Wedding Reminiscing: Top 10 Things I Loved about Our Wedding

It's almost our THREE year Anniversary.

Yes, I'm well aware that this blog should be called "Newlyweds Next Door No More" or something, but I still feel like a Newlywed and I like my blog, so it stays as-is. My blog = my rules.

Since I've been thinking about our wedding, I though it would be fun to remember the top things I loved about our wedding


1. The guy I married
Duh. What kind of wife would I be if I didn't say that? But really, he is the best. I though that then and I think that now.

2. Our Ceremony

I loved the entire ceremony. It really was the most important part of the whole wedding. I loved the readings, the music, the Pastor, the message, our attendants, the view, the sand ceremony, and the San Diego summer air. Our vows was one of the best moments of my life.

3. Our Faith and Our Families
I love how we focused on our Christian faith in our ceremony. And I loved how our families played an integral part in the ceremony with readings and songs, and in the reception with hosting and toasting.



4. Our Friends
Never again in our lives will so many of our friends from childhood, schools, work, church, and beyond be in one place (except our funerals... how sad is that?). So many people traveled from afar to be there for us, which meant the world to us.




5. Having a Turquoise and Tangerine Wedding
When we chose these colors as our wedding colors, I quickly found out that they are not common. But I loved having a tangerine and turquoise beachy wedding. It reminded me of a sunset hitting the ocean. To add the perfect amount of "beach-chic" we decided to accent with pencil starfish and sand dollars.

This was my turquoise and tangerine wedding inspiration board...


And this is our REAL turquoise and tangerine wedding collage.

Not bad, huh?!


6. My Dress

I LOVE that dress. Still. Period.

7. The Band and Dancing the Night Away
I wanted a dance party and I got a dance party. The Ultratones rocked and I literally danced until the last song at 1:00 AM. I wasn't about to leave that party early.



8. The UpLighting in the Ballroom
I know this is a random thing to love. But just $400 turned an ordinary ballroom into a spectacular tangerine and turquoise paradise. The uplighting was the most ambiance-changing decor item we did.



9. The flowers
Our florist did a fantastic job on our wedding flowers without breaking the budget! My bouquet and the bridesmaids bouquets were made with ivory/tangerine roses, ranunculus, and gerbera daisies and was garnished with beautiful turquoise beads. But our ceremony flowers were my favorite! I loved the rose garland with starfish that got we married under.

10. My DIY Projects
I unleashed my creative juices (and saved a ton of money) by doing a bunch of DIY projects for the wedding. It was so much fun and it really added a special touch to the ceremony and reception. My three favorite DIY projects were the starfish escort cards, the sand dollar charity favors, and the ceremony programs.

I also did ceremony signs, reception signs, reception table names, menus, out of town gift buckets with a letter, thank you cards, a card box, and photo collages for the entrance to the ballroom. Just message me if you want any of my templates!

Two Year Anniversary

Two years ago today I married the love of my life.



And on that amazing day we pledged to love, cherish, and honor each other for the rest of our lives.



This weekend we celebrated us.

Two years of married "us."

We celebrated by taking a little stay-cation in Santa Monica.

We had a hotel room with a gorgeous view!


We went out to dinner at an amazing french restaurant called Melisse. It was some of the best food I've ever had in my life - lobster, beef, chocolate souffle, pinot nior and so so much more. Our eight-course meal lasted over four hours!

The place was so nice that I felt weird taking pictures there, but I did manage to get a picture of us at the hotel before we went to the restaurant.


Then when we got back home yesterday we exchanged cards and gifts.

We both made each other home-made cards.


And since it's our "cotton" anniversary we both centered our gifts around cotton.

I got the Mr. a tempurpedic pillow. He was so happy!



And he got me an apron that I've been wanting from Flirty Aprons.

I love that it's my favorite color.


I feel so blessed that I could spend another wonderful anniversary with my amazing husband. Here's to many more!

Our Home: Home Office Slash Guest Room

Welcome to our beachin' aqua home office/guest room!



When we redid the living room and dining room, and lost some of our aqua ambiance, I knew that I wanted to keep the aqua/turquoise and beach theme going in our condo. So I brought it into the guest room/office.


Here are our "his" and "hers" desks.


Since the Mr. and I both travel around for work, we don't have real desks or offices at work, so our USC diplomas will hang in our home office until we get our corner corporate offices with a view.


But the view from our home office isn't too bad for now!


A close-up of my desk.


A close-up of his desk.


Judah loves to hang out on the top shelf above my desk while I work. I love him.


Here is the futon/guest bed. It's actually really comfortable!

The surf boards above the bed really add to the beachy flavor of the room. That cool, tall bookcase was a gift from our sweet neighbor, it's from West Elm.

And here are my file drawers, sewing machine, DIY cork board, and office closet.


You'll never guess what's inside that closet...

Our wine fridge!


Yup, 40 bottle of pure goodness in there! It didn't look good anywhere else, so for now, the wine is in the closet. I love condo living.



I'm so happy with the changes that we made to this room. To see how it looked before, go here!

Our Home: Living Room & Dining Room

Our condo mini-renovation is finally complete!

Would you like a tour?

You enter through our front door into the entry way and kitchen.

Yep, that's a metallic print of our one of our "trash the dress" photos.

If you look down you'll see the mosaic tiling that inspired much of the new color scheme.


If you look to your right you see two beautiful original photos of Seal Beach by a local photographer.


And if you look to your left you can see the dining area reflected in the mirror.

Don't you love decorating with mirrors? It really helps to expand a small space.

I really like our entry way buffet. It's a great storage area and it's a good place to neatly collect keys, mail, purses, etc without cluttering up the kitchen. The buffet is from Crate & Barrel and all of the items on it are from Crate & Barrel as well.

You pass through the kitchen. You've already seen the kitchen lately. Twice. So we'll skip by that.

Next up is our dining room.

(Well it's not really a room, it's more of a dining area. Gimme a break, it's a California condo!)

And the living room!


That's right, no more aqua walls. We decided to tone it down a bit and paint the room "Sand Fossil" beige with aqua and orange accents. I have to say, I love it.

The view from the living room back into the kitchen.

See how the rooms are much more tied together now through the use of the beige and burnt orange color scheme? So much more cohesive! I'm definitely living and learning.

Have a seat on the couch with me! Watch some TV and listen to the surround sound.


Next to the TV are two of my favorite posters.

This one is an actual vintage poster.


And this the other is new, but I loved the aqua color. I gotta get my aqua in here somehow!


Set your drink down on our end table and stay a while.

I love that bowl from Crate & Barrel.

Or if you want to look around more, take a peak at our bookshelves in the living room.

I've already got some of my favorite Europe pictures displayed! Notice my aqua accents. You know I love that aqua!

And if you look back at the living room from the balcony area, you'll get a great view of most of the room.

I still love our original art on the wall. So pretty. Oh and I {heart} the new couch pillows from Z Gallerie.

There you have it! I'm so happy with the changes. What I really love is that it feels like a brand new space and it really just took some new paint as well as a few small new decor items.

Oh by the way... you can see all of the "before" pictures of the dining room and living room are here.

Up next? I'll show you what we did to our home office!

I'm crossing "home redo" off our our "Baby Bucket List."

Spring Flowers, Kitchen Upgrade, & Bloggy Friends

It's 78 degrees outside and I feel like Spring has sprung in Los Angeles!

My Mom was in town on Friday and she took me on shopping trip to The Home Depot to buy the us some spring flowers for our balcony patio in honor of spring time.

Don't they brighten the place up a lot?!


The Mr. even brought me small bouquet of flowers home from the grocery store. So sweet!



Also, I'm happy to inform you that we are proceeding along with our "Kitchen Upgrade Project".

After shopping for tile at three stores, and bringing home five tile samples, this is the tile for the backsplash that the Mr. and I decided on and ordered!


It matches our granite, tile, and cabinetry perfectly! I love it! Here's a closeup...


As part of our big "Kitchen Upgrade Project" we are also installing some new kitchen lighting and redoing our living room and entry-way paint. Lots more details to come soon!


Lastly, Danica from Chic Runner and I are both Long Beach girls and have been bloggy friends for a while. We've hung out several times but this time we FINALLY managed to get picture.

Here we are before heading out to dinner at George's Greek in downtown Long Beach.



And here is Danica with Judah. We can her Judah's "blogmother." I think he looks pretty happy about that.