Ruffles and Rubies

In light of all of my friends being pregnant, I have decided to do some birthing of my own. I have birthed a new blog. A dose of dani will now be mostly updates about our life and such. And my new blog ruffles and rubies will feature all of my crafts and wedding creations! Check it out and add it to your google reader!

The Honeymoon. A Collection of Collages. Round 1.

We've been married for almost 3 months now. TIME IS FLYING!!!!! And after moving to Washington, getting new jobs, and helping out the fam, I have finally sat down to do a new post! The following is round one of our week long honeymoon adventure in Dennis' old stomping grounds of Oahu, Hawaii. And what an adventure it was. We decided we weren't going to spend a lot of money while there and we stayed true to our word. The first day, we headed to Waikiki so we could pick up some groceries at Target with the many gift cards we received. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cereal and granola bars were our best friends as we only went out to eat for one meal a day. And since Dennis went to school in Hawaii, we spent a week stomping through the island, having the most awesome adventures, without spending a dime. Oh how we love you dear Hawaii. As you can see, we had a blast! I wouldn't have done it any other way.

This place is said to be a temple where they made human sacrifices. Creepily interesting! People still leave offerings to the gods there. Hence the decorated tree and the rocks wrapped in leaves. While hiking around, Dennis kept throwing rocks into the bush to freak me out. He was not successful. I wish you better luck next time we visit a sacrificial temple dearest Dennis! :)

Oh.My.Word. Have you seen cooler trees?! I have not. PLUS, Dennis and I went through a serious Lost phase, so we were very excited to find these Lost-esque trees. In fact, after talking to some friends, we're pretty sure they filmed part of the show here. Don't worry, there will be more Lost locations coming soon!

The view of Waimea Bay from the peak of the Pupukea Ruins. Loved it.

For those of you who have eaten Acai Bowls at Kava Roots, you will understand our obsession. This little $7 concoction was a little piece of heaven. Yes, we splurged and spent $14 on breakfast. They were BY FAR the best acai bowls we had. Thank you Kava Roots. We hope to visit you again soon.

Round 2 of Honeymoon adventures should be up soon!

Cakes x 2

I know, I know, I know...I'm nuts. Regardless of how many times I was told this, I still decided to make my wedding cakes for the 2 receptions we had. It was a large task, but it was super fun....and yummy! Plus I got a lot of help on the first one (thanks Mom, Huenu, Lidia and Sole!), which was good because Dennis and I had crazy trip to Vegas the day before the wedding. We got no sleep that night. Due to some serious car issues, we took 12 hours to get to Vegas instead of 5. I'll blog about that story soon. It's a doozy. Enjoy!

Finally

So.... back in 2003 I started college. It's been a rough, really long road of working full-time and taking necessary breaks. But believe it or not, after spending several years as a super super super senior, I have finally graduated! My parents were pretty stoked about it too (if you can't tell from the picture!).

Vintage Bridals

HOORAY!! We're finally hitched and enjoying a lovely week in Oahu. Now that all is said and done, there is so much to blog about! I think Bridals would be the best place to start, seeing as thought they're the only pics I have access to right now.

So I was lucky enough to have the talented Laurie Hite take my bridals. We went all over Provo searching for cool spots and even recruited Kaitlin's help in order to get "natural laughing" pictures. She was cracking me up as only Kaitlin can. I LOVE how they turned out and can't wait to see more of them. Here's what she's given me so far.

The Final Product

So I had someone ask how I finished the bottom half of my bouquet. I wish I had taken more pictures of the process, but hopefully this explanation will suffice!

When putting the stemmed brooches in the foam ball, I pulled them about a 1/2 inch away from the foam. I covered it with enough brooches that you couldn't see the green foam underneath, but if you don't have enough brooches to do that, try covering the foam with some pretty fabric first, then putting the wire through that.

Once I had all of the brooches in place, I shaved off the excess foam that was left around the edges. Then I took strips of ribbon, folded them in half, and pinned the folded edge, just up underneath the flower-line. I kept doing that until the whole base was covered, then I just wrapped the rest of the stem like you would any other bouquet, pinning it each time I wrapped it.


Here's some pictures of my shoes as well. They originally came with skinny, very unattractive bows on the front, so I clipped those off, and bought two more of one of my favorite brooches from my bouquet and sewed them on instead. I think they're perfect for my dress, which I was able to finally bring home Tuesday night!

Invitation Pic

So we are trying to decide which picture to use for our invitations and we need your help. Check out Dennis' blog here and my last three posts and let us know which pic you like best. Many thanks.