More craftiness

A shout out to my friend Brianne Hollberg who I spent all day yesterday making extremely cute hairpieces and headbands while the men went shooting. It was a blast, and to think you can wear these with a pony tail and a plain shirt, or pair it with maybe a cardigan and jeans? I love this craft and especially how cheap the cost is per hair piece compared to a boutique!

I wore mine to church today, and got quite a couple compliments and 'where'd you get that?' questions. What is better than being able to say, 'oh I made it!'? I love all these DIY projects, and plan to do even more! Hopefully I don't go overboard, but its hard to go overboard on saving money!

.Sweetest Treats.

For those of you who are ever in Provo and want a great dessert I personally suggest 'The Cocoa Bean Cafe'. Having eaten at both 'The Sweet Tooth Fairy' and 'The Cocoa Bean Cafe' I fully admit that the 'The Cocoa Bean Cafe' takes the cake, literally on desserts for the Provo area. 'The Cocoa Bean Cafe' is open until eleven P.M. mon-thurs and midnight fri-sat located 1774 University Parkway. Go, and try it. Seriously! SOOO good!

Me and Jer went there Friday evening, and let me tell you, He's definitely CONVERTED! Which means we will now be treating ourselves to the best treats ever!

(Oh my goodness, do I love love love this man to death and beyond!!!)

{Bein' Crafty}

So being a newlywed who has bills to pay I decided to get crafty to save some money on fashion. One shirt in particular really caught my attention on my last trip to the mall with my Momma. It was in Nordstroms and was one of those really cute shirts that has tulle ruffles and flowers sewn to the neckline. Very popular right now.

Well it cost $45. How could I possibly justify that to Jer when I would get home and walk through the door?

Well I inspected it and it didn't look that complicated, so I went and bought some supplies for two different shirts in case I messed up on one. I bought two shirts from Forever 21 and then clothe from Joannes, all totaling $20. So basically $10 per shirt. Much better then $45 for one shirt!

After a couple hours playing with the iron and sewing machine, and then sewing on my own bead/crystal things I ended up with this...

I think it's super cute! I'm so impressed with myself for making this. It isn't exactly like the shirt I saw but it's unique and reminds me of a boutique kind of look which I love. I am going to be making the other shirt soon and I'll post pictures of that when it's done!

.Shakespeare oh yea Shakespeare.

This past weekend we took off work, cleaning, and responsibilities to go on the annual 'Shakespeare Festival' trip with my parents. Its a tradition. I've been doing since I was very young, and its one of my favorite trips every summer. So we thought we'd introduce Jer to it hoping that he'd like it as much as we did.

We saw Great Expectations (the musical), The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock's only comedy-HILARIOUS!), and Much ado about Nothing. We also went to the green show, and ate all the customary chocolates and tarts that are just a necessary part of the experience. And gained about five pounds, but it was worth it! I've almost got Jared converted to the whole experience. A couple more years and he'll be loving it as much as I do hopefully!

Our last day down in St. Geezy we decided to go hike the narrows in Zions National Park which was a blast

Overall, we had a great trip and with school starting I completely look forward to our next vaca. to St. Geezy. Next time we plan to hike to Angel's Landing, which should be quite the challenge!

{Our First Home}

So my girl friends (and bridesmaids) suggested I put up pictures of our new home seeing as its finally finished being decorated (only took two months)!

Welcome to the Smith's!

The Entrance to our APT...

Our Kitchen which I got to pick the colors for (I'm trying to find more ways to have blue everywhere)...

Our wedding collage wall...

This is what we had to do last. All are pictures from our wedding, or bridals. We plan to add to it over the years...

Our china cabinet as I call it. It's really our nick-nack shelfs with everything from my dried wedding bouquet to the antique keys that Jer proposed to me with...

Our extremely uncluttered, and miraculously made bed...

Our bathroom. You can guess who got to pick the colors for this room. (: I love you honey even though you're a U supporter!

So for those who haven't had the chance to see our apartment yet, here is some idea of what it looks like. We'd love to have you come visit! We plan to have a small intimate family open house soon hopefully. It all depends on school. Isn't that crazy school starts up again in less then two weeks?! Anyways, much love to all!

...wedding dress...

I'm sure you're all getting sick of constant updates on the endings of our wedding, but I wanted to share this. The bridal store where I bought my wedding dress wanted to put pictures of me wearing it up on their blog so here's that link! For those who don't know, I bought my wedding dress at Abella Bridal located then at riverwoods mall, and now at a shopping center farther south but still on University Avenue. They were absolutely amazing and helpful with everything. The girls were very courteous, not pushy, and resourceful when I had difficult questions. Although it was just a bit pricier then what I would have wanted to pay, in the end we got exactly what we paid for-an AMAZING wedding gown shopping/purchasing/cleaning experience!

I've had a lot of my recently engaged friends ask for advice as to wear good stores are to look for a bridal gown. There are so many, and unfortunately my mother and I spent a couple of Saturday's searching, trying, and giving up on dresses at other stores because I'd already made my mind up. But after trying on hundreds of dresses I can honestly say that there are some stores that would be the best places to go to, and some to avoid. My top choices would definitely be Abella Bridal, The Perfect Dress, and Gateway Bridal and Prom. All three had amazing selection and very attentive helpers, it just happened that the dress I fell in love with was the first one I tried on at Abella Bridal, which was also the first store we went to.

The one bridal store I WOULDN'T recommend to ANYONE is Allyses' bridal in either American Fork or University Mall in Provo. Although they have a lot of sizes in each dress, I felt that there selection was very monotone, dull, and not really flattering on many girls who I saw there. Now don't get me wrong, they've got dresses at great prices, but I was really disappointed on the attention we were given, the seamstresses pricing was confusing, and the store is SO big and there were SO many other girls there that it felt like we were getting very little attention and no answers. I'm very glad I didn't purchase my dress from Allyses'. The girls are also paid on commission so you feel like you're getting hustled around/forced to try dresses you don't want to try on (literally in my case). I don't know if it was just the seamstress who I dealt with but I was not impressed. After I purchased my dress from Abella I commissioned a sash from Allyses' and clearly outlined when I met with the seamstress that I wanted light silk, and what I ended up with was so stiff it was almost cardboard. So if you newly engaged, DON'T go to Allyses'.

Wedding dress shopping is already so overwhelming because you are searching for THE dress and you want it to say all the right things and to accentuate your body in all the right places. Don't give up sleep and chance the start of wrinkles (or your first gray hair in my case) over trying to sacrifice the price and still get good quality. Don't get me wrong, you don't want to spend a ton if you don't have to, but at least go somewhere where there is good customer service and they can give you their full and undivided attention and advice.

-The start of the weddings-

Yesterday Jer and I had the privilege of going to one of my close cousins sealing at the bountiful temple. It was of course a beautiful day and very sacred moment for both of us. We kept looking at each other during the sealing and remembering moments from our own sealing. I know for certain my Uncle Stan (the grooms father) visited that room during the sealing. The spirit was so strong and I've been feeling especially emotional about some of our specific prayers being answered recently. We've been really blessed of late and are extremely grateful we had this opportunity to share in the special event. We are so happy for Rich and Natalie!!!

Don't they just look so happy?

Here we are all dressed up

Congrats to Rich and Natalie, we're so happy for you two!!! This wedding is just the first of many this month, but it was for us probably the most special. Much love, have fun on the honeymoon!

{wedding album}

Here are some of our favorite wedding photos that will be going up on our wall next week! They were our favorites out of all SIX HUNDRED or so that were taken on our wedding day and reception day.

Our wedding cake that I stressed over mega big time
 

Stuffing the cake in each other's faces

Tossing bouquet

Jer going for the garter...

Our first dance as husband and wife

Leaving the reception!!! 

We loved all our pictures and had SO many amazing pictures from our wedding day that we LOVED!!!

mosquitos

We haven't been doing much of late in case you were wondering. I'm been working as usual and Jer has been working from home and cleaning. Whenever we aren't working we go on little adventures. Our latest one was fly fishing on the Provo. It started really fun and was quite successful!

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So after we were done fishing at about 6:30 PM we decided to head home but the only way to get back to our car was to either walk half a mile down the river to cross on a bridge and then another half mile up...OR we could try and find a close semi-deep part and cross. The mosquitos were a quick driving force for us to jump into the river and then try to cross against the current. Jared made it alright, but I had trouble holding my footing and started to get carried by the stream. Jer being the heroic husband he is jumped back into the river after dropping the poles to come get me out of trouble. 

He rescued me and of course the second I got out of the water I was attacked by mosquitos ALL OVER. The rest of our trip was spent having Jer following me as I ran screaming towards the car. I'm sure it was quite an amusing sight to the other fishermen. And Jer was of course laughing himself. Needless to say I won't be going back to the Provo for a while.

Jer counted all the mosquito bites later and came to 33, an all time high. But I still had fun. And the mosquito bites are basically gone now thank goodness. In case you hadn't noticed, its hard trying to get all the tricks and keep up with an outdoor-sy husband. But I'm learning slowly! Maybe in a couple years I'll be as much a pro as him...who knows.

P.S. Our wedding photos are finished so I'll post some of them soon!