Royal Wedding & Another Exciting Announcement

Like many other crazies, I woke up early this morning to catch a live peek at the Royal Wedding! I've looked forward to this wedding since Prince William first stepped out in public with the lovely Kate Middleton. She's so classy and timeless- I'm always intrigued to see what she'll wear to events. I love her approachable demeanor and hey genuine likability. All in all, I'm thrilled for the future of these two lovebirds.

More on the Royal Wedding later..but for now I have another exciting wedding announcement. I've officially become a part of the Simply Stunning team! Weddings have been a passion of mine since an early age and I'm glad to finally have made the jump. This has been a long time coming, and I'm beyond excited to share this news with you. Please visit the Simply Stunning blog for more on this fabulous new adventure. 

Storage Wars

Bonus Room: Pardon the Blackberry Picture

Does anybody else watch that show? Mr. SE and I love it. Maybe it has to do with my love of yard sales, maybe it's just the thrill of finding a good deal. Regardless- we can't get enough.

Rooms to Go: Capetown

After the purchase of our sectional last fall, our bonus room (man cave) started to take shape. Shortly following the sectional was the TV, and we had ourselves a legitimate room. The functionality was there; couch and tv, but it was lacking in decor. I started accenting the "ryegrass" wall color with burlap curtains in "spice". It's sort of a dark orange reddish color and really blends well with the dark brown couch.

The piece de resistance is Mr. SE's media center! He couldn't find a center big enough (and less than $2k) for our TV, so he decided to make one on his own. My handsome husband doesn't have any experience in woodworking, and I'm proud to say that he created this masterpiece all in his head. As in without any plans, just an idea and some elbow grease! We were so excited to have this behemoth of a stand upstairs, and to place our TV on it's final resting spot. 

The color is a dark, warm brown and I love how it lends to the man cave aesthetic that I had planned. The original palette was "ryegrass" with different shades of brown and tan. Along the way we've chosen to accent with navy blue, spice, and pops of red (more on that later).

 
It's become such a cozy room that we've enjoyed spending time in. While the main pieces are all set, I'm still working on making the room feel more layered and lived in. My first step towards the lived-in look is bookcases. Initially I wanted two traditional bookshelves to flank our large window, but decided on a ladder style. My smart friend Jessica pointed out that the light shelving would compliment the heavy pieces already in place. So I just purchased these for myself, as an early birthday present. These can go together or separate- and I'll be using one on each side of the window. 

And that's what brings me to the title of this post, storage. I suppose that was a round about way to get here. And maybe I should have titled this post "Sarah Rambles About Bonus Room Details Nobody Cares About", but Storage Wars sounded catchier.

Ticking Stripes: Major Crush

Oh boy, I do love a play on words. It started with this pillow, purchased as a gift for my mother in law (and one for myself because it was too darn cute). And now I am OBSESSED with ticking stripes. I'll have you know, my obsession came several months before Nate announced on his show that ticking stripes were all the rage. I felt proud at that moment. Etsy is ripe with lots of ticking stripe pickings- and I cannot get enough. They compliment just about any decor.

Right now my mom is making red/cream ticking euro pillow cases for our guest room. I love how they're juxtaposed with the crisp hotel bedding to provide a layered, lived in look. Can't wait to get them in the mail, and post pictures of course.

Here's some of my favorite ways to incorporate ticking stripes into your home...

 Ruffle Runner

 Bulletin Board

  Chandelier Cream Ticking Pillow

Vintage French Matress Pillow Cases

Anchor Ticking Stripe Clutch
(made in Nashville)

I Love Lamp

Seriously, I do! We're decorating our bonus room right now, and I'm fixated on finding the perfect lamp. About a month ago my handsome decorating boyfriend, Nate Berkus, used surveyor lamps in a room design and I fell in love. The rustic/contemporary style would be perfect for our manly bonus room. The look I'm going for is sort of British Gentlemen's Club. Like a smoking club. Dark woods, army green. It's going to be fabulous.

I saw the lamps at HomeGoods for $79 and couldn't pull the trigger. Lesson learned because the lamps are now gone. Sad sad day in the SE household. Well maybe only for me, not sure my husband shared in the sadness. Now that I've started searching for these elusive lamps, at an equal price point, I've become fixated on the beautiful wonder that is tripod lamps. These are my favorites from LampsPlus!

What's your opinion-- do you like the tripod lamps? And has anybody else ever fixated on something crazy like this for their house?

Opening Day

So I'm a little late on this one- but baseball season is officially here! Since Mr. SE was quite the baseball player, this is the highlight of his year. From now until October, there will be a game playing every single night. Why's that, you ask? Because we have the MLB Ticket, of course!

Nats!

The good news here is that through our collegiate relationship I began to love baseball myself. Foremost because I got to watch my hunky boyfriend be a superstar athlete- but also because I started to actually like the game. One of my favorite parts about baseball is the warm weather that it's played in- not to be confused with the too warm of weather that'll hit you at a 1pm game in July at Turner Field. Yikes!

Turner Field

Being from the DC Area, I have a natural tendency to root for the Nationals- but in marriage I'm a Braves fan. Our joint debit card has the Braves logo on it. Yes, it does. So like any good wife, I made sure that my outfit is game time ready, with lots of navy, red, and white.

My most recent Braves related purchase is this super cute t-shirt from Old Navy. I've purchased their NFL (Redskins/Falcons) and NCAA (UGA) shirts, and the quality is great. Especially considering you can usually find them on sale. Here's what my newest purchase looks like.

Boys Style (a large fit me fine)

Super Cute! But they didn't have these in the store

Do you look forward to baseball season? If so- what's your favorite part? Maybe it's the peanuts, cracker jacks, or just getting to hang out in the warm weather.

Crazy for Gaga!

It's no secret that Mr. SE and I are big Gaga fans...just check out our halloween costume. Yep, we were Gaga and her "papparazi". Clever, I know.

On April 19th, we're going to see Lady Gaga in concert. Mr. SE and I bought these tickets with The Smiths when there were 250 days until the concert. And now we're several weeks away! Excited doesn't even begin to explain how I feel.

 
Regardless of your personal feelings about Gaga, you have to agree that she puts on a great show. On top of that, there's sure to be tons of crazy outfits! Which brings me to my point- what to wear? Mrs. Smith picked her outfit awhile ago (as in she bought the dress around Christmas), but I've recently started to look.

Sequins = necessary

Sequins and/or feathers are a must. This is the concert to bring out all the stops. I recently got these super hot patent nude platforms that I'm dying to wear, and I found the perfect sequin dress. What do you think? Is this outfit worthy of Gaga herself? On another note- it's been decided that my hair bow will not be making an appearance at the concert.

Has anybody else seen her Monster Ball tour? And what's your feeling about nude pumps? I've looked all over for the perfect pair and I think these might be the ticket. They remind me of the ones Kelly Rippa wears. le sigh.

Wedding Recaps: Ceremony

Another installment of wedding recaps- here we go! To Mr. SE and myself, our ceremony was the most important part of the entire wedding weekend. We both had strong convictions about the way that our ceremony would be conducted: Mr. SE wanted it in a Catholic church, and I wanted it in any Christian house of worship. Luckily Non-Denominational Christianity and Catholicism have many similarities in the way that their wedding ceremonies are conducted, and it was easy for us to collaborate on the perfect ceremony. We decided to have a non-mass Catholic ceremony, which followed the following structure:

Gathering Song
Opening Prayer
Old & New Testament Reading
Gospel Reading by our Deacon
Exchange of Vows and Blessing of Rings
Unity Candle and Song of Blessing
Prayer of the Faithful
The Lord's Prayer
Sign of Peace
Final Blessing
Introduction of couple

After attending the June 2009 wedding of my Matron of Honor, Kate, I knew that a Catholic ceremony was the way for us to go. There was something special about everything involved in the ceremony-- it's not to say that shorter ceremonies are lacking anything, but I wanted the ceremony to involve as many traditions as possible. Mr. SE and I both felt that this was a very serious thing: committing to each other in the presence of God, our families, and each other-- and we wanted to respect the very sacred union that we were creating.

Through our marriage preparation sessions, our Deacon really got to know us, and was able to put quite a personal spin on our ceremony. I felt so much love during that hour. A love of support and encouragement from all of our family and friends in the pews, and encouragement of all the other couples who have ever been married on that altar. Our Deacon said something to the effect of Christian marriages being part of the tree of the body of Christ, and our marriage was a bud on the branch. I loved that analogy, and believe it's instrumental to have a support system like that when beginning the walk of marriage. It's the best road ever, but it's not always an easy journey.

We put a lot of thought into the special roles involved in our ceremony. Our flower girl is my cousin's daughter (I was the flower girl in her parents' wedding at the exact same age as she was for ours). The readers were family members for both Mr. SE and myself. For our Prayer of the Faithful, we chose our mutual friend Brandon and he was the perfect person to read those very important proclamations. And for our Song of Blessing, my Matron of Honor sang "Con te Partiro" by Andrea Bocelli. She has the voice of an angel, and it was truly beautiful to hear her voice filling the Cathedral.

One of my favorite parts of our ceremony, was being able to sit on the altar during both of the readings, and the sermon from our Deacon. It was such a special thing to be able to hold my "almost" husband's hand and look into the pews. I made a special point of trying to notice every single person that had come to witness the beginning of our journey as husband and wife. Our ceremony is the most special experience I've ever had in my life. While saying our vows, a beautiful light came through the stained glass and rested on Mr. SE and I. We truly believe it was God shining down, along with our family members that are already in heaven.

After our vows, we gave a Sign of Peace to each other and our bridal party and parents. It was so special to walk down my bridesmaids and give them all a hug and a kiss, followed by my parents and Mr. SE's parents. These are some of my favorite images of our ceremony. So much joy and so much love.  

Let me know if you'd like the template that I used to design our programs. It was hard to find something for a non-mass ceremony, so I created one of my own.

All photos by Gray Photography

Wedding Dress: Mori Lee, The White Room
Tuxedos: Mens Wearhouse
Mom's Dresses: The White Room
Bridesmaid's Dresses: B2 by Jasmine, The White Room
Flower Girl: David's Bridal
Flowers: Brocade Designs
Ceremony: Cathedral of the Incarnation
Deacon: Mark Faulkner (if you're in the Nashville area, let me know if you'd like his info)