Hiking the Rose River Trail

First of all, I have to point out something - the shirt Dean has on in the above photo is not UF orange & blue, but simply a plaid shirt featuring Auburn colors. Just to be clear :) #truenole

As I sit here typing this, it's snowing outside! But on Saturday, the weather was absolutely great & we met up with several of my Small Group ladies & Matt, one of our friends from Dean's Small Group for a hike through Shenandoah National Park!

We had the best time exploring the 4-mile trail. AND there are waterfalls along the way!! Major score!

I adore these girls!! So much joy all around :)

If you looked in the dictionary under "apple-bottom jeans," I'm convinced there would be this photo of my hubby :)

Happy trails to you! HA major cheese but it's what stuck in my head right now ... "Until weeee meeeet agaaaaaaain!"

Advice for Brides: Get more sleep

Raise your hand if you slept for more than 8 hours last night? 7 hours? How about 6? If your answer is any less, step away from the computer & find a spot to rest. Like pronto.

If you're on a regular sleeping schedule of 7-9 hours, cheers to you!! For those of us who may be struggling to get enough sleep, only to start to doze off at our desk, or during a movie, or a meeting, or during date night - I've been there.

Confession from my childhood: During my teenage years, when my body could somehow survive on less sleep during the week & make up for it on the weekend, my mom & I would bond by staying up into the wee hours in the morning, working on different projects, reading & talking. While I so cherish those times we had together, it set the stage for some baaad sleep habits that I'm still facing today.

Up until last year, I'd look at the clock & see that it was 11 pm (PM!) during the week, & think, "Oh awesome, I still have 2 (or more) hours til I should go to bed." It was around the time Deano & I got engaged that the not-getting-enough-sleep thing really became an issue. In the course of a month, I started LMP, began a new job & kick off wedding planning. Talk about a lot to do, too little time to sleep!

Or so I thought. Y'all, have you had the eye twitch? You know, when all of a sudden, your eye starts to move on it's own? Totally freaked me out when it started to happen & when I looked it up, research studies show that eye twitching "can be associated with lack of sleep, stress, or excess caffeine." Or a big, huge combo of all 3?!

Most week nights, I woke up with my face on my laptop, when I had dozed off trying to edit/blog/search for bridesmaid dresses. At work, I was downing tons of coffee & yet would make silly typos & other mistakes that, had I been rested, wouldn't have happened.

Here are a few stats from The Sleep Better's Council's 2013 survey of US adults :

> Half of Americans (48%) say they don’t get enough sleep, but less than half of them take any one specific action to help them get better sleep.

> Close to one-third of adults (31%) always turn to coffee or caffeinated beverages as their way to make up for lost sleep.

> More women feel that they are not getting enough sleep (53%) than men (44%).

The Council went on to say to declare insufficient sleep "a public health epidemic" that contributes to depression, unattractiveness, skin aging & weight gain. Yuck, who wants to experience any of that?

Add driving to or from work - or anywhere - when you're sleep deprived, & it can get even worse. According to the CDC, it's like being intoxicated - with a BAC or 0.05% or higher.  There were times when I felt *that tired* while driving & I realized it was NOT OK to continue down that path. If you were like me & struggling to get enough sleep, here are a few tips:

Set a goal for yourself - For me, it was 7 hours of sleep each night. It was hard at first but eventually my body got used to it & I was so tired that I could fall asleep easily.

Take a nap - I know, people have different opinions on this but many studies show that snoozing for 30 minutes or less is a good, healthy timeframe.

Get into a routine - Going to sleep & waking up at the same time during the week & on the weekend definitely helped me get consistent with my Zzz's. Now, almost a year later, I am regularly getting into bed by 11 pm & up by 7 am.

Use your mornings - Once I started going to bed earlier, I realized I could wake up a little earlier & work on things then. Pinterest, wedding blogs & emails will still be there in the AM :)

If you're feeling a lack of sleep getting to you today, lunchtime = naptime! Happy Friday!

Advice for Brides: The Top 5

Advice for Brides: Seeing your groom

Advice for Brides: Your bridal party

Advice for Brides: Creating your registry

Advice for Brides: Putting the wed in wedding

Baltimore Getaway

"Chickens don't have fingers." Have you ever stopped to think about that? You know, as you're ordering or hear someone else ordering this dish at a restaurant? Me neither. Until, Alton Brown, that is.

This, y'all, is just one of the hilarious memories from Dean & I's weekend trip to Baltimore. He's a big fan of the Good Eats founder & Food Network host so I surprised him with tickets to see his Edible Inevitable Tour last month. I have to admit, although we didn't really know what to expect from Mr. Brown's live tour, the night was pretty great! Basically, he talked about & did all the things they don't allow him to do on TV - like make pizzas in a giant Easy Bake oven & rant about his Top 10 Things He's Pretty Sure He's Sure About Food. So fun!

Before the show, we spent the afternoon exploring the city & grabbing lunch by the Inner Harbor. The waterfront was gorgeous - & made me miss Florida's sandy shores so much.

"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea." Isak Dinesen

A bridal shower ... Surprise!!

Sitting in the dark, trying too hard not to giggle, we saw the apartment door open slowly. And then close. When it reopened the second time, a silhouette peeked inside & made her way into the unlit room.

"SURPRISE!!!"

In a typical we're-so-excited-and-we-just-can't-hide-it fashion, the Small Group girls gathered in Juli's living room last week had trouble deciding what to collectively yell as soon-to-be married Sabrina came through the door with Brie in tow (sneaky dinner plans to throw off any suspicion? check!) but settled on the ever classic S word.

And she was so surprised!! Apparently, this may have been one of the first times *ever* that Sabrina's actually been surprised so we'll take it :)

Not only is Sabrina in my Small Group through MBC Arlington, she's one of our spring LMP brides! (See her & David's sweet, romantic engagement photos are here!!)

We had so much fun showering (I KNOW, I know, terrible pun...) Sabrina with love, prayer, marriage advice & lots of hugs!

How great are the decorations?! Angela, you may have found your new calling in bridal banners, photo displays & cupcakes :) :)

We're so excited for March 29!! It's coming up soon :)

Advice for Brides: Making decisions

The first free moment we had after getting engaged last spring, I made a quick trip to Target for a very special purchase: a wedding planning binder! I found a beautiful pink watercolor pattern & it was even on sale! It was so exciting to have it & begin filling it with different hair, dress & makeup ideas from bridal mags plus inspiration for a venue, centerpieces and more.

Slowly but surely I began to collect more ideas & options for our wedding but realized something: I wasn't making any decisions.

One Saturday I went on Etsy to look through save the dates options & searched by color, theme, style, price. There were probably hundreds of results with each new search. And I wanted to look through ALL of them. Every. single. one! Dean came over later that day & was like, "Sooo are we ever going to even have time to mail them out?"

Which leads me to today's tip for brides: a huge part of getting married is making decisions.

Guest list, order of bridesmaids, rehearsal dinner menu, ceremony music. These are just a few of the decisions that are the behind-the-scenes of actually planning your wedding. But instead of crossing things off the list, I just wanted to linger around each decision, gathering every possible choice, but not actually picking out the color/time/place. And with all the amazing wedding sites, blogs & online shops, it would've taken me years to look at it all!

My now hubby, on the other hand, was in a different mindset as we started to plan & helped encourage us to actually be choosey. If you're hired a wedding planner, this is the exact kind of situation where having their expertise & guidance is a huge asset! Our wedding planner Sami was incredible about guiding us through the process & keeping us on track with everything from picking our venue to reception flowers.

> If you're like me & you LOVE having tons of options, that's great but don't let them all stay options. Set a deadline for when you want to have reached a decision.
> Enlist your fiance's support! We realized I could've looked at save the dates, bridesmaid dresses and more all the up until our wedding day if it hadn't been a team effort.
> There's a time for everything. If there's something you don't need make a decision about right away, like guest favors, then give yourself time to enjoy browsing the options.
> Narrow it down to a few faves & let your fiance/maid of honor/wedding planner weigh in.

Hope these tips help those who are planning! Have y'all struggled with making decisions? What are some ways you've worked through it?

Advice for Brides: The Top 5

Advice for Brides: Get more sleep

Advice for Brides: Seeing your groom

Advice for Brides: Your bridal party

Advice for Brides: Creating your registry

Advice for Brides: Putting the wed in wedding