Wedding Planning in Arizona

This past (long) weekend I visited one of my dearest friends to help plan her daughter's wedding! It's not for another 6 months, May 27, but there is a lot of planning that needs to be done! I have enjoyed visiting the beautiful garden venue and meeting with the vendors that they have in place and have been learning lots. Been having to think outside of my San Diego box.  Mostly dealing with heat.

 I love learning new things!  Keeps my thoughts fresh. I met with new vendors with lots of amazing ideas!  Love the fresh ideas.  Made lots of lists, took lots of pictures.  All the bones are now in place and we can start working on all the fun stuff to make the wedding personal.  Gonna combine Arizona with Chicago, with a touch of San Diego. I can't wait to put it all together.

Menu planning time...

I hope that your home is beginning to feel like Thanksgiving.  Did you get some great ideas for a beautiful ideas for your tablescape?

Now let's plan the menu.  I like to include as many items that can be made ahead as possible. I DO NOT want to spend the whole day in the kitchen. I want to be with my family and friends! I also want to include the traditional dishes that we all look forward to, along with a couple of new ones to shake things up a bit.  Now that my family has grown up everyone brings something to share.  No one person is left doing all the work and everyone gets to show off their favorites. This is one of the advantages to planning the menu early. You can start crossing things off the list when one of your guest offers to bring it ;-).

Sandra Downie has some beautiful and tasty ideas for pumpkin themed desserts.
The White Library | Style Inspirations for Entertaining, Weddings & Beautiful Living

Happy Planning!

I'm celebrating!!

Today I am taking a day off from blog land to celebrate 31 years of marriage to the Love of my Life.  He's my friend, partner, lover, father of my sons...

Here's hoping for 31 more years! Love you...

Family Traditions

What does your family do to make the holiday special? What are the dishes or activities that your family looks forward to?

In our family it's all about the competition! In the beginning...the Guys would play golf Thanksgiving morning while the Girls would stay at home watching the children and preparing the wonderful meal.  I think that lasted about 2 years!  At that time our oldest son was playing high school football. Sooo...the Guys would play golf Thursday am, then go to whomever's house the big meal was at and hang out for the rest of the day. But then came Friday and CIF Football Play-offs!  Everyone would head over to our house for more food and head to the game to cheer the RBV Longhorns on. Way too much driving all over Southern California. And besides some of the "Kids" and some of the Girls wanted to play golf!

Solution? Golf on Thursday for anyone who would like to participate in what became knows as the Annual Turkey Trott! (Yes it was mis-spelled on the trophy and stuck.) Afterward, anyone who had multiple obligations were free to head to wherever they needed to go.  Friday became our Turkey Day and instead of watching football on TV we would head to the high school game.  As our family has grown, and we moved on from high school football, the Turkey Trott has remained. A tradition that we all look forward to.

What are your traditions? Special food? A prayer? Sharing what you are thankful for? These traditions are important. They are what set this day apart from the other 364 of the year.  It becomes a celebration.

A Little Sunday Inspiration

This fall tablescape from StoneGable's blog is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Click on this link    Fall Tablescape   to find all the details and close-up pictures of each element.

Enjoy!

Free Thanksgiving Printables!!

Pizzazzerie has done the hard work! She has posted several sites with free Thanksgiving printables to help you keep going with your decor!  Take a look at all her great ideas and let those creative juices flow!  

Click on the link below to get all the great ideas!

Free Thanksgiving Printables

Have a great weekend!

What a difference a day makes....

Wow! One day we have beautiful blue skies and Santa Ana winds...Then today we had pouring rain here to wash any hope of another day of Summer away.  So, what to do? Gear up for Thanksgiving!  Now I am finally in the holiday mood and ready to set the mood for my family and friends.

Where do you start? Set the tone in the first room people see when they walk in your home. Check out this fireplace mantle from Chic on a Shoestring Decorating.

Clink on the link to her blog to get the details of how to re-create this for your home.
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating Blog  Now get going!  Start creating the mood for your family. Remember, every event can become a celebration!  Show your family and friends that they are special and deserving of a celebration.

OMG! I forgot the MOST important photo of the night!!

I can't believe that I didn't post this most important, made all the traffic, parking situations, waiting in line in stillettos worth it Photo...A once in a lifetime opportunity, photo with THE David Tutera.  Lourdes, I'm so jealous. Next time it's my chance.  He is amazing. So real. So humble, Love you David!