My creative husband...

The chef has a few new cake decorating tricks up his sleeve...and is a great student I must add. :)  This is using the Frozen Buttercream Transfer Method.  Begins with wax paper, colored frosting...and a freezer...

For our neices Princess and the Frog birthday party

The day was wonderful....

Well it's official, I am now the chef's wife...so very blessed. 

This photo was taken by my dear friend Kim. :)

The day before.....

Today is chef's birthday -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!

In a little more than 24 hours we will married....all the final pieces are being put in place for tomorrow, our first day as husband and wife. :)

The menu...

Chef suggested we have a tasting of our menu items for Valentine's Day. :) My oldest son and his wife flew in from Texas that morning, so we had a table full of cooks and then a yummy dinner to test out.  Okay it was a consensus, soooo good.

So, a special menu preview for those who have joined me by reading my blog over the past few months....thank you....and here's some of what my guy has in the works for our wedding reception. PS Happy Valentine's Day.

~ Baked scalloped potatoes

~ Asparagus sautéed with sundried tomatoes & bacon
~ Braised boneless beef short ribs served in a cabernet sauce
~ Stuffed chicken chili relleno, with roasted green chilies, pepperjack cheese and a creamy cilantro sauce

The Maid of Honor dresses...

My mom taught me how to sew years ago...I try my hand in it still, but thankfully she's great at it.  Her talents are MANY. Among them creating the most lovely dresses for two of my sisters, my maid of honors. Although both dresses are made from the same fabric, they're slightly different in style...here's a sneak peek thanks to my sweet sister.

And the shoes that are so perfect...

The time...is almost here

Time is on my side....I loved waking up this morning knowing that in just two little weeks I will be his wife.  It's amazing to me how God has worked throughout our lives, even before we knew of each other -- to bring us to the place where our paths crossed at just the right time, to fall in love so deeply.. and then to soon be one in His eyes. I will soon be marrying the man of my dreams...

The party-favors...

One of chef's very talented friends and chef herself, makes THE Most Delicious sugar cookies.

He brought a tray on the very long day we were at a hospital waiting for my granddaughter to be born...and in that waiting room we were in sugar cookie heaven. :)  As her wedding gift she is making 200 of the beauties for us to use as favors. So very blessed with her generosity.

The table numbers...

Watercolor wisteria.... These are little portions of art taken from a larger piece painted by my mom.  So beautiful, and perfect for the table numbers. Chef especially likes the vines in the "3" below....three vines created with the intent to symbolize two lives intertwined with God guiding them.   :) 
{Thank you mom.}

The Honeymoon...

What an amazing gift we received from Chef's incredible boss and friend.  We opened our Christmas gift from her and here's what was inside... 

Six nights of accomodations while we travel up the coast. Wow! :)

The music....

We're starting to capture on paper the songs that touch us.

There is one in particular that I am drawn to, and have found can listen to over and over. Actually have been doing just that tonight  -- I'm sure the kiddo and Cooper the cockapoo are sooo over it by now. Not me....the words keep pulling me in and her voice is so angelic. First heard on our photographer's site recently.  When You Say Nothing At All by Alison Krauss -- According to Wikipedia she is a bluegrass singer and fiddler, and at one time the most awarded female artist in Grammy history. You can listen to it on YouTube by clicking here.

The flower-girl dresses....

Isn't this an adorable dress...love the sweet flower on the sash. :) Chef's sisters are wonderfully sweet and are getting the flower girls ready to walk down the aisle for us...and are also all pulling together to provide and select the flowers for the reception. With their hands in it, everthing is certain to be just lovely!

The Cake and Photographer

Saturday was filled with meeting photographers and cake tasting....and being together.  The photographer that we selected among three very talented photographers we met with that day (and I can't wait to show you his incredibly beautiful work on his website) is Ralph of Relyck Photography.  We are very blessed to have been led to him and are looking forward to seeing what he captures for us.  Besides being a junior high teacher and running his own business, he's also been to Africa on missionary trips -- and we had an opportunity to see just beautiful photos he took of some of the people he met along the way.  Okay now for his amazing work...click here. 

The cake -- well we're still looking into the options we have, but got in our share of cake tasting. Yum. :)

The invitations

Almost done with the invitations! :) My maid of honors, mom and niece (you know who you are my cute little assistant) helped print and put together our wedding invitations, we really like how the they turned out. They were all so sweet to offer to help us with this.

Chef and I picked them out last week....just perfect. He's almost done calligraphying (hmmm that's probably not a real word huh) the envelopes, and they'll be making their way in the mail to our beloved family and friends this upcoming week.