Rachelle E.

Great idea!! And I think the campagne glasses would be cute...but I agree about the ice cubes....might be tricky. BUT a couple resorts I've been to in Mexico served their champagne in the old fashioned style glasses....like this which would be great for margaritas. Maybe you can see which style they typically use? Then you can decide what would work best. I think that the short glasses - like the double old fashioned style - would work great too.

My sister is an instructor for this. She loves it! I honestly don't know much about it. I can ask her some questions if you want?

woohoo! congrats ladies!!!!

Great review!!! Gaby really is great once you're there...even if things take a while when you're emailing and stuff. I'm glad everything turned out so well!!! I checked out your photogs site...GORGEOUS!!!! You guys got a great one for sure!! Congrats on the fabulous wedding!

That's too funny!! The big sign of the model/bride in your dress! lol! That may make a great prop for a bridal shower or bach party! ;-) Congrats on finding THE ONE!!!! It's beautiful and I LOVE the lace!!!

I checked out some of the dresses on there..SO cute!!!!! They have great stuff!!!

Well Helllooooo gorgeous!!! That book is amazing and those pics are hot!! Jen, you look amazing! Your FI is going to freak when he sees this!!!

I love making chilli in mine. I cook up some ground beef (although you can not use any meat, or you can use ground turkey too) with a chopped onion and some minced garlic. In the pot I add all kinds of beans, just the canned ones from the grocery store...I use pinto beans, chilli beans, kidney beans and black beans. I also throw in a can of Rotel. Add the meat/onions and leave it to simmer on low for a long time. Obviously everything's already cooked once it gets in the pot, so it's bascially ready as soon as it's hot. But simmering it for a few hours really lets the flavors develop. I also add some spices to taste. I use Cumin, Chilli Powder, salt/pepper and if I'm feeling crazy, sometimes a little squeeze of yellow mustard. (it's yummy, I promise!) but anyway, this really is a healthy recipe since you're not using anything bad in it. and it's easy to keep vegetarian if you want. Just omit the meat. I mixed everything except the meat together and then separated some out so I had "meaty chilli" and "veggie chilli" at my last party. I usually serve mine w/ fritos and shredded cheese (there's goes the healthy-ness! lol!) but you can also serve w/ cornbread or just eat it as a soup. Also, I use the leftovers as a topping for baked potatoes. So yummy!

I know a girl who did one of those murder mystery parties for hers. She said it was a lot of fun. Also, if you have a Bath Junkie near you, those are fun. You can usually reserve a room there for parties and you basically design your own bath/spa stuff...customize the scent, color etc. it's fun. Welcome to Bath Junkie

Quote: When I was thinking of going that route I was going to hyphenate the kids' names when we had them so we were both represented. Poor little things, it's hard enough learning to spell one last name, they would have cursed me for giving them 13 letters and a hyphen...lol lol! Seriously though! I think I've said this before, but I grew up w/ a hyphenated name - due to divorced/remarried parents. (I'm sure Jean-Marcus remembers that from his thread! lol!) And honestly, it kind of sucked. people were always confused as to what they should call me, my name NEVER fit on any forms that I had to fill out for anything, people always asked lots of questions about it - which wasn't that big of a deal, but as a kid it sucks explaining over and over again "well, my parents got divorced, then my mom remarried, then...blah blah blah" Obviously that's a little different that just being born with a hyphenated name & parents that are still together. But just saying from a kid's perspective, that wasn't particularly great. Then again, that was 20+ years ago. maybe there's enough kids w/ different/hyphenated names now that it wouldnt' stand out so much? anyway, that's a big part of why I was more than happy to take DH's name. I was QUITE done with the hyphenating and explaining! lol! And granted, this is just my opinion, but I wouldn't hyphenate my kids names. It's a PITA to deal with and made me feel like an oddball when I was little. So even if you keep your own name or hyphenate, I strongly reccomend thinking about choosing one name for your kids if you plan to have any.

those pics are gorgeous!!!! Girl you did great and look HOT! :-) Your FI is totally going to flip when he sees those! You look beautiful! Good for you being brave and strutting your stuff. And even if you don't appreciate your body now, when you're like 60 you're going to look at those and think "Damn! I'm a hottie!" lol!

CUTE story!! lol! So real....I swear that stuff never goes how you plan. My story is on here somewhere....but I almost ruined th whole thing for my FI too...we were supposed to go out of town for the weekend. But there was a hurricaine forcasted to hit the coast not too far south of where we were going. I wanted to postpone the trip and he (having planned ALL kinds of stuff) was freaking out and pretty much just told me that the weather forcasters are dumb and we're going no matter what! lol! Good think I went along with it...the weather was GORGEOUS (the hurricaine moved a bit at the last minute) and we had a wonderful weekend. But yeah, the stress of me refusing to drive TOWARDS a hurricaine really made things hard for poor David! loL!

Mmmmmm! that sounds good! I can't believe I haven't tried that yet. I'm a big fan of grilling basically anything!

This isn't really a recipe, but it's something I really like. We grill a LOT in the summer and sometimes I get tired of the normal steaks, fish, chicken etc. So I'll have "vegetarian night" for myself sometimes and grill up a bunch of different veggies. Some of my faves are: Yellow squash and Zucchini - I slice these about 3/4inch thick, toss them in a ziploc w/ a splash of EVOO, sea salt, black pepper and some ground thyme. You can either skewer them and grill them that way, or we have a little "frying pan" type thing that goes on the grill...either way is good. Red & Yellow Bell Peppers - I slice these into thick slices, I'll even just quarter them if they're not too big...I usually get about 4-6 slices per pepper depending on the size. I toss these around (in a ziploc usually) with some Worchestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins to be specific! lol!) and just a teeeny bit of salt/pepper. Again you can skewer these to make them a little easier to handle - or if you cut them large enough you can just lay them on the grill. I let these get a tiny bit blackened in some spots...they're SO good that way! Eggplant is great on the grill...again I do fairly big slices of this and brush on some EVOO mixed w/a little minced garlic, salt/pepper. Asparagus - I use the same "technique" for this as I do for the squash/zucchini. Well, I just wash and trim it, but use the same spices and stuff. EVOO, salt/pepper, thyme.

lol! That's hilarious! Sarah and Snoop Dog sittin' in a tree...LOL! I have to say, that Jake G. dream was like a cruel joke! I'd Sooooo dream-marry Jake if I could! CUTIE! he's on the list... ;-) I had a dream that Prince William came to my house when I lived in Cali. It was SO sad 'cause he was totally depressed that we couldn;t go anywhere/do anything without people freaking out! he was seriously like, sit in your room and cry upset about it. It was so sad.

Yeah, I was going to say Moon Palace...we loved it there and IMO it's fairly cost efficient. Lots of food options. BUT...their section of beach isn't the best...well, the beach is nice, the water is really sea-weedy or something. BUT that being said, I like the Palace Resorts in general...and they have two in Playa...def. check it out! We're considering Aventura Spa Palace for our next trip.

I LOVE your wedding dress!!!! Absolutely gorgeous! And I really like the idea of the patterned shirts for the men...very modern & chic. So far so good!!! :-)

I'd say explore your options...but also listen to your seamstress. Esp if she's good and has a lot of experience. I'm a big fan of the cups so I say go with that if you can. BUT if the seamstress really doesn't think it will work then it might be good to take her advice...some of those ladies have been doing this stuff for years and have great advice! :-)

This is SO freakin' cool! I LOVE the idea of using it in a baby's room! I was browsing their ideas for nurserys/quotes...so cute!!!

Jen, GREAT work on your remodel!! What a project! It looks amazing!! And I agree w/ Christa...You girls have some lovely homes! I'll have to whip mine into shape so I can share pics too! loL!

omg...I totally know what group you're talking about! They are the most horrible, mean, nasty people!! They just make me angry! And I swear their reasons for their protests never make any sense!!!! Like I've seen people protest at like Gay Pride parades and stuff...while I think it's dumb and mean, I get it. They disagree w/ whatever. But this group's reason for protesting solider's funerals is not because the soliders himeslf was gay...but because the military allows gay people to join. So they're protesting a person they don't know, who has NOTHING to do with their acutal cause! A lot of those guys were married w/ families and stuff but their funerals are being protested because this group is against homosexuality. A local radio show actually did a phone interview w/ the founder's daughter. Omg...she was such a bitch!! She was just mean! And so irrational...she falt out said that God hates everyone, and that God hates Ireland and Canada and the US and like 10 other countries. (why?!?!?) The host was like, "is there ANYwhere that God likes?" lol! it was funny 'cause they really didn't get into it with her....they just sort of let her talk and make an ass out of herself. But damn...it was hard not to get SO angry listening to her. It's just despicable to me.

I love your living room Amy!!! it's perfect - beautiful and still cozy!

Quote: omg Rachelle I LOVE that! That's totally the type of wood we have in mind. I'm hoping that will be next year's project. Her house is beautiful! yeah, I think it's really pretty too! They saved for YEARS for this house...and still only own one car - quite a feat in TX where everything is so spread out and there is virtually no public transportation! But it's what they wanted so that's where they spent their money. :-) I joke that her house is a pottery barn showroom since that's where they got ALL of their furniture! It's really nice.

ok, I found a much better one... Oh no! It's tiny! lol! I can email it if you're really interested...sorry about that! lol!

Ok, I found the info on those floors I think are pretty... Here are some pics from my friend's house - hopefully you can see well enough to get an idea of what they look like! and I think this is the company they used. Shaw Floors: Carpets, Hardwoods, Ceramic, Laminates and Area Rugs -ShawFloors.com