Wedding Pictures!!!

We finally got our wedding pictures back....and I am in LOVE with them!! Our photographer did such a great job! We can't thank her enough! Here are a few of my favorite pictures!

{The Girls}

{The Guys}

{The Groom}

{First Look}

{The Dress}

{The Kiss}

{Mr. & Mrs. Renfro}

{It's not a wedding unless there is a jumping shot}

{ :) }

{Just Married}

{Shoes!}

xoxo,

Megs

*All photographs taken by St. Anne Photography

*Dress: Casablanca 1900

The Weight Loss Chronicles: Getting back on track...again & again...

Well...it's been a while since I posted about my weight loss efforts. I was doing good for a while, but once school started I was just too busy! I had a lot on my plate...well I still do but I have more time to focus on getting fit.

Recently, Matthew & I were watching late night tv and saw a story on this guy. His journey is quite incredible and inspirational. He is a personal trainer from Utah who decided to gain weight (50-60lbs) during a six month period and then teach everyone how to lose that weight. He is posting EVERYTHING....work out plans, diet menus, pictures of progress, etc. It is really an interesting concept! If you have time and want to learn more about it, check out his website.  

He just started his weight loss phase on November 5th. I plan on using his plans to further my weight loss. Also, I have been using weight watchers for the last few weeks. It has helped me lose a few pounds and maintain my weight the weeks I wasn't doing so well.

xoxo,
Megs

Honeymoon is Booked...

We finally booked our honeymoon! We will be cruising our way through Alaska in July 2012! Matthew is really excited to be going. I think it will be a lot of fun...I'm not so excited for the cold though. We chose to do a 7 day cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line for two reasons: I have cruised with them before and they don't have any required eating times! We will be visiting Seattle, Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria, BC. We haven't quite settled on all of our shore excursions but we are for sure going on a whale watching tour while we're there!

xoxo,

Megs

All In The Details: Moss Wreath

Hello All! Since I don't have professional pictures back yet, I figured I'd share some of the projects I ended up completing before the wedding. Originally, I wanted to have moss covered letters to hang somewhere at our venue. Then I stumbled upon a cute little blog that gave me this great idea.

I started with everything pictured above. First, I spray painted the letter with grey spray paint. Since grey was one of our wedding colors, I used that color. Feel free to use whatever color you want. Next I started grabbing clumps of moss and hot gluing them to the grapevine wreath.

*Note: spray glue would've been easier* I would suggest laying down some newspaper because the moss got everywhere and my allergies didn't like it too much.

Once all the moss was on, it was time to attach the "R". This was the tricky part, I wish I would've thought about how I was attaching before I had glued all the moss on. I ended up tapping small nails into the back side of the "R" and wrapping floral wire around them. Then I strung the wire through the moss and wreath and tightened it around itself. It seemed to hold just fine. I also decided to add a nest with yellow birds in it. I thought it was a cute addition.  

This was a pretty easy craft. It only took me about 2 hours to complete. It was rather messy but wasn't too bad to clean up. On our wedding day, we ended up hanging it from the door that lead into the Farm House.

xoxo

Megs

*All Personal Photographs*



We Did It...

That's right...we're married! We can't believe its over...now we can finally relax and enjoy married life. Our wedding day was everything we wanted and more! Thank you to all of you who were able to join us on our special day. We love and appreciate all of you!!!

xoxo

Mr. & Mrs. Renfro

1 Month Away...

OMG!!! I can't believe we've hit the 1 month mark!!! 30 days until W day!!!

That's all for now! :)

xoxo
Megs

Crazy Dreams & Wedding Nightmares...

Well folks, the wedding nightmares have become a regular thing on my dreaming agenda. For instance, last night I had a dream my dress wasn't shipped in time for me to wear it down the isle. When I awoke from that nightmare, I fell back asleep only to have another one about my dress being ordered 5 sizes to large. As you can tell, I'm quite worried about my dress! Lol! That prompted me to call the bridal shop again to see if they had any updated information. I was originally told that my dress would be here at the end of July. When I called them, they then informed me that it would ship at the latest, August 15th and arrive by August 21st! WTF?! I was pretty upset when I heard this information. That only gives me six weeks to get it altered. Not to mention I just started school....when the heck am I going to find the time to get this done too?! Today when I called them, they informed me that it would be here August 23rd by 4:00pm! About freaking time I get to see my dress again! Hopefully there are no more delays.

Along with stressing about my dress, I had another nightmare recently....it went a little something like this:

I was in mansion type house with about 15 other brides. Apparently we were all getting married at the same place. They had assigned someone to do my hair and make up, but that turned out disastrous! My hair was cornrowed and the makeup was pretty much hideous! When I went to put on my dress, it was too small and the wrong color. I had no time to make a fuss about this because it was my turn to walk down the aisle. When I was rounding a corner towards these huge double doors, I noticed that half of my bridesmaids were missing. I asked someone where they were and was told they never showed up. I was pretty upset to hear this but had no time to wallow in my self pity. When the double doors opened, the groomsmen had just got done performing some hip hop routine that was being shown on live tv! Then I looked up into the sky and it was all stormy.....pretty much everyone that had initially been seated for the ceremony had gotten up to go inside. The only people that remained were my parents, brothers, sisters, and Matthew's family. I don't remember much after this but I was pretty glad to wake up!

All in all, I know that the wedding will hopefully go better than any of the dreams I've been having! Other than being slightly stressed out that the days are dwindling down, I've been able to get most of the projects and things I wanted to do completed.

xoxo

Megs

The Weight Loss Chronicles: Finding the Time

At the start of every week, I tell myself "Self, this is the week you are going to be fully dedicated to working out! No more excuses!" Realistically, I would love to make it to the gym every day. However, there is not enough time in the day to do everything I need to do. With the wedding inching closer and closer, my days seem to have be busier and busier. Starting a new job didn't help too much either. This week I've done better by getting to the gym to lift weights twice already and I've been keeping close tabs on my eating habits. Although, it is hard to say no to Otter Pops!!! I just love those things!!

The other day I decided to hop on the scale to see if I had made any progress. To my surprise, I had dropped 1lb!!! I know that is not a lot but to me it was. At the beginning of July, we took a week vacation to California. When we got back, I was let go from my job, got sick for two weeks, and started a new job! I didn't have much time to make it to the gym with all of that going on. So I was surprised to see the number down from the original starting point!

Now I just need to keep this motivation going! School will be starting up next week and I will be busier than ever! I'm going to continue to try and make it to the gym a few times a week. Hopefully the numbers on the scale will continue to go down!

xoxo
Megs

It's All In The Details: The Rejects

After months and months and months of stalking wedding blogs, my DIY list of decorations is ever growing! There are a lot of ideas I want to incorporate on the big day but some of them just won't make the cut. There are various reasons why I won't be using the following ideas. Some didn't make the cut because they would just seem so out of place, others are being left out because I won't have the time (or money) to do them. But who knows, maybe someone out there will see this post and want to incorporate them in their big day. 

The Photo Booth 

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From day one, I was dead set on having a photo booth. It's so fun and a great way to get candid pictures. There are various DIY photo booths out there that seem fairly simple to make. However, I don't think we'll get around to building our own and we most certainly do not have the money in the budget for one. Sigh. I suppose we'll just be missing out on great moments like these:

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Moss Letters

Up until recently, I was very set on making a pair of these. Not only are they cute, but I think they bring a vintage/rustic feel. While browsing my favorite wedding website (http://www.weddingbee.com/) I found a way to incorporate our letters in an even cuter way. Don't worry, you'll get to see my new idea in an upcoming post! But for now, I leave you with these inspiration ideas:

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String Lanterns

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I thought that these would be fairly simple to make. I even tried using a tutorial but I failed miserably. They were a lot harder to make than I thought they were going to be. I didn't even get one whole one finished. One day the balloon just decided to shrivel up and took the string down with it. I ended up with a ball of string and glue....oh and 4 days of my life I can't get back haha!

Tissue Paper Pom Poms

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Aren't they lovely?! After making a trial pom pom, I decided that I could buy paper lanterns for cheaper. Since these take 8 pieces of tissue paper (per side), they cost about $2 each. I recently bought paper lanterns from asianideas.com. I got about 50 lanterns for under $50. Plus I was able to get various sizes.

Straws & Hearts

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I also attempted to make these, but have decided that there might not be enough room between the heart and the liquid in the glass. While they are cute, I don't think I'll make them. I did however order the striped paper straws to use for drinks. Since they are in our colors, I think they will still look good without the hearts.

xoxo

Megs

Invitations...

Now that our invitations have finally arrived at their final destinations, I figured I'd share them with the blogging world. I spent a lot of time on these and am quite proud how great they turned out.

In January, while I was in Utah, my sister helped me score some plain white, pocket fold invitations from Walmart. I bought 25 for $15. They included three inserts and all of the envelopes needed. We downloaded cute fonts from dafont.com. The invitations we purchased came with a link for templates. That was really helpful since we printed them all at home. It was a little tricky at first but I was able to figure it out and get all of them printed.

After all the inserts were printed, it was time to dress them up. I purchased a stamp and some grey ink from Hobby Lobby.

The belly bands took WAY longer than they should have. There was probably an easier way to make them, but of course I took the long route. First I cut 12 x 12 paper into 2" strips. Then used a 1 1/2" stencil to trace our letters on the back of the paper. If you plan to do this project this way, make sure you trace the letters on backwards.

Next, I took a xacto knife and hand cut all of the letters! I know...that is dedication! Luckily I only had to make 50 of them and it took me a couple of weekends to finish them all.

Once they were all cut out and trimmed, I glued a yellow 2" strip onto the back. I used Elmer's glue which I wouldn't really recommend. Once they started drying, they developed some curves. Even after I put them under a heavy object, they still weren't completely flat.

Once the bands were all finished, I wrapped them around the completed invitation and glued them together. With out further ado, here is the final product:



Like I said above, I am really proud about how these turned out. I've gotten quite a few compliments regarding them. It made all the time I spent making them well worth it!

xoxo,

Megs

*All Personal Photographs*

The Weight Loss Chornicles: Falling off the bandwagon...

....and getting right back on!

Yes it's true, I somewhat fell off the bandwagon. The last week and a half, it was really hard for me to stay on track. I was really stressed about getting our invitations out but now that they have arrived at their destinations, I can get back to going to the gym. Yesterday, I finally set up some appointments with a personal trainer. Hopefully this will keep me on track and motivated. I'm excited to start working towards my fitness goals.

xoxo,

Megs

6 Months...

I can't believe it's been six months since I had surgery. After a couple of months of physical therapy, I feel that I am doing really well. I recenlty got a gym membership and have been working out as much as I can. I'm pretty sure my legs are about the same size now.

My scar is looking good, although I think it may have gotten darker while I was outside one day. I don't really have much pain anymore, here and there I'll get a pins and needle feeling on the area that is still numb. My ankle feels a little tight some times in the morning but as I go throughout the day, it lossens up.

xoxo,
Megs

And The Winner Is...

A while ago, I posted here about how I was undecided about my centerpieces. You'll also see that I posted here about how my decision may become easier. Well I am proud to tell you that I think I have finally decided on what will be on the tables. And the winner is.....Lemons & Vases! Thanks to all who voted and gave me in put. After months of trying to decide, I found yet another BEAUTIFUL inspiration and decided to model my own centerpieces after it.

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See...isn't is so cute!!! I found this picture one day and the next week, Hobby Lobby decided to have a HUGE sale on all of their glassware! OMG! Of course I had to go check it out. When I made my way over to the nearest store, I was pleased to find plenty of affordable vases! How affordable you ask?! Well I only paid $2 for each vase! I saved $20 on vases alone. I know, I know....in an earlier post I had mentioned that I may just barrow some vases, which = FREE so why did I go out and buy 10 vases?! Well truth be told, I'm kind of a control freak....and my DOC (Day of Coordinator) has been kind of flaky lately (that's another post for another day).

Anyways, I got totally excited about those vases that today, I bought a bunch of lemons to make a mock up! Here it is:

*Personal Photograph*

Matthew thinks that there needs to be a little "something else" but can't quite put his finger on it. I like the way they look and think that once they are in the actual reception, they will look great. I'm open to any suggestions you may have about how to make it look "better." 

Breakdown of Items & Costs

Vase $4 ea - 50% = $2 ea

Curly Twigs $10 - 50% = $5 for 100 pieces

Lemons $.39 ea x 6 = $2.34

Ribbon *Already had from another project*

Total projected cost for centerpieces = About $50 to make 10

xoxo

Megs

The Venue

I've realized with all this wedding talk, I've never shown any pictures of what our venue looks like. We booked our venue, Chapel at the Farm, in December of last year. After months of searching for a decent priced venue in Arizona, I stumped across this little gem. It's not anything spectacular, but I think it's perfect for our vintage, homade wedding. One of the biggest reason I wanted to check this place out was the fact that you were allowed to supply just about everything. The only required vendor we had to choose was our DJ and we still got an amazing price!

Matthew & I decided to go check the place out in person one day. So we drove out to Gilbert and were quite pleased with what there was to offer. The venue is set up in a park like setting. There is a pavilion towards that back where larger receptions and ceremonies can be held. This is where everything will take place for our wedding. Also, the farm house has rooms for the bridal party to get ready. Since we have a larger bridal party, we'll only be staging pictures in these areas because they are kind of on the smaller part. All in all, we are very excited to get married there. Amy, the woman who runs the venue, is an amazingly sweet lady! She has been helpful throughout this whole process! With that said, I'll leave you with a few pictures.

View from the Farm House

The Farm House

Back part of the Pavilion

Side View

xoxo

Megs

*All Personal Photographs*

It's All In The Details: Lighting Up The Night

Decorations are something that I've been stressing about. Mostly because I plan on DIY-ing as much as possible. I've shared my inspirations for centerpieces here. I'm still not 100% sure which one I'll choose but in a recent conversation I had with my Day of Coordinator, she mentioned that she had a ton of vases and her friend also has a lemon tree....so that is swaying my decision a bit :)

Anyways, I wanted to share the inspiration pictures for lighting that may appear on the big day. The first one up, paper lanterns. From day one, I knew that I wanted some paper lanterns some where in the mix. While searching on google, I found these delightful ideas:

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Paper lanterns are an easy way to add beautiful lighting and random pops of color! I'm trying to decide if I just want to stick with white because I may have another idea for adding color in...you'll just have to keep an eye out for that post! :)

Next up....luminaries. I'm thinking about using these to line the side walks. Since we our ceremony will begin around sunset, it will be nice you look out during the reception and see some soft glowing lights. Here are a few inspiration ideas.

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Aren't the last ones just adorable! Maybe I can sprinkle a few around the reception to tie in our vintage feel. I think that the first two ideas were be relatively easy to create. All you would need is a white paper bag and some creativity!

xoxo

Megs

 

The Weight Loss Chronicles: Sweating Like An Oldie

A couple of weeks ago, I bit the bullet and joined a gym. I know...I know...I said I would never join a gym again, but the reality of it is that I needed better exercise equipment because the sorry excuse for a "gym" we have at our apartment complex just wasn't cutting it! Also, I joined a local, family owned gym...no corporate BS here! Just friendly people!

This week was the first week I worked out there. As usual, I received a free personal training lesson just for joining. And of course I used it asap! From my previous experience with a personal trainer, it is totally worth the money! I mean think about it...in about six months I lost around 30lbs, dropped 4 pants sizes, and two cup sizes. I was in great shape! Anyways, the initial consultation basically shows you some exercises that help strengthen certain areas of your body. All the exercises I was shown, I was very familiar with. I was actually quite surprised that I hadn't lost as much muscle as I thought I had. For example, on the leg press machine, the weight was set around 110lbs and I did 3 reps of 12. When I was in great shape, I believe I could do around 200lbs or maybe even more. Finding out that I wasn't as weak as I thought I was going to be was good motivator for me. I'm pretty sure I'm going to sign up for some type of personal training, their prices are pretty decent. Depending on how many you buy, you can get them as low as $30 per an hour session. I just haven't decided on how many session I want will need.

 On another note, as I've been attending this gym more and more, I've noticed a plethora of older people. I think this is another reason I feel more motivated to work out. I don't have to worry about being hit on while using a machine or feel self conscious about how I look in my clothes. I just go and sweat with the oldies!

Today was a great day of working out. I lifted weights for about an hour and then hit up the elliptical for cardio. I stayed on the elliptical for 30 minutes and burned around 240 calories. That's an average of eight calories a minute! Go me! And I felt like I could keep going! So this brought me to my next question, How many calories would I need to burn per a day to lose 1-2lbs in a week. Once I got home, I googled this of course. I found this website, which states that you need to burn 3500 calories a week or 500 calories a day (3500/7) to lose about 1lb of fat a week. Remember that it must be 500 calories above what you are taking in. To keep track of how much I'm taking in vs burning, I've been using this app. So far today, I've burned roughly 2,629 calories and eaten about 1,607 calories. That means today I've burned around 1,022 calories! Holy Smokes! I'm so proud of myself and can't wait to see what I can do tomorrow.

Until next time....

xoxo

Megs

Sharp Dressed Men...

Dressing the men of the wedding was by far the easiest decision for me...because I didn't have to make it! haha! I left this one completely up to Matthew. Since one of our colors is Grey (and it's his favorite color), he decided that he wanted to wear a Grey suit. So a couple of weekends ago, we ventured over to the mall. Our officiant had recommend a store that had great prices.

We walked into Nick's Menswear and were greeted by a gentleman who was quite knowledgeable. Since Matthew is so tall and skinny, he recommended a slim fit suit. We browsed around the slim fits while he attended to another customer. When he came back over to us, Matthew had found a suit that he liked. It came in a few different colors. He settled on the a medium Grey with white pin-striping. Matthew was hoping he get to have a vest underneath but the store rep told us vests aren't worn with slim fit suits because they add bulk. After placing his order, he got measured for alterations. The only thing that needed to be done was shortening the length of the pants. After the measurements were taken, the store rep told us it would be done in two days!

Don't mind the goofy look on his face! :)  (Personal Photograph)

Although we still haven't settled on what the groomsmen will be wearing, here are a few inspiration looks we've come across in our search.

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Hopefully we Matthew can decide on the final look for the groomsmen soon. October keeps inching closer and closer!

xoxo

Megs

The Weight Loss Chronicles: And So The Journey Begins

Like most women out there, I like to think there is a way to wish yourself thin. Or perhaps there is a magic pill that I can take and make all this weight magically disappear. It's hard to think that the 30lbs I worked so hard to loose a couple years ago has magically returned. But then again, I also thought I could quit working out and some how manage to stay thin. Don't get me wrong, most days I am ok with the way I look. Even with the wedding less than five months away, I still manage to feel confident in myself (most days). Perhaps it has to do with my awesome fiancé who will always love me no matter what I look like or the fact that most days I don't feel as overweight as I am.

It wasn't until recently that I finally started to feel motivated to get in shape again. Why all of a sudden become motivated you ask? I just happened to catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror the other day while at work and I had to do a double take because I could've sworn they replaced the real mirror with a fun house mirror! Although I'd like to think I'll be at an ideal weight soon, I know that it will take a lot of hard work, sweat, and determination. I'm not trying to be model thin or anything crazy, I just want to be healthy again. I want to be able to walk around without my thighs rubbing together or getting winded from jogging for a few minutes. I want to be healthy! I want to feel confident in myself again. I want to enjoy summer without feeling like a beach whale.

To start my weight loss journey, I decided that I needed to dedicate four days to working before I knew I was serious. Last week I accomplished that! I worked out four days out of the week and also kept track of what I was eating. I'd like to say that I was able to work out for at least an hour but I think forty five minutes was pretty good for my first week. This week I have started using Isagenix again. While I'm not doing a complete 30 Day Cleanse, I will be replacing two meals each day with a Isalean Shake. Also I've added a supplement that helps kick start your metabolism. For the first two weeks, I'm going to drink the Isagenix Cleanse twice a day (once in the morning and again in the evening). Since I have a hard time not eating, I'm hoping this will be easier and still beneficial. The next two weeks I'm going to try setting aside a day that I can actually cleanse all day. Cleansing your body not only rids it of harmful toxins, it can also help reduce water weight and generally make you feel better all around.

Since it's hard to see results day after day, I have taken my measurements and some pictures (that I'm to embaressed to post now) for reference. My hope is that by the end of this journey, I can lose the 40lbs I've gained over the last few years. I also want to be able to fit in all my old clothes again, since they are just taking up space right now. I know that this will not be an easy or short process, but I know in the end it will be worth it again. I hope that anyone who is reading this series will be able to find motivation or information that is helpful to them.

Starting Weight: 160(ish)lbs                  

Goal Weight: 125(ish)lbs

Height: 5' 2" [on a good day :) ]

Starting Measurements

Bust: 38"

Hips: 40"

Waist: 34"

Neck: 14"

Until next time.....

xoxo

Megs

4 Months (Almost)...

I can't believe it's been almost four months since surgery. Yesterday, was my last day of physical therapy. While I'm still not 100% better, I'm on the road....a LONG road. On day one, I could barely inverse my foot. Now I'm at about twenty degrees. Going the other way isn't too easy, I can only go about ten degrees. My physical therapist gave several new exercises in addition to the ones I was doing. The new exercises will help with my range of motion and strengthen my tendons.

Hair-spiration...

I've been thinking alot about what I want my hair to be like on the day of the wedding. When we did our Engagment shoot, it was REALLY windy!! I was so frustrated becuase I had spent time to curl it and make it look nice. In most of our pictures, my hair was flying around all crazy like. I don't want to have this problem on the day of our wedding so I've been looking for a cute, side updo. This way it's out of my face (for the most part) and still looks AWESOME. Plus, Arizona can be kind of hot in October to I don't really want to be all sweaty either! Lol. Below are a few of my Hair-spirations... :)

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xoxo

Megs