Meadows and Reeds

Thursday, August 15, 2013

{Fashion and Faith Thursday} Floral & Lace

Photography by jenny courtney photography

We just finished up a fun and relaxing vacation as a family. {Blog posts coming soon} We had a ton of fun exploring New England together. Now it's back to the normal grind. Lots of things coming up in the next few months. Why does time go by faster when you are older? And you just keep getting older too! Hope everyone is enjoying this last bit of summer!

Shop this outfit:

Cardigan: Local boutique

Top: Rue21

Shorts: Windsor

Shoes: Amazon

Click here to see more from this weeks Fashion & Faith Link up

{Anniversary Series} Wedding Day

After 6 short months of planning, the day finally arrived. August 12th our wedding day. I was what you would call "STRESSED". Who wouldn't be nervous on their wedding day. I'm a perfectionist and I wanted every single detail to be perfect. It didn't help that the only available time they had for us was 10:00am. No time to relax and get ready. It was rush, rush, rush.

We got married at the most amazing place. The Mission Inn in Riverside, California. I found it in a magazine and fell in love. Being from the desert in California there was not a lot of ideal places to get married. Thankfully this place was available and my parents made it happen. It was a dream come true. Once we were all ready they set my bridesmaids and flower girls ahead of me. They swept me away to a side pathway surrounded by vines and the right amount of sunlight streaming through. That's when they sent my Dad in to get me. The first time he saw his little girl in her wedding dress, and the first time I saw him before the ceremony was such a special moment. I was trying really hard to not cry, but it was an emotional moment. They led us to the giant doors and it felt like forever before they opened it. I was told everyone else felt the same way too. I don't know why the coordinators kept me out for so long. Evan seemed a bit nervous that I took off or something.

They opened the doors and I made my dramatic entrance. As Lifehouse's "Everything" played loud overhead. I kept my eyes locked on Evan who was looking handsome in his Army dress greens. My dad gave me away, and Evans dad gave us a blessing, and our friend George married us. We fumbled through our vows of course. Which was so us! That's really hard by the way, trying to remember all those words and repeat them back in front of all those people. We made everyone laugh at least. But it was perfect, right down to our first kiss as husband and wife.

Reception was at the Doubletree hotel in Ontario, California. Our first dance was "I'll be seeing you" since The Notebook was one of the first romantic movies we watched together. Also the inspiration for our wedding and keeping with the 1940's theme. They had a slideshow of pictures of us growing up and us together. I sang Celine Dion "Because you loved me" the first song I ever sang to him {over the phone of course}.

It was a magical day and the best part was I got to marry the man of my dreams. I couldn't have asked for a better man to marry, and spend the rest of my life with.

Wedding Details:

Colors: Black and Red

Theme: 1940's theme

Cake: Buttercream, marble

First Dance: I'll be seeing you

Happy 7 years baby! Love you!

{Anniversary Series} Part 5: Engaged

Since we the topic of getting married had been on the table from the beginning. It's hard to say when exactly we got engaged.
After Evan was done with his "Reintegration" my parents were gracious enough to drive me out to Colorado to get him. This time in the car though, and of course we broke down on the way. Talk about frustrating. It's always when you are in a rush something like that happens. When we finally made it there, we picked up Evan and stayed at a friends house. {Side note: They actually lived not too far from where we lived just last year. Funny how things work out like that!} And of course Evan had to break their shower in such "meet the parents" fashion. We still laugh about that it was pretty funny. Water was shooting everywhere and he looked so sad and pathetic trying to stop it with his shirt. I had to cover my mouth to hold in the laughter!

We planned to go out to dinner to On the Border since we all love Mexican food so much. We were having fun, cracking jokes of course. Evan kind of nudged me and made me excuse myself to the bathroom so he could ask them permission to marry me. It wasn't very nonchalant either. We all knew it was coming so it was a bit awkward. Luckily they said yes, I mean Evan is a pretty nice guy and they love him so it worked out great!

Calling our good friend George to see if he will marry Evan and I

When we got home we looked at rings and everything was really expensive. The one that I wanted was like 20,000 or something and it was just the engagement ring! Yikes! Thankfully my Aunt suggested a family friend who made rings and would give us a good deal. He even went to that jewelry store scoped out my favorite ring so he could make it very similar. So during that time we were already having rings made, talking about dates and locations. And there was still no actual proposal yet. Evan was going to be leaving soon too to go back to Colorado.

We had one last date night before he had to drive home {in his brand new truck :) } We went down to Ontario, Ca to the Old Spaghetti factory and had a romantic dinner. Then headed over to Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga to see a movie {of course}. We saw Lucky number slevin, very romantic! We were headed back to the car and I was rambling off about stuff, not even hearing or paying attention to Evan. He practically yelled in my face to get me to look at him by the time we reached the car.

Evan: I'm trying to propose! {he pulled the little box out of his pocket and held it out to me}
Me: OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG!!! {running around like a crazy person}
Evan: {laughing hysterically} Ashley, I love you will you marry me! {or something like that}
Me: YES!

Even though we were already planning everything and I knew it was coming. There's still nothing like it when a boy gets on one knee and pulls a little ring box out of his pocket and asks you to spend the rest of his life with him. {In a mall parking lot, haha} We came back and showed off the ring to our families. Let the wedding planning begin! {or continue :/ }

Come back tomorrow to read the last part of the Anniversary Series

Click to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4

Oh and here is Evan and his "new truck" he bought after his first deployment

{Anniversary Series} Part 4: Together Again

During deployment we had a short breakup. No relationship is perfect and we weren't/aren't perfect.

On his end he wanted to make sure he was ready to get married. Since we had been talking about it and planning it from the beginning. Which was pretty mature of him, I guess. But it was pretty rough for me. Luckily, it didn't last very long. It was probably about 2-3 months. I still remember the moment we got back together. I was getting my hair done at the salon and he called. When he called during deployment I answered no matter where I was or what I was doing. I always wanted to be available for him. After all he was fighting a war in another country. The least I could do was give him that small distraction every once in awhile. He asked me if I would be his girlfriend again and I had never been so excited!

A month later {Feb 2006} it was time for him to come back and he had arranged it for me to drive to Colorado with his family. So we could be there for his welcome home ceremony. It was a long drive with a lot of people that I didn't really know. His family is pretty easy going so we had a lot of laughs.

When the day came for us to go down to the Army base to wait I was so anxious and nervous. We hadn't had much time actually together, in person. It was pretty much an online courtship. I wasn't sure how to act especially since we just got back together too. We sat there in the bleachers with all the other families with their signs and hand-made posters that read "welcome home" the anticipation was killing me!

They finally opened the doors and the soldiers marched in. Words cannot describe the emotions in that auditorium. You could hear all the sighs of relief. Deployment was finally over, our loved ones were home again safe and sound. I don't even remember the things that were said I was just trying to find Evan in the sea of soldiers that took up half of the room. I scanned and scanned and before I knew it they were released and it was utter chaos. He had found me first because I saw him running toward me and then I took off running towards him. He picked me up in his arms and kissed me and all the awkwardness was gone. Our moment was short lived though since his whole family was there to see him too. I had to share him ... Boo I don't like sharing my man! Haha.
We spent a blissful few days together with his family. But we had to separate yet again because he had to "Reintegrate" before he could take his leave {vacation} and come home. Thankfully this time it would only be a few weeks til we were together again.

Come back to read the more of our story

Click to Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

{Fashion Friday} Gold shorts! and Fashion and Faith Link up

So I'm a day late. Oh well, better late then never. Besides who doesn't like a good Fashion Friday. It's been awhile. I wanted to get a ton of my "Shorts" outfits up on here before Summer is long gone. Can you believe its August already that's insane. This summer flew by, but I'm starting to get excited for Fall. A New England is literally the best. The trees and colors are so gorgeous! Pumpkin and apple everything! Hot chocolate, cozy sweaters, I'm starting to get in the Fall mood! But until then. I got a lot of semi summer outfits coming that cane easily transition into Fall.

These shorts I bought last year for Christmas time. I loved that they were out of my comfort zone. I wanted some sparkle in my life though. I was about to just put a black top with it, but then quickly changed to the striped one. I knew that would be a normal, safe combination. I wanted to be different! Paired it with a blazer, necklace and booties. BAM! Instant glam! Who wouldn't love sparkly shorts!

What item of clothing do you have that is out of your comfort zone?