The holidays are in full gear so it's time to get the Holiday Cards!

Wow were has the year gone?!  It's already Holiday season!!!!

This year we will be our first year sending out joint holiday cards and I can't wait to order them, just need to find the right pictures to include in the card. After having such great responses on our wedding thank you cards from Shutterfly, we decided to also get them as our holiday card. We got sooo many compliments on the thank you cards! Guests loved them because it had all our wedding information (venue, date and church) and a picture of us on our wedding day! Guests who were not able to make it but had generously sent us a gift, had especially loved getting the shutterfly thank you card because they were able to see a snapshot of that day. So the decision on what type of holiday card to get was easy but Shutterfly has sooo many cute designs that it will be very hard to pick exactly which card we want to send out. Check them all out here holiday cards.

They have EVERYTHING from the cute zig zag patter that I have seen everywhere.

I’m so drawn to the red & the blue in this card & the pattern! I know many of you ladies out there had the red and blue wedding color, how perfect would this be!!!

I love that this one says HAPPY EVERYTHING!!!!

Another one that is soo cute is this “retro” one, I love the colors they chose & the cute patterns!

 

Fonts are defiantly my weakness when it comes to creating anything, seriously it took me HOURS to create the rehearsal dinner invite & it was all because of the fonts, I used like 4 in the invite! Needless to say I love this holiday card & the use of all the great fonts!

Check out all their cards below. I would LOVE to hear which one is your fav!

Christmas photo card http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

holiday cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
Christmas card  http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards
thank you cards to

The Bride's Fav shoes Badgley Mishka on sale!! $89

I know a LOT of brides out there love Badgley Mishka for their wedding day shoe,  & if you are on of them you should go to Rue La La now because they all the styles that brides want for $89, I love Rue La La but all the items sell out so fast. It's an invite only fashion site that sells designer items for a lot less. Get invite *here*

Free Downloads: Invitation Suites Galore!

I have found the jackpot to free invitation suites for all you DIY brides out there! Check them out  *here* How amazing is the talented Anna Skye for allowing us all to download her gorgeous invitation suites for FREE! So many to choose from!

Let's start from the wedding and move backwards

I have sooo much to catch up on, so I thought I would start with the day of the wedding and work back words.  I can't believe it's already been 16 days since the wedding, at times it feels like it yesterday and others it seems so long ago like a dream that didn't really happen. Everyone keeps asking me"was it what you hoped for" and I always answer it was MORE than WE could have ever hoped for.  Our wedding was amazing not only because of us, but because of everyone that had their part in it.  From the very beginning we had decided that our wedding was not just about us getting married, it was also about our families and friends blending. One of my favorite comments that someone told us was that we were "the most loving, generous, inclusive and happy bride and groom of all time" this made me so happy to hear!
Here are a few tips that helped ensure that we enjoyed ourselves:

1. Make an agreement with your fiance, your families and the wedding party that no matter what, you ALL will enjoy the day and won't let anything bother you, because all that matters is that we are all together. No stress, no worries, no drama for yo momma. 
2. Let go and just be. My dad told me that he really liked how my husband (he he) and me were true to ourselves, he could see were we were not pretending to be a certain way, that we were enjoying every moment. We weren't worried of what people would say or think. As mi amor & I frequently say to each other when the other one is not understanding us "Just love me".
3. Remember the wedding is not about the dress, the venue, or the decor, it's about proclaiming in front of all those that you love that you found your soul mate & you want to share that moment & celebrate it with them. Enjoy each moment with everyone that is there. My hubbie said the day after that it was the best day of his life, for me too it was the best day of my life.  Some tell you that it shouldn't be the "best day" of your life because you are setting yourself up for disappointment saying nothing will compare to that day, but for us this is not the case. It was the best day of our life because it was the day we married the person we always dreamed of, because it marked the day that we blended our families into one and because we got to spend 3 days partying with those most important to us in the entire world. 

This is us entering after we took the bride & groom pictures, thankfully my little bro (also groomsman) hooked us up with some Pico Sours, and as you can see, people came up to us as soon as they saw us. The guy in the black tux on the right is my groomsman, he was on the hunt for some apps for her since cocktail hour was just about to end.

MOH/Cousin fixing my bustle after my 85 year old great aunt stepped on it while doing a salsa move. Brides Man is in background supervising he he. I freaking LOVE this pic!

One of many photobooth pictures, can you believe 1/2 of the people in this picture had never met before the wedding! 

I'm a Mrs.!

As of 1 week today I became a Mrs., it was MORE than anything I could have ever imagined. I will post updates soon & also post about all the things that kept me away from this lil bloggity blog! I still need to catch up on sleep & work has been extremely hectic! But I wanted to make sure & get on the blog to congratulate Mrs. Beaver!!!! Hope you have an amazing honeymoon!!

DIY: Give a KICK@** Maid Of Honor Speech

JT here formally known as the "Maid of Honor" to recount my speech giving experience for WW's Reception!!!

I'm pictured here on the right (I'm the girl). Yes, this was at the wedding and no I don't remember taking this picture but anyway... I digress...

So my speech: I'll be honest, I was four drinks in when I gave it and I ended up not using any of the versions of the speech I had intended (there were three) but if I say so myself people really loved it.

A few guidelines for giving a great speech:

• MAX IT OUT AT 3 MINUTES. Mine was 2:22 exactly. I even said at the beginning that I would keep it short just so I remembered to do just that.
• Use an anecdote. Relate it to recent events, music, movie, something that the crowd can really relate to.
  
• Just talk about the couple. Like how you met them, your interactions and observations.
  
• Make a take away. I wanted to make my speech a "What I learned about love from ____ and ____." People were really into that. I mean you should be able to find something from every couple because why else would they be getting married unless they had been putting something extraordinary into the relationship.
  
• Use a format: beginning, middle and end (resolution). I was on the speech team in high school and my favorite competition was the impromptu speech. Impromptu speech was always 2 minutes long and you were always supposed to lead in with a few explanations, some witty observation and end it with a learning point. I somehow managed to pull out that formula (unbeknownst to me).
  

If you want some more points about speech making or would like me to type out some parts of my speech, I might just do that...

{Source Le Love}

You'll know when he is the one...the first time you look into his eyes you know something is different, you won't even question whether he is the one because there is no one else in this world that you can imagine being with. Perhaps like me, you'll be scared, scared to let someone in, to give them the power to hurt you, to leave and crush your heart, you won't tell him this of course because that alone is also letting him into your heart, but he'll know, he tells you he can feel the wall you have up, and to let it down because it's ok to let love in, he's afraid too but he's willing to take the chance with you and let you in completely, so you do & you've never been happier.

Westside Wedding iPhone Apps: Brides Iphone App FREE

The Brides iphone app is sweet and free too bad it was not around last year when I was spending countless hours looking for my wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses. Check it out ladies, it is awesome!

Westside Wedding loves iphone Apps: iShoes

As you know I love my iphone and it has been my own personal assistant with this whole wedding planning, allowing me to email vendors right away, approving drafts for wedding related items with time constraints and especially with trying to find the right shoes, jewelry, dress etc. The free iphone app iShoes helped me find my shoes & my moms!

1. iShoes

I love that you can email your fav items! This is great if you need to email them to your bridesmaids!

I had initially wanted colored shoes but fell in love with these babies:

and here are my moma's shoes Nine West Women's Janika Sandals,in purple Satin

All you need to know about Wedding Lighting

I knew about Led Lights and twinkle lights but did you know about gobo or pin spotting? me either but thanks to GetMarried.com now I know a lot about lighting! whoop!

{image via http://trendsettingwedding.typepad.com}