our wedding: the big day

previous posts here: the venue // pre-ceremony day one

the big day was finally here! now if you ask charles how he remembers the hours before we got married, he probably wouldn't remember much. unfortunately, he got stuck doing ALL the running around and last minute preparations. and he took care of jc about 90% of the time leading up to the ceremony. being the bride, i got to be locked away in our room for the whole day. i compared getting married to having a baby. as the woman, you do all the prep work, all the planning, all the worrying up until the moment it actually happens. then, you end up relying on so many people to make sure that your "vision" comes through the way you wanted it to. i did all that i could to make sure everything was put in it's proper place, laid out the way i wanted it to but when it got down to it, i couldn't be the one actually doing anything. which drove me CRAZY. until i realized there was nothing i could do about it, so i might as well enjoy my time. 

in the morning, charles and i went our separate ways. he ran around like a crazy person, trying to organize everything, help the few vendors that we did have and get ready. luckily for the dudes, getting ready was a twenty minute process. oh we girls had to take all morning! my hairdresser arrived and started the prep work on my hair then did all the bridesmaids hair. i worked on getting our playlist for the reception ready. after my hair was done, i did my own makeup. i was actually very happy with how it turned out considering that i don't spend a lot of time with eyeshadow normally. i then proceeded to write my vows. i know, i know! i actually planned on writing them that day. i already knew in my head what i wanted to say, it was just a matter of taking pen to paper. after we were all ready, it was just a waiting game until i got into my dress. i wanted to wait until the last minute, fearing that i would get it dirty. my sister (who was my maid of honor) helped me zip up my dress and tie the sash. 

charles watched jc the majority of the time. considering all that was going on, jc behaved amazingly well. i was worried he wouldn't take a nap but he did. he was very clingy with charles, especially when they were taking their pictures. and he always had his thumb in his mouth and mr. bear clung tightly to his side.

after we were ready, the girls and i just waited leisurely upstairs while the guests started to arrive and make their way down to the beach. i remember feeling very calm and relaxed. everyone kept asking how i was feeling, if i was nervous. and i wasn't. i was so ready for this day and ready to get married. the most stressful part was over, now all we had to do was get it done.

photography: stina reffitt photography // hair: cheri knight // dress: etsy shop, retromood but i can't seem to find her shop anymore! // bridesmaid's dresses: flossy dossy // groomsmen/groom's shirts: h&m // groomsmen/groom vests: six star uniforms // jc's shirt: carter's // jc's vest: mind your marlos // jc's pants: children's place // bowties: solidcolorneckties.com // ring pillow: knit by me!

check back soon for the details on the ceremony!

our wedding: pre-ceremony day one

welcome to the second post in the "our wedding" series! if you missed the first post detailing our wedding venue, you can view that here. while i know everyone wants to see all the "pinterest worthy" pictures and all that jazz, i want to detail (or at least go over) the happenings of the days that we were in fort bragg. if only just for me so i can remember because honestly, those days went by in such a blur! but don't worry, those pretty pictures will come soon enough!

we set out on our journey to fort bragg on the morning of may 4th. our caravan included my family, charles's family, and most of the wedding party. in our car, it was just charles, jc and i. jc has not been known as the best road tripper so i was a little worried about setting out on this four hour drive. but he did great! stayed awake the whole time (unfortunately) but stayed in good spirits. until we got about twenty minutes out from our destination. the last thirty or so minutes of the drive are through a very windy road up and over some mountains. i heard jc whining so i offered him an applesauce squeezy pouch which promptly got thrown up along with some chicken nuggets all over jc, his bear, and his car seat. that was fun. we pulled over and we managed to strip jc down and clean his car seat as well as we could and make it to our destination on time, just slightly puke covered.




we arrived first and were shortly greeted by our guests. everyone unloaded their cars, rooms were assigned and we started getting to it. like i said previously, we did everything ourselves. if i could have afforded to pay for a wedding planner or assistant or anything like that, i would have definitely paid for it because it was STRESSFUL! it took everything in my overthinking, overstressed out head to not freak out on everyone. i was just so thankful that everyone was super (beyond what anyone would expect) helpful and that our wedding day was finally here!

the weather was being very touchy. having our wedding on the northern california coast, i knew wind, rain and cold weather were all very likely. this day the wind was K-RAZY! so crazy i had to use a "K" instead of a "C". it looked like rain wasn't going to be a problem but the wind, oh man, it was bad. let's just say i was happy to partake in some "after the babies go to sleep" festivities.


to help ease my stress while the babies were awake, we took a trip down to the beach. the beach is a short walk from the house through meadows and fields. very pretty. we also had to decide for sure where we were going to have the ceremony. we had only visited the house once (and a year prior) before this day so our memory wasn't the best. but we found a perfect spot.



the boys help set up the tables and chairs that we rented from a local party supply business. i don't know how we made it fit on that deck but we did it. that was a major issue for me, worrying about how all of our tables and chairs were going to fit. when we picked our venue, we figured we'd maybe have 30 or 40 people who would actually want to make the drive out for the wedding. but more people really like us than we thought! we ended up with close to 60 guests so to say i was stressed about this would be an understatement. but it worked out and everyone had a place to sit!

we ended up having a very impromptu rehearsal dinner of round table pizza and sodas. classy, i know. i was also very worried about how the ceremony was going to work. we didn't have anyone to help direct us so we had to just count on everyone knowing when to go, where to stand, etc. over and over again charles had to be my reminder that it is not that big of a deal. yes it is our wedding but if someone doesn't walk fast enough or stand where they are supposed to, it is not the end of the world.

after the babies were put to bed, i enlisted the help of some of my bridesmaids plus one of the groomsmen's super awesome helpful girlfriend to make our bouquets. then there may have been some drinking. but the bouquets turned out great! keeping them super simple definitely made the difference.


now when i say we did everything ourselves, i mean it. we didn't even have a dj. and i kept putting it off so i ended up staying up way too late trying to go through ALL of our music to make our wedding playlist. the problem was that i tried to include charles in this task. we have similar music tastes but charles doesn't really understand what people want to hear or dance to at a wedding. super sad folk music the whole time? not going to cut it. i stayed up til probably two in the morning and still didn't finish it. i had to work on it the next day while i was getting my hair done! but hey, it all worked out in the end.

going to bed that night was not hard because i was exhausted but nothing could prepare me for the next day's events! check back soon for the next part of the series!

sidenote: most, if not all, of these photos were taken by our awesome friend mike. almost all the groomsmen are photographers and were taking pictures the whole time and for that, i am thankful.

currently. v.1

wendy over at This Amazing Day and randolin at Harvesting Kale co-host this "currently" link up every thursday. every week, they set up a new set of prompts to follow to describe how you currently feel. since i've been a little m.i.a. from the blogging game for a couple months, i decided to join in this week. the next part of the "our wedding" series will be up in the next couple days!

currently, i am...

missing my car! while braving an outing with our partially potty trained toddler, charles's car broke down yesterday. so i've really only had to share my car for one day but i felt so cooped up today! i didn't even have any plans to go anywhere but the fact that i couldn't was enough to make me feel claustrophobic.

craving a bunch of new stuff for our house. since we've had to many ongoing projects, it actually feel like i get new stuff because when we get a room ready, we get to unpack the boxes for that room that have been hanging out in our garage. so it's like shopping our own stuff! buuuuuut that feeling does where off and it would be nice to get a few new things.

anticipating the satisfaction of having a fully potty trained kiddo. while jc has been doing GREAT with peeing in the potty, we are holding off on night training him and he still has yet to go number #2 (sorry non-parental readers!) in the potty. jc is still in his crib so we are going to wait until the changes of wearing underwear all day seems less new before we transition him into a toddler bed. then we can work on night training. as far as the #2 situation, this kid is SO stubborn. he will hold it all day until naptime or bedtime (when he will be put in a diaper) to go. he'll tell us he needs to go, we'll go sit on the potty and nothing happens. we'll sit quietly, read books, talk, listen to music, play on the ipad and still nothing. i even bought him a bunch of matchbox cars that now live in a vase on top of the toilet as an incentive. told him that he can't have one until he goes #2 in the potty. still nothing. i guess he'll just do it when he wants to!

thinking about going on our first family trip to disneyland in october! my mom is trying to get this whole thing planned and i really hope it happens. charles and i have been to disneyland tons of times but jc has not been. i think he's just old enough that he'll have a good time. i am definitely nervous about hundred different things because i over think everything but i am trying to just focus on the good stuff.

singing this:


you're welcome. i HIGHLY recommend you view the original review "un-songified" because it is also one of the funniest things i've ever seen.

again, check out wendy's blog or randolin's blog to link up your post too!

our wedding: the venue

welcome to the first part of a series of posts detailing our wedding that took place on may 5, 2012. i've been disconnected from blogging lately but am ready to come on back. so i thought instead of posting 1093849 pictures in one post, i'd break it up into more manageable chunks.


our wedding venue was definitely not your conventional venue. it was actually a rental house that over looked the beach in fort bragg, ca. we knew from the get-go that we wanted to have our wedding in fort bragg. we got engaged during our "babymoon" where we road tripped from sacramento to british columbia and back. on our way down the coast, we drove through the beautiful northern california coast line and we knew we had to have our wedding there. unfortunately, fort bragg is a good four hour drive from our hometown. with this in mind, we wanted to have the ability to house our wedding party so they wouldn't be bogged down with the added expense of finding a room. we all know being in a wedding can get very expensive and i kept that in mind with every decision that we made. we had a hard time finding a house that would let us have a wedding there but nye ranch pulled through! there was no "staff", just a house, so we did everything ourselves. we had to keep a pretty tight budget for this wedding. while i don't have a hard figure, i'd say we definitely kept it under $5000 but we were only able to do so because we have awesome family and friends who were all down to help. i would definitely recommend this type of venue to someone looking to have a laid back location with room for people to crash. but you have to keep in mind that to have that "laid back" feel, you need to put in a lot of work yourself!




our venue really set the tone for the wedding style. the home has a very rustic, country feel but being on the coast, it was very green and lush as well. i chose navy blue and kelly green as our wedding colors to complement the natural colors already present at the venue. the property also housed a barn and resident llamas (alpacas? i can't remember) who we probably kept awake during our crazy antics during the reception.




we had our wedding party and a few family members arrive one day prior to the ceremony and help us set up all the tables. the house easily slept our ten person wedding party, a couple strays, a couple babies and ourselves. our wedding was relatively small (50-60 guests including the bridal party) so we were able to easily have our ceremony take place on a bluff overlooking the beach and the reception on the back deck of the house. there was also a small grassy field with fire pits that definitely got some use during our chilly reception.



i love this house so much, i'd love to be able to go back just for fun!

check back in a couple days for more wedding posts!

holy crap i am blogging

oohhhhhh snap, we're back! after taking a long much needed break, i've decided that i missed blogging tremendously. i've missed connecting with others and documenting all the milestones going on with jc. i haven't blogged in four months and i haven't read any blogs for probably about half that time.

luckily, i follow most of my favorite bloggers on twitter, instagram or facebook so i have a good idea of what's going on but i have not been a good blog reader. i've been gone so long from my blog that blogger and flickr are both different now! geez. basically, i felt a little overwhelmed by everything going on in our lives and i just needed to disconnect for a little while.

i've got a lot to catch everyone up on, including the fact that i am no longer someone's fiancee or girlfriend but a wife! all those photos have been yelling at me to share and i suck so i haven't. but i will. thanks for sticking around!

life lately

looking at all these pictures makes me realize that the last month has been a blur. look i actually brushed my hair a couple times! to say we've been busy would be an understatement. after we purchased our new house, we had a month to do any renovations that we wanted to do before we moved in. so charles immediately went to work and even took a week off from work so he could devote all of his time to the new house. and even with hours of slave labor from friends and family, we STILL didn't finish everything. with a march 23rd deadline, we had to move in with rooms half-painted, floors halfway finished, and no baseboards anywhere. so of course, all of these things have been making moving even more difficult than it is normally. i didn't realize that was possible. so we've been unpacking at a snail's pace, living among the boxes. so many boxes in fact, jc learned a new word, "box". the only thing i can say is that jc really doesn't seem to mind it. he spent our first night, sleeping in his pack-n-play because he crib wasn't put together. i managed to make a space just barely big enough in his room for his pack-n-play. and he went to bed just like it was any other night. he gets excited when he goes to sleep and then wakes up and something different is put up or he finds now new-to-him toys because they've been in a box for two weeks. i love him so much.

and on top of allllll of that, we are getting married in a month! we are seriously getting down to the wire. my bridal shower is this weekend and i cannot even express how happy i am that my wonderful sister and mother planned the whole thing and all i have to do is show up. charles has to work and everyone i would ask to babysit will be at the shower so jc will be my date to my bridal shower. i think he'll be the life of the party.

i so badly don't want to disappear for the next month but it seriously took me eight hours to finish this blog post. i started at 5, then got distracted with a phone call with my sister about the shower, then had to make dinner, then had to clean up dinner, then had to clean up paint brushes and trays from earlier, then had to get jc ready for bed, then take a shower and THEN i could work on this post. time is so precious lately, i can't spend hours online everyday. i am going to try my hardest to keep the blog updated with new wedding events and big house news. but i probably won't have so much "filler" i guess. which hey, your google reader is probably pretty full anyway, huh?

hope everyone has a great easter weekend!

jc and i vlog for the first time!

i am alive!! i have made it through the worst of the moving process and we have internet!!! instead of blogging about all the moving updates, i just wanted to do something fun. so jc and i vlogged!

little bits of happiness, w.2

wow. i didn't mean to not do anything blog related for a week but it sort of worked out that way. after meeting with our caterer (who also happens to be charles's dad's fiancee) for our wedding over the weekend, i realized i still have SO MUCH to do! it really put my butt into gear. honestly, it is getting a little overwhelming. if it was just moving/renovating our new house or just planning our wedding, it would be a lot of work. but it is both. at the same time. ARGH! so i've been trying to prioritize and sending out our wedding invitations got the top spot. of course, "just sending them out" entails designing them, printing them and mailing them out. so it was a two day project. but they are done and in the mail!




it also helped me to take some time, sit down and write down every little thing that needs to be done for the wedding. a lot of it is just talking to charles and finalizing our decisions. sometimes it's so hard to do that when he gets home so late from work, we have dinner, spend time with jc, put jc down for bed and then we usually turn into zombies after that. so i had to make sure we talked about a few things every night. not too much because i don't want to overwhelm him but my list is two pages long. and growing.




but it definitely made me happy to write everything down and cross off a few important items off the list. currently, i'm on the hunt for jc's groomsmen outfit so he will match the rest of the groomsmen and narrowing down our search for a beachfront condo in san diego for our honeymoon. i guess i could have bigger problems, right?

i'm linking up with stephanie for little bits of happiness.

thrifting makes me happy

i should clarify, when i actually find stuff that i like, thrifting makes me happy. this doesn't always happen, in fact more often than not, i don't find anything i like. but i got lucky a couple weeks ago, didn't have the toddler with me so i was able to look around a little more sans shopping cart (i feel like a shopping cart can be the biggest hindrance to finding good stuff while shopping in a little tiny thrift store, with little tiny narrow aisles). i decided to peruse the book section that i usually pass over and found some awesome little golden books. and discovered that i am in LOVE with the illustrations! so cute!










the ones that were originally made in the forties and fifties are my favorite. it doesn't hurt that the dog in Scamp looks just like my dog. or that the bird on the back of the Birds book looks JUST like my tattoo!




i didn't ask for a "little golden book illustrated bird" tattoo when i got this three years ago but apparently that's what i wanted! these books were about $1.50 each so a pretty good deal for some cute books. i seriously want to buy more and do crafty things with them. i don't know what i would do exactly, maybe something like this or just framing them. i don't know but my brain is spinning with ideas.

i'm linking up with stephanie for little bits of happiness and mandy for high on thrifting thursday.

wordless(ish) wednesday: we are homeowners!

that, my friends, is the most beautiful picture i could post right now. it is jc holding the keys to our new home! after tons of messed up houses, paperwork, and red tape, we can officially call ourselves homeowners. just in the nick of time too because we need to be out of this house by april 1st. we got the keys on monday and charles has already been tearing out carpet and flooring. i wish i could help more! this is the first time we've moved with the baby so it will definitely be a different experience. i can't wait to share all the renovations and projects we have in store for the new house!

{Linking up with The Paper Mama, a little king and i, and then, she snapped, Live & Love Outloud, 5 Minutes for Mom, jenni from the blog and Baby Baby Lemon. Whew, that's a lot of linking up.}

jc at twenty-one months

check out previous monthly updates here

here we are again! another month closer to two. i don't even want to think about it. i can't believe my little guy is approaching this birthday so fast. it's been easy to distract myself with our impending home purchase and wedding, but it's coming no matter what. i guess i better get to pinning some second birthday ideas, eh?

this month has been SO much better in toddlerland. the tantrums have been to a minimum and happy-go-lucky jc has been in full effect. i know the grumpy, grouchy jc usually comes around when he's sick or teething and he's been very healthy all month. but that still means NO NEW TEETH! i swear, i'm going to have to get dentures for this kid. no molars yet. no canines yet. i'm not sure if i should be worried about this or not. i can definitely feel them under his gums (at the risk of getting bit) but there are no signs of them cutting through yet.




another reason that i've been a little concerned with his teeth is jc's speech, or lack thereof. again, i don't know if i'm just being a worry wart first time mom but i feel like jc should be talking more. and charles who is usually mr. cool-doesn't-worry-about-anything has expressed the same concern. i wonder if his lack of teeth may be limiting sounds he can make? and therefore, words he can say? i don't know. i tried really hard to compile a list of all the words jc can say and i got about 40-45 words. he's put two words together a couple times, usually "bye bye daddy" or "bye bye puppy". i guess it's a fair amount of words but he just doesn't say them very frequently. i guess i kinda thought he would take to talking the same way he took to walking. once you start, you keep going and get better at it and do it all the time. but he seems to learn a couple new words every couple weeks but then he won't use them consistently. i'll ask him to say a word that i know he can say and he will refuse. get mad even. i don't know if this is just being a toddler, testing his limits and whatnot but it is SO frustrating. i've been trying to play dumb more often to make him actually say what he wants instead of just pointing and grunting but he will get SO frustrated with me. if i push it too much, it turns into a full on tantrum. so if anyone's got any pointers or can assure me that this is normal or even tell me that it isn't so i don't feel crazy, i would love any and all of it!

jc has also been exhibiting a sort of split personality at times. sometimes it seems like his separation anxiety that i thought was a thing of the past is in full swing. other times, he is happy and friendly with people we just met. i think that if he thinks we are leaving (even if we aren't), that's when the separation anxiety kicks in. if he's pretty confident that, yes we are in a new place with new people but my parents are staying here with me, he is super happy and friendly. he will offer you the toy he is playing with and fist bumps if he really likes you. kisses and hugs if he loves you.

some of his favorites this month include the books Good Night California and anything elmo related, CHEESEBURGERS (all caps is necessary because this is the kid who wouldn't eat meat at all), park trips, turning anything into a drum, and just hanging out in his little tikes cozy coupe.




here are some 21 month milestones via babycenter. again, jc was born almost two months premature but i'm going to compare his stats to his actual age anyway. because that's how i roll.

mastered skills (most kids can do):

can walk up stairs - yes, as long as he can hold onto something. he definitely prefers to try to walk up them rather than crawl.

able to set simple goals (e.g. deciding to put a toy in a certain place) - yes. in fact, he spends most of the day trying to place a menagerie of toys in mr. potato head's butt (if your kid has a mr. potato head, you know what i'm talking about). and it's only certain toys and if they fall out, god help us all.

emerging skills (half of kids can do):

throws a ball overhand - yes, all day everyday

kicks ball forward - yes, all day everyday

stacks six blocks - it might be cheating because we don't have regular blocks, just mega blocks that connect together but i've seen him stack at least ten blocks

advanced skills (a few kids can do):

names simple pictures in a book - this is one of his favorite things to do

can walk down stairs - same as with walking up stairs. it's not perfect but if he can hold onto something, he will prefer to walk down rather than climb down.

week in iphone photos

what a week! we had the oscars (that only i was into), a mobile notary came to the house so we could sign some escrow paperwork (no keys yet but hopefully VERY soon!), charles and i headed out with some friends to a king's game, and jc was just his normal, adorable self. couldn't really ask for a better week.











follow me on instagram? my username is melissajenkinslinking up with a good life and life rearranged.

fill in the blank friday

so the baby is napping and i'm doing about a hundred thousand things and i literally (not, like actually with "stumble upon" or whatever it's called) stumbled upon a blog post by jessica that she actually linked up with lauren. and i thought i could use a little break in all the madness that is going on this week so here we are. fill in the blank friday! who knows if i'll do it again next week but i'm doing it now. yay!

1.  The highlight of my week was finally ordering my wedding dress!! i ordered it on etsy (of course) and i'm hoping i'll get it a few weeks before our wedding date. 

2.   If I had to classify my interior design aesthetic it would be modern and clean. this basically means that i'm afraid to commit to any sort of design aesthetic. i don't know why but we have always hesitated to actually "decorate" our house, wherever we've lived. with our home purchase coming up (VERY VERY soon guys!!!) on the horizon, i'm trying to find my/our/whatever-charles-will-agree with style. dudes, i'm so jealous of you if you have a guy who is like "whatever you want honey" because that is NOT how my guy is, at all. he has to have a say in EV-ER-Y-THING. which, i understand, buuuuuuut why can't i just put a bird on everything??

3.  My first vehicle was a 1995 chevy monte carlo. it was my dad's and he passed it along to me (thanks dad!). it was only about 11 years old when i started driving and kept it until i bought my nissan versa in 2007. we traded it in for, seriously, $500 toward my new car. i thought it was on it's last leg, but i swear i've seen MY car several times around town. i'm glad to see that someone else is giving it some love still.

4. An item I need to have in my day in order to function is my phone. i feel like it's permanently attached to my hand sometimes. if i'm on twitter, instagram (my username is melissajenkins), facebook, playing games, checking out pinterest or just general browsing, i am always on my phone.

5. My favorite way to waste time is my phone. goes right back to number 4. i could sit on my phone for hours and not get bored.

6. Right now I could really go for a walk. haha, we had smashburger for lunch and now i feel all bleh. hopefully jc wakes up from his nap before it gets dark, i could use a park trip.

7.  This weekend I will be somewhat busy. we are trying to decide if we want to head out to a wedding celebration on saturday after charles gets off work. we are all pretty tired of running around this week. and on sunday, charles is taking senior portraits for one of his co-worker's sons and they have invited us over for dinner afterwards.

kinda fun, right? i'm linking up with the little things we do.

a couple weeks in iphone photos

why do i keep doing this to myself? i seriously just spent way too long going through all my iphone pictures. i need to do this every week, not every other week. if you follow me on instagram (my username is melissajenkins) you've already seen all these but hey, they are just as good the second time around. highlights include jc coming out of his teething/being sick all day everyday funk, a girl's night out with my mama, valentine's day, and jc's first sleepover with his bff damian. so much fun! and now i'm going to enjoy some more oscar's preshow before jc wakes up from his nap. have a good rest of your weekend!

linking up with a good life and life rearranged.