Giddy up!

So I have a confession......I sort of hate country music....ok, not sort of....DESPISE country music. Old school Dolly, Willie and Johnny are amazing...but anything newer makes me break out in hives....but for some reason I am OBSESSED with cowgirl boots....not just any boots will do.....they need to be HOT PINK! And preferably with sparkles, glitter, fringe...they have to dazzle! 

Ombre!

In anticipation of my wedding this June, I had been keeping my hair long and natural. But now that the wedding is over....time to spice it up a bit! Time for OMBRE hair!

Excuse the terrible pictures....and the duck face! Ha....but I'm loving the new look. And it was surprisingly simple! 

• Select your ombre pallet. My natural hair color is strawberry blonde, so I decided to keep that as the middle shade and use a lighter shade for the top and a darker shade for the bottom. If you're not in  love with your natural color, choose three shades: dark, medium and light. 
• Section your hair into equal thirds. 
• Lighten the top third. I used a bleach blonde....as bright as I could go! 
• Darken the bottom. I used dark maroon / burgundy shade.

I decided to layer my hair a bit to really accentuate the different shades. This style has so many options. Go for only slightly varying shades for a more subtle and demure look. Or go crazy! Imagine how fun this would be in shades of pink! 

Bun-fun!

I recently added fringe bangs...I may be a bit behind the trend...but I love them anyway! I've been trying out different ways to style an updo with bangs....and came up with this one!

Simple and easy! A great way to change up your look at night! 

• Start with a ponytail high on top of your head. No need to make it perfect. 
• Reserve 1/4 of the hair from the side of the pony tail. 
• Gather the remaining 3/4 of the pony tail hair and create a classic ballerina bun. Use bobby pins to secure. 
• Take the reserved piece of hair and braid. Tie with a clear band at the end. 
• Wrap braid around the outside of bun. Use bobby pins liberally to secure braid.
• Add a flower to add a little dazzle! 

My new go-to updo! I'm loving that with my new ombre hair, the bands are blonde and the braid is purple! 

Stay-cation!

Beaver Creek Westin Resort and Spa!

Flowers

Real, fake, tropical, wild flowers? So many choices! Long gone are the days when your wedding had to be dripping in white roses. The increase in popularity of other types of flowers has spread into the bridal world. What style will you choose? Your favorite flower is an easy place to start....or sticking to your colors is an obvious choice...but bump it up a notch with a really dramatic set like these purple Ranunculus:

The typical wedding bouquet can cost upwards of $150...yipes! So look at alternatives...make your own! 

Try thinking outside the box...what about creating your own silk arrangement? Or having your mom or grandma sew you one? No crafty ladies in your family? ETSY! 

How lovely are these satin roses? Or these silk stunners? Now that's dazzle!

So gorgeous! Then you have something to keep after the wedding...make hair clips or broaches out of the buds for each of your bridesmaids or mom's after the wedding as a sweet keepsake.

If you are having a beach wedding...take a stroll down the beach the morning of your wedding with your mom or bridesmaids and pick some local flowers...

Or if you're having a mountain wedding...delicately pluck some from the countryside...

Photo credit: Once Wed

Or better yet, have your husband-to-be go on a walk and pick some for you. How romantic to have a bouquet delivered to you from your groom? 

His & Hers

Even if you are having a traditional wedding, not everything surrounding the wedding has to be traditional. 

Add some of your own personal touches that make it dazzle!

My fiance and I got matching "His & Hers" tattoos as an early wedding gift to one another. 

Bold? YES....but so is love!

We designed them ourselves, and they turned out so beautifully thanks to Guapo and Piotr at God Speed Ink.

Seriously talented guys at a really nice shop in Breckenridge, Colorado. 

Invitations on a budget!

We just finished stuffing our invitations last night, and we LOVE them!
They turned out so much better than we envisioned...and they were cheap!!! $49 total!!

Cost Breakdown: 

Design fee: $0! 

I designed them myself. 

Paper & Envelopes: $25! 

Aaron went to a wholesale paper supplier and found lovely black envelopes on sale for $3 for a pack of 50 (we bought 3 packs). Then he found a ream of 80lb card stock in the perfect shade of antiqued beige. $10 for 100 sheets.

Printing: $24 

We laid out the design two per page to save on paper and printing cost, so we were able to print 100 invites on 50 sheets of paper for $.49 per page, and they cut them for us. 

Total: $49

And the best part....we had FUN stuffing them next to our cozy fire! 

Stamps!

Even our stamps are in love! Heehee! While designing our invites & envelopes...I hadn't really thought about stamps....luckily, my fiance picked out THE PERFECT stamps! Red and swirly and luvy! 

Our Wedding Invitation

Fini! I finally finished our wedding invitations...I think....

Likey?

T-shirt Scarf!

Wee for a t-shirt scarf! My friend Allyson showed me this, and I just loved the idea! Re-purposing is my favie! I quickly turned an ill-fitting t-shirt into a cute, and warm, necklacy-scarf!

Super simple! 

1. Start with any t-shirt in the back of your closet that doesn't quite fit right, has a stain, is 15 years old...use it! 

Remember, this will be close to your face, so make sure you choose a color that's flattering to your skin tone. 

2. Lay the t-shirt out flat. 

3. Cut the shirt into 1" strips. I wasn't sure how a shirt that had a logo on it would work, I thought it might give a neat variant to the texture....it didn't! But there is plenty of fabric, so just cut the strips right over the logo, we'll weed those out in a bit. Keep the very first loop that you cut - the one with the stitching. 

4. Stretch!!! Stretch the loops out as far as you can, so they naturally start to roll, hiding the cut marks. 

5. Cut each loop twice - at the side seams. 

6. Discard pieces with other colors / textures on them. 

7. Now you'll have a bunch of pieces of approx 2 feet long fabric. Tie each of those into loops. 

8. Trim the excess ends from where you tied the knots. 

9. Gather all your loops together, keeping all the knots in the same area. My pieces naturally just ended up being varying lengths, because I was sloppy with tying the knots. This ended up creating a great cascading look. If you are a perfectionist...you might end up needing to cut some of your strips shorter to achieve this. 

10. I used the original loop, the one with the stitching to wrap around the other loops and tie them all together.  I liked the white stitching against the green. But if your shirt doesn't have contrasting stitching, just use one of the other loops. Just keep wrapping and wrapping until you feel it's secure! 

Voila! Fini! Super cute necklace / scarf. And it's actually really cozy and warm! You can place the gathered part behind your neck, or on the side!