making it official

In order to be legit with this wedding we had to go to the courthouse, hold up our right hands and swear that we were not currently married to someone else -- among other things.  Because Chase and I both had to be present and we live in Dallas we got the license the day before our wedding.  Cutting it close.



But they were open, thank god, and we filled out our info, paid our $50 bucks and walked out with our marriage license...ready to get married.



And then, with all our friends as witnesses we signed this bad boy and made it official.





It was a little more complicated than we thought AND we probably should have done this before drinking all that wine and champagne.

kiss the bride

I wanted to share one of my favorite moments of our wedding ceremony, the kiss.

Chase and I had talked a little bit about the kiss and what we wanted to do, just so it wouldn't be awkward and we would bump heads or something.  We discussed a lot of different ideas...some really cheesy and some boring.  In the end we both liked the idea of Chase dipping me.  Its classic, romantic and sweet.  And so he did, and it was perfect.



This isn't the best angle to see the full on dip but you get the idea.

merry christmas

Wanting to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! To spread the cheer I thought I would share my favorite holiday commercial of this year that makes me think back to all the mornings growing up as a young kid.  Thanks Target for the fantastic commercial.



Enjoy the day!

may we have the rings please

I knew that our wedding day wasn't going to be perfect.  Despite all the hard work and planning I had put in, its never exactly how you plan it.  But I was okay with that...the only part I didn't like was not knowing when and where something was going to go wrong.  I didn't have to wait too long to find out.

The day had been a little hectic.  Our wedding was DIY and we didn't have a wedding planner so all the decorating we did ourselves.  Luckily my Mom was kick-ass and all my bridesmaids were awesome so it wasn't too crazy.  After decorating the ceremony venue and the reception venue I had to run back home and get all of things to get ready at the hotel.  Once we all got to the hotel time flew by.  We were rushed but nothing was overlooked or forgotten.

The ceremony started and we were all in our places.  I was getting word that Chase and all the guys were in place so it was almost showtime for me.  Once I started walking down the aisle I pretty much zoned in on Chase and forgot all about everything else around me.  The ceremony was going along very smooth, we said our vows which we had written and other than a little tears it was perfect.  Then it was time to exchange the rings.  This is where things got a little off plan.



Tim, our best friend and officiant, asked the best man for the rings.  I saw Charlie step back and put his hand in Tim's to pass the rings but I noticed nothing was actually exchanged.  No rings.  Then Tim slyly pulled off his own "wrench ring" (a ring made out of a small wrench that all the guys have) and put it in his hand and handed it to Chase.  As Chase repeated after Tim he slipped this wrench ring on my finger.  My real ring was nowhere in sight.  That's right, Charlie (best man) had left the rings in the car.  WE HAVE NO WEDDING RINGS.  But, we had to just go with it.  So after Chase put the ring on my finger I had to slip it off and use it as Chase's ring as well.  Whoops.



As it turned out, nobody in attendance even noticed.  Not even the bridesmaids.  So we pulled it off.  And after the ceremony Charlie ran out to the car to get the real rings and we said the vows over again and slipped on the real things.



Makes for one hell of a story.  If something had to go wrong, this I didn't mind at all.

Bedlam 2010

bedlam  noun  (bed′ləm)
A place or situation of chaotic uproar, and where confusion prevails.


In Oklahoma, college football rules the Fall and Winter season and at the end of every regular season Bedlam takes center stage.  Bedlam is the rivalry game between the state's top universities, The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.  Check out the elaborate definition and history of The Bedlam Series at Wikipedia, its actually quite interesting.


However, the only tidbit of information you really need to know is that Oklahoma currently leads the series 82-16-7.   The other interesting piece of information is that Chase and I are on opposite sides of the Bedlam rivalry, which leads to some pretty interesting game days.


This year Bedlam was only a few short days removed from our wedding so it was extra special and exciting.  And I must mention that Paisley (our dog) is an OU fan.  





We decided to ride to Stillwater for the game in style.





And I was forced to tailgate with a bunch of Pokes.





But we ended up with great seats for the game.  It turned out to be a total showdown.  Very exciting.





In the end, OU was victorious!!  OU:47 - OSU:41


Next stop...Big 12 Championship.

tis the season

It has been a family tradition of mine to always have real Christmas trees, none of that synthetic pre-lit stuff. I must admit last year we went the fake route, mainly because we weren't in Dallas much around the holidays.  Well this year, as a married couple, it was time to start our own traditions...which included a real Christmas tree.

We dedicated an entire Friday evening to finding, purchasing, and decorating our first Vincent family Christmas tree.  The first tree we found was a little too big for our house.



The second one we picked out was perfect. We actually got it at Whole Foods. Its organic. ha! We brought it home, mixed up some spiked egg nog and got to decorating.



It turned out SO good. Plus, the smell is amazing. Makes our entire house smell like Christmas.



And we added our stockings too.



Oh how I LOVE the holidays. Tis the season.

where I work

In addition to getting married 2 1/2 weeks ago I also made a job switch.  I know...crazy right. A lot of life changes happening all at once!  But they are good ones.

I now work for SixCubits which is a division of a local Dallas based advertising agency, Slingshot.  I first heard about and interviewed with Slingshot before making the move to Dallas so when this opportunity presented itself I was more than a little excited to make the move.

So far so good, I am really loving it.  Plus I am so excited to get back into an agency environment, the energy is unlike any other industry.

More to come...

mrs. vincent

Forgive me, please forgive me.  I know I have not posted in quite some time but I was busy, you know, getting married.

Last time I posted it was wedding week and I had just recovered from my wild and crazy fun bachelorette party.  The rest of the week went by like a blur!  So many appointments, errands, activities, diy projects and partying I couldn't catch my breath.  And then, before I knew it the wedding was happening.  And then, just like that, it was over.

The wedding was SO perfect.  It was a little hectic, and we had a few minor hiccups but overall it was fantastic.  Just how I had imagined it.  A little bit of nerves, some tears and lots of fun!

I will be posting some more specific wedding things once I get our pictures back but for now, enjoy this picture of Chase and I, as a newly married husband and wife!

photo taken by Simon Hurst Photography, taken at Oklahoma State Capitol

Wedding Week

It's finally here, wedding week.  I have four days left until the wedding.  Can you believe it?  Four days.


There is a lot to do this week.  I arrived in Oklahoma City from Dallas on Friday morning to kick off the festivities with my girls at my bachelorette party.  It was an absolute blast!  Dinner and drinks around the city...including limo service.



The rest of the week is about the details.  Lots of DIY projects, appointments, phone calls and last minute purchases.

I can't wait for Saturday to be here.  I am so excited to walk down the aisle and say "I do" to Chase.  I knew when we first met I wanted to be with him forever, so I have been waiting seven years to make it official!

Now its just about getting through the week and hoping nothing goes wrong.

4 days!

book review: eighteen acres

Eighteen Acres by Nicole Wallace

check it out on Amazon

I first heard about this book on Good Morning America while it was playing in the background during my morning routine about a month or so ago.  I thought it sounded pretty interesting and added it to my "books I want to read" list that I keep.  After I started another book and couldn't get into it I decided to go ahead and buy this one.

Its a great book.  Very easy to read and at only 336 pages it is also a very quick read.  Once I started it I couldn't put it down!

The book is about the White House Chief of Staff to the first ever elected woman president.  It is fiction, but it bases itself on the true structure of the US government and how things operate inside the eighteen acres that make up the White House compound.  What's also interesting is how it tells the story from the perspective of three different main characters so you get to interact on a personal level with more than one character.  And of course it throws in some commonalities with current political policies and decisions but not in a criticizing way which was nice.

I would highly recommend this book.  Its a fun, spicy, entertaining and easy read.  You know there is drama when a woman is running the country!

october 31st or as some call it, halloween

Now that the Halloween holiday has passed let's take a look back at how we celebrated this year.

It was the first Halloween in our Dallas home and while we were initially excited about making our porch extra creepy and handing out delicious candy to tons of cute dressed up kids we opted to head back to OKC to attend a friend's halloween party.

But...we definitely did a little bit of decorating and carved our first pumpkin together before we left town.





My parents and I handed out candy and had drinks on the front lawn while dressed up in costume.



And Chase and I headed to our halloween party as Clark Kent and Lois Lane, complete with The Daily Planet name tags.



All in all a pretty good Halloween.

Up next...OUR WEDDING!  and Thanksgiving and Christmas!  Crazy and exciting time.

I want to live here

Isn't this room beautiful.

I imagine it being inside this gorgeous craftsman bungalow home.

Its beginning to look a lot like fall

In the past week our house has transformed from full on Summer to leaves everywhere Fall.  Our front yard is filling up fast with the quickly turning leaves that are falling constantly from our two giant trees in the yard.  And I love it.

The colors are so bright and natural at the same time and seem to really compliment the front of our house.  A couple of weeks ago I purchased our pumpkins for the front porch and planted a new pot of fall flowers to add a touch of color.  I also threw in some fake spiders around the pumpkins and flowers.  Fake spiders are a must for halloween.

Doesn't our house look so cute?

wedding to-do list

My big ol' wedding binder is my only sanity during this ridiculously long planning process.  I keep almost everything wedding planning related in the binder and I check it often.  The most important piece of content in the binder?  The To-Do List of course!

If you don't know, I am a major list maker.  I make a work to-do list, a home to-do list, a life to-do list, a weekly dinner menu list, a list for any event or major activity that I might have, and many many more.  I even write "update to-do list" on my to-do lists.  Yep, I am an organizational weirdo!  So when it came time to start planning our wedding one of the very first things I did was start making a to-do list.  And thank god for that because if I couldn't look at that list 10 times a day I would explode with stress!

So what does this binder and to-do list look like you ask?  Well, check it out.

Simple and effective.  I actually purchased several pre-made wedding organizers and found that none of them had all the components I wanted and most of them had way too much crap that was just causing clutter.  I ended up deciding to skim through each, find the things I liked and then create my own version.  Cheaper and customized just for me and my planning needs.

Now, back to crossing things off that list.  I only have 29 days to go!

filming our wedding

One of the things Chase and I decided early on in our wedding planning was that we didn't need or want a videographer to video our ceremony or anything else. We thought it was unnecessary and an expense that didn't fit into our budget. BUT, we did want some footage to document the day and catch some of the special moments, so we came up with our own DIY idea. Flip cameras.

The idea is that we will have two flip hd cameras that will be passed around to different people who will be charged with getting some good footage of whats happening. To start the wedding day off, one camera will be with all the guys and one camera with all us girls-- to catch some of the hustle and bustle of the pre-ceremony time. Then we will hand them off to a couple people to get some film of the ceremony. Lastly, we will hand them off to a couple more people at the reception to capture whatever they want.

We think the more raw nature of this way of filming will be far more entertaining than a formal wedding video and much more our style. Plus, the cost is minimal. We even got a great deal on the cameras on Woot.com.

Did you hire a videographer to capture your big day? Or did you go another route like us?

The Great State Fair of Texas

Right now the Texas State Fair has dropped anchor in Dallas...about a mile away from our house. We were lucky enough to experience the State Fair on two occasions, once for the OU/TX game and once for our fried food extravaganza.  Lets talk more about the fried food.



The Texas State Fair is known for its outrageous fried food creations and they even have a special "Texas Fried" map to show you where all the fried food locations are.  We set out last Wed night to experience all that the fried gods had to offer us.  So, I present to you the fried food menu...


First up- the Fried Margarita. This is made up of funnel cake bread soaked in tequila then fried, put in a cup, tequila poured over the top and whip cream. It was just okay.



Next- Fried Peanut Butter, Jelly and Banana sandwich. A basic pb&j, add banana, fried and topped with powdered sugar. SO yummy but pretty heavy. A must to share this one with someone.



And next- Fried beer. Yes, you read that right. Fried beer. It won for most creative in the fair food competition. It was disgusting. We both had to spit it out. Imagine a pocket of cardboard tasting dough filled with beer then flash fried. Gross.



Next up on our trip o' fried food- a good old fashioned corn dog. But with a twist...jalapenos and cheese on the inside. Topped with mustard of course. This was yum, as always.



And then we took a venture away from the fried food and had some cold beer, nachos and cotton candy with a game of pop the ballon with a dart (that I won!). More pictures for your enjoyment.





I can only imagine the amount of calories we took in that night but it was well worth it. We had an absolute blast and most of the food was pretty darn tasty. Until next year...bye bye state fair.

exploring the metroplex: rusty taco

After a very fun and tiring state fair/OU-Texas game weekend Chase and I were ready for a lazy Sunday.  Part of our lazy Sunday included some grocery shopping, fun World Market shopping and a nice yummy lunch out.  For our eating adventure we chose to check out a new street taco place called Rusty Taco.  Yum!

The place is an old gas station/car repair shop turned very cool and mechanic inspired taco restaurant.  The patio is huge and the main indoor dining area becomes outdoor when you open up the two old garage bay doors.

Plus, the price was right.  The tacos are just $2.  They also serve beer and frozen margaritas.

And even better, the food is delicious.

If you are in Dallas, I recommend you check this place out for a casual, cheap and tasty dining experience.

Wedding Traditions: The First Look

There are a lot of wedding traditions that Chase and I will not be doing...mostly because they just aren't our style.  One of the newer traditions that we didn't agree on skipping is the first look.  Turns out Chase is old school on this one.

I know a lot of people who said seeing each other just before the ceremony was so great because it helped calm nerves and it was also a nice intimate moment to have before being displayed in front of hundreds of people.  Some couples and wedding parties even took the group pictures before the ceremony so they wouldn't have to do it afterwards and delay getting to the reception.  I brought up all these points to Chase, they didn't phase him.

As it turns out, Chase is old school.  He doesn't want to see me until I start to walk down that aisle.  Its sweet, I know.  And romantic.  And I appreciate it, I do.  But a part of me still wishes we could have our own private moment, one last time, before we are a married couple.  But...I guess I should give him this one.  Its the only real thing he has had a strong opinion on during the entire planning process.

And because we won't have some cute first look pictures I thought I would share some of these adorable moments.

45 days and counting...

its almost october

Can you believe it?  Incredible.  The summer absolutely flew by and now its almost October.  And I LOVE October.

I absolutely adore the cool crisp October mornings.  A little bit of dew on the ground, leaves turning slightly orange, smell of fresh fall air.  They are absolutely perfect.

October is the real beginning of football season.  When teams start their conference games instead of the weak and often boring beginning of the year games.  Its also OU Texas which is one of the greatest rivalries and storied games in college football.  And now I live only a couple miles away from all the action.

Its my birthday!  Yep, October 14th.  I will be 26 years old.  Wow...only 4 years from 30. gulp.  But I still love my birthday and I love getting together with friends to celebrate.



Primetime TV is back!  If you know me at all then you know I am obsessed with my tv shows.  And now they are all shiny and new and fun again.

Its less than 2 months until my wedding day.  2 months!  Yowza!  But I can't wait.

Ahh, how I am in love with October.