Love and Goulets: Wedding Day

If you follow me on any social media platform, sorry for the explosion of wedding pictures this weekend! Well, no, I'm not sorry but whatever.

This past Saturday was the long awaited Goulet wedding! My baby sister is finally married to the man of her dreams and I couldn't be more excited for the two of them.

The couple was married at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Spring Lake and the reception was held at the Fruitport Golf Course. Ryke's catering and bakery left me needing to lie flat on the floor and recover from my food coma. The incredibly talented Kari Douma Photography has me refreshing her Facebook page every 30 seconds awaiting even just a sneak peak. Kari and Jayne are wonderful people and never disappoint. I simply cannot wait for the photos! 

My little ring bearer looked incredibly handsome in his little tux and bow tie! Even though he refused to wear the sign down the aisle and fought us on every single picture, he was adorable.  

Thank God for Ryan. I put him on Brody duty for the day and he did remarkable. Whether it was walking laps around the church when he started to get cranky or getting him to smile during pictures, I wouldn't have survived Saturday without him. For a guy who doesn't have any experience taking care of children, he stepped up to the plate and did an amazing job. Thanks babe! xo

For my toast, I dug out this pretend "personal ad" that I had created for Ashley 3 years ago after she ended a long-term relationship. Normally public speaking really doesn't rattle me, but I shook like a leaf during both the reading at church and while I was giving my toast at dinner. My toast was well received which made me pretty stoked. Plus Ryan and I caught the garter and bouquet, so... yay! :)

Thank you everyone who attended and supported Ashley and Adam on their special day. The happy couple is currently cruising around Chicago and will take their "real" honeymoon this Winter in St. Lucia.

For more wedding photos, click here!

Life Lately

Hello Internet. Tis finally wedding week. Because I suck at keeping my blog updated lately, thought I'd give you a quick rundown of what everyone's been up to before I start blowing up your news feed with wedding related pictures and posts...

ZORA: My crazy girl seems to finally be back at 100% or damn near close. She had a couple bouts of garbage gut since weaning off of her medications, but I've noticed it's usually after days I leave the sliding door open for her while I'm at work. Stupid likes to wander the yard and eat eeeeevvveerryything. Zora, you are not a cow... knock it off. 

BRODY: My brain cannot handle how much he has grown up in the past couple months. His vocabulary has grown exponentially, his independence is incredible and we're awaiting a free weekend to take the plunge with potty training. Mama Z and I worked very hard to get him comfortable in the water again and now he absolutely loves the pool and splash pad. I've been packing quite a few things away this week (highchair, clothes, etc.) and even though it makes me want to cry that he's growing up so fast, I'm excited for all the new stages in his life too. He's also on a test run at a new daycare this week. Current daycare is on vacation so I took this as an opportunity to see what else is out there and I'm very excited to hopefully switch to this new place. Brody had a wonderful time today hanging out with two new lovely ladies and I was greeted with nothing but smiles at the end of the day. :)

RYAN: Even though he's at 88% travel for the year, we still find time to see each other. I couldn't be happier and am very excited to spend the entire weekend with him before he leaves again for work for the next two and a half weeks. xo

ASHLEY: The bride-to-be is counting down the final days as Miss Zylstra. Her and I have a mani/pedi date tomorrow, then rehearsal on Friday and Saturday's the big day! We're praying for sunshine, a cooperative Lil Man and everything to run smoothly. 

ME: I've been trying to keep my head above water these last few weeks. Work is crazy busy as well as the freelancing, my Etsy sales are booming (in large part to this recent post on Trend Hunter... thanks guys!), divorce nonsense (yeah... that's STILL going on) and then there's all the wedding related shenanigans. I'm so anxious for life to settle down a bit after this weekend. Wait... does that ever happen? 

Have a great night everyone and be on the lookout for all the wedding bliss over the next few days!

Bachelorette Party - Masquerade Style

Last Saturday, we celebrated my little sister's bachelorette party -- masquerade style! Festivities began with dinner and games out on my parent's deck. They have such a great space for hosting parties. We were a bit concerned about rain, but the most we had to deal with was wind... I'll take it! 

I had spent months making all the decor myself. I was very thankful for all those years of hoarding craft supplies, paper samples and other whatnots... all of the decorations were made with stuff I had on hand and a $30 trip to the Dollar Store and Hobby Lobby. I'm also super glad Santa bought me a Silhouette machine last Christmas. 

I'm not a party planner by any means... nor do I know how to decorate. With a hodge podge of ideas saved on Pinterest, I opted to go with a black, white, silver and gold color scheme and did my best to create a look that said "elegant" instead of "mardi gras." 

My Silhouette and I made up some photo props. I had some great silver and gold paper samples on hand to cut out glasses, moustaches and lips.

Games included a "How Well do you Know Ashley" trivia game as well as a bar crawl scavenger hunt. Our cousin, Laura, knew Ashley the best. The scavenger hunt fizzled out shortly after arriving at the bar... oh well. 

Yeah, my ass squeezed into that dress. Good God. And then there were Spanx... omg the Spanx. *shudder*

Ashley's bridesmaids... 

After dinner, we loaded up and headed to Grand Rapids. Our first stop was Mojos... and the rest is history.

Overall, I consider the night a success. We had a great turnout, great weather and I successfully kept my sister upright and alive the entire evening. Definitely a win. 

A huge thank you to Mama Z for all her help preparing/serving food, hosting and the clean up once we took off for Grand Rapids. Couldn't have pulled it off without you. 

T-minus 14 more days until Ashley and Adam tie the knot!