Wedding Planning via Pinterest

Pinterest has taken control over my life. I could sit here for ours browsing through everything from banana recipes to purple shoes. It's a godsend...or maybe the exact opposite, but it's been a huge help with planning my wedding.

For those of you who aren't following me on Pinterest I thought I'd share some of the ideas for the wedding that I've found so far. And truthfully, we all know this is the extent of the wedding planning that's going on right now. Good news though, we hope to find out next week if we can have the wedding in the venue that we want. So to all of my potential invitees, please be patient, we're working.

Clearly, Reddick will be involved somehow. He is the one who spends the most time with us.

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I really want the bridesmaids to wear different dressesand allow them to pick their own dress so that they are super comfortable.

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This would be amazing...if my Dad wasn't a firefighter.

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I LOVE this idea - having a caricature artist at the wedding, but I'm sure we'll debate over a photobooth, too.

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And this might be one of the cutest favors ever...

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What are your favorite wedding ideas from Pinterest?  Here are the rest of my wedding pins on my Everything Wedding board.

The Recipe I've Been Waiting For

Earlier this week, Katie posted a recipe for German Chocolate Fudge Bites. No sugar, no flour and no butter? I was immediately intrigued, considering I'm eating only plant-based foods this week. I headed over to Whole Foods and picked up the ingredients to make the bites. Within about twelve hours they were all gone. They were delicious. At first I thought that they might taste like a Larabar (which I love, but wanted something richer) but they were definitely rich and full of cocoa. Nice work Katie!

Once I had a few I got to thinking about what they tasted like and finally it came to me - these bites have the same fudge taste as my all-time-favorite Chocolate Raspberry Luna Bar. I have been dying to figure out how to make these Luna Bars at home for awhile. With Katie's recipe inspiration, I got to work and came up with a recipe that tastes pretty darn close to my beloved Luna Bars.

Chocolate Berry Squares

1 cup dates, pitted and chopped

2 T unsweetened shredded coconut

2 T unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 t vanilla

3/4 cup berries (if frozen, thaw first) - I used a frozen assortment of raspberries, blueberries and strawberries 

1/4 c pecans or walnuts

Mix all ingredients together in a Magic Bullet or food processor. I recommend a food processor because my Bullet just couldn't handle all the hard chomping. Give everything a good mix once your done processing it. At this point, I shaped them into little squares, but you could do balls or bars, too.

Wedding Motivation

The countdown is (almost) on. We hope to know in the next few weeks whether or not our date and venue will work. I hope this is the last time during our wedding planning that I have to rely in patience because I'm dying over here and my patience bucket is nearly empty.

Knowing that our date could be in less than seven months is really exciting, but it's also stressing me out. Now I have a date to look forward to that I know that I have to look and feel my best. A lot can happen in seven months and I'm hoping that the changes I've made in the past week are going to kick start everything. I'm going to try my best to make positive changes to my health and hope that they pay off for the wedding.

1. Workouts based on strength training and not so much "jogging to lose weight". Let's be real, I'm closer to thirty than I am to twenty and that means that jogging really doesn't do much for me anymore, sitting down on the weight machine doesn't do nearly as much as actually picking up the weights and spending more time stretching on the mat is great, but isn't going to do much for the way that I look. If I get on a treadmill, I'm going to sprint...If I pick up a weight, it's going to be challenging...If I'm going to workout, I'm going to sweat. I know, I bet you guys are sick of hearing me talk about working out, but it's really something that I've struggled with lately.

2. A more focused diet. I snack. I love sugar. I love carbs. I love everything that I shouldn't, but I also love eating healthy. Is this like some weird thing among healthy living bloggers? We can go from downing a green smoothie to eating a hamburger in just a few minutes. Balance is balance. I can't say I won't eat a burger or a chocolate chip cookie for the next seven months, but I do need to be more aware of what I'm putting into my mouth. I want to focus on less sugar, less gluten and less dairy. Right now, because I'm doing the detox, it's not that hard to stray away and cheat...but once it's over, I hope that I can stay committed.

3. Taking better care of my body.  It's really hard to focus on a schedule when my work schedule changes week to week, but I want to try and get more sleep and keep my sleep hours regular.

I'm sure I'll have more heart-to-heart, freaking out about getting ready for the wedding posts. Let's hope I can hold myself to it!