twenty-two.

I turned 22 this weekend and I didn't even post a single v-day-b-day picture to commemorate it. Who am I ?! 24601?? Maybe this means I've finally outgrown my indulgent social media ways...HA doubtful. Guess I was too busy ~*makin' memories*~ to take any pictures. SORRY MOM (and everyone else who scolded me for it). 

On Friday my sweet hubs threw me a party at our apartment with all of our friends! I promise people came, but as mentioned before, I didn't take any pictures during the party and only remembered to do so once everyone was gone. But it really was such a fun time.

 I had to at least document the cute decorations my homegirl Dez helped with (aka did all the work for while I sat and we chatted)

The party theme was 1994. Naturally this meant a playlist of 1994's best hits, as well as print outs of 1994's pop culture highlights.

 Hello, it's me.

After the party, Treat Yo Self weekend ensued! Drew booked reservations at the Zermatt Resort & Spa for Saturday night and it was the best and most relaxing time. I truly felt like a queen all weekend. We ate our way through Park City Main Street with dinner at Yuki Yama Sushi, and then brunch the following morning at the Riverhorse on Main. Both very delicious. Once we got back to Provo, we headed to the movies for a special 30th anniversary screening of Pretty in Pink! This was such a happy birthday coincidence because it was only in theaters that day, AND it is one of my favorite movies! Molly Ringwald is my original Queen Bee. After the movie, Drew cooked me a a fancy steak dinner. He is the best husband and Valentine.

Literally the only picture to document anything that day, and it turned out terribly.

Shout-out to our presidents for giving us a three-day-weekend so the birthday fun could continue even longer! I know most people in Utah think that the Midway Ice Castles are overrated, but I have never been so that was another birthday request of mine. Honestly I was over it in about 20 minutes, but it was still quite a marvel to behold. Utah is really cool sometimes!!

I saved the best for last...the most exciting part of the whole weekend was that Drew and I booked a much anticipated trip we are leaving for right after graduation!! We have been talking about it for months now, but finally made it official on Monday! We spent hours planning and mapping things out after booking our tickets. It is the craziest and I cannot WAIT. Also, Monday was February 15th which just so happened to be the day Drew proposed to me last year in Central Park. We kind of forgot about it amidst all the excitement, but looking back on it, I couldn't have picked a better way to celebrate!!!

 Cutest lil birthday presents from my dude!

<3

Shout-outs to Drew for treating me like a valentine birthday queen all weekend long, my friends who partied with me and showered me with cards, gifts, and treats, and anyone else who wished me happy birthday in some form or another. I'm feelin' 22 and it's feelin' pretty great so far! 

winter break: nor cal

Disclaimer: I am aware that locals do not use the terms SoCal and NorCal, but for the sake of these two blog posts, I am going to use them and risk sounding like a dork. Over it.

The main reason for our SF trip was our friend Thad's wedding in Oakland on January 2nd. Thad has been buds and roommates with Drew for most of their college careers and he was one of the first of Drew's friends I met when we started dating. We were so excited that it worked out over the holidays for us to attend such a wonderful and glamorous celebration for Thad and Kari!

 We made the 12 hour drive on New Year's Eve and spent all of New Year's Day exploring SF! First spot on the tourist checklist: Painted Ladies aka Full House houses.

I just looove the architecture in SF. I could totally see myself living here if rent wasn't the highest in the country. LOL, maybe one day.

I asked all of my foodie friends what the best restaurants were in SF, because if there's one thing I love, it is eating my way through any city I visit. Thank you so much for all your recommendations! Sadly, many of them were closed since it was a national holiday, but luckily Tartine Bakery was open and made for the perfect lunch spot. There was a huge line to get in, but I totally understand why. The sandwiches and pickled carrots were tasty, but the orange cinnamon roll Drew and I split was to die for (not pictured we ate it way too quickly for me to snap a pic). Thank you to my foodie friend Liz for this recommendation!! I will definitely visit this place again solely to load up on delicious baked goods.

After lunch, we attempted to visit Muir Woods aka home of the Redwoods aka ENDOR, but it was a bit of a failure. Thanks to our fellow tourists, the site of the woods was so busy and parking was a nightmare. We took a shuttle up to it that we were told would take 20 minutes, only to be stuck in traffic for over an hour. By the time we got to the entrance, the last shuttle available was about to take everyone back to the parking lot. So basically we spent $5 to take a shuttle up to the entrance and back. After this debacle we stopped by to marvel at the architectural wonder that is the Palace of Fine Art. That ceiling is the coolest, but I loved all the sculptures and intricate designs in stone as well. We spotted so many bridal shoots happening and I don't blame them. We were all feeling some Naboo vibes walking around that place.

The NorCal weekend road trip group: Tim, Drew, me, and Coulsen. Thanks for being such great travel companions and not minding the fact that I didn't drive at all. :)

After a delicious seafood dinner at Pier 39, our last stop before driving back to East Palo Alto (Thad's apartment where we crashed for the weekend) was ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery. This place was the common denominator between all my foodie friends' lists, so I knew I had to go. It did not disappoint. After taste testing probably 10 flavors, I settled on the salted caramel and coffee. DELISH and the perfect sweet treat to end such a jam-packed, tourist-y day.

Saturday was wedding day!! This was actually the first sealing I have ever attended after my own and it was such a lovely experience. I even got a little teary-eyed because the memories of our own sealing are still so fresh in my mind. Getting married is the best! The Oakland temple is beautiful, and we were so grateful to witness such a happy moment for Kari and Thad before the party started that evening.

Such a glam wedding party. That groomsman right next to Thad is quite the looker, am I right? hehehe

So this reception was probably the most glam reception I have ever attended to date. We set sail on the Cabernet Sauvignon Yacht and cruised along the San Francisco Bay all night. NBD. It was a blast! There were some truly stunning views from the top deck and it was so funny to see everyone rush upstairs and brave the cold and wind to snap some pictures whenever we passed some kind of landmark (guilty on all accounts). The dancing was equally as fun, and the whole day was such a party! There were so many of their other friends who made the trip too, making it the definition of a perfect destination wedding. Happy marriage Mr. & Mrs. Blankenship!

Shout-outs to Kari and Thad for getting hitched and giving us a reason to visit such a fun city, my fellow road trip companions for letting me pick 90% of the activities and 100% of the food stops, and of course to my sweet Drew for always being the best travel buddy/wedding date/dance partner for lyfe.

wedding: part III

Bet you thought you heard the last of my wedding by now, huh?? HA JOKES ON U. But guess what?! Our wedding video is finally finally DONE. It really is a Christmas miracle.  I have been waiting for this finished product for almost four months now and after watching it as many times as I have (too many to count), I can honestly say it was worth the wait. It brings back so many joyous/hilarious/tender memories of what was the happiest August weekend.

There's not much else to say about the video other than it's perfect, but I will anyway because there are people I need to thank! Firstly, I have to give my sweet husband a lot of credit, because I have been constantly nagging him for the past few months to get this effing thing done. I've been so annoying and Drew has been so awesome. Even though I give him a hard time about it, I really am very thankful he's been too busy to work on this sooner. He's been hired on for so many other projects this past semester, not to mention the fact that he recently accepted a new job where he will soon be working full-time, all while finishing up his last semester of college. He works so hard and I am so proud of him! I am constantly impressed whenever I get to see his finished projects. He is so creative and talented. Hire him! ;) 

And of course, the work of our trusty camera man for the weekend cannot go unnoticed! Jordan was such a champ throughout the entire wedding and we were so glad that he was able to fly out to document these special events for us. He captured all of the best moments and I would be lying if I told you I didn't spend hours upon hours watching the raw footage he first gave us, all of which I loved just the same! He was so fun to work with and I was so happy with how well he worked with our fabulous photographer, Monika :) You guys are the bomb.

So without further ado, here's the video! You'll laugh, you'll cry...because you're laughing so hard (#namethatquote)

Videographer: Jordan Wheeler
Editor: Drew Tekulve
Song 1: Samskeyti by Sigur Rós
Song 2: The Ballad of Mr. Steak by Kishi Bashi

PS- if you care to see more of our wedding in pictures, hop on over here and here! bye!

i could dance to this beat

Hiiiii remember me and how I said I had a bajillion things to blog about from the month of August? Here's the last of it, I promise. After our perfect wedding weekend and our equally perfect honeymoon in Kaua'i, we flew to California for honeymoon week pt. 2 if you will, before starting real life in Provo. It started off with a few days of recuperating, followed by a day in San Diego, a day in L.A., and concluded with our open house. I just got all the pictures back from our open house, so I figured this was as good a time as any to talk about all of it.

After fighting off the jet-lag for two days, we decided it was time to leave the house. The San Diego Temple was high up there on my list of temples I want to visit, so our first day consisted of just that. We went for an endowment session in the early afternoon and it was completely empty. Considering it was an August day in California, we were pretty surprised. Shouldn't there be weddings going on left and right? Well, lucky for us we got the whole place to ourselves which was a really cool experience, plus we got a private tour of the sealing rooms. That temple is, in my opinion, the second prettiest temple of our church. Nothing beats D.C. though. Obviously ;) The architect is actually Catholic, which makes total sense because it is the most castle/cathedral-like of all our temples today. Similar to the D.C. Temple, it just pops up out of nowhere as you're driving on the freeway and is the most stunning and regal site.

 The next day was spent in L.A. as I anxiously awaited the main event of the week...Taylor Swift's 1989 tour at the Staples Center!!! (Hence this blog post title being T-swift lyrics. But which one?! 10 points to Gryffindor if you can finish them). It is a very long and convoluted story as to how I miraculously got my hands on a ticket the day before the concert, so HMU if you want to hear about it. In the meantime, we stopped by to play at the The Getty Center. This place is an architectural marvel. I was honestly more captivated by the buildings themselves than the actual artwork inside. And I'm a museum lover, so that is saying something! After walking around for a few hours, we hit up a chic little Thai-Japanese fusion restaurant in Santa Monica and then I said goodbye to Drew as he dropped me off at the Staples Center to party with Tay all by myself. Thanks Dad!! Seriously though, Drew earned so many dad points that night. Luckily he spent the majority of the concert hanging out with some old friends who live in L.A., but having to navigate back to pick me up amidst the insane post-concert traffic must have been brutal. It brought me back to the days of my own daddy dropping us (me, Ynna, and whichever friends came with us) off at Jonas Brothers concerts and having to kill three hours before picking us up again. So sorry guys. Good thing I married someone so patient and kind who knew how much attending this concert meant to me :)

But about the concert...it was such a party and I loved every second of it. Here's the thing, I have a weird relationship with Taylor where I actually think she'd be extremely annoying in person. Her girl next door, adorkable, gift-giving, cat-loving persona seems a little more forced each day, but I still love her and her music and her glam squad of friends. Say what you will about her, but she's a genius in the industry. Not to mention the fact that she puts on a great show. I've never witnessed so many pyrotechnics, moving stages, back-up dancers, or costume changes in one concert. It didn't even matter that I was dancing and singing by myself, THAT'S how much fun I had. I did however wish I had my mom or Ynna sitting next to me (the biggest T-swift fans I know), but I'm glad that by the end of the 1989 tour, we can all say we were in attendance at one of her shows in our respective cities.

The real reason we were in California was to get everything ready for our open house which took place in the Tekulve's backyard. Besides our families, we had so many people come to help during the day to set up and it was all thanks to them that it turned out so beautifully. It was such a pleasant evening meeting so many of Drew's friends from his home ward or high school that I had heard so much about before. It was so awesome to see everyone that wasn't able to attend the wedding come by to offer their love and support for us! *Bonus*: it gave me another excuse to wear my wedding dress <3

All open house pictures by Kylie Chevalier

Welp, that concludes my stories about August and all the craziness and happiness that it was. Definitely the best summer of my life thus far. Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll have some fabulous upcoming posts all about ~*newlywed wife*~ so stay tuned if you're into that kind of thing.

wedding: part II

The best party that I have ever and will ever host went down at our wedding reception and it was perfect. My reception venue was probably my favorite that I've ever encountered. I first visited John Wright for dinner over Christmas break with my parents, and of all the places we later looked at for potential venues, I couldn't stop thinking about this one. The setting was unreal and fit our vision perfectly. The building itself was so cool with lots of exposed brick and pipes that I knew would compliment my décor so well. But then THE VIEWS, MAN. You'll see what I mean later on, but the restaurant sat right on the Susquehanna River and was the perfect backdrop for the event.

If there was one detail about my wedding that I loved most of all (other than being sealed and having a husband forever), it would be my dress. I probably explained how it came to be at least 40  different times that night, but I will do so one last time for y'all. The dress itself is a strapless bhldn from a few seasons ago. I fell in love with it as soon as I first saw it online many moons ago, and told myself that I would get married in it. I miraculously found the dress whilst dress shopping in Georgetown and there was one more left in stock in my size AND on sale, so of course I ordered it A$AP. Can you say meant2b?!? Next was the tricky 'how do I make this modest without looking heinous' debacle that all us morms can attest to. I found a beautiful lace bolero on Etsy and brought it to a seamstress here in Utah who not only lined it but attached a sash to the bottom of it to make it look like one single ensemble. The last touch was the veil which I designed at Sweetheart Bridal. And VOILA! It was so unique and beautiful and the one comment I got the most was "it is so you!" Maybe that's a good thing, maybe that's the only nice thing they could think of, but I 100% agree. I wouldn't have been able to pick out a more "me" dress if I tried. 

What did I tell you about the view. AH I cannot. The brick building overlooking the river was just too much for me. From the venue itself there were also some pretty picturesque views of the farm land that my hometown is famous for, so I'm glad my wedding could reflect that as well. It was the most perfect day and the outdoor pictures turned out beautifully!! We were seriously so #blessed with wonderful weather (aka lighting) all weekend long. I have a testimony of the power of prayer! But really. I had been praying for nice weather for a while before the wedding and it was calling for a 90% chance of thunderstorms the entire week leading up to it in both D.C. and Wrightsville. Die weather apps, you have no power over my wedding. 

If you've read any of my other posts (so flattered if you do!), then you are probably aware of my love for antiques, vintage markets, and decorating. Naturally, I wanted my wedding to reflect my love for these things. Thanks to the help of Fiffer Raush, Betsy Kohr, and of course my mother, we were able to make my dream reception a reality. I was smitten with all the little details that came together so perfectly. I think I was most proud of that flower wall. Our house was a paper flower making factory as my mom and I worked on them for hours on end during the week prior to the reception. Look familiar to anyone?! My friends made similar ones at my bridal shower and I loved them so much that we recreated them for my reception. So thank you to my girl Carly for the idea!

One of the more ~tender~ moments of the evening was our first dance as Mr. & Mrs. Tekulve. We chose Q&A by Kishi Bashi because I guess you could say it's our jam. Kishi is our jam in general, and we both have a lot of fond memories involving his music. His concert in L.A. last summer was one of the first we ever attended together, and we even deemed his album Lighght as the anthem of summer 2k14. That summer dating each other and going on so many adventures was one of my favorites ever (second only to this past summer because hi, I got married). The lyrics are TOO precious, as Kishi wrote them about his own wife. It was the perfect song for us and dancing with Drew then, and always, is one of my all-time favorite things <3

For the full effect, feel free to listen to our dance mix HERE as you peruse these photos. This was by far my favorite part of the night because I ~*LIVE 2 DANCE*~. Both Drew and I love tearing it up at parties, weddings, or even in our apartment, so we knew that our own wedding would have to top them all. And in my opinion, it totally did. Because we are both very passionate about music, we made the cocktail/dinner playlist and the dance mix ourselves to assure that only the very best and our very favorites were played. We gave our DJs the biggest headaches for giving them such specific instructions and for not actually letting them do their job, but I have no regrets. Nobody likes a sub-par dance playlist with only five people pity-dancing. Highlights of the mix included everyone losing their SHIZ to Countdown, belting out Burnin' Up with my fellow JoBro super fans (you know who you are), and playing Time of My Life as our "exit" song, because it was the closest I could get to fulfilling my childhood dream of remaking the Dirty Dancing finale at my wedding.

Welp, that's all folks. Thank you to Monika and Jordan for flying out so you could work your magic behind the camera to capture this weekend in pictures and video for us to keep forever. Thank you to our bridal party for traveling so far and looking so fly in your matching outfits. Thank you to all of our friends for your outpouring of love and support. Thank you to my wonderful family for giving us the most perfect wedding. Thank you to Drew for being mine forever. And thank you for reading!!!