Fashionable Adventures of Bethie the Boo Guest Blog

Hello there!  I’m Beth from the Fashionable Adventures of Bethie the Boo.  I’m so thrilled to come here to Live A Lot while Cristi’s away on her wedding and honeymoon (congrats Cristi!) to talk about my own wedding and marriage thus far.

I’ve been married to my husband N, who has a silly nickname on my blog of The Pants Monkey, for 6 years this May.  We’ve been together as a couple for the last 14 years.  So needless to say, we hardly remember life without each other at this point! 

Our wedding day was May 27^th, 2006, a Saturday that fell over Memorial Day weekend.  It was a beautiful, sunny, HOT day.  I believe the high temperature went up to 95 degrees that day.  It has never been that hot over Memorial Day weekend since then!

It was everything I wished it would be and more, though there were moments that I look back on and laugh – such as the air conditioning quitting right at a quiet and reflective moment during the ceremony and my wedding coordinator quickly (but not so quietly) walking to the back of the church and up the stairs in heels to go turn it back on.  Or having a mini panic attack when we were done with the receiving line and the limo was still not in front of the church, borrowing my hostess’s cell phone to call him and find he was just around the corner in the parking lot.  And my personal favorite, getting a little let’s just say “tipsy” with my wedding party between the ceremony and reception and spilling the beans to my maid of honor that her boyfriend intended to propose to her in the very near future.  Despite those moments, I remember smiling a lot, dancing, laughing and falling in love a million times over with my husband over the course of that day.  It was a fairytale come true.

We honeymooned in our favorite vacation spot in northern Minnesota – Itasca State Park.  Then we came home and were blessed to start our life together in a house not far from either of our families.  We still live there now and have slowly been fixing it up as we are able.

Our marriage has had its ups and downs as any marriage will – it’s perfectly normal.  Because you know what?  Nobody is perfect.  We’ve had to deal with unemployment issues, family issues, and financial issues in the last six years, but for every difficult moment we’ve endured, we’ve had triple that in wonderful ones.  We always come through the other side of a challenge stronger and better for it. 

There is no one in the world I’d rather share my life with.  We have a running thing in addition to saying we love each other, that we say “you’re my favorite.” to each other.  He is my favorite, my rock and my best friend and I know that no matter where our life journey leads us, it will always be better because of him.

MinnChic Guest Post

Hi Live a Lot readers! I'm Rebecca from MinnChic, and I'm guest posting for Cristi while she is on her honeymoon. When Cristi asked me to do a wedding themed guest post, I figured that I would share a few photos from my own wedding. My husband and I got married in 2005 at Summit Manor in St. Paul, MN. Summit Manor is an old Victorian mansion, with lots of rooms and a huge lawn. I loved the space because it had tons of character, and allowed us to have both our ceremony and reception at the same site. Our wedding was on the smaller side, with about one hundred people attending. Since we got married during the summer, our guests ended up spending most of the reception outside, enjoying the warm weather. I am not sure if strapless dresses are still on trend, but they sure were back in 2005. I wore a strapless sheath dress, because I liked that is was easy to move in the slim skirt. I got my makeup done at the Mac store, and ordered by veil on eBay! The guys all wore tuxedos, and the bridesmaids wore black dresses. Our wedding colors were blue and yellow, and most of the flowers were gerbera daisies. We gave out daisy shaped candy as favors, and decorated our chocolate wedding cake with daisies.

My Thrifted Closet Guest Post

Hi! I'm Mongs from My Thrifty Closet. I'm very thrilled to be able to guest post on Cristi's blog while she is away on honeymoon. Thanks Cristi and congrats on your wedding! Have a really wonderful journey together as a couple!


It was really exciting to follow Cristi's blog posts on her wedding preparations.  My wedding preparation wasn't exactly fun like Cristi's. It was a huge celebration as my hubby Mr A was the eldest and the only son in the family. To the chinese family, it was an important occasion. So our guest list was really long, we had about 900 guests like my mother in law's ex-ex-ex colleagues and her old old old neighbors. And we didn't have a lot of savings then so we had to plan a thrifty wedding. I remember picking a vintage gown, it was about the thriftiest thing on the rack because it wasn't exactly the most trendy gown to wear. But I like it because it was vintage. It has all these pearl embellishments on the top and a long train behind. We got married in our church.

we didn't have digital cameras back then

so the pictures were not very clear

so blissful...

We met in church through a mutual friend and dated for about two years. We were finally married in 1998. I really thank God for our 14 years of marriage and for our lovely boys. My hubby has been very supportive in everything that I do, even my blog. He bought me an imac, a new sewing machine and even a smart phone so that I can blog as I go. If not for him, I wouldn't be able to pursue my passion. Our marriage is not always a bed of roses but we shared the same faith and values, so we were able to work things out each time we have a conflict.

the three important guys in my life

I just want to thank the Lord for walking with us through our marriage. And also thank my hubby for being the sweetest guy in the world.


Thank you for reading this post!


1 John 4:19 " We love because he first loved us."

Living In Yellow Guest Post

First things first I should probably introduce myself.

My name is Erin and write over at Living In Yellow. I like to keep things light, funny, and real. Which really just results in me opening myself up to sharing all of my finer awkward moments in this life with you all. You can learn everything you need to know about me and more over here. Today Cristi asked if I would speak to you wonderful people about anything marriage related. Naturally, my first thought was “How not to murder your spouse..” But then I remembered she is about to be a newlywed and she really doesn’t need to know these things… Yet. So then I thought “Maybe I should just share a little bit of marriage advice…” Which really translates back to “How not to murder your spouse”. Before I begin, I will state that I have been married to my man going on 6 years now and I love him dearly.

He is also pretty hot so I keep him around ;)

Here we go. 1.   Let’s face it. You are a girl. He is a guy. Meaning you are two different creatures. Congratulations on being the girl {you are way better off}. Girls typically clean up after themselves. Guys don’t. Girls like to spend money. Guys don’t. Girls cry while watching chick flicks. Guys laugh in your face. Embrace these differences. Throw his clothes in the yard after a week of sitting on the bedroom floor. Hide your credit card bill. And smack your guy when he starts laughing mid cry session. He will soon learn. 2.   Don’t buy a California King size bed. You will feel like you are miles apart. This is not conducive to the newlywed lifestyle if you catch my drift. 3.   You each need your own time to do your own thing {Hello reason number 36 why I blog}. Go out with the girls on occasion. Have him go out with the guys. Have your own individual hobbies. But do not spend TOO much time apart. Make it a point to go out just you two. Alone. 4.   Speaking of going out on dates, make sure to do FUN things on those dates. Dinner and a movie can only take you so far. Experience new things together, travel to places you have never been, eat something you have never tried. This is how you continue to learn about one another. You may think you know everything about your spouse until you take him to the zoo and find out he is deathly afraid of giraffes. Without that zoo adventure, you would never know what a pansy your spouse is. See what I mean? 5.   And last but not least..Choose Your Love-Love Your Choice. Easy as that. I could obviously go on, and on, and on, but will do you a favor and stop. Marriage is a beautiful thing peeps. You are going to have ups and downs….{which is why wine was created}, but as long as you have more ups than downs, I’d say you’re doing pretty well. Congratulations Cristi on your upcoming wedding. I wish you a beautiful life together. What advice would you give to Cristi? Tell her below. It will be fun ;) It will also be fun when you come visit me over here. Can’t wait to get to know you better!