DIY dudes.

men love to gripe about all things wedding related*, but when it comes down to it, the good ones are willing to roll up their sleeves, grab a glue gun and help. a couple photos colbs and i recently swapped of our men working on the wedding.

here's jake helping spray paint their favor boxes late one night...

 

...and danny measuring and cutting lace after a trip to the fabric store. 

colbs, these boys must really love ya. 

*funny lil story. at one point during colby and jake's engagement, danny and i were out to dinner and of course i was telling him the latest about her wedding progress, the bridal shower, bachelorette party or who knows what else, when he simply grabbed my hand from across the table and said, "i love you, but if you talk any more about this wedding tonight i think i'm actually going to cry."

my best friend's wedding.

in may 2010, jake took colby for a horseback ride in north scottsdale and popped the question with a sparkly ring. i was so honored that jake chose to include me and danny in such an important weekend in their lives. after she said yes, the four of us celebrated all weekend - it's one i'll never forget.

for the past fifteen months i've been by colbs' side as she venue hunted, researched flowers, looked for the perfect wedding and bridesmaid dresses, DIY'd until our backs hurt, poured over wedding blogs, laughed at an invitation oops, kept Michaels and SAS Fabrics in business and we've talked every.single.day about how wonderful october 1, 2011 is going to be.

well, the time has finally come! we're flying to san diego today for colby and jake's wedding weekend. the weather forecast looks perfect and there's no doubt it's going to gorgeous and an absolute blast.

i love wedding weekends. i mostly can't wait to spend all saturday with colbs and the girls getting ready for the big day. lisa working on the flowers, fun music in the background, ashton pouring lots of mimosas, donna doing our hair, tiffany cracking us up, and all the girls ooing and awwwing over the beautiful bride as she gets gussied up and slips into her wedding dress. i'm lucky enough to know what that feeling is like, so i can't wait for colbs to experience it. the excitement and nerves all mixed into one. knowing that pretty much everyone you love is in one place for the first - and perhaps - the last time... and they're all there for you.

hope your weekend is also filled with 
family, friends and a whole lotta love.

lover of light.

this past week's photography class focused on light and that magical golden hour - about an hour after the sun rises and the hour before the sun sets. you know, the time when everything just glows and looks so pretty. it was my favorite homework assignment yet. 

scottie & fay.

Scottie and Fay are visiting from Florida. They're lifelong friends - in fact we consider them family.

They're both 81, can you believe it? They look so much younger! We really enjoy our time with them. 

We've spent a couple nights together chatting with Scottie about his travels in Italy and hearing stories about Vicky from her younger years. Oh, and I quickly caught on to Vicky & Fay's mutual love of sweets. 

{i was messing around with my camera settings and clearly had some misses, but we'll make do}

these two make everything more fun.

 even a lazy night on the couch.

{holy roots. don't worry colbs - i had a hair appointment this week.)

we took someone on a shopping spree this weekend.

super zesty sunday night.

Last Sunday we had plans with our friend Alex to come over for pizza and beers, but after Danny's parents called to see what we were up to that same night, we invited them over and decided we had enough people for a mini dinner party and stepped up the menu.

One of D's coworkers recently returned from an Alaskan fishing trip so we've had a big ole slab of fresh salmon in our freezer just waiting to be enjoyed. Based on the stellar reviews, we decided on this salmon recipe and started soaking our cedar planks at 9 a.m. For appetizers and sides, we turned to one of our go-to cooking blogs, Forks & Amusement, and landed on ricotta and rosemary crostini and asparagus risotto.

We tend to always try new recipes when we have company over, which is fun - but not always successful. Good thing we can laugh along with our sweet guests. Here's what we learned...

1. Fresh Salmon is delicious and the marinade did not disappoint. Soak your cedar planks for as long as possible prior to grilling. Even after soaking for 10+ hours ours still caught fire. Oh! And invest in a pair of cooking tweezers for fish bones. Who knew? Um, handyman Ting grabbed the next best thing - pliers.

2. Crostini Appetizer - the honey was a delicious surprise on ricotta cheese. Super easy and a huge hit!

3. Asparagus Risotto - sadly, I turned it into lemon risotto. I substituted fresh lemons with lemon substitute and it turned the whole dish the super lemony. All 45+ minutes of stirring the risotto for nothing. On a positive note, our first go at risotto was a home run in terms of consistency and texture. Next time...

But as always, it was the company that made the night. The coolish weather made sitting on the patio tolerable for a drink, Alex played DJ (of course) and pulled out some hits that had Vicky and Joe on the dance floor and we had some great laughs coming up with names for the citrus risotto. The camera didn't make much of an appearance (I was standing at the stove stirring for much of the night), but we swear Alex was with us.