Reason No. 1,583 Why I Love Mr. Beagle

Or perhaps I should call him Mr. Clean:

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Mr. Beagle/Clean is pretty obsessive about the cleaning in our home. I'm a fairly tidy person too so this arrangement works out pretty well that we are both "clean" people. (I have a theory that it might have something to do with the fact that we're first born, anyone else notice this?) Anyways, the good part about this is that I usually end up having to do very little cleaning. :) So, I usually end up pulling my weight by taking care of other chores around the house like laundry and dinner. At this point, we've settled into a nice routine of splitting up household duties. However, this wasn't always so.

Before I moved in with Mr. Beagle almost a year ago (I can't believe it's actually been a year!), I briefly roomed with my younger sister and lived alone before that. In both living situations, I took care of all/ a majority of the chores by myself. I noticed that I fell into my own little cycle of getting things done. I'll admit I was a little anal about how to wash the dishes, vacuum, dust, launder, etc., etc. There was a process I liked to follow, and no other method really sufficed. Okay, maybe I was/am a little OCD about cleaning too.

So, while living with another tidy person was nice, it took an adjustment on my part to not take over every job Mr. Beagle started because I didn't like the way he was doing it. I struggled a lot with this when we moved in together. I know I should be grateful that my mister was willing to divide up household duties (and I am), but in the beginning I wanted to fight about every little nit-picking thing. It caused tension, fighting, and overall unhappiness. I began to wonder why I had moved in with someone else when I loved living alone.

I think part of it was the adjustment to sharing aspects of my living space and life that I had not experienced before. I can be stubborn and I had to learn when to let that go. I've learned to walk away from a fight that's just not worth it. I love Mr. Beagle for putting up with my shenanigans in the beginning, especially when it was his space I was taking over. I probably drove him nuts, but not once did he suggest the move was a mistake or that I should pack my bags and leave. :) I am horrible at dealing with change, and he tried so hard to make my adjustment as painless as possible. He even let me turn the spare bedroom into my own craft room. How sweet is that?!?!

Now, a year later, I love our living situation... even more than I loved living alone. I'm happy that we've been able to smooth all our rough patches out and that we've jumped over yet another relationship hurdle.

How has your relationship changed or how do you expect it will change from living together?

Tux-ing Up

Although my heart melts for a guy wearing a suit, Mr. Beagle desired to wear a tux on our wedding day. We've gone to look at tuxes at a couple of different places, and have finally settled on the Men's Wearhouse for our tux supply. Mr. Beagle likes the look of a two-button coat similar to this:

Here is where my dilemma begins. Mr. Beagle will be wearing a white/ivory vest/tie combo, but I can't seem to make a decision on the GM's vests and ties. Here are the options:

1) Basic Black- Black Vest/Black Tie:

2) Black with a Twist- Black Vest/ Purple Tie (although the right, and by "right" I mean cheaper, purple tie might be hard to find):

you can find the ties here.

3) Go Dark- Purple Vest/ Purple Tie (my concern with the dark purple is if it doesn't match exactly, it might look odd):

4) Go Light- Light Vest/ Light Tie (My bouquet will tie in this color):

If you remember, the BM's dresses look like this:

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What do you think?

**All images are from here, unless otherwise noted.

A Tale of Two Dresses: Part II

Once upon a time, there was a dress. I bought tried her on, I liked her, I put down a deposit and ordered her. About two months after this chain of events, I started feeling really anxious. I couldn't remember what I looked or felt like upon trying on the dress, despite the fact that I had pictures. I became really unsure of the style and fit and I was nervously waiting for the dress shop to call me to say my dress had come in. However, I knew it would take four months for her to arrive and it was driving. me. nuts. Looking back, I probably should have gone to try on the dress again.... it would have made sense to do so, but I guess I didn't think of it at the time (or subconsciously didn't want to?).

One day, I was casually browsing the nth wedding blog I was stalking, and somehow, I came upon another dress. (I think you know where this is going). Now I want to make it clear that I wasn't purposely looking for other dresses. I thought it would be fun to browse. (Even though I was a committed woman, it doesn't hurt to look, right? In case you are wondering, the answer is YES.) Anyways, I accidentally stumbled upon this other dress and I fell head over heels. So after a few moments of panicking from the realization that I may have made a huge mistake in purchasing the first dress, I emailed one of my bridesmaids relaying to her my discovery. Shortly after sending off the email message, I decided to check if any of the bridal stores in Austin carried the particular collection to which this new dress belonged. One did AND it was located very close to where I was working. Filled with a new mix of anxiety and excitement, I sent another email to my BM telling her this new information I had just unearthed and to also tell her that I was going to the bridal store during lunch to 1) see if they had the dress & 2) try it on. At this point, I decided it couldn't hurt to try it on the dress just once. I was sure that it would be way out of my price range, and if it was, I would just walk out empty handed, with no regrets.

When lunch time arrived, I headed to the bridal store, with the dress number in hand, expecting the worse. However, after I asked one of the saleswomen if they carried the particular dress I was looking for, I found out that they had one in stock! She pulled it out from a rack of dresses and I took the dress back to the fitting room. After hastily getting myself in the dress, I anxiously walked out of the fitting room to see what it would look like in front of all the mirrors. Minus the length, the dress fit perfectly (I'm talking no need for alterations perfectly)! And I felt soooo happy while wearing it that I was dreading the moment I would have to take it off and return to work. As I soaked in the euphoria from wearing this gorgeous dress, I spoke with the saleswoman about the cost and any sales they were having. Unfortunately, I found out the dress was about $200 over my original budget and my heart sank a little.

I like to think of myself as a pretty frugal person. I knew I did not want to spent over a certain amount on a dress, much less two dresses. I agonized over the new dilema I was facing as I was driving back to work. Out of curiosity, I looked up some online dress shops to price compare and discovered some wonderful news: the dress was available online and the dress was cheaper online. My giddiness returned. :)

After a few more return trips to the dress shop to model the new dress for my mom, FMIL, BM, & MOH, I finally decided to take the plunge and order the dress online. I placed my order with Netbride because I heard many wonderful stories about this online retailer from the boards on Weddingbee. (yet another reason why I love you!!!) The order process was fairly simple. Since the dress I tried on was in my size, I just ordered the dress accordingly in a shorter length to prevent the need for altering it to be shorter. I corresponded with Laura from Netbride concerning my order and once it was placed all I had left to do was play the waiting game again. I have nothing but good words to say about Netbride. If you are wanting to order your dress online, Laura was very helpful and I would highly recommend them. About a month after I ordered the new dress, I received notice that the first dress came in. I debated whether or not I should eat the cost of the deposit or pay the remaining due and pick up the dress. I finally decided that I would pick up the dress. I will try to sell it online, but if this plan doesn't pan out, I will happily donate it to a good cause.

Last week, I received an email stating my dress had shipped. Mr. UPS man and I crossed each other's paths on the way home from work on the day of the delivery, so I had to wait yet another day to pick up the dress at the UPS shipping center so they could verify my signature. It took all the strength that I had not to try on the dress then and there, but I slowly drove back home, with my boxed-up dress in the backseat, occasionally sporting a goofy grin from all my excitement.

Mr. Beagle, this is your cue to leave!

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When I finally got the dress home, I opened up the box:

I am happy to report that the dress was 1) not wrinkled & 2) did not smell like the box. I am also happy that the dress still fits perfectly (I will only need to get the bustle sewn) and I still love it!!!! As I type this, thinking about it makes me smile and I want to go try it on again right. now. Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait to see what it looks like because after I casually mentioned to Mr. Beagle my excitement in blogging about the dress, he had some requests. He would prefer it if I did not post pictures of me in the dress or even of the dress itself. And since this is one of the few wedding/planning related things Mr. Beagle has asked of me, I will happily oblige! (Plus, I think it's kind of cute that he wants to be the first one to see the dress. :) ) Though, I will leave you with this tidbit:


My favorite detail of my dress!
Are you an unintentional two dress bride? Did you order your dress online?

A Tale of Two Dresses: Part I

I had not really thought about what my wedding dress would look like until I got engaged. At that point, I envisioned a dress that was not too form fitting, but not too "poofy". With this in mind, I began casually browsing through dress sites online. I guess I should also add that the thought of dress shopping scared the living daylights out of me. I really don't like attention brought to me. at. all. So the vision of somebody waiting on me hand and foot while I dressed and undressed, and then proceed to stand in front of a mirror, in front of other shoppers made me a tad uncomfortable. Finally, after my mom, sister, FMIL, and I attended a bridal show in September, I bit the bullet and made an appointment here. So when the day of my appointment arrived, I expected only the worse. However, I was actually pleasantly surprised that it really was not so bad to go shopping for a dress. My mom, sister/MOH and I had an appointment on a Friday afternoon, so there wasn't anyone else in the store at the time and the woman who helped me (Amy) was the sweetest person ever. I highly recommend her to anyone shopping at the south Austin location. I think I tried on about 12 dresses that afternoon- which took a total of three hours ( I can't believe it took this long, so fyi to all future brides who are about to dress shop: make sure you have lots of time!). There was one dress that everyone agreed on. I liked it best out of all that I had tried on and since I hadn't planned on shopping elsewhere, I thought it was "the one". I liked that it was simple and satisfied my "vintage desire" with buttons flowing down the back. I wasn't too thrilled that it required a crinoline and it was a little more "poofy" than I had originally envisioned, but it seemed like a wedding was the only day I could get away with wearing a "princess-style" dress, so I didn't think it was something I would worry over too much. I didn't get that "this is the one" feeling, but since I hadn't expected to feel that, I wasn't disappointed.
A few weeks later, I found out they were having a sale, so I joined my mom and sister/MOH to try the dress on one more time and decided to order it. For your pleasure, a sneeky peeky (Mr. Beagle, close your browser, NOW):

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Who knew buying a dress could be so easy... right? How long did it take for you to find your dress?

E-pics: Part II

After we finished up pictures at Zilker Park, we headed to the next location. I originally wanted to take pictures at Spider House, but I thought that it would be extremely crowded on a Sunday evening (with students cramming/studying for the next week). So instead, we went to another cafe: Mozart's. Mozart's is located on the lake, which made for some good pictures.







Even though Mr. Beagle would probably not admit it, he was really nervous about all the picture taking. I think the only reason why I was not as nervous, was that all the e-pics I had drooled over online prior to taking our pictures somehow prepared me for what I should expect. :) We were lucky enought to take our pictures on a pleasant, sunny afternoon; however, this also meant that everyone in Austin decided to take advantage of the nice weather. So there were a ton of people everywhere... needless to say, it made Mr. Beagle's nerves worse. I'm hoping that on our wedding day, being surrounded by our loved ones will not produce the same effect.

Did taking pictures make you nervous?

** all photos made possible by Ashley Smith :)

Napkin Quilt

I love fabric, thread, sewing... of course you already know that from this post. And because of this, I follow quite a few sewing & fabric blogs. Several months ago, I came across this beauty:

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Yum. The quilt is from a pattern in Joelle Hoverson's book: Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts. It was created from cloth napkins Jen sewed for her beautiful outdoor wedding. If it looks familiar, her wedding was featured Winter '09 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings (and it is blogged about here).

As soon as I saw this, I knew I wanted to use this in our wedding. As crazy as I may be for sewing 200+ napkins... I love this idea. If our guests don't end up taking them home, I know they will be put to good use in our home as napkins (it's eco-friendly :) ) or re-purposed into a wedding quilt like Jen. I am still debating on what pattern I want to use for the napkins (there are lots of tutorials out there which I will be sure to post), so I haven't started sewing them yet. I have already bought the fabric though... so you can be rest assured that part II of this post is soon to come!
Are you renting, buying, or making your napkins? Will they be eco-friendly?

E-pics: Part I

Before I jump into showing pictures, I wanted to talk about how I chose our photographer. Ashley and I were in the same Girl Scout troop for almost 10 years. Yes, we struggled through getting our Silver & Gold Awards and through middle school and high school. After high school, we both went off to college, and about a year ago, I discovered that she had become a very talented wedding photographer (you can visit some more of her great pictures here). As soon as I discovered this, I knew I wanted to hire her for our wedding if she was available, which she was! I am so happy to be working with someone who I feel very comfortable around and who is so good at what she does. So now, without further ado:






The first two pictures were taken at the dog park in our neighborhood (unfortunately we only got two or three good shots with Kingsley- he was super excited our little adventure and got a little distracted by all the activity going on). The remaining pictures are from various spots at Zilker Park. Our original plan was to sneak into to Zilker Gardens, where we got engaged (ssshhh don't tell anyone, they charge a fee for professional photos), but there was a garden festival being held there the weekend we took our pictures and it was ridiculously crowded. Stay tuned for part II!
What made you choose your photographer?

**all pictures courtesy of our lovely photographer, Ashley Smith