#LorynplusKyle

Today commemorates our one year anniversary. We made it! It was easy with the support of our family and friends. We bought a house and made it a home, we traveled, we own a doggie, we picked up golf together and we have so much fun being best friends every day. To close our wedding remembrance month of our hashtag #LoryplusKyle, here are some of our favorite pics from the day!

Showered with Love
Captured by Maggie Malone

Fitness Friday

Look at my progress on my #100till1yr goal! I only have 2 miles left and 2 days to do it in. I knew I could do it. It was a great way to challenge myself to get out there an move even if it was walking laps or walking a round of golf. It counts! I actually found out a co-worker does something similar, she tries to get 100 miles in every month and keeps track.

Try something similar, if 100 in a month is too much to start with (over 3 miles per day) try 50 miles to start. It gives you something to reach for.

Have a great Friday!

Mr. & Mrs.

Kyle and I are just about to hit our one year anniversary mark on September 21st. We both worked so hard to prepare for our wedding completing several crafts together but one of my favorite was our individual bride and groom favors. We each made a special gift to share with our  guests showcasing our favorite hobby. Kyle's being brewing beer and mine being baking.

 Kyle started brewing beer in college with his chemical engineering buddies. I'm sure it had something to do with how it reminds them of applying class methods to home hobbies. He started out buying kits from  Northern Brewer and has since graduated to purchasing grains and yeast separately to mimic his favorite favors using recipes on line. For our wedding, he brewed a a few batches of his favorite American IPA to bottle up to pass out as wedding favors at the end of the reception. He probably would have been fine leaving them plain jane on the table but I wanted to give them some personality so we purchased "Kyle+Loryn" bottle labels from Coast2CoastDesigns on Etsy. We labeled half of the bottles with the South Dakota outline for me and half with the Minnesota outline for where he is from. They were we'll received and quite delicious too.

I made cupcakes (of course). We placed one cupcake in individual cupcake boxes we found on Papermart.com. I made all of the cupcakes prior to leaving for Pierre a few days prior to our I do's. A few of my bridesmaids came up early as well and helped me frost and assemble the boxes. We had quite the assembly line going and were geeking out on industrial engineering methods and standards principles. We sprinkled each cupcake with orange sprinkles and tied bows around each box. We displayed these after the ceremony and guests were able to grab as many as they wanted as to snack on whenever they pleased.

Bridesmaids=best friends

My bridesmaids were the greatest. I had my little sister as my maid of honor, my brother's fiance (now wife) and Kyle's sister. I also had my three best friends travel in from California, North Carolina and Northern Minnesota to help me say my vows. They all obliged to wear orange bridesmaid dresses from JCrew that they never have to feel obligated to wear again and better yet they all were so helpful and beautiful.

To kick off the wedding week of festivities two of my girls helped me decorate over 200 cupcakes and box them up all pretty. When my sister got home from college Thursday night,  we had an impromtu bridal party, including a scavenger hunt and Zumba on Friday. It was a nice combination of a bachelorette party and a bridal shower. We made bedazzled t-shirts to wear for our Zumba class and then we went on a scavener hunt while listening to Queen Beyonce.

I asked all of my girls to wear flannels and leggings to get ready in on Saturday. I thought it fit the theme and I wanted everyone to be comfortable in case it got cold. It was a cute and casual choice and I thought everyone loved the simplicity of it--each girl was able to style it their own way while we still had a theme going.

My hair stylist and friend, Schelby, made the trip from Yankton to help do all of our hair. She made getting ready fun and everyone's hair looked so JCrew, just how I wanted it. I love Schelby and was so thankful she helped out. She is a great stylist at Xtreme Salon and Spa (shameless plug!)

The day flew by and I couldn't have asked for anything more from my girl friends. We will be friends and sisters forever! Check out our beautiful photos, shot by Shalista. 

Wedding Post: Cake Topper

Another DIY project we enjoyed doing together was the Cake Topper. We picked out wood pieces at Hobby Lobby to create a man and a woman. Kyle glued them together using a dowel pin and I hand painted our wooden doppelgangers to match our wedding garments. 

Disclaimer: I did not make my own wedding cake! And yes, it was not supported enough and the cake toppled over by the end of the night. We scraped some off the floor to freeze for our one year anniversary. 

Fitness Friday!

I'm on a roll and I hope you are too! I'm halfway to my goal of #100by1yr earning 20 miles so far this week as well as eating clean! I have been walking 2 miles during my lunch break around the half mile path at work. Since the weather has been gorgeous lately I don't have an excuse to not get those easy miles in.  Also this week I have been setting my alarm clock 30 minutes earlier to start training my body to wake up and move again in the. Ironing. So far I have just been able to do some stretching and morning yoga flows, but soon I'll be ready to wake up and hit the gym hard before work. This is one of my goals this fall-start working out in the morning. You are just so much more productive through the day and if you get your workout in right away you can't make an excuse later.  Even if you do just a little do something!

Wedding Post: Cream Cheese Wedding Mints

Who doesn't love wedding mints? I didn't until I tried the plain version. I am not a fan of mint flavor mixed with anything sweet. Chocolate covered mints from restaurants-gross. Maybe I'm weird. But my mom shared a wedding mint recipe with me that allowed you to flavor however you wanted so I set up shop to make wedding mints. A co-worker offered to help me and my mom also joined in to help finish the project. In total we made over 400 mints (guest list 150) and there was not a single one left! Okay, as the bride I snuck myself a special stash before to wedding to enjoy in case something like this happened and I didn't get to try them after the ceremony. We displayed them on my collection of cake pedestals for guests to munch while enjoying appetizers after the ceremony.  

The basic recipe is found below and you can add 1tsp flavor to the batch depending on how you want them to taste. I made plain, vanilla, orange, orange creamsicle, strawberry and strawberry cream. You have to get the hang of making mints but it is an easy rhythm to get into. Roll dough in small ball, dip in sugar, press in mold and push out onto wax paper to dry. Wedding mints are great because you can make them months in advance and put them in the freezer to save until you need them.