Cassie & Mario's candy-themed wedding

Remember that wedding I was planning...and designing...and crafting...and coordinating...and baking cupcakes for...and making floral bouquets for...and decorating...and standing up as a bridesmaid for...and (you get the idea)

Well it happened.  And it was awesome :)

Here are the photos from the Wedding that was held at the Byron Colby Barn in Grayslake, IL

My beautiful family <3

We collected jars from friends and family for 4 months prior to the wedding.  Some jars were decorated with lace, or burlap and twine.  All 250 jars were filled with candles or flowers and they were clustered on the tables as the center pieces.

Once the sun set, the entire barn glowed so beautifully, from all of the candles

Every Guest received an empty Ball jar to fill with candy from the candy table.  The tags read "Love is Sweet, fill your jar and Enjoy a Treat"

Here are some other detail shots of the other projects I worked on for the wedding

And here's the best photo from the entire event:

It was a lot of work, and there were nights that I stressed so much about it that I lost sleep -- but it was extremely rewarding and I gained a ton of experience from it.

And after all was said and done, I connected with the lady that runs the Barn, and she is recommending me to her Bride's as a wedding consultant / coordinator!  Super exciting opportunity :)

Playing catch-up

Wow, what a crazy month it's been.  I've been on blogging-hiatus for the past month -- I went back to work after a year long maternity leave, and have come to realize that there isn't a whole lot of time to do much of anything anymore.  The transition back to work was fairly smooth.  Everyone was so welcoming and patient with me, and now that I've been back for a little less than a month, I feel like I never left.  


So much has happened since my last post -- visits from out-of-towners, my dad celebrated his 65th birthday and retirement, we celebrated Brian's 2nd official father's day, Xierra finished up her year at H.S. Paul school, Xander started daycare full time, and I started back at work.  Oh and of course, summer is in full swing and the weather is nothing short of gorgeous.


I'll try to follow this post with some detailed posts, but for now, here are some photos and short blurbs on what the last month of my life has looked like:




It's always tough when Grandma Jan and Grandpa Larry leave Winnipeg to go back home to Wheeling, IL -- their visit was short but sweet but they got to spend some quality time with the kids and were able to celebrate Xander's first birthday -- best present this little guy could ask for!

l-r: Brian, Xander and Grandpa Larry

l-r: Grandma Jan, Xierra, Me



We had the pleasure of visiting the newly renovated Manitoba Children's Museum before G'ma and G'pa headed back home.  What a great time!

How lucky am I to have a dad with an awesome sense of humour!  I made these centre pieces for his 65th birthday party that me and my siblings held for him at Marigold restaurant.  He was so amused by them and was letting everyone take pics of him posing with them.  Happy 65th dad!

It's rare to have all of us siblings together, considering one sister lives out in Mississauga and another sister lives out in Vancouver.  It was great to hang out with them and with the rest of the Cuevas family. 

Here's a pic of the little ones:

I love that Xierra's probably the only one that's going to remember taking this pic.  The rest of them are gonna see it 10 years from now and be like "who ARE these people?!"

This was breakfast for Brian on Father's Day.  I'll post more about this delicious recipe later:

Xierra had her last day at her school.  To ensure that she can keep in touch with all of her awesome friends, I sent her to school with these little 'cards'.  They were supposed to mimic little books:

"Xierra's New Chapter"

Library cards on the inside, with hand written notes by Xierra

As a little 'good-bye' and 'thank you' gift, I made this Candy Cake for her class on the last day of school:

Packaged and ready to go!

This was just a random day that we decided to take Xander to the nature park at Assiniboine Park.  Happened to be the same day as the 'paws in motion' walk -- bonus!  We got to play AND see doggies!

This was the day that Xander's fever started....it would be one week later that we would discover that he had a case of BABY MEASLES! :(

Our Canada Day weekend was pretty awesome.  We watched the Forks fireworks from Brian's office building with the kids.  That weekend, we made our first trip out to Grand Beach with my cousin and her family.  What a beautiful day to spend bumming around on the sand!

The next day, we enjoyed lunch at Kum Koon with the family for my little cousin's 7th birthday. 

 

Here's a photo of daddy and baby Beckam...I mean, Xander.

Well that was just a quick rundown of what's been going on around here in the last month.

I'll be sure to add details on some of the projects above, for anyone that might be interested.

Have a great weekend!

A crafty 1st birthday party

I'll preface the borage of photos with this:  A touch of love went into every element of this special  day; from the party favours, to the food, to the activities and the fun.  I always want the best for my kids, and I hope that one day, Xander can look back at this and appreciate the effort that I put into making his day as special for him, as it was for his guests:

Loot 'items' for the kids (will post more on these, later):

My homemade photobooth for the kids to enjoy:

We rented a bouncy castle for the kids to jump around in...it was a hit:

 My little Xanderman, 'enjoying' his smash cake (way less enthused than expected):

The party doubled as a mini-baby shower for my expecting sister.  I made up a separate dessert table in honour of the baby girl in her belly:

I baked spice cupcakes and displayed them on two cake stands that I stacked on top of each other.  Made for a pretty cute presentation, no?

There's Jaxon, before the party -- I think this was his way of calling dibs on that seat...little did he know, he would be spending his entire night in the basement :(

At the end of the day, all of my party planning paid off -- the guests seemed to enjoy themselves, and best of all, my little 1 year old was surrounded by people who love him dearly.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, XANDER KANE!

xoxo