For all you engaged folk...

With wedding season coming into full swing I've spent a lot of time reminicing about my own wedding day. Can I just say, that was the best day of my life?! I wish I could go relive that day over and over and over and over and over again. The temple, the sealing, the pictures, hair and makeup, the receiving line, cake, dancing, the honeymoon...ahhhh don't get me started. With that being said, there were so many things that made August 1st so memorable. 

So...I just wanted to share a few tips and tricks that we used to decorate, reuse, and recycle! Hopefully they will help you prepare or give you some ideas for your big day... 

Decorate

There really is so much you can do yourself these days! DIY is a great way to save money! There are so many tutorials and resources available out there. But we definitely couldn't have done it without everyone's hard work and long hours! 

1. Crates: We used a lot of crates at our reception to create a rustic elegant look. Instead of buying them on Esty ($35-$50 a piece) we made them ourselves. Taylor's dad built them out of scrape wood and then stained them. They looked unreal! (Photo Credit: Fauset Photography)

2. My dad made our cake stand and photo booth instead of having to buy or rent something. (Photo Credit: Fauset Photography)

 3. My uncles made the lemonade stand for our family wedding shower a month earlier out of scrap wood. We just used it again for the Italian Soda at the reception. (Photo Credit: Fauset Photography)

4. We made about 15 of these books for part of the table center pieces. The books were bought at D.I. for about 50 cents-$1 a piece. We ripped off the covers and then tied 3 different sizes together. Cheap and gorgeous! 

5. We also made these barn wood frames ($5 total!!!) to clip guest advice to! 

Reuse

1. One thing that I absolutely loved about our reception was all the gorgeous flowers. Live flowers and greenery really keep things fresh and lively! As the florist put the arrangements together before the reception, my mom and I went over to all the flowers to take it all in. The aroma in the air was indescribable. 

With so many fresh flowers, used only for one day, one problem many run into is what to do with them afterwords. Giving them out as thank you's to family, guest and friends is one way to reuse them. As we were on our honeymoon our cute cousins helped us do a little something else with them. They took them to the nearest Assisted Living Center and gave them to the elderly women living there. Talking with them later about the experience, they said that these ladies were in tears that someone would think of them. 

 2. For some reason we had ordered WAY to many strawberries for our reception. So as the night began to a close, we realized that something needed to be done! So again, while we were on our honeymoon, the family got together and made DeHart strawberry jam! Everyone who helped took some jam and when we got back from our honeymoon we got some delicious cans too. I am sad to say we only have one can left. (I could seriously drink it from the can!) 

3. Another great idea is to use your decor from your wedding as decor for your first apartment! Please excuse the Christmas photo, but this picture was the only one I could find of our entertainment center.  Yes, our entertainment center is made out of crates from our wedding! We find great pride in our cute little entertainment center. ha. 

 Recycle 

1. With so many vintage items made and purchased for the wedding, we decided to do a little rental  business to get our money back. We did it for about a year renting out trunks, flower carts, crates, books, vintage windows and doors and much much more from our wedding. If you have a lot of left over supplies from your wedding, I suggest renting or reselling your decor! 

 

At weddings so much goes wasted- so if you can think of ways to decorate cheap, reuse and recycle, you can save a lot more and get your moneys worth. Hopefully a few of these ideas will spark your imagination! 

Pretty Petals

Every year for my Grandma Worthington's birthday we go to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival as sisters, aunts, and granddaughters. Although there was a snowstorm last week, the gardens were still absolutely breathtaking. We rented two golf carts and cruised through the gardens. Thank heavens that we did because I swear every 3rd grader in Utah was there too. It was so much fun to spend time all together and smell all the beautiful flowers! 

This baby boy is finally starting to show at 18 weeks.  I can't wait to see him again in just two more weeks! 

IT'S A....

We couldn't wait till our 20 week appointment to find out the gender of our baby, so we scheduled an ultrasound at 16 1/2 weeks to find the gender out a little earlier! 4 more weeks was pushing it! ha. This whole time it's been killing us not knowing the gender. What do you call it at that phase? Baby, he, she, it... it's difficult. These pregnancy dreams have become increasingly weirder and stranger as the days came closer and closer for our ultrasound. Dreams about boys, girls, oh and puppies. It's safe to say that yes, i'm having a human baby. 

The day before the ultrasound I honestly could not focus. Not only would finding out the gender be incredible, but even just seeing our baby again was getting me so excited and anxious. Our last ultrasound had been at 7 weeks, when our baby was only the size of a blueberry. It was actually going to look like a baby now! I had to keep busy at work and at home or else I would have passed out from all my emotions. 

The day of the ultrasound Taylor and I sent texts back and forth, "T MINUS 8 HOURS!!!!" , "T MINUS 2 HOURS!!!!" Taylor picked me up after work and we headed to our doctor's office. When the ultrasound tech called our name we both looked at another with looks of amazement... THIS IS IT! We went into the room. She put the jelly on my belly and then put the device on. Right when she put it on, the first initial picture was clear. I think I just saw a little something something, I thought to myself. I had a pretty good idea of what we were having at that point. But she moved on quickly to the cute little feet, the head, the arms, and then she started trying to get a clearer image of the gender. Taylor held my hand as we both waited. He told me after, that his heart was thumping so hard he thought he was going to explode. 

Then there it was, as clear as it could be... IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!

Afterwords we were both speechless. We couldn't be more excited for this precious little boy to come into our lives in just a few short months. He has already taught me so much in just these past 4 months. He has helped me realize what's truly important in this life, beginning and having an eternal family. After we left the office we called both of our parents and told them the exciting news. I think the moms were both very surprised because they thought we were going to have a girl. But, we surprised them! Taylor is the only boy in his family that has the DeHart name, so his parents were touched when they heard the DeHart name was going to live on! We all had a little teary eyed session over the phone when Tay's mom brought it up. We celebrated afterwords and might have even purchased his first little outfit! So tiny and so cute! Taylor thought it would be appropriate to go see Furious 7 to honor the fact that we are having a boy. ha. Any excuse to go see it... 

We feel so blessed and can't wait to meet this little guy! 

Awwwwwww, can I hold him already?! 

Bump Date Time...

How Far Along: 16 weeks 

Size of Baby: Avocado (4-5 inches) 

Developments in Baby This Week: Baby can hear our voices! His muscles are strengthening. He can make facial expressions. His eyes are working, making small side-to-side movements and perceiving light! 

Weight Gain: 8 pounds. 

Maternity Clothes: Not yet, although this past week the top button on my pants wouldn't close. I've fallen back on using the old rubber band trick. Although this little boy is being shy... i'm slowly growing! 

Sleep: WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD dreams. I'm telling you. I was a pretty out there dreamer before, but it's quadrupled. I really do need to start writing them down so I can explain how weird they truly are. There is no way I have the type of imagination to come up with these bizarre things. Still taking my nightly bathroom breaks...the joy. 

Food Cravings: Do swig sugar cookies count? Those always sound good! 

My Symptoms: Tired! I feel like a turtle moving around because i'm always SO tired, regardless of how much sleep I get. Sciatica, that's been a new one. I've had it very bad these past few weeks. Towards the end of the day I can't even bend over, sit or walk without the shooting pain down my hip and legs. OOUCH. Sleeping it off always helps. I hear I need to get a belly band to help? Headaches still are frequent but doable! 

Names: Boy names were a lot harder for us. We have a few now that are in the top 3! 

My first DIY

Back in September when we decided to buy our house, I got very exited and started on multiple projects. Our kitchen table being one of them. Now that we were going to be home owners I had to get somewhat crafty, right?  I bought this old craft table for $50. It needed a lot of lovin' as you can see, so I got right to work! 

 The first step was to sand it, and boy did that take forever. I used an electronic sander. I started with a thick grained sandpaper. Each layer I changed my grit until my last layer when I used the finest sandpaper. As each layer began to peel away, I began to really LOVE the gorgeous table that was hiding underneath. The pattern in the grains were my favorite! 

The second step is to stain the table. This step I has to do a few times because the first time around my mom and I sort of messed it up. Let's just say we had never stained anything, so we weren't sure the exact way to do it. We watched a couple of YouTube videos and we were sure we were set. We went out into the yard where the table was set up. Her job was to dump the stain and my job was to wipe away. Within the first seconds it was totally ruined. We both looked at each other and started yelling and running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We tried to renew the damage we had already inflicted on the helpless table, but it was too late. After having my dad, the master of anything DIY, come out and take a look he said we needed to re sand it and then we would try again. So we went through the whole process of sanding again. My hands were very sore after this second time around. The second time staining we decided to get my dad to come help us out a bit. With the three of us all at work, we made it work. The strain I used was a  called: Minwax 1qt Gel Stain in Aged Oak.  We applied two coats. 

We finished off the table with a primer to seal in all the blood, sweat and tears we put into it. ha. 

Finding chairs for my table was my second mission. I searched on KSL for days trying to look for the perfect chairs. Until I finally found these. The woman selling them was selling a table with them as well but I begged her to separate them. She thought it was very strange that I just wanted the chairs. But she gave in. YAY! I bought the chairs for $50. The chairs were the same finish as the table when it started out. So I sanded the seats and stained the seats with the same stain as I did the table. Then I spray painted the chairs and the legs to the table with a white spray paint. I wish I had taken a before picture of the chairs, so you could see the difference. 

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! 

TOTAL DOLLARS SPENT: $136.00

 I learned a lot of things during this intense DIY project. One of those being .... never do a DIY project. ha. Just kidding, but I think I do need a little bit of a break. This table was really time consuming. Next time I know to do a little more research before jumping right into it. 

 But to be honest it's so fun to sit at our table every night and say I DID THIS! It is self-fulfilling you could say. So I suggest if you are looking for a fulfilling project, try a DIY!