Engagement Party

Hi all,

Happy FriYAY! My yoga teacher on Tuesdays always ends the class with a nice little "namas-tues-day" and it always makes me laugh! (my yoga teacher is a dude by the way). Anyways, back on track. I can't believe I haven't blogged about our engagement party back in September! When Aaron and I first got engaged (back in May- wow, time flies), several of our friends asked if we wanted an engagement party. We thought about it, and since we are getting married in California, we thought an engagement party would be the perfect way to celebrate our engagement and bring our friends and family together for a chance to meet before the wedding! It would also give those who might not be able to make it out to California, the chance to celebrate with us! So, remember my birthday cruise back in 2013? Well, we booked the same company to charter our engagement party.

The cruise sails around Kemah, provides adult beverages and food! So we invited many of our close friends and families and had a party! Also, I was a bit nervous about the food, but it ended up being delicious!!! 

Krob, Kim and Andy were so great at helping coordinate with the cake, invitations and decor! I cannot find a picture of the invitation (I switched to a new phone and lost some photos in the process, but will post when I get one).

I also wanted to take advantage of my mom being in town, so I gathered a group of the ladies, made some appointments and went dress shopping! I wasn't expecting to find one in all honesty- I can be rather picky. But, THE  dress actually happened to be one of the first I tried on. I'll do a re-cap on some tips I think might be helpful for finding the perfect dress and share my experience in another post.

Girls and their moms!

After dress shopping, it was lunch and time to head down to Kemah for our Engagement Party. One of mine and Aaron's goals for planning our wedding and going through this whole process, is that everyone enjoys it right along with us. We don't want anyone to stress or feel obligated!

Here are some fun photos of the evening. It was a highlight for mine and Aaron's families to meet. They hadn't met yet. And it was a highlight having so many of the people who have meant so much to both of us over the years all in one spot! I don't think I stopped talking the entire night!

The Families!!!

Aaron and I before our party

Some of my favorite ladies over the years. We were all Zeta's together at Baylor. So much love in this picture!

Some more of the ladies. They will all be bridesmaids in August and Krob is my MOH!

It's time to celebrate someone else this weekend. Krob turned 30 this week, so I'm throwing her a 30th birthday party- because we need to celebrate the people we love!!!!

Happy weekend-ing!

You can check some more of my photos out on Instagram here: @kmt678.

Happy 2016 and a Quick Wedding Update

Annnnd I haven't blogged since August! I always have the best intentions, but work schedules and personal schedules get in the way. Here is a quick recap of the rest of 2015. Since we are already knee-deep in 2016, I'll do a quick re-cap there as well. Which should basically get us all caught up- right?

September: 

Engagement Party - I owe you a separate post on that alone, but here is a sneak preview.

October:

Baylor Game (our only one we were able to make it to this past season). We were unable to make it to Baylor Homecoming this year, and I was so bummed out about that. I had a conference for work, so I just couldn't go. This would have been the first time since I graduated (in 2008) to miss a homecoming. So, a group of us decided to make the best out of the situation, and we bought tickets for the West Virginia game the weekend before. Lucky us, but Homecoming actually got rained out this year because of some bad weather, so many of the activities were cancelled. So we actually got to enjoy a beautiful Waco weekend minus the Homecoming crowds and got to visit some of our favorite places (i.e. George's, Common Grounds, Spice!!!). #hearthappy



November: 

California for Thanksgiving




December: 

California for Christmas and the Ho-Family Christmas party Krob and I threw at our house! The theme was tacky, and I'm not gonna lie- those elf socks kept my feet cozy! And by the time Krob and I went on the hunt for our tacky outfits... the entire city of Houston purchased every single tacky sweater in existence. So matching tacky pj's for the win!



 

Taniguchi Fam

We kissed 2015 goodbye and spent New Year's Eve at a party thrown by one of Aaron's friends- complete with some midnight wakeboarding.



Aaron and I have literally (and figuratively) hit the ground running in 2016. We are celebrating some milestone birthdays this year - (Hello 30!) and wedding planning is in full swing (actually, if I'm being honest with myself - it should be in more of a "swing" than it currently is)!

January 2016

This will be the month known as the wedding for one of my sorority sisters in Dallas, Kim's 30th and the half marathon I did not run!! First off, Dallas is way colder than Houston! It was freezing, but the wedding was beautiful, and it makes my heart happy to run into friends from college and get all caught up! We took the obligatory Zeta pic, which is always a good time! And we may or may not have stopped at Emporium Pies on the way back to Houston. #delish





Look - we always try to do something new and out of the box for birthdays. 30 is big, so we had some pressure on us. Krob and I planned a high tea for Kim's 30th. Now, if you are asking why we would take someone to a high tea for their 30th....let me also add that it came with bottomless champagne #definitelynotboring, and now I am a big fan of high tea. We did a fun hibachi dinner as well so the guys had something to enjoy!



Now back to that half marathon I didn't run. This would have been my fifth year in a row to run the Houston half marathon. This was also the year I would have been the least trained to run. Aaron ended up having to take a trip to Florida for work, so we both deferred our race. We will be back (and better trained) for 2017!

February 

Engagement pictures, bridesmaid and moh asking and Krob's 30th! We are currently in week two of February (but who's keeping track), and it will be another eventful month. My allergies are literally killing me this month, and I've been through one round of hives and another round of antibiotics. Luckily, I think I'm finally at a place where the outdoors isn't slowly killing me!

Krob's 30th is this month. Krob is the type of friend who is always doing so much for everyone else - so this lady deserves to be celebrated! I'm planning a big party and have some fun tricks up my sleeve. More details on that to come.

I've (finally) asked (some) of my wedding party, and Aaron is almost done asking his, so I'm excited to share the full group once ya'll know who you are :) I was looking for the perfect way to do my asking, and Marrygrams had the cutest cards! They have so many cute ideas for some of the smaller wedding details, and I can't wait to pick out more for our special day!


Finally, one of my favorite memories of 2016 so far- we took our engagement pictures this past weekend and had an absolute blast. In true Kira and Aaron fashion, parts of it were definitely a hot mess (dogs- worth it, but DRUG THEM first), and the sneak peeks I've seen so far have so exceeded my expectations. More on that to come!!!

Happy Hump Day.....

(my dress is finally in, so I'm trying it on tonight, and I can't wait)

The Art of Bustling

This was a good weekend. I didn't have too many items on the "to-do" list, nowhere to be early in the morning- and it was cold outside, which made it perfect weather for doing whatever is was that I wanted to do.

While I would like to be able to say that I spent most of my weekend curled up by a fire with a good book- that would be false. Instead I had other things to accomplish- such as watching the Baylor game, eating some Bush's chicken, and baking some banana bread. Oh yeah- and that other thing- learning how to bustle my old roomie's wedding dress.

Yep. I said it. Jenny- my former roommate and good friend from Baylor- is getting married in December. When did we grow up? When did we get old enough to have weddings- and jobs? I still wonder that. I wonder when the transition happened. In my head, I'm still this little girl- that still needs help with silly things- like remembering when to change my oil, and wondering how many clothes are too many to stuff in the washing machine. Weddings and jobs are for old people- for grownups- not for me.

And while in my head- I might still feel like this little girl- somewhere along the way- I must have grown up. Somehow- sometime. And in that process- I have grownup friends, who are now having very grownup weddings, grownup jobs, and grownup responsibilities. That being said, I found myself in a bridal store on Sunday, learning how to bustle Jenny's wedding dress.

It hit me sometime between the first step of the bustling process (tie the strings marked #1 together) and the third step (tie strings 2-10 together). We have come a long way from arguing about dates for "roomie Christmas"and hanging undergarments around the living room because someone left them in the dryer too long. Instead of wondering who our dates will be for semi-formal or how many people we should invite to "finals fondue", questions now revolve around jobs, brand-new nephews, and fiances. So while I'm just now dabbling in this new grown-up pond. And I'm still testing the waters, and making rookie mistakes- like maybe not knowing what the hell a bustle even is- I think I'm doing alright- and I'm ready to embark on many other new grown-up adventures- rookie mistakes and all.

*I would share the pics of the bustling experience, but I can't have nosey fiances looking for sneak peeks of the dress*