Weekly Paleo Meal Plan + Creamy Avocado Chicken Salad

What a BEAUTIFUL weekend!! We're building a deck right now (LOL - getting a deck BUILT, the idea of me building a deck is hilarious). Since the dogs/no one could use the backyard, we spent a lot of time outside and I took some fun pix which are at the bottom of the post because I'm obsessed with my dogs. For now, meal plan:

Breakfast for the week: Smoothies. I asked for suggestions last week and Jess had a great suggestion which I will be trying:

Lunch for the week: I made this taco soup recipe a few weeks ago and had SO much leftover at the end of the week that I froze it and am eating it for lunch this week! Yay for saving time!

Monday Dinner:

Easy Sausage & Squash

Tuesday Dinner:

Gaspacho!!! (Please excuse the !!!!s, I'm just REALLY PUMPED that it's finally gaspacho weather)

Wednesday Dinner:

Grilling burgers (recipe coming!)

Thursdsay Dinner: 

Bacon Basil Tomato Pasta (subbing squash noodles for pasta)

Friday Dinner: Oh! I'll be lounging on the beach in Florida for my friend's bachelorette party! No cooking for me!

Desserts: 

• Dark Chocolate Pudding
• Cadbury Mini Eggs (ok not Paleo at all but I gotta live a little and I bought ~10 bags since each bag cost $.25)

Snacks: 

• Fruit, fruit, more fruit.
• Plantain Chips from Trader Joe's

Here's a recipe I tried last week and really enjoyed. I call it chicken salad, Harrison calls it chicken guacamole, potatoes potahhtoes:

Creamy Avocado Chicken Salad

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 0 mins (hey hey! I know you like that!)

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• 2 ripe (aka brownish blackish) avocados, peeled and diced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• Juice of one lime
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 teaspoons ground sea salt
• 1 teaspoon cumin

Mix it all together. Eat it. Love it. Harrison dipped chips in it because he feels this is simply guacamole, I ate it plain.

And now for some Andi and Ziggy enjoying spring, which we all thought was going to skip over DC this year. AREN'T THEY PERFECT?!?! PS I constantly post pix of my dogs on Insta if you're into that kind of thing. 

Wednesday Workout: Spring Training

I'm not sure why I said "Spring Training", as if I'm training for something really official and cool. I AM planning on a fall half marathon with my friend Stephanie - anyone have ideas for good east coast halves to run? Preferably with costumes? (Ok, costumes are not required but definitely an added bonus). For now I'm just training for me - for the last months I was killing it for this damn wedding (kind of for me, kind of not), and it feels good to just be working to feel good.

Sidenote: Lindsay with goals like "feel good" usually result in Lindsay at happy hour every day because it's spring and what feels better than drinking a cocktail outside! so we'll see how this one goes. I know I need real goals (shoutout to my small group!) and I'm working on it. More on that later.

Anyway. Here are some of my favorites lately:

Running: Winter is finally over which means it is time to get the heck outside!! I've been looking for ways to spice up my runs and lo and behold, Kelly posted her track workouts and interval runs over the last month- thank you! PS just reading the words "interval run" make my stomach turn- cross country flashbacks.

Millionaire Hoy (duh). I'm digging his 35 minute 500 calorie workouts. I know it's unlikely that I'm actually burning 500 calories but it breaks a good sweat.

Yoga by Candace, especially this video with binds. There was daily yoga at our resort in Mexico, and I was the only who showed up TWICE. The instructor helped figure out these binds and now I'm all about it. This is coming from someone who could hardly reach their arms behind their back 2 months ago.



Intense Barre Workout with Lauren Hefez: Her energy! Oh my. How this girl smiles and laughs through the whole thing is crazy to me. But it works!



Yoga Life Fit with Becca: I love her "creative vinyasa flows". I'm only using quotation marks because I'm not quite sure what "creative vinyasa flow" means but I'm down with it.

Weekly Paleo Meal Plan + AMAZzzz Paleo Veggetable Soup

Mann what a weekend! Easter! Sports! Beer watching sports! More sports! More beer watching sports! I'm not a huge fan of the NCAA tournament because it brings back traumatic childhood memories of being a die-hard Jayhawks fan and writing tear-stained diary page after page about how this time I won't recover from our loss, we truly deserved to go all the way this year and life is so unfair and if the Jayhawks can't have the title then what is left to believe in. (direct quotes from my 5th grade diary. I did in fact have a swift recovery that year as the entry two days later weighed my future husband options: Taylor Hanson or Lance Bass or Paul Pierce?).

Anyway, onto le weekly meal plan:

Breakfast for the week: Hearty Breakfast Casserole / Green Smoothies (I'm getting bored with my smoothies...suggestions for new smoothie recipes please!)

Lunch for the week: Slow Cooker Picadillo 

Monday Dinner: BLT Breakfast Salad, because LOOK AT THIS

Tuesday Dinner: Sweet Potato Burgers (subbing a few ingredients, updated recipe to come)

Wednesday Dinner: Breakfast for dinner! Trying out some paleo pancake and/or waffle recipes - anyone have suggestions for this??

Thursday Dinner:  Paleo Gnocchi (Hi can someone please tell me the correct way to pronounce this? I love it. I love to eat it at restaurants. When I order it at restaurants I'm always like "I want the nock-eyyy, wait I mean neeyokeyy I mean..sorry I'm simple" and everyone is like:

Friday Dinner: Leftovers

Desserts: Banana Cake, dark chocolate (72% or higher cocao)

Snacks: almonds, veggies, fruits, sweet potato chips.


Ok so I read this New York Times article and at first panicked that I'm going to die or my body will turn 80 in approximately 6 years because I love meat so much (I'm an end-of-the-world type thinker), then got a reality check and decided to just try to stop relying so much on meat and incorporate some more plant-based meals into the meal plan. Last week I made this vegetable soup that turned out DELICIOUS and really filling and packed with 1000000 servings of vegetables (I measure servings loosely):

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 6 hours (set it and forget it in my new crockpot)

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

• 3 stalks of celery, sliced ($.50)
• 1 package of frozen green beans (15 oz) ($2.00)
• 1 package of frozen peas (12 oz) ($1.50)
• 4 carrots, chopped ($1.50)
• optional: 14 oz navy beans ($1.00)
• 2 zucchini sqashes, chopped ($1.50)
• 32 oz vegetable broth ($2.30)
• 1 14 oz can of tomato sauce ($1.00)
• 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes ($.1.00)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoon minced dried onion
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (this came out pretty spicy so maybe lay off on this a little - easier to add more later)

Throw all the ingredients in the crockpot for 6-7 hours, then enjoy veggies like you've never enjoyed them before.

I need suggestions: plant-based meals/blogs, paleo pancakes/waffles, and smoothie ideas. HELP!

How to: Wedding Registries

Welcome to wedding class, today we will be discussing a part of wedding planning that is extremely fun but a bit difficult if you are clueless like myself.

At the beginning of this whole wedding planning process I had a conversation like this:

Feminist Lindsay: But why should people give me gifts? No one gave me a gift when I got a job? No one gave gifts when I got a promotion? And what about all the successful people who don't get married - what a horrible message! You get married - you get presents! You have babies - more presents! Success in life - no one cares!
Friend: We got a Vitamix from our registry.
Me: What was I saying about registries again?

So, here we are with a wedding registry and here's how we did it:

1. After reading about Kelly's experience I decided to do all the registering online.

2. I love when my friends have Honeyfund registries because I like the idea of giving an experience (or buying their drinks!) so we set up a Honeyfund which took all of 10 minutes (something easy in wedding process! Thank you!). The site is super helfpul with plenty of sample registries on their homepage and constant communication so you know what the heck you're supposed to do next, if you did something wrong, and how to fix it.

3. Next I found this incredibly helpful checklist of everything you could possibly want to register for on TheKnot and basically copied and pasted all of it into a spreadsheet (spreadsheet was totally unnecessary but Excel serves as a security blanket for me).

4. Then I embarked on some obsessive intense research on the products we were registering for. First I checked Consumer reports and Good Housekeeping Product Reviews, and once I narrowed down our lists I checked Amazon reviews for these products and picked the highest reviewed products. This was really time consuming but I want to have most of these things for the rest of my life! And I've taken the work out of it for you and posted the top products below.

5. Next, we registered on Macy's because what doesn't exist at Macy's (answer: turns out a lot of things)?

6. Then, we set up our registry on Amazon (sidenote: Amazon has everything Macy's has but cheaper, however not all guests completely understand Amazon so we registered at both). My favorite feature of Amazon registry was that you can stalk other people's registries who have registered for similar products! Genius!

7. Once the registries went live I kept my eye on both to make sure we had plenty of gifts at each price point (you should always have plenty of $20-50 gifts, $50+, then some big ticket items).

8. As gifts came in, I checked the cards/gifts/gift receipts with the online thank you managers in case there were any discrepancies (for example: any gift classified as an electric from Macy's only shows up as "electric" on the thank you manager, not the specific item they got you). I tracked any confusing things in a Googledoc.

These are some highlights from our registries (based on my psychotic research), feel free to check out our registries for inspiration here:

Amazon:

Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Vacuum (NV370) - bye bye allergies! and pet hair anywhere!! And everything I hate about vacuums (this weights like 8 lbs and basically whispers). We use this as a duster (it has an attachment to essentially vacuum all your furniture), vacuum and broom.

Miracle Blade III 16 Piece Knife and Block Set  - I've fantasized about having my own set of these puppies since that infomercial in the 90's where the guy throws a pizza box in the air and SLICES THE BOX IN HALF IN THE AIR.

Vidalia Chop Wizard- YOU CAN MINCE AN ENTIRE ONION IN 60 SECONDS.

CQ Wellness Tri-Blade Vegetable Spiral Slicer, FDA Approved - shoestring sweet potatoes every. single. night. for the rest of our lives. till death do us part.

Vivere Double Hammock with Space Saving Steel Stand, Oasis - can't wait to use this, assuming warm weather ever shows its face again.

Flowtron BK-15D Electronic Insect Killer, 1/2 Acre Coverage - bye mosquitoes!

Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus 850-Watt Juice Extractor - Because drinking champagne with store-bought OJ is for peasants (haha). And we are trying to stay healthy and I saw a doc on Netflix that convinced me juice is the answer to life's problems.

Samsonite Silhouette Sphere 25" Spinner - Bright colors, lifetime warranty, SPINNY WHEELS.

Vitamix Professional Series 750 Blender  - I used the very official research survey method of survey via Facebook and Vitamix came out the winner due to its metal blades, easy-to-cleanness, and I once had "ice cream" made with no dairy and avocados that felt like ice cream at a Costco demo. Here is a chart that compares the different Vitamix series, and this interactive chart allows you to compare Vitamix, Blendtec and Ninja.. If this insane price is too much of a deterrent, Amazon also offers certified refurbished Vitamix for a fraction of the price. Also I know a lot people out there who have a Blendtec and swear by that too (it is about half the price of a new Vitamix).


Macy's

Dansk Flatware 18/10, Classic Fjord II 5 Piece Place Setting - My research says register for 8 place settings, 18/10 is the hardness you want, make sure there are no crevices/hard to clean areas, and that the silverware is ONE piece

Fiesta Dinnerware - no chip warranty, easy to clean, amazing reviews everywhere. We got all white dishes since we are bahhhring, with bright colored pitchers and ramekens. 

Crock-Pot SCCPVL619-S-A Programmable Cook & Carry with Little Dipper Warmer, 6 Qt - A LOCKING LID (praise the crockpot gods for that one), a programmable timer that automatically switches to warm, dishwasher safe, and how damn cute is that little dipper.

Hoover Air Purifier - Because allergies

Anolon Advanced Bronze Cookware - Everything I read said this is best or 2nd best. So far sticky food hasn't stood a chance against these, and it no longer appears that I have lit the kitchen on fire every time I cook.

Martha Stewart Collection Plush - I conducted my own hands-on field research for these which included me going to Macy's and touching every single towel. Harrison's first-hand review: "These are fucking luxurious".

What are your favorite kitchen/household items? What brands have you had good experiences with? 

Spring Running Clothes

Well well well, look who finally decided to show up to the party? Hello, spring, I thought you'd keep us waiting until JULY OR SOMETHING. This is my favorite time of year to run outside, and the key to running at this time of the year (in DC at least) is layers. It can be a lil frigid in the shade and as soon as you hit your stride in the sun you are rapidly melting into an Alex Mack puddle. Or when I step out I'm like "oh brr it's like 55 lemme put on long sleeves" and 1 mile in I'm about to have a heat stroke. Here are some of my favorite affordable running clothes this spring (sidenote - I like running in capri leggings because when I start feeling hot, as long as my shins can breathe I can survive):

$13 Champion Women's Absolute Workout Jacket on Amazon

$12.99 FOREVER 21 Side Pocket Capri Leggings

 $7.48 @ Target: C9 Champion® Plus Size Long Sleeve Power Workout Tee  (crew neck! CREW NECK! V necks kill me on runs for some reason)

$9.98 @ Target: C9 Champion® Women's Long Sleeve Yoga Tee 

$14.99 @ Target: C9 Champion® Women's Knee Legging 

$17.99 @ Kohl's: Tek Gear® Core Lifestyle Full-Zip Yoga Hoodie - Women's (they have a trillion colors but I always like the brightest because I run at night a lot too - safety first, people!)

$13.99 @ Kohl's:  FILA SPORT® Workout Tee - Women's

I also always keep my eye on Zulily which new daily sales often including athletic wear- the only thing with Zulily is that if you like something you gotta get it now. I've seen things I like and been like "ok I'll buy it when I get home" and by the time I get home the sale is over or the item is sold out. Today they have a CW-X sale with these gems:

Zulily also has Trespass today featuring lots of pullovers and zip ups like this one:

Question: In browsing 10 different athletic clothing retailers, why was there only one woman of color modeling the clothes? I also had a hard time finding plus size options that are the quality (sweat wicking) and price of the non-plus size. Do they think that plus size women and non-white women don't exercise? Has anyone else noticed this? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE?  ::mini rant done::

Another question: Where do you buy spring clothes? Do you layer up? 

Weekly Paleo Meal Plan + Paleo Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Ohhh Monday, back so soon? I know I'm late but this weekend I finished The Jinx - anyone else out there totally creeped out by the end of the last episode?? Not so much the oops-I-left-my-mic-on-in-the-bathroom confession but the burping. What was with the burping??? And the talking to himself? And now he's in jail (again) but is he just going to get right out of it (again)? Also these memes are killing me, especially this one:

Onto this week's meal plan:

Breakfast for the week:

• Casserole
• Green Smoothies

Lunch for the week:

• Leftovers
• Crockpot Taco Soup (recipe coming soon pending taste test)

Dinners:

• Monday Dinner: Trader Joe's Turkey Burgers 
• Tuesday Dinner: Italian Stuffed Peppers
• Wednesday Dinner: Spring Vegetable Soup
• Thursday Dinner: Roasted Veggie Bowl (sub cauliflower rice for the white rice)
• Friday Dinner: Cook out!! Spicy Turkey Burgers (recipe coming soon)

Snacks and Dessert:

• Deviled eggs
• Fruit
• Almonds
• No Bake Paleo Cookies

Last week I planned to make my Italian Stuffed Peppers but apparently blacked out at the grocery store on Sunday and didn't buy the right ingredients, so Mexican Stuffed Peppers it is (I left them in the oven a little long so the final picture is super wrinkly but tastes good!):

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins (maybe less if you don't want a wrinkly pepper)

Ingredients:

• 4 Bell Peppers
• 1 lb lean ground turkey
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 Tablespoon Cumin
• 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
• 1 Tablespoon Garlic Salt
• 1 Teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 jalapeno, minced and seeded
• 1-14 oz can diced tomatoes with chilis  
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (less if you're not a garlic fanatic like us)
• Guacamole (I used this recipe, but sometimes just buy it at the grocery store)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the tops off the bell peppers, including the seeds, and trim out the ribs.

Season the turkey with the cumin, chili powder, garlic salt, sea salt and pepper and cook in a large frying pan with the chicken broth over medium-high heat for 10 mins or until the meat is cooked. Add the garlic and onion and cook for about 3 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes, mixing them well with the meat mixture.

Set the bell peppers onto a baking sheet and scoop the meat mixture into the peppers. I packed the meat down to fit as much as possible inside. Heat them in the oven for 25-30 minutes. When they're done, scoop guacamole on top and serve!

Linking up at DDT

Budget Bathing Suits

Yesterday was 45 degrees and rainy, so instead of doing much work I decided to spend the day planning for sunnier days aka summer aka a million years from now apparently. Step 1: find a bathing suit. Every season I buy one bottom and/or one top at Target because, well, Target bathing suits. However I recently discovered Asos (thanks Charisse!) dresses which led to Asos bathing suits which led to me realizing that other places make affordable bathing suits that fit! What!

Random sidenote: when I was looking for honeymoon bathing suits I was like hey I should get all bridal and get a white bathing suit! But on my budget I'm not about to buy a bathing suit I can't wear more than once, and I had this kind of sad/weird realization: I don't really think there's ever going to be a point in life again in which I will be tan enough for a white bathing suit because, well I'm a grown up. It seems like a small thing, but high school and college Lindsay tanned for sport in the summers. Confession: in college I may or may not have scheduled classes around prime rays (shout out to the other sun worshippers who know that's 11 am - 1 pm!). (I hate college Lindsay too.) When I went to the pool or beach I'd wear SPF 8 suncreen (with tanning oil) for like 1 day and then go sans-sunscreen the rest of the season. These days, a much more aware Lindsay wears SPF 30-45 AT MINIMUM. Never anything less because I'll be damned if I'm spending half my paycheck every month on organic food to ensure a long healthy life and then end up with freaking skin cancer because I wanted to look like I stayed on the grill 10 minutes too long. And also that whole full-time job thing prevents me from basking in the prime rays on the reg. So basically bathing suit shopping led me to a realization that, even though I generally feel like a child in a suit, I am in fact growing up. Anyway.

Onto the bathing suits, here some of my favorites, I love all the different shapes and styles (and price tags):

Can we talk about one-pieces? I've seen them everywhere, and they're not our mama's one pieces either. I don't know if I could pull some of these off but I love them:

$26 from ChicNova (real question: do you wear double sided tape with this?)

$54 from Target

$20 from Asos

$70 from Asos (I may just leave my price range and my comfort zone for this one)

Let's talk about Asos really quick: free (2 day) shipping, free returns, extremely good prices, extremely cool clothes. I ordered 7 white dresses from Asos for my rehearsal dinner, tried them on, picked one, put the rest in the return envelope, and dropped them in the mail dropbox down the street from my house. It is too easy. And too cheap. And too great of clothes. Asos Curve is their plus size line that is off the charts (bathing suits too!). I'm not getting paid by them to talk about them, I just want everyone to know because when I got my first order from them I was like WHY didn't anyone tell me about this? And my friend Charisse was like I HAVE been telling you about this and I was like WHY don't I listen the first time?

Also - Target has lowered their free shipping minuimum to $25, and you now have 365 days to return some items. While all of this is exciting, it is extremely dangerous for my online shopping habit which seems to be spinning out of control.

Where do you find affordable bathing suits?

Hearty Paleo Breakfast Casserole!

Confession: I'm a dance mom at heart, and Harrison (hey new husband!) has been selected by Realtor Magazine and National Association of Realtors as a finalist for top 30 realtors in the country under 30 and they are currently running a web poll- please take a sec to vote here (bonus- they don't ask for any personal info!). I feel like I'm the ultimate dance mom of this competition, like I'm standing in the audience mouthing every word to the song as Harrison performs on stage. 

Now on to breakfast!

I've been burned out on eggs lately, like the kind of burned out that's like if I even see an egg I'm going to gag. This happens to me every few months with eggs and chicken, and it is a strange occurrence for the girl who only ate macaroni and cheese, quesadillas, and pizza for over a decade of life (I wasn't really one for adventure back in the day). I switched back to green smoothies every morning for about a month and now I'm back on the egg train with this delicious breakfast casserole. Also this is the response it got from Harrison so it comes recommended:

Yes we went parasailing in Mexico and yes I love plays on words. No I'm not a Sarah Palin fan

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins
Servings: 10

Ingredients

• 1 sweet potato, spiralized ($.80) (I used my brand new spiralizer) 
• 12 large eggs, beaten ($4.00)
• 1 package Al Fresco Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage (I get mine at Wal-Mart, or your choice of sausage) ($5.00)
• 2 Cups Spinach ($2.00)
• 1 white onion, diced ($.90)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the sausages in half to remove the meat from the casing. Cook the meat over medium-high heat for about 10, then add the onions, garlic, and peppers and continue cooking until meat is cooked all the way through and onions are translucent.

Spray some non-stick spray on an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish (I use a $10.99 Pyrex Easy-Grab 8" Glass Dish with Lid- yay for a lid that fits!). Layer the sweet potato pieces on the bottom of the pan,  then sprinkle some salt and pepper on top of the sweet potato, then add a layer of spinach. Now layer the meat/onion/pepper/garlic concoction to the spinach. Now, evenly pour the eggs on top of the concoction and heat for 40 minutes (or until completely cooked) and voila! Enjoy!

And don't forget to vote, I'll be here dance momming until Friday:

Linking up with DDT and Turn it Up Tuesday

Tips for planning an alternative wedding ceremony

One of my favorite parts of our ceremony was our champagne toast! Captured by Penelope Anne Photography

Personalizing a wedding ceremony was a big task for us because a) I wanted it to represent who we are/what we're about; b) you have one shot to get it right; c) 200 people...; d) I really, really, really didn't want it to be typical or dull or eye rolling; and e) I tend to go a bit overboard and end up with an end product that is either tacky or involves me crying the whole time (see: emotional hot mess). In the end, it turned out perfect. I don't know if anyone was rolling their eyes but I felt great about our ceremony and felt it really represented Harrison and me (annnd I only cried a teeny tiny bit).

SO! These are my tips/a few things that would have ruined everything if we hadn't done:

1) Decide what is important to you in the ceremony/what you want to be represented.
For us, we wanted people to leave knowing that we are about serving God, our choice to love each other (and the things that go into choosing love), home, family, and of course a lot of freakin fun.

2) Research other alternative wedding ceremonies for inspiration.
Because traditional weddings are so engrained in my head, I had a hard time thinking outside the box. Enter: Pinterest! I found this article from A Practical Wedding and this Huffington Post article helpful and good to get my brain jogging in the right direction.

3) Write out your ceremony- in painstaking detail.
Since most vendors have done 1000000000 very traditional weddings, it's important that everyone has every detail. It's not like our's was sooo crazy or different, but there were a few things that our vendors weren't used to. Here's what our's looked like:

Time		People	Details
5:15 PM	Doors Open, music playing	caterers, DJ	make sure champagne table is set by 5:15, confirm time
5:35 PM	Family gets escorted to seats	1) Cory w/Deb 2) Ken w/Sheila 3) Herb w/Pearl	HB goes to stage
5:38 PM	Everyone takes their place, ___ removes string that is blocking aisle	Bmaids groomsmen, HB, LT & Craig	Family Matters theme song
5:45 PM	Father Kemp and HB take place in front - Herb joins from front	Father Kemp, HB, Herb	Herb will hang out to the side after he drops off Pearl
5:46 PM	Father Kemp announces no cameras
5:48 PM	Processional	Bmaids, Gmen	So Good To Me - Chris Malinchak
5:52 PM	LT and Craig come down the aisle	LT and Craig	Hard to Concentrate - RHCP
5:54 PM	Intro from Father Kemp	Father Kemp
5:55 PM	Father Kemp reads "A Poem of Friendship" Nikki Giovanni	Father Kemp
6:00 PM	Cory and Tricia speak	Cory and Tricia	Reading their piece on "choosing love"
6:05 PM	Father Kemp talks more	Father Kemp
6:08 PM	Vows	LT and HB
6:12 PM	Closing Prayer	Father Kemp
6:14 PM	First kiss
6:15 PM	Champagne Toast		caterers serve champagne - Meg T serve champagne to wedding party
6:16 AM	Presentation of the couple	Father Kemp
6:17 PM	Processional	Bridal party	End of Time- Beyonce

4) Run your write-up by a few people who have wedding experience.
Sometimes no one does these things at their weddings because it's a bad idea. Case in point: I originally had my heart set on a candle ceremony where the whole audience lights candles blah blah blah. Our officiant (also a friend and also a priest who has probably done hundreds of weddings) suggested we check with the venue to make sure open flames are allowed annnd... sure enough they aren't. There were a few other logistically impossible ideas I had in the original timeline and thank goodness for our amazing good great friend who is also a wedding planner who talked me off the ledge on a few things. It's important to get other people's feed back ...

5) ...but at the same time, KNOW what you want and be ready to be firm about it.
For whatever reason with weddings everyone thinks they need to give their opinion about everything you're doing, and let me tell you- I'm a people pleaser if I've ever met one. But let me be clear, when I am hemorrhaging my own money on something I WILL get what I want. A few people tried to talk us down from a few elements or convince us to change things around (but why wouldn't you just do what they do at all the other weddings?), and it was important to remember that they mean well and what they're sharing is just their opinion. And that there is a 0% chance that you're going to please everyone in the planning process and about a 0% chance that anyone is going to end up feeling displeased at the wedding.

6) Trust your people
Hi my name is Lindsay and I am Type A. Is my brother going to remember to prepare something to read? Is the planner actually going to get the champagne to us? Is the caterer going to remember to put out the champagne before the ceremony? Are people going to pay attention and grab champagne? What if... what if... what if...

Guess what. These people get paid for a reason. And everyone cares. And everything works out. And if anything didn't work out I didn't even notice.

Those are my tips for planning a ceremony - anything I'm missing? What are some non-traditional elements you've seen or done at a wedding?

P.S. How amazing is that picture? Our photographer (and friend we met on a cruise) was so amazing, there was never a moment that I was like "WHERE'S THE PHOTOGRAPHER SOMEONE GET THIS", and guess what? Flying her in from Florida was half the price of any DC photographers I saw. She travels, she's amazing, she's affordable, check her out (or just go to her site and swoon over her other pictures).

P.S.S. The Penny Hoarder just came out with this article on 101 Creative Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding . Yes please.


Check back next Friday for more budget wedding tips!