Can anyone guess what I was for Halloween? I was channeling my inner Blair Waldorf. I had a lot of fun with this outfit. I have these glorious mustard yellow leggings I have wanted to wear, but couldn't decide what to wear them with.

If you remember the show, Gossip Girl, you will remember Blair's wardrobe. Lots of primary bold colors mixed with a very professional feel. I mixed the mustard yellow leggings with a grey pencil skirt, a blue blouse and pulled the outfit together with a fall plaid coat and Blair's signature headband.

If you're like me, you don't take much time for yourself. You throw yourself into whatever is right in front of you and you never look back. You lay in bed at night wondering where your day went and why you didn't get anything done, yet you're exhausted.

This seems to be a pretty common pattern in my house lately. I forget what it's like to find peace in my day. I forget that there is no shame is having a day for me. Finding peace in my heart and soul.

This week I took a sick day from work. I woke up feeling so worn down and exhausted, I knew it was my body telling me, it was time to slow down. It was time to find some peace in my day. I put all work aside and had a wonderful peaceful day.

I spent my morning in my brand new bed. A bed I am so grateful for. A wedding gift me and R gave ourselves from the gracious gifts from our guests (you did hear I got married right?!). I snuggled with my two cats, Rick and Grace. I fixed my cup of tea just like I do when I visit my mom. I lounged on the couch binge watching Gilmore Girls (Did anyone else squeal for joy when the new trailer came out!?). I stayed in my pajamas and didn't care about how my hair looked.

I found so much peace in doing things that were familiar to me. It made for a very nice and relaxing day. It reminded me that taking a sick day wasn't a bad thing.  It was necessary.

Are you afraid of taking sick days? What brings you peace?

Once again I am linking up with Alyssa from Alyssa Goes Bang!

I always wanted a fall wedding. I wanted the fall backdrop with all the trees in transition. There is so much symbolism in the changing of the leaves. So much beauty and growth. Exactly what a marriage is. When me and R picked a date, we specifically looked for venues who could host us at the end of September or early October.

Our wishes were fulfilled just one month after we got engaged when Knapp Winery had a date that fit perfectly into that Fall vision. September 24th, 2016 would be our wedding date. A day of magic and love.

The Barrel Room where the reception would be held

I wasn't that bride who planned her wedding when she was 10, so I was pretty lax on my planning. If I were to tell you that this wedding was planned on a whim, you probably wouldn't believe me. My guests didn't.

Let me explain.

All of my bridesmaids were scattered around, one being all the way across the country in California. We had no real opportunity to get together and plan. My best friend/adopted sister (ya know we adopted each other as sisters along the way in life) was able to meet me one night at David's Bridal so we could pick out some dresses.

I had no clue what I wanted, nor did I really know what colors I wanted. We found a few dresses that would work for all the girls in the wedding and we had at it. I had fallen in love with the color Portobello on the website. With my good luck and all, there we no dresses in the building in that color.


So I went with it. Why not? You only live once right? We picked out a dress style and I told all the girls to order it in Portobello. I also loved the color Sangria. So I asked that all the girls order shoes in that color.

I never saw the dress in the color or the shoes in real life until 2 weeks before the wedding at my bachelorette party. I had moments of panic after all the girls ordered their dresses and shoes, doubting my choices. Once I saw everything together, I fell in love. The colors were beautiful on the girls. It complimented everyone's skin tone beautifully.

Fast forward to 5 days before the wedding where I had my very first sort of melt down. I planned to have paper flowers made for everyone. It was the coolest thing ever. They wouldn't die and were a good gift for my girls. I had a message 7 days before the wedding saying the flowers were being shipped on Monday. I was so pumped. Fast forward to Monday, when at 2pm I receive a message telling me my flowers were not done and would not be sent to me.

I was crushed. The order for the flowers was placed in July. It was now September 19 and after being told they would be shipped, I was now being told they were not done. The Etsy shop I was dealing with magically disappeared and I have not received a refund.

I ran around like a crazy person trying to make a plan. I had friends calling places for me, helping me find a solution. Thankfully a friend gave me a number of a local farm who cut fresh flowers in buckets for a really reasonable cost. I called, told them what colors I was after and it was done. Mystery flowers were set to be picked up on Friday afternoon.

I went to a local florist with high recommendations. They were able to make me a bouquet along with bouts and wristlets for the men and parents. We had a plan.

My centerpiece creation! They glowed either purple or white. Better photos at the wedding, I promise.

Thursday night me and R stayed up late putting together last minute centerpieces and baking cookies for our favors. We had to have everything done for the venue so it could be delivered by 6pm on Friday.

Mystery flowers! Gorgeous!

Friday arrived. I left the house early for a massage and a few errands. My parents arrived around noon and me and my mom were off to fetch the mystery flowers. R and my dad went to pick up a van to shuttle everyone around. By the time all the errands were run, we were off to the rehearsal.




The weather was pretty dreary, but I accepted it, as we had the most beautiful wedding day weather. You will get to see that in next week's post. Also you can see my dad wore the brightest shirt he could find. No way you could lose him.. or could we?

We went out to dinner afterwards and had a lovely meal with everyone. We finished up and everyone was heading out. My dad was no where to be found. My mom was wandering aimlessly looking for him. She peeked back into the restaurant and there was my dad sitting at the bar. He doesn't drink. He comes walking out with 2 coffee mugs. He is obsessed with diner/restaurant coffee mugs. He had to purchase himself one of course.



We headed back to the lake house, where me and the girls went straight into bouquet making. All the girls got to create their own flower arrangement. What first looked like a chore, turned into a really fun night. All the girls had fun creating their masterpieces. Each one unique to them. What was once a disaster, turned into a really fun night. I recommend all brides do this with their bridal party.

Come back next week for the big day! I am so excited to share my wedding photos with you all! Everything came together beautifully and I had the best day ever!

Today I am doing something a little different. I am going to showcase some fashion for your viewing pleasure. Since Halloween is my favorite holiday, I figured I would show off a few ways I would dress the week leading up to Halloween. I am going to show you two looks involving wearing skulls. Now I know some people are not a huge fan, so I went one for the girl who doesn't mind wearing black, and one for the gal who adores her pinks.

The first look incorporates a black sweater dress with some fun Halloween leggings. I added the skull accent with a scarf and finishing off the look with some ankle boots and a red lip. This is a look I would wear to the office for Halloween.



The next look is a little more for the girly girl who isn't much for black. I paired a salmon pink top which was thrifted and a pair of fun skull leggings from the LulaRow Halloween capsule.
The outfit is tied together with some bright magenta socks and ankle boots.


I had a blast putting together these outfits and shooting my first photoshoot for this blog. The weather has been pretty dreary here in NY the last few days, so I was happy to get a dry day to model these outfits while it was still Fall looking outside. Notice my porch is a little decorated for fall.. those flowers were parking markers from our wedding! I thought it was fun to attach them to the porch for a festive look.

Stay tuned for some more fun outfits coming your way! I am thinking about doing something weekly because, why not?!

Jenn over at Optimization, Actually started doing a "weekly wins" post and because one of the books I just read encouraged to start focusing on all the good every week rather than the negatives, I decided to follow suit and do the same. Wow that was one heck of a run on sentence. I apologize.

So every weekend I am going to attend to write about what really rocked my week. wish me luck..

Vacation

Me and R finally got around to taking a mini honeymoon just to clear our heads from the whirlwind that was our wedding and life all mixed in . We visited Alexandria Bay in the Thousand Islands. We got there just in time for the last day of the Boldt Castle. We were in the glorious off season where it was pretty quiet. I really recommend visiting places on off season, as you get the place to yourself. I am going to be posting more about that in another post. Stay tuned!

Health

• I am finally seeing some progress with my skin. It has cleared up quite a bit in the acne department and it' starting to get a nice glow back. I am so happy to see progress. Now I need to keep myself going with the system I have so my skin will keep glowing.

• This coming week I am jumping back on the healthier lifestyle bandwagon and getting my butt back to the gym. I really think it is a seasonal sport for me.. I can't bare to spend my time in the gym during the nice weather.

Personal

• This has been the year of reading self help books and I have to say, I have really enjoyed most of them. I never was an avid reader and when I did read it wasn't non-fiction of any sorts. I have read quite a few non-fiction this year and I have several more I want to squeeze in before the year is over.

• I am finally back to playing with my makeup. I know this sounds silly, but it's a real win for me. I spoke about this earlier in the week when I posted about my passions coming back to life.

Blog

• I spent most of the week/weekend working on a new series I am bringing to the blog this week. It is something the really gets me excited and I can't wait to get it posted.

• I cleaned up my blog post section as well as my email account and it is much tidier and easier to navigate now. Super big win!