Currently...

Obsessing over Duck Dynasty. Seriously. Why have I not watched this show before? It's so great. And really brings out the redneck in me. Scary business.

Working on nothing at the moment, but the latest craft project has been making prototypes for cutlery packets for our reception. Which by the way, I'm pretty positive that we are doing a dinner reception first, followed by the ceremony! More details on that soon. :)

Thinking about food. All I've done today is eat. My dad BBQ'd and my mom and I made so many desserts it's ridiculous.

Listening to Duck Dynasty on A&E. I'm not joking when I say that I have watched this all afternoon. Blake and I love it!

Wishing for a relaxing and refreshing weekend. It feels like life has been go-go-go all the time, I just need a break! And next week, we are taking a mid-week trip to St. Louis to see Beach House. So excited!

Happy 4th of July to all you Americans! I am absolutely exhausted from today's festivities. I'm in need of a very long nap. Although, it's now dinner time, and pretty soon it'll be bedtime, so I'm pretty sure I won't be getting that nap. Oh well!
:)

xo Haley

I used to be a musical theatre geek.

A way long time ago, I was so sure that musical theatre was IT for me. My home was on Broadway. I was SO sure of it. It's crazy how things change right? :)
My iPod was filled to the brim with original cast recordings and you'd have to scroll through the hundreds of "Cast Of's..." to get to 'real' music. Ridiculous!
Well, I thought it would be fun to show you a few photos from mine (and Colby Kern's!) time in a local production of The Music Man. :)

 Colby, the ladies man. ;)

That was a summer well spent! I even convinced my fantastic parents to join me, and they loved it so much they did a show the next year without me! (They were in Hello Dolly!) This was my last show to have ever done, and I miss it so much. I need to get involved in theater again.
What's something you used to be super involved in? I'd love to hear about it. :)

xo Haley

Instagram Life.

1. My first Arm Party. I don't wear bracelets, watches, etc. too often... I just feel like I don't pull off that "look," but I really liked all of these together, so who knows, maybe I'll start wearing them more often? 2. Truman! This is The Midwest Indies debut album! Like I mentioned a few days ago, it's not available for purchase juuust yet, but you can stream it on BandCamp for the time being. 3. I baked cupcakes Friday night for the kiddos. They were so cute, staring at the oven, and Jack kept saying, "Mmm! Yummy!" 4. I treated myself to the latest issue of 417 Bride and a grapefruit Izze. It was a relaxing night! 5. Blake and I took a little Sunday drive out to Marshfield (my hometown) yesterday to take a little look at a small church that we were considering for our ceremony. Too bad it was a bit too small for us! And Blake thought it was a little creepy. Oh well! 6. Blake and I went on an all day date to Branson (Vegas of Missouri!) for our 1.5 year anniversary! We spent the day at Silver Dollar City and then drove down the strip looking at all the silly touristy things (like this and this one is our favorite) we swear we will do someday.

So this is life as of lately. We're being kept busy with work schedules and school stuff, but it's been a fun month so far. And next month brings my 21st birthday! I'm thinking of setting some goals for my 21st year. Maybe getting married and pulling off the wedding of my dreams is a big enough goal for right now. ;)

xo Haley

New Blog Read: Independent Gentleman

Good morning! I would love to introduce you to a new blog read! My friend Zach (a friend from Hipster Tuesday) just started a blog, called Independent Gentleman. Based on the first introduction post her wrote yesterday, I can tell it's going to be an awesome guys lifestyle blog with a little music and movie stuff mixed in there. There's not enough guy bloggers out there! Zach has been talking a lot about this new blog, so I'm super excited to see how the blog progresses over the next few weeks! Hopefully, you'll follow along too. :)
To give you a taste of what Independent Gentleman is going to be about, you can just take a look at Zach's instagram feed - the guy has impeccable style!

Be sure to check out his blog, instagram (@jfkjrjr), and Twitter! Oh, and ladies - he's single. ;)

xo Haley

ps, while I'm here, Blake's band, The Midwest Indies, just finished their album! It's not ready for purchase just yet (it'll be on iTunes in a few weeks), but for now, you can stream it here. Give it a listen!

Dream Venue + Wedding Planning Woes

It's so crazy that our wedding date is still 15 months away, yet we have a lot of the *big* details (and even a few details) planned. We have a caterer (my dad, actually!), our wedding party is pretty much all picked (yay!), a photographer, a possible videographer, invites + programs are being designed right now, we're working on the venue (it's proving to be the most stressful part), and we've got a lot of our music planned out. 

It is incredibly exciting, and such a happy time - I just want it all to go by so much faster. I'm not taking my time and actually enjoying it... I've been so excited about getting married and having a wedding since I was like two years old, so I'm ready to get the party started! I thought that I would enjoy the whole planning process, but as it turns out - I'm just stressed out (and so is my momma! haha!) But - it doesn't matter how it happens or when it happens, I just want to get married to Blake. That's all that matters. :) 

The photos are all from our dream wedding venue, Miss Gilmore's Carriage House. I had no idea this place even existed until I searched high and low on Google, and just stumbled upon it. I blogged about this a few weeks ago, but we went and visited it while Claire was in town and we fell.in.love. While we were there, the woman who runs the venue kept mentioning that she hated her website. Well, my dad's best friend is a graphic designer (and is designing our invites) and he offered to completely redesign her website in exchange for the wedding venue for our wedding. I was ecstatic when I heard that he was willing to offer that to her, and yesterday I got the news that they brought up the offer to her...and she hired someone to do a new website last week. Imagine my bummed out attitude while I was out at the movies with Blake! All I wanted to do was get out of there. I feel bad for being so bummed out about it for so long yesterday, because I know that being sad about things (while useful for some, it never helps me), doesn't get anything done. And just because she couldn't accept the offer, it doesn't mean we have to give up the venue! It just means we're going to have to move things around in our budget and continue sweet talking my dad. The only other option if all that doesn't work out is moving our wedding date so we can have our original wedding location. So nervous, but I know it'll all work out the way it's supposed to. 

And like I said - in the end, I get to marry Blake and that's all that matters. :) 

Thanks for letting me vent! Sometimes I just need to write it all down and get it out of my system - plus, it'll be great to read back on all these wedding woes after we're married and get a good laugh out of it. :)

xo Haley

*Photos from @alissaclaire on Instagram :)