The Story Behind Our Christmas Card

Many of you may have received our Christmas card in the mail this year, and we hope you got a little chuckle from our photo. It all started when I told Yung how Whitney (hi, whit!) and her family went to JC Penny's to get their Christmas portraits made. To which Yung responded "Wow. That's such a hipster thing to do." I thought that was a funny thing to say, and it was not really my initial thought. Somehow, that led to us reminiscing about Olan Mills family photos and somehow, purchasing a green screen, lights, turning the living room into a photo shoot, and taking these hilarious photos. You can bet there were about a bazillion outtakes. Yung grew a mustache and borrowed my dad's glasses. I teased my hair, although you can't really tell in the photo 😊 The dogs were so well behaved, and loved getting their pictures taken. Yung performed some photoshop magic and created our card!

We are grateful to be spending our first married Christmas together (8 weeks and counting!). We hope you have been having a happy Christmas season with your loved ones.
XO,
Connie

Christmas card 2015
Christmas card 2014

Slumber Party

I love having different groups of girl friends, and it is so important to reconnect with girl time periodically. The four of us found each other during nursing school, but wasn't until after graduation that we decided to stick together like glue and paper. Beans and rice. Chips and queso. You get my drift 😉

 Now, 9 years later, we have been through the gamut together. Amanda moved to Waco a couple years ago, and last week, we decided to road trip down there and have a slumber party at her house. We had an evening with lots of laughs and silliness. We also drove by the Palladium, where Amanda had her wedding reception 6 short years ago!

Waco will always hold a special place in my heart, because it is home to my alma mater, Baylor. In the last years, the city has gotten publicity because of our beloved Chip and Joanna and Magnolia Market. Waco is now home to Torchy's Taco's and Twisted Root, right across from the Baylor campus. So hip, and I am pretty jealous. Unfortunately, businesses still close by 6pm, so went on a driving tour and saw the Silos all decked out for Christmas from the car. I can't wait to go back next time to visit when they are open. 

Hope you are all having a happy week before Christmas!

XO,
Connie

Wedding Gratitude

It's been 7 weeks since our wedding, and surprisingly, I have had minimal post wedding blues. We have been balancing work + holidays + figuring out how to be husband + wife + getting over the new Netflix Gilmore Girls so I have been distracted and it has not really sunk in that our wedding is over. O-V-E-R. 😯But now we are m-a-r-r-i-e-d, which I still think is nutty.

In the mean time, we have finally mailed our wedding thank you cards. Whew! I love writing notes, but hand writing our return address on nearly 100 cards was a terrible idea. And then doing it again on our Christmas cards? Spring for some address labels next time, Connie! I didn't think ahead.

We love all of our guests and so appreciate the gifts everyone brought for us. We did receive two beautifully gold wrapped packages at our reception that did not have a card. They are pictured below. Please let me know if these are from you, or if you saw someone bring some shimmery gold boxes to our wedding. We want to give you the proper thanks, but we need to know who you are!

Much love as always,
Connie

The Best Bachelorette Bash There Ever Was

My bachelorette party was a weekend that I will never forget! Here are 10 things you must have for a successful girls weekend:

1. An amazingly beautiful invitation with a cartoon bride and groom. Because cartoons that look like you are the bomb dot com.

2. Great friends to road trip with you from Dallas to Galveston. With pit stops and baby hugs and all.

3. Food and food and food galore!

4. A photo booth, because we love photo booths, and why not?!

5. Personalized and color coordinated cookies, because my friends are so talented!

6. Games like Wedding Taboo, Never Have I Ever, and Let's Make the Groom Answer Questions about the Bride on video are bound to spark up some interesting conversations :) Don't forget Pin The Mustache on the groom!

7. Lingerie and gifts, because my friends are super generous!

8. Get your BFFs look through their belongings for a shirt you've had since the 5th grade, bring it, and take a photo. Can you tell who still wears their tshirt to bed?

9. The most festive favor bags that were so handy and thoughtful.

10. The very best friends a bride-to-be could ask for! Special thank you to Heather for organizing, planning, and executing the best weekend ever.

Other peeks into the weekend:

XO,
Connie

P.S. Check out Heather's recap of our weekend on her blog: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Hey, Brian!

Last weekend, Yung and I spent approximately 22 hours in the great city of Houston, Texas. We are savoring every bit of married life, and we love opportunities for little getaways. Our main purpose for going to Houston was to see Brian Regan, a stand up comedian. I have only ever seen amateur stand up acts, so this was by far the best show I have attended. Brian Regan's humor is observational, sarcastic, a bit self-deprecating at times, and completely relatable. He is also relatively clean, and does not use profanity, which is always appreciated. What surprised me was the number of individuals in the audience and how most appeared to be long standing fans. When he was performing his "encore" people in the audience were repeating his bits word for word as he was speaking on stage. It's one thing to have people sing along to your songs, but this was something I had never seen..outside of a church service. Brian Regan must be felt like a rock star.

We spent the rest of our time in Houston dodging the rain and literally eating a hole through our stomachs. Our eating habits have gone to the pooper, but as Yung keeps saying... "I'm married now!" 

Oh yes. This cannot go on forever, but we are having fun for now. Soon enough, we will be back to normal. December is busy and I am drowning in a massive pile of Thank You cards mixed in with our Christmas cards. All to be mailed out this week. Whoohoooo! 

Here's Yung looking cute the next morning as we stood in line at Killen's BBQ and then hightailed it over to Chinatown to get my favorite dumplings to go. 

Thanks, Brian, for a great time! We will catch you on your next tour in Dallas!

XO, Connie

Merry Thanksgiving All Around

The holiday season is well underway, and Christmas is less than 4 weeks away. We have wrapped up a great Thanksgiving in Lake Charles, and I'm preparing for a busy December. This will be my 2nd Christmas in a row that I'll have to work, and I already have all of my holiday sweaters picked out. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thankful for each and every one of you!

XO,

Connie

Photoboothing It Up!

Photobooths have become a "thing" at weddings, and we've always enjoyed them as guests. We were so excited when we found Mengesha with Zacharias Photography to set up a photobooth at our reception. He was friendly, easy to work with, and nothing but professional. All of our guests got to go home with a photo strip, and we received copies pasted into a scrapbook that we will always treasure. Yung and I loved looking at all of the photos and messages the day after our wedding. The sillier the better!

Clearly, our friends are the best. Don't be jealous.

XO, Connie 

Photo credit: Zacharias Photography