April Showers

We’re back! Back in our own home… doesn’t it feel amazing to be back in your own bed after a long trip??! I had the best time in our hometown and was able to fit so much in; a bridal shower for my best friend {Kayleigh}, and her beautiful wedding, Mother’s Day with our Moms and Grandmas, my Dad’s birthday, family photos and time with our friends and family. I’m sure I have hundreds of pictures from the trip, but I am going to limit myself to sharing some from the bridal shower!

We threw a wine and cheese shower and the theme was ‘Stock the Cellar’. We asked the guests to bring the bride a bottle of wine to help get her collection started. We handmade a lot of the décor: personalized bottle labels, cork monogram letters, printable chalkboard quotes, and a rustic wine crate and rack. We had purple wild flowers, in wine bottles, on each table, and a collage of pictures of the bride and groom. It turned out so beautiful, the weather was great, the yard was gorgeous and Kayleigh made out like a bandit with all of the wine she was given!

The food, drinks and desserts were sooo yummy and all homemade by our girlfriends, Aubrey and Amy. Aubrey is also the owner of Alluring Events and Design, you definitely want this girl on your side when planning anything from birthday parties to huge weddings! Here is a link to her site, lucky me to plan a shower with such a talented chick! Amy, who I’ve raved about before, makes the most delicious desserts, you can contact me for her info… she made white wine frozen yogurt and homemade truffles for the shower, I literally stuffed my face! I also want to send a shout out to Kaitlyn, Laura and Channing who did so much to make this shower beautiful for Kayleigh, you girls rock and I loved getting to spend so much time together this week!!!

Okay, that’s enough from me, time for the good stuff, the pictures…

Over the next month or so I am going to put a few posts up that show how we made some of the décor and chalkboard printables, be on the look out! Kayleigh is on her honeymoon now… Hope you’re having an awesome time!! Love you!

          xoxo,

                   Rachele

Blessed with Beautiful Besties

 

So, I’m a girl who happens to be married to the world’s greatest husband; a man who is truly my best friend. I’ve also been blessed with girlfriends who have supported me my whole life; they are my sisters, my family. I live far away from them now, and even though I’ve got my main man by my side I am still missing my girls.

Before the wedding my girlfriends threw me a “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” brunch knowing my favorite meal/food is breakfast. Mmm mmm what can be better than breakfast foods!? A little while ago I put pictures from the shower on Pinterest and since then those picture have been some of the most re-pinned pins I have posted. Because of that I am going to add some more pictures of the brunch to Pinterest and hope they’re as popular as the others.

I thought I’d let my best girls know how much I am missing them and show off all of their hard work on my bridal shower. If you’ve been around them at all you know how talented they all are, they can cook, bake, decorate, sew, plan, organize, create, design, and make a girl feel loved like no other. So, with that said, here are some pictures of my favorite detail shots and my favorite ladies. Love you girls.

 

  xoxo

            Rachele

 

 

The Amazing Amy

May is a month that is jam packed with things to celebrate: Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, our anniversary and a whole bunch of birthdays! As the month is ending today I want to make sure and send our love out to everyone who makes this month worth celebrating… Thank you to our Mommas and Grandmas who have done so much for us, we love you all very much. Thank you to the brave men and women who are serving and have served to keep us safe, we are so appreciative. Happy birthday to my Dad, you gave me a great example of what to look for in a man. And last but not least happy birthday to the best and most beautiful friends a girl could ask for; Amanda, Amy, Kaitlyn and Samantha, it can’t be a coincidence you were all born in the same month J.

My girl Amy is someone to be celebrated, she is amazing, The Amazing Amy, she is like a super hero; she comes to your rescue! The talent and skill this girl has is incredible. I have known Amy for 11 years and not only is she the kindest most thoughtfully sweet friend but she is also a great photographer and an awesome cake and dessert maker!

Amy can bake and decorate just about anything you’d like and honestly I never know what is better, the look of the dessert or the taste. I have used Amy’s talents for a long list of parties, baby showers and events, and everyone is always so impressed by her work. Here are a few pictures of cakes, cookies, cupcakes and cake pops she has made for me over the last few years…

 

Amy made our wedding cake, it was gorgeous, and a year later on our first wedding anniversary we took the top tier out of the freezer and it was still delicious. Also pictured are the dinosaur cupcakes and dino egg cake pops she made for Callen’s baby shower (our God Son), I wish I had taken a better picture of them instead of using my phone- but they were adorable! For Callen’s first birthday we had a monster theme and she made the cutest monster cookies and a monster smash cake for the bday boy himself. For a 50th birthday fiesta she made us cupcakes, how awesome are those handmade mustache sombrero cupcakes?? They are one of my favorites yet! Latest was this summer when we had a Hawaiian themed surprise party for JD’s mom and grandma, she made the birthday cake, Hawaiian cupcakes and even cake pops that looked like pineapples, they were all beautiful and so scrumptious.

Amy’s personality is as sweet as her desserts and your taste buds will definitely thank you for such a treat. The flavor and design possibilities are endless, I really recommend her to everyone. I am going to put up a little collage of pictures below so you can see more of her creations, but to see even more of her work click on THIS LINK to be taken to her Facebook page where she has a photo album named “Cake Creations: Then and Now”. You can contact her through a message on Facebook, or you can contact me for her info.

Amy is veeery popular with the entire Poplin family, you’ve got to check her out! Have a wonderful weekend!!

          xoxo

                   Rachele

 

 

Our Wedding

 



Happy Tuesday everyone! In honor of our 2 year anniversary I am featuring our wedding as my first official post. The hubs and I were married on May 14, 2011, and boy has a lot changed in these 2 short years since we said “I do”. We wed at the Jefferson Street Mansion in Benicia California, and spent 8 months planning, prepping and crafting for our DIY wedding. My bridesmaids, girlfriends and family worked with us to make everything from the décor and centerpieces to my veil and the wedding cake, I can honestly say our sweat, time and sometimes tears went into making this day beautiful for me and JD.

The hard work paid off and thanks to everyone involved, and our amazing photographer, Shannon Cunningham, not only was our wedding perfect, but we were featured on Style Me Pretty. Style Me Pretty is a wedding lover’s dream and I was jumping for joy when I heard our wedding would be featured.

Below are some of my favorite detail shots from the day, for more pictures click here to see our Style Me Pretty feature and please visit Shannon Cunningham's site. Shan is now one of our favorite people, if you have the opportunity to let her capture your memories you will not only love the work she does, but you will love her too.

 

xoxo

          Rachele

 

P.S- Happy Anniversary JD! You truly are my best friend, year #2 of marriage was an awesome adventure, I am so happy to share it with you!