Camilla's Wedding Weekend

This weekend was my best friend's wedding and let me tell you, it was the best wedding I've ever been to and probably ever will go to. Everything was so beautiful and the bride and groom were beaming with excitement and joy. It was so great seeing everyone again and spending a few days with close friends. I'm not super great with expressing my emotions with words so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (be ready for picture overload).

Friday night we had the rehearsal at The Strand and dinner at Seasons 52. The dinner was delicious and we had a choice of flatbreads, appetizers, salad, entrees and desserts. It was a ton of food but it was super delicious!

I didn't get too many pictures of the food - there were so many options!

These desserts were soo good! Each one was a different "flavor" (sorry for the blurriness)

Camilla got us the best gifts: Kate Spade purse, monogram tervis tumbler, chap stick, LOFT necklace, monogram J Crew v-neck and lots of snacks for the wedding day. Love that I'll be able to use all these items again and remember her wedding day :)

Saturday morning we were all up bright and early (so excited!) and stopped in Starbucks before heading over to the wedding venue. The weather was literally perfect all weekend and the wedding was beyond perfect. Camilla was absolutely stunning and looked like a legit princess. I'm sure her wedding will be in tons of magazines. I'll definitely share the professional pictures once they come out.

Our dresses were from J Crew and will be great to wear again

These next few pictures are like straight out of vogue

Waiting for the first look - pure excitement!

First Look

Father-Daughter Look

The food was delicious - I wish I could eat this salad again and again

Amanda caught the bouquet!!

On Sunday, Camilla's parents hosted a beautiful brunch at their house for anyone who wanted to stop by. I failed and didn't get any pictures but it was great seeing all the girls and Camilla and Andrew before they left for their honeymoon.

We had the best time and I'm pretty sure we'll be recovering all week. I hope Camilla and Andrew have the most amazing honeymoon in Hawaii!!!

Camilla's Bridal Shower

Camilla's Bachelorette Party

Five on Friday!

I.HAD.TO.

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One
This weekend my bestie is getting married!!! We're on our way down to Naples for the big day and I can hardly wait!! It's going to be a wedding for the books that's for sure. If you missed it, you can see Camilla's bridal shower here and her bachelorette party here. And just for good measure, here are some pictures that I found last night... there are a lot because they were too good to pass up!

This was taken at our chapter retreat in 2011! We look like such babies!

This was from formal in 2011

The rest are from our wedding - our photographer got some good shots of Camilla and Andrew!

I'm so excited for their big day and I can't wait to celebrate with them all weekend!!!

Two

I've got some cuteness for you - a friend from work just got a French Brittany puppy so during lunch one day, I went with her to meet him. His name is Bo and he's so stinking adorable (and very well behaved!) 

Three

At work, a pair of sandhill cranes just had a baby and I've been seeing them around campus. It is seriously the cutest thing ever and I was able to snag a quick picture but it's not very good since there was someone trying to leave work behind me and I didn't want to be "that girl taking pictures of the birds" lol

 Four
So do you have those clothes that you don't wear very much anymore, but still keep for just in case days? Well that was this cotton shirt from The Loft (I don't have a direct link because I bought it years ago). I used to wear it all the time but then haven't recently but I threw it on to go look at a house on Wednesday and loved it again! It's perfect to just throw on and it's super comfy.

Five

My mom scored me some amazing Lilly for Target! Apparently a lady had just returned $400 worth of stuff to her local store but she was only able to pick up this jumpsuit for me. It's a size small so we were worried I'd be too tall for it and I was :( It's hard to tell in the pictures, but it was above my ankles and a little too short everywhere else. I was so bummed to return it because it's so cute but it's very difficult to wear a romper/jumper when it's too small... After I returned it, I saw 4 pieces of XL-XXXL clothing and an outdoor umbrella. Still super bummed I missed out and had to return the jumper.

M&M Blondies

I've been a little MIA the last few days - we've been super busy and it's only going to get busier with my bestie's wedding coming up with weekend!

So before my blondie post... I've noticed Stephen and I have been matching outfits lately. A lot lately actually. To be honest, I don't know how this happens because we live together so we should see we're matching before walking out the door, but I only ever notice when we actually get to the location that we're matching. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when we have kids - here comes that family of four with matching outfits... I can see it now.

I noticed we were matching in the middle of church and had to snap a picure

Now onto the good stuff - I pinned this blondie recipe a week or so ago and really wanted to test it out so I figured it'd be perfect to welcome Stephen home last week. These turned out really good and I think they're even better when kept cold in the fridge. For some reason, all of my m&m's sank to the bottom of the pan so that kind of stunk (please let me know if you have a solution!). 

See - all the m&m's are on the bottom

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup butter, softened 

- 2 cups brown sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 2 cups flour

- 1.5 cups m&m's (I used mini m&m's and didn't measure the amount and just added what I thought was a good amount)

Directions

1. Beat the butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add the eggs vanilla and beat again. Sift together the salt, baking powder and flour. Slowly add the dry mixture into the wet mixture and continue to beat while adding. Stir in 1 cup of m&m's by hand.

2. Spread the batter into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle the top with the extra 1/2 cup of m&m's (I failed to do this step which might be why all of the m&m's fell to the bottom). 

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 23-25 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting and store in a sealed container.

Fri-yay!!

Happy Friday!!! I'm so looking forward a weekend at home with the hubs before things get crazy again! We had a full weekend at Disney last weekend, next weekend is my best friend's wedding, then soon after we'll be going south for a gender reveal (I think I'm getting a nephew ;)) and then after a long weekend up north to see my parents and their new house... phew it's going to be busy.

One
The cat is officially out of the bag (if you didn't get it from above) - I'm going to be an Aunt!!!! My sister-in-law is pregnant and we are sooo excited! This will be the first baby for either of our families and we are all over the moon. The baby is due October 31st which means it'll be here for Thanksgiving (which is so nuts to think about). I can't wait for the gender reveal, showers and the birth! Congrats to John and Lauren!!

Hopefully many of these will be happening!

Their cute announcement!

After we found out they were expecting!

The boys wanted to celebrate, German style

Two

While the hubs is away, I will play... okay not really but Stephen had his first business trip this past week so I had 4 nights all to myself. Monday and Tuesday I met up with friends for dinner (failed to get any pictures) and then Wednesday and Thursday I spent the evenings relaxing and cleaning which has been super nice. I'm very much so looking forward to Stephen coming home today though - it's definitely different when you're on this end of the business trips lol

Three

I'm sure no one missed the announcement this week about Full House returning to TV with a "Fuller House" spin-off! I'm super excited about this show, however the story line seems super sad but I guess it's to pay tribute to the original show and keep it going. Can't wait to see what story lines they come up with for the whole cast and their "families" after all these years.

Four
Last night I made these m&m blondies and they turned out fantastic! Can't wait for Stephen to get home and try some (let's be real - I need him to eat most of them so I won't!) Recipe hopefully coming next week :)

Five

Next week, my best friend Camilla is getting married and I can hardly wait!! She wants us to do our hair half-up half-down and doesn't mind if it's curly or straight. Since my hair's shorter and doesn't hold curls for super long, I'm going to opt for the straight option but I want some volume in the pin-up and want to make sure it looks special. I found a few images on Pinterest that I can hopefully get my hair somewhat like. I am so glad there will be a lot of girls there because I KNOW I can't do any of the pinning on my own... I'm so bad with hair. (I've noticed I'm a HUGE fan of Carrie Underwood's hair... could it be any more perfect?)

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Four Things...

I've seen this blog post floating around on a few different blogs and wanted to join in on the fun!! I always like learning fun things about other bloggers so hopefully you enjoy mine :)

Four Nicknames

Ash - okay honestly, that's all I've got... I'm super boring

Four Jobs I've Had

Bruster's Ice Cream, Inventory Intern at an engineering company, Marketing Intern at same company and now Marketing specialist at the same company (I don't bounce around a lot lol)

Four Movies I've Watched More Than Once

Pride and Prejudice, Gone with the Wind, Hot Rod & The Duchess (this list is more like 100 movies for me)

Four Things in My Purse

Wallet, May Designs Planner, Chapstick & Hand Sani

Four Books I'd Recommend

The Bible, anything Karen Kingsbury, The Giver (the whole series) & 

Four Cars I've Driven

I've only had 2 cars: Lexus ES 300 (2001) & Lexus ES 350 (2007). My next car will be a mom SUV

Four Places I've Visited

Hilton Head Island, SC; Charleston, SC; Marsh Harbor, Bahamas; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Four Places to Visit on My Bucket List

NYC, Los Angles, Italy & England

Four of My Favorite Foods

Potato Chips, Fruit, Pasta & Tater Tots/French Fries

Four TV Shows I Watch

19 Kids and Counting, House Hunters, Flip or Flop & Chrisley Knows Best

Four Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2015

(Hopefully) Buying a House, HHI Vacation with my Family, More Family Time & A Big City Trip in the Fall

Linking up with Annie.

Rancher's Roast

A while ago we found a great roast beef recipe on Pinterest and it quickly became Stephen's favorite dish. This is our go-to meat dish if we want something quick and delicious.

I do have to say - sorry for the crappy pictures, I took them a while ago and didn't realize how awful they were until I started working on this post. Even though the pictures aren't that great, the meat is super delicious!

Ingredients:

- 1, 2-3 lb beef chuck roast

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 tbsp canola oil

- 1 (4 oz) package of ranch dressing mix

- 1/2 cup sliced pepperoncinis

- 1/4 cup pepperoncini juice

- 2 cups beef broth

- 1 tbsp corn starch

- 1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:

1. Heat canola oil over medium/high heat. Season roast with salt and sear in hot oil until golden brown. (This step is optional - we stopped doing this because I didn't see much of a difference)

2. Place the roast in the crock pot and sprinkle with dresing mix, pepperoncinis and pepperoncini juice. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3.5-4 hours.

3. Remove the meat from the pot and drain off cooking juices into a sauce pan. Skim the top for excess fat and add 2 cups of beef broth to the mixture. Bring to a boil.

4. Mix 1 tbsp of corn starch with 1/4 cup of cold water in a separate bowl and slowly pour into the boiling mixture. Stir continuously until thickened and remove from heat. Add in the 1/2 cup of sour cream to the mixture and serve over the cooked meat.