My Dress!

I bought my wedding dress! The day after we got our venue figured out, I realized that the dress I had been keeping an eye on had been discontinued. In a panic, I called the store, and the saleslady explained that they had one left, in a size close enough to mine. I went immediately to try it on, and low and behold, still loved it. I decided that if there was any chance that I was going to want this dress, I needed to buy it. So I did!


Note: gloves definitely NOT included.

I will definitely need to get it altered, but I love that it is such a blank slate! No matter what direction I end up going with style and accessories, this dress will look great and feel comfortable. It is so crazy to me that I have my wedding dress hanging in the closet right now! It just makes me sad that I have to wait over a year to actually get to wear it (I'm actually looking forward to alterations because it's an excuse to put it on) but I will just be that much more in love with it when the day comes!

On a tragic note...

I apologize in advance for this post being... well, incredibly saddening. But I need to write out my thoughts and feelings on this subject, and this blog is my outlet.

Chances are, unless you live in Miami, you didn't see the cover of today's Herald. To sum up the article, 10-year old twins were being abused by their adoptive parents and Child Services was investigating. In my opinion, and I am not alone on this, it was a half-assed attempt, especially considering they took the weekend off. The reports were filed on Feb. 10th. By Feb. 14th, cops in West Palm found a pick-up truck on the side of I-95, the little girl's body was wrapped in plastic in the truck bed, the boy unconscious and suffering from chemical burns (and upon further investigation, a variety of other injuries/signs of abuse), and the father and boy doused in gasoline. According to the man, he was so distraught with the death of the girl that he was going to light himself on fire but had second thoughts because the boy's head was in his lap (he was "sleeping" because the man had given him a handful of sleeping pills. He has been formally charged with abuse, but they still aren't sure how, when, or where the girl died. Apparently the parents' granddaughter was the one to speak up, stating that she had seen the twins being tied up and made to sit in the tub with the shower curtain taped shut and other things of that nature, and was told to keep it a secret. The little boy is in critical condition, slipping in and out of consciousness and they are treating the spreading burns and various lacerations/fractures he has throughout his body. The little girl's death is being investigated. To read the full article, click here.

I got a call this morning from my best friend from high school, telling me all this. We knew these kids. They had been foster kids in her home for almost 3 years. They were babies/toddlers then. We use to watch them, play with them, feed them, spend time with them... they were absolutely adorable and we couldn't get enough of them. We also made it our duty to show them love and affection. When they were placed with my friend, they were about 2 years old. They moved on to the next home when they were almost 5. It absolutely sickens me to think that those sweet little babies had to go through this, and who the hell knows what else they had to go through in that home? It frustrates me to no end that people can treat other people this way, especially children, and I hate that the system failed these kids so drastically.

My heart goes out to Victor, who will hopefully survive this tragedy, though he will have to persevere without his twin Nubia. And I may not be religious, but I am pretty darn sure that wherever Nubia is now, it is a place better than where she was in this world.

Thanks for listening.

Will You Be My Valentine?

Happy Valentine's Day, lovelies!
xoxo

Changing Names

Almost all of my friends are married, and I don't think that any of them kept their maiden name. My mom did, though, and while it made for some confusion (I have one last name, my mom has another, my stepdad and stepsister have yet another), I always respected it. As a little girl (and all through my teenage years), I always imagined that I would eventually become Mrs. Someone. The more independent alternative side of me considered keeping my name when Tony and I get married, but I am too romantic for that and I love the idea of us sharing a name.

So here is our solution: Combined last names.

Not hyphenated. That might work great for some people, but with our last names, it sounds awful. You can't tell where one ends and the other begins. No, I mean completely combined.

Bruno + Auer = Brauer

I didn't think Tony would go for having to change his name, but he is totally down for it. I like the idea of starting our own family name together, and I am completely relieved that he does too.

It opens a considerably interesting conversation, though, since everyone feels a little differently about it and there really is no right or wrong way. So that being said, what do you think? Did you ever consider keeping your own name? Or hyphenating them? Or even combining them? I would love to hear what you have to say.

BHLDN

Being the obsessed wedding blog reader that I am, and seeing as I would happily outfit my entire apartment and closet with finds from Anthropologie, I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was to find out that they were opening a sister store dedicated to weddings! BHLDN (Beholden) is launching their website this Monday (Valentine's) and previews showed up on all my favorite blogs, one of which explained how not only will they have dresses, but all sorts of wedding goodies!



Now, I already bought my dress (more on that in another post!), but I looooove some of these dresses... they are so very different from what you normally see, which I totally appreciate, but they are still romantic and dreamy without being too drastic.



Regardless of whether or not they are your particular taste in wedding dresses, you have to admit, they are awfully pretty... just as far as dresses go. *sigh* You've done it again, Anthropologie. It pains me that there is an actual Anthropologie store about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. How am I NOT supposed to spend all my money there??

Let's try this again, shall we?

So it has been close to a year since I have written on this blog, and surprisingly, not a lot has happened that has been blog-worthy until more recently.

We were finally able to move into our finished apartment (after 6 months of living in a construction zone), but once we bought furniture, I lost steam in the decorating department. In the next week or two, I am going to be buying the last few pieces of furniture and hanging stuff, etc. Then I can finally feel a sense of accomplishment (and post pictures!) and take a deep sigh of relief.

Mostly I have been working. A lot. It's exhausting, both physically and mentally. But after 11 months of being patient, it's finally paying off... my shifts are better and there are plenty of them.

Also, in the wedding department: We have a venue and set a date! June 23rd, 2012! Save the date! It's a long way off still, and I think my wedding blogging will be severely out of hand by that point, but we are both really excited! It will be up at the Russian River, about an hour and half north of San Francisco... we haven't been there yet, but it looks gorgeous and the venue is being given to us as a wedding gift, so who are we to say no to a beautiful venue?! Both the ceremony and the reception will be held in the garden of the River Queen, a house right along the river. It is exactly what we wanted and it couldn't have worked out better. We better see you there!

A New Start

Sorry for the leave of absence, but I was busy moving! Tony and I managed to drive across this crazy country to our new home in San Francisco. We had an amazing time visiting with our friends and family along the way, but we also spent about a week sleeping once we got here, recovering from our exhaustion. There was a LOT of desert to drive through, days on end really, and we drove from Baton Rouge to Phoenix without stopping (27 hours, I kid you not). So when I say we spent a week sleeping, I really do mean it. We did manage to stop along the way and get this awesome picture taken:

We got it at Knott's Berry Farm, which is an awesome theme park I highly recommend if you are ever in Southern California. It was definitely my favorite growing up and is still high on my list (though my love of rollercoasters has gotten in the way, and Knott's has some but not many). Anyways, these pictures are so much fun to take! We didn't want to take the costumes off, we were having too much fun.

We also stopped at Pismo Beach for about 20 minutes and took a walk on the beach. Tony had never actually touched the Pacific Ocean (he saw it for the first time when I brought him out here at Christmas) and it was sunset, so it would have been silly not to stop. It was gorgeous!

Now that we are here, things have been kind of funny. We don't actually have an apartment until May 1, so until then we are staying in my parents' house. They are out of town, which is nice because then we aren't all climbing over each other, but it feels the same as when we visited for the holidays. I have all this energy and different ideas about decorating the apartment and crafting, but we don't have the place or the money for me to do much of anything at the moment and it's making me stir crazy!

I did, however, manage to find a gift card from LAST Christmas for a pair of shoes! One of the perks of having to go through all of your stuff. So I got these cute rain boots. I heart them. Looking at them, I think I would rather be gardening in my imaginary backyard full of cheerful springtime flowers and fresh vegetables, but tromping through the rainy city definitely has its own charm too.

That's all for now! More soon!