Fall favorites in Seattle

September 9, 2021 Amanda + Isabelle

This hurts just a little bit to write, how is it almost Fall already?! But while we love the summer, there are definitely things we look forward to this time each year. Whether you’re new to the area or just looking for something to do, here are our favorite activities in and around Seattle!

Do the Puyallup

**The Puyallip Fair** (or now Washington State Fair, but you can’t get with that - although props for their website domain) is a tried and true family tradition. 2020 was the first time we’ve missed it in over 20 years! Plus, who doesn’t want to sing the song on the drive there…

Screen Shot 2021-08-26 at 11.43.35 AM.png — Real hot chocolate

Yes, you can get hot chocolate at any coffee shop or make it at home, but sometimes we are craving a real hot chocolate, made with molten chocolate. **Chocolati** hits the spot and it always on our cool weather checklist.

Screen Shot 2021-08-26 at 11.47.17 AM.png — Taste of Greece

The **Saint Demetrios Greek Festival** has been a Seattle tradition since 1960 and the perfect excuse to stuff yourself with delicious Greek food. (*Amanda stocks up on soup for the year, so 2020 was extra rough*) There are musical and dance performances, plus a whole selection of goods and crafts for sale. Bonus points for using a token system, which feels extra fun.

Pumpkins & Donuts

A few years ago we thought, why have we never gone to a pumpkin patch? **The Farm at Swan Trail** **was where we decided to go and we haven’t looked back since.** So now we have a new family tradition, which is a come-for-the-pumpkins-stay-for-the-donuts kind of thing.

Screen Shot 2021-09-02 at 7.54.04 AM.png — Get baking

Sometimes there is nothing better than staying home and baking up something together! If we need anything special, we hit up the **Hake Cake Decorating** store. For inspiration, we often turn to **Smitten Kitchen**, **How Sweet Eats**, **America’s Test Kitchen** and Amanda has recently gotten obsessed with a ***real cookbook*** (I know!) from **Clotilde Dusoulier**. Happy baking!

Things are constantly changing because of COVID again, so if any of these are closed for 2021, definitely check them out next year!

10 wedding or baby shower activities

August 26, 2021 Amanda + Isabelle

Bridal or baby shower games can be hit or miss - there are some popular ones that many people love, but either from playing them one too many times or just feeling like we need to inject new life into these activities, we’ve started to make some changes... We want people to actually enjoy themselves, so we decided to put all our favorite ideas in one place.

5 classic #perfectlypairedapproved activities

Of course we love a drink station, especially when it’s a choose your own adventure
A simple guessing game (due date, how many objects/candy in a jar)
Wedding (or birthday!) dress cupcake decorating
Collecting words of wisdom, favorite quotes or thoughtful notes (giving guests a heads up so they have time to think about it) and compiling them into a book for the bride or mom-to-be
Wedding/baby-themed Pictionary or Telestrations

5 unique ideas to take your shower to the next level

**Utilize the theme for a celebrity-style game**

We’ve said this before in our other party posts, but we like a theme for helping tie everything together. And it doesn’t have to be a ‘typical’ theme, even better if it’s not! We’re using the term ‘celebrity’ loosely here to refer to something everyone might know a little about or at least have fun guessing. Some ideas (these can be simple matching games on paper or you can get a Jeopardy or Family Feud app to make it more exciting!):
Baby shower: celebrity moms and kids, celebrities with their own baby pictures, adult and baby animal names
Bridal shower: famous couples, romantic lines and movies, love songs and musicians

**Grown-up show & tell**

Everyone bring a photo or object and share a memory about their relationship with the guest of honor. This is an especially great activity for Zoom parties where you can’t be together in person.

**Bring back Madlibs**

We cannot take credit for this idea as a friend originally created one for a bridal shower, but it’s such a different thing to do and everyone enjoys it. Listen to **The Office Ladies podcast** to learn a little about the history and then get creative writing a little Madlib of your own! Bonus: it’s a sweet memory and gift for the guest of honor.

**Bride and groom trivia**

The original game of “Who knows the Bride best?” is fun, but our biggest complaint is that it’s open-ended (*What did she wear on their first date: How would I know that?!*). Plus, showers often bring together people from various stages in your life and not everyone will know you in the same way. We switched it around to be more like a matching game meets Two Truths and a Lie: list a series of facts about the Bride and Groom (or mom & dad to-be) and have people guess who each one is about. Feel free to throw in a couple fake ones (or ones that describe both!) if you want to make it a bit more challenging. It’s also a fun conversation starter!

**Have an activity that doubles as a favor**

A lot of activities can double as a gift for the guest of honor, but we’ve also had activities that guests can take home. For example, for a forest-themed shower we had a DIY trail mix bar. Or for something even more simple, we got nice pens to use for the games and that were for guests to keep.

*Side note: we’re kind of over making the bride or mom-to-be ‘pick a winner’ for games. We like to do games that have a clear winner and do small, but nice favors :)

We hope this gives you some fun ideas and makes it a little easier next time you are helping plan a shower to celebrate someone you love!

Would you...

August 12, 2021 Amanda + Isabelle

Click on the images to read more about these fun wedding ideas!

Screen Shot 2021-08-09 at 12.46.33 PM.png — Thrift your wedding dress

Screen Shot 2021-08-09 at 12.49.11 PM.png — Wear this whimsical wedding coat

Screen+Shot+2021-08-09+at+12.51.55+PM.jpg — Walk down the aisle with both parents

*(plus some really wonderful thoughts on honoring the women in your life!)*

Screen Shot 2021-08-09 at 12.51.27 PM.png — Go bold in stripes

Screen Shot 2021-08-09 at 9.33.58 PM.png — Send colorful invites

Happy wedding planning!

The Re-ception wedding dress

July 29, 2021 Amanda Davis

If you aren’t going to wear your wedding dress again (which would also be very sweet and who else gets to do that?!), there are a ton of fun directions you could go with it. Isabelle is still deciding, although leaning towards wearing something else, so it seemed like fun to brainstorm options…

We’re sticking with white because, well, how often do you get to shop for white dresses? And we’ll keep it under $300 with options at a variety of price points. Here are some we love!