Making my skin pretty

With the wedding just around the corner I am trying to do everything in my power to get beautiful, even, glowing skin. I am lucky enough that I don't have terrible skin to begin with. I do get pimples but usually only one or two a month, around that time if you know what I mean... Always on my chin or forehead between my eye brows. A nice third eyeball as I like to call it. Mr. Castle and I call pimples volcanoes, so I think from here on out I will to refer to them as such. I have the terrible habit of popping and messing with my volcanoes, which leaves them red and in some cases leaves a nice reminder scar.

I've never really had a face regiment. I honestly only washed my face if I wore makeup that day. Which I rarely ever do. Yep, I don't usually wear makeup. I just find it takes to much time. Basically, I don't wear makeup because I'm lazy... I guess I also never took the time to wash my face because I'm lazy about that as well. But not anymore! I do not want to worry about a volcano making an appearance on the big day so I've been trying out different things to get clear beautiful skin.

Personal Photo of all the skin care products I have tried. Clearly I have a problem with finding the right skin care....

My go-to face wash for the last couple years has been the Bliss fabulous foaming face wash. I also got their triple oxygen line as a gift one year. I really like it for a general face wash. I especially like using the face wash and the oxygen mask together. It makes me skin feel bubbly and bright. It does a good job removing makeup and cleaning my skin but it didn't do anything in the way of preventing volcanoes.

Images via Sephora.com

I used to use some Clean and Clear or Neutrogena spot treatment for volcanoes, but I didn't feel like it was really helping much. I would have huge red marks on my face for about a week. After reading Miss Macaroons Skincare Saviors Post and seeing what she uses for break outs, I decided to try some Mario Badescu products. I invested in the buffering lotion, drying lotion, and the healing cream. The buffering lotion doesn't do much for me, but the drying lotion and healing cream were a great purchase. The drying lotion really does shrink unsightly volcanoes overnight and the healing cream reduces redness and helps prevent scarring. It has even helped fade some previous acne scars.

Images via mariobadescu.com

Then I read Miss Doe's post about using the Clinique acne three step system. So I thought I'd try that as well! (Seriously I think I have a skin care addiction) It works pretty well, but it really dries out my skin. I was only using it every other day, but now I've cut it down to about twice a week. I'm not sure it's doing much good with that infrequent of use. I did think my skin looked noticeably clearer after using it for a while. But using it combined with the cold dry New York City air it was making my face so dry it was flaking.

Image via Sephora.com

Which brings me to moisturizer. I have never before had problems with dry skin. I guess getting older and living in a cold environment has changed my skin a bit. I am a huge fan of Aveeno's positively radiant moisturizer. I've been using it for years, but unfortunately it just wasn't cutting it for the dry skin. I did some research online about what works best for dry skin and I read this article saying that coconut oil can be used as a moisturizer to prevent dry skin. Well, thanks to a Heath food giveaway I won on onewed, I have a huge jar of pure organic coconut oil in my kitchen. I decided why not give it a try?! I put some on my face before bed and the next morning no more dry flaky skin! I'm going to continue using this as my night time moisturizer and use the Aveeno during the day. So far it's working out great.

Image via aveeno.com/ kaboodle.com

My last new addition comes from another post I read on by Mrs. Seashell. I decided to try this face wash in replacement of my usual bliss product. For one it's way cheaper than the bliss stuff, it's all natural, and so far I'm liking it much better. My face feels like its getting a much deeper clean, and its not drying out my skin.

Image via amazon.com

So there you have it! Yeah it's kind of a lot of different products, but like with anything else you have to experiment and see what's right for you. I don't know how my skin will look in a month from now, but I'm hoping with my new "regiment" in place it will be looking bright and beautiful.

Do you have a skin regiment? Are you changing it up to prepare for the big day?

100 days

Image via weddingbycolor.com

Today we are at the 100 day mark. 100 days till I marry my Man. Tomorrow we will be in the double digits! Wow time has flown. I would like to a moment to take some inventory on how I am feeling right now at this moment, 100 days before the wedding. Here goes:

At this point in time I am more excited about the honeymoon than the actual wedding. I mean I'm excited to be getting married, but I'm more excited about our trip as a newly married couple than the actual wedding day. Awful I know... or is it? Thinking about our honeymoon has relieved some of the stress of planning. But at the same time it has made the planning part less interesting. I'll think, "I don't want to research flowers anymore, let's look at hotels in Paris instead..." So although good that I'm excited about our trip, it's getting me a little off track.

I am pretty behind on some things, but I'm ahead on others. While Jeff and his guys still have no idea what they are wearing, the bridesmaid dresses have already come in. Invitations are ordered just not sure how we will addresses them... We have plans for our table numbers and escort cards now we just have to make them. And still deciding what our guest book, card box and favors will be...

I spend my days going back and forth between being really stressed and very zen about it all. Luckily I'm having a zen kind of day today. But watch tomorrow I'm going to see two numbers instead of three in my count down and I'm going to freak out!

Image via weddingbycolor.com

But for tonight I'll watch some Big Bang Theory browse some sites and dream about the honeymoon.

Anyone else have bipolar wedding emotions? Zen, stressed, a little of both?

My Girls

I'd like to take a moment and talk about my bridesmaids!

Image via hollywoodtalkies.blogspot.com

Loved that movie

My girls are awesome, I can't say enough good things about them. They are all smart, beautiful, talented, funny, amazing women. Another thing they all have in common is that none of them are here... meaning at this moment in time none of them are in the same state as me. In fact right now three out of the five are in a different country!

Four of my bridesmaids and I went to college together. My Matron of Honor and I go all the way back to elementary school. My college girls and I met studying theater, so naturally three of them are off performing around the globe. My other college bridesmaid is actually in California for a month finishing up her degree. And my Matron of Honor lives in California with her husband and three sons.

So it's a bummer that none of them are around right now. It's like the final countdown, with the wedding just around the corner. But these ladies do all they can to help me from afar. I am so proud of all of them. These girls have such exciting things going on in their lives! Let me introduce them.

First up we have Bridesmaid L. She and her man (who happens to be one of Mr. Castles groomsmen) got engaged on Christmas day! I was seriously dying because I had known for so long before the actually proposal. She is such a fun girl and I know she will help get the dance party started at the wedding! She is currently performing on a cruise ship and I miss her so much. They are actually letting her take time off to come to the wedding! I was so happy when she told me. I couldn't have imagined the day without her. She was the first person I looked at wedding stuff with... Before we were both engaged...

I think we were doing our top model faces or something in this photo

Then we have bridesmaid J. I moved to NY with miss J. If it wasn't for her I don't know how I ever would have made it out here. She was a great roommate. She introduced me to reality TV and shared my great love of ice cream. We used to order in ice cream sundaes. True story. We lived together up until I moved in with Mr. Castle. I was lucky enough to have her in town visiting when I found my wedding dress. She is currently performing on a cruise ship as well. I miss her so much!

Celebrating having just bought my wedding dress!

Bridesmaid C is my own little mini Martha Stewart. We actually became close after college when she moved to NYC about a year after I did. I always joke that we missed out on so much friendship time in college! I am so happy that we have become so close and I am so thankful for all her help. She is my only NYC bridesmaid, at least she will be when she completes her degree and returns in a couple weeks. :)

Tanning in central park. I am wearing a bathing suit... I know it looks like I'm naked.

Bridesmaid S and I were college roommates. I could not have had a better college roommate. Some of my favorite college memories include watching "Friends" on our couch together and eating Wendy's. We once watched a whole season of "24" straight through. We had sun poisoning from a trip to the beach so we vegged out and watched "24." She has such a wonderful spirit, is amazingly talented, and I miss seeing her bright sunny face! She is currently in Canada with a touring show. Her tour ends like a week before the wedding!

My favorite picture of us from College.

And finally Matron of Honor N. I met this girl in 4th grade. Then in 6th grade we were both short and stood next to each other in the front row in choir, and the rest as they say is history. She is my rock, my sister and my best friend. I could go on and on but you get the idea, we're close. I am so thankful that we were both the same height in 6th grade. I've since passed her up! Even though she lives in California AND she has 3 little boys, she has provided me with so much support and help through out this planning process.

I was maid of honor at her wedding in 2004

Celebrating our 24th birthdays together. We are two days apart! I'm older....

Those are my girls. I'll admit, sometimes I get sad and wish they were sitting next to me. I miss them all SOOO much. But I am thankful for their love and support from afar. The most important thing to me is that they are there with me on our big day. Which they all will be, looking fabulous!

Does anyone else have long distance bridesmaids?

All Photos personal unless otherwise stated

DIY semi-fail...

If you recall I wanted to try my hand at a DIY project for our aisle decor. I found a lot of options that I wrote about here, and I decided to give these pomander balls a try.

Image via theidearoom.com

(You can find their directions by following the link above)

Let me start by saying that mine does not look like theirs... I followed the directions but sometimes you have to experiment and see that works for you. I find it's hard to explain in writing how you made something. Maybe I misinterpreted the instructions a little... Well I'm going to try my best to explain how I made my first pomander ball.  

First I gathered my supplies:

-Crepe paper in the color of your choice. I ended up needing two rolls

-I used  3" round Styrofoam ball (I think it may have worked better with a 2" ball though)

-Ribbon

-A glue gun

-Something to measure how long to cut the crepe paper. I used a tape measure.

So as you can already see, if I decide to do this again I'm going to make some changes.

First step is measure a piece of crepe paper about 2ft. Cut at 2ft, or rip like I did...

Next you crinkle it up the paper and flatten it back out. It makes the paper softer and easier to work with.

You then fold about 1/3 of the paper over.

Now you are ready to start making your rose. Roll the paper a couple times to get it started.

Now this is the hard part to explain, and it takes some experimenting. You continue to roll up the paper, but start to twist the bottom, sort of. I ended up just keeping the bottom between two fingers while rolling the paper. I found that when I twisted the bottom while rolling the paper into a ball, the flowers became too small.

I tried my best to make the flowers a big and as "flower like," as possible. What I did to make this happen was I kind of placed the paper where I wanted it to be while rolling them. I put my thumb under the folded part of the paper, which helped create the petal look while rolling the paper. Ugh. Its hard to explain, which is why you have to experiment and see what works for you!

As you can see below, my earlier flowers are just way to small.

There are some good ones in there as I got better at making them.

When you get about 10 flowers made, you can start hot gluing them onto your Styrofoam ball.

I think the Styrofoam ball I used was too big. I had to make sooo many flowers to fill the whole thing. And since I started out making these tiny skinny flowers it took forever to finish.

I also hot glued a ribbon on before finishing the ball, that way I could hang it on a chair.

So my first attempt was kind of a fail because I don't think it looks very pretty. The flower sizes are uneven and the smaller flowers don't really look like flowers. But I did learn how to make it better if I want to try again. I also bought some white crepe paper, so I might get a 2" ball and attempt a version 2.0 from the lessons learned in my first try.

On our shelf where it now lives. Far away from the curious kitties.

I'm proud of myself for trying my hand at my first DIY project! It may not have worked out the way I wanted but hey, there is room for improvement and you've got to start somewhere, right?

Have you done any DIY projects for your wedding that resulted in a semi-fail?

*All photos personal unless otherwise noted

The groom and his men

In deciding what Mr. Castle and his groomsmen will wear, we have debated over suit or tux? Grey or Black? Buy or Rent? And on top of all that what style?

Image via groomsadvice.com / Attire by Indochino

I actually was leaning towards a  grey suit for Mr. Castle and black for his groomsmen. Mr. Castle wasn't really feeling that option. I would rather him be happy with what he wears so I didn't push it. It should be his choice. He is more into a black tux for himself and the boys. Sort of like what is pictured below.

Image via stylemepretty.com / Photography by Gia Canali Photography

I think that option would be great. Maybe we'll have the groomsmen wear a different color tie, maybe orange!

Image via greylikesweddings / Photography by Meg Perotti

I think the above picture is actually a suit, but this is the look Mr. Castle is going for. He would like a more modern slim fit tux. The problem with that is, it is next to impossible to find a slim fit tux to rent.

We popped into our local Men's Wearhouse to ask some questions. First question: "Do you have any modern slim fit tuxes for rental?" Answer: "No all of our tuxes are boxy." Ok..., Next question: "Can we maybe bring in one of our groomsmen to try on some styles?" Answer, "When you order tuxes they come in 2 days before the event from Texas. We don't have them in the store to try on..."

Maybe I just don't know how renting tuxes work, but to me that's really weird. I mean I got to try on my wedding dress. Yeah it was way too big but at least I got to visualize how it would look on me. So the bride gets to know what she will wear on the wedding day, but the groom doesn't get any idea until 2 days before the wedding? That just doesn't make sense in my mind.

Ok now that my rant is over. I know there are other stores we can look at for tux rentals, and maybe they actually allow you to try on different styles. For arguments sake we decided look into buying something for him to wear. That way he could get it tailored to be the slim fit he wants.

Image via www.indochino.com

This site Indochino has a lot of suit and tux options. Their prices aren't bad and the styles are exactly what Mr. Castle is looking for. But you order it online, so once again no trying it on...

Image via Macys.com

This is Mr. Castles favorite option. We found it online at Macy's and with their constant sales we might be able to get it for a really great price.

I think it's unfair that weddings are all about the Bride and her dress. People often overlook the groom in his boxy rented tux. Well I want my Man to look and feel good! I can't wait to see him all dressed up, and I think choosing his ensemble deserves just as much attention as choosing my dress did.

We did end up finding a place that at least rents slim fit pants for his grooms men. It's called Friar Tux Shop and they have locations all over Southern California. The guys even got to try some stuff on! The verdict is still out whether or not Mr. Castle will buy or rent, but he better decide soon. Time is running out!

What is your groom wearing? Tux, suit? Renting, buying? 

Doing something "normal"

Today I had a pretty good day. Lately I have felt pretty stressed and run down. With 110 days left until the wedding my mind seems to be on one track, wedding mode. But today I did something non-wedding related and it felt really good. I did something that used to be part of my typical routine. It showed me that sometimes you have to take a step back from wedding obsessing and do something that feels "normal."


Today I went to my first audition of 2012. As I have mentioned before, I moved to New York to purse musical theater. After becoming engaged my auditioning and training kind of took a back seat. I had actor friends telling me, "I took a whole year off auditioning and acting when I was getting married. It's just too much stress." So I kind of cut myself some slack thinking it was perfectly justifiably for me to take a little break from auditioning. 


But today I decided it was time to get back into the game. I got up at 6:30, left my snoozing fiancé and arrived at the audition at 7:30. I waited in line until sign up started at 9 and then I auditioned at 10:10. It was a long morning but after I was done I felt amazing. It felt so refreshing to get back into something that was always part of my normal routine. Focusing my mind and energy on the audition was invigorating. It felt so right.

The point of my tale is that sometimes its nice to take a step back from wedding planning and do something that you have been neglecting in in lieu of nuptial preparations. Another example, I love to read but lately I can't bring myself to take the time to start a new book. Well I think I'm going to start a new book tonight. 

Image via en.paperblog.com

I want to be felling more like this in the next couple months, and I think taking time to do things I love will help me achieve that.

I don't want to look back on my year and four months of wedding planning and realize all I did was obsess about the wedding. I wish I would have realized this a little bit earlier. But it's better late than never.


Do you have any normal routines or activities you like to partake in instead of wedding planning? 

Guest book ideas

When trying to find the perfect guest book for our wedding I find there are so many options it can get a little overwhelming! I have tried to focus on what kind of guest book we will want in our home after the wedding, rather than what will look cool and impress our guests. What do we want to look at, read, display, etc. to remind us of those who attended our big day? While I would love to do something creative and unique, I am trying to remember this is for us to have as a keepsake forever. We want something we will fondly look back on, not something that just collects dust or becomes a large storage piece.

We could always go the traditional wedding guest book route. A beautiful book with a matching pen.

Image via wedding-splendor.com

This option seems a little too traditional for us. And I think I want something more than just our guests names in a book. I would like them to be able to write us a little note as well.

Luckily there are more "modern" versions of the traditional guest book.

Image via marthastewartweddings.com

I think this one is super cute. It's like opening a card from each guest. This would also probably be really easy to DIY... 

I've also thought about a guest book with our engagement pictures in it.

Image via danielhowellphotopraphy.com / Photography by Howell Photogrpahy

I like this option because not only will you look back and remember the guests that attended your wedding, you will also be looking back on your engagement pictures! It's like killing two birds with one stone! I can see us looking back through a book like this more often than a book with just our guests names.

Sticking with the picture idea, I also like the look of this instant photo guest book. 

Found this photo here on the Weddingbee boards / Photography by He&She Photography

It would be nice to have a photo of every one of our guests from our wedding day. I would just hope people wouldn't waste film on silly pictures...

I've also come across some "game" guest book ideas. The one below is like the game Jenga. Each of your guests sign one of the pieces. Then you and your hubby can play the game each year on your anniversary.

Images via Etsy/ Seller thepaperynook

There is also a puzzle guest book, where each of your guest sign a puzzle piece. 

Image via Etsy/ Seller MemoryLanePuzzles

Each of theses game ideas are so cute and fun, but they don't seem like the perfect fit for us. I would be worried about one of the puzzle pieces going missing at our reception...

And the list just keeps going! Here are some other unique ideas for guest books I came across.

Image via Etsy/ Seller bindingbee

This one is a vintage book with blank pages for guests to sign their names.

Image via www.snippetandink.com / Photography by Oh, Darling!

This guest book lets each attendee write their well wishes to the bride and groom on their own post card. They can then be put in a decorative box, a library catalogue drawer or a fancy mailbox. After the wedding you can put  them all into a scrapbook.

Image via MarthaStewartweddings.com

Guests could write us a note on an actual typewriter. While this would be really cool, I think it would take each guest a little too much time to "sign" the guest book this way. 

Some people like a guest book they can display on the wall after the wedding. 

Image via occupationgifts.com

Image via Etsy/ Seller ssanchez

Our guests could each sign the spine of one of these books. It's like they are signing our 
"love stories."

Image via Etsy/ Seller DefineDesign11

Guests could sign anywhere on this California poster. This one would be special for
Mr. Castle and I since we met in California and are getting married there.


There are so many more options I didn't even include! I basically only included the ones I
have seriously considered. We did finally decide, but you'll have to wait and see! Also it's
not ready yet...

Which is your favorite? What are you using as a guest book?