Wedding Wednesday: The Details

If you have ever planned a wedding, you know that the little details can make a big impact at the wedding. The hardest things about wedding planning for me was designing and creating all of these little details but it's all worth it when you see it come together on your big day! 

I do have to give a HUGE shout out to my mother and father for doing most of the wedding crafts since Ryan and I lived in New Jersey during the wedding planning process. They did an amazing job of bringing all of our ideas to life! 

Here are some of my favorite little details from the wedding! 

Programs: 

The programs turned out just beautiful and incorporated the pinecones seen throughout the wedding! They contained important details about the wedding, including our wedding party,  readings from the ceremony, the layout of the wedding, and our new address, all tied together with a twine ribbon!

The Wedding Invitations: 

Amanda, at Especially Yours Design, created our Wedding Invitations for us! I knew I wanted to incorporate burlap, lace, and pinecones in the design and she pulled it off beautifully! We went through a few trials, but the end result was just perfect! We also chose to do RSVP postcards with our logo on the front and a song request line on the back! The song requests we received were hilarious and we tried to play as many as possible during the reception!

The Guest Book: 

My dad surprised Ryan and I with this one. We didn't know what the plan was for the guest book, we just knew my dad took that project on for himself. When we were first able to see it, we were so excited that our guests would be not only signing the book, but they would also be able to write down their "special wishes for us" and how they know us- which led to some pretty funny reading!

The Bouquets and Cake: 

The bouquet was pretty much the inspiration for the ENTIRE wedding. I found a picture of a bouquet on Pinterest (thank God for Pinterest!) and I just knew that it was exactly what I wanted. The bouquet featured silver brunia (the berries), baby pinecones, dusty miller, and a couple different types of ivory roses. The cake had the same flowers on the 2nd layer, tying everything together!

The Sparkler Send-Off: 

The sparkler send-off was a must for us! My mom found 2-foot long smokeless sparklers that worked perfectly for the wedding and for pictures! We ordered some custom matchbooks with our names and wedding date on them and tied one matchbook to two sparklers with twine. They were displayed at the wedding in Large mason jars so that everyone could grab a set and light their sparklers on their own in line! It turned out to be a beautiful way to say goodbye to all our friends and family!

The Escort Cards and Holder: 

We knew we wanted to display the escort cards in a unique way and when my Uncle Don and Aunt Carol donated some old windows from their home in NC, we knew we had the perfect medium to do so! My parents put nails in each side of the window and strung twine from each nail. I cut out each name in a tag shape and decorated the cards. Then, we clipped each card to the twine with a small clothes pin! They turned out SO cute!

The Wedding Favors: 

Since there was a fountain on the property, we decided it would be a great idea to give everyone a silver dollar to throw into the fountain and make a wish. After the wedding, we collected all of the silver dollars and donated them to help fight Alzheimer's Disease. My dad wrote the poem and designed the cards. If you can't read it, the card says, "What if you couldn't remember who you love...who loves you? Memories are Priceless. With this coin the bride and groom have made it possible within this room to buy you a wish... to help it come true so you remember them and they remember you." It was a beautiful touch and helped us remember our loved ones that couldn't be at the wedding with us.

 The Candy Buffet and "Love is Sweet" Sign: 

The candy buffet was something I just HAD to have at the wedding. We chose 7 of our most favorite candies and put out to-go bags for everyone to take some candy home with them! The "Love is Sweet" sign was a perfect tie in to the wedding and was a hand-me-down from Brandon and Rachel's wedding!

Other Little Details that Boosted Our Special Day: 

Baby's Breath Bouquets down the aisle

The Tablescape: Pinecones, burlap runner, flowers, and lanterns 

Burlap and lace bows borrowed from Brandon and Rachel's wedding!  

The Wishin' Well fountain sign made by Amanda (our wedding planner and Wedding Invite designer) 

With that, Wedding Wednesday comes to a close! It's been so fun recapping this amazing time in my life and I hope ya'll enjoyed reading it as much as I loved writing everything!

-Sarah 

4th of July in the 'Burg: Day 2

I'm back with day 2 of our trip to Lawrenceburg, which happened to be the 4th of July! 

Thursday began bright and early with coordinated outfits and an annual 5k run through Greendale, IN! While at Wal-Mart the night before, we picked out the festive shirts you see below to run our races in. The guys shirts were a big hit! 

The weather was pretty overcast all morning, but about 5 minutes before the race began, it began to rain and didn't really stop until Sunday! Running in the rain actually turned out to be pretty nice and definitely kept me cool throughout the race! 

Ryan and I ran together the whole way (he's MUCH faster than me) and he pushed me to run a little bit faster than I normally would. This 5k was the first race I've run non-stop! No walking for this girl! 

After the race, we waited for our whole group to finish up and snapped a couple celebratory pictures before heading home! 

Once we got home, we began to make 4th of July "Omelets in a bag", a Schoeff family tradition!

In a ziplock bag, you crack an egg or two and mix it up. Then, pour in whatever additions you want (cheese, pepper, onion, ham, bacon...the possibilities are endless) and place the bag in a large pot of boiling water for about 13 minutes!

The omelet slides right out of the bag and is ready to eat! Delicious!

The rest of our 4th was pretty rainy, so we spent the majority of the day hanging out in the garage, playing shuffleboard, grilling out, and enjoying everyone's company! A small group of people chose to brave the weather so see if they could watch fireworks, but Ryan and I hung back and listened to them from inside! It was sad to not see fireworks this 4th, but we still had a blast hanging out around the home with family!

I hope ya'll had a fantastic 4th!

-Sarah

4th of July in the 'Burg: Day 1

Hey Ya'll!

We're BACK! After an AMAZING vacation visiting family and a less-than-stellar flight experience, Ryan and I walked through our front door last night around 2:30 in the morning.

Today has been all about catching up on the "household chores" I missed while on vacation, but I wanted to take a break to begin documenting our amazing trip to Lawrenceburg, Indiana!

We did SO much while visiting family, I had to break it up by day!

Day 1: 

Our great friend, Rachel, picked Ryan and I up from our apartment at 6:50 in the morning to head to the airport! We got through security in no time and sat down to grab some breakfast before we needed to board. About 5 minutes into breakfast, Ryan received an email from United stating that the flight was going to be delayed 30 minutes. We were planning on flying to Washington Dulles and catching a connecting flight into Dayton, OH, so when we found out the plane was going to be delayed 30 minutes, we were bummed but knew we would still make our connecting flight.

About 10 minutes after the first email, Ryan received another, this time stating our flight was going to be delayed TWO AND A HALF hours! At this point, there was NO chance we were making our connecting flight so we hurried down to United Customer Service and waited in line with a bunch of other people in the same boat as us. About 45 minutes later, Ryan began talking to a customer service rep to figure out a better option for flights. Long story short, we ended up catching a direct flight to Cincinnati that got in around 1, which was an hour before we were scheduled to arrive in Dayton!

Happy faces on the plane a little early! 

 We stepped off the train at the Cincinnati airport and were greeted by my parents, a big sign, and some red roses!

Mom and Dad Schoeff waiting for us to arrive! 

We said our hellos and headed to Lawrenceburg to meet some of the family for lunch! We ate at a riverfront restaurant with my parents, Jake, Colee, Paige, Andy, and Lorie. We had big plans for dinner, so I think everyone tried to eat semi-light! 

Ryan, Me, Paige, Colee, and Jake 

After lunch, we headed back to the house and got right to gaming. My cousins and I LOVE to play cards when we're together. We do a lot of other things too (of course) but when we're all just sitting around, we are almost always playing some sort of card game. This trip,  Uncle Andy taught us a new game, Wizard. We sat around, talking and playing Wizard until it was time for dinner!

For dinner, we headed to Skyline, which is a Cincinnati based restaurant, known for their chili. It's one of my favorite traditions so, needless to say, I was pretty excited!

YUM! 

 After dinner, the family decided to drive over to the Ohio River and walk some of that dinner off! On our walk, we came across the spot where Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in 1861!

 To finish off the night and prepare for our 5k in the morning, Jake, Colee, Evan, Paige, Ryan, and I headed to Walmart to get some fun accessories!

I'll be back soon with our 4th of July recap! Hope everyone had a great Monday!

-Sarah 

Wedding Wednesday: The Honeymoon!!

Hello from the airport!! Happy Wedding Wednesday! 

Ryan and I were supposed to be on our flight to Dayton, OH but due to a very long flight delay we were able to switch to a direct flight to Cincinnati! Cheers to getting to our family an hour early to celebrate the 4th of July! 

Today's recap is all about our Honeymoon! This was by far the hardest wedding related post I've written because every day was a lot of the same: We hung out by the pool, ate a lot, and drank a lot. So bear with me while I TRY to recall as much as I can from this amazing week!

 Ryan and I ventured to Montego Bay, Jamaica for our honeymoon and stayed at Secrets Wild Orchid Resort. We left Sunday morning, after breakfast with our hotel guests, and arrived in Jamaica about midday. Our vacation was 6 nights long, so we didn't leave to come back to GA until December 22nd. 

Sign on our front door!

View from our hotel room balcony! 

Once we got checked in and unpacked, we ventured out to walk around and familiarize ourselves with the resort! Secrets Wild Orchid had two pools, a hot tub, and tons of beach.
The resort also had 10 restaurants (6 for dinner and 4 for lunch) and one was almost ALWAYS open for anyone that was hungry! There were also about 4-5 bars including the swim-up bar which we frequented during the days at the pool!

On the first night, we decided to eat at Blue Mountain, which featured local Jamaican cuisine!

Before dinner on the first night!

 There was some sort of event every single night to entertain guests staying at the resort. Our first night there, the entertainers put on a couples competition, almost exactly like the newlywed game! They chose three couples and asked each person questions while their significant other was outside. Then, they brought the other person back in to see if they would answer the same! It was a pretty entertaining first night!

The pool we spent the most time at! 

On the 2nd night, I believe we ate Bordeaux, which featured French cuisine and was delicious!

After dinner, the resort brought in a Jamaican drum band, which was AWESOME! We sat in some of the lounge chairs, drank the Jamaican specialty drinks (featured below), and listened to the drummer do their thing! Right behind the lounge area, there was a piano bar, which we also frequented! The pianist could play pretty much anything on request and was very entertaining and talented! I think we spent the rest of our 2nd night there.

A picture with some of the drummers! 

On the third morning, the hotel offered a complimentary breakfast in bed! They delivered everything we could possibly need for breakfast (including a bottle of chilled champagne!) straight to the room in the morning and we chose to eat it out on our balcony!

After breakfast, we headed back down to the pool, of course! I've mentioned this already, but the entertainment staff at Secrets was AWESOME. They were so friendly and were always hosting games and events at the pool! While hanging out at the pool on the third day, Ryan and I played Pictionary by the pool!

More drinks!

On the 3rd night, I believe we ate at Himitsu, the Japanese Steakhouse on the property. This was the only restaurant that required reservations so we made sure to make them as soon as we checked in! On our way to dinner, a resort photographer stopped us and asked if we wanted to take a few pictures! We couldn't say no, so we walked down to the beach to snap a couple of pictures during the sunset!

Thank you Mr. Photographer for the awesome pictures (even if they were $15/copy!)

 After dinner, we went to the live event of the night, which happened to be a Jamaican circus. When that was over we headed to the piano bar (surprise!) to finish out the night!

Me and the Pianist!

Random fun facts about our honeymoon: 

I literally can't say enough good things about this resort and would recommend it to anybody! We went December 16-22nd, so everything was decorated for Christmas! There was ALWAYS something to do and we were never, ever bored! 

 There were tons of Peacocks roaming the property and there were even two parrots we hung out with on our last full day there!

Since the resort is all-inclusive, most water activities were free for anybody who wanted to try them, so Ryan and I went snorkeling off the coast one day and kayaking another time!

On the last night, Ryan and I went back to Himitsu (yes, it was that good).

Our last Jamaican sunset of the trip! 

Overall our trip was a blast and we were REALLY sad to leave. This resort was the perfect place to spend our first week as a married couple and we can't wait to go back for an anniversary down the line!

-Sarah

What Pinterest Taught Me Tuesday

Pinterest is such an awesome place for semi-creative people, like me, to get ideas for pretty much ANYTHING. I use Pinterest most for meal planning and exercise ideas, but I have also been "pinspired" (yes, that's a thing) with wardrobe and decorating ideas!

Last week, I used a Pinterest recipe that I just couldn't help but share with ya'll here!

While browsing Pinterest, I came across a super simple fruit salad recipe that I thought would be perfect for Life Group last week, since the theme was "Your Favorite Summer Recipe." When I think of Summer, I can't help but think of fresh, cold fruit to help combat the heat! I've been making a fruit salad for Ryan and I every week to snack on or eat with breakfast and lunch, so why not switch it up a bit!

So without further ado, I give you my "Pinspired Summer Fruit Salad"!

  

Ingredients: 

• 1 package of Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix 
• 1 20 oz. can Pineapple chunks 
• 1 lb. Strawberries, quartered 
• 1 package Blueberries 
• 3 bananas, sliced 

Directions: 

• In a large bowl, combine the Vanilla Pudding mix with the canned pineapple (including the juice). Stir until well blended and all of the pudding mix is dissolved. 

• Next, fold in strawberries and blueberries. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Right before you serve, mix in banana slices! Enjoy! 

See, I told you it was simple! And, it turned out DELICIOUS! Next time I make this though, I will definitely use fresh cut pineapple, instead of the canned stuff and just buy a bit of pineapple juice to mix the pudding with! I also might add Kiwi, Raspberries, and Blackberries, depending on what's on sale that week! 

 -Sarah