The Groom Matters Too

I have been planning our wedding in my head for approximately 2 years now. I have never shared any of my ideas with B, so once he proposed, I got down to business to figure out what HE wanted. The things that I really have my heart set on (date, colors) he was easily agreeable too, if not easily convinced. There are some things we are definitely not on the same page about though, the biggest being budget.

I know how expensive weddings can be (and how easily they can get out of hand), so my very first wedding planning step was to create a very loose budget. Talk about sticker shock. I was estimating bare minimum for a lot of things, and it's still more than I wanted. B was way more shocked than I was and he is not really seeing the purpose of spending $25,000 on one day. Good point. But its my dream, I've been thinking about this day for practically forever. It's a celebration of us and everything we've been through (which is a lot), so it's more than just one day. He understands my point, but doesn't necessarily agree. This is hard. B makes some really good points, like $25,000 can go to my school loans, or one of our two mortgages, or a car payment. I have a feeling making decisions is going to be tricky.


Planning a wedding that is over 18 months away, and not having much of a budget to work with is making it slightly difficult to start planning. We want to book a venue soon, just to get it out of the way, but so many other things come into play (cost of caterer, liquor, etc), that its not just booking a venue, its researching everything else too.

The other major thing we don't agree on is the ceremony. I LOVE our church, I've been going there forever, and the church is absolutely stunning. I have always thought we would get married there, but B is not religious, at all, and neither is his family or friends. That makes about half of our guest list who would be uncomfortable in a church. My mom cried (happy tears) when I told her I wanted to have the ceremony at the church. Now that B has expressed that he doesn't want to have the ceremony there, I'm stuck. I don't want him to be uncomfortable or dreading any part of our wedding. Our priest is also very strict and has been known not to marry someone if he disagrees with their way of life (having a baby before marriage, living together, non-involvement in church), so it could be a very lengthy process to even get into the church.

Major hurdles to get over, but I'm still in a blissful state that we are getting MARRIED! Oh, I sent my ring back home to MA today to get resized and literally shed a tear at Fed Ex. Pathetic.

My First Wedding Post

I've been anxiously awaiting this post for about...forever, so here it goes!

When we first got engaged, I instantly thought I would want to start planning, but we were just living on cloud 9 for days. I've finally sat down and started a budget (YIKES!) and got some initial ideas through Pinterest. Who are we kidding? It's not initial thoughts, its thoughts I've had for years. Here's what we know so far:

• We want a Fall 2015 wedding, hopefully October 17th.
• Colors will be black and white with an accent color of either purple or gold. I'm leaning more towards gold and have a pretty solid idea of what I want for centerpieces. I was always so torn about centerpieces, but after doing some research on how expensive florists are, I decided I didn't want flowers, so pumpkins and candles it is! That set my theme too. White pumpkins, gold accents and black. 

 

 I want our centerpieces to be something like this, but with white pumpkins, gold branches, and lots of candles around it.

• I have my bridal party figured out, not sure if B does yet. 
• We are really shooting for a wedding under our tents. I love that I have a totally clean (and white) pallet to work with. I initially thought it would also save us money, but after looking for places to set up a tent and pricing out catering and alcohol, I'm wondering if it'll save any money at all. 
• Food is at the top of our priority list for what's important. Hence why I'm not keen on having our wedding at a venue like a banquet hall or hotel. 
• There will be donuts.
• The bridesmaids dresses will be long and black.

I am itching to start dress shopping, but am using my better judgement to start so early. My taste in dresses changes by the day lately.  My mind wanders and one second I'm looking at venues and I get distracted and find myself looking at bridesmaids dresses. I need to organize and learn to focus. I plan to write out pros and cons of venue vs. tent soon (more to convince myself into a decision than anything else).

Big News!!

B and I have been dating for over 5 and half years, and on Friday night he finally PROPOSED!

The ring is the most stunning piece of jewelry I have ever seen. B and I have never talked about rings (or our wedding), so he picked it out all on his own. He actually designed it on his own. Pictures do not do justice, but on one side (sort of underneath the ring itself-confusing I know!) is my birthstone and the other side is his. It is just so creative and personal. I was so shocked that he thought of something so creative!

The Proposal: We decided to go to P.F. Chang's for dinner on Friday night. We put our name in for a table, which had an hour long wait. So I went to wait outside and he went to the bathroom. While he was in the "bathroom" he grabbed a few fortune cookies, cracked one open, and switched out the fortune with one he had typed that said "Will you marry me??" He also brought superglue with him so he could glue the package back together (the thought process that went into it is impressive). We go through all of dinner (where I didn't suspect a THING!) and then the cookies come and there is one that has a chip in it. I told B I would take it home for Bentley. (You idiot! Way to make him nervous!) He instantly says that Bentley would like a whole one, so I should just eat the broken one. So I crack it open, pull out the fortune and start sobbing, like hard core, no one should see this kind of cry except your mom, sobbing! He is already on his knee pulling a ring out of his pocket and I just keep on sobbing. I said yes! and he gets up and everyone is clapping and saying to pose for a picture.

The manger brought us champagne and strawberries and our waitress came over and told us our meal was on her! I felt so loved and special. I hope I never, ever forget that feeling. I have played the scenario of getting engaged in my head about 44,501 times and never once did I imagine how great the feeling would be! After dating for over 5 years, I truly thought I would know when the ring was coming, but he took me by such surprise! We could not be happier and are excited to start this wedding planning journey!

I plan to use my blog to post my ideas and thoughts about the wedding plans, especially because after only 48 hours of being engaged I am so overwhelmed!

Weekly Menu

B's parents are coming to stay with us for the next two weeks or so, so instead of cooking for two, I'll be cooking for four. This week isn't too tricky, they like pretty much anything I make and cooking for four isn't much different than two (I think it's easier, since most recipes are geared towards families of four anyways). Here's what I have planned:

• Saturday: French Bread Pizza
• Sunday: Country Herb Chicken and Dumplings
• Monday: Burgers and Fries
• Tuesday: Out
• Wednesday: Steak, Pasta, veggie

On Thursday, we have 4 more people coming to stay with us (friends/family of B) and then the following Saturday, 2 more people (brothers of B). That's why my menu stops on Wednesday. More people, totally different approach to the meal planning! I'll post that meal plan next week!

Once I have meals planned, I look up the recipes and make a list of everything I need. This way, when I walk into the grocery store, I'm not just throwing Oreo's and cheese into my cart. 

Most of my inspiration comes from Pinterest. Usually I just look though for ideas and inspiration. I also keep a pad of paper in the kitchen so as I cook, I can write down things I notice we need as I go, instead of trying to remember everything when it comes time to go to the store. I also almost never stick to this exact schedule, where we eat pizza saturday, chicken sunday, etc. If I dont feel like pizza come Saturday afternoon, I'll make something else from the list.

French Onion Soup

Stickin' to my word and actually taking pictures while I cook! It was a little chilly here in FL today (a very brisk 65), so I decided it was a perfect night to try out a french onion soup recipe. It was very easy, a little time consuming, but worth it! I used Bobby Flay's Recipe and was inspired by my favorite restaurant back in MA, Judies, to serve the soup with Caeser salad. Please excuse the terrible photos, I still live in a Blackberry world :)

Onion and garlic sauteing away in butter...mmm

Getting all carmelized and tasty

Simmering in red wine and beef broth

Topped with french bread and Gruyere and ready to be broiled

Finished product!

I might have mentioned before, but I HATE onions. It's all about the texture, I like the taste of onions, but the texture is not my thing. Therefore, I put my soup through a mesh strainer before it went into the bowl. Don't judge.

Also, for those who are afraid of the broiler (hot, fire redness coming from the oven, what's not to be afraid of??) it really isn't too terrible. My broiler has a "low" setting so it doesn't cook nearly as fast.

Hoping to stay on this roll of picture taking while cooking! Tomorrow, I will (hopefully) post my weekly meal planner. We have a slew (and by slew, I mean crowds and crowds) of people coming to visit over the next 3 weeks and my anxiety gets a little out of control. I always plan my meals way ahead of time, especially when i'm feeding up to 12 people every night for a week, including some VERY picky eaters, someone on the Paleo diet, and a vegetarian. Meal planning gets tricky to say the least. I'll share my plan as I go!

January Slump

I am in serious post-christmas slump (I know, I know, still??). I just cant get the motivation to blog, or do anything for that matter. Here's what we've been up to lately:

• Friday was gorgeous, so we took the boat out, but the fishing, not so good. We went back to Ford's garage so I could stuff my face with even more deep fried pretzels.
• Saturday we ran a few errands and took Bentley to the pet store for some treats. 
• Sunday was also non-eventful, but I did make my Aunt Pat's homemade pierogies for dinner. Ah-mazing! 
• All day today I thought it was Monday, until about 30 minutes ago. We worked all day and I did a ridiculous amount of laundry. I did sneak out to Pier One and Michael's for a little retail therapy. I needed to get small bowls with handles so I can make French Onion Soup tomorrow! Recipe coming soon! 

I am in the worst habit of not taking pictures, especially when I cook. I get in the zone and before I know it, i'm loading the dishwasher. This could also be because I don't have an iphone so taking pictures in not as user friendly.  I promise to be better! I'll post the homemade pierogi recipe soon!

Flying with Fido: Part 2

I had originally written a post about flying with Bentley here. I was very anxious and there was a lot of prep work to be done. I had called the airline multiple times to make sure I had every detail covered and thought we were good to go.

Within 1 minute of stepping up to the counter to check him in, they were telling us he couldn't fly. His crate didn't have screws, so it wasn't safe. Luckily, a manager came over and said it was totally fine and we could just use zip ties. The next hurdle was the temperature at our destination. It was 19 degrees there and the cutoff to fly an animal is 20 degrees. I really had to convince him to let Bentley fly.  The gate guy huffed and puffed the entire time and I swear he was purposely taking his sweet time so we would miss our flight. Luckily we made it just as they were boarding, but not without a few more hurdles at the gate. Thankfully, we made it home safely (it was snowing like crazy when we landed and didn't even know we were near the ground until we touched down!)

The trip home was so much worse. We got to the airport at 4:30am (when it opens) and again, almost didn't make our flight. Once again, with 2 minutes of getting to the gate check, the woman at the desk was saying he couldn't fly. We didn't have a Certificate of Acclimation. This was not even mentioned when we flew home, so I had no idea what they were talking about. Once they realized there was a statement written by the vet saying he "should be fine" they thought that might be sufficient, BUT it didn't say "will be fine." Well duh, no vet is going to state that an animal WILL be fine, its just not reasonable. She had to go check with her supervisor which took a good 30 minutes. Then he didn't have a rabies certificate, but he did have a health certificate that stated he had a rabies shot. Not good enough. Back to the supervisor. The gate agent was also one of the worst customer service reps I have ever encountered. We finally made it through with about 2 minutes to spare and I'm happy that we made it home in one piece.

I have a feeling that the airline we flew with was an isolated experience, but because of it, I will probably never fly with Bentley again. Everyone we encountered was so rude and looked at us like we had 3 heads, like we were the ones who were out of control for wanting to fly with a dog! It is also worth mentioning that my brother works for this airline and he had checked everything to make sure we were all set. He does this every day for a living and couldn't believe all the trouble we had.

Our Weekend

B and I had a pretty uneventful weekend. We worked yesterday, but decided to treat ourselves to dinner at Ford's Garage. Um, delicious. They deep fry their pretzels. I would have eaten my weight and then some in deep fried pretzels. Genius!

Today ended up being a nice day, so B decided to take the boat out, while I had a shopping day. I was having Target withdrawals, so I grabbed some Starbucks and spent a good hour in Target. I found so many gems today, and everything was on sale. I've been eyeing some Nate Berkus stuff lately, so I finally made the plunge, which wasnt even bad because it was all on sale!

 Bentley will look great in this frame. Even better-using it as a birthday gift for B!

 I also found these two pillows. Indecisive on which to get (if any). We have a black, leather couch (can you say mantown?). Suggestions? Opinions?

I also went to Pier 1 and bought this for the guest bathroom:

The picture does absolutely no justice, but I also bought blue and turquoise sea glass to put inside, it looks awesome.

The low temperature here is sunny SW Florida this week is going to 38. Say what?! That's like snow temperature. I'm not complaining, but I'm pretty sure all of FL is going into hibernation this week.

Pulled Pork Chili

B and I went to a truck pull in the fall and had the most amazing chili of our lives at this little stand there. It had pulled pork in it, which would be my last meal if I ever had one, so I was all over this chili. I had to recreate it. As my first recipe on the blog, I figured it needed to be something epic. Its the recipe that gets the most compliments and it won first place out of about 20 other chili recipes in a cookoff!

Ingredients:

1lb of ground beef 

1 tub of pulled pork (its in a red tub, in the freezer/fridge section where the mashed potatoes are. Homemade pulled pork would be better im sure, but I havent mastered that recipe yet)

1 Chili Seasoning packet 

1 small can of diced jalepenos or green chilis 

1 small can of tomato paste 

1 small can of baked beans 

1 can of black beans

1 can of cannelloni beans 

1 TBSP of onion powder

1 TBSP of Season All

 

Directions:

1. Brown ground meat in large pot. 

2. Add everything else to the pan (drain and rinse the black and cannelloni beans). 

3. Let cook for however long you want, I recommend at least an hour so everything can mix together. You might need to add some water or chicken broth to thin it out as it cooks so its not too thick. 

 4. Serve with cheddar cheese and sour cream. I've also been eating mine with fritos instead of a spoon. Dont judge.

Some things I should note: I have a weird thing about textures, which is why I dont cook with onions, only onion powder. Real onions would be just as good in this recipe. I also hate tomatoes, but a can of diced tomatoes would also be excellent. Also, the baked beans seem a bit weird, but the sweetness goes so well with the pulled pork. The glory of chili is that you can put anything you like in it, its so versatile! The pulled pork though is crucial, so I highly recommend leaving that in. Enjoy!

What I Do

Happy New Year! I'm not one to make resolutions and have never been a huge fan of celebrating big on New Year's Eve. That's not to say I don't like the holiday, its just not my thing.

I thought I would write a post about what I do for a living. Its a pretty huge part of my life and in the summer, it consumes my life (consume is an understatement actually). So here it goes!

I went to college and graduated with my degree in Special Ed. It is my passion and I absolutely love kids! When I met B, I got sucked into the world of bounce houses. At the time, he was renting bounce houses pretty low key, 1 or 2 a weekend, but by the second summer we were together, things were getting a little crazier. Fast forward 5 years and here we are, running a pretty successful inflatable rental company.

The first thing people say when we tell them we own a bounce house company is, "Oh! That must be so fun!" I can see how an outsider would think that. How is renting bounce houses and water slides NOT fun?! Although the job has its perks, it is extremely stressful. Now I know that there are jobs that are much more stressful and high risk (medical field, military, etc.), but people underestimate how stressful our business can be. Most customers have no idea what goes into getting them their inflatable. There is a tremendous amount of planning that goes into every rental, and it seems that in the area we live in, many people wait until the day before their party to order, causing some serious headaches on our end. Imagine trying to deliver 20 inflatables, all about 15 min. driving distance away from each other all before 11am. Nightmare. Summer months are chaotic to say the least and I often forget to eat, let alone sleep. So why is it even worth it you ask? Well, we have learned a lot over the last 5 years and have put many systems in place to at least try to make thing run smoothly. The other major perk: We get to live in FL for 6 months (our off season). So working 80+ hours a week seems worth it while we sit on the beach in the middle of January.

Our business has tested me in so many ways. Customers get under my skin more than I like to admit. I take it personally. I helped build this business, so when we get someone who is rude or mean to us, I have a hard time not falling apart. We have also given up our summers. While everyone has BBQ's and goes on vacations, we almost never even get a day off. I have a bunch of friends who are planning to get married this summer and while I will make the weddings (barely), anything scheduled in June is impossible, meaning I miss bridal showers/bachelorette parties. I always get the feeling from friends and even family that they just don't understand that I cant take a day off like normal people. June is a 30 day period where I absolutely cannot leave. There is simply such a high volume of parties, which inevitably means problems and I am usually working over 100 hours a week in June. This is always hard. People almost never understand that I cant leave and I just cant explain it unless you spend a week with me.

To add to it all, I run this business with my boyfriend. It's his company, but at this point, I manage it, make the big decisions, he mostly fronts the money. Running a stressful business while starting and maintaining a relationship is hard. Like really hard. We have been in some seriously trying time together, but our relationship is rock solid because of it.

Phew! Glad to get that off my chest! It sounds like I hate the business and at times, I do. But I love what we do, and am SO proud that we built this business from the ground up, all by ourselves. I NEVER thought I could run a business. It has been such a huge learning curve for us.