How I asked my bridesmaids!

Not less than 24 hours after I was engaged, people were asking me if we had a venue and a date! Maybe there's something about my personality that would hint that I may have had an inkling of what our wedding would look like, but I was at a loss. I must have emailed over 50 venues in the Chicagoland area within that first week! Brendan and I did know for sure who we wanted to be in the wedding party- something we'd talked about for a while and joked about who we'd pair with who to walk with.



I started right away on making these bridesmaid boxes for the girls I was asking to join me on my special day. I'd loved the idea of painted cigar boxes with lots of goodies inside! For these, I searched on Amazon to order eight of the same style. A lot of times, Michaels has unfinished wood items on sale as well. If your bridal party is on the small side, you might have good luck at a store, but I wanted to get all of my boxes in one go of it!

After I spray painted the boxes blue (two coats, trust me on this!), I cut out squares that would fit snugly inside the bottom of the boxes. I used disco ball paper for the look of glitter without the glitter getting all over the place as I was cutting it. I used my Cricut Explore to cut out each girl's name in Channel, a fun handwritten font (I love DaFont for all the gorgeous, free designs you can download). If you're good at painting, you could paint a name or design on the top, or use cute stickers to spell out each girl's name.  I also cut out a "yes" prop for each girl to take a photo of themselves with once they opened their box!

Once I did all the cutting, I decided to visit the Target Dollar Spot to stock up on some cute and affordable goodies to add to the box. I got a set of post-its and a magnetic notepad for each box. I also got Sparking Champagne hand sanitizers from Bath & Body Works, because this seemed like it would be safer to ship off to 5 different states as opposed to actual champagne.



Each bridesmaid also received a set of Twirls + Pearls bangles, an affordable option because I happen to be the owner! I also created each girl's monogram on my Cricut with some adhesive vinyl. Before I had my Cricut, I loved to buy vinyl monograms from Etsy to stick on all of my things. Each box also had a little card inside with a personal note to each bridesmaid asking them to be part of my special day.

If you're not as crafty as I am, there are so many great options out there to start off with. I always see photo storage boxes on sale at craft stores, and you don't have to be a pro to spray paint an unfinished wooden box. There are so many cute goodies in stores that your girls are sure to love. A fun way to customize the boxes without having a Cricut to cut a monogram or a name is to get a sparkly letter for each bridesmaid to add to the box. This was my original plan, but I couldn't find a single A anywhere I looked... and I needed 3!

What kinds of things would you put in a box to ask your friends to be your bridesmaids?

How to stay (kinda) relaxed while planning your wedding

If someone had told me five months ago that planning my wedding would be a reasonably relaxing stage of my life, I might not believe them. I still might not, for that matter... but one month in and I'm feeling in control and organized! I need to let you in on a secret:

Being obseseively organized has been my saving grace. I started off with this Google Doc and simplified the tabs to reflect what I needed most. I did some conditional formatting (perfect for shading a cell based on whether it's in your budget or out of your budget) and formulas (great to multiply bridesmaids x bouquet cost + groomsmen x boutonniere cost + bridal bouquet cost... you get what I mean!) to stay as organized as possible.

I'm a very visual person, and most times I prefer to use a pen and paper to get things organized as opposed to spending time in front of a screen. I also have been using a Wedding Planner binder that my lovely mom gave me! Once things are finalized with a vendor, I record all of their information in the binder so that it's the end all be all of wedding-related information. I plan to use the binder as something to hand off on the big day to let someone else be in charge and let me relax and enjoy the most important day of my life! It'll also be a nice memento to have to reflect on all my hard work after the wedding has come and gone.

I'm fortunate enough to have a decent amount of experience with Excel at work, so while some of these things I mention above might not be basic knowledge, anytime I've wanted to learn something new in Excel/Google Docs, I've managed to find a YouTube video or tutorial to help me get what I need.

The flexibility of the Google Doc proved invaluable to me when I was away from home and my fiance mentioned a few people he wanted to add to the list. I was able to use his laptop to access the spreadsheet and add as we went along. I've done this from my phone, and even at work (oops). I grouped the rows by households (the gray rows), which is helpful for knowing how many invites and save the dates we will need to order), as we won't need to order an invitation for every guest! As people start to RSVP, I can easily fill in each row and start estimating our total, as well as who will be coming from out of town and likely using the hotel room block.

My Google Doc was able to help keep me organized when I was getting prices and quotes from vendors. As I've started to narrow down our choices and begin booking with various vendors, I find that I am relying more on the binder, as I'm looking at physical contracts and lists of services each vendor is able to provide. My DJ tab is still going strong, as this is one of the last things we are figuring out before we're able to relax!

My biggest piece of advice to offer to any bride-to-be would be to delegate as much as possible! I have been leaning on my bridesmaids to help me with their insight and Googling abilities. Two of my girls sent out info to get proposals from any and all venues that fit into our vision within the Chicagoland area. All of the emails started coming to me and I was able to sift through from there! Another friend researched bridal boutiques that carried designers I was interested in, and used their automated contact forms to schedule appointments for us to try things on. Don't be afraid to ask for help!

I'm not normally someone who delegates tasks well, but once I realized everyone's enthusiasm, I knew that I had a great group of friends & family who were willing to help make this process as easy as possible for everyone involved.

Any guesses on if I'll be this calm come July and August this summer? :)

Are we surprised?

I'm sure this isn't a surprise to anyone reading this that my attempts to blog are usually thwarted by my own busy schedule and short attention span. I can't promise 2016 will be different, but I can promise that I'll try!

What I've been up to!
In December of 2015 I got engaged!!!! My wonderful boyfriend surprised me by luring me to "celebrate his birthday with our family and some friends" downtown. I was tricked into coming to "pose for the family Christmas photo" and instead saw Brendan standing in front of our families and friends waiting to ask me the most important question of my life! In the last month, we've managed to choose our date, the venue, a photographer, and will soon be selecting a florist and even getting to dress shop! I'm so excited to be a bride!

Stay tuned for how I asked my bridesmaids to be part of my special day, and some crafting ideas you can borrow for your leading ladies! 

Where have I been?

Well, I think I said something about being terrible at blogging from the beginning... considering that it's been 5 months since my last post, I was not incorrect.

The good part about not blogging for five months is I am also slacking at taking progress photos, so this next one is some seriously noticeable progress!

I've been working on doing a pull-up progression to get to being able to do a strict pull-up. (see below).. so far I am on week 1 and my poor hands are a little frustrated at me. I managed to find some lifting gloves for barbell work at TJ Maxx of all places (Nike lifting gloves for $9.99... okay!) and some gymnastics grips with pink velco, which is always a great identifier for my things. I slept way way way later than I planned on today and missed open gym, which was okay with me until I started baking a peach cobbler.

This summer I worked really hard on recording my lifts in an app called myWOD and managed to increase my squat clean max by 15 lbs., and my back squat by 40 lbs. (other lifts we haven't done a 1RM in a while but I'm sure they're increasing as well). It's been fun sending photos to my boyfriend and Crossfitting friends and having people who can relate to my excitement!

Some of my goals for myself are to compete in a competition this fall, get consistent double unders, and get a strict pull up! I have never been able to do a pull up in my life, even in middle school PE so this is going to be a big moment for me when it finally happens! 

I take no credit for this pull-up progression, I just inputted it into Excel so I could read it better. Currently I am doing this with a band and aim to use less and less help from bands until I can do a strict pull up with no assistance.

Progress on Progress

I added another photo to the back selfie progress collage today after a butt kicking workout of cleans, running and ring rows for time! I have to say, I'm feeling stronger every day and it's great to see noticeable changes- especially in my arms and back. 

I'm finding that I'm antsy to get to Crossfit on the days I have planned to go, and sometimes edgy that I'm missing out on days I can't. By 4:30 on Monday I was sprinting out of my office to get to the gym and start lifting all of the heavy things in sight at the gym. Today I had a slightly frustrating afternoon dealing with some lack of follow-through and sure enough, I was ready to go again come 4:30.

Honestly, nothing is better than leaving your work at work, getting your ass kicked by fitness, and then leaving happily sore and sweaty. I've already rearranged my schedule and the times I'm out of the office to accommodate working in going tomorrow. Brendan and Ari, are you reading this? I'M SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO START DOING CROSSFIT.

Chapter One

One week down, and I'm thrilled that I am feeling right at home at my gym. Monday we completed the Crossfit Open 15.4 workout- I did a super scaled version of 10 push press, 10 cleans in the 8 minutes for AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) and got through 5 full rounds plus 10 extra push presses.

What was really nice about doing the open workout was seeing all of the different skill levels within class. One woman was doing the RX of actual handstand pushups, something I can pretty much only dream about at this point.

Despite not being able to fully raise my arms above my head on Wednesday thanks to the push press, we did the WOD below.

I don't think I have ever sweat so much in my life than I did in those 20 minutes. This is even including when I ran the Chicago Marathon, which was also quite sweaty! A day later, my legs stopped working randomly when I was walking because my quads were so sore. 

I've been working really hard on staying focused on where I'm at and making progress for myself, and not feeling like I'm competing against anyone else in the classes. I saw the quote below on Pinterest and it really resonated with me, because I feel like I'm doing a good job of doing things for myself instead of trying to be the best. 

Until next time!

On going with your gut:

You know how sometimes something really doesn't feel right, but you can't explain why you feel that way?
That's how I was feeling about the gym I'd been going to after completing my Crossfit Foundations class. I had learned from the class, I didn't hate it, but there was something missing. I couldn't see myself going there, but couldn't come up with a way to explain why.
I emailed around to a few other gyms to see what their Foundations programs were like and when I could get in to check the place out. I found somewhere right on my way home from work that is a slightly smaller facility that the first place.

Yesterday after work I stopped and dropped in on a class. Their Crossfit is led by two coaches- they are a relatively new location and are getting a lot of new members. As a result of this, they accommodate everyone's busy schedules by running a Foundations class simultaneously with their regular WODs. One coach is able to help the new people scale the workouts, teach movements, and focus on the newcomers while also letting them see what they're getting into once they're more experienced.

Personally, this works great for me and I'm excited to go back. It finally clicked with me last night why this gym seemed to be a good fit for me versus the other one. Two people came up to me after class to introduce themselves. Both coaches talked to me about goals and what I expected from Crossfit. The owner introduced himself and gave me some literature on Crossfit and their gym in general. For someone who makes lists for fun, and is known to talk even in her sleep, this is exactly what I'm looking for.

Can't wait to go back!