1st sneak peek into our wedding details & DIY’s

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All Photography by: Beca C Photography

In honor of a new beginning for our blog, with our new name.. GraceFulfillingLife.com, we thought what better way to start then to start sharing our wedding day with all our readers. Before we decided to make the change, we had been sharing part of wedding plans leading up to our big day! (refer back HERE to see a couple!) We are so excited to share with you all the many DIY’s that went into making our day, a day that was perfect for us and that will forever be in our memories and hearts. When Xavier and I got engaged and our wedding plans started, we knew things we wanted and did not want. We knew that we wanted an intimate wedding with our closest friends and family and we wanted it to be about us and not about the wedding in itself. We felt the setting of our wedding had to reflect who we are and the feeling we wanted for that day. It needed to be personal and we longed for a romantic and genuine feel. We wanted to be true to who we are and our faith and have those feelings be reflected. We also did not want to spend a fortune either, so my handy DIY skills and creativity and a whole lot of pinterest came in handy! A lot of the pinterest ideas we saw, we tried giving them our own personal twist in hopes it would reflect us! We decided first and for most that we did not want a hotel nor a banquet hall setting. For me especially it was important for me to feel relaxed and to feel the calmness of nature around us. And let me tell you this.. the weather was perfect. There was a sense of calm to a lovely cool breeze that day and a natural light so wonderful that all I could think was.. “goodness..God’s presence is truly with us today” and to me that was an unforgettable feeling.

Our theme..  well we really didn’t have one.. we just knew that our colors would be a light grey, white and touches of gold and greenery! Our flowers were a big part of that theme, they were simple, white and elegant. Did I mention they smelled lovely because they were full of seeded eucalyptus?!  The best part of the flowers is that we found a wholesale florist who actually made all our arrangements! So our theme was just for it to be romantic, simple yet have a touch of rustic elegance. So whatever looked pretty, was on sale and I could find something to do with it, it was on our ‘to do’ list.jennifer+xavier-157jennifer+xavier-138

Our DIY’s included some of these lovely pieces..We used a lot of re-purposed wood that my amazing handy man dad was so gracious to find for us for the aisle boards and I got to staining and using my “wanna-be” calligraphy skills. We also used smaller sized ones as table numbers.jennifer+xavier-285

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All our chalkboard’s I found at Michael’s arts and craft stores and I never bought one that was not on sale! win!jennifer+xavier-264jennifer+xavier-427

Our seating chart/Polaroid exchange station was an activity that we did in exchange for a fancy expensive Photo Booth! if you can afford it, they’re fun but it was definitely not in our budget.jennifer+xavier-265

One of our favorites was being able to have Xavier’s cousin Cristina who is like a super amazing artist draw us the tree we would marry under and make it be our sign in “guest tree” with fingerprints! And who doesn’t like a good drink in a mason jar while doing it right?

For our ceremony back drop it was all about simplicity for me, the venue  was already so beautiful that it didn’t need much. It conveniently had an amazing swing that was perfect for our back drop. I made the fabric banner myself and the YOU and ME sign I found at Michael’s and spray painted it gold, because anything I could spray paint gold…well I did.jennifer+xavier-258

For our ceremony we opted out on the unity candle and the typical unity sand sets.. Before Xavier and I got married we went through pre-marital classes and one of the basis of many of our teachings was the verse, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, a reminder that we have entered a commitment between Christ, Xavier and I. So we decided on braiding it, with The cord of three strands. I had seen many on easy pre-made but figured I could do it myself for half the price, and I LOVE how it turned out! We now have it in our room and its a constant reminder to keep Christ as the center of our relationship.

Our wedding cake topper and peg dolls were one of our favorite! In the beginning of our engagement, I had been following Goose Grease Shop on instagram, a fair trade company making custom peg doll cake topper’s made from local artisans in Colombia. One day they had a giveaway and I immediately signed up and turned out winning the giveaway! It was exciting for me because it was a unique way to incorporate a little piece of where I am from too, while doing what I love…arts and crafts! So long behold, the lovely peg dolls made an appearance on our cake along with a love sign that I of course painted gold! jennifer+xavier-414jennifer+xavier-459
And the most exciting part was… How it all came together. Made with love and wonderful memories.. jennifer+xavier-411jennifer+xavier-465jennifer+xavier-440

We couldn’t be more happy to share such a special day with you all, we are looking to sharing the rest of our day with you all, stay tuned for more of our photos and story! We could not have had such an amazing day if it wasn’t for our amazing family and friends for all their help! We will forever be grateful. Hope you all enjoyed the first sneak peek into our wedding day!

Love, Jennifer & Xavier

Feel free to ask any questions you all may have.. we are happy to answer!

ALL photography on this post was by: Beca C Photography

Wedding cake by: Eat More sweets by Hailey

Venue: The Cooper Estate

La Vida is back! 

IMG_6142La Vida blog is back! Life was busy and the blog was on hold for a little while. We were in much need of some time to ourselves and pretty much in need of any free time we could get, to plan our wedding in the midst of all we had going on, plus work. But we are back! A lot has gone on since the last time we gave all our readers an update. We planned a wedding! Got married! Went on an amazing honeymoon! Moved to our new little temporary home! Got a new job! And pretty much snapped back into reality! I can’t wait to share with you all the process that has led up to where we stand in life right now! We have been on a very exciting journey these past couple of months, and even though we have been overwhelmed at times, tired and frustrated, we have also been incredibly blessed the last couple of months. And to be honest, our blessings surpass any of those tired, overwhelmed days! God has been amazing to us and has blessed us with more than we can imagine and its through his grace and his guidance that we stand where we stand today.  I am so very excited to be back to blogging and sharing our special moments that have passed and all those special moments ahead of us. Thank you to all our readers for hanging around and still following us on Instagram and our Facebook feeds! I’m excited for what’s ahead and excited to start sharing our moments that lead up to life lately. We are excited for some of our ideas coming up for the blog soon! I personally hope to be back to blogging on a more regular basis and hope to grow from there!  Hope you will all stick around.

-Jen ❤️

 

 

A YEAR AGO TODAY, I SAID YES!

A Year ago today, I said yes to the love of my life. A year ago today, Xavier and I made a commitment to our relationship. A year ago, my ears heard the sweetest sound with one of the loveliest questions and my heart-felt a love so graciously beautiful. A year ago today, God filled our hearts with his grace and filled us with a love so great, that we can only hope to mirror in our future marriage. Its been a while since I’ve shared any news on the blog with you all, but I felt today was the perfect occasion. Today marks the day Xavier asked me to be his future wife, his fiancé and the woman who will be by his side to share life with. This past year of engagement has been another chapter in his and I’s book, and its been all in all, a great one. We have gone through ups and downs, shared laughs and cries but most importantly we have done it all with love. We have come to the know the importance of respect, communication and love and most importantly putting God as our center. In only 39 days we will be walking down the aisle to say our I DO’s! Seeing all these pictures brought a smile to my face today, because how much we have grown and how important it is to still be smiling and laughing together on a day-to-day basis. I couldn’t be more excited for whats to come for Xavier and I and couldn’t be more grateful it will be together.

I have a lot of catching up to do with you all, but life has been busy, but will be keeping you all posted soon!

Cheers to us Baby! Cheers to a lifetime together! Love you.

Jen<3

Spending time with this guy is always okay with me, no matter what we may be doing. This couch with this lady and us together is our favorite
The boyfriend and I
graduation with my hunk

EASY & TASTY MAHI & POTATO DINNER

With busy 12 hour nursing shifts, easy, tasty and quick dinners are our favorite! Today was a day off but definitely cooked up a lovely dinner that was quick and easy enough to do on a day coming home from work. Going into work at 7 in the morning and leaving work 730pm the earliest while driving for another 25mins home doesn’t usually leave us with enough time to get home and cook a gourmet meal, but we have managed. Today, I had a sweet day off and I made it a point to cook a nice healthy and balanced meal. I usually start missing a nice home hearty meal, so today I had to satisfy that craving. Like I said, quick and easy is our friend most days, so I think naturally I’m getting into the habit of quick and easy meals even on days off. Todays menu consisted of: Pan seared lemon pepper Mahi Mahi topped with a mango Salsa and oven roasted potatoes and carrots. Sounds fancy right?? lol. I must admit it wasn’t rocket science! I usually like to experiment with meals or simply just reminisce on previous flavors I have tried in the past and try to make my version of them at home, it works for me. So If you’re anything like us with busy schedules, little time and simply want a fancy sounding dish without the complicated ingredients and instructions..I think this dish is for you! I hope you try it and love it as much as we do! It’s now become a favorite! Bona petite!

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

– 4 Mahi Mahi Fillets (or any fish to your liking)

– 3/4 of a cup of chopped cilantro (for both potatoes and mango salsa)

– 1/2 cup of baby carrots (cut in half)

– 1/2 lb of honey gold potatoes (cut in 1/4)

– 1 medium sliced onion (1/4 for mango salsa, the rest for the potatoes)

-1 mango ripened, chopped in small dices

– 2 limes

– 3/4 of medium-sized tomato chopped in small dices

– olive oil

– lemon pepper season (1 tbs)

– sea salt and pepper to liking

Instructions:

Pre heat oven to 450, in a bowl or baking pan ( I mixed my ingredients in the same baking pan) mix in potatoes sliced in halves along with baby carrots also sliced in halves, 3/4 of the sliced onion, half of your chopped cilantro, sea salt and pepper to liking, along with a tablespoon of olive oil and mix together until all your ingredients are well coated with the olive oil. Place in oven for 25 mins, or until potatoes are soft.

While your potatoes and carrots are cooking, time to make the Mango Salsa. In a small bowl, combine together 1/4 of the onions.. chopped up small and thin, the rest of your cilantro, 3/4 of your small diced tomatoes, entire mango diced small and the lime juice of one full lime. Let sit in the refrigerator to keep cool.

Meanwhile, gather your cleaned Mahi Mahi fillets. Pre heat a non-stick pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, and the juice of one full lime along with a teaspoon of the lemon pepper seasoning, when pan is warm enough, place your fillets of Mahi in pan and on the side up season with sea salt to your liking along with lemon pepper seasoning. Place lid on pan and let Fillets cook throughly for about 5 mins on low-medium heat. Once Fillets are cooking and color is changing, open lid slightly and turn up the heat to medium-high heat until Fillets start turning a golden crispy color. Once one side has achieved the golden color, do the same to other side. Once this is done your fish is complete!

Once  your potatoes and fish are done, its time to plate your yummy food and eat!! Hope you enjoy! Like our recipe? We would love to hear how your version turned out!

-Jen ❤

*All images are property of LaVida, life as it comes..

OVERWHELMED WITH THE LOVE OF FAMILY

I am overwhelmed with family love….a good kind of overwhelmed though, the kind that makes you smile. The past couple months, I have realized how much our family has grown and how much we have matured. Family isn’t always all smiles and cheer like seen in most photographs. Family is also about hardships, disagreements, loss and failures. But family is also about Love, forgiveness, grace and humility…these all can surpass any of those not so good qualities. It’s a good reflection of what God is to us, because he too, is our family..and love and forgiveness can overcome a lot. My family, like many others have had their ups and downs.. The downs being quite low. But these past couple of months I have seen how much we have grown. How amazing it is to forgive and let go…and how ahead it puts us in any relationship. We still have room for improvement, we still bicker and disagree at times, but we wouldn’t be human if we did not. I guess we are realizing that all we got at times is each-other. That it’s better to be at peace with each other than to be in any silly little disagreement. We are learning to let things go.

The past couple of months we have made it a priority to speak more and be more involved in each others days and lives. It wasn’t a talked thing but I think we’ve all realized how nice it is to be involved in each others lives. With my brothers this is a prime example. We have leaned on each other for help without expecting anything in return. My brother joe lend himself to us during our engagement party a couple of months back and it meant so much to us because he did it out of his own will and want. Thank you joe!

With my brother Chris it’s been special.. We have gone through a lot together… But we are learning to lean on each other when in need and when we want to share good things and that makes me so happy. We have talks with meaning and purpose, and we learned to listen to each other. Most importantly, I think we realized we have each other at the end of the day, no matter the circumstance. It’s been so nice to spend time with him on days off and share moments and build memories with him and his girlfriend Alexis, Xavier and I. The sweetness of it all is that we have come to see we are not just brothers and sisters, we are each others friends as well.

With my parents the relationships have also changed, and I think it has to do a lot with our age. Once we were kids, stubborn and thought we knew it all, yet they always had our best interest at hand and heart. We are growing and one thing I have learned now that I’m older is the unconditional love they give me, even when they disagree. We have had many uneasy moments in the past, but God has been good and we have overcome them all. Our relationship is stronger than ever, they are my best friends. They care for my heart more than any other physical human being and for that I am grateful.

My sister we all know is one that is dear to my heart, and I think she’s a reminder to our whole family of the joy we can find in the little things. She’s also a quick reminder of how different we all are and how differently we all have grown up. She brings us smiles and laughs only a child can and sends us “I love you’s and I miss you’s ‘” when we need them the most. While she may be strong-minded, she reminds me of how important it is to stand our ground, yet love with all our hearts.

The love recently has been one that even though we don’t talk about it on a daily basis and maybe my parents nor my brothers and sisters see. As I sat back to think and just take all the struggles we have gone through and all the memories in the past we hold dear to, they all just seemed to amaze me. We are growing as a family, and I really think it’s for the best. One thing I am so thankful for is that we all are here and live close to each other and that even though we don’t live under the same roof, were only a phone call away or a 10 min drive away. I’ve learned that while we are not a perfect family, we ARE a family and that’s good for me.

We have more family members being added like my fiancé Xavier and my brothers girlfriend and its so lovely to see how much we are a part of each others lives thus far. I know we have more to learn from each other and more to experience together, but so far its makes my heart warm. My family as whole is growing, and though some are far away, or I haven’t talked to in a while, I love them all because Ive learned something from each and every one of them. Today you were all in my thoughts, and today I am grateful for all those I call my family.

Jen<3

WEDDING WEDNESDAY: BRIDESMAIDS: HOW I ASKED MY GIRLS DIY

Processed with VSCOcam with g3 presetToday on Wedding Wednesday, it’s all about a little DIY for my Bridesmaids. I was very excited once I knew how I wanted to present my idea, that’s why I decided to share with you all, how I asked my girls! For those of you who have been following my blog, you all might know that I’m all about DIY and creating goodies and cute decor details. Asking my girls to be my bridesmaids would be no exception to the opportunity. So after some research and finding some cute ideas, I decided I wanted it to be personal. My creative side got excited and started going to my local arts and crafts stores like Michael’s, hobby lobby and one of my favorite places for small inexpensive goodies.. Target! Once I started visiting these stores I just began by looking around and just seeing what cute things I could find. I wanted it to be personal but not spend tons of money on random goodies either. So I picked up a couple of cute little pieces from wherever I found things and started my DIY! I spent time looking for things that would suit and go with our look for the wedding as well. Like mentioned before in my previous wedding Wednesday update, I’m trying to incorporate our colors and the feel we are shooting for that day! Simple, classy and personal. So away I went! The final product was definitely pleasing, personal and lovely!

My materials included the following: -the cute little buckets I found at target and they were a dollar a piece! Score. -the little gold chevron goodie bags, labels, sewing kits and post cards were also all from target -the golden magnet frames I found at a cute little boutique called Francesca’s -the white Dolly’s, gold glittered clothespins, gold ribbon, golden glittered material paint, gold washi tape and notecards were from Michael’s arts and crafts -the small white totes from Hobby Lobby -the color paint paper samples from Home Depot – the sweet chocolates, your local food store lol – personalized notes by yours truly 😉

First thing I got to work on were these tiny little white totes.. I wanted to spark some interest to them and make them personal. I decided to get a dolly and place it on the tote and secure the edges down with some tape to prevent the dolly from moving. Once they were secured, I got my glitter fabric paint and traced the pattern of the dolly on to the tote and let it dry for only a few minutes to prevent the dolly from sticking to the tote. *Note..If you leave it to dry completely it will stick, if you remove dolly right away it may smudge the pattern.. so only let sit for a couple of minutes before removing dolly. Once that dried, I wrote each girls initial on the tote… They came out better than expected! 

Next step was wrapping these up once they were dried. I decided to sneak in the travel size sewing kits in between since they were a little of an eyesore. They didn’t really go with the colors so I hid them in between and used the pretty gold ribbon to tie it all together.

After those were done, I started gathering up all the other little details. One was labeling those cute little chevron goodie bags with a little sweet note and putting some yummy chocolates inside. I used the extra dolly’s I had to label each gift with the girls names and taped the pictures to each individual magnet picture frame. 

The Next step was the more personal aspect of this cute little Bridesmaid gift. I Included not only a cute little postcard that asked each girl to join me on my day as my bridesmaid but also sweet details about expectations and details of what my vision was for the wedding and information about the day of the wedding. My favorite though, was the individual sheet I gave all my girls that named each girl and I wrote a little sweet note of what each of them meant to me. It was sweet and simple, but it came from the heart. The rest as you’ll be able to tell was just arranging and making it look cute with gold and glitter and color samples of what the wedding colors would be! ❤

Now for this handsome guy, he also asked his guys to be his groomsmen, only in a more simple and masculine way lol. We arranged some of these Cigars with their names on simple cardboard paper with a simple phrase printed on them, “Your service as a groomsman is required.” This idea we had seen on pinterest and felt it suited well!

This Handsome guy was ready to pass out our bridal party gifts!

The Final Product was just what I envisioned, cute and simple but made with lots of love for my girls. Made to let them know how much it means to me for them to be there for me the day I say I do! ❤

*all images are property of La Vida, life as it comes

-Jen