Top Two Tuesday: Fall Decor!

It's Top Two Tuesday at The Undomestic Mom and today is all about Halloween or Fall Decor! Instead of decorating for Halloween, I like to use general Fall decor so it will last longer! I absolutely love decorating for Fall and love all of the beautiful oranges and yellows.



{one} If I actually had a front porch, I would love to do something like this. My mom did something similar with orange and white pumpkins on her front porch a few years ago and it was gorgeous! I love how the pumpkins almost look like topiaries.


{two} I love monograms, so this front porch would be right up my alley! Both of these pictures would be SO easy to do!

...if only I had a front porch! Maybe one day! :)

Miscellany Monday

So sorry for my scarce posting...I guess I have just been pretty lazy uninspired lately!

Today I am linking up to Carissa's Miscellany Monday. If you haven't been to her blog, you must! I absolutely adore it!






{one} We did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING this weekend and it was exactly what I needed. We did a lot of couch sitting/football watching/wine drinking, and I was oh so happy. We hardly ever have lazy weekends, so it definitely did us some good! We did go to the movies yesterday to see The Social Network, and that was the only time we left the house. Pathetic, huh? Did anyone else think that movie was as boring as we did? For this self proclaimed Facebook junkie, I was a tad bit disappointed!



{two} Joe and I are flying home to SC this weekend because it is Homecoming at Wofford College! We are so excited to see our sweet, sweet friends and family who we have missed so dearly! This will be Joe's first time attending a Wofford game as a fan and not as a player...crazy! The Terriers are #9 in the FCS and we are so proud of them! Go Terriers!


{three} Remember how I hate my kitchen and loathe the fact we have no privacy in here?? (For those of you who are new, we live in a tiny little studio apartment.) Anyway, we have had just about enough of this place and my sweet husband is finally entertaining the thought of us moving! Can I tell you how excited I am? I would be one happy girl if we could get out of this place soon! We have appointments later this week to see some gorgeous apartments...wish us luck!


{four} My friend Marian Bryce (don't you love her Southern double name??) came to visit a couple of weekends ago and I had all intentions of blogging about our weekend in the city! I am so horribly lazy. Anyway, we had such an amazing time! I LOVE having visitors because I get to do fun stuff while Joe is busy studying. We took the train into the city and did some hardcore exploring for two days straight. I'm pretty sure we saw almost everything there is to see that weekend...and yes, our feet were KILLING us, but it was SO worth it. I don't think I could ever get tired of NYC. How could you??


{five} Not only am I sick of our apartment, I'm also sick on our bed. It's really pretty, but it's wrought iron and not what I envision in our perfect bedroom. I know it won't happen anytime soon, but I really, really, really want a cream colored tufted headboard. A girl can dream, right? I have seen them a lot around some of my favorite blogs lately, and I just cannot stop lusting after one of my very own.



{six} Joe and I carved pumpkins last weekend. It was the first time I had ever done it. Yeah, you read that correctly. Craziness! It was pretty disgusting, so I made Joe do all of the dirty work before I could start carving. I started out with a pretty intricate pattern, then quit when I realized how hard it was going to be. I then decided to do a pretty "F" with some polka dots. Of course I had to have a monogrammed pumpkin! Joe carved Danny DeVito because he loves the show "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia." Who knew the boy was such an artist? Anyway, the pumpkins turned out super cute and I was very proud of my very first pumpkin carving experience and Joe was loving his Danny DeVito pumpkin. The next morning, I went to admire the pumpkins on our porch only to realize that some little animal ate poor Danny's whole face off. Now it's just a pumpkin with a big hole in the front. And a bunch of mold inside. So sad. And so gross.

I sure do love a random post! I may have to do this more often!

I've Been Tagged!

One of my new favorite bloggers, Kit, from A Step Into My Life tagged me to answer some questions! I enjoyed reading all of her answers and seeing her pictures; so I am excited I get to do it, too! If you haven't been to her blog, you need to- she is absolutely precious! I am so sorry it took me this long to respond. This past week was way too busy and went by way too fast!


1. What is your favorite food, thing to cook, or eat?


I have already done a post on this, but I could talk/think about it all day long! My favorite food to cook and eat would definitely have to be Shrimp and Grits! Now that we live up north and can't get it whenever we want, I crave it all of the time. Luckily, my mom found a recipe that is just like the Shrimp and Grits at my favorite restaurant, so I make it pretty often now. Thank God Joe loves it just as much as I do!

2. If you could do anything with your life what would it be? (money is not an object)


In a perfect world, Joe will get a wonderful job in Environmental Law somewhere in the south after graduation. After having a few children, I would LOVE to have my own wedding and event planning business...maybe even own a wedding venue??

3. Where is your favorite place to shop?


Right now, my favorite place to shop is Home Goods! I have found so many wonderful deals there and could spend hours upon hours there. Even if I don't need anything, I love to go and imagine all of the pretty things in a future home or someone else's home. It's my therapy!

4. What is your favorite memory of all time?


Wow! It is SO hard to pick just one! I have so many! I would have to say my top two are walking down the aisle and marrying my sweet husband, and also all of my Christmas memories growing up and visiting my grandparents and family in Lake City, South Carolina! Wish I had some old pictures to share, but this one of my sweet Mema and Papa from the wedding will have to do!

5. What is the best thing that you have ever bought?


Gah, these are some hard questions, Kit! Can it count if it was bought for me? I guess so! My parents gave me one of my favorite gifts ever, a Nikon D40, for Christmas last year, and I have been obsessed ever since. I have always wanted a nice camera because I've always been intrigued by photography. I have had so much fun taking pictures and learning new things! I'm no pro by any means, nor will I probably ever be, but it sure is fun to be a little creative sometimes! I have been searching for photography classes in the area...I would LOVE to actually learn from people who know what they are talking about.


6. If you could start a charity what would it's platform be?

If I could start a charity, it would definitely be one that helps children. I have such a soft spot in my heart for children and education, so I would love to help inner city kids that come from low income households and poor school systems. I could go on for days about this because it is something I am so passionate about! I would love to find somewhere like that to volunteer here. I need to check on that! Anyone in the NYC have any ideas?

7. What is your favorite picture of you or one you have taken?

Here we go again with the hard questions. You're killin' me, Kit! :) My most favorite recent pictures of me would have to be this one from my bridal session with the fabulous Allison of Allison Elizabeth Photography. My husband has it framed on his desk and that makes me smile. :)

I love this picture for so many reasons. Not only was it taken at one of my most favorite places in the whole world, but I love how genuinely happy and excited I look about the exciting months to come and marrying the man of my dreams.

Favorite picture I have taken? That is super hard, too! Here is a definite contender.

I took this picture while waiting on the ferry in Jersey City to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty this past March when we came to look for an apartment. I don't know why, but I just love it.


8. What is your greatest pet peeve?


I'm weird and have way too many pet peeves to be normal. Right now, a pretty big one that gets to me is people beeping their horns! New York drivers are notorious for this, but I just think it's RUDE! I understand some people drive like idiots and deserve to be honked at, but I can't stand all of these people who honk at the smallest little thing. EXCUUUUSE ME if I don't floor it on the exact second the light turns green! My husband laughs at me because it hurts my feelings every single time. Drives me absolutely nuts.

Thanks Kit! This was fun! Sorry I'm skipping out on tagging other people...it's past my bedtime!

Wedding Details!

I knew before I even got engaged what I wanted my wedding to "look like." I knew that I wanted it to be a beautiful, classic Southern soiree and that I wanted lots of personalized details. We decided on the color scheme of champagne, pear green, and ivory and I couldn't have loved it more!

Walking into our reception and seeing everything I planned for so many months was such a surreal experience. I painstakingly planned every little detail and pictured it all in my head for forever, but seeing it all together with all of our families and friends there was so magical!

I definitely could not have done it all without such wonderful helpers! My mom's best friends growing up came the Thursday before the wedding and were such a HUGE help! They made the mason jar lanterns, helped me finish all of the candy jars, and basically did almost everything the day of the wedding!

Here is some advice for you bride to be's: no matter how much you plan, things will go wrong, and you WILL need lots of help! I was obsessed with planning this wedding and thought nothing could go wrong because I planned everything so well...WRONG! Nothing major went wrong, but it was SO wonderful to have people handling the problems and setting everything up so I had absolutely nothing to worry about except marrying my sweet boy! Moral of the story- get you some help...LOTS of it!

Now on to the pictures. I'm a little obsessed. One of the pictures of the tent all set up is the background on my computer. Not a picture of my sweet new husband and I; but a picture of the beautiful tablecloths, gold Chivari chairs, and gorgeous centerpieces. HA! I fought hard for the gold Chivari chairs and I am SO glad I did! Many will argue that no one notices chairs, but I think they made all the difference! We also splurged a little on the linens, because it was really important to me to have the exact green color that I imagined. Bridezilla?? Noooo! :) We had a lot of tall cocktail tables, so we didn't have to rent as many chairs (good way to save some money!)







I collected all of the paper lanterns for about a year before the wedding. The tent was very "blah" and needed something to jazz it up; the lanterns were perfect! My sweet, sweet, sweet husband, father in law, and some groomsmen spent 3 hours on the morning of the wedding putting these dumb things up. From what I understand, it was a HUGE pain in the butt and took multiple trips to Wal Mart to figure out, but boy was it worth it! They definitely changed the look of the whole tent and made it look more finished! Most of the lanterns came from either Pier 1 or www.thepaperlanternstore.com- a super cheap way to jazz up your reception!





We had a florist do all of the bouquets, bouts, and corsages; but decided to go the DIY route for our centerpieces. We ordered all of the ivory roses and hydrangea in bulk from Costco in Greenville. Not only was it super easy, but it was SO much cheaper than ordering them through a florist, or having them actually make the centerpieces. Armed with all of my collected vases, some inspiration pictures, and the Costco flowers; Carrie and Brenda of CB Events did all of the centerpieces! Everything turned out exactly as I imagined; they were such a huge help!

I found my inspiration picture for the tall centerpieces on Save On Crafts. I bought the white sticks on their website and they sat in our garage for like a year. Love the look of the modern sticks with the classic hydrangea! Here is the inspiration picture:


And some pictures of our centerpieces:






Early on in the wedding planning, I started to collect vintage milk glass vases and cups to use for the smaller centerpieces. My grandparents made frequent trips to the local flea market, and got most of my vases there! They are all so unique and special, and they were beautiful with the white flowers at the reception. Here are a few inspiration pictures and some pictures of how ours turned out:



Some of our milk glass centerpieces:








I will save the rest of the details for another post; sorry this was so long!

Our Wedding Cake!

One of my most favorite parts of planning our wedding was the wedding cake! I have a HUGE sweet tooth, so not only did I need the cake to look good, I also needed it to be delicious!

I heard about Kathy and Company from a few different people; they all raved about how incredibly delicious and beautiful her cakes were. I called Kathy and made an appointment for my mom and I to go and do a tasting while Joe was busy with football (or class, I can't remember!)I wrote about our experience here; we had SO much fun!

These were the pictures I took for inspiration:



Also, here was a little drawing I did of the cake Kathy designed for us:


We ended up scrapping my cake stand idea, and we rented a beautiful gold stand from a local rental company on the day of the wedding. Picture my mom running all over Spartanburg hunting down a gold cake stand hours before the wedding. STRESSFUL! Also, I planned on having pink peonies (the same as I had in my bouquet) on our cake, but the flowers were delivered to the church instead of the reception location; hence the reason there are hydrangea blooms on the cake. I LOVED the way it turned out, even with all of the mishaps. Shows that you can plan 'til the cows come home, but things will always go wrong with a wedding! I was so happy that day that I didn't care!

Kathy and her team were absolutely wonderful to work with, and I have told everyone I know about them. The cake was gorgeous, and was also the best cake I have ever tasted. We had so many guests tell us the same thing! All of the flavors were divine; I wish I had some right now!

Here are a few pictures of how it turned out!



I made this little sign so the guests would know the different flavors we chose!


We used the same cake topper that my parents had on their cake 25 years ago! :)






I DIY'ed our silhouettes for the cake table...I'm a little obsessed with them.


If anyone in Upstate South Carolina needs a cake for any occasion, you should definitely contact Kathy!

Our Kitchen

Everyone is showing off their kitchens on Kelly's Show Us Your Life Fridays this week. Our kitchen is my lease favorite thing about our apartment.

Not only is it TINY with no cabinet or counter space, but everything is straight out of the 90s! We did get a new, pretty faucet and hung up some stainless steel shelves from Ikea, but it's still pretty heinous. It was also painted blue when we moved in. I didn't (and still don't) particularly like the color, but since we don't know how long we will be here, we decided to leave it be. It's a fun, cheery color; but it's definitely not something I would ever pick. The layout of the kitchen is also really weird, so cooking is a bit of a challenge! But hey, it's our kitchen and we just have to deal with it!

I did what I could with the space, and this is how it turned out:






My monogram obsession is definitely on showcase in the kitchen with the cutting board (wasn't that such a cute wedding gift??) and all of my aprons.



Sooo, when I get super sad about how much our kitchen sucks, I look at pictures of gorgeous kitchens and daydream about the day I will have my very own! Here are some of my dream kitchens:






Can you tell how much I love white kitchens? In the words of Rachel Zoe, "I DIE!"

Quick and Easy Decorating for Fall

I decided it was finally time to do a little fall decorating. My friend Marian Bryce is flying in tomorrow for the weekend, so I had some incentive! I didn't really have any fall accessories, so I used things that I had and things that I found in our yard! It only took me a few minutes, and I love how it turned out!

First, I put the leaf in our table to make it bigger and switched out the placemats, napkins, and napkin rings. Leaves haven't changed much, but I did find some leaves on the ground in our backyard that were really pretty shades of orange and yellow. I scattered those down the middle of the table, and also put out ivory candelsticks and a cute little pumpkin from the grocery store. Since I have a lot of different colors of Fiestaware, I used the orange and yellow plates to bring out the colors in the leaves.

Super quick and easy...and CHEAP!