My Best Friend's Wedding

This post is dedicated to my bestie of 15 years, Hailey Billat turned Hawton! Practically all of my memories growing up in Colorado involve her. From elementary-high school we were inseparable and I loveeee that we've stayed so close throughout the years, even when our lives took different routes in our college years. I'm very grateful for her friendship and it's so fun that we now only live 30 minutes from each other in Utah! Anyways, to get to the point of this post, Hailey and Matt were married in the Payson temple on May 20th. It was a perfect day. She looked stunning, so happy, and in love. No joke, I've never felt so happy for someone else's happiness until that day! I will even admit that I got a bit emotional in her sealing. I love Hails like a sister.

I could ramble on and on about all the details, but I'd rather just show you. Hailey was so kind in letting me have access to all of her wedding pictures and I'm kind of obsessed with them. So enjoy the picture overload! Also, if anyone is needing some wedding inspiration, I suggest you keep scrolling.

Fun fact: Three of the Billat girls were/are getting hitched this summer. That is THREE weddings to plan in one family people! Bless their sweet parents.

Okay! How beautiful is she?! These pictures of her are my favorite ^^

 Oh what I would give to have some of this food right now. It was delicious!

LOOK AT HOW HAPPY SHE LOOKS. 

I am so, so happy for Mr. and Mrs. Hawton! I wish them an eternity of happiness.

I also want to throw in a couple my own pics from that day.

 Meghan, the girl on the right, is also one of Hailey's long time besties. The three of us went to high school and were on the cheer team together. It was such a fun reunion! I still can't get over the fact that it's been five years since high school and that we are all now married. Time flies!

Dancing with my man is what I most look forward to at weddings. Good thing we got lots of chances this year attending four weddings, with two (maybe three?) more to go! I plan on summarizing those at another time in another post.

Until then,

xoxo

Also DYING over their wedding video. Insert allllll the heart eyes.

Bachelorette Party

A couple weeks back my sister Britta and I threw a bachelorette party for my best friend Hailey! This was the first time I've ever really planned and put on a party for someone, so I want to remember all the fun party details. Britta was a hugeee help. She hosted the party at her house, helped come up with party games {along with Austin}, made some goodies, and put together these cute invites! She's honestly the best.

We got together one day to do some planning and ended up making this banner with Britt's new Cricut. {Seriously gotta get myself one of those.} We were kind of learning as we went, so it took us a good four hours to knock out. But we both agree that it was completely worth it!

My party shopping list looked a little something like this: undies & clips {for some pinterest-inspired decoration}, meatballs, lil smokies + ingredients, fruit, flowers, the cutest mini martinelli ciders, and of course the good stuff {her actual gift}. Seriously, even the planning and shopping for this party was a fun time! S/o to Jason for being a good sport and tagging along with me for the majority of it lol.

My dad advised we keep the evening PG-13 {haha oh dad}. We may have thrown in some slight innuendos serving lil' wienies and meatballs, but I feel that we kept everything quite classy for a bachelorette party ;) It really was the perfect girls night to celebrate the future Mrs. Hawton.

The Decor

The Spread

The "Good Stuff"

The Games

The ad-lib was definitely a highlight of the night! Everyone filled one out anonymously and afterward Hailey read them aloud and had to guess who wrote it. It was so funny! We also played a game that consisted of some string, a hot dog, and an empty bottle. That's all I'll say about that one, but it also was quite hilarious hahaha.

Up Next: The Wedding!

2 Down

On April 11th Jason and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. I cannot believe that we have been married for two years already! By far the best years of my life. Jason picked me up from work, as he usually does, but on this day he waited for me in the lobby holding a single rose. SO CUTE. He looked sooooooo handsome and the moment I saw him I could not stop smiling. When we got to the car he had a bouquet of red roses waiting for me. Ugh he's perfect.

We celebrated the evening with a night out in Salt Lake. We walked around temple square, ate waaay too much food at Tucanos, and got ourselves a modern airbnb apartment downtown to spend the night {which was super convenient for work the next morning considering my building was two blocks away!} It was nice to have a night alone with my love. He is my world and I could go on and on about how much I love/appreciate/depend on/respect/obsess over/confide in/adore him... but I won't ;)

I've come to realize that I have a special place in my heart for Salt Lake {I know I was raving about it in my last post, but this is for different reasons}. This is the city where Jason asked me to spend forever with him. This is where we held our wedding reception and spent our first night together as a married couple. For our first anniversary Jason took me back to the spot he proposed, so it only seemed fitting to spend our second anniversary in this city where so much of our story takes place.

I sure am obsessed with the life we're creating together and I know it's only going to keep getting better. Two years down with an eternity to go. I can't wait ♥

S a l t L a k e C i t y

In my last post I mentioned that I would have a couple weeks until I started my new job downtown, but it turns out my start date got moved up two weeks because my background check processed much quicker than anticipated. So it's been a minute since then (okay, a lot of minutes) which means it's time for some catch up! I've got lots to share.

Let me tell you about my new-but-doesn't-feel-so-new-now job! I work for a company called Novitex. It was actually the first job I applied for after leaving Discover, and the only one I ended up interviewing with before receiving an offer of employment. Huge blessing for me because I absolutely dread the whole job search and interview process. Fun fact: I've been offered a job at every place I've ever interviewed for. Jason was blown away by this when I told him because he said that just doesn't happen.

I was more than a little intimidated when I arrived for my formal interview because it just so happened to be in one of the nicest buildings in Salt Lake City. Something I wasn't aware of at the time of the interview was that the position I was applying for was a document processor and coordinator for Goldman Sachs {the big dogs}. So even though I work for Novitex, I work in the Goldman office, amongst Goldman employees, and for 8-10 hours a day I manage critical Goldman documents. So yeah, you can bet I was nervous!

The day after my interview I received a call saying the job was mine. I was thrilled! Jason took me on my first real shopping spree once I accepted because I had zero business professional outfits and the shoes in my closet consisted of moccasins, snow boots, tennis shoes, and my four year old church flats. {I'm not much of a shopper haha}. My wardrobe is definitely thanking me.

As of right now Jason and I share a car, which really just means that Jason drives me everywhere. We do our best to be very budget-minded and we've done the math to know how much money we're saving with only one car payment, one insurance payment, one car to put gas in, and no monthly downtown parking fees. We have managed to make it work and we actually really enjoy the time we get to spend together right before and after our work days. The traffic is a different story, but we're learning to exercise our patience ;) Luckily for us Jason's job recently moved to a different building which is only ten minutes from downtown, so it's doable. And completely worth it.

Last thing I want to share is some personal advice. Leaving a job that made me overwhelmed, anxious, stressed, and unhappy was one of the best decisions I've made. At Discover I constantly felt like I wasn't doing a good enough job even when I was working so so hard, I felt micro-managed, and I dreaded work every single day. It was not good for my overall happiness and mental health. I stuck with it because I was scared that I wouldn't be able to find a job soon enough that I would enjoy any more. It took an absolute horrible day of work and a complete breakdown for me to realize that I needed to take a leap of faith and take action to make my life better. And let me tell you, it is so much better. There is nothing in my life I have to complain about. I love my job. I love my co-workers. I love that I feel productive every day and that what I'm doing is important. I love that I have a supportive husband. I even love that I have the opportunity to work as much overtime as I want. I've worked 11 hour days and I still come home in a great mood! Ultimately, if there is something in your life you are not happy about, figure out what you need to do to change it, and do it.

Also, I've fallen in love with downtown Salt Lake.

 

 

I know I'm probably way to detailed in my blog posts and no one realllllly cares, but I also wanted to mention how happy it made me to walk out of work on Friday to sweet Scarlett! And of course Britta, Austin, and my hubs :) Austin was selling his camera to a guy he found on KSL that works in my same building, so we bumped into them on our way out and ended up making a spontaneous Cinco De Mayo date out of it! We ate dinner at Red Iguana and then did some City Creek shoppin'. It was so fun to run into them so randomly. Seriously what are the odds???

Start Somewhere

Since I have a couple weeks until I start my new job, I figured why not stay up-to-date on here? This past week Jason and I decided to buckle down and start living a more healthy lifestyle. The rumors about gaining weight after marriage are seriously so true! We've had our phases of trying to eat healthy and going to the gym together everyday, but that usually only lasts a week or two. This time we've decided we are all in. We've set goals for ourselves, started tracking calories/carbs/macros/etc, and we've promised one another that we are going to encourage and push each other to accomplish this. I've realized that my drive for something spikes when I have someone there to cheer me on. Plus, what a great way to spend some quality time with my hubs!

Pinterest killin' it with the motivational quotes!

I highly recommend downloading the MyFitnessPal app. By far the simplest way to track your daily food intake and keep sight of your goals. However, I do want to mention that I am all about being healthy in moderation. I'm occasionally going to eat a cheeseburger here and there {cause cheeseburgers are the most delicious and life is short} BUT I can already feel a huge change in my energy, happiness, and overall well-being in the short time we've decided to live a healthier lifestyle. I've been on the lookout for good workout routines and yummy healthy meals, so feel free to share if you have some favorites! As we progress, I will try to post updates on new recipes/workouts that work for us.

TO BE CONTINUED

Je t'adore

Has it really been a year since my last Valentine's Day post? Gosh!! This v-day was the first time I've really gone all out for a holiday, and although a cheesy one, it has become one of my favorites since being married. 

I wanted to make the day special for Jason and really show him how loved and appreciated he is by me. I decided the best way to do that was to write all the things I love most about him-- heart attack style. I started cutting out paper hearts weeks in advance, and I randomly jotted notes on my phone whenever he did/said something I loved. Each day I would cut out more hearts because my list kept getting longer and longer! {Not pictured: I also heart attacked our bedroom and hung christmas lights to make it oh so romantic}

Needless to say, he loved it. I could cut out thousands of hearts for that boy. Jason made us chicken quesadillas for dinner {his specialty} and we burned off the calories at the gym afterwards.

OH I was also offered a job that day.

Long story short - I quit my job at Discover about two weeks ago because I really couldn't take the eight hours a day of thankless callers anymore. I felt under appreciated as an employee and ultimately decided that I would be much happier ANYWHERE else. After one particularly rough work day, Jason and I came to the decision that I was going to quit. So I did, and I've been so so soooo happy since then. I've gotten a much needed break from full-time work, and I was able to score a better job with better pay in that two week period. Honestly, we've been blessed.

It was a great Valentine's Day. I kept telling Jason how excited I am to spoil our future babies with over-the-top love on this day. That's going to be the best. I hope everyone felt so loved yesterday, and everyday! xoxo