Katie's Baby Shower!

This past Saturday, I and six other friends hosted a baby shower for our sweet friend, Katie, and her baby boy, Ashton! Having it at my house, there was a lot of pressure (just from myself, of course) to make sure everything was perfect -- which is why I have been absent from my blog recently.

 

Let's start with the invitations.

Right about the time we started talking about Katie's shower, a Groupon/Livingsocial popped up in my email for an invitation company called Simply To Impress. I checked out their selection (always do this before purchasing!) and was actually impressed (no pun intended) with their selection and non-cheesy baby shower invitations. With the coupon code, I only spent $25 on 50 invitations (don't worry, not all 50 showed up haha) - which is awesome! Aside from the cute invitations, I thought their packaging was also really cute.

 

 

 

Savannah had the great idea of everyone giving Katie/Ashton their favorite childhood book instead of a card to help build Ashton's library. So I made a label that went on the inside of the book so that they could always remember who gave them which book! Katie loved it!!

 

And now on to the shower..

 

Some of the details.

{blue raspberry suckers as favors - personalized napkins - recycled ribbon from KA's shower made into a wreath - an alternative to a diaper cake, a diaper baby! - suckers and a sign saying "Boys are sweet, please take a treat" - A is for Ashton sign and baby blue paper straws}

 

The drink station

{sparkling pink lemonade from Trader Joe's - cucumber water - "Ashton's Bliss" which was a concoction of prosecco, pinot grigio, Sprite, and berries}

 Emily made the super cute banner!

 Katie's cravings table!

{pickles - taco dip for Taco Bell - fresh fruit - bacon, egg, and cheese "biscuits"}

Snow cones for dessert! {also part of her cravings}

 

 Washi tape on cups so you can write your name on it and not lose it:)

 

 

 

 

We all can't wait to meet Baby Ashton next month!!

Boinker's Birthday!

The word boink(er) is a tricky one. It has a lot of meanings.

Examples:

"What did you do today? Oh, y'know, just boinked around town."

"They totally boinked last night."

"Eww, she is being such a boinker right now."

So today, we celebrate the self-proclaimed originator of the word boinker, KATIE!

A bridesmaid. A true friend. An amazing daughter. A thoughtful and dedicated wife. A beautiful person inside and out.

And now for some pics that make me smile..

Her two dogs, Landon & Mickey, with Brady. They're best buds.

And a few throwback pics from college..

XO Senior Band Party
My then boyfriend of 3 years broke up with me a few hours before my last sorority function of college so I was obviously a mess. In true matchmaker Katie fashion, she came through and found me a date. There was no connection between us, but it turned out to be a fun night and the jerk dumping me turned out to be a blessing in disguise because now I'm engaged to a much better guy! :)

Garage party. Oh yes.

Tailgating - our favorite sport.

Katie & Henry are married!

I feel like I've been gone forever! Email inbox is full (I am the queen of procrastination) & I have a TON of blogs to read and catch up on, but being away since Thursday was definitely worth it!

Katie and Henry are such an amazing couple. They are very similar to each other in the fact that they would both do anything for their friends and family. Not to mention a blast to be around! Katie and I met when we pledged the same sorority in college (2002) and lived together for the past 3 years!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend..

Bridal Luncheon

Rehearsal Dinner on Fripp Island

Groom's Cake

Such a pretty dress!

Front of the church

Bridesmaids before the ceremony

I put this pic up to show you the earrings Katie got us..they look like pearls but they're actually made out of cotton balls!

Back porch of the Dataw Island Clubhouse

First dance with her uncle

Loved the centerpieces!

Me & my man. This is a framer.

Up on stage..after I overcame my shyness.

Loved the hanging lanterns!

faves.

 Next up, Jenny's bach party in Dirty Myrtle in June!



Katie's Bachelorette Party in Wrightsville Beach!

Just a quick recap of Katie's fun bachelorette party this past weekend in Wrightsville Beach, NC!

Emily and I left Friday around 1:30pm and arrived in Wrightsville Beach around 5:30pm. It really wasn't a bad drive at all and it was great to REALLY get to talk to my best friend, other than the daily "how was your day?" routine. :) 

We had dinner reservations at Tower 7, a Baja Mexican grill that was close enough for us to walk to. I ordered the same thing that I usually get from Taco Boy (Baja fish taco) and if there were a competition between Tower 7 & Taco Boy, the winner would have been Taco Boy. It wasn't bad...Taco Boy's is just better. :)

That, my friends, is a Sangrita.

Saw this Great Dane walk by and we HAD to take a pic with him. His name is Beast. :)

After that we headed back to the hotel room for a little lingerie shower.

 

We freshened up and walked to the beach bars, where we attracted a bunch of looks. No, not because we're all ridiculously good looking (kidding), but because everyone is in flip flops and t-shirts and we're in ruffly pink dresses and 4 inch wedge heels. Oh well. 

Saturday we took advantage of the complimentary breakfast and headed to the beach. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to just put sunscreen on my whole body, except my stomach and upper things. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea. My stomach turned out looking like the color of my pink dress the first night. I wish I was exaggerating. On top of that, I had legit hand prints on my shoulders from where I attempted to rub in my sunscreen.

For dinner on Saturday night, we ate at BlueWater Grill. The location reminded me a lot of Shem Creek. Courtney Jo's birthday was Wednesday so (thanks to Savannah) we surprised her with a little treat and a song!

After dinner we took a cab to downtown Wilmington. Christine (sorority sister and Emily's former roommate) and her husband live in Wilmington so they met us out for a little while! We did the usual bar hopping and ended the evening with late night pizza. Perfect weekend!

Me, Christine, Emily

Cupid Shuffle with our Venezuelan friend.

Darcy, Katie, Courtney Jo, Caroline

Cannot wait for Katie & Henry's wedding next weekend!