All of the love.

As promised yesterday, lots of picture updates on what I was up to the end of last month + so far this month! Lots of pictures of course, so enjoy sharing life with me :)

Since today is Valentine's Day, I also couldn't help but share this adorable video!

Love,

Kyla

Picture + Update Time

 End of January = Youth trips like crazy! Took high schoolers on a Ski Trip up to Wisconsin - SO COLD - see picture below. Also got to take 8th Graders on a retreat to talk about our sexuality, great kids, AWESOME weekend!

Sr. Youth Ski Trip

After the 8th Grade Retreat, I drove straight up to Chicago for our Mid-Year Intern Gathering! This meant getting to see Adam again (3 times in one month was just amazing.). Bummer is that he came down with the flu the first day were there...He has since recovered, but it was a rough end of January for him!

Our date to Urgent Care

After Mid-Year was over, there was some down time, Adam was feeling a little better, so we spent time with one of our close friends - Ryan, who is also an intern. My last Thursday of January started with the two of them making me breakfast and only went up from there! Went on a Brewery tour and a Distillery tour. Fun stuff!

Brewery Tour

Distillery Tour

Very end of January into the beginning of February

WEDDING ADVENTURES!!!!!!! 

*If you're a guy reading this, I won't be offended if you skip reading this part

While up in Chicago, I worked to make the most of being back in a city I love + where almost all of our wedding vendors are located. Visited our caterer, interviewed a handful of DJs, stopped by our reception site to go over a few decorating details in person, went to the hotel for our guests to talk through details again in person not over the phone which was so nice, finalized our ceremony location, and met with a florist. (I also got to spend quality time at 2 favorite coffee places - Caribou & Blue Max!). WHEW. Spent Wednesday afternoon/evening, all of Friday, and Saturday morning on Wedding related everything, I LOVED IT. 

Seriously. Being a bride is so much fun and planning big party for all our family & friends to celebrate Adam & I getting married is just exciting beyond words. :)

I. love. wedding. planning.

Back to the real world.

After being gone and out of town for most of January, it is nice to settle back into some normal routine and not have to live out of a suitcase for a while! January did bring about the death of my last fish AND a plant I got last fall, so that was a little rough...but life goes on!

February living.

February St. Louis Adventures...so far

Found a fun Mexican place downtown that serves delicious Margaritas! Had a lovely girl's night last week that was MUCH needed - it seemed like I hadn't seen any St. Louis friends in forever!

Most recently, last weekend Kevin, Jordan, and I spent the better part of Saturday at St. Louis Mardi Gras. We did lots of walking, watched some of the parade, and even managed to run into some of our other friends who were downtown too! Fun day! I am thankful that I have great friends to explore with :)

Newest life event coming up - another Half Marathon!

I signed up for this race at the end of last year, but with everything going since Christmas, it has kinda been on the back of my radar. But needless to say, I am REALLY excited to run another Half Marathon. I had such a great time running my first one in October. This time, Kevin is going to run too, so I am excited to get to run with him for his first half!!! April 7th is the official race date, so if you are around St. Louis that day, I appreciate fans :)

Said yes to MY dress!

I FOUND MY WEDDING DRESS!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!

One step closer to marrying Adam :) My mom is in St. Louis this weekend for a girls weekend, with the main goal being to find my dress! I had tried on dresses once before moving here to St. Louis, so I was really really excited for Mom to come out and go shopping again for my wedding dress. I won't bore you with the details of all the work that goes into trying dresses on - its a total process to get clamped into dresses - but a process that is SO completely worth and very fun and surreal to be a part of with my Mom by my side! Here is a sneak peak of our dress shopping day:

Dressing room IN an old bank vault - so fun!

This poem definitely sums up our wedding dress shopping adventure:

WEDDING DRESS POEM

Author: THERESCA ROBINS

Shes been dreaming 

'bout her wedding dress

since she was a little girl..

white with lace, and flowing,

accents made of pearl

Mother watches daughter

trying on the dresses....

her daughters now a future bride

and the older one confesses,

she sees that little girl, again..

her eyes sparkling with joy,

playing bride in bedroom sheets

and dreaming 'bout a boy....

She grew up...she met a man

who swept her off her feet..

they fell in love,he proposed to her,

and now her lifes complete...

Daughter's eyes are dancing, now..

shes found the perfect fit...

mother smiles proudly..

This one's surely it..

Daughter turns to mother

I love it-watcha think...??"

mother grins, she loves it too,

then gives the girl a wink..

And in that very moment,

mother sees the change occur,

standing, now, in front of her

a woman - not a girl

We went to 2 stores total yesterday, the second store we went to twice (ha!) Tried on one dress at the second store, which at the end of the day ended up being MY DRESS!

The store we got my dress from!

Both stores we went to, had really cool design interiors, the store we got my dress from was in the heart of downtown St. Louis. We had awesome service at both stores - lots of patient, helpful, and encouraging women working! 

Such a unique space :)

 Once I said yes to my dress [yup, you knew that was coming at some point!] - I just did not want to take it off, so they let me wear it around the store for a while as they were working on putting my dress order officially in! After the dress was officially ordered and mine and after a lengthy explanation of the timeline for when it would come in (6 months from now), and the timeline for all the fitting appointments - Mom and I spent a little time looking at dresses for her and my bridesmaids and then called it a VERY fun, successful, and exciting day!!!

...a little tired from such an exciting day!

Mom and I headed home - incredibly happy! - and stopped for a well deserved dinner, complete with raspberry mojitos. YUM. Love being a bride :) 

Can't wait for August 2, 2013 :)

Bride life.

It has been a little bit since I have blogged about wedding related anything. So lucky you - today is the day! Last week, all week, I was gearing up to organize my ever growing piles of wedding related anything. Yes, I have found some fun wedding apps & websites that I like and use the internet for many wedding planning related activities, but I am far from a paperless planning kind of bride. I have this need to write things down, see them in print, cross to-do lists items off...etc. This all to say, me organizing all the wedding planning related anything = DIY Wedding Binder. 

{I should also mention that I am aware that there are already made books and binders for wedding planning out there, but I just did not ever come across any that I loved and making my own seemed more exciting. From start to finish this project consumed most of my day on Saturday - but not in a bad way, just in a my wedding stuff was really disorganized kind of way.} 

To start this whole process I searched online for other bloggers/brides who had made their own wedding binders. Some advice I found helpful, other advice not so much. I made my whole binder with supplies I already had on hand, fueled by a lot of coffee I might add. It took me a couple tries to decide what order I wanted my sections in, but those were easy enough to move around. After it was finished, I was extra excited and relieved to know that all my planning was in one spot. WIN! 

The best advice from my project I have made into a [hopefully] handy DIY pdf that you can download and use: DIY Wedding Binder [or just skim over the picture of it below and rock n roll with your own steps - either way just have fun!] Bonus: lots of pictures of what this looked like for me + my finished sections! Bride life is just wonderful.

-Kyla 

Click to download this step-by-step guide!

Some of the most helpful links to timelines/worksheets/checklists I found:

• Free wedding downloads - yay! < Most of the downloads from this site were in line with how I personally think/organize things, so I was super excited to find this link!!!
• Other ideas would be to print off checklists from TheKnot, RealSimple - Weddings, or Martha Stewart Weddings

Evolution of my living room floor during all of this. 

First 2 sections in my binder: Basics & Inspiration

Ceremony & Reception [woohoo!]

Vendors, Bridal Party, Guests - all important!

Extra fun section :)

done.done.done.

So exciting!!

My Top 5

Brief update on my goals this week!

Breakfast: 4/4

Running/Working out: 3/4

Stopping work before bed: 2/4

soo...room for improvement still :)

As I have been officially jumping into the world of wedding planning (in between classes and homework of course), I wanted to share a few wedding planning resources that so far I LOVE and are maybe not as well known (for example)! Enjoy :)

#1. OneWed.com 

What it's like: Designed with the idea in mind that there is A LOT of pressure if you are too focused on planning THE perfect wedding, instead they want to give brides & grooms and their families lots of easy to use online tools. Like TheKnot.com they have search functions for finding vendors, ideas, and discussion forums...etc. But what they offer is a social networking side along with the ideas.


Why I love it: I can choose who I want to add to my wedding planning account (its called a wedding pre-party). This means my Mom and bridesmaids (for example) and add ideas, see my to-do checklists, and help and add input with lots of planning details

#2. WeddingGawker

What it's like: Set-up visually very similar to the ever beloved Pinterest - Never ending stream of pictures and wedding ideas/tips, you can sort images and ideas by category, save your favorites, and every idea has the option to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest...etc


Why I love it: Every picture links to a blog that is usually FULL of tons of other wedding related information/pictures. All submissions to the website are editor approved so its guaranteed that when I click on something, its actually linked to the original source *disclaimer: because every idea/picture links to a blog, ladies, you will spend COUNTLESS time on here, fair warning!*

#3. Wedding 911 app

What it's like: Exclusively focused on bride's questions and answers - both from Wedding professionals and other brides. Anyone registered can post questions and respond to other's questions, instant repines and feedback on just about anything a girl could think of about a wedding.


Why I love it: Fun to see what other brides are curious about, as well as really helpful if I want instant feedback on an idea or question - the app is in an easy to use format too! It's an app sponsored by TheKnot - however it is not connected to any of their site's online planning tools. Free download too!

#4. Weddingwire.com

What it's like: Similar to OneWed and TheKnot - this is geared at being an online planning resource for brides, also important - everything on the site is bride rated!


Why I love it: Primarily because of the Inspiration board feature! I don't really use any of the other planning related tools on this website, because I like the format of OneWed's tools much better- however, the inspiration board feature allows my to upload lots of pictures I have collected and combine ideas together. Plus its nice that I can email and share the boards with others (again, like my Mom).

#5. Preston Bailey: Color Story

What it's like: Preston Bailey is an major event planner (read his bio here). Website is organized into a bride section, weddings, events, flowers, Preston's blog (tons of ideas), videos - and most importantly - tools. The Color Story tool allows you to pick a color, answer a few questions about what you are thinking for your event, and then it create a color palette idea!


Why I love it: The tools sections: The Color Story tool, a design tool, and a planning tool - all easy to use. There are so many ideas from events Preston has done - most over the top, but all helpful in thinking outside the box when it comes to decorating and creating a wedding 

Bride-to-be!

Exciting news: First official wedding decision has been made! We are getting married, next summer, in...

CHICAGO

With that decision made we are really focusing on getting some of the major planning decisions taken care of before we both move this summer to our internships. So far, we have been having so much fun with everything! 

Coolest name tag ever!

Yesterday was extra-exciting, because: 

#1: I found a bridal show that was being held downtown. The best part about it honestly was that as a bride-to-be my ticket was free! A fellow bride-to-be from school went with me. (Thanks again Brittany!!!!) Neither of us really knew what to expect, but totally enjoyed the free champagne & seeing some new ideas for weddings!

Kinda excited about my first bridal show

#2: We got engagement mail from Mrs. Thomson (Kevin's mom) !!!! (As college students in general, getting mail is awesome fyi)

Internship news: Both Adam & I have been able to talk to our supervising Pastors this week, which was great. We are both so encouraged by their enthusiasm. Internship Orientation is next weekend. Please keep our new churches in your prayers!