Congratulations to DAWN from our In The Now team for her lovely, seasonly festive Tangled Christmas Lights cookie:

Our readers loved your artistic creativity and you may now brag about it ALL year long [until next year, when we once again give you a run for your money]!

That being said, random.org has populated a comment from one lucky reader who will take home the itunes gift card, and the comment is…

Please email me personally as soon as you see this so that you can claim your prize! And enjoy- hope Christmas treated you well and that you’re ALL gearing up for the new year like we are!

xoxo,

The winner on our team gets bragging rights, but one lucky commenter will receive a $15 iTunes gift card just for playing [winner selected randomly]!! So fun already, right?? So, without further adieu- here are the cookies!!

The Stop Sign:

The MasterCard:

The Apple-and-worm:

Pac Man and Ghost:

The Coffee Cookie:

The Mexican Flag:

The Shake Weight:

The ridiculous web of love:

Festive Heart:

Super Cookie:

Tangled Christmas Lights:

And – typically I keep it anonymous so that none of our readers know who made which cookie, but honestly- This is Sharon’s:

The picture from the top doesn’t do it justice:

Basically all she did was rip off the top of one of Dawn’s cute-as-a-button little snowman cupcakes and plop it onto her cookie. I’ll give her an A for creativity in getting a great design. But seriously. And just to give you an idea of how much Josh liked that…

One last little peek at how adorable Dawn’s cupcakes were!!

Phew! Hopefully at least one of these cookies moves you enough to vote! Just leave a comment stating your favorite cookie and why it’s your favorite- and you’re automatically entered into the drawing! Special thanks to Jack Rodriguez for capturing our cookies so perfectly, so accurately, so gently! We love Jack!!

Voting ends at 8am on Friday the 24th [Christmas Eve] with a winner announced on Christmas day! But don’t check then- check it later. :)

Have fun and good luck [well, to all of us!!]!

xoxo,

I could NOT be more thrilled with the way the ideas were captured by fave photog Chenin Boutwell. She turns everything she snaps right into gold- so I’ve been giddy since moment one about this!

The stylish workshop was broken up into a couple of posts- so be sure to visit ALL of them and leave love for your fave event stylists over there!!

Wedding Chicks Part 1

Wedding Chicks Part 2

Definitely there are MORE images, descriptions and fun to come regarding this workshop so stay tuned for more! Thanks so much Amy, Jocey, and Chenin for allowing me to turn a portion of a San Clemente Golf Course into a dreamy, Nantucket wonderland!!

xoxo,

A.

It’s going to be truly beyond epic and I can hardly wait until all the details come together! More on that as we sift through the goodies! Thanks SO much to all our adoring friends, family and fans- we couldn’t have done it without you!

xoxo,

A.

The contest winner will be styling a huge workshop with Chenin Boutwell + The Wedding Chicks and frankly, the idea that we came up with is so FAB, it pains me to think of NOT styling it. The details- in my head- are just amazingly ooey gooey goodness! Here’s the board that the WC gals put together for us. I supplied them with 60+ pictures for it, because that’s how I roll. THAT- y’all- is how I roll!

PLEASE GO HERE AND VOTE FOR US!!. We’re styleboard #2!! You can vote as many times as you’d like. The voting ends Saturday, March 20th! Would truly adore the support- especially if what we’re showing you so far looks unique and piques your interest as much as it did ours, putting it together!

**All new posts will go under this one until Saturday, March 20**

Oodles and oodles of things like poodles!! Vote, vote, vote!!

xoxo,

A.

I’m thrilled to announce that our Utterly Engaged Designer’s Challenge Table was featured last Thursday! I’ll be posting tons of photos here [shortly] as well, but for now, go gift your eyes with some gorgeousness over at Junebug’s Post!

Brick place mats and plexiglass menus and faux bois plates with pops of deep teal and hot cocoa. Like, seriously for real! I love it!! Hope y’all do too!

xoxo,

A.

Because each of the entrant’s designs are going to be published in the upcoming issue of Utterly Engaged, I cannot show you any photos of the tabletop itself, as a whole. Since I’ve got no patience myself, I’m sharing with you one small detail to give you a clue as to the images to come.

Don’t lose that winter spirit before you see these pictures!! I know you’ll love them! This photo is actually compliments of us [though on the night of the event, the stupendous Jasmine Star shot the tabletops, which are the images going to publish in the magazine]! Josh and I re-set the tabletop up the next day in the back alley behind my office to compliment the urban feel of the table. I literally cannot WAIT to share them with you, but until then… let this hold you over:

Thanks to Cathy @ Love At First Invite for her gorgeous paper design work on these cute cute cute little hot cocoa stirrer flags!

Hope you’re all soaking in that California sun now that it’s back in business. I do love me a good week of winter, but I cannot separate myself from leaning and growing towards the sun, just like a flower! Get things done today, y’all! I know I am!!

xoxo,

A.

Do you love? I love!! I can’t wait to see all of the smiling happy faces at the UE event tonight! Hopefully I’ll get to hug some of my dear readers whilst I’m there as well [nudge, nudge, wink, wink]!!

Enjoy the torrential downpour [...by looking at it from the warm indoors under a comfy blanket]!!

xoxo,

A.

Well, here’s a big old hint for ya:

We’ve entered the Utterly Engaged Designer’s Challenge and have been creating AWAY to make something truly gorgeous and unique. That being said- I’d love it if anyone of my readers, clients, friends or fans came out to support the element of my job that I hold most dear: designing!!

It’s set to be a night full of fun and definitely some inspiring designs! Hope to see some of you there! Until then, I’m just trying to keep my head screwed on straight and get some sleep [ever]!

All of you newly-engaged gals: you sleep at some point, too, okay! It’s a pact!

xoxo,

A.

BIG congrats to Stephanie, for being the randomly selected winner [and commenting just in the nick of time! Please note the timing on my blog is off- you got it, Steph!!]

And now, for the final count of cookie votes [discounting all of the votes Josh attempted to give himself]:

And the ITN winner IS…. drumroll please….

ME!!! I never, ever, ever, ever, EVER thought in a gazillion years that my tree-on-drugs would win a darn thing! I honestly thought that E.T. would take it purely on the nostalgia factor! At least the team can’t say that you guys play favorites! I don’t think you’d have any idea that the tree was mine [especially since it started out as a bouquet... ouch]!! Have a WONDERFUL weekend and get some shopping done!! xoxo!

Directly below me is a cookie that each of us decorated. We had limited items to use and we only had red/green/white of everything. It made for some interesting cookies, that’s for sure! But we totally had a blast. Anyway! Leave us a comment on this post telling us which one is your favorite! We’ll tally the votes for ourselves [for bragging rights] and then give one LUCKY RANDOM commenter a super sweet gift card to Sprinkles Cupcakes [who, I may add, decorate just a bit better than us]!!! This is open to ANYONE and EVERYONE so if you READ, I want a comment! That includes alllll of my clients who have yet to comment, friends of mine outside of the industry, vendors I know or don’t know, blogger brides or people who just randomly found me and have nothing to do with weddings. We’re a big old family here! I know how many people come by every day and I know you’re watching me… so chime in! Here it goes. For “fairness” purposes [because my whole team knows everyone loves ME so much] we’re keeping the cookies anonymous. You won’t know who’s cookie is which until the contest ends, Christmas Eve!! We’ll announce the winner on Christmas Eve [literally, in the eve] along with another sweet surprise for my faithful few followers.

Now, bring on the cookies!!!

Cookie A, “the eyeball”:

Cookie B, “the willy wonka tree”:

Cookie C, “the pretty flower”:

Cookie D, “the extra terrestrial”:

Cookie E, “the ‘bominable boy”:

Cookie F, “the bear that rings eerily similar to the grateful dead bear” cookie:

We took lots more fun pictures that I’ll show you all as the week progresses along [after all, it's Christmas and we SHOULD be off of work, right??]. Please, chime in at YOUR chance to win some yummy, yummy fun at Sprinkles!! And may I suggest the Red Velvet [weak in the knees at the thought!!].

xoxo!