Growing up

It feels like I legit aged five years in July. My little sister had her bachelorette party, got married, and I got promoted--all in the span of four weeks (okay, admittedly the wedding stuff has been in the works for the last year and a half but still, it all came down this month). 

First, the bachelorette party. We spent the night being entertained by drag queens, watching wet underwear contests, and being showered (literally) by champagne all in the Hillcrest area of San Diego. I think I speak for everyone when I say it really was a night to forget after all the alcohol consumed remember! Our theme was animal print, and the invitations that went out stated it was going to be a "wild" night, hence all of us dressed up like jungle queens!

Next, the wedding. There were a lot of DIY aspects and it was a ton of work. But I know when my sister looks back at her photos, she won't remember all of the stress and running around; she will remember how utterly gorgeous she looked, and how we transformed a conference room into a sparkling garden for her special night. 

Me cheesing it up as a bridesmaid (hey, it's my blog; I have to add a gratuitous shot). Besides, our dresses were too cute not to show off (her colors were navy blue, apple green, and touches of white and ivory--proud to say I helped her pick that combo)! 

I totally came home with the top portion of this centerpiece (the birdcage, complete with faux-feather friend and nest inside). Plans currently include painting the cage in either an oil rubbed bronze finish, or the same rusted-look finish I still hope to do on our bed. 

By the way, they got this super adorable, super customized cake topper on etsy. The bride bird's dress looked just like my sister's wedding gown! And normally her husband (my new brother-in-law!!) wears glasses, so we were totally tickled that they included those on the groom bird. Cutest. Cake topper. Ever!

The hanging light orbs are actually baby's breath pomanders with LED's wrapped inside. In the background you can also see the fugly carpet wrapped pole we hid with fabric and more baby's breath, the blue lights they had glowing up on the stage, and the trees they rented to create a more outdoorsy feel inside (I so didn't know you could rent trees!). They also had votives flickering on metal screens our dad made just for the occasion (shameless family business plug here). 

And last but not least: my promotion! I totally wanted to include it in this post, but it was getting so ridiculously long, even I was getting tired of reading it! Ha! So you'll have to forgive this minor cliff hanger, but I'll be back Wednesday with more gossip on the new corporate frontier. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy skimming over my sister's gorgeous nuptial photos again, and check out the shameless family plug if you're a SoCal local.

BTW: I'm shocked at how many random Jersey Shore moments we had at the reception. Imagine myself and my baby sister's British boyfriend fist pumping the air and screaming, "Oh yeah! Fist pump yeah! Oh yeah! Wedding yeah!" in the spirit of Pauly D. #culturalfail