formal

"Prom was what seemed like a lifetime ago,
I went to a lot of formal events in high school, and that continued through college and beyond. Winter ball, junior ball, senior ball, college formals (two a year), not to mention the random dinners throughout the year that we deemed as "formal" and would bust out the fancy dresses.

2003 dinner / 2005 winter ball / 2006 birthday dinner / 2006 senior ball / 2006 graduation dinner

For each event, the selection process was simple. I was never really one of those girls who lived and breathed prom; I didn't really care what I wore. The only exception to this was my senior prom; I didn't have a date until the last minute (like, the day before) and splurged on a dress to make myself feel better about it ;). Every other dress was thrifted or picked up from the sale rack. And I loved every single one of them.

2006 winter formal / 2007 dorm gala / 2008 birthday dinner / 2008 random dinner / 2008 moving-back-to-college dinner

For me, it wasn't about the dress, it was about how I felt in it. It was a state of mind, and the dress usually acted as an accessory for how I wanted to feel. Plus, with the addition of the right accessories, almost any dress would work for almost any event, so sticking to the emotion for me was the right way to go. Did I want to feel like Cinderella? Grab the ball gown!Was I feeling sassy? Snag the short little beaded number! Elegant and sophisticated? Slip into the pencil dress! You get the idea.
I didn't let the event dictate what I wanted to wear or how much I should spend, either, which was the ticket.  Formal for me didn't have to mean pricey; with the exception of the aforementioned Senior Ball dress (and the dress I had custom-made in Thailand), none of my formal dresses cost me more than $20. Everything else was thrifted, from the sale rack, or picked up at a store like Forever 21.

2008 Winter formal / 2009 Thailand graduation / 2009 Winter formal / 2012 Vegas show / 2013 Mercy Housing gala

I just loved being able to respond to a compliment with "Thanks! I got it for six bucks!" or something like that. Believe it or not, when I picked my wedding dress, I followed really similar rules:

our wedding, 2011

Gaah I still love that dress. I had a few ideas about what I wanted, but in the end, my final selection was about the emotion and how I felt in the dress. Could I imagine walking down the aisle to my new husband wearing it? I wasn't thinking "Is this the dress in which I want to get married?" or "will this work in the venue we picked?", my thoughts were all about how I felt and how I thought Tim would react. I wanted to WOW him, and I certainly was able to accomplish that ;)

And I didn't break the bank doing it, either. I got the WOW for 300 bones. Score!

The 2013 prom season is upon us, which means a lot of stores are pulling out their formal wear, but you don't have to be in high school to reap the benefits! Us ladies are lucky in the sense that we can get away with almost anything nowadays; again, with the right accessories you can dress anything either up or down. Take a look at http://www.1dress.co.uk/; they've got some gorgeous dresses to pick from! Just because they say "prom dress" on the title doesn't mean that's all they're good for, and every dress is custom made-to-order to your measurements, which is pretty cool.

I'm long past the "prom dress" phase and I've already worn my wedding dress, so the majority of my formal-gown-needing days are supposed to be over. But that doesn't mean I have to be done! Think about it, what about a pretty dress for a fancy dinner or black-tie wedding? Or just a versatile little black dress? If I had another formal event that called for an incredibly superfluous and over-the-top gown again, wouldn't it be fabulous to show up in something dramatic and swanky like this?

left// right

Gaah I love sparkly illusion necklines; deck me out in sparkles and I'm a happy camper! Or what about something like these celebrity red carpet-inspired dresses?

Olivia Wilde-inspired // Selena Gomez-inspired

 Pretty, right? I guess I'm into neutrals right now, haha. What goes into formal-wear choices for you?

This was a sponsored post, but as always all opinions are my own!

b82a7848f9181cc70b04a4b0ae6b34ce7b2ac7d291aa4b9dca

cotton

So last week was our second anniversary (whoot!).
The traditional gift for the second year of marriage is cotton; you're more comfortable with your spouse by year two. Sweet right?

Except here's the thing. What the heck do you do for a cotton gift??! Even creative me was stumped. All the websites said T-shirt or fluffy robe or socks or something, blah blah blah. Boring as heck.

But then I saw on some wedding blog or something (I read a lot, don't judge me for not remembering where) that someone had gotten a getaway for her husband for their anniversary, and counted it as cotton because of the hotel linens.

Sweet! Since Jordan and Elisse were getting married on a Friday, we would extend our stay in Ojai through the end of the weekend as a little Anniversary getaway.

Boom. DONE. That totally counts. Don't you dare tell me otherwise ;)

So, from Thursday until Sunday morning, we rented a little guest house just two blocks from "downtown" Ojai through AirBNB. Thursday and Friday were filled with the rehearsal dinner and wedding, and Saturday and Sunday we had mostly to ourselves to celebrate two years of marriage.

Our rental cottage was a dog-friendly mother-in-law unit in the backyard of a local home. It was a teeny tiny little studio with a kitchenette, dining area, bathroom, sitting area, bed, and patio. All we really needed, right?

The room from the front door (showing kitchen and bathroom) // view from patio door (showing bed and sitting area

Outside the french doors in the dining area, there was a cute little patio with a stone wall setting it off from the main house's backyard. Yes, I did find it a little creepy that the owners of the house had full view into our little patio area, but they never went out there so I worried for nothing. The wedding was Friday and Tim had the morning "off" from best man duties, so we enjoyed breakfast out on the patio before it got to be scalding hot outside (temps hit 110 in the afternoons!!!!!!!). I was able to get some sun and reading in before the wedding out there, too, but I made sure to sit under the umbrella!

The cottage's patio // Daisy watching the chicken coop

It was charming and woodsy (read: unfinished) and although it fit our needs, I wouldn't have recommended it to anyone else. Simple amenities like trash bags or a pen to sign their guestbook weren't provided and the owner did not communicate very often with us (um, what's the wifi password? When's checkout? Where can we park? What's the ADDRESS??!). This was the first so-so experience we've had with AirBNB though.

Saturday morning we slept in (a ton!!! we were exhausted after the wedding) and went to a late breakfast at a little place called Eggs n' Potatoes. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and this place passed muster. They gave us complimentary breakfast crepes while we waited for our food (read: the food took a good long while but we didn't really care because the crepes were free and yummy. Good ploy!).

post-wedding excitement // free breakfast crepes while we waited!

After breakfast, we decided to spend some time poolside at Ojai Valley Inn with some of our friends who were staying there. While parking by the lobby, we ran into Jordan and Elisse, who were on their way to the pool too!! After making sure they wanted to hang out with all of us on the first day of their honeymoon (they would leave that night at 1am for Thailand), we headed down to the pool with them.

Tim debriefing the wedding with Jordan and Elisse!

The Newlyweds! (Not sure why this picture's color is so funny!!)

It was so fun to catch up with Jordan and Elisse and debrief the wedding with them. I was so humbled and blessed that they wanted to spend the first day of their honeymoon with us, because we could think of a bunch of other stuff they could have been doing ;) It was a really special time.

The six of us alternately lounged poolside and took dips to cool off. 

I had to take the picture like this because every other angle made us both look naked haha

After the newlyweds left to go check out and head to LA to catch their plane to Thailand, Tim and I spent a little more time by the pool before heading to the nearest beach in Ventura (because frankly we were a little bored with Ojai). Daisy had been locked in her kennel most of the morning and needed to get a little exercise in, and we were a little tired of the ridiculously hot weather. It was time for some ocean breezes.

ready to RUN // ahhhhhhH!

We walked up and down the beach while Daisy chased birds and children, stalked other dogs, and tried to eat a dead seal. It was adventure for all haha

Daisy is more interested in stalking other dogs than playing with them, most of the time.
She'll sniper-crawl all the way across the beach sometimes to sneak up on some unsuspecting animal!

When Daisy had her fill of chasing things and we were sufficiently cooled down, we headed back to Ojai for our anniversary dinner. We chose Suzanne's Cuisine as the restaurant, mostly because Yelpers said it was good and there wasn't a whole lot else to choose from.

The food was delicious (we ordered a mushroom crostini for an appetizer, Arugula salad with grilled veggies and goat cheese for him and butter lettuce salad with bleu cheese and pecans for me, followed by a delicious scallop dish that claimed to be thai curry but they must have forgotten the curry). Unfortunately, both of us got food poisoning from the mushrooms and had to leave before having dessert! We picked up a box of instant hot chocolate to have at our cottage once we were feeling better.

The whole night wasn't a bust, though, because we got to pop open the last bottle of wine left from our wedding. We finished most of it a few months after our wedding, but saved this bottle to be opened on our second anniversary. There was dust on the bottle and everything! It was so totally worth the wait; even though it wasn't an expensive bottle or anything, it still got better with some time :)

In all and with a few exceptions, it was a fabulous weekend. The setting was beautiful, the company was fabulous, and the occasion for visiting Ojai was meaningful, but the town itself left us underwhelmed. We recognize that we are incredibly blessed with a current hometown that never ceases to surprise us, and we were a little disappointed with what Ojai had to offer. We probably won't visit again, but are we glad we went?

You betcha.

Year 1 from him & her

my "something old"

I was going through an old family album and found this:

Baby Brittany playing dress-up in my mamma's wedding duds.
More than 22 years later, I got to wear part of that veil again:

Memories.

365

A year ago today, we did this:

Unbelieveably, today is our first anniversary. Mind = Blown.

 It's been quite the journey.

Today, we'll exchange our paper-themed gifts and recover from a sugar high from our cake yesterday (We picked up a replacement cake from Trader Joes, because ours was too nasty to save. Sadly, the TJs cake tasted like what we imagined a year-old cake would taste like!). It's the thought that counts.

This next 365's going to ROCK.

{All wedding photos are used courtesy of Jessica Fairchild Photography}