Viva Las Vegas...well, kind of.

*** Warning: Pic Heavy Post ***

A little over 2 months ago, Mr Jones and I flew to Vegas for his friends' wedding. It was our first time going. Despite a very trying flight to Vegas (diverted to Huntsville, AL for 3 hours because lightening had struck the control tower in Atlanta), we had a blast! I can't wait to go back...maybe next time I'll gamble more than just penny slots. Hehe.

I finally got some of the pictures from Mr Jones so I thought I'd reminisce a bit and share with everyone. Disclaimer: some of the pictures were taken by Mr Jones with his 5D and some were taken with my little Sony Cybershot. I apologize for the crappy quality of my pictures...

The ceiling in the lobby of the Bellagio (where we stayed)...it was amazing!
Inside the Bellagio Gardens. I fell in love with these flowers.
Me in front of the Bellagio on our first day. Our room was 5 floors up on the right side of the building.
The view from our room at night. We had an awesome room!
Gondola ride at the Venetian...highly recommended!
We sampled some fantastic gelatto and an eclair...
And met some celebrities (Mr Jones got a little fresh with J Lo!)
The Flamingo...ultimate in tacky Vegas. It was perfect!
When I saw this store in Fashion Show Mall, I had to pose for a picture!
And we rounded out the trip with tickets to "O" on our last night.

Best Marriage Advice Received

I stumbled across an article online today and wanted to share some of the advice in it. They are definitely words to live by.

"... it was that I should love my husband, but not wrap myself up in my husband. That I should always remember that I was a person before him, and I should do my damndest to stay a person while married to him ... second best advice was to never completely tie your finances to your husband--always have something of your own."

"My dad told me 'try to outdo each other in kindness.' I thought that was good advice. That way you are concentrating on the positive."

"Communicate, respect for self and each other, trust, faith, laugh together not at each other, don’t go to bed angry or hurt, remember your vows, don’t ask what you are not ready and willing to accept, and let go and remember that often time we don’t know we’re making a mistake unless we are told so speak up without being rude and hurtful."

"...Marriage should not be so much about looking at each other but looking in the same direction together.' I believe the message from this is to remember the positive things that brought you together and then to concentrate on positive goals to achieve as a couple. My observation is that all the cute, unique things that made your spouse wonderful in the beginning are going to be the things that grate on your nerves later. Try to focus on the positive -- if you look for negative qualities in someone, you are sure to find them!"

"...Marriage is not always 50/50. Some days you will wake up and may have to give 90% and your spouse will give 10%. Other days you may wake up and give 25% and your husband will have to put in the 75%."

Remember to love yourself...and each other.

Finally...a Honeymoon to look forward to!

Our original honeymoon location (Punta Cana, DR) was nixed due to some not-so-favorable reviews of the resort (a lady waking up at 3am to find an employee trying to break into her room safe). Needless to say, that reservation was cancelled...quickly. And I was back at square one of honeymoon planning. *sigh*

I've always wanted to go to Mexico for my honeymoon. There's something about the beauty of Mexico that really appeals to me...or maybe it's the 12+years of Spanish I took in school! Unfortunately for me, Mr Jones and future MlL weren't too keen on the idea of Mexico (i.e. swine flu/crime/violence/etc). After the Punta Cana disaster though, I thought I *might* have a chance at Mexico. I mean, it might be safer, right? Maybe?? I had to at least try.

After some convincing that Mexico truly is safe and some unexpected obstacles (i.e. the resort we picked through RCI not accepting guest certificates), we ended up booking Excellence Playa Mujeres through Expedia. So much for using timeshare points. *shrug* This resort is worth it though! It looks absolutely amazing. I am beyond excited to go. Can it be November 28th? Like right now? We upgraded to a two story room with a terrace and private hydrojet pool. Ooooh...Heaven.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the gorgeous resort...

The room:

View of one of the main pools:

What a sweet giveaway!!

Jess at Living on Sweet Tea is offering the cutest little heart necklace as a little love giveaway. I am in love with it...and her blog. :)

R.I.P. Farrah and MJ

As I sit here listening to Future Mr's "tribute to Michael" (i.e. playing all of his MJ MP3s), I can't help but think about what a big loss America has experienced today. First Farrah Fawcett, an icon in her own right...and now Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. Wow. Words can't even express.

"Beat It" - Ahhhh the memories of my figure skating routine to this song. Listening to it now, my mind/body still automatically runs through the motions (yes, I still remember the whole routine).

And "Thriller" - Who doesn't love this song? Enough said.

Rest in Peace Farrah and Michael. You will be missed.

Hooray for reception decorations!

Mom and I met with the florist a couple weeks ago and, let me tell you, she has some awesome ideas. I am very excited to see how it all comes together!

On half of the tables, she will doing a floral arrangement...complete with grapevine balls and pheasant feathers (LOVE IT). On the other half of the tables, we will have wooden lanterns similar to this with grapevines and a few flowers:


My task was to find candles for the tables as well as for inside the lanterns. Enter the bargain hunter side of Taryn. I managed to stumble across Candles 4 Less and bought 72 (yes, 72!) votive candles and holders for $37! They will be perfect for adding "twinkle" to the reception tables. :) If you're looking for cheap candles, be sure to head over to Candles 4 Less!

Registering for...??

Who knew creating a registry w0uld be so hard? Mr Jones and I have each lived on our own for several years now so we have all of the basics already...two times over. Between the two of us, we have:

4 sets of sheets
4 sets of towels
2 down comforters
2 duvet covers
2 sets of pillows
2 microwaves (probably keeping his even though mine is newer)
2 toaster ovens (though mine will see the inside of the dumpster soon)
2 vacuums (I have a Dyson Animal so mine wins!)
2 sets of silverware
2 sets of dishes (but we'll be keeping his Corelle)

Those of you who know him, know that Mr Jones is an avid cooker so (of course) he already has nice pots & pans and professional knives. He also has most of the kitchen gadgets that he'd want...with the exception of a stand mixer (which is already on the registry).

So the question is: What in the heck do we register for?? We've spent the last two Sundays wandering around Bed Bath & Beyond and Target with scanners looking for items we think we'd want/need. The lists are pretty pathetic...seriously. Any and all suggestions are welcome!

Hairstyle Ideas :)

Next to the wedding dress, hair is the second most important aspect of your wedding day look (in my opinion). Paired with the perfect dress, the hairstyle makes the bride feel beautiful. And what bride doesn't want to look and feel her most beautiful on her wedding day?

I've spent hours searching for the perfect hairstyle to portray my personality and the feel I want for my wedding day. I am growing my hair out...and my hairdresser said she could use extensions if need be. Haha! Oh, and I will be using different hair accessories than pictured... :)

Opinions?

Dress Tease...and Hair Accessories

I've spent the past couple of weeks trying to figure out what type of hair style I want and what accessories I want. Do I want a tiara/headband? Do I want something simpler? I decided I want something for the back to incorporate in my updo...but then I ran into the problem of what would look right with my dress. I eventually had to go back to David's Bridal to take a close up picture of the details. I'll give you a sneak peak...with the request that you help me decide on my hair accessory! :)


And my choices...I can't decide which I like best! All of them are available in multiples so if you think I should get more than one, please let me know. I'm *kind of* leaning towards #1 or #3.

Kitty Love

Many of you already know that I have not only one important man in my life...I have three. Along with Mr. Jones, I also have Sammy and Bo. They are my heart.

After a long day at work (i.e. today), I love to cuddle up with my buddies on the couch for a cuddle & purr session; however, it will usually turn into a grooming session thanks to Sammy. Ahhhh...kitty love.

This...
will turn into this... (If you look closely, you can see his tongue!)

I love my Sam. And he loves me.

Shoes definitely make the outfit

Much like Shannon (Miss HoneyDew), I absolutely love the idea of colored shoes for a little surprise/splash of color; however, my mom vetoed the idea of my wearing red shoes (darn!). Realizing that she was right, and that red shoes wouldn't go very well with my dress, I turned my search to gold shoes. Opinions on these? They are my favorites so far...

The Honeymoon - all the stressing leads to relaxation, right?

Tonight was dedicated to searching for a honeymoon location...and what a search it was! Who knew there were SO many resorts out there? And I was only looking at the RCI website! Future MIL (Cheryl) graciously offered to use her timeshare points to give us our honeymoon as a wedding gift so I set out to help her narrow the search by finding the resorts that appealed to me the most. I apparently had no clue what I was getting myself into! It took me all night and I have a list of 20 for her to check availability on. Hopefully, all 20 aren't available. I haven't a clue how I would narrow it down from there.

The areas I've chosen are: Aruba, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, St. Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Maarten, Tortola (British Virgin Islands), Puerto Rico, and Dominican Repbublic (Punta Cana and Puerto Plata).

If you have ANY advice/experience/opinions, please let me know. I definitely need all the help I can get!

Dress Drama

Partially due to my bad mood on Saturday and partially due to my newly acquired bad memory (there's so much wedding stuff to think about...I'm bound to forget something, right?), I completely forgot to take my Spanx with me to try on dresses. Big mistake. When I tried on my dress the first time, I wasn't able to zip it because of the super padded bra David's Bridal puts on you (not sure why I had it on since I definitely don't plan on wearing one!). This happened to be when the alterations lady came over to check what size I would need. Needless to say, she thought I needed to size up 2 sizes (ouch!). After trying on a few more dresses, I went back to "my" dress and tried it without the ginormous bra...and it fit (I wasn't really surprised to be honest). Anyway, the sales associate somehow convinced me to still order the size recommended by alterations. At that point, I just wanted to LEAVE so I agreed with her.

Over the next few days (once I was back to Happy Taryn vs. Cranky Taryn), I realized there was no way I needed to size up 2 sizes in the dress. I wouldn't have been able to zip it if it was 2 sizes too small. Plus, I hadn't tried it on with my Spanx...and all girls know they make a big difference!! So armed with my trusty Spanx (gotta love 'em!), I headed off to the David's Bridal by my work to try on the dress again. Unfortunately, they didn't have the same one, but I tried on one very similar in the same size and it was perfect. This was all it took to convince me to go back to the original store to change the size I ordered. While I was there, I put on "my" dress again and proved to the alterations lady that I'm not as fat as she apparently thought I was. Haha!

I'm MUCH happier now that I have the right size ordered. Wedding day, here I come!! :)