Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

We have a new member of our family ready to arrive in just a few days.   Our youngest daughter and her husband are expecting their first child (our first granddaughter) any day now.  A few weeks ago they had a maternity photo session with Andi Grant at our house.  I missed out on getting to watch the adventure, but Papa got to help with gathering all of the props.  I love that the photos were taken at Brown Wren Acres, the same place where their engagement photos and wedding photos were taken.  Each set of photos represents a letter of the alphabet and Ashley and Chris plan to make an alphabet book for little Miss Charlotte to enjoy.  What a special way for her mommy and daddy to show her how much they love her. You can check out more of the photos at Andi's website .

This is the 10th and final post in my Wedding Series (can I get an Amen?) Previous posts include: 1. Tear of Joy and Tears of Sorrow 2. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head - But Not On The Wedding 3. Timeline For A Rustic Wedding 4. Marriage Requirements 5. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: Choosing the Hardscape 6. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: Stationary To Set The Mood 7. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: Choosing The Wardrobe 8. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: The Decor 9.  Planning An Outdoor Wedding:  The Menu I am a sentimental fool.  And apparently, I've raised a few sentimental daughters as well.  Our minds are always looking for ways to incorporate family memories into parties and family celebrations.  We also like to look for ways to make new memories.  For this wedding, my offspring outdid me with sentiment.  Here is one of the ways wedding guests could give the couple good wishes.  These chalkboard guest frames could be written on with ch...

This is the 9th post in my Wedding Series. Previous posts include: 1. Tear of Joy and Tears of Sorrow 2. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head - But Not On The Wedding 3. Timeline For A Rustic Wedding 4. Marriage Requirements 5. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: Choosing the Hardscape 6. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: Stationary To Set The Mood 7. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: Choosing The Wardrobe 8.  Planning An Outdoor Wedding: The Decor Food, glorious food.  Can't have a wedding reception without it.  Careful thought went into the menu for this outdoor wedding.  We asked some friends of ours to head up the whole food situation in exchange for a favor we did for them - you know. . . good ol' bartering.  I definitely think we got the better half of the deal - but don't tell them that.  Along with this couple, we had a number of other friends who gave up their Saturday (and Friday night) to make this day special for our kids.  They were so efficient ...

This is the 8th post in my Wedding Series. Previous posts include: 1. Tear of Joy and Tears of Sorrow 2. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head - But Not On The Wedding 3. Timeline For A Rustic Wedding 4. Marriage Requirements 5. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: Choosing the Hardscape 6. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: Stationary To Set The Mood   7.  Planning An Outdoor Wedding:  Choosing The Wardrobe   Once we got the hard scape decor taken care of (tables, chairs, dancefloor etc.) it was time to decorate. We tried to use a lot of the items we already had around the house.  With lots of chairs and benches already available, we just rearranged them.  Here's a bench I worked on several months ago with the cushions I recovered.  We borrowed round tables and topped them with tablecloths made from canvas drop cloths.  The drop cloths were then covered with chocolate brown burlap.  The centerpieces were simply various containers filled ...

This is the 7th post in my Wedding Series.  Previous posts include: 1. Tear of Joy and Tears of Sorrow                                  2. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head - But Not On The Wedding 3. Timeline For A Rustic Wedding 4. Marriage Requirements 5. Planning An Outdoor Wedding: Choosing the Hardscape   6.  Planning An Outdoor Wedding:  Stationary To Set The Mood     As usual for us, we didn't go the usual route when selecting wedding apparel for this shin dig.   From the wedding dress to the Bride's father's clothing - nothing was what is advertised in all of those bridal magazines.    The most important dress - the wedding dress - was the first stop.     We bought the dress months ago in a consignment shop.  Blush, a bridal c...

This is the 6th post in my Wedding Series.  Previous posts include: 1.  Tear of Joy and Tears of Sorrow 2.  Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head - But Not On The Wedding 3.  Timeline For A Rustic Wedding 4.  Marriage Requirements 5.  Planning An Outdoor Wedding:  Choosing the Hardscape         RSVP card One of the first items to be purchased or at least decided on when planning a wedding is the stationary.  Stationary really sets the mood for the wedding and gives guests a glimpse of what is to come. For my daughter's outdoor wedding, a nature theme was definitely called for.  I have to confess - she did all of the work.  I only handed over my credit card information when needed.  The first item needed was the "Save the date" card.  Many guests would be coming from out of town and a 6 month "heads up" was appreciated by them.  Ashley saw a template she liked on a...

Planning an outdoor wedding is a lot like decorating a room (or rooms) in your home.  First, you decide on a theme.  In the case of this wedding, it was "Refined Rustic with a Dash of Merriment". Then, just like decorating a room, you pick your large pieces first and then add in the punches of color and accessories later.  In the case of this wedding, we chose the backdrop, the chairs, the dance floor, and the types of tables as our larger pieces.  We rented outdoor dark bamboo chairs.  They were much more rustic looking than the typical white chairs we all associate with a wedding.  We ordered a 16x16 foot dance floor from the same rental company .  I don't have any pics from the wedding day, but you can see from this photo I took the next day that the floor was plenty big for people to dance on.  Dancing wasn't a huge part of the reception, but those who wanted to dance had a fun time.  The backdrop was something my Hubs worked on...

Word on the street is that it's very hard to marry into the Miller Family.  The truth is: "To whom much is given, much is required"  What?  Requirements?  For marriage?  Yup! Before this engagement photo was taken, we had to make sure the young couple was ready to make the commitment. This is our second daughter to marry so we've been down this road before (6 years ago). Each situation was different as the couples involved were different.  "Cookie Cutter" rules don't quite cut it when dealing with relationships.  These are a few of the things that we (Hubs and I) feel are important to consider before giving our blessing for our children to marry. 1.  Age - Is the couple old enough to get married?  This is not a deal breaker, but is something to be considered.  As a young bride, myself, I know the struggles I had early in my marriage just because I had not had a lot of life experience yet.  2.  Maturit...

Once upon a time, there was a couple who wanted to get married. They wanted a simple, rustic wedding in her parent's backyard.  Two years later, they said their vows in that backyard, starting their journey as a married couple. In the two years between "I will" and "I do" there was a lot of planning that took place. 2 years ago:  - We planned where the wedding would take place and reserved our church as a back up  - Looked at every wedding blog and read every wedding magazine to get ideas and inspiration  - Decided on a budget (our goal was to keep it under $7000.00)  A future post will show a breakdown of what we spent 1 We picked a photographer (the good ones get booked up fast ) Photos are important to us so we picked the best -   andigrantphotography.com  - Decided on the size of the wedding (we limited it to 150 people due to yard size and limited budget)  - Placed rental order (we ordered 150 chairs and a 16x16 dan...