Foodie Friday | Slow Cooker Vegetarian Satay

Finally, a non-wedding post!

Okay, admittedly I've been a little focused on my Wedding Wednesday posts, but today I want to post about FOOD...and guess what, it works as an alliteration. So, Foodie Friday is born! In my last wedding post, I mentioned that I've been getting more organized with my cooking, cleaning, work, and exercise and that I started doing "Slow Cooker Saturdays." Well, turns out that I absolutely love using my slow cooker! So I wanted to share my recipe from last Saturday and let everyone know how yummy it turned out.

I found this recipe on wonderful Pinterest and have to say it is definitely a good one. I was extremely skeptical at first, because this isn't a dish that I'm familiar with at all. I've never even had it a restaurant before. The recipe can be found here on KeyIngredient.com and it is called Vegetarian Slow Cooker Satay.

Now, what is satay you say? (I asked this, too, so don't feel like you're lacking culture). This dish is traditionally found in Southeast Asia, in places like Malaysia, Thailand, and India. It is usually defined as different marinated meats, dipped in a peanut sauce. But in this case, it seams they are using satay to describe the peanut sauce itself, since it is a vegetarian recipe.

The ingredients are fairly simple and very inexpensive given the amount of food this makes. I've been eating it all week and still have leftovers. This is partly because the result is VERY rich and you can't eat a whole lot of it at a time. The ingredients include a whole jar of peanut butter, so you can imagine how thick and rich this dish is. In addition to the peanut butter, the other ingredients are garlic, onion, bell pepper, brown sugar, a can of stewed tomatoes, soy sauce, water, chili paste, and finished with some lime juice.

Now, for some weird reason, I did have some trouble finding the chili paste at the grocery store. My local Whole Foods didn't even have it. It occurred to me after-the-fact to look at Trader Joe's since they tend to have lots of international ingredients, so you might want to check there first (if you have a Trader Joe's). I actually ended up finding it at a Ralph's in a fancy part of town, so go figure.

The steps were stupid simple, basically: Chop. Dump into slow cooker. Stir. Go about your day. 6 hours later, eat dinner! Love it. Here are some delicious photos because I took pictures all along the way, like a good foodie blogger!

Onions and bell peppers are pretty much the staples of our diet in this house. 

Doesn't that look yummy?

Here's all the ingredients in the crockpot.

Above: All the ingredients mixed together. It took a little bit of muscle to really get it blended. It says on the instructions that the creator of the recipe used a potato masher to mix it, and I can see why. The peanut butter is reluctant to mix. But as it cooks, it breaks up nicely and stirs easily. 

Above: Here it is after an hour of cooking. Looking good, not much difference yet, but at this point my whole apartment smelled like peanut butter. I'm talking an EXTREME smell of peanut butter. If you love peanut butter, you'll probably think of this as heaven. I, on the other hand, do not love peanut butter. I pretty much only put it on bananas and otherwise don't eat it. And I hate PB and J sandwiches. So, I wasn't thrilled with the smell. In fact it was making me a little sick to my stomach haha...

Above: After 3 hours of cooking, unstirred. (I should say I cooked it on low for about 6 1/2 hours total) The peanut oil was starting to separate to the top, so I was checking it a little more often to stir it up (maybe every half hour or so). Still overwhelming smells of peanut butter, but I was getting used to it. It was getting more of a spicy smell now, too, which helped a lot. Below: After 3 hours, stirred.

Above: After 4 hours of cooking, unstirred. I'd say at this point I was getting mild to moderately concerned just because it was getting so separated, so creamy, so peanut buttery and golden. The texture was (and remained until the end) weird. Again, this is just because I was unfamiliar with the dish to begin with, having never eaten it before, let alone made it myself. So, I tasted the spoon at this point. And I was blown away. It definitely was a lot more complex tasting than just the peanut butter smell overtaking my apartment (like the smoke monster from LOST) would let on. Below: After 4 hours, stirred.

At this point, Blake was home from work and we decided to go on a bike ride, because we could, and I left the crockpot alone for about two hours, unattended. And guess what? It was perfectly fine! Did I mention I love slow cooker recipes??

Here's my hungry honey at the beach, ready for his peanut butter dinner ;)

Above: After a quick stir, this is what it looked like when we got home, just shy of 6 hours cooking. I tasted it and decided it was just about ready, and it was getting very yummy. I knew it was basically done because I kept walking back to the crockpot to sneak more tastes. 

Above: I also had some frozen, cooked shrimp that I wanted to use up, so I figured I'd add it in, just for a little more substance. I defrosted the shrimp first, and just put them into the mix for about 10 minutes, just to warm them up. It ended up being a very good decision and I would recommend it. 

So, that's about it! At the end of cooking, squeeze the juice of a couple limes into it and serve on rice. Here's the final product. I know the color and texture doesn't necessarily look like the most appetizing thing! Kinda like a pile of something that shouldn't be talked about when referencing food! But I swear, it's very, very good. And once you mix it up with the rice, it looks a lot more delicious haha...

A few things I would do differently next time: I would add more chili paste. I prefer my Asian food to be super spicy, and this had virtually no spice at all. I would use fresh garlic, too, instead of pre-minced, garlic in a jar (the recipe calls for fresh garlic, I just substituted it with what I already had). I would probably go ahead and put in more garlic, too. I'm not saying this was bland by any means, it had a ton of flavor (not just peanut butter, either!), I just prefer things to be more spicy. If I had any fresh cilantro, I would have thrown that on there as well. I think it would be a good combination.

Again, the link to the recipe is here. Or you can check out my Pinterest board "PINNED IT - DID IT!" with all the recipes and things that I've tried on there that have been a grand success (don't laugh at me that there's only a few things on there right now! I'm in the process of organizing my pins! haha).

It's currently raining (?!) here in Southern California (I know, right??) so tomorrow I'm going to make Vegetarian French Onion soup in the slow cooker! If it turns out good, I'll blog about it on next Foodie Friday (although, I do want to get some Fitness Fridays in there at some point, too). It's another Pinterest-found recipe and the original can be found here on sixtyone45.com. Hopefully it turns out yummy, because I've been craving French Onion soup all winter!

And, if you have any amazing slow cooker recipes, please please please let me know!

Thanks for reading!
[ j. ]

Wedding Wednesdays - Part 7 | Getting Fit for the Big Day

One of the first things that crossed my mind when we decided on delaying our wedding a year later than I originally wanted, was that I would have extra time to get in shape. If you've read any of my pre-engagement, non-wedding posts, you would see that I am not happy with the current state of my body. Not just being overweight, but various injuries and health problems as well. So, it should be no surprise that fitness blogging would make it's way into my wedding posts. After all, sh*t just got real!

Having a wedding date means it's time to get on it! As it is, we've already been engaged for three months, and I'm just now getting around to thinking about getting in shape. Well, that's not entirely true, but I'm just now getting around to being proactive about it. I think every soon-to-be bride thinks about this topic, so I just figured like everything else, I'll share my journey on here. Blake and I both want to look our best on our wedding day. Not only are there going to be a gazillion pictures taken, but mostly we really want to FEEL good. I want to feel beautiful on my wedding day, and when I feel bloated or uncomfortable in my attire not fitting properly, I'm just not feeling good or confident in general. I don't want to be so squeezed into a dress that I can't inhale properly!

Speaking of the dress, I'm refusing to even try any on until after our Dominican Republic vacation in June, so don't even ask! haha... plus, when we get back from our trip I plan on being extremely tan, which makes all dresses look better on! Speaking of DR, that's another reason to jump start this weight loss stuff. I want to feel a lot better about wearing next to nothing in the Caribbean this summer!

In general, I've been getting more organized and proactive lately, and included in that, I've added stretching and some sort of fitness to my everyday routine. Now, does this mean I'm running ten miles a day? No, of course not. For me, it's a huge event just to get down on the ground and stretch a little, so this isn't some extreme crash diet fitness program that I'm doing. I really just want to change my bad habits of eating too much and sitting around all day. The changes I'm making are meant to last a lifetime (I hope), so I'm starting slower this time than I have in the past. I'm laying off the 30-day squat challenge (even though I'm antsy to do it again), because I know I'm not strong enough to tackle it yet and I'll just end up hurting myself (like I did last time!).

So here's what I am doing. Planning meals, tracking food intake on the MyFitnessPal app, drinking more water, being more active at home, and getting outside to walk/ride bikes/play tennis/anything to get some exercise! Sounds simple, but to be honest, I'm extremely tired and sore as I write this. But I'm sticking with it because I know a spike in energy will soon come... and nothing is more motivating than a wedding date, like I said before.

I created an extremely OCD planner about a week ago, and it has really been helping me. I plan out a week at a time and it includes meal planning, exercise, work, blog and even housework. It's printed out and posted on our fridge so that I look at it all the time. Like "Wedding Wednesdays," I have an unhealthy addiction to alliterations on this planner. Wednesday is also "Wacky Wednesday" for meals and "Wednesday Wash" for housework! Haha, okay, I know it's dorky but I like it and it helps me to remember what I'm supposed to do each day (and to remember what day of the week it is, since that has been a problem for me in the past! haha).

For meal planning, I pretty much have a handful of healthy breakfasts and lunches that I cycle through throughout the week, and dinners I do something more special for both Blake and myself. Sunday is "Family Sunday" (they're not all alliterations) because we're usually at my parents' house on Sundays to do laundry and we eat over there. We also consider this our cheat day because copious amounts of wine are usually consumed, plus Blake and my dad almost always BBQ some huge hunk of unhealthy meat that day. Which is why we do "Meatless Monday" and followed by "Healthy Tuesday" just to balance out the weekends.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays Blake works late so dinner ends up being a little difficult. "Healthy Tuesday" is usually something like a big salad or vegetable plate with chicken/fish, just because it's easy for us to eat at separate times or it can be reheated when he gets home. "Wacky Wednesday" is where I plan to test out new healthy recipes and try new forms of healthy foods that we may have not tried before (read: quinoa). This is followed up by "Throwback Thursday" when I cook some sort of tried-and-true recipe that we already know we love. Rounding off the week is "Fish Friday" and "Slowcooker Saturday" which is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. I love that I can dump a bunch of ingredients into a crockpot, forget it for hours at a time, and it turns out wonderful! That's my kind of cooking ;)

Now, for tracking calories and exercise, I cannot rave about the MyFitnessPal app enough. It is so simple to use, and you can even scan the barcodes of the packages of the food you're eating. I am in the habit of weighing and measuring my food, too, which makes it pretty darn accurate. You can track specific things like carbs and sugar, too, not just calories. It also has a place to enter how many glasses of water you've had during the day, which is really helpful. You can record your weight and body measurements and it will auto calculate how many calories you should be eating per day based on your goal weight and how many pounds per week you intend to lose (I'm shooting for -1 lb. per week, since thank goodness, I have over 50 weeks before the wedding! haha). It also yells at you if you are eating too FEW calories per day, which is also helpful to keep you healthy and avoid crash dieting and starvation which is, of course, not good for you.

You can also access everything online on the MyFitnessPal website. My plan is to start planning my whole day's worth of food intake before the day even happens, and then just follow along with my app. That way, there's no guess work. I won't have to worry about not having enough calories left by dinner time. Every time I've lost serious amounts of weight in the past, it's been because of tracking my food intake. Every time I've gained the weight back, it's been because I stopped using this app. Bottom line.

Now, as for exercise, this is where I have a lot more trouble. I have a couple of chronic injuries, which make things a little more difficult for me than most. But, as long as I do what I can to get more active, it should help. The main thing I need to do is to just get up more and be more active during the day when I'm working at home. Part of my problem is chronic back pain from being at the computer too much. The first thing I did was buy a fitness ball and ditch my desk chair. This is now my permanent seat at my desk!

It's been working out really well so far. My back is definitely sore, but it feels more like a muscle building sore, not a muscle tearing sore like it usually is. Also, I move around more while sitting. I find myself bouncing on it more than just sitting, especially when a good song comes on the radio!

Having a house cleaning schedule has improved a lot of things, too. Usually I slack on cleaning the house during the week because I'm just too busy, and then binge clean on the weekends. I already mentioned that on Sunday I do our laundry over at my parents house, and Monday I am usually swamped with work so I take the day off from housework. Then we hit the alliterations again: Tuesday Tidy (basically just putting away any accumulated clutter), Wednesday Wash (clean the counters and sinks, dust, clean windows and mirrors, etc.), Thursday Throw Away (make sure all the trash is out, toss any trash sitting around), Friday Floors (vacuum, and Swiffer the whole house) and Saturday I pick one "problem area" to organize (last week it was my mounds of paperwork on my desk).

But by putting certain tasks on certain days, I find myself up and moving around the house more during the week and not as worn out from cleaning on the weekends, which leaves more time for doing fun kinds of exercise like bike rides!

We went for a 10 mile ride last Saturday, and I gotta admit it kinda kicked my butt (literally - I was really sore for two days afterwards!). But it was so much fun. I think getting active as a couple is really going to increase our weight loss success. It's nice to do stuff together that doesn't involve the TV or fast food! haha

We went on a 1.5 mile walk at the park this morning, which has left me unable to comfortably walk (or even rest) right now because of shin splints...sad, I know... but it was still nice to get outside, get some sunshine, and move around. Isn't the Huntington Beach Central Park pretty? It was such a nice day today, too, it would be hard not to go outside.

I also wanted to share this ironic tank top I wore while walking today. It made me laugh since I literally can't run... but maybe someday!

Anyway, I feel like I've been waiting my whole life for something like this to really motivate me to lose weight, and I am really motivated. I know it will be hard, (I'm popping Advil like candy tonight and alternating between ice packs and heating pads all over my body) but imagining what our wedding day will be like makes it all worth it for me!

I know this wasn't a super "wedding-y" post, at least not in a traditional sense, but the fact that there is a whole section on theknot.com about fitness makes me think that most brides go through something like this in preparation for their wedding. They have some interesting workout ideas on there which I will probably try in the next month or so, once my body gets used to this increased activity. I particularly like this 6-month plan and it doesn't look too difficult. At least, it eases into the difficult stuff. If and when I do start something like that (or the squat challenge!) I'll definitely post about it on here. As for now, time to sleep off today's hard work!

Thanks for reading :)

[ j. ]

Wedding Wednesdays - Part 6

I'm working out a new schedule for myself today because I have been feeling overwhelmed with keeping up with everyday tasks (I have an increase in business to thank for this, which is not something to complain about! Thanks Etsy!) But lately I have been feeling so scatterbrained! I've been having a hard time keeping up with everything else in my life that is non-business related. Blake and I both desperately want to get back on track with eating right and exercising, especially with the wedding coming up. We don't want to look terrible in the photos that we will cherish for the rest of our lives! But the busier I am, the harder it is to cook healthy meals and find time to exercise.

So, long story short, I'm taking the time today to get myself organized and make a plan for balancing all my to-do lists, meals, exercise schedule, etcetera. Part of this is also organizing my desk in my office, which has been driving me crazy lately! I simply can't blog with so much clutter around me haha...

The good news is, in the midst of all this planning and organizing, I have actually made progress this week on our wedding website. It is far from complete, mostly because we don't have very much planned out yet, but there's some good stuff up there nonetheless. I love that this service is available for FREE, provided by theknot.com. I really love their website, it's so helpful!

So, here is the link to our wedding website: theknot.com/wedding/Bales-Dorman
I encourage everyone who is interested to check it out!

Also, I just got an email from our caterer wanting to set a meeting to do some food tasting, meal planning and table layout! Ahhh things just got really exciting! Meeting with the caterer is probably going to be one of my favorite days in the wedding planning process. Who doesn't want to spend the day planning a menu and tasting delicious food?? :)

[ j. ]

Wedding Wednesdays - Part 5 | Picking a Venue

Somehow Wedding Wednesday turned into Wedding Thursday this week, and I have no excuse other than I lost track of what day of the week it is. Oh the joys of working from home...anyways...on to the post!

The hardest part about wedding planning for me so far has been finding the perfect venue and setting the wedding date. The venue changed locations in my mind about 5 times, mostly because the longtime dream wedding that I had in mind since before I even met my future husband just wasn't practical. But those fairy tale ideas never really are, right? So once that idea got the axe, it became a little easier to narrow things down. Here's how it all went down...

Quite a few years ago (long before I met Blake) I went to Paso Robles with my mom and friend Chef Debbi and we went to the Santa Margarita Ranch. While we were there, they were starting to set up for a wedding and ever since then, I have had that venue in the back of my mind. The idea of getting married in a barn really appeals to me. It's very county, somewhat casual and sounds like a the type of place where everyone could really have a blast. Here is a photo of the inside of the Santa Margarita Ranch's barn:

Photographed by the talented Cameron Ingalls

Once I was looking at pictures of different barn venues, I realized it could be a very elegant wedding, too. Barns have lots of potential. So, when we got engaged my first thought was a barn wedding. Blake and I love Paso Robles and wineries/wine, too, so it seemed like a perfect choice! Right?

Well, it didn't really work out that way. First of all, we want to have our wedding in summer after the schools get out for break since Blake is going to be a teacher and we want to be able to get away for our anniversary every year. Unfortunately, my cousin Kelly, who is one of my bridesmaids (and is more like a little sister to me than just a cousin) is having a major spine surgery this summer at the end of June. So our window of time to schedule the wedding was narrowed down to pretty much two weekends in June, since Kelly will be down and out all summer.

As I started contacting the winery wedding venues in Paso Robles, I was basically laughed at because everything for this summer, especially June, is (of course) already booked. As if I thought I could get a venue within a year prior to the wedding date! What was I thinking?? Granted, if I was a little more flexible about the months, maybe I could have had a wedding in a Paso winery this fall or winter, but that just wasn't an option for us. Blake will be student teaching this Fall and will absolutely not be able to take any time off. So we definitely wouldn't be able to have a honeymoon right after getting married. Plus, we will be strapped for cash big time and that just isn't the right time to have a wedding.

After a lot of talking and decision making, we decided that having a wedding in the summer was more important to us than the location itself. But at this time, I was still stuck on the idea of having the wedding in summer of this year, 2014. So, I expanded my search to locally near home in Orange County. Not only because of the scheduling problem, but we were also reminded by a friend that this would technically be a "destination" wedding, even though it's only 4 hours from home. It would require everyone getting a hotel room and traveling for the weekend. It would cost everyone more money and some people would be less likely to show up. That was the real deal-breaker for me. The idea that some of our friends or family wouldn't show up to our wedding made me want to cry, and the last thing I would ever want to do is burden them financially. At the end of the day, all we really want is for everyone we love to be in one place, celebrating and dancing and drinking and laughing with us. One big love-fest. So, it was decided, definitively, to make the wedding local.

There are only a few venues locally that have this same rustic, barn-like feel. There's Strawberry Farms in Irvine, but we both know people who have gotten married there already and we want to be unique. It's also out of our budget anyway. My search led me to many different rustic options, most of them in the Inland Empire which I wasn't crazy about. At this point I can't even remember all the places I looked at and contacted. All booked. All not quite right.

Then, I was struck with a bolt of genius and had a big "no duh" moment. Right across the street from our apartment in Huntington Beach is an old historic house that has been turned into a museum called the Newland House. Behind it is the Newland Barn and it is absolutely adorable. When I say that it is right across the street from our apartment, I mean pretty much literally. It's a 5-minute walk away. How I never considered this location from day one is beyond me. I think maybe because the inside of the barn is basically a rec-room and not big enough for the reception, it didn't really dawn on me. But having the wedding completely outside is more of the feel I want, anyway. Having the barn as the backdrop would be good enough! They also have an amazing water tower and those big bistro lights, which are my favorite thing ever.

Here's a link to a full wedding to see more pictures of the venue if you're interested: Newland Barn Wedding

It's hard to explain how much I fell in love with this venue right off the bat. I was absolutely convinced that this was the place. Guess what? It wasn't. But, falling in love with this location did get me to open up to the idea of not having the wedding this summer, because they (of course) were booked. This particular venue also had a different policy for booking. It is part of the Huntington Beach parks system, so you book the venue at city hall. They take reservations up to exactly one year prior to your event, and if more than one person shows up on that day, they do a lottery to decide who gets the venue. So, if I wanted to book a wedding for June 21st, 2014 (for example), I would have to be there at 8am on June 21st, 2013.

After a lot more discussing and driving by the location at least 25 times in about 3 days, we decided the value was there (did I mention it was dirt cheap, about the same price as renting out a park??), the location was perfect, and I guess we can wait until summer 2015. It wasn't ideal, but what's another year, right? We live together already, we already feel married, and this would give me a TON of time to plan (and lose weight!). No matter where we wanted to have the wedding, if it wasn't in a family member's backyard, summer 2014 was just too soon, and too complicated.

It was decided: Newland Barn it is! By this time it was the beginning of February of this year (did I mention all this back-and forth occurred within a matter of two weeks of getting engaged?) and I started to look at next year's calendar. The next available Saturday of next year would be Valentine's Day and I thought maybe that would be a cute idea. Sure, we wanted to get married in summer, but Valentine's Day would be just one year from now instead of a year and a half... so why not? Blake would be done student teaching by then...so why not? Sure, he wouldn't have time off every year...but why not do it anyway?

The great thing about this place (which came in handy later) is that they have a change date/cancellation fee of only $15. So, there really isn't a lot of pressure when booking it. If you change your mind, you're only out 15 bucks. And we booked it. On this past Valentine's Day 2014, Blake, my mom, and I booked the venue for next year, Valentine's Day 2015. I really had every intention of trying to change the date to summer 2015, but I wanted to make sure I had some date locked in, just in case I never won the wedding lottery this summer. I felt really good about everything...great even! Then dad went into full-blown-up-all-night-call-in-sick-to-work-the-next-day-from-lack-of-sleep-panic-mode.

What I failed to mention is that they don't allow tents on the grounds in case of rain. If it rains, you can try to squeeze as many people as possible into the ugly rec-room barn, but basically you're just out of luck and getting rained on. Now, we're in Huntington Beach and it rains about 3 times a year, maybe. But according to my dad's up-all-night research, February is the wettest time of year, statistically speaking. Even though I was planning on moving the date anyway, dad was still picturing me sobbing on my wedding day as the El Nino, mother of all storms, ruined my wedding day. And of course, he had a point. Booking a venue in February with no shelter from rain is beyond sketchy.

Even though I was planning on moving the date to summer, I started thinking of all the times it has rained in June. I remember specifically in middle school and high school (during an El Nino trend), it rained on the last day of school in June for about three or four years in a row. And not to mention June gloom. At this point I was thinking June 2015 for the wedding. This venue is about 2 miles from the shore in Huntington Beach and June is always overcast, drizzly, cold and windy. So not what we want for our wedding! We want warm summer night, dancing under the stars, not bundle up in blankets and shiver under an outdoor heater. Well, it's not what I want anyway. Blake would be perfectly happy getting married in a blizzard on an outdoor ice rink! Reluctantly, I started my venue search all over again.

Can you see how all this drama could get to a person? It was starting to become too much for me and the idea of eloping was now seriously on the table. If I didn't think it would break my dad's heart not to be able to walk me down the aisle, we just might have done it.

Somehow (and I truly don't even remember where I saw this place in my tenth time around searching for a venue) I found the Heritage Museum of Orange County. The Newland House is a big, white, amazing looking Victorian house and they have a museum inside, but no one is allowed inside on the day of the wedding (you aren't even supposed to go on the porch for photos). I think that's why the Heritage Museum caught my eye. It's like the Newland House on steroids. Not only is there a big, white, amazing looking Victorian house with a museum inside, but we get to use it on the day of the wedding! The bride and her bridesmaids get to get dressed inside before the wedding, and for a minimal fee, we get to have the museum opened up to our guests during the cocktail hour between the ceremony and reception while we're off taking pictures. I am OVER THE MOON about this place. Thank goodness dad freaked out about there being no contingency for rain at the Newland Barn! Here is their Facebook page with pictures of the venue.

So, not only do they have the big white house/museum that we get to use, but the whole place is HUGE. There are TWO big houses, a gorgeous shaded gazebo area for the ceremony, a covered reception area with dance floor (hello rain protection!!), and an entire rustic/old west area with so many photo ops it makes my head spin. They even have a blacksmith shop, mining shaft, and covered wagon. I don't want to go into too many details about the venue itself because you really have to see it to believe it. I want people to be just as excited as I was the first time I saw it in person, but here are some of my favorite photos of the venue: (photos by The Willinghams)

Are you dying? I'm dying. I can't get over this place. When we were there it just felt so much more "wedding-y" than the other places that we've been. They are so much more equipped for weddings than the Newland Barn. They have a set caterer and rental company. They have a list of preferred vendors to help us plan all the other aspects of the wedding. And I can still decorate and plan stuff in a DIY fashion.

Very long, dramatic story short... we booked it. They were just about completely open all of summer 2015, so we somewhat randomly chose 7-11 because it's memorable and we will always be able to get free Slurpees on our anniversary! haha! So that's it. That's the story. We have our venue. We have our date. I have about 50 new grey hairs, but it's done. It's set. And it's not changing! Now I get to have fun and start planning all the other stuff and have the whole wedding planning experience that I imagined for the last ten years of my life! Everything works out for a reason, and I really couldn't see us getting married in a better place.

Here's to Jamie + Blake, 7-11-15!

[ j. ]

Wedding Wednesdays - Part 4 | Our Engagement Party!

Last Saturday, Blake and I threw a double birthday/engagement party with our family and friends. It was basically amazing. Our birthdays are super special to me since they are they day after each other and I think that's just the best thing ever (remember the post about my engagement ring and how it's our March birthstone because it means so much to me? So yeah.)

I spent more time on this party than on all other parties I've ever had combined (which isn't saying much because I don't usually do parties!) and I'm super happy with the way it turned out. Even though Blake knew about the party, I still wanted there to be some element of surprise for him since it was his BIG THREE-OH! So, I kept the retro movie theme of the party and all the decorations a secret.

I'll start with the invitation, which I made myself but will admit I did not come up with the design. I found a design I liked on Shutterfly and then recreated it in InDesign, making the necessary adjustments as they applied to our party. At the time I made the invites, I wasn't positive that I wanted to do a movie theme but thought it was a possibility, so I kept the design somewhat neutral but made the colors adaptable to the retro movie theme if I decided to go with it. Plus, I didn't want the design to really give anything away to Blake.

And no, I was NOT turning 31... I was turning 29 (+2) which will be the way it is written from now on, thank-you-very-much.

The way I came up with the theme of the party was mostly because Blake is so crazy about movies and we really LOVE going to the movies together. I'd say it's probably our favorite thing to do on a night out (or watching movies in at home, too!). But also, when we decided to delay the wedding a year and have it next summer instead of this summer - since all the good venues were booked already - I couldn't help but think about the movie Five-Year Engagement. It's rapidly becoming my favorite wedding themed movie. So, that naturally led in to me Photoshopping our faces into the official movie poster! Then one thing led to another, and the movie theme was officially born. Because our wedding will have a very vintage feel, I didn't want the party looking too modern, so I added in a bunch of retro touches. Here are some photos of the decorations and the movie posters:

Since we booked our wedding venue the day before the party, we did a guess the wedding date game and were able to announce the date at the party! I made this big calendar of summer 2015 and had our party guests sign their name on the date of their guess. The person who landed on the right date was my grandma, so it couldn't have worked out better!

Mr. & Mrs. Dorman (Originally Mr. & Mrs. Smith) movie poster with both our faces Photoshopped in. I also named us "Blake Pitt" and "Angelina Jamie" haha

Groominator 2 - Wedding Day (Terminator 2 - Judgement Day) movie poster with Blake's face Photoshopped into it.

 Because it was my 31st birthday, I just HAD to have a Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors ice cream stand. 

You can also see the rest of the posters in this shot, these two included everyone in our wedding party. 

 I left Melissa McCarthy in there since I only have four bridesmaids haha

This table was set up like a concession stand with all the movie goodies including popcorn, candy, and redvines.

 We used retro popcorn containers to hold the forks, spoons and knives.

Before I show the pictures of the bar outside, here are full versions of the Photoshopped movie posters that I made. I went to my mom's office and printed them out on her oversized printer and spray mounted them on to foam core board. She also was able to get easels to use for poster stands from her work. Oh the perks of having a mom who works at a college! So many resources...

 This one is my favorite, probably because I love this movie so much and it was the first one that I did. Also, I think our faces turned out the best. I spent a lot of time on this one. My mom kept saying how hot Blake looks! 

 If only our bodies looked like this...

This one is Blake's favorite. I imagine we'll have this one in our apartment for quite a long time. haha 

So, outside I made a "Classic Movie Bar" using recipes based on famous old movies and actors. I think this was my favorite part of the party. It turned out perfect!

In addition to the "Guess the Wedding Date" game, we also had two other games at the party. We did a version of "The Newlywed Game" where my matron of honor, Natalie, created questions for Blake and I to answer on whiteboards and try to match our answers. It was really fun and we did way worse than I thought we would, which made it super funny. Before the game we passed out little admission tickets (seen in the pictures above) to everyone so they could write down how many they thought we would get right. The person who guessed closest won. We ended up matching 5 out of 12, but one of them I cheated and one of them wasn't "technically" a match since we both wrote down the word "me" which meant that we didn't actually mean the same person haha... Here are the questions we had as well as our answers:

1. If Blake could be any superhero, who would he be?
I screwed this one up by guessing The Terminator (just because I couldn't think of an answer at all and I had just made that movie poster.) Clearly, Batman was the right answer! haha

2. What was the first movie you saw together?
We got this one right only because Blake turned his board around before I had written down my answer and one of his groomsmen, Brandon, read Blake's answer out loud. Hunger Games was definitely not the first movie we saw together, since it came out about six months after we started dating, but neither of us can remember what it was!

3. What sport could Jamie definitely beat Blake at?
I was this close to writing down "none" because at first I was thinking of all team sports (Hockey or ice skating, just no. Football, obviously not. Baseball/softball, yeah right...). Blake is better than me at all the team sports. But I think I could kick his butt at swimming for sure, even though I haven't really done it in 15 years. He'd kill me at tennis; he was obviously being generous. After these two pathetic answers, but mom said "skiing!" which, duh, of course is the only sport I'm better than him at (although I bet if I take him up the mountain about three more times, he'll be skiing circles around me.) I just hope our kids get his athletic abilities!!

4. How long did you date before getting engaged?
Finally an easy question! I was worried Blake wouldn't be able to do the math, but he pulled it off ;) I was clearly super excited that we got one right haha

 5. If you went out for drinks, what drink would Jamie order?
We didn't get a picture of this one, but Blake guessed Dr. Pepper, and I said wine. Clearly, if we were going out for drinks, that implies alcohol. Although if we were going out to dinner I'd usually get a Dr. Pepper.

6. If you could go anywhere for your honeymoon, where would your dream destination be?
I messed this one up. Italy is really high on the list for a vacation, but Tahiti is much better for a honeymoon. We looked at pictures of places in Tahiti before, too, so I must have just blanked.

7. How many children do you want to have?
I thought for sure we'd get this one right because we've talked about it so many times! Three boys, Blake! Not four! Look at the expression on my face LOL

8. Where is your favorite place to go out to eat together?
This one was tough, mostly because we don't go out to eat that often. We were both thinking restaurants, but the truth is, we go to In-N-Out more than anywhere else!

9. What percentage of housework does Blake do?
I was using this opportunity to make a point. But I guess he does do the dishes, so 10% is probably about right haha

10. Who wears the pants in the relationship?
To save face amongst our families, he had to say he wears the pants. But it's clearly me. They gave us this answer as being a match, since technically we wrote down the same word haha

11. Who is the most organized?
This was the best question for us by far. Took two seconds to come up with this answer and Blake even managed to draw a fancy arrow.

12. In one word, describe how you felt at the moment you got engaged.
Blake kept saying, keep it simple, keep it simple, but I couldn't. Happy wasn't big enough of a word to describe how I felt. But they gave it to us as a match anyway haha

I thought this game was so much fun. Natalie did a great job with the questions! Although we didn't do great, at least people knew that we didn't cheat or know the answers ahead of time!

Our other game was a movie quote trivia game. I printed out 15 romantic movie quotes and scattered them around the house as decorations and then we collected them all and read them out loud. Everyone had an answer sheet and had to write down the name of the movie. It was pretty hard, too, which was good because then everyone could know how we felt in our hard game!

I made Blake read most of them, which he hated, but he did anyway because he loves me and I put so much work into this party! What a good fiance.

Out of 15 quotes, my cousin Kat and friend Ben tied with 8 correct answers, so I did a tiebreaker asking for certain names of characters from the movies. The final victor ended up being Ben, and he definitely got a little grief from my dad about being the master of "chick-flicks"! haha Also, I gave movie gift cards to the winners of all these games, just to keep up with the theme.

Lastly, we revealed the date of the wedding, and like I said earlier, my grandma Betty had the winning guess. She was one of the first people to guess, too! Since our date is July 11, 2015 (or 7-11!) I printed out the 7-11 logo as the way of announcing it. It took people a minute to get it, which I thought was pretty funny.

After this we did cake and just partied it up! Lots of delicious food, drinking, swimming and jacuzzi time, which made for a great party.

I especially want to thank my mom who slaved over the food and my aunt Kathy who provided the house and helped with cleaning, decorations, alcohol, etc. My cousins helped me decorate and get balloons. Overall it was a great family effort and Blake and I feel very loved! What a wonderful day. Now that we've set the date and venue, let the countdown begin!! Next week's post will be a detailed post about our AMAZING venue.

[ j. ]