My sweet sweet sweet cousin Allison got married this weekend!
We took these pictures a few months ago and I've been busting at the seams to show them off! (or is it bursting at the seams? I'd had for the grammar police to come out again!)
She was such a great model and looks absolutely stunning in all of the pics.
I truly had no clue what I was doing (I played it off nicely though with the hopes of keeps Alli confident and glowing) but she prepared nicely by coming up with a lot of the poses.
I had no clue in that department.
We had lots of motherly and sisterly help as well.
Because, let’s be honest. It is exciting to make new friends. I have been trying to think of ways to make you love me from the first two seconds of reading my post… so I feel like I will start off with a joke? Maybe that will do the trick.
There are some muffins in the oven and one turns to the other and says, “Man, it is hot in here!” to which the other replies, “OH MY! It is a TALKING MUFFIN!”
Okay. What I am really here to tell you about are the summer finds and trends. I am going to share with you the ten things that I am finding (and LOVING) the very most. And let me tell you, the finds I am finding for summer are fantastic!
1. Neon . . . anything.
And you can find it, you guessed it, ANYWHERE!
2. Distressed and bleached shorts.
We made our own from a pair of high waist pants from Desert Industries and Savers.
3. Glasses.
Sounds weird, but we are all about Warby Parker right now.
You can order 5 trial pairs too, which is fantastic.
4. Gold.
Some people say it is out of date, but I say it is coming back.
Have you noticed how many girls are getting gold rings and earrings these days?
5. Totes.
For those quick weekend getaways.
A tote is the perfect grab bag.
6. Color blocking.
Still in, pinky promise.
Checkout Shabby Apple.
They are full of color blocking gems right now!
7. Polka dots.
Put them on anything.
Shoes, pants, people will love it. Anthropologie has great polka dot pants if you will like splurging, or we made our own pair. Buy colored pants at Target, get some white acrylic paint, a good pencil, and dot away. I will be putting up a tutorial later!
8. Lace dress.
Sophisticated. And good for a night out.
9. Maxi dress.
Sophisticated and good for a swimsuit cover up.
10. The gold old stars and stripes.
Patriotism is coming back and coming back strong! Lots of stars and stripes shirts and shorts.
(Get the full story of our tweenager beach love story here)
Since then neither of us have never necessarily felt rushed to get married.
Now, we have always been super in love and blah blah blah, we just aren't the passionate, lovey, mushy over the top PDA type of people.
I had two years of stressful grad school after college, so we had always just discussed putting marriage off until a time period when we had real jobs making real money.
We always made jokes about living together one day, but we had never really seriously discussed marriage, rings, or an engagement until last summer.
I wasn't planning on bringing it up because I didn't want him to feel pressured, and I wanted it to be his decision to approach the topic.
Driving home from New Orleans one weekend after Josh's cousins wedding, he randomly got a burst of excitement and asked what I wanted our future to be like and if I wanted to start looking at rings and who I wanted my bridesmaids to be and who I thought his groomsmen should be.
Seriously, all of the above.
He even went as far as pulling out paper and actually writing a potential groomsmen list.
I was stunned.
Happy stunned.
I felt like it was the twilight zone.
Happy twilight zone.
Well anyways, three engagement ring appointments later, fast forward to May 2012.
At this point I was losing my marbles.
Now don't get me wrong, I would have died had we not ever had the ring convo and if he tried to pick out a ring on his own and do a 100% shock factor proposal, but that just wasn't in the cards for us.
Not that Josh has bad taste, but I am suuuuuuper picky, and I guess he realized that.
So in a way, him bringing up wanting to look at rings was somewhat of a proposal in itself because I had been waiting for that day for a while.
Anyways, months and months and months went by and I'm steadily growing more concerned, but I made a point not to whine or nag (to him at least) and I only had one break down over the course of those 9 long months of waiting.
He wanted to wait to ask my dad's permission until he had a steady job, which took a little bit longer than we envisioned.
Nevertheless, he finally got the job he wanted in March.
April rolled around and I began stressing a teeny bit more.
All my classmates were applying and interviewing for jobs, and I didn't even know if I should be applying for a Louisiana or Texas Physician Assistant license, much less searching for jobs.
Now I can understand Josh not feeling pressured to rush into marriage or anything, because of his 14 college roommates (he moved in a different house every year, a roommate slut if you will) only one of the 14 was engaged.
Zero married.
We are 24 and have no close friends who are engaged or married, so he didn't necessarily have anyone to discuss the matters with.
On one particular week in April I had decided it was time to finally discuss the lack of ring on my fing with Josh.
I wasn't just wanting the glamour of the ring, I wanted security.
Security knowing I would 100% be marrying my favorite person in the world.
Security knowing what we would be doing with our future, so I could go ahead and start planning my life after graduation.
So as I was on the phone with Josh literally seconds away from beginning a very awkward uncomfortable conversation his grandmother beeped in on my line.
I got off the phone with Josh and his grandmother and I made small talk.
She eventually got around the bringing up the purpose of her call and said that she just wanted to tell me that I have been extremely patient with Josh through all of this and that I deserved to know that he was making arrangements to get the ring.
I immediately lost it.
Tears galore.
It was the weirdest feeling I have ever had in my life.
God's timing is insane.
That was truly such a blessing that she would call at the exact moment necessary to tell me something regarding the exact thing I was about to discuss with Josh.
My mind is still blown.
Anyways, there's the backstory.
Here'e how it went down:
I came into Dallas for the weekend to hang with the dudes.
(Pre proposal family photo)
Josh wanted to go out to eat.
I asked where.
He said he didn't care.
I got smad (sad/mad) because he didn't care and he didn't have plans.
Bummer.
I picked Fireside Pies because we are addicted.
We went to eat and then came home.
Completely uneventful.
Thank the Lord.
I couldn't have handled a public proposal, much less one at a restaurant where everyone would look at you and clap.
Freaky.
Anyways, we came home and took Charlie outside to go to the bathroom.
Josh let him off his leash, which is weird because Charlie is bad.
Next thing I know the guy is reaching in his pocket and down on one knee.
Immediately I tell him to stand up because that's weird and he laughed and said no I want to be traditional and then we don't really know what words came next but there was a gorgeous ring involved and lots of laughing and a kiss or two here and there.
Magical.
. . . and yet so weird.
He also gave me an incredible letter that I get to keep forever (since I truly can't remember what words were said in the moment)
After the fact we were reliving the moment and trying to remember what words were said and what actually went down (still all a blur) and he told me that he didn't have anyone to talk to for advice (remember 1/14 roomies?)
I was completely expecting something off the wall and weird, after all, Josh is the one who showed me this video:
. . . but Josh, the king of pranksters, pulled the biggest prank of all by not pulling a prank.
His only proposal idea inspiration was Jim Halpert's proposal to Pam on The Office.
He said he randomly did it in a gas station parking lot, the absolute last place she ever could have imagined it happening.
I couldn't have been more caught off guard, which is exactly what Josh wanted.
We met up with the guys afterwards to celebrate.
. . . and Bart provided champagne.
Best man chats.
. . . .have I mentioned that it feels SO WEIRD?
More pics from the engagement weekend:
Celebratory strawberry shortcake!
Whiskey Cake Sunday brunch, of course.
Charlie didn't want me to leave!
Side note:
Today is the day I finally get to see Newsies on Broadway!
Dreams will be coming true y'all!
Follow me on instagram (@emilyratcliff) or Facebook to keep up with all our NYC action!
I wish I could do something super awesome like a giveaway or something, but we are literally leaving my cousin's wedding today and heading straight to the airport to fly out, so that's out of question.
Maybe eventually, though!
Instead I'm just gonna share one of my all time favorite songs as of lately.
"Dirty Paws" from Of Monsters and Men's new album.
It stays on repeat, y'all.
Incredible.
Bonus:
If you ever need a prank to pull on someone, I have a feeling this will do the trick.
Double bonus:
Just another pic of the cutest pup in Amurrrrica.
Thank you thank you thank you (all 100 of your!) for sticking around and showing your love!
I won a blog makeover giveaway from the lovely Emily at Hope Squared and I'm SO pumped to finally have the new layout up and running!
I think she did a fantastic job at developing my taste so perfectly!
What do y'all think?
Over the last three weeks we have been busy little bees (aside from the grossness that is studying) so here's a little catch up via instagram.
Duh.
Wedding fun!
Reuniting with my favorites!
. . . while our boys stalked us
Creeper.
Nicole and I Kony'd Josh.
Side note: Josh is the biggest anti-Kony individual in America.
Greatest. Prank. Ever.
Oh and then we voted for Ron Paul in the Louisiana caucus.
. . . and he won.
Did you hear that on the news?
Probably not, because it wasn't on there.
We taught Charles a little bit about being a big boy.
. . . and then spent Mother's Day visiting with all of our moms and gmaws.
Isn't my mom just the most gorgeous mom in all the land?
Si.
Charlie's methods of gaining attention:
1) The stare
2) Cat stretch
3) Mega tongue
4) CHOMP
We were in desperate need of getting our Dave fix.
It had been over a year.
Unacceptable.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
We will be doing wedding festivities all weekend and then heading out for NYC bright and early Sunday morning, any last minute recommendations?
So far the list reads:
NEWSIES ON BROADWAY!
The high line
S'mac
Five points
PDT bar
Beauty Bar in Gramercy
Shake Shack
The Charleston
Rice to Riches
La Churreria
Eataly
Crumbs
Pastis
Dos Caminos
Levain Bakery
Vanessa's Dumplings
Is it bad that 99% of those places involve food?
We will probably need some of those drinks from The Hunger Games that make you vomit so you can eat more.