Hello Birdie



H&M Top/ Xhilaration Dress(shop it) & Heels(shop it)/ Mossimo Jacket/ Rebecca Minkoff Bag(shop it)/ Michael Kors Watch/ NY&Co. Watch/ Forever 21 Necklace/ House of Harlow Sunglasses

 On Friday I felt like a colorful bird with a serious tail in this number from Target! I love that with a 'mullet' hemline you get the benefit of showing off some leg on a warm day without having to worry about revealing too much when you have to pick something up or sit down. I'm just crossing my fingers that the weather only gets better from here on out so I can wear it again soon [and all of the other summer dresses I've been adding to my wardrobe...] 

Happy Monday Friends!

Cupcakes and Champagne

First off, I want to send a huuuuge thank you to my sister Lauren, my mom Margi, and my fiance Giancarlo for putting in so much hard work to get everything ready for our engagement party. I love you guys so much! 

Secondly, here is a small glimpse of our party, my top five favorites (aside from my amazing fiance, family, and friends of course)!

Our AMAZING invitations c/o Mixbook! They are completely customizable and Mixbook just so happened to have the perfect Chandelier template that I had envisioned! I love it so much that I had to frame it for display in my room :-)

Personalized Edible Cupcake Toppers from Cake Sugar. I bought an online deal for Cake Sugar some time ago and figured this would be the perfect opportunity to use it. The cupcake toppers were incredibly easy to apply and so so pretty! We displayed them on these fancy looking/budget friendly cupcake stands from Amazon.

Peony roses from FiftyFlowers.com. Potential wedding flowers :-)

Our DIY photobooth was a ton of fun! We made a modified version of this tutorial. My mom sewed black curtains and we bought this curtain as the main backdrop. We already had tons of silly hats and props at home but also picked up this inexpensive set from Party City.

My dress! I spotted this dress months ago (maybe even before we were engaged) at my favorite consignment shop and immediately fell in love. I couldn't wait to wear it! To my surprise I was perusing Lulus.com just a couple of days before the party and spotted my dress. 

Country Girl

J.Crew Top, via Poshmark (shop similar)/ Forever 21 Maxi Dress/ Alexis Hudson Clutch(shop similar)/ Chinese Laundry Wedges/ Michael Kors Watch/ Nordstrom Necklace/ Kate Spade Sunglasses

My sister got us tickets for a mixer that kicked off Livermore's Rodeo weekend. I've attended the Rodeo in the past and always try to make it to the Rodeo Parade but I am certainly not a Cowgirl by any means. Needless to say I had no clue what to wear to a Rodeo Mixer and really just didn't know what to expect; my costume Cowgirl hats would be an embarrassment to all of the legit hats that the real Rodeo participants would be wearing and I don't even own a pair of Cowgirl boots! So I threw on a chambray button up over a maxi dress for what I thought was a successful mix of Country + Kristen style [heavy on the Kristen]. It was a fun, very laid back night with great BBQ and an awesome live Country band, I would definitely attend again...but I'm thinking I might just leave my sequined clutch at home next time and try to learn some more Country music dance moves in the meantime :-)

What's a Maxi?

Gracia Maxi Dress(shop similar)/ Chanel Bag/ Kate Spade Sunglasses/ BaubleBar Necklace/ Michael Kors Watch/ NY&Co Watch/ Forever 21 & Nordstrom Bracelets

For a long time now I've been walking around in Maxi Dresses wondering why the heck we call them Maxi Dresses. Yes, I do in fact have [some] common sense and realize that it's maximum length but the term Maxi isn't used for much else besides Maxi Pads right? Well I finally I decided to Yahoo it [because I hate Google] and found out that I was not alone in my 'Why Maxi?' quest:

4 Years ago Liana K. was wondering the same thing and got some Yahoo! Answers

I'm thinking that the most reasonable explanation is that a Maxi Dress is opposite of a Mini Dress, but I think I like Ken E.'s response better:

'The Aztec women averaged 8 feet tall, when they put on the regular dresses, they were way to short. Metacolumba (the chief) said to the dressmakers "make them much longer." The dressmakers responded with "how long?". Metacolumba said "MAXI".'

Any other good explanations out there?