Petals & Posies

During our trip back to Iowa, we had the chance to meet with our florist. My family has been using Carmen's for everything for years and years, to the point where I'm pretty sure if my dad forgets to order for my mom's anniversary, they call him and remind him.

The best part of working with them is that they already know me. Our particular florist, Debbie, is someone I've known for years. Her daughter and I graduated high school together, and were involved in church youth group a long time ago. It is one of those nice, comfortable, easy relationships with someone you've known forever.

Debbie and I chatted via email for a few weeks prior to our visit. I'd pinned some ideas of flowers that I'd liked and sent her a list, and she let me know what their supplier would be able to provide during our wedding. Unfortunately, the downside of an August wedding is that a couple of my favorites, peonies and tulips, are going to be too hard to get. But, Debbie is going to bring some awesome flowers. Here are some of the photos I sent her for inspiration:

via Style Me Pretty

via Wedding Obesssion - Could basically duplicate the one on the left and I'd be happy

via Brides

We walked through a whole list of who will get what. My bouquet will be mostly blush colored with some ivory, and the girls will have mostly ivory with some blush, and both will have the brunia berries and lambs ear or dusty miller. Our mom's are getting wrist corsages, as is my brother's girlfriend, who will hopefully also be our ceremony musician.

She also had some fantastic ideas for our centerpieces. Awhile back, I saw this picture and fell in love:

via Buzzfeed

Seriously, how adorable is that? My parents have been assigned the task of gathering books. I had planned on buying gold plate stands to prop the books up, but when I showed Debbie this, she had a better idea. A few days after we got back home from our trip, she sent me this:

I love how she incorporated the book into the arrangement. These were just the flowers she had available, not necessarily what she'll be using for real. We talked with her about adding more flower, less greenery. We're also going to hopefully do half of the tables like this, half with a large manzanita branch as the focal point. When I go back in April, I'll meet with her again and see what we can do. 

Hair & Makeup Trial

Welp, I'm officially a bad blogger. My apologies for the long delay in posting. I'll blame it on a combination of bad weather, food poisoning, a nasty cold, and general wedding fatigue. I'll address the last one in another post (probably?) but for now, I'll keep plowing through our busy Christmas planning extravaganza.

I wasn't really sure what to expect going into my hair trial, to be honest. I have very, very, very fine and thin blonde hair, and many times in the past attempted updos have left me looking quite bald. I really wanted to avoid that. I spent quite a bit of time looking around Pinterest trying to find photos that I thought would work with my hair. I wanted an updo with some volume, and with details on the side so when my veil, which is nearly opaque, is on, you can still see that my hair is done up.

Here are the ideas I brought in:

via Wedding Window

via The Knot

We tried a couple of variations, and this is what we ended up with:

Side View

From the back

Front View

At the time, I really liked it. The side wisps drove me nuts, within the hour I'd tucked them behind my ears. But now, with some distance, I'm not sure how I feel. I like the way it looks from the front, but I really don't like the side view. I'm not sure how to fix that, but when I go back in April I'm going to try again.

The other thing is that, by the time we'd gotten the braid and the poof, she had almost no hair left to make the bun at the bottom. As such, Lady A and I are going to start looking around for extensions. I've never worn them before, but I think it make be the solution we're looking for. My plan is to try to find a set of real hair clip-ins. I'll let you know how that goes!

As for the makeup, that I was less thrilled with. It didn't look bad, at all, but I made the mistake of telling her I don't wear a lot of makeup normally, so I think she was afraid to use very much on me. As a result, it actually is much softer than what I wear when I'm dressing up to go out. Unfortunately, I didn't get a great photo, but here you go:

30 minutes post trial

Obviously, there needs to be a more permanent lipstick solution. The other thing is that we're having a formal evening wedding, and I don't know that this is enough "umph" to match that. I'm also seriously considering seeing if they do lashes. As you can see, I get crinkly eyes when I smile, and I think I'd like to have some more definition.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Recipes?

Mostly Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

Growing up, I used to love the freezer chicken pot pies. On a cold, wet day, they were the perfect comfort food. As an adult, and especially as one who tries to pay attention to what I eat, I've avoided pot pies altogether. Between the fat and the sodium, I haven't even wanted to try.

But, with the Polar Vortex descending, I found myself craving crusty, gooey, chicken and veggies. So, I ran around the internet a bit, but never quite found something that was perfect. The recipe below borrows a bit from a couple of easily accessed recipes, but I mostly just threw stuff into the pot.

Mostly Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 Tube low-fat crescent rolls (or biscuits of your choice)
• 1.5 cups chicken broth
• 3/4 cups chopped onions (or a sprinkle of dehydrated onions, if you hate onions like I do)
• 1 cup potato, chopped
• 1 cup carrots, chopped
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 large chicken breast, cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup reduced fat milk
• 1/4 cup AP flour
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large pan, bring broth to a boil
3. Stir in all vegetables except peas, return to a boil, then let simmer for 5-6 minutes
4. Add chicken and frozen peas, return to boil, then let simmer for 5 minutes
5. In a separate bowl, slowly whisk milk into flour until well blended
6. Add flour mixture into chicken mixture and stir well. Turn heat to medium and allow to thicken, approximately 5 minutes
7. Add thyme, salt, and pepper, mix well. 
8. Coat individual ramekins (or a larger dish, your choice!) with PAM or another non-stick spray
9. Lay one biscuit into the bottom of the ramekin, and pour 1/4 of chicken mixture over biscuit. Layer additional biscuit over top of chicken mixture. Repeat for remaining ramekins. 
10. Place all ramekins on a baking sheet and slide into oven for 14 minutes, or until biscuit on top is golden brown. 

Om nom nom. This was really great, and we actually fought over the leftovers. I may decide to forgo the bottom biscuit in future. While tasty, I'm not sure it outweighed the added calories. Otherwise, this was very yummy.

Oh, and as always use caution when opening canned biscuits. I was chatting with a friend while I made these, and he sent me this:

True life, people. I get tense just watching this.