Not Another LA Blonde

Tag: engagement

Wedding Wednesday: The Ring Boxes
Happy Wedding Wednesday! I got my September The Ring Boxes box in the mail last month and I know I’m super late on this, but let me tell you…there were a lot of super cute things in the box that any bride-to-be would love! So I decided that even though it’s October now, I still wanted to show y’all what I got in my box last month.

“Who doesn’t love flaunting that fiancé title and flashing your new fabulous bling! You always want to have all the newest and cutest bride to be goodies when you’re engaged and The Ring Boxes gives you just that, one big box full of all the most popular and fabulous bridal products each and every month leading to your special day! Each month we arrange a new box packed with full sized custom gifts, wedding décor, beauty and spa products as well as date night perks! Giving our brides the ultimate bridal experience.”

BACKGROUND: The Ring Boxes was created in January 2017 so it’s still pretty new. It features handpicked bridal items delivered right to your door each month. You can choose from monthly, 3 month, 6 month or 12 month packages. The price varies depending on which subscription you choose. Since my wedding is exactly a year away, I choose the 12 month package which brought my pricing to $35/month or $420 for the year. A single box costs $40. This box is the perfect subscription for the bride-to-be!

Here is a BREAKDOWN of the SEPTEMBER goodies in my box:
1. Rose Gold Bride Bracelet by With Love From Katie – Retail Value = $23.00
This custom rose gold bar bracelet has been hand stamped with love from Katie! You can check her out on her website for perfectly imperfect one of a kind jewelry! You can also find her on Instagram @With.love.from.katie Brides… use coupon code “IDO10” at checkout to save 10% off your whole order! Ok so how cute is this bracelet!? It’s super lightweight and dainty. It’s perfect for every bride-to-be and is easily worn. You know just by looking at it that it has been made with love. I love wearing mine and wish I knew someone getting married so I could get them one!
1. Couples Pillow Cases designed by Mush Made – Retail Value = $24.99
These sweet custom pillowcases are the perfect addition to any bed! I couldn’t find the exact ones that I got in my box, but I found this set on Etsy which is almost an exact match! Bed, Bath and Beyond also has two options you can get that are super cute as well! And of course Etsy has plenty of other options to find a look that you love! AHHH ok these are also super cute! They look great as décor pillows as I would definitely not sleep on them. They are perfect for decoration and look good on any bed! I can’t wait until the fiancé and I get our own place and I can put them on our bed!
1. I DO Candle by Lux Illume – Retail Value = $15.50
Third in its series the bright and bubbly floral blend of Magnolia and champagne captures the magic of the moment when you say “I do”. You can purchase this in the Illuminating Love Collection. This is the 3^rd candle in the series and the 3^rd one that I’ve received. These candles are great and really last a long time. This one smells great!
1. Satin Sleeping Mask – Retail Value = $18.00
I couldn’t find the exact sleeping mask I received but you can find similar ones on Etsy and, of course, on Amazon. Every bride needs her beauty sleep! Block out the sun with this elegant satin sleeping mask. While this is really cute, I’m not all that into sleeping masks. I’ve read all about the benefits, but I just don’t like something covering my eyes while I sleep. This might be the only thing that came in my box this month that I didn’t love.
1. Reasons I Want To Journal by JournalingJane – Retail Value = $6.50
I found this and so many other cute wedding themed journals on the JournalingJane etsy page. They range in price from about $5.50 to about $12.00. Write out the reasons you want to marry your sweetheart for a meaningful gift to give them the night before your wedding that they will treasure forever. This journal is sooo cute. I was already looking at the one that says “a journal of the last 100 days of our engagement”. I think this would be the perfect gift to give your future Mr. and something that you can both go back and look at forever.
1. Personalized Stroopwafel Wedding Favor – Retail Value = $1.50 each
Your wedding guests will love these unique treats so much! Give them away as a single or set of stroopies individually wrapped and personalized favors. Available as a circle or heart shape to add even more love to your wedding day. This item is from gourmetweddinggifts.com This is a super cute idea, I’m not sure if it’s the direction that we’re going in for our wedding, but they have a lot of options to choose from.

BONUS!!!

The box also came with 2 recipe cards. One was a recipe for the bride to be and the other was a recipe for the perfect date night. One was “Tomato Spinach Chicken Pasta” and the other is for “Roasted Potatoes and Kielbasa”. They both come with a recommended wine pairing. I think that this is such a good idea for the soon to be bride to have a collection of recipes to make. I can’t wait to try out both of these recipes!

THE VALUE

The value of September’s box is $89.50! This is a little low compared to other months, but is still worth more than what you are paying for the box! While there are some items that I wouldn’t pay for or wouldn’t pay that high of a price for, I felt that the items in the September box were REALLY good. I was super pleased with my box last month and it just makes me even more excited for the big day in 8 months!

I think this box is a great for the bride-to-be and I can’t wait to see what the rest of my year subscription has in store for me! After my year is up and I’m married I will cancel my subscription but only because I will no longer need a bride-to-be box delivered to my door every month!

XOXO
October 11, 2017
Happy Birthday to ME!!
Alright y’all I went to bed last night thinking that I would talk about the newest BARKBOX I received over the weekend, but when I woke up this morning I decided to talk about myself a little bit on the blog today...

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Katie

Well here we are, another year, another birthday. Yesterday I turned 25. I’m half way to 50. I’m a quarter of a century old. I don’t know how many other ways to say it…I’m getting old.

Last year I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish in my 24^th year of life. Here’s the list I prepared a year ago from my “Nobody Likes You When You’re 23” post:

Things to do before I turn 25:
1. Get engaged (I know this one isn’t up to me, but I can hope right?)
2. Buy a new car – I have wanted a new one for a while as my current car is 10 years old
3. Save enough money to move out of my parents’ house – this one is a little unrealistic at my current pay scale but I’ll still put aside money
4. Travel to at least 5 places big or small – I can’t currently take time off with my new job because of a probationary period
1. Follow through on plans I make with friends (It’s always the same…”omg, let’s hang out” and then it never happens)
Here’s the FINAL verdict on my 24th year of life:

Get engaged: Ok, so for those of you who may not know, or just started following me…as of November 2016, I AM ENGAGED. After 5 years of dating and talking about marriage together, the big day finally happened! The proposal was absolutely amazing and everything I could have wanted! You can read all about my AMAZING proposal here.

Buy a new car: As of June 2017, I became a new car owner! This is something that I have been saving for with my own money for about 6 years now. I was previously driving a 2005 Ford Focus (which I loved, btw, but it was time for an upgrade) I had been looking at more luxury brand vehicles and decided (after much research) that I was between the Mercedes C300 and the Audi A4. I actually know a few people who drive Mercedes, but I wasn’t really impressed after sitting inside of it. The fiancé and I went to the Audi dealership and looked at the A4, but he was a little too tall and didn’t fit comfortably inside it. We then went and looked at the new 4-door A5. They are brand new to the US this year as they’ve only ever had the 2-doors here. Since I loved the idea of having something that no one else did, I was very intrigued by this particular model. I think it was fate because the fiancé did in fact fit into the A5 and we happened to get a once in a life time deal on the car. It was too good of a deal to pass up so a few days later (I had to wait for them to get the white exterior with black leather in) we went and picked up my NEW 2018 Audi A5!!! I absolutely love my car and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Move out of the house: HAHAHAHA ok I’m done laughing now, I did NOT move out of my house this past year. In fact after getting engaged, I realized it was for the best if I stayed home and saved money for the next year and then move out as it gets closer to the wedding. While the fiancé still lives at home as well, we can both save as much as we can plus we’re not in any hurry to pay rent every month so why waste money right now when we can both stay home for about 10 more months? This is also hugely in part with the cost of living in wonderful Southern California (where 1 bedroom rent can be almost 2 grand a month and tear down houses in bad areas are selling for $800k).

Travel: I did in fact make it to 5 different places even though some were on the smaller side.
1. Boise, Idaho – September 2016 – My brother goes to school in Idaho, so my mom and I went for parents weekend and I got to check out all the cool scenery Boise has to offer. Boise was really cool because there were a lot of up and coming spots near Downtown. It was also really cool to watch football being played on the blue field.
2. Palm Springs, California – September 2016 – The fiancé (he was still my BF at this point) and I went to Palm Springs for a little weekend getaway. We just went for the night, but it was still nice to get out of our small town, plus we got a great deal at the JW Marriott. The weather was still hot and there are a ton of great places to eat.
3. Seattle, Washington – November 2016 – This was right after we got engaged. I have friends from college that live in the Seattle area, so Robert and I decided it would be cool to go and visit. We stayed with one of my friends and got to go to the Space Needle and have lunch at the top. We went to Pike Place Market, the gum wall and even went to a University of Washington football game (I enjoy a good PAC 12 game!). While we just went for the weekend, we had tons of fun and got to catch up with some of my friends.
4. Manhattan, New York – January 2017 – This was my weekend getaway to The City with one of my BFFs that I wrote about back in January; you can check it out here. I absolutely LOVE New York and if I could go once or twice a year, I would be a happy camper. I’ve been 3 times in the last 2 years (once in September and twice in the winter).
5. Avalon, Catalina Island, California – June 2017 – This is a small island about an hour away from the Port of LA (where the cruise ships leave out of). My family owns property over on the island so we try and go over at least once during the summer. This was just a little one night trip for my mom and I while my dad and brothers stayed longer. I’ve been going over since I was about 6 weeks old, so there’s nothing super new or exciting now. On this trip though I saw Bobby the Deckhand from Below Deck Mediterranean. He was very friendly and chitchatted with us for a few minutes.
Follow through on plans I make: Hmmm…this one is a little hit or miss. While I did follow through on a lot of my plans I made with people, I just can’t bring myself to go out every single weekend and some of my friends want to do exactly that! I like to go out, but after a long day at work, sometimes it’s nice to curl up with my fur baby and fiancé and watch our shows. So maybe this is one that I can continue to work on some more.

All in all, I think that I met my goals that I made for myself last year on my birthday. I’m proud of the accomplishments that I have made (p.s. I’ve officially been at my job for a full year) and the things that I have done this past year. I know that 25 will bring a lot of change to my life, but it’s all good and exciting change. This will be a whirlwind year with planning the wedding, booking a honeymoon, and finding a place for us to live. I look forward to this coming year and know that I will continue to be blessed in every aspect of my life.

I’m grateful for the opportunities that have not only been given to me, but for the ones that I have worked hard for. I honestly couldn’t be where I am today without the support of my parents and my loving fiancé who continues to amaze me every day.

So CHEERS to 25, let’s make it the best year yet!

XOXO
July 17, 2017
We’re Going to the Chapel…

Happy Thursday y’all!!

Have I got some super exciting news for you!! This past weekend I got ENGAGED to the man of my dreams! He planned everything out to the absolute “T” to plan my picture perfect, dream proposal!

Let me break it down for you…it was Saturday morning and we had just left a funeral for one of our friends’ grandpa. My best friend texts me and says “When is the BF finally going to ask you to marry him?” Needless to say, BF and I end up getting into a little tiff and of course I end up in tears (when am I not crying?). He tells me soon it will happen and all the usual responses.

LATER THAT DAY:

I was told that we were meeting some friends in Laguna Beach for dinner Saturday night and that I HAD to be ready to go by 3! So I get picked up and we drive out to Laguna where I am informed that our friends were running late. BF suggests we go take a walk on the beach until they get there.

We head off toward the sand and when we get down there BF doesn’t start walking, instead he stands there with his shoes in one hand and his other in his pocket. I try and get him to walk, but he just keeps looking at me and asking if I was still mad from that morning. I tell him no and to lets go because the sun is starting to set. He tells me to wait and then proceeds to ask me yet again if I’m mad and how much he loves me and how he only wants to make me happy and then he FINALLY says that he wants to show me how much he loves me and gets down on one knee and asks if I will marry him!!!

AHHHH of course I said yes (my actual response went something like “about time”) and immediately started crying tears of joy! This was the moment I have been waiting for since forever! He tells me that he had someone taking video/photos of the whole thing and I just about die of happiness!

I absolutely love my ring that my future Mr. picked out for me all on his own!

I cannot wait to start this new chapter in my life and to share it all with you! I hope that you’ll follow along while I start on all my Wedding planning craziness!

XOXO

**Also if you’re ever out in Laguna Beach, you have to try The Deck on Laguna, they have the best lobster quesadilla and grilled cheese!!

November 17, 2016