60 Before 30

It is no secret that I love goal setting. From setting monthly goals, to my overall yearly goals/guideposts, to longer-term goal setting like 101 in 1001, I absolutely love the way goal setting helps me prioritize both long- and short-term, and especially in this season of wedding planning, I don’t know how I’d get it all done without the structure of intentional goal setting.

While my monthly goals are usually very practical, I love setting long-term goals that are essentially more like bucket list items than to-do lists. Since 2015, I have been working on a 101 in 1001 goals list, where you attempt to complete 101 goals in 1001 days. I blogged my list here. My 1001st day was June 1, 2018, and so even though I didn’t accomplish everything on my list, it’s time to turn the page and start a new long-term goal setting chapter!

Partway through my 1001 days, I noticed on a few blogs I read a trend of doing a number of goals based on a specific age. One common one was 60 Before 30. This could work with any age, i.e., 100 before 50, 80 before 80, etc. To me, this isn’t about being scared of turning a certain age—I have no qualms at all about turning 30, when I do—but instead it’s about defining a set of ages in your life and dreaming about all they could hold. I have almost exactly three years until I turn 30 (minus a couple of weeks), and so this set is just a little longer than my 1001 days, which seems perfect to accomplish and experience some big things, and make some little-but-important things happen too. In my list you will see a mix of mundane and over-the-top, but that’s real life. A lot of my list is relationship, family, health, and travel-related. I have a few items that I prefer not to put on the Internet, either because they involve a surprise I’d love to pull off, a personal health-related topic, or the “story” of the goal isn’t fully mine to tell. For those, I just wrote “personal” and the general topic it is.

My way of keeping my list organized is I have each goal written on a page of a journal (pictured at the top of this post). As I go through the list (not necessarily in order), I write a short journal entry about it, and I can also tape tickets or other mementos of goals I’ve completed right in the journal. I did this for my 101 in 1001 list, and I love that it’s a tangible thing I can keep forever, even though that list is now over. I will also plan on blogging various 60 before 30 goals as I complete them!

With that introduction out of the way, here’s my 60 Before 30 list:

1.     Marry Grace Baldridge

2.     Go on a honeymoon

3.     Legally change my last name to Baldridge

4.     Build an emergency fund of 6 months’ living expenses with Grace

5.     Start a collection of Christmas decorations

6.     Increase planned/intentional charitable giving

7.     Host a baby shower or a bridal shower

8.     Switch to all natural beauty, cleaning, and laundry products

9.     Personal (career)

10.  Get first Christmas tree of my own (for my first married Christmas)

11.  Personal (spiritual)

12.  Go somewhere wild/exotic/remote (some initial ideas are Bora Bora, Antarctica, or Kenya)

13.   Personal (family)

14.  Personal (spiritual)

15.  Make a beautiful heirloom-quality wedding album

16.  Make a beautiful heirloom-quality album of pictures from our Alaska road trip

17.  Make a beautiful heirloom-quality album of pictures from our honeymoon

18.  Make the outdoor spaces of our house special

19.  Make an awesome and welcoming guest room

20.  Combine all finances with Grace and have both our names on all bank and credit accounts

21.  Personal (surprising someone)

22.  Celebrate my mom’s graduation from divinity school

23.  Celebrate my sister’s graduation from college

24.  Go back to Elon with Grace (maybe for her cousin’s graduation, or for homecoming?)

25.  Visit D.C. to see two of my best friends and my grandmother, who all live there

26.  Do a month-long contentment/spending freeze challenge

27.  Celebrate our first and second wedding anniversaries

28.  Find a dentist in LA

29.  Personal (health)

30.  Send out our first ever Christmas cards (as the Baldridges!)

31.  Personal (career)

32.  Personal (career)

33.  Go a week without social media

34.  Be able to say, at least at some point, that I’m in great physical shape

35.  Go back to Grace’s hometown in Belgium

36.  Fix our closet and hallway lights

37.  Give a speech at a wedding or rehearsal dinner

38.  Have my blog featured somewhere

39.  Personal (surprising someone)

40.  Personal (health)

41.  Blog every detail of wedding planning and the day itself

42.  Personal (surprising someone)

43.  Upgrade/change up my car when my lease expires in 2019

44.  Replace our foundation mattress (we just got it, but it’s from IKEA and not good…)

45.  Offer to help a friend with some aspect of their wedding: hand-addressing invitations like I did mine, serving as an informal day-of coordinator, passing down my collected wedding décor items, etc.

46.  Personal (misc.)

47.  Personal (gift/surprising someone)

48.  Start a tradition with Grace of having tea in the evenings

49.  Take a trip with both dogs (instead of boarding Bean like we’ve been doing while he’s a puppy)

50.  Take Grace to my parents’ place on the Chesapeake Bay

51.  Hang art or photos over our bed

52.  Introduce Grace to my grandmother (finally!)

53.  Have 10+ baby books in my collection (Grace and I started a tradition after we got engaged of collecting baby books on special trips we take . . . it might sound crazy, but I love the idea of having an amazing collection of books from special places for our babies if we’re lucky enough to have them one day)

54.  Swim (actually swim) in the ocean 10+ times

55.  Visit Ojai at least once a year

56.  Have a dinner party using our beautiful new kitchen wares we’ve gotten as wedding gifts

57.  Get orthotics/generally get my flat feet assessed by a professional (I truly have the flattest feet on earth—like the palm of a hand—and I need to be more proactive about the health problems my lack of arches will cause me as I get older)

58.  Go skiing with Grace (and stick to the bunny slopes because of the knee issues we both have!)

59.  See Carly Rae Jepson live with Grace

60.  Have professional photos taken of Grace and me each year of our marriage

Have you ever set monthly or long-term goals? I would love to hear about them!

Thanks for reading. Xoxo

Birthday Weekend in Ojai

This past weekend Grace and I drove up to Ojai for my birthday, and I am so grateful. Leading up to this trip, even though it had been booked for weeks, I refused to let myself be excited for it. I've been in the busiest season of my life and honestly a bit down--feeling like it's impossible to count on any plans or set good boundaries with work. Up until we were physically in the car driving to Ojai, a big part of me didn't believe the trip would happen. But I fought for it, and it was so worth fighting for! A couple days before the trip, I asked Grace if we should still go, given that I'd probably be working a good bit of the trip and had been in a stressed-out mood for days. She said it was my call, but she reminded me that road trips are our sweet spot, and what sets us on fire as a couple. I knew she was right and we had to make it work.

I feel very humbled by the fact that this trip happened at all, and the down-to-the-wire nature of whether we'd get to go actually set me up for a really beautiful experience of letting go of control with planning trips. Normally, for a weekend getaway, I'd spend a good bit of time researching the area and having a few options in mind for each meal or activity, and maybe even some advance reservations. But because I didn't know until that day whether we'd actually get to go, I didn't spend any time planning ahead, and it was actually SO special. Everything felt really magical, like we'd just stumbled upon things, whereas if I'd researched in advance, it would have lost a bit of that wonder I think. I'm not saying I'm now totally converted to only spontaneous travel--I did book this hotel weeks in advance after all--but I think it was really meant to be that we got to just wing it.

For example, on Friday night when we drove up, it turned that there was an oyster food truck right in the parking lot of the hotel! We'd already eaten dinner on the road, but we decided to get some raw oysters as an after-dinner snack, and they were SO good. It put me in the best mood and just felt so FUN--an oyster food truck steps away from our hotel room--how cool and serendipitous is that?! But had I researched in advance, I would have seen that it was on the hotel's schedule, and I would have pressed Grace to make sure we got there in time to go to it. We ended up getting there only 20 minutes before the food truck was supposed to leave, which would have stressed me out had we been counting on going to it, but because I didn't know in advance, it just felt like perfect timing. And had the truck driven away before we got there, well, ignorance is bliss.

It's a good reminder, especially with our honeymoon coming up, that knowing all the local hot spots in advance can actually minimize your ability to stumble upon something and make the trip your own, not the internet's version of the perfect trip to that area. 

Now with that dose of travel philosophy out of the way, here's the recap of our trip!

We stayed at the Ojai Rancho Inn, which is now our favorite place in Ojai! This was our third trip; we previously stayed at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa and a Hipcamp treehouse in Ojai. By the way, if you have never heard of this small town and are perplexed at how to say the name, it's pronounced like this: OH-hi. Kind of like Ohio, but without the "o" at the end, and the emphasis is on the first O rather than the hi. Hence lots of "Oh hi, Ojai" puns. It is a beautiful, lush town in the foothills, historically an artists' community. Similar to Palm Springs in some ways, but more of a green hilly feel than the desert like Palm Springs.

Here are some pictures I snapped for a visual feel for the property at Rancho:

While we had a fabulous time at both the Ojai Valley and the Ojai treehouse in the past, we both agreed that Ojai Rancho just felt like the "Goldilocks" of places in Ojai. The Ojai Valley was our first foray into all that Ojai has to offer, and it's really special that we got to go there with Casper. But it's more of a golf course resort/pool scene kind of place, which is fine, but a little bit less our style. It's also slightly more removed from Ojai town, which is SO cool. The Ojai treehouse is also incredible but VERY removed from town (up a mountain), and rustic. I would totally go back there for camping, but it's not ideal if you want to explore the actual town.

Ojai Rancho was a dream. It's sort of rustic, but spotlessly clean, and had a funky cool vibe that just put us in the best mood. Our room, which felt more like our own cabin, was one of the coolest hotel rooms we've ever stayed in. Here are some pictures of that:

Having the piano in the room was clutch because Grace is working on tracking for her new record. Psst--you can get in on her record early here.

Since we don't have cable, watching House Hunters when we're on vacation is one of our guilty pleasures.

A little in-room picnic before dinner with all of my favorites for my birthday eve :)

And the Rancho is dog friendly! We decided not to bring Bean (although they do allow up to two dogs per room), because I just never want to be "that person" who brings a puppy that ends up peeing on something or disturbing guests. Bean got some extra social time being boarded at his favorite home away from home, Posh Pet Care in West Hollywood, and Willie got to be reminded of the good ole days when he was an only child. Just kidding :)

If you're curious, the room we stayed in was the King Garden Cottage. It's the only one like it at the hotel, and if you stay at the Rancho, I HIGHLY recommend the little bit extra it costs to rent this room. The other rooms seemed nice from pictures, but this one is a little bigger and more special. You also have direct access to the pool from your room (which we didn't use, but would be perfect if traveling with kids), and out the other door, you walk straight out onto a little patio and green space for your dog. Plus, the piano, cool leather sofa, and record player make a stay all the more unique and cozy. I think the other rooms are more like traditional hotel rooms with just a bed, though some have a Jacuzzi, which ours didn't have. I didn't take any photos of the bathroom, but it was nice and big.

Since we didn't have any plans in advance, we decided to just explore the town and have down time in our room, pretty much alternating those two things the whole weekend. It was great. The first night we stayed in and had the above-mentioned oysters.

On Saturday morning we went down the street for some breakfast and to walk around in the parks with Willie. Funny story, the road in front of the hotel is kind of busy so we drove (2 mins) into town, later realizing there is an AWESOME greenway trail that runs behind the hotel and all the businesses in the main district of Ojai! So everything is super walkable and pedestrian--I just didn't know in advance that you could get there by strolling behind the actual street where things are. Here's a picture of us on the greenway:

The first morning we ate breakfast at the Marche Gourmet Delicatessen--so good and friendly! Super European, right in the middle of Ojai.

Ojai is a very small town and easily walkable, though old man Willie was a little tired. We saw the sights and then headed back to the hotel for some rest time (after our extremely busy morning, clearly).

Ojai has the prettiest tile work everywhere. I love it. Walking around Saturday morning is when we really started to both say we could see ourselves living here. It's not that we don't love LA, but we are the type of people to think about retirement when we're 27, and this is exactly where we want to be when we retire. And maybe even buy property earlier than that so we can fix it up and spend time on the weekends there. A part of me even wants to move to Ojai to raise a family, because it seems like such a great place to do that. But that's probably not in the cards in the immediate future.

Anyway, after some down time in the afternoon, we ventured back out on the greenway for dinner. We had a few names in mind of places that had outdoor seating for Willie, and ended up selecting The Nest, which was a really cute place with a nice patio. The food was yummy. Grace got an anchovy margarita pizza and I got calamari tacos.

I also had one of my favorite cocktails I've had in a while there. The one I got was called the Ventura Fog, which was fitting because it was a pretty foggy/chilly weekend. It was made with earl grey infused gin, lavender, meyer lemon, and egg white. It reminded me of a lavender macaron, but not super sweet, which I always prefer in drinks.

After dinner we got some fro yo and walked back to our home away from home! Walking along the greenway, we passed right behind a local amphitheater with an event going on, and we heard some familiar tunes trickling through the trees. I looked up the schedule for that amphitheater and saw that it was actually the band Vampire Weekend playing. I had never heard them live so we lingered a little bit on that part of the walk, thinking how fun it was to unexpectedly hear a band we knew playing in the park in this little town. It was a sweet, simple night. We drank some champagne when we got back and randomly watched the original Jurassic Park which was on TV.  I'm not sure if I'll see the new movie coming out, but the original has always been a favorite.

The next day was my birthday! And also the one year anniversary of Casper (our first dog) dying. It felt really full circle to wake up on my birthday and hug Willie (last year I was awoken on my birthday at 5am to basically Casper's last moments/getting really sick) and just feel grateful for all the healing--and new fur babies--we've had in the year following Casper's death. 

I opened some gifts and then we checked out of our hotel and drove to the Ojai Coffee Roasting Co. for breakfast. It was definitely the hot spot in town that morning (which was also Father's Day), and Grace waited in line while I sat outside with Willie. We got some lox, a really good PB&J, a parfait, and some coffee and a chai latte for me. It was all delish.

And after that we headed back to LA! We clocked how long it took for us to get down to the coast, and it was only about 15-20 minutes. That was also a big selling point on our plans to move to Ojai one day--I think of Ojai as being more inland, but it's actually quicker to the beach than where we live in West Hollywood! 

All in all, the weekend away was just what we both needed. I honestly could have spent a week at Ojai Rancho Inn, and we hope to go back for a longer vacation soon! I can't wait to spend more time in Ojai and get to know it better. We feel like we just scratched the surface of all there is to do there. Ojai also has a big wine scene with a bunch of tasting rooms, which is something I would love to try out next time. If you are looking for a getaway in Southern California that isn't a far drive but feels like a world away, I cannot recommend Ojai enough. The sign below says it all--Ojai vibes are very real!

June Goals + May Recap

Rabbit rabbit! June is here. I'm hoping this month will be very sweet, expectant, and celebratory. There are SO many things going on: Pride. My birthday. Also, marking a year since Casper died. Taking a trip to the East Coast to celebrate with some of my bridesmaids before the wedding. And in a way, June feels like the last *full* month before the wedding, because our wedding is at the very beginning of August, so the first half of our wedding week is actually in July. 

Though there are still things to do, I have to say, we feel ready for our wedding day. During these months of planning, I have really really wanted to avoid feeling stressed in the few weeks leading up to the wedding. I don't want to be DIY-ing late into the night right before, or being nervous if shipments will come in time. I think some online vendors have thought I'm a little over the top with placing orders in February for things for our August wedding, but now that I have everything in-hand, it just puts me at so much peace. There are a few little things we're still waiting on (an engraved cake cutting set, a special vintage of champagne for our toast with cake cutting, and other tiny details like that), but nothing that our wedding would be incomplete without at this point. I have outfits planned out for my bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal dinner, wedding morning, and day-after-the-wedding, and if you know me, you know that this makes my heart SO full. I'm a planner through and through, so this wedding has been like my Olympics!

My goals for June are still mostly focused on getting ready for the wedding, but I also want to slow down and celebrate all the good things happening this month. Lord willing, Grace and I will be celebrating our fifth West Hollywood Pride together, then the next weekend we'll go away for my birthday, then the next weekend I'll fly to my favorite place on earth to be with some of my favorite people on earth. So one of my overarching, big goals is just to celebrate and truly soak it all in.

So how did I do on my May goals? I had an incredibly busy month work-wise and was lagging on many of my May goals, but in the last few days I turned it out and made several happen! That's one of the things I love about monthly goals--having that "deadline" of the end of the month helps me knock things out even though there isn't really any consequence to not completing them on time. Mainly, I like to get it all done to make way for the next month's goals, so I don't have to roll things over (though there are a couple of roll-overs this month).

To recap May:

• Meet with Rev. Ed (our officiant and dear friend) to plan our ceremony--yes. I think our ceremony is going to be so, so good. It's a very traditional Episcopal ceremony, which I think might be a surprise to some, but we've written it in a way where people don't need to have familiarity with Episcopalianism to follow along.
• Order and design ceremony programs--somewhat; I figured out what I want the programs to say and where I'm going to order them, but I need to confirm all the details of the ceremony are correct with Rev. Ed before sending it to print (so this is a roll-over goal)
• Send out our wedding invitations--yes! It's been SO fun getting response cards every day in the mail!
• Decide on all music and give notes to our band about what types of music we want played at our reception--yes, I'm suuuuper excited about the music. We have a 9-piece band for our reception that I think is going to be so energetic and fun.
• Decide on and purchase all details for reception (little things like cake toppers, decorative ribbon, etc.)--yep! Our guest room is filled with them right now, haha! Our custom cake toppers might be one of my favorite details of our wedding.
• Shop for and purchase our wedding rings (!!)--yes and omg, I am SO EXCITED for us to wear our wedding rings. Grace knows, I look at photos of my wedding ring every.single.day. (I don't have it currently because it's getting sized, and Grace's is getting custom made). My engagement ring is a 4+ generations-old family heirloom from Grace's family, and my wedding ring goes so perfectly with it, it's like they're long-lost twins.
• Catch up on thank-you cards I need to write--woefully behind on this. Working on it today, though!
• Blog a home tour--yes! This is one of those goals I wasn't sure would get done this month, but in the last few days of May I pulled it off. You can find that post here.
• Decide on some additional honeymoon details and gather recommendations--booked a couple things, but need to make a list of recommendations for each island.
• Shop for and purchase my wedding shoes--yes, I'm obsessed. I had a VERY specific vision in mind and I found exactly what I wanted. They also couldn't be more comfortable!
• Really soak in being engaged. Only 3 months left!--yeah, feeling very sweet on each other :) Now it's technically June, but we are going on a cute date night tonight continuing the theme of soaking in being engaged.

And now, my June goals:

• Get our marriage license (in California, you can get one starting 90 days out from your wedding, and we're well within that now)
• Make all wedding-related playlists (as I said above, we have a live band, but we need playlists for getting-ready music in the morning, and also for times when the band takes breaks throughout the reception)
• Touch base with all vendors and schedule meetings as necessary
• Decide on our alcohol order for our reception
• Check in with our wedding party to make sure everyone has their attire and give wedding weekend details
• Order ceremony programs
• Put together some final DIY projects (that I'm keeping a surprise for now)
• Update our wedding website with a couple of details
• Make a payments schedule for remaining vendor payments
• Finalize honeymoon details + recommendations
• Enjoy my weekend in Virginia with half of my bridesmaids! (I'm spending a special weekend with the other half in July)
• Close the chapter on my 101 in 1001 goal list and create a new one: 60 Before 30

I hope you have a super sweet June! Thanks for reading.

Our Little Yellow House

I am so excited to finally share this post! I've been looking forward to doing a home tour since we moved into our house last October. Grace and I chose not to live together before getting engaged, so sharing a space, combining our styles, and coming home to each other at the end of every day is all super new. We took our time decorating, which was intentional, as we wanted to create a layered, collected look. And we're still building that! But I thought it was "ready" enough to share, and I hope you enjoy.

A little bit about our house: I'm not sharing photos of the outside of our house because this is on the Internet, but we live in a one-story, two-bedroom house in West Hollywood. We LOVE our neighborhood so much--we both lived in West Hollywood in apartments prior to this, and our house is almost in the exact middle of our old places. West Hollywood is my favorite part of LA, and I feel very lucky to live here! 

If you're curious where anything is from in these photos, I have a bunch of links at the bottom of the post :)

The right door of the two doors in the above picture is our front door, so when you walk in, you step into our living room. We chose to have the sectional face both the fireplace, on one side, and the TV on the other. I personally like living room setups that are not entirely focused on the TV, though let's be honest--we end up there most nights! Lately we've been watching Riverdale (just finished season 2), the Handmaid's Tale, Evil Genius, and Jersey Shore (ha).

Across from our couch area is our entryway with a long table that we set mail, keys, etc. on.

Next, after walking through the living room, you get to our dining room. 

The built-in bar area behind our dining room table is one of my favorite parts of our house! I love the shelves and the mirrored back.

And above the bar are three photos from our Alaska trip:

We have a cute little record player corner in one corner of our dining room. It also is home to one of my favorite pieces of art in our house: the painting of Casper that Grace commissioned for me as a gift a few years ago.

Then on the other side of the dining room is our music nook! This spot has probably been the most "work in progress" of the house. There's this little bump-out in our dining room with kind of weird tile and huge windows, and we weren't sure what to do with it. Then Grace had the idea of making it a "music nook," and her parents so sweetly sent us their piano they weren't using. 

The music nook is one of the areas of our house that I'm most proud of, because it really mixes functionality with style. I love the look of the guitars on the wall, and I love that the piano is a gorgeous family heirloom, but it's also a space Grace uses every day to practice her music.

Just past the music nook is Grace's office. This space is a HUGE bonus of our house. We knew Grace needed a home office, but we assumed we'd find a place with two bedrooms and turn one into an office. So when we found our house, with an office separate from the two bedrooms, it was a dream come true!

Next up: our kitchen! I love our kitchen view right now; it's filled with bougainvillea (the pink flowers). 

Some favorite Polaroids taped to the fridge

A coffee cart I bought & styled for Grace's birthday a couple of years ago. Coffee is Grace's love language for sure.

And then our laundry room is right off the kitchen. It's also where we keep most of our dog food and supplies.

Swinging over to the other side of the house, we have a long hallway with our two bedrooms and bathroom off of it. First I'll show you the bathroom. I love it because it's so bright, open, and airy. When we first started looking for a place, having a window in the bathroom was a non-negotiable for me. We ended up with three!

And if you're curious, here's what our hallway connecting the two bedrooms and the bathroom looks like:

Here's our bedroom. We were determined to fit a king size bed in here, so the room is very full (of bed) but it feels super cozy to me. As a result, we have very little else in our bedroom, but I personally think that makes it feel extra restful!

We definitely need some kind of artwork or something over our bed, but we have been slow to pick something out. It might be a good spot for wedding photos, so I'm fine leaving it empty for now.

Right across from our bed, we have this skinny dresser/decorative shelves. It was actually an IKEA "hack" that Grace put together. We then have another little dresser and a wall of shelves inside our closet, which is basically a very small walk-in closet (in case you were wondering how two people fit all their stuff!).

This little bunny lamp is one of my favorite details in our bedroom. I had a pet bunny a few years ago who was (and still is) very special to me. Bean reminds me a lot of her, actually!

Last (and probably least) is our guest bedroom. Grace almost said I just shouldn't include it on the home tour, because we've done SO little with it, but I think it's still a cute-enough room, and we've already had several guests stay with us in it! We have nothing on the walls in there and it's currently kind of a catchall for wedding related crafts, and all our wedding gifts we've gotten so far (I'm superstitious about unpacking anything from the boxes until after the wedding). But I like to think it's still cozy and comfy, and will only get more so as we have more time to devote to making it nice.

I love that the bougainvillea is visible from this cozy corner of the guest room too.

I'm really excited to work on this house even more over the years and create an even more "gathered" decorated look as time goes on. We feel incredibly lucky to live here!

To close, I had Grace tell me her three favorite things about our house (without telling her mine).  Here are both of our answers:

Mine: 1. Our fenced in yard for the dogs; 2. Our hardwood floors throughout (with tile in the bathroom and kitchen); 3. That we have a washer, dryer, dishwasher, and central A/C and heat (all things I never had in my previous 2 apartments in California). Honorable mention: the lemon tree in our backyard!

Grace's: 1. My office; 2. Music Nook--love that it's an open space that flows to the rest of the house, so making music is a part of the house (and not a closed off space); 3. Our living room and how we almost always have fresh flowers there.

Sources, in photos from top to bottom:

 Living room curtains: Crate & Barrel

Living room curtain rods: Target

Letterboard: Letterfolk

Lantern Lamps: Blueprint Furniture (on sale, found in the back of the store gathering dust)

Couch: Blueprint Furniture

Globe Floor Lamp: Target

Throw Pillows: assorted from Anthropologie, Target, and World Market

Coffee Table and matching TV Table: Aiden Collection from World Market

Corner pouf seat: World Market (from a few seasons ago)

Basket for blankets under TV: Target

Entryway Table: World Market

Round Mirrors Over Entryway Table: Target

Basket for Dog Supplies on Entryway Table Shelf: Target (no longer available online, similar here)

Blue Chair in Entryway: World Market (apparently only comes as a set of 2 online)

Eucalyptus Wood Dining Room Table: CB2 from a long time ago, similar here

Mirrored Tray in Bar Area: Amazon

Black Frames Above Bar: Framebridge

Custom Framing for Casper Painting: Aaron Brothers

Drop-leaf Table for Record Player: IKEA

Speaker: Marshall 

Record Player: Grace Can't Remember Where She Got It

Basket for Records: Target

Curtain Rods in Music Nook: Target (same as in living room)

Curtains in Music Nook: Urban Outfitters (in Mint)

Armchair in Music Nook: World Market (as are the faux-fur throw and pink velvet pillow)

Side Table in Music Nook: World Market (no longer available online, similar here)

Lamp on Side Table: World Market Shade: World Market (no longer available online, similar here)

Plant Basket: IKEA

Music Nook Runner Rug: Rugs USA (I'm obsessed with Rugs USA)

Guitar Hooks: Guitar Center

Piano: Baldridge Family Heirloom

Frames for Grid Wall in Grace's Office: Aaron Brothers

Grace's Desk: World Market

Grace's Desk Chair: World Market

Sheepskin Throw: IKEA

Wall Sconce: World Market

Bookshelf in Grace's Office: Target

Letter Light Box: Target

Round Rug in Grace's Office: Rugs USA

Kitchen: pretty much everything has been collected for a long time and I can't link, but I will link the coffee cart here

Eyelet Shower Curtain: Target from a long time ago, similar here

Wooden Bench in Bathroom: IKEA (no longer available online, similar here)

White Bath Mat: Target (no longer available online, similar here)

Hallway Gray Sheepskin Rugs: IKEA

Master Bedroom Bed Frame: Crate & Barrel

White Duvet: IKEA

Throw Pillows: World Market

Bedside Table: World Market

Lamp: World Market (same as music nook lamp but with a different shade)

Leaning Floor Mirror: Target

Master Bedroom Curtains: Crate & Barrel (in silver/cream)

Master Bedroom Curtain Rods: Target

Master Bedroom Rug: Rugs USA

Dresser/Shelves: IKEA

Bunny Lamp: World Market (no longer available, similar idea here)

Guest Bedroom Curtain Rods: Target

Guest Bedroom Curtains: Urban Outfitters

Guest Bedroom Bed Frame: IKEA

Guest Bedroom Duvet: Marimekko from years ago, similar here

Guest Bedroom Rug: World Market (no longer available online, similar here)

Guest Bedroom Chair & Ottoman: IKEA

Thoughts on Grieving the Loss of a Pet Long-Term

Next month will mark one year since Casper died. Casper was our first dog together, an old brindle gray, black, and white pit bull we adopted from the West LA Shelter when he was probably about 8 years old. We had just under three years with him, and those years changed our lives forever. We have a huge painting of him in our house that Grace commissioned for me as a gift while Casper was still alive, and Grace always says to our other dogs, Casper is the only dog that gets a painting. He started it all.

A few weeks after Casper died, I wrote this post about fear and anxious thoughts after losing a pet suddenly. It is actually one of the posts that I've gotten the most emails about, and I was thinking that it would be worthwhile to post an update on how I'm feeling. SO much has changed since Casper died. We've adopted not one but two new dogs, we got engaged, we moved in together and made a home in our little house in West Hollywood, and honestly, life is good. I don't post much at all on this blog, or on IG or anywhere else, about continuing to grieve Casper because, well, it's not easily explained and doesn't feel right to solicit sympathy months and months after the fact. Without any ill-intention, people do expect you to move on. 

That being said, I know that the loss of a pet can stay with you for a long time (and really, forever), so I just wanted to write this post to say that you are not alone if you're not "over" the loss of a pet! I also want to share a little bit of my feelings in case anyone reading this is just now experiencing the loss of a pet and is wondering how they might be handling it in several months. Of course, everyone's way of processing is different, but here's how I feel a little less than a year out:

I still sometimes, out of the blue, feel like a shot of ice water floods my veins remembering losing Casper and the fact that he's not physically on earth any more. Random little things can make me feel this way. Recently, on the first day of spring this year, I just had this sick feeling of time being relentless, of another season without Casper, and how spring was the last season we had with him. Last fall, when I went through a couple of months of the worst anxiety I'd ever felt, I remember crying my eyes out and thinking that Casper had never seen me in such a dark season, and he would have protected me from this. I know this all sounds like TOTAL crazy dog lady stuff, but Casper was like my little baby and my big brother all at once. Without him, I would (and sometimes still do) project hard feelings onto his absence and feel like I would "feel better" if only he was still here with me.

One of the most persistent, unbearable thoughts I had after Casper died is imagining my life stretched out in front of me--decades and decades, if I'm lucky--and never seeing Casper's face again in all that time. Being an old lady, still lonely from missing my first baby (and I have a huge lump in my throat typing this). Feeling like his exact features and quirks would become a distant memory is too painful to dwell on. 

One thing that I think less and less about is the actual day he died. I grappled with a lot of trauma after that day, but that has subsided. Though I realize this post is probably coming across as BEYOND extra if you're not as much of a dog person as I am, Casper's death was nonetheless very traumatic for me. He literally died in my arms, in the back of Grace's car in the middle of nowhere, and I held his (80-pound) body for two hours before we could reach our vet to get him cremated. It happened so fast--only three days from the first sign of illness (after which we immediately took him to the vet, but they said he was okay for the time being)--and only about an hour where he was actually dying. I had never witnessed any death before that, except maybe a bug or something. So this was huge for me. I'd had family members and family pets die, but I'd never been there. After we took Casper to be cremated, Grace and I went home alone and just cried beside each other for so long. I felt like we were so impossibly tiny, and that the huge powers of life and death had just ripped through us and left us like little leaves blowing in the wind. I have never felt more drained. I replayed what had happened thousands of times in my head, and I had to tell the story to so many people who were as shocked by his sudden death as we were. But actually, telling it helped. It got easier each time. And writing it out was so healing. So even though I felt like I would never get my strength back after what happened, I of course have.

Lastly, I am definitely okay. And if you've lost a pet, or are worried about losing one in the future, you will be okay too! It's a bit overwhelming to think about losing either of my current dogs, because as this post shows I'm not done grieving Casper . . . so I don't know how I could handle going through another loss. But, I know I could. Also, my best advice is to adopt another dog or two as soon as you can :)

If you're going through this, hang in there!

May Goals + April Recap

Happy May, friends! I am so happy to be right in the thick of spring, with summer starting NEXT MONTH! Spring is my favorite season closely followed by summer, and springtime colors in LA have not disappointed so far (the pic above is from my backyard, which has blossomed so much lately). 

April was a good month. It could have easily felt hectic and overwhelming, but it really didn't because we (especially Grace) were intentional about boundaries and balance. We had houseguests (each of our moms) for two weeks straight and then immediately after that I was in Boston for the better part of a week, so the majority of the month was different than "normal" life for us, which made it go by super fast. That said, I made a ton of wedding progress and at this point there is nothing stressful hanging over my head with wedding planning, which is an amazing feeling! Planning keeps getting more and more fun, because at this point I'm getting to pick out the little details and extra, special, over-the-top stuff, which I have been waiting my whole life for.

There were a few things left undone/pushed to May from my April goals, but overall I feel accomplished from the past month. Here's how I did:

• Have a successful Boston trip--yes! It was really good and important for me for a lot of reasons
• Take my wedding dress in for some minor alterations--made an appointment with a seamstress, taking my dress in next week
• Book all wedding-related transportation--yes! This one was stressing me out, but what I ended up booking seems perfect and affordable so I'm really happy
• Book hair and makeup and schedule a trial so I can see what it will look like for the wedding--yes! I have my trial this coming weekend :)
• Get thank-you cards and start writing them for gifts we've gotten so far--ordered custom thank-you cards, haven't started writing yet (because I haven't received the cards yet) . . . Definitely changing that this coming month
• Finalize vintage furniture rentals and lighting setup at the venue--yes! Deposits paid and plans laid
• Order signage and details for our reception--yep, what did people do before Etsy?!
• Finish booking accommodations for every night of our honeymoon--yes and omg, I am SO EXCITED for our honeymoon. Pinch me
• Finalize all gifts I'm giving at/around my wedding (for my bridesmaids, for my family, etc.)--just a couple of small gifts left to get, but I have gifts for everyone in my family and my wedding party and I can't wait to give them!
• Meet with our officiant to start mapping out how our ceremony will go--not yet, doing that this month. We saw our officiant a few times this month but haven't been able to figure out a time to meet about our ceremony yet
• Do a cake tasting--booked, but haven't gone yet. We are doing our tasting in two weeks

And now my May goals:

• Meet with Rev. Ed (our officiant and dear friend) to plan our ceremony
• Order and design ceremony programs
• Send out our wedding invitations
• Decide on all music and give notes to our band about what types of music we want played at our reception
• Decide on and purchase all details for reception (little things like cake toppers, decorative ribbon, etc.)
• Shop for and purchase our wedding rings (!!)
• Catch up on thank-you cards I need to write
• Blog a home tour (have been wanting to do this for so long and feeling like our house is finally ready!)
• Decide on some additional honeymoon details and gather recommendations (if you have favorite things in Maui and/or Kauai, I'd love to hear them!)
• Shop for and purchase my wedding shoes
• Really soak in being engaged. Only 3 months left!

Wishing you a sweet month!

Q & A With Grace

Hi everyone! As you might have seen on my Instagram, we are now less than 100 days out from our wedding! I'm feeling all kinds of sentimental these days and relishing this season of dating/engagement that is about to come to an end (to make way for the best chapter of all). We are almost all done with our premarital counseling, so I feel like we know each other better than ever and have really gone over the ins and outs of our relationship, dreams, goals, personalities, etc. With that in mind, and in response to questions I got in my reader survey from a few months back, I thought it would be fun to do a little Q&A with Grace on our relationship. We answered the questions separately and then I pasted them into this post, so we weren't influenced by the other person's answers. Enjoy!

Do you remember the first thing you said to one another?

G: I don't remember the first thing we said to one another, but I do remember the first time we saw each other. We were in a class so it was probably our names.

E: Yes, I remember the first second I saw Grace and exactly what we both said. It was December 2012. I walked into a pre-semester meeting for a new class we were both signed up for in the coming spring (also side note what was wrong with that professor?! Having a meeting before the semester started? That's not right, haha). Grace was there already, which looking back is funny because I'm usually more on time than she is. I'm pretty sure she was wearing purple sweatpants. The professor was going around and asking where people were from, and when I found out Grace was from Belgium, I asked why she didn't have an accent or if she was faking an American accent. COOL. That's not weirdly judgmental or nosy at all... Then Grace put on a perfect French/Belgian accent and started talking like that to show she could do both (she's very interesting in that Belgian people can't tell she's a native English speaker and Americans would never guess she's also a native French (Belgian) speaker).

What is your favorite quality about each other?

G: Lizzie goes above and beyond to make the people in her life feel special. She never forgets a birthday, and can't wait to throw you a dinner party. She's also a great listener. She will be as attentive to friends going through a rough patch, as she will to me complaining about the Hellraiser franchise.

E: If I had to pick one, I would probably pick Grace's easygoing, trusting perspective on life. Even though we both get the blues every now and then or get anxious about something specific, Grace is SO good at keeping perspective, not sweating the small stuff, and snapping me out of it if I'm ever in a spiral of worrying or negative thinking. Grace really does trust that it will all work out in any given situation, which is such a good quality for me to be around.

Who said I love you first?

G: I did. I was waking up from a nap and it just came out.

E: Grace did, a month after we started dating, right after waking up from a nap.

Who is the messiest?

G: She is. I'm not kidding. That's the gag of the season.

E: Me, which is SO CRAZY because I never in a million years thought I'd marry someone cleaner than I am. I am pretty clean, I probably clean the house a couple times a week and generally like things to be tidy. But Grace will not sleep if even one thing is out of place. It's kind of fun being the "messier" one, because I never imagined that could be the case.

What is something people don't know about your (soon to be) spouse?

G: She has just as many weird voices and characters as I do. Ask her about The Yukon Shrew.

E: This is hard, because I feel like Grace is a pretty open book. I guess I would say one thing that some people might not realize is how sensitive Grace can be. People might guess that I'd be the main one needing a shoulder to cry on or getting hurt feelings easily, but I'd say it's about equal between us.

Do you ever fight?

G: Not really. We disagree plenty, we are very different people. But we don't get into fights with each other.

E: No, we've never had a fight. I don't say that as a way of bragging or a badge of honor, it's just true. I don't think fighting means you're necessarily in a bad relationship. It's just not in either of our personalities to fight. We've raised issues with each other and had tough discussions every now and then, but we've always gotten over it within 5 minutes. Grace is so so forgiving and humble, she would never make me try to earn forgiveness if I did something to bruise her feelings. She just forgives and truly moves on and never brings it up again.

Between the two of you, who would you generally say is the money spender and who is the money saver?

G: Lizzie is great with saving and budgeting. We both like to splurge, but I would say I can be more of a spender than her.

E: We have actually been talking about this a lot lately in premarital counseling, because I know that financial struggles are one of the biggest sources of conflict with newlyweds (so we want to address it beforehand!) I would say that we're both generally savers who have no problem with treating ourselves and choosing nice things when it matters. For instance, when we were furnishing our first house together, we rarely made decisions based solely on price and finding the cheapest option--we made decisions based on how long things would last, the quality, and whether they fit our style and would be something we'd be proud to have in our home together. Same with our wedding and honeymoon. These things happen once in a lifetime so it's just not worth skimping for the sake of skimping. I also really cringe at being cheap when you don't have to be. So I guess we're practical people, with a touch of champagne taste :) But for daily decisions and ongoing payments, we try to be frugal and wise, and we have some exciting goals for how much money we want to save as newlyweds. I trust Grace completely; we are combining our money into a joint bank account asap after we're married and I have no worries at all about doing that. 

Who takes longer to get ready?

G: Me because I change my outfit at least 3 times before deciding on anything.

E: I think usually Grace, but we might be tied. Neither of us takes long to get ready. 

What was your first road trip together?

G: I think it was to Kern River. My first camping trip too!

E: A weeklong trip in summer 2015 from Sonoma (Northern California wine country) to San Diego. We slept under the stars, had a private tour and tasting at a hilltop winery all to ourselves, played on the beach with Casper in Big Sur, saw Joshua Tree for the first time, fell in love with Pismo Beach (which we'd never heard of previously), treated ourselves to a night at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, and started a lifelong hobby together of road tripping with dogs.

*Note--Grace is right, Kern was our first road trip... I was thinking along the lines of a multi-part trip I guess.

What part of your wedding day are you most excited for?

G: I'm excited for all of it - but I'm especially excited to celebrate the day with some dear friends and family who are coming to Malibu from all over the world. We feel really blessed to have such a great support system.

E: Our vows. We wrote them recently and they're so good. After saying those words, I'll be on cloud 9 no matter how the rest of the day goes!

Thanks for reading! xoxo

Favorite Podcasts for Road Trips

I don't know why, but it look me a LONG time to get behind the idea of listening to podcasts in the car (or at all). It just was not appealing to me for a while. I had heard that there were all these great podcasts out there, and people seemed to really like them, but I felt like I would be bored.

Well, I finally opened my mind to this awesome medium a few years ago (mostly through Grace intentionally choosing podcasts for our drives), and today I want to share what some of our favorite podcasts have been for road trips! In my experience the best podcast recommendations have been through blogs or word-of-mouth, so I hope you find something new that you enjoy listening to. If you have suggestions you think Grace and I would like, I'd also love to hear them!

Here are some that we've gotten really into:

Generation Why - the two hosts get together and discuss a case or mystery each episode. They usually discuss famous/infamous murders, but they also discuss mysteries like the Titanic conspiracy theory (that they totally debunk), Princess Diana's death, and others. This is one of the few murder mystery podcasts Grace will listen to (because she wants to avoid parallel thinking for her show Murder with Friends), because it's a different-enough concept. That said, if you like her show, I'm sure you will love Generation Why.

Young House Love - actually, this is one that I'm just into on my own (I haven't had Grace listen to it but it's more my style than hers). It's a married couple who are somewhat of experts in home decor and renovations, and each episode they discuss common questions and new ideas related to those concepts. I was skeptical when I heard about this podcast--how can a non-visual medium deal with design and decor in an interesting way? But trust me, they really do! If you're at all interested in DIY, home decorating, etc., check out Young House Love.

Serial - this one kind of goes without saying, as it really revamped the whole podcast genre and was incredibly popular. I'm guessing you've already listened to it. If you haven't, this is a great introductions to podcasts and will convince you of how riveting they can be. Note: I tried listening to Season 2 and didn't like it, I'm sorry to say.

S-Town - initially along the same lines as Serial (same producers, I believe), S-Town is a captivating and wildly fascinating podcast. It's the first podcast Grace and I listened to on our Alaska trip, and we were both completely engrossed for hours. I will say, without giving anything away, the themes and topics were VERY different from what I was expecting, and very different from Serial. I promise, this one is worth listening to.

Criminal - this podcast has one of my favorite narrators, Phoebe Judge. Just love her voice. She discusses different crimes and a whole variety of things that somehow involve criminal justice (the theme is very broad). Every now and then there's an episode that's a miss for me, but most are hits. They're pretty short episodes, which is nice if you just have an average-length commute and want to hear a good story.

You Must Remember This - one of Grace's all-time favorites. It discusses the secrets and forgotten histories of Hollywood's first century. Grace is an old Hollywood fan and knows all the old movie stars' names, which I think most people have forgotten (which is kind of the theme You Must Remember This explores). If you are interested in old Hollywood, this is a great podcast.

In the Dark - Grace and I each (separately, on our commutes) recently listened to this podcast, and we agreed it was one of the most riveting we'd listened to in a long time--for us, up there with Serial and other "greats". It's been out for a couple of years, but I hadn't heard of it until recently. The subject matter is dark (as the name might suggest), but it's incredibly compelling and highlights an important area of criminal justice/social policy from a perspective I had never thought about. Season two (about a different case) is coming out next week, and I'm looking forward to listening.

Heaven's Gate - we listened to this podcast last weekend on our drive to Jamul (check out my recap of that trip here). Sometimes the narrator was a little cheesy or overly dramatic, but the basic topic (the Heaven's Gate cult and the mass suicide in San Diego) is SO interesting. I didn't know much at all about the cult, so I was hooked on this podcast and learned a lot about a strange little slice of history.

Honorable Mentions - these are a few that I wasn't glued to, but definitely still entertained us on our long Alaska drives (and I'm sure they're exactly someone else's cup of tea):

Up & Vanished - this podcast is about the disappearance of Georgia beauty queen Tara Grinstead. The story is horrifying and compelling, but the narrator just wasn't my favorite. We didn't end up listening to the end of this one. I also felt like there were entire episodes that didn't go anywhere and could have been cut out of the series. That said, if you have a particular interest in this case, the podcast goes really in-depth about it.

Someone Knows Something - kind of the same issue; slow podcast, not my favorite narrator. But again, very interesting case, and took place in Canada, where we were traveling at the time.

Missing & Murdered - we listened to this because it deals with Alberta Williams, who (it is suspected) was murdered on the "Highway of Tears." We drove the Highway of Tears (a highway in rural British Columbia where a high rate of women have gone missing and/or been murdered) for a couple of days on our Alaska trip, and--I have no idea why--we thought it would be "fun" to listen to a podcast about it. Well, we didn't get up getting scared, which goes to show you the podcast was a little dry. Side note - you can find out more about the Highway of Tears here. We felt perfectly safe our whole drive.

Happy podcast listening!

Jamul Hipcamp Trip Recap

We had the best time this past weekend camping at this Hipcamp in Jamul, California! I posted a bunch of pictures and videos on my Instagram stories and got some questions about the details, so today I'll share them all plus some of my favorite pictures we took. The first thing I'll say though, is that if you don't have an SUV with 4-wheel drive, you will NEED to rent one to be able to go here. This was the second-worst road we've ever been on, but it was so worth it to get to this at the top:

As you can see from some of the pictures above, although it was remote, there was actually a lot set up at the site. There was a big platform with a table, a space to hang a hammock (we brought our own), a small outdoor kitchen (propane stove, sink with running water, and prep area), and plenty of room to lounge. Above that, there was a little house with a slanted roof that you took a drawbridge to get to:

And then there was the green safari tent pictured above, plus a bathroom! The bathroom was SO cool. It was built onto the side of a rock, so it was a little treacherous to get there, but it was all part of the adventure :) Plus, having a flushing toilet and a sink to brush your teeth in while camping was incredible.

Never thought I'd post a pic of a toilet on my blog--but I've never seen one with a view!!

Best bathroom view I've ever had.

In case you can't tell from the pictures, the bathroom actually had privacy from the campsite area--the open air part of it only faced out to 160 acres of empty space! It was such a unique and cool concept. This Hipcamp is private, so we had the whole mountain to ourselves. And for those who haven't used Hipcamp before, it's like Airbnb but for private campsites. This is probably our 4th or 5th time using it, and every experience has been awesome! This campsite even had super fast WiFi and electricity!

Let's talk about camping food. I like to eat really well when we camp, but also not spend a ton of precious daylight hours prepping. For our dinner, I made a super yummy one-pot meal that used some seasonal ingredients, too!

Here's the recipe: 1 cup orzo and two cups water in a deep cast-iron skillet on a propane camp stove on medium-high heat. Also add in (all at the same time) 1 small chopped yellow onion and 1 bunch of asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces. I'm not normally the biggest asparagus fan, but they are in season in California and so tender and delish right now!! 

Bring everything to a boil, stirring frequently, and then turn down the heat a little and cook until all the water is absorbed (you don't need to drain this). I also stirred in some onion powder, fresh thyme, and red pepper flakes. When it's all absorbed, take off the heat and stir in about half a cup of pine nuts and half a cup of parmesan cheese, whether vegan or dairy. 

I added a little salt and pepper on top at the end. It was honestly so good, Grace loved it and was going back and scraping the pan clean.

Of course, we had to roast some marshmallows after. Dandies is one of our favorite brands, and it doesn't have any gelatin in it.

Can you believe how perfect this natural outdoor fireplace is?! Grace made a great fire, as always. I don't know how she does it so perfectly every single time. I might have to get her to write a guest post on that topic at some point.

For breakfast the next morning, I kept it simple (and tasty) and toasted some bread on the stove and made peanut butter-banana toasts and avocado toast. A bit of lime and salt and red pepper flakes are the keys to great avocado toast, in my opinion!

This trip was over too quickly, but it was so sweet. We got to play scrabble, look at the stars and the city lights in the valleys below, work on our wedding vows a bit, soak up alone time together, and of course adventure with our dingo dog Willie. We boarded Bean because I was nervous about taking such a small dog to such a wild location, and I'm glad I did. He would have been scared. We want to expose him to camping for sure, but this was not the location to do so! We need to test the waters in the proverbial baby pool first.

We would HIGHLY recommend this spot for camping and would go back, but I do have to caution others about the rough road. It is not for the faint of heart, even if you do have 4-wheel drive. I was literally sweating as we drove up the mountain. But if you are experienced in off-roading, it's so worth it! For reference Grace has a Subaru SUV and we have done worse road before, but this was high on our list of "worst." The Sub could handle it, but I just want to caution people.

I'll leave you with a few more favorite pictures from the weekend! It was impossible to take a bad picture in this stunning place.

April Goals + March Recap

I don't normally like to pat myself on the back too much on my own blog--but I am pretty proud of myself this month! I completed (or substantially completed) every goal on my list, which I haven't done in a long time. There's a old saying: "If you want something done, ask a busy person." I feel like that couldn't be more true in my life lately. I'm busier than ever, but I'm also knocking out goals more than ever. It's a good feeling (though I also know I will be very excited for it to all stop on our honeymoon--check out two posts back if you haven't yet, to see where we're going!).

Because I'm feeling like I'm on a roll, I'm trying to pack even more into April. This month, both Grace's and my mom will be visiting us, I'll be spending a week in Boston, we have several venue and vendor visits for wedding stuff, and my goals are kind of bananas to go along with all of it. Later this month will mark only 100 days left until our wedding, so I'm also making a huge push this month to check a ton off my wedding planning list. It's starting to feel so real and I just can't wait for that sweet day.

To recap, here were my March goals:

• Do my taxes by myself for the first time ever--yes! Done & done. Excited for my refund to arrive.
• Decide on our wedding cake--yes. Decided where to get it and our general vision; need to schedule tasting (one of my goals for April, as you'll see)
• Book our honeymoon (!!!)--booked our flights and some accommodations. Our dates are officially set and we know everywhere we want to stay, I'm just waiting to book some things until later this month because $$$. For the most part I'm paying for everything in advance because you often save a ton when you do that! (rather than booking now and not paying until you check in)
• Make a plan for our premarital counseling with our officiant--yes. In case you're curious, here's how it works, at least for us (I had no idea how any of this worked until this past month): we plan out our ceremony with our officiant, i.e., readings, music, what he'll say, etc. Then separately, we meet with an actual therapist (our officiant is a priest, not a therapist) for premarital couples counseling. It's a requirement of the Episcopal Church, just to make sure you're in good shape and on track for a forever marriage! I couldn't agree more that it's super important and worthwhile. We had our consultation with our counselor and like her a lot. We're going to go through several sessions every other week for the next few weeks.
• Design and order our invitations--yes! They are being printed now and I can't wait to see them in person!
• Plan my mom's visit and prepare the house--yep! She gets here in two days and I can't wait
• Make an appointment with a dog behaviorist --yes, we are starting to learn a lot more about what makes our dogs tick and how to make sure we are maintaining harmony in the home. If you can't tell, we are big believers in seeking out help--whether counseling, dog training, etc.--to me it will never be wasted money (as long as you're working with someone you trust).

And now for my April goals:

• Have a successful Boston trip
• Take my wedding dress in for some minor alterations
• Book all wedding-related transportation
• Book hair and makeup and schedule a trial so I can see what it will look like for the wedding
• Get thank-you cards and start writing them for gifts we've gotten so far
• Finalize vintage furniture rentals and lighting setup at the venue
• Order signage and details for our reception
• Finish booking accommodations for every night of our honeymoon
• Finalize all gifts I'm giving at/around my wedding (for my bridesmaids, for my family, etc.)
• Meet with our officiant to start mapping out how our ceremony will go
• Do a cake tasting

I hope you have a wonderful first full month of Spring! xoxo