How To Handle Wedding Planning Stress – Bride Guide

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Comin’ in hot! Our Bride Guide series chat this week is all about how to handle the stress of planning a wedding. With a task list as long as CVS receipts it can all be so overwhelming. I want to share with you the way I broke it all down for myself since we did the planning ourselves and how I managed the Bridezilla-ness of it all.

Lists on lists baby! There’s a timeline of events, there’s the EVENT, and there’s all the planning in between. So today we’ll talk about the things that go in between the engagement and the HONEYMOON <3

Honestly, typing out hashtag was so fun for me because umm what world do we live in that creating a hashtag has become one of our wedding priorities! Ours was #exoticnationwedding LOL Do the damn thing is pretty high up there though, all of this to say you’re getting married and it’s going to be the BEST time of your life!

So go through this list, fill it out for yourself and see where you are. Decide the big things like budget and who, where, when NOW, and the rest of the list we can get to. Do you like how informal my speaking is… “no stress baby just think about the W’s” (who what when where) HAHA

Get inspired! Pinterest is your new BFF! And your BFF is the MOH! I loved rose gold, romantic decorations, corals, and royal blue! The DIY part is next week, this week I just want you to focus on the answers you gave last week and the list you’re making this week.

I have so many recommendations for THE dress, invitation sites, how to map out the seating chart, and the best way to go about the cake/favors/and decoration details. Check out BHLDN, get on Pinterest, start putting together what size wedding you’re having so that all of the other details come together much easier for you, and create that task list… starting here.

I really hope all this list creating helps to get all of the stress out of your head and onto paper so that you have a starting point and a clear idea of what your next steps are. Knowing what’s next really does help to keep the stress at bay, what’s scary is the unknowing part and the ‘do I have time to do all this planning’ part. But with a clear plan you’re breaking it all down into ONE thing at a time and it’s much more manageable.

What shall we talk about next week? What to DIY? What to skimp on what not to? Where you should apply your budget? How to make everyone happy when this is YOUR day and you’re just trying not to go crazy? Tell me <3

 

 

 

 

Santa’s Helper With Banhez – Holiday Cocktail Series Starts Here!

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‘Tis the season for sharing your favorite recipes and sweet treats with the people you love, and today I’m sharing with you a very special series! I’m teaming up with Banhez Mezcal to bring you some holiday themed cocktails just in time for your next party or festive gathering.

Today’s installment, jovially named Santa’s Helper, is the first of three that will all be launching here this week. During the video where I make this drink live with you, you’ll hear me refer to the ‘Banhez ensemble’ and I say that because Mezcal is made from 100% agave, but this one is a blend of two, which creates a very mixable spirit, perfect for cocktails!

Before we jump into the recipe I want to tell you why I chose to partner with Banhez. They’re the only mezcal that is Farm Family (37 and growing) owned (co-operative in Oaxaca Mexico) and they believe that a strong foundation comes from a strong community. So closely related to my own brand ethos, community building and story sharing is so important to me. I love that they’re filled with heritage which is so often celebrated, and that honoring the land is such a huge part of the Banhez mission.

So to continue with this theme of gratitude and community, I’m hosting a giveaway with Banhez just for YOU! Today through the 21st you’ll be able to enter my Banhez Mezcal giveaway, right here just by commenting below! So I hope you follow along and enter each step of the way, you’ll have multiple chances to win and the prize is valued at over $250! Entry details are below, following the recipe <3

Santa’s Helper: 

  • 2 oz Banhez Ensemble
  • 3/4 oz Cranberry syrup**
  • 2 dashes Fee Brother’s Old Fashioned Bitters
  • Orange zest
  • Sprig of rosemary

Begin by preparing the Cranberry Syrup and then begin to build the yumminess!

**Cranberry Syrup:
1 can of cranberry sauce, any consistency will work
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Dashes of whatever spice you’d like- I used 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg

1) To prepare the cranberry syrup simply put all the ingredients together in a Japanese stirring glass (or pint glass) and mix until smooth. Double strain solids through a sieve and bottle the remaining syrup in a mason jar or air tight container. If you’d like to make this recipe in bulk simply double or triple the recipe and it should last in your refrigerator for about two weeks.

2) Now for the cocktail part, in a large shake tin combine together the Banhez ensemble, cranberry syrup that you just made, and bitters over ice. Shake shake shake and then strain into a rocks glass with ice, garnish with orange zest and a rosemary sprig.

I truly hope you give this cocktail a taste and let me know what you think! Banhez Mezcal is best when enjoyed with friends as it’s made with the spirit of community, and is meant to be shared with yours. I’m so happy to support a brand that has so much heart and that’s where my excitement to share this series with you comes from.

As I mentioned before, I have two more holiday themed cocktails featuring Banhez coming your way this week so stay tuned and don’t forget to enter the GIVEAWAY below in the comments section! The lucky winner will receive this gift here, featuring a 1 Liter bottle of Banhez Mezcal and this entire beautiful cocktail creating set!So enter enter enter this is a good one!

I hope you know I love hearing from you all so you’ll have to tell me if you’ve tried Banhez Mezcal before. Is there a recipe I should make for myself and share with everyone? Sharing is caring, tell me all the things! Thank you for being a part of this series with me, to purchase Banhez Mezcal for yourself or as a gift (yay they’ll ship before Christmas if you order now!) you can order HERE! I chose to feature Banhez because it’s special to me as is my platform. Especially because they’re proudly Mexican, full of heart and heritage, made up of cocktails and artisanal dreams, and built by the spirit of community. What’s not to love, look at these smiles!

Giveaway Entry Rules:

– must be 21+ years old to enter
– winner will be selected at random
– enter as many times as you like, the more you enter, the more chances you have to win!
– an ‘entry’ is a comment on all 3 Banhez Mezcal cocktail articles here on the blog, here’s Epi 2 and Epi 3! Be sure to enter on ALL 3 blog articles!
– stumped on what comment to leave? Tell me a fun fact about yourself or what your plans are for the holidays! I love learning more about you guys!
– and drink responsibly as always please and thank you <3
, love Mama Lizama

Feel free to send this to a friend who would like to enter as well, the more the merrier! Tis the season of sharing so cheers to you and yours from me and mine <3

Interested in learning more about Banhez? I’ve linked you here: 

BANHEZ IG: @banhezmezcalartesanal

BANHEZ FB: https://www.facebook.com/banhezmezcalartesanal

 

 

 

 

 

Crazy food night with my husband!

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Oh la la, I said husband! So Joe and I had a crazy food night making spicy quesadillas and Hi-C margaritas! I say crazy because of the copious amounts of jalapenos that went into making them 😉 Give these a try for a fun date night or dinner with friends . . . oh oh have a game night!

The Hi-C margarita was sweet but not too sweet, slushy but not too slushy, and just the perfect amount of ice crunch!

Please Subscribe to my channel if you haven’t, I love creating these food/ beverage nights with you!

What themed night would you like to see next? Girls night? Sleepover? Movie night? 

Vodka Coco-Mint Lemonade – #WineNotWednesday

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I’ll find any excuse to put coconut anything into everything. Today for your #WineNotWednesday shake up, we’re making a coconut infused vodka mint lemonade! It’s just as refreshing and delicious as it sounds.


Shake it up baby! You’ll need:

  • Coconut water (Harmless Harvest is my all time favorite!)
  • Lemonade (Simply Lemonade is soo good, no pulp with a smooth tart)
  • Vodka
  • Kiwi
  • Lime juice
  • Jalepenos
  • Mint
  • Fresh strawberries

Place mint, strawberries, ice, and vodka into a shaker and shake it up. Kind of muddle the mint and strawberries together before adding in 2 oz lemonade, 1 oz vodka (or 2 if you like), and 1 oz coconut water. Pour the goodness into a glass and garnish with jalepeno slices, mint leaves, kiwi, and ENJOY! Sip responsibly. Love, mom

Do you love coconut? You either love it or hate it and if you love it than you put it in everythingggg!

 

 

 

 

 

Raspberry Champagne Float – Wine Not Wednesday!

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For all my fellow #winemoms out there, this is for you! My babes over at Tone It Up started a Wine Not Wednesday IN their meal plan, talk about balance! It inspired me to get shakin’ and I’ll take it up a notch each week for you here, sharing my favorite cocktails, spirits, and liqueurs – because sometimes wine’s not enough and a cocktail is in order! So cheers to feelin’ frisky, no whining allowed. Pun intended.


Raspberry Champagne Float

Shake it up baby! You’ll need:

  • glass of champagne
  • your favorite sherbet
  • fresh fruit

Mix it all together and enjoy babes! It is National Ice Cream Day on the 16th so double cheers to the freakin’ weekend <3

Are there any particular ingredients you’d like to see used in next week’s #winenotwednesday?

 

 

 

Finding Joy in the Stress of Wedding Planning!

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We’re less than 3 weeks out from our BIG day and I promised that I wouldn’t turn bridezilla on you. I can’t promise that I’ve kept that promise so here’s to sharing all my ups in the hopes of preventing all the break-downs!

I wouldn’t say that planning a wedding is fun necessarily, unless your idea of fun surrounds endless lists of to-do’s, spending an obscene amount of money on the raddest party of your life (okay that actually sounds fun), and making decisions you didn’t even know mattered. But you can find joy in the stress of wedding planning I promise!

Of all the decisions I’ve had to make and all the choices I’ve had to choose from, hands down the most fun part *besides picking out my wedding dress and marrying my best friend* has been the center piece making, and thank you cards/stationary creating!

 

I mean how magical are these Basic Invite thank you cards <3 Complete with our wedding colors in artistic subtle splashes and this simple yet classic script, I can’t wait to personalize these babies. Could there be gold glitter involved? We shall see 😉

What I enjoyed most was taking the time to pick out every detail from our color combination, to the specific slate grey I wanted for the writing. The Basic Invite site offers you an instant preview so I was able to play around with the design to try and match them to our stationary until they were exactly what we wanted.

We went with champagne envelopes of which they printed the names and addresses on for us (absolutely do this and save your grip for those honeymoon pina coladas! I mean, it’s FREE!) and I even got us ‘eternity’ stamps for the mail. We cute!

 

Although you wouldn’t be able to tell with the muted envelopes I chose, there are over 40 different color envelopes for your musings. Unfortunately for me, we found this service too late in our wedding planning game to order wedding invitations from them, but luckily for you I’m here to share!

Their wedding invitations are a part of a set and with their ‘try before you buy’ policy, they allow for a custom sample to be sent to you so, win win! Everything from Save The Dates to wedding programs and matching thank you cards (ahem me!) are available and they make it uber convenient with their free address collection service. I’ve thrown the word ‘free’ around a lot in this post but hey, if the shoe fits . . . get it in every color.

I’m so excited for these next few weeks to fly by so that I can wrap up all of our final plans, I leave on the 23rd which is in TWO weeks! TWO! So if you’re in the midst of wedding season like myself, than I hope this post helps you to find some joy in the hustle and bustle of it all and inspires you to get creative when it comes to dreaming up your first impressions as husband and wife.

Take some time to breath and get back to what really matters, which is marrying your person, but also to find joy in the stress of it all – they say we work best under pressure anyway! Also that’s for me to re-read and apply for myself 😉

Are you a stationary or personalized thank you card kind of person? Would you prefer to design your own table place cards and menus or are you like me and you’d rather click it, print it, and move on with it? 

 

 

BEST GAME DAY RECIPES!!!

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I once joined a fantasy football league just so that I could bring goodies and have gigglefests with my friends. As I began to pick my lineup based solely upon how “cute” I thought the players names were, I also realized that it was a BIG deal! So I decided to redeem myself by giving you 3 of the most yummiest best game day recipes ever! Even if you are only there for the food and fun, at least you’ll be contributing by way of deliciousness! Enjoy babies!


DESSERT PIZZA! A crowd pleaser and worthy of any occasion really, this ‘pizza’ takes 10 minutes to make and will be gone even quicker than that!

You’ll need:
– a small package of strawberries and blueberries
– (1) 8oz package of softened cream cheese
– 2 cups of Reddi-wip whipped topping
– 2 teaspoons sugar
– 2 tablespoons honey
– 2 tablespoons minced basil
– 1 crescent roll dough

Method:
Bake the ‘pizza’ crust per the instructions and while it’s baking cream together the whipped topping, honey, and cream cheese. In a separate bowl chop up the strawberries and blueberries, add in the sugar, and toss. Allow the pizza to cool, top it with the whipped cream cheese mixture, spread the berries on top and then sprinkle with the basil. ENJOY!

COCONUT CHICKEN SKEWERS WITH HOMEMADE SPICY PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE!


What you’ll need for the skewers: 
– 5 boneless chicken breasts
– 1 can coconut milk
– 1/4 cup soy sauce

Method: cut the chicken into chunks and marinate for a few hours in a bowl with the coconut milk and soy sauce. You have time for the peanut sauce now!
– 1/4 cup Peter Pan creamy peanut butter
– 1/3 cup sweet and sour sauce
– 3/4 cup water
– 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
– 1 1/2 tablespoons red pepper flakes

Once you’re ready to grill the skewers brown them until fully cooked and then combine the peanut sauce ingredient in a bowl and whisk together and ENJOY!

CHILI CHEESE DIP!


An oldie but goodie, this is a crowd favorite! I don’t think I’ve ever been to a sports gathering and not had a cheese dip or layered dip of some kind. This is spicy, creamy, and cheesy!

What you’ll need:
– a bag of your favorite chips (I love blue corn tortilla chips!)
– (1) 16 oz Velveeta cheese
– 1 can of vegetarian chili (or you can go with turkey or ground beef)
– 1 can of diced tomatoes with chilies
– paprika

Method:
Cut the cheese into chunks and in a pot add in the cheese, chili, and drained can of tomatoes. Stir the mixture up over medium low heat until the cheese is melted and then sprinkle with a few dashes of paprika! DIP AND ENJOY!


If ever you invite me to your party or you see me out at an event, you’ll most likely find me near the snack table or food cart 😀

Do you have any special game day recipes?! I love trying new things, share with me what you like to bring to a cookout or game day gathering! 

 

BRIDE GUIDE: BEST BRIDE TO-BE GIFTS!!!

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I’M GETTING MARRIED!!! *can you hear the excitement in that text scream?!* As you know, Joe and I got engaged in December and we’re getting married next summer ahhh! And man has this summer has been THE summer of engagements!

All of my best girl friends are getting engaged and it’s been the happiest, most beautifully emotional past couple of months for all of us! So after the initial screeching and screaming, and jumping up and down, I immediately go on the prowl for the perfect gift for my friend during her most special time!

So I wanted to share with you what I’ve found to be the best bride to be gifts and my go-to places for special items! Ahem not only are these my favorite gifts for ‘her’, but they’ve also been gifted to me and I speak from experience when I say IN LOVE!

 

Screen shot 2016-07-18 at 9.42.40 AM

Kate Spade ‘Mrs’ necklace – a gorgeous, feminine, and dainty piece that will make her feel like the most special bride to be … a MRS!

Kendra Scott’s pendant necklace – these pieces come in necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. You can customize each piece and they’re stunningly sparkly! The chain is delicate and drops just in line with the collar bone. Our group of girlfriends traditionally get one of these beauties each time someone gets engaged and our girl Bailey just joined the ‘I do’ club <333

For all things hand-made and personal I turn to Etsy! You can create one of a kind pieces, put together gifts that are timeless and meaningful in a different way. I love finding that ‘something blue’ item to gift and this bracelet is stunning! If you follow me on Instagram (and pictured above) than you’ve seen the Etsy necklace that has Joe, Corrine, and my signatures all carved out of rose gold! Talk about special and unique! You can’t go wrong with any gift you give someone you care about and these are just some of my most coveted online destinations.

No matter what you decide to give the bride to be, it will be special to them because it came from you. Congratulations to all of my brides and bride-to-be’s out there, I can’t wait to share more of my wedding prep/ tips and tricks with you!

What’s your favorite gift to give someone special???

 

 

 

BEST CINCO DE MAYO RECIPES – MARGARITAS AND CHURROS!

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READ TIME: Less than 2 minutes or LISTEN above!

Happy Cinco De Mayo everyone!!! Today is a day for celebration, music, and culture … and FOOD! Today I’m sharing with you the BEST Cinco De Mayo recipes including a Spicy Watermelon Coronarita and homemade Churros!!!

Hold on to your chonies because these are crazy delicious!

SPICY WATERMELON MARGARITA – CORONARITA



In a blender mix 2 shots (per serving, yes this is strong like bull) of tequila, a shot of orange liqueur (I used Bahama Mama’s peach slushy from Ralph’s), the juice of a teeny lemon wedge, 1 tablespoon of jalapeno juice  (straight from the jar baby), and a handful of watermelon wedges (frozen for extra slush!). Once blended, pour into a TALL glass but not before rimming it with salt, and top it with half a Corona (or the whole thing get wild!), and drink with responsibility. <—- disclosure because I’m a mom so I’m everyone’s mom.

This is truly one of the BEST coronaritas I’ve ever had! Yes this was the first one I’ve ever made, but it won’t be my last 😀

HOMEMADE CHURROS – IN FIVE MINUTES OR LESS!


I got this recipe from Pinterest and she’s brilliant because it took me all of 3 minutes to make these and they’re DELICIOUS! Crispy, sweet, cinnamon-y, and buttery!


This is SO easy and you’ll be nomming on these in minutes! I thawed out some frozen Sara Lee frozen food cakes, cubed them and then fried them up! Immediately after, I tossed them around in a sugar and cinnamon mixture (1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup cinnamon) and then didn’t even wait for them to cool off before DEVOURING them! So so so good!

I hope you have a happy and safe holiday weekend, please TAG me when you make these scrumdillyumptious recipes and let me know what your Cinco De Mayo plans are!

One of my favorite holidays, I love learning about the history, the culture, and the stories behind some of my most coveted recipes!

Watch me make these LIVE here on my channel!