully it's only one night!) If you head to a resort's website, they will typically list out all of their restaurants so you can see the variety. If you are looking on Southwest Vacations, Cheap Caribbean, etc. they normally only say something like 4 restaurants, so make sure you head to the resort's website to confirm.

3. What is the night life like? This is something we learned after our trip to Mexico. We loved our resort, but it only had the lobby bar open each night. The resort itself actually had something like 3 or 4 bars, but one of them was a swim up bar, so it was closed at night, another one was outside of a different pool so it was also closed at night, etc. (They did have other activities going on, but for the most part there was only one area to hang out.) We definitely paid more attention to this when booking our honeymoon. I would look into the resort to see what their entertainment is like in the evenings, outside of the bar scene. For our honeymoon, our resort had a casino, a fire show on the beach one night, live music by the pool, a different music/dance show each night in a auditorium, as well as a sports bar and dance bar! We were definitely entertained each and every night.

what to look for when choosing an all inclusive resort | tips for picking a resort for your honeymoon

4. How far away is the airport from your resort? Once you get to the airport, you will have to take a shuttle of some kind from the airport to your resort. Tyler and I always look at how far away the resort is from the airport, because once we land we just want to be there and on the beach. Typically traveling to a tropical destination is a long day of travel because you fly out so early. Then you have to go through customs, get your baggage, etc. Some resorts are only about a 20 minute drive from the airport whereas others are more than an hour. Another thing to consider here is private transportation or shared transportation. Each time Tyler and I have been to the Caribbean, we have done shared transportation but paid to be the first drop off. This means we are in a van with other people, but our resort is the first stop from the airport and the last stop on the way to the airport. If you don't do this, even if your resort is only 30 minutes from the airport, you could be in the shuttle longer because you are dropping other people off on the way. If you really love a resort and it's far away, just make sure you plan to spend the time in the car. If Tyler and I are in between two resorts and everything else about them is the same, we will pick the one with the least amount of time in the car once we land.

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5. Kids versus Adult Only: Both of the times we have been to the area we went to a "kids welcomed" resort (for lack of a better term). We had looked at a couple adults only resorts, but ultimately liked the grounds, the pools, etc. of the ones that didn't have any restrictions more than the adults only resorts. Neither time have the kids bothered us, so it's never been an issue for us. However, if you are a teacher and work with kids every day you may welcome the break and really love the adults only atmosphere. I can't really speak to this because I have never been to one, but if you want to ensure there are no children around, or bring your family, you will want to choose a resort accordingly.

Those are my top five things to consider when choosing an all inclusive resort! After reading this, I am definitely thinking I may need a beach vacation before the year is over haha. One other thing is that Mexico is typically cheaper than the other beach destinations you may be considering. If you are trying to do a honeymoon on a budget I would start looking there first!

Have a great start to your week!

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our wedding - Monday, April 18, 2016

how to choose an all inclusive resort for your honeymoon

In keeping with the wedding theme this month, today's post is all about planning your honeymoon! (One of the best parts of planning...

our wedding - Monday, April 11, 2016

our one year wedding anniversary

One year ago today, Tyler and I were married! It was truly the happiest day of my life. Married life has been amazing. There is no one else...

Thank you to Nebraska Furniture Mart for sponsoring this post!

top 10 items to include on your wedding registry | a memory of us | tips for creating your wedding registry | what to include on your wedding registry

It's hard to believe, but Tyler and I are quickly approaching our one year wedding anniversary. The next few Monday posts are going to be about wedding planning. Today's post is all about what to put on your wedding registry. I wrote a post about our process of registering last year. You can read it here. The focus of today's post is going to be all about the top 10 items to put on your wedding registry. My post is composed of the 5 items I am so glad we registered for and 5 items I wish we had registered for!

should i register for a kitchenaid mixer

The Top 5 Items I am Glad We Registered For:

1. Kitchen Aid Mixer: A staple for wedding registries, but honestly we use it all the time. I had a friend who asked if we ever used ours, since they are a pricey piece to include on your registry. The answer? Yes! We use it all the time for baking, shredding meat (my favorite use for it), mixing dips, etc. I would say we probably use it at least once a week. I would definitely make sure you register for this if you enjoy baking or cooking. If you use yours for something unique that I didn't list here, please leave a comment! I would love to learn more ways to use mine.

2. Luggage: Another item that I think is quite common for wedding registries is a nice set of luggage. Tyler and I registered for a matching carry-on bag and checked bag. It is nice to have new, good quality luggage. Between traveling for leisure, traveling for work, and just going home to visit family on the weekend, we get so much use out of our luggage! We only registered for one set, but if you don't have any nice luggage at all I would recommend adding one set for each of you on to your registry.

3. Fan Zone Goodies: As you all know by now, Tyler and I are huge Royals fans. Tyler added a few Royals items to our registry. This is such a fun item to put on your registry, as I personally believe your registry should reflect who you are as a couple. For our wedding we received a Royals blanket and a photograph of Kauffman Stadium during the World Series. Other fun options you could add to support your team are a clock, art work, or tailgating gear. Tyler wasn't as interested in registering as I was, so if your guy is the same way, letting them choose some items for their man cave may be a way to get them excited about the process!

4. Coffee Maker: One of the items off our registry that we use all the time is our coffee maker. Tyler and I registered for a traditional coffee maker, as we drink too much coffee for a Keurig. We would go through so many pods in a weekend! This is our first nice coffee maker and we love it. It has a timer so we can set it to automatically start in the morning and it brews quickly. Honestly, this is probably the most used item we registered for haha.

5. Knife Block: Before we were married, Tyler and I were using a hand-me-down knife block. It worked fine, but the knives were starting to show their age. Sometimes it's just nice to get an upgrade for an item you use constantly!

The Top 5 Items I Wish We Registered For:

1. Holiday Décor: This doesn't really fit with the time of year we got married, but if you are getting married anytime around the holiday season, I think it would be so nice to register for holiday décor! Wouldn't it be so cute to have a bridal shower that is all Christmas themed and everyone brought a Christmas decoration or Christmas ornament? With how early stores put out items for the holidays, if you got married anytime after October 1st, I feel like you could take advantage of this. I personally always try to buy a "fun item" off the registry, so if I saw something like this included I would buy it. One of our favorite gifts we received was a nativity set. It was so fun to unpack it this year and use it for our first Christmas as a married couple. We also used some of our gift cards from our wedding to buy some holiday plates! (The above picture is from a holiday event I attended at Nebraska Furniture Mart.)

2. Air Mattress: An air mattress is something that would be SO useful to have. Since we are from Nebraska, but live in KC, we have quite a few friends and family who come to visit and stay with us. We currently only have one guest room, so it would be handy to have the air mattress for when more than 2 people are visiting! Honestly, I feel like Tyler and I talked about registering for one, so I'm not sure how we left it off the list. If you tend to have visitors, or go visit other people frequently, I imagine you'd get quite a bit of use out of this item!

3. Patio Furniture/Accessories: We didn't think to register for anything for our patio, but we did use some of our gift cards to purchase some after the wedding. Items like an umbrella stand, an umbrella, new chair cushions, or even some outdoor storage would all make a great wedding gift for anyone who enjoys spending time outside. If you enjoy grilling, don't forget a nice grill cover! One of Tyler's favorite gifts I bought him while we were dating was a tailgate grill. These are another nice thing to have as they are perfect for transporting to sporting events, camping, etc.

4. Home Décor: This is something we really couldn't register for, since we were in a rental at the time of our wedding. We didn't know what our future home would look like! However, if you have already bought your house or know the design you're going for, your wedding registry is a great place to register for some lamps, a mirror, wall décor, vases, etc. Those types of pieces can get quite pricey once you start decorating a room (let alone an entire house)! We did register for a few items that would fit no matter where we ended up, like table lights. If you're already in your home, pick out the lights you want on your night stands, or the artwork you want to hang above your fireplace. (If you're worried about items getting pricey, you can always use your gift cards or cash to purchase these items. However, most stores offer a discount off the items that don't get purchased on your registry. This is usually 10%, but it varies by store. For that reason, it's worth it to put some pricier items on your registry since you can get a discount on them after your wedding date!)

5. Vacuum: I imagine this is not a common item for a registry, but it would be so nice to have a fancy vacuum! The one we have now is fine, but it gets too hot and dies quickly. Then we have to wait for it to cool off before we can turn it back on. It is such a pain! I would love to have something nicer, and more reliable, like a Dyson or Shark. This is an item that I personally would not have expected to receive as a wedding gift, but it would have been great to use the store discount on the item after the wedding was over. (Some stores may have exclusions on brands you can use the post-wedding discount on, so make sure you read the policy so you aren't disappointed at check out!)

If I could add anything else to this list, it would definitely be storage or organization equipment. We registered for quite a few baskets, bins, tupperware, etc. and they are all so handy to have!

I think the key is to take a look at what you need and then also consider your interests. If you are looking for a good store to register at, definitely check out Nebraska Furniture Mart! You can select items from all of the above listings, and more, for your registry through them! They will have you covered as you are picking out what you need in your new life together.

If you don't need anything for the home, another great option is to register for things for your honeymoon. I have seen some people who's registry is all for their honeymoon and wedding guests can pay for excursions, spa treatment, etc. There are so many options so get creative!

Of course this is just a short list, so if you have some items that you recommend please leave them in the comments!

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our wedding - Monday, April 04, 2016

top 10 items to put on your wedding registry

Thank you to Nebraska Furniture Mart for sponsoring this post! It's hard to believe, but Tyler and I are quickly approaching our o...

our wedding - Wednesday, December 23, 2015

our christmas card

|| Married Christmas Cards | Wedding photography by IHI || Happy Holidays! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with those who ...

Hi, everyone! I'm back with another wedding post today! Tyler and I have been married now for four months, woohoo! For Today's post, I am sharing with you all the 5 pictures I wish we had! (If you want to see the pictures I've shared on my blog already, click here or here.)

I am going to start this post off by saying I absolutely LOVED our photographer. We used Tina Norman of IHI Weddings. I would recommend her to anyone, whether you live in the area or not! I could not say one bad thing about her. One thing I loved about her, was that she let Tyler and I come up with a shot list for the day. She stuck to it perfectly! Everything we asked for, she provided and more! These are the things that now looking back, I wish we had added to the list!

1. Picture with both of our parents: Tyler and I had pictures taken with each of our parents. We have a picture of the both of us with my parents and a picture of both us with his parents. What we don't have is a picture of all of us in one picture.

2. Picture with both our siblings: Same situation here. We have pictures with my brother and sister and then another picture with his brother. I wish there was one of five of us in one picture!

3. Picture of me and my sorority sisters: This was actually written down on sheet of requested pictures. However, I did not set aside time for this picture. We were all on the dance floor together and I just asked our photographer to snap a quick picture. Unfortunately, a random couple jumped right in the middle of the picture. I'm sure they did not know it was even supposed to be a sorority picture. After all, why would they!? The even worse news is that now they have broken up and so I feel too awkward to even share the picture! I have other pictures with my sorority sisters, but an iPhone picture with red eyes just isn't the same quality as a professional picture! So, if you are like me and have a group you want a picture with like this, learn from me and just set aside time for it! We could have easily asked the band to call all my sisters and I to the dance floor for a quick picture to completely avoid this problem.

4. Picture of our ceremony pianist: I don't know why, but this was just not something we ever thought of! We have pictures of our readers, greeters, Tyler's cousins handing out programs, etc. Why I didn't include the musician in that list I have NO idea! I think it would have been a nice addition to our collection of ceremony photos.

5. Picture of our notes: Tyler and I wrote each other notes for our wedding. We took all our pictures before the ceremony and exchanged notes before we went our separate ways before the ceremony began. I wish we would have pictures of us giving each other or notes, or a picture of us reading them, or something along the lines. They are featured in our wedding video, though! (Which is what made me wish we had pictures, too!)

Anything else you wish you could add here?

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our wedding - Wednesday, August 12, 2015

wedding pictures | favorites and lessons learned

Hi, everyone! I'm back with another wedding post today! Tyler and I have been married now for four months, woohoo! For Today's pos...

Tyler and I got married almost three months ago! (How has the time gone so fast!?) Today, I wanted to share with you all some of my tips to save money on the wedding of your dreams! I looked at Pinterest all the time before we got married for ways we could save and everything was SO unrealistic. I kept reading things that were like "Have your wedding in your uncle's friend's neighbors backyard" or "Have a morning ceremony and serve brunch instead". Both great ideas, but incredibly unrealistic for the wedding we wanted to have. Below are some ways we saved money on our wedding!

P.S. a girl I work with tried to guess how much our wedding cost after looking through our pictures (here and here) and guessed over $15,000 more than we actually spent!

1. Ask For Discounts: Seems simple enough, but you wouldn't believe the amount of people I have talked to who don't think it is okay to ask for money off a price! If there is a vendor you want to work with, but is above your budget just be honest. If after looking through a vendor's website you see that they are $200 over your budget, but love them, see if they can work with you. As long as it is not an insulting amount lower, I think you will find most vendors are willing to work with you. They would rather have your business than no business at all! If not, then you just need to decide if they are worth the extra money or not. We negotiated the cost of each of our vendors except for the church, ballroom, and food. I would just make sure you are up front about it. Don't drag them along... you wouldn't like it and neither would they!

2. Buffet vs. Plated Dinner: Any wedding I went to before my own that had a plated dinner, I assumed cost a lot of money! Now, I am sure it depends on your caterer, but every caterer we looked at it was cheaper to have a plated dinner versus a buffet. (Even with the cost of staff!) I asked one of the caterers about it and they said it was because they control portions with a plated dinner, but not with a buffet. I had always written off a plated dinner but one caterer suggested it. I am so glad they did because it opened up a lot of savings! If this is not the case with your caterer, I would just use this as advice to always look into your options... you might be surprised!

3. Eliminate Floral Center Pieces: This will depend on your tastes, but for me, an easy way to save $1,000 was to not have floral centerpieces. If you look back at our pictures, you will notice we had cupcakes for our centerpieces at every table except for the head table. I love flowers, but since I am not a huge flower person it was an easy thing for me to cut. Think about it... how many weddings have you been to that you remember the center pieces? I remember one (Hi, Kelsey!). They are beautiful, but once the lights go down and the dancing starts they won't be seen anymore. Again, this is to taste. So if flowers and centerpieces are really important to you, think about something else you don't really care for and apply the same concept.

4. DIY Paper Goods: Pretty much every post I read suggested to DIY something at your wedding. (Like centerpieces, dessert, etc.) We made our own paper goods. If you go search for wedding programs on Etsy you will see prices around $50! (This is typically for the design but then you still have to print them!) Tyler has a graphic design background so he made our own programs for a total price of $11 (papers and printing) as well as our own invitations. It cost more money to mail our invitations than it did to design and print them! They turned out great, and I am glad it was one way we could save money!

5. Consider a Longer Timeline: Tyler and I were engaged for a year and half. While by the end I was more than ready to be married, the long timeline gave us plenty of time to plan. In turn, this gave us enough time to compare prices of vendors. If you are on a shorter timeline, the vendor you want who is in your price range might be booked already... which may make you have to book someone over budget! Or, it may only give you the time to meet with only one florist (as opposed to three) so you go with their price without being able to compare prices. Of course, you can do this if you have a shorter timeline, but after talking to my other friends they all said a shorter timeline put some restrictions on their options of vendors and prices!

As I said throughout this post, this is from my experience. We all don't have the same tastes, it would be weird if we did! So, if you love flowers and want a 5 month engagement... go for it! These are just some of the ways we saved money. My hope is that even if you don't agree with all of these things, it will have opened your eyes into ways you can save money through your planning. If you have other tips leave them in the comments and, of course, feel free to email me with any questions!

(And if you are still reading at this point give yourself a pat on the back because that was a crazy long post haha!)

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our wedding - Wednesday, July 08, 2015