I See London, I see France...

So we are back in Lubbock settling into married life. I can't believe we've been married three weeks already. Time flies when you are having so much fun. Well since I can't decide which wedding pics to post yet, I thought I would go ahead and post about my honeymoon. We definitely took a more unconventional approach to the "honeymoon". Most people decide to go to Mexico or Jamaica, but Brandon and I wanted to do something different and visit a place where we knew we probably would have never dreamed of going had we not had this wonderful opportunity. We had a great time, but met some challenges along the way. When you travel to a different country not knowing a soul and have to adapt to a completely different culture, language, currency, transportation, food, etc. it really makes you grateful for what you have and appreciate each other that much more. We were both fighting different health complications throughout the entire time we were gone, but still managed to do and see a lot. With that being said here are pics from our wonderful honeymoon starting with London.

Our Hotel Marriott Grosvenor House


Windsor Castle

Roman Baths

Stonehenge (It was freezing cold)



The London Eye


The British Museum


Buckingham Palace (We got a glimpse of the queen driving away)

We went and saw the fabulous play Oliver! our last night in London. It was one of the main highlights of the entire trip.


We're Heading to Paris


The Thinker at the Rodin Museum

The Famous Louvre Museum


Notre Dame Cathedral

The Arc de Triomphe


Moulin Rouge

We just missed Obama twice. He followed us to London and then to France

Overall I would say it was a successful trip and one that we will remember forever.

We're Back!!!!

So after 1 day of travel 4 days in London, 2 hour train ride to Paris, 5 days in Paris, 10 1/2 hours of flying back to the U.S., a 6 hour layover in Houston and a 1 1/2 hour flight to Lubbock we are finally back home. I'm exhausted but very happy to be back and settling into my new life and Mrs. Hughes. We had the best time at the wedding and in Europe. My head is still spinning. I'm still going through pics from the wedding and honeymoon so more to come later, but for now I thought I would share some of my bridal portraits (by the talented Captivated Images). Hope you enjoy:)

Final Thoughts Before the Big Day

So everything is planned, paid for, assembled and ready to go. I've been trying to relax these last few days as much as possible and just enjoy everything and everyone around me. I'm still working this week til Friday so I'm trying to do as much as I can at night and on my lunch break. It's been a long road to get here. 8 1/2 months ago Brandon asked me to be his wife and now it's finally here. At times I thought it would never come. I thought people were crazy who said, "It'll be here before you know it." There always seemed something I needed to do before the wedding was here so I really didn't have time to think about how close we really were. But in 3 days from today I will be walking down that aisle to the best guy I know a saying my vows to him. I have planned and planned and now I get to sit back and let the magic unfold. The next time I blog I will be Mrs. Brandon Hughes!!!

Thank you Lord for this time in my life. Thank you for providing me a sweet and compassionate yet funny and energetic man to call my husband. Thank you for loving on us through this process and holding us in the palm of Your hand. Thank you for Your faithfulness and providing us patience and serenity.

Life is a Party!!!

So Lately I've had one event after the other. It all started with my "Holmes" Bridal shower on February 22nd, hosted by friends of my parents and my brother's wife and her family at her parents home. It was lovely!!!



All my loot, hey Leah!!!!


The next event was my "Hughes" shower, on February 28th, hosted by friends of Brandon's mom's and mothers of Brandon's groomsmen. Brandon came to this one and it was a lot of fun.

The next event was my work shower on March 6th at my office hosted by the people I work with. It was so nice of them to do this. We ate lunch and lots of dessert and I was really impressed by their decorating skills. I even got to wear a festive green feather boa. Too cute! Thanks Susie, Krista, Zach, Eric and Matt :)


This past Saturday, March 7th, I had my Lingerie Shower and Bachelorette Party. It was such a fun night. The shower was hosted at my dear friend and bridesmaid Shanda's house. We all wore black and white with teal and lime accent jewelry. We had good food including a chocolate fountain. We even had a pantie decorating contest. It was too cute. Later we all went out to the piano bar for a girls night out. I don't think it got too crazy, but it was a lot of fun.

We had three sets of sisters at the party and two sets of sister-in-laws. How sweet is that?




My lovely outfit (Don't judge, they made me wear it)

Overall I have had an exciting past few weeks. AWWW!!!! The wedding is in 11 days :)

Trusting God for a Sucessful Marriage

I was challenged by a comment posted on my wedding blog this morning. I've probably been way too wrapped up in my own planning and haven't been giving enough thanks and praise to the Lord. Yes, I'm excited about my wedding. Yes, I have been stressed at times, but I'm also trying to let God to see me though this crazy time. I love the Lord with all my heart and I'm really excited to see what He has in store for my marriage to Brandon.

Especially during this busy time in my life I need to rely on God more for guidance in every decision I make. It's important to know my own limitations when it comes to wisdom. I'm naturally a planner and a decision maker, but I don't always do what God wants me to do. I do what I want to do because I'm human! I'm flawed! I'm a sinner with lots and lots of excuses. I want to depend on God's wisdom, knowledge and guidance for my life, because He knows what's best for me better than I could ever know. My plans will always be misguided if I don't trust God to take over.

I read something somewhere that said, "Always seek God's will, for decisions both great and small." How true is that? Especially in times like these. I don't know why sometimes I get so wound up in the small things in life and only come to God with the big problems. The littlest things still matter to him. I'm glad to have encouraging people in my life for me listen to and take wise advice from. I'm still learning and growing. I accept that I don't know what's best for my life, but I know for sure that God does.

My prayer today is to know the love of God though acts of patience and listening to His wisdom and trusting more in the guidance He provides me. I think this will all result in a happier, healthier and more successful marriage.

They're Finally Finished!!!!

After lots of hard work, frustration, hours of tedious labor and struggle, my invitations are finally complete. We sent them out Monday. I'm so excited and relieved to be finished with these. They were such a labor of love and I'm really proud of the end result. On Saturday I had my bridesmaids Lindsey and the most talented Shanda along with my mom and grandparents over to my mom's to help assemble all the pieces of the invite. We all worked really hard and knocked them in out in about 4 hours. Thanks everyone for all your hard work. I appreciate you more than you know.

Wedding Planning Continues

So my life is so occupied by this wedding. I feel like it's my baby and I'm just waiting to give birth. I'm constantly thinking about all the little details that I still have to plan and orchestrate, but I think it's all finally coming together. All the big things are planned. So I'm finally feeling like I'm ready to do this whole thing. However, I am a little stressed. This whole event is all me from beginning to end. No wedding coordinators, no outside help exceopt for my mom, it's all me. So the pressure is on, because if I don't give it my all nothing will ever get done. I know I will feel better once the invitations are back from print and I can get those out, but for now I'm confident in what I've been able to accomplish thus far. Today we are going to pick up Brandon's ring and make sure it fits. I hope it does and we can check that off our list. My wedding band unfortunately will not be here in time for the wedding :( It a custom design and we didn't know how long it would take to get in. Who knew it would take 9 weeks to get a ring back. Everything is going to be beautiful I know it. I'm trusting God to see me through this busy time and look forward to the days ahead. So way back in August at the beginning stages of planning, I did an inspiration board showcasing some of my thoughts about our wedding concept. Here is a new board with the actual things that I will be incorporating into the wedding. EnjoY!