The pregnant bridesmaid and revisiting my college hot spots...

I was a bridesmaid this past weekend at a wedding in Austin for two of my best friends, Emily and Scott. I became pregnant approximately five minutes after I ordered my bridesmaid dress, so the past couple of months have been a source or worry wondering if I would be able to get into my dress. I was constantly googling "baby bump 15 weeks" to see pictures of other girls and figure out how huge I would be. When I went to buy my dress in December, I was deep in my crossfit/paleo commitment and was looking forward to how skinny I would be at their wedding.

Luckily, the dress was bump friendly, but my ribcage has also expanded it's circumference by about 3 inches, so I was worried if it would zip or not. Two weeks ago, it didn't zip... so I got my ass to a seamstress and bought a spanx tank top to make the situation manageable. Wearing spanx during pregnancy is as awful as it sounds, and I'm sure the baby got a little claustrophobic. But I am a big believer in sucking it up at all costs when you're a bridesmaid, so it was easy enough to get through.

So here's how it worked out at 15.5 weeks pregnant...

Does that bump look a little bigger than 15.5 weeks to you? Well, it's because I had to relive my college days that morning with a visit to Taco Shack. When most people think of the good ole college days, they probably conjure up memories of the Fiji house or walking home barefoot from downtown... I think of Taco Shack and Zen. So at 7:45am the morning of the wedding I nudged my sleeping husband and said, "do you know what would make the baby really happy right now?" "If I took you to get a breakfast burrito?" He knows me so well. Keep in mind, I had a bridal brunch to go to in less than three hours... BUT I HAD TO HAVE TACO SHACK. LAUREN HUNGRY. 

(Speaking of this, please don't ever guess how far along a pregnant woman is. Someone who I really like came up to me at the wedding and said "you must be at least four or five months pregnant, right?" ... "Three and half, but thanks.")

So I throw on some shorts and we head out. Thomas asked me in the hotel elevator if I was wearing a bra, and I informed him the first rule of Taco Shack is that you never wear a bra to Taco Shack. That is one of my main rules of life in general: get away with not wearing a bra as much as possible.

Memories...

 Tom's first Burnet Road Burrito. It deserves to be written as a proper noun...

Done, and he loved it...

You know you have taco shack problems when your friends get you a cookie bouquet for your birthday, and one of the cookies is a breakfast burrito. 

Lastly, here is a picture from the rehearsal dinner at the Headliners Club...

It was a wonderful weekend overall, and I am so happy for Emily and Scott. They have dated since we were sophomores living in the Zeta house. He asked her for her phone number on AIM if that tells you how long they have been committed to each other. They are an amazing couple, I love them both, and I know they will have a lifelong marriage full of love, respect, and happiness. Mazel!

Love,

Lauren

My wedding dreams have come true...

The main source of my stress while planning our wedding was StyleMePretty.com. In my opinion, it is the go-to blog for wedding design. They feature weddings with all ranges of budgets, from completely DIY to wedding that were "designed" by an entire team of people. While I wouldn't call our wedding DIY, I did come up with all the design elements and created some of the decor on my own. I did not have a designer or a wedding planner, meaning at times I would feel really overwhelmed. But low and behold, StyleMePretty deemed our wedding worthy, and all my wedding dreams have come true.

You can check out the full post here!

And just so that I have some great photos on the blog, here are some of my favorites...

And my goodness, OUR FLOWERS...

The whole wedding ended up being so much better than I hoped it would be. All of my vendors exceeded my expectations and the result was something enchanting. 

Thanks to everyone who was a part of our special day! :)

Love,

Lauren

My First Sewing Project...

So remember when I said I wanted to make a ringbearer pillow? Well, I DID IT!!! I ended up using a different fabric than originally planned. The fabric featured in my first blog post is antique silk, and I was just too scared to eff it all up. So instead, I got this great vintage chenille and some pink pom poms. It's super cute, and luckily one of my nephew's favorite colors is pink.

First off, I got my first sewing maching. I'm pretty sure it is the cheapest sewing machine ever created, and I got it for under $50 at Joann's. (It was also obvious that it had already been used and returned). Look at this remarkable beauty...

It actually worked great for making a child-sized pillow, but I certainly wouldn't rely on it for anything too complicated. The hardest part was threading the bobbin. I still don't even really know what that means, but somehow I guessed how to do it, and I was correct. 

So then I took the following materials...

and made this little guy...

I really don't know how I instinctually knew how to make a pillow with trim. I didn't use a pattern or do any research, I just kind of sat at the kitchen counter for a while until I arrived a plan that seemed logical. Also, I have watched enough TLC (back in the trading spaces era) and HGTV that I may have absorbed some of the basics. Clearly, it's not perfect, and not all the corners match up, but I MADE IT so it's awesome!

To hold the rings, I am just going to tie an ivory ribbon around the pillow the day of. It's a little scary handing over a diamond ring to a 2 year old, but I will make sure it's tied on there nice and tight.

Love,

Lauren

Happy Birthiversary!...

So yesterday was both my 26th birthday and Thomas and I's 2 year anniversary. (Yes, our first date was on my birthday - mostly out of convenience). Given that this past summer has been filled with showers and gifts to celebrate our upcoming wedding, I wanted to keep it really low-key. Seriously, my friends and family have been so incredibly gracious and generous with all the events leading up to the big day, and I will never forget how good it made me feel. And so like I said, the last thing I wanted was to create another "event" that people had to go to FOR ME.

So here is what I DID do on my bday... Woke up and went to crossfit. And in case you're wondering crossfit is really freaking hard and intense, but it pays off. It makes every other workout seem irrelevant if you are trying to be a strong, fit person. And not strong, like bodybuilder strong, like climb a rope and do pull-ups strong. Anyway, after that mom and I headed down to the galleria to shop for rehearsal dinner dresses, and I picked up some bday loot along the way. We ended up spending wayyy longer than expected at the galleria, and ended up buying the first two dresses we tried on all day at Saks. We then came home and went to dinner at Mia Bella with my dad. It was great, even considering I am currently from a diet that restricts all things I love - ie. bread baskets.

Here are some of the goods I got for my 26th...

I already have these is denim, and I got another pair in army green. They're True Religion, and they have faux pockets on the front which is nice. Don't worry, I wholeheartedly agree that true religion is relatively douchey, but I just love how these pants fit. Also, they have a flat pocket on the back - no flap.

Aren't these so cute? I saw them in Kate Spade and pretty much bought them on the spot. I love the nostalgia of the mary jane, and think it's really cool that it's a flat. And that color... Very unexpected for Lauren Rocco.

By the way, I basically have the sweetest man ever. Even though we're spending money out the waz on the house and wedding right now, he still went out and got me a secret gift...

Thomas, if you're reading this (and you probably aren't), I love you so much and thanks for making me feel so special on my birthiversary!

And here is the present that I told Thomas he had to get me :)

It's a swivel vanity stool from Ballard Designs, and I can't wait to put it at my vanity in the master bathroom! It's so girly and unnecessary. I never had "girly" things in my room or bathroom growing up, so I love the feeling this little guy gives off.

In case you're wondering, yes I got Thomas gifts too! I got him a cowhide guncase for his handgun. Some guy in Giddings makes them, and they're sweeeeet. I also found him this gem at an estate sale...

Fresh & Salt Water Fishes of the World - 1983 ed.. As you can see, the pictures are awesome. I combined Thomas' love of fishing and my love of estate sales on this gift.

AND FINALLY... My best friend Jenny sent me the best thing ever. Because of my diet, I can't have cake or dessert, so she sent me a cupcake I can actually enjoy...

A flower cupcake! So cute! Thanks, jen!

So there is a recap of my birthday and my shopping. It's been a great 26 years, and I want to thank my parents for getting me this far. They're about to pass the bitton to Thomas, and it's going to be a wild ride :)

Love,

Lauren

You got new legs... new legs!...

As mentioned in my previous post, my dress fitting is on Saturday. And every day this week is like a "last chance workout". Yesterday, I walked the dogs for an hour, but other than that I forced myself to just lay low and not workout. Today, I ran for 45 minutes and did an hour long bootcamp style HIIT class. (High Intensity Interval Training). I've been really into to the classes at my gym the past few weeks because most of them incorporate resistance/weight training which I am incapable of doing on my own.

I've always kind of believed that focusing on cardio would make me skinnier in less time, but I am realizing now how much better of a calorie burn you get from incorporating weights. (this may seem like a no brainer to most of yall, but I guess I thought that if I built muscle, it would just push the fat our further :)). Also, while my weight hasnt dropped drastically, the last two weeks has been somewhat transformational. Today in my class, I realized how good my legs are looking... I've always had relatively lean legs, but now they are starting to look like they belong to someone who is really fit.

This is my fiancee, Susan...

PS - when searching for this image, I came across a band callen Lt. Dan's New Legs... and instantly laughed. You would assume this would be a group made up of snarky hipsters, but if you go to the site you will find something a little different.

In terms of diet, I am cutting out all sugar this week. Well, I am going to TRY to cut out all sugar. As soon as I made this decision, I realized how much sugar is in a lot of the "healthy" things that I eat: ie greek yogurt and granola bars. And to compensate for the no sugar, I went ahead and got a scoop of mac n cheese from Whole Foods for lunch.

380 calories/cup. Worth every bite.

To top it off, I am doing the Jillian Michaels at home detox. 

60 ounces of distilled water a day mixed with:

a bag of dandelion tea

1 tablespoon 100% cranberry - no sugar added

2 tablespoons lemon water

I'll keep y'all updated on my FINAL WEIGH IN! Jillian, please don't yell at me.

Love,

Lauren

6 days until my first (and only) fitting...

Next Saturday, I will be going to Stanley Korshak in Dallas to dry on my wedding dress for the first time. I saw my dress online before I even met Thomas, and kept it on my backburner ever since. A coworker was getting married and we were looking at dresses on the internet (good work ethic, I know). This dress must have JUST debuted on the runway, because when I went to try on dresses a year and half later it had finally just popped up in stores. Unfortunately, it also popped up in the first 5 pages of every bridal magazine and on the cover of Houston brides. Oh, and the home page of the designer's website. So yeah, if you pay attention to bridal magazines, you've probably seen it. I swear, I SAW IT FIRST!

Obviously, I don't want to give away too many details, but the main reason I love it so much is because its very formal and designer, but it blends perfectly with the relaxed atmosphere of the texas hill country.

These were my 2nd and 3rd place picks. Both by Vera Wang, although that is NOT the designer of my dress... 

The dress on top is AMAZING, and the one on bottoms is super feminine and abstract, but in the end Vera couldn't sway me from my love at first sight dress. Also, I would like to mention that designers need to stop using hungry 14 year olds for bridal modeling. For the first time in my life, I felt the dresses actually looked better on me than the models I had seen them on.

Love,

Lauren

The Hangover...

Thomas is at his bachelor party in New Orleans right now, and I am stuck in Tulsa with two dogs and no friends. (I do have friends but they're all working at Miss Jackson's). My extremely aggressive workout schedule has kept me busy and sleepy, so I haven't been too lonely with him gone. Anyway, my friends and I had decided to have the bachelorette party in New Orleans months and months ago. The boys decided to copy and then have it before ours. LAME. Luckily, both our dads are there too so I feel better about Thomas' safety and overall accountability. Plus, my dad has been sending me pictures of Thomas which is hilarious and awesome.

The guy I am going to marry normally looks like this...

But when he is in New Orleans, he looks like this...

Yeah, he plays the washboard now. And dresses like an REI model when he goes to bars.

Thanks, Dad, for the updates. I'm happy to know my special guy is having fun!

Love,

Lauren

Table letters...

I was at Hobby Lobby this week when I stumbled upon these filigree block letters. They were glossy lime green, but they have the same rustic feel to the letterpress on our wedding invitations. I was desperately searching my brain for a way to use these letters at our wedding and BAM! I have been trying to figure out for months how I want to do table numbers, and I decided I will just use these and do table letters instead. So I took the green letters, sprayed them with primer, gold spray paint, and then gold spray glitter. And here you have it... What table will YOU be seated at? :)

And here are the invitations that these letters tie in with...

Because I thought it was weird to put Thomas' monogram at the top of the wedding invitation seeing as it was being sent on behalf of my family... We changed things up and the top has "L&T" and it looks beautiful.

Love, 

Lauren

Wedding fitness...

I always assumed that when I got engaged, I would suddenly have what it takes to make myself magically skinny. I was partially right. I do have what it takes, but losing weight on purpose is next to impossible. When I moved to New York, I accidentally lost 20 lbs because I never worked out, and I was either a. too lazy to venture out to get food or b. I was too proud to go eat at a restaurant by myself. So easy. But now, I have been torturing myself for months and months with minor progress.

Here's the lowdown... I try to eat about 1200 calories a day, but about 3 times a week I am probably consuming more like 1400-1500 (mostly from my new addiction to frozen yogurt and my old addiction to tortilla chips). Not many calories, right? Now consider that I am working out like a MANIAC. While I was working, I was running over 3 miles 5x a week plus additional cardio. Now that I am unemployed (due to an upcoming relocation back to Houston), I am working out AT LEAST 2 hours a day of various exercises including running, boot camp, bikram yoga, spinning, and zumba. I am exhausted and starving basically every minute that I am awake. PS - I am sure it varies with every gym/instructor, but the zumba class I go to is wayyyy skanky (think "flirty girl fitness"). It's like one step away from being a pole dancing class. Anyone else experienced this?

My progress... I HAVE made progress. Since we got engaged, I have lost about 15 lbs, and gone down a size in every type of clothing. I really do feel like I have a lot to be proud of in terms of health and overall fitness, but I would like to lose another 15 lbs for the wedding. Not going to happen at this point, and I wish more than anything that I would have committed to improving my fitness a lot sooner than I did. So if you are a bride to be and hoping to shape up for your wedding, start as early as possible. Losing weight now is nothing like it was in high school, and realistically the most you can lose is about 1 lb per week. Do the math.

The best part... All my final sale GILT purchases that came in too small NOW FIT! Hello yellow strapless Tibi dress!

Love,

Lauren

Ringbearer pillow...

The overall color scheme for our wedding is blush pink, gold, nude, and ivory. We are also using mercury glass lanterns, so there will be hints of glowy silver as well. I have been thinking for a while about how I want to make the ringbearer pillow for my adorable nephew, and the other night I found this amazing vintage Japanese obi fabric on etsy... I really should call it "antique" because it's over 100 years old. 

And to make it more fun, I might add some pink pom poms for trim :) My nephew will just have to deal with it.

I am also considering using leftover fabric to make a runner to go over the back of the bride and groom chairs. Did I mention that I don't know how to sew?

Love,

Lauren