What Was I Thinking?

Okay, so I decided that I would splurge on a pair of shoes for my wedding and mentioned to the mister that I might get a pair of Christian Louboutins.

That was until I actually looked at some online and saw the price tag on a few that I liked. What in the world was I thinking?!?! The cost of some of those shoes are like half of my entire wedding budget! I knew that they were expensive but not that damn expensive.

Even though I do plan on wearing my wedding shoes again after the wedding there is no way to justify buying a pair of Loubies when your planning a wedding on a budget.

Oh well, back to the drawing board! Got any recommendations on some nice shoes that would be great for a wedding, let me know!

We Picked Our Wedding Colors!!

After sending off the request for our date to the resorts, it's just been a waiting game. So I figured I would start thinking about our color scheme for the wedding. And it has been a tougher decision that I thought. I've made plenty of inspiration boards in my past for "my someday wedding", but now that it's really time to pick something that I have to live with forever, it hasn't been as easy.

Being that we're having a destination wedding there's already tropical colors involved because of the surroundings but I didn't want everything to be tropical or bold colors. Not that I'm dissing anyone else's style but I don't really want my bridal party to have turquoise, coral or pink dresses. I just think it will be too much. And I knew that I want Mister and his groomsmen to wear a tan/khaki color instead of grey but other than those two factors I was having a difficult time choosing what I wanted.

I ended up stressing myself out so much that I cried about it (and I'm not much of a crier), so Mister suggested that we go to Home Depot to look at paint swatch's to get a better idea of what colors we like. I gotta admit when I got that text from him, I kind of laughed and didn't really think THAT would be necessary but since he offered a suggestion and trying to be apart of the planning, I obliged.

Praying that a store clerk wouldn't ask us what room we were looking to paint together we picked out 5 colors that we both liked! And I'm happy to report that we have decided on our wedding colors!

The background is actually pure white so the colors are a little off in the picture, but you get the idea. Cozumel, cool melon, pecan sandie, strawberry freeze & pure white our the colors we decided on. I plan to use the colors as accents in the decor, flowers, jewelry and small touches while the attire will consist mostly of white & pecan sandie!

So there you have it, our wedding colors! That's one more thing crossed off my none existence list. Stick around to see how the colors come together in the details.

Work it Wednesday

I'd be lying if I said that I love working out.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind exercising from time to time but there are so many other things that I'd rather be doing like eating and not gaining weight :) . I'm not one of the lucky few who don't have to worry about what they eat or if they exercise so in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle and not look like a marshmallow in my wedding dress next year, I have no choice to get my fitness on. Like.every.single.day!!

Two years ago I decided that I didn't want be fat anymore. There were so many things in my life at the time that i had no control over but realized weight loss was the one thing were it wouldn't ever happen if I didn't make it happen. And so I did. I lost about 35-40lbs in about a 8 month time period and I was pretty proud of myself. I was down to one of the lowest weights that I had been since I was a teenager and I felt good about myself.

And then life changed.

I started dating the boyfriend (now fiance) and we would dine-out a lot. Then I also got on birth control, the same kind that I had been using for years and started gaining weight. I never suffered weight gain as a side effect but once I realized that was the reason I was gaining weight even though I was still working out I was stuck. The Depo shoot last for 3 months, plus it takes about 3 months from the hormones to completely leave your body so no matter what kind of exercising I would do, my weight continued to rise.

So I decided to just be fat & happy. Which was fine during the winter and then spring time came around and I hated the way that I looked. I hadn't already cancelled my gym membership since I hadn't been in months so I had limited options for working out. Including no motivation.

In March of this year, Mister & I decided to buy P90X and do it together. we did great for the first few weeks then when rest week came around we never quite got back on track. Being that I started working from home around that time I would go for walks in the afternoon around the neighborhood, but that wasn't doing much. In May I signed up for a 4 week boot-camp with my cousin and that went well, until it was over. I fell off the wagon yet again.

Then the boyfriend proposes on July 3rd and now I have more motivation than I can handle. I'm super pumped to workout everyday and have even done some two-a-days. I prefer cardio workouts and enjoyed taking spin, kick boxing and aerobic step classes at the gym but I need to stay on budget with wedding cost, so a gym membership is out.

For the past week, I've been getting up early and walking/jogging/running. despite my dislike for running, I don't mind walking but it just gets so boring sometimes. I walk around my neighborhood listening to music on my iPhone and see the same old thing everyday. But it's working though, so I can't complain. To add to my walking I've started working out in the pool here in my housing community and I LOVE IT!! I'm so mad at myself for not starting sooner, and just like my morning jogs, it's working!!

To hear myself say that 2 years ago I was 50lbs lighter than I am today and that I weigh more now that I EVER have, just blows my mind. But still, that wasn't much of a motivator to keep me off my lazy butt off the couch. But things have changed; now that I have a wedding dress to fit it, I'm so determined it's not even funny. I say that I want to lose at least 30lbs, but I honestly don't even know how much I weigh today. I have a love/hate relationship with the scale and haven't been on one in at least 6 months.

**Note to Self** - Weight myself before the end of the week.

Here's a summary of my morning walkouts as well as some tunes that I jam to when I'm workin' it.



Rihanna - You Da One

Justin Timberlake - Senorita

Carrie Underwood - Cowboy Casanova

Gloria Estefan - Wepa

Frank Ocean – Thinkin’ Bout You

Matisyahu – King Without a Crown

Justin Bieber – Boyfriend

Anuhea – Here I go Again

Ellie Goulding – Lights

Pink – Raise Your Glass

Fort Minor – Remember The Name

T.I. – Bring Em Out

If there's a certain song that gets you pumped when your working out, let a sista know. Sharing is caring!!

I want to give a shout out to my personal trainer (Shayla, moi) and my future husband for the motivation to finally get my butt off the couch & and the ring. Oh, and the proposal too!! (haha, j/k)

Location, Location, Location

After purchasing 5 bridal magazines and countless hours searching on the internet we have finally narrowed down the location of our stay in the Dominican Republic and where we plan to have our wedding ceremony.

Finally, we decided out of the many resort options that we would pick 10 places to review and then narrow it down to 6 resorts and then contact 3 for availability and rates.

When chosing a resort there were a few things that we were looking for:

• Budget Friendly - Since we plan on inviting guest we didn't want to go over $350 a night for a double occupancy room.


• All-inclusive.


• Affordable Wedding Packages


• Cleanliness


• Good Reviews


• Food Options - We're goodies so we want multiple options since we will be there for 5 plus days and also has a large variety to accommodate our guest.


• Kid Friendly resort - If not we have a plan to include my 11-year-old son in the ceremony at home since the wedding there will only be a symbolic ceremony.

With all that being said, we selected the following resorts and emailed them this morning for availability on Saturday, June 1, 2013.

#1 choice - Excellence Punta Cana

#2 choice - Ibersostar Bavaro

#3 choice - Riu Palace Bavaro

I'm praying that we hear back from each them soon and so we can finally lock down a date & location. I'm so ready to move on to other details of the wedding already. Choosing a location has been such a job that I haven't even considered any colors. I've saved a few images on my computer and on pinned a few things on Pinterest but feel like I'll really be able to focus on other things once I have this task crossed off my list.

UPDATE **I heard back from Riu Palace this afternoon and they are available for the date we have requested. One down, two to go!**

I'm Engaged!!!

On July 3, 2012 after almost two years of dating my boyfriend popped the question and I SAID YES!! For more details of the proposal you can read about it here on my photography blog at www.shayla-j.com!

We've decided that we want to have a destination wedding and this blog will chronicle the ups & down of planning our wedding in the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2013.

I love everything about weddings and even considered becoming a wedding planner before I started my career in photography but I'm only 3 weeks into my engagement and I've been stressed already. Stay tuned for all the good, the bad & the ugly!