Calling all BRIDES!

Full Disclaimer: The giveaway I am blogging about below is from one of my clients; however, I think it is a GREAT giveaway and I am totally jealous that I am no longer a bride because I totally want the stuff. That being said, below is a really fabulous contest that I helped put together for one of my clients. It's a great opportunity for all of you brides out there to get some great pampering and pre-wedding relaxation. PLUS, your wedding will be featured in an upcoming issue of Phoenix Bride & Groom Magazine. How cool is that. So spread the word to all of your friends and family heading down the aisle. This is a giveaway they don't want to miss out on!

Bridal Bliss Giveaway: Win the Ultimate Bridal Package!

Qualify to win over $3,000 in bridal services.

Getting hitched in the near future? Have we got good news for you! With fall wedding season in full bloom, Arizona Spa Girls is celebrating with the ultimate bridal giveaway! We've partnered with the best wedding vendors in town to offer you the bridal package of a lifetime.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Complete the Giveaway Entry Form.
2. Email a fun photo of you (or of you and your fiancé) to brides @ azspagirls.com.*
3. Have your Facebook friends “Like” the Arizona SpaGirls Fan page.
4. Tell your Facebook friends to “Like” your photo.

The photo with the most “Likes” by November 19, 2010 will be our Grand Prize Winner! Good luck and be sure to check out our Fall Bridal Beauty Guide for all you need to know to glow on your big day!

*Emailed photos will be uploaded to the Bridal Bliss Photo Album on the AZ Spa Girls Facebook page within 2 to 3 business days.

Winner will Receive:
Ultimate Spa Day ($1,000+ value) from Agave, The Arizona Spa
Weight Loss & Energy Packages ($600 Value) from La Bella Vita Health & Wellness Center
Photography Services ($300 Value) from Noyan Photography
Passionné Wedding Services Package ($350 Value) from Green Apple Design
On-Location Beauty Services ($275 Value) from Kensington Makeup Artists
Editorial Feature (PRICELESS) from Phoenix Bride & Groom Magazine

Visit http://azspagirls.com/blog/bridal-giveaway/ for full package details.

This soothing bridal package brought to you by AZSpaGirls.com and our participating sponsors!

Big Hair with Bumble and Bumble Hair Powder

Hey everyone! A few of you know that I recently started a new job (yay me!) but some of you may not know that part of that job includes blogging for one of my favorite sites (and yes, I followed it before I got this job). AZ Spa Girls (azspagirls.com) is a site for everything spa and beauty related. We do a variety of product reviews as well as tell you about the latest and greates t in the local spa scene.

I have written a few blogs now but my favorite so far is about my all time favorite hair product, truly, I am OBSESSED with it. Check it out and let me know what you think (the blog post that is, but I DO encourage anyone who has't tried the product to do so immediately, it's fabulous) Big Hair with Bumble and Bumble Hair Powder. Here's a fun picture of my latest silliness that shows off my fun big hair (no I do not wear it out in public like this, we were just being silly when I was out in Seattle for Kyle's marathon he participated in).

Tri-ing to Save Lives

I'm sure many of you have heard, or read, I have recently started training for the Blue Water Triathlon in Parker, Arizona with Team in Training. Team in Training, as you also probably know, is the non-profit organization that Mac recently started working for that helps people train for endurance events while raising money to support the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. He did the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon back in June and, after going to the inspiration dinner and seeing how many people from around the country get involved I decided I would like to do a TNT (Team in Training) event. A month or so later I went up to Flagstaff with Nicole to watch her do a Mountain Man Triathlon and decided that was the event I wanted to train for. So, a few weeks later, I signed the paper and have officially begun training, and fundraising, for my Triathlon this November.


We are in our 5th week of training and I can barely walk after Saturday's group bike practice. We rode 20.5  miles and I almost died the first time, ok, well not really, but it was rough, and I was the last one in and the second try, I had mechanical errors so I could only finish half of the course. Most of my team have done a Triathlon before so I don't feel so bad, but I really wish it didn't hurt so much to walk right now, not to mention practice starts at 6:30am on SATURDAYS, how insane is that?


I haven't been to a run practice yet, right now they are optional, and on Thursday nights, and I just haven't been able to make it, but that is the event that I am most worried about, as long as I keep pushing my feet, my bike will go and I grew up in the water, so I am certainly not worried about that, but the run... oh boy... we do short transition runs after each of our swim and bike practices, and, well, I pretty much fail. I'm fairly certain the longest distance we have run is less than 2 miles and I can't even do that without walking a bit yet... but I guess that's what Team is for. They will help me get my endurance up and speed up my pace/spare my energy in the first two events to use it for running.


Aside from the physical part of the training I have also committed to raising $2500 which will directly benefit The Leukemia Lymphoma Society to help find a cure for blood cancers. I hope you will all consider donating some money for this great cause and if you want to follow my training blog, feel free to stop by my fundraising page, where you can also make donations :) http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/bluetri10/msmarriedmac and become a fan of my facebook page too! facebook.com/samstri!!

My First Car Purchase

Those of you who follow me on Facebook know at the beginning of last month I was having all sorts of problems with my poor little car, first my radiator kept overheating so I replaced it, still had problems so I fixed those, then my AC went out and my check engine light went on. It was just a disaster. Finally I Decided enough was enough and I needed a new car, so... on my way to a car dealership some girl REAR ENDED me. Really, that poor car was on it's last limb. I wound up finding a cute little car that night and started the paper work. It was a little black cobalt, fully loaded with leather interior and a sunroof. It was a pretty good deal and I was super excited!

Well after about 3 weeks of getting jerked around by the car dealership, they never actually got me approved like they said and were tying to make me fall in love with the car so I would do whatever I could to keep it, including putting more money down - it didn't work, I gave them back this car took my poor little trade-in down the street to Acura of Tempe.  

The service was phenomenal, the people were so friendly and the deal was said and done within 48 hours, and BEFORE I left the lot with the car. It's a bit older with a few more miles on it but a much better car. I wound up getting a 2006 Honda Accord, two door, fully loaded with a moon roof and leather interior. She;s not black like I wanted but it's a much better fit!

I can't tell you how much I learned throughout this whole process and boy am I glad it's all over. The good thing is, now that I have a car loan in my name, the next time won't be so frustrating. :)

Well thanks for following!!!

xoxo,
Samantha

New Blog Name!!

Now that we are married I thought it was time to change our URL from McIntosh wedding to something m,ore relevant. So ere it is. Our new blog address (well really mine since Mac doesn't, and has no desire to, post):

http://www.msmarriedmac.blogspot.com

I'm not entirely familiar with how these changes work, so if you are still interested in following, make sure the new address switched over and if you have us (well me) listed in a blog roll, you might want to see that the address is corrected on there as well. Thanks all. 

Oh! And for those of you who don't FB stalk me, I have a fun new announcement to share once I get pictures! Stay Tuned!

xoxo,

Samantha

I love our videographer - Highlight video in post!

Throughout the wedding planning process I received so many tips and suggestions I really didn't know what to do with them all. While most of them were beyond useful both while planning and the day of, one of the best suggestions I ever had was to use Mike Howard from Memories Through Time as our videographer.

Not only was he the best deal in town, but he also had the best work I had seen. I only spoke with him a few times prior to the wedding and he delivered above and beyond what I could have ever hoped for. His wife, Amanda, helped get footage of the ceremony, which was not in our contract, nor expected, and he stayed so much longer than we had hired him for, just to make sure he got enough footage for the video and let me tell you, he did :) Apparently we are currently the record-breaking video at 30 minutes long! We get all of the raw footage from the and a pretty set of dvds tying it all into a fun video highlighting the best parts of our day.

Then last night I received an email saying the videos are ready and there was a sneak peek of a condensed version of our video on his blog so I of course had to watch and I am in love with it. It is perfect. I honestly don't think I could have asked for anything better and this isn't even the whole thing. I still have 10 minutes or so left to see. Thank you so so so so much Mike and Amanda. I couldn't have made a better choice than Memories Through Time.

Kyle & Samantha's Wedding from Michael Howard on Vimeo.

You can click HERE to go to the blog post with a preview of our video if the embedded link above doesn't work for you. And, as always, thanks for checking out the blog.


xoxoxo,
Samantha

1 year ago...

I can't believe that 1 year ago Mac asked me to be his wife.

This past year has been a whirlwind of fun and emotions. We've been through a lot this past year with layoffs followed by new jobs, planning and having our wedding, supporting Mac while he trained for a marathon and ultimately decided to drop down to the half this time around, engagements of friends and family and so many other fabulous times that I 1-Can't believe it has only been a year while 2-can't believe it has ALREADY been a year.I know, a bit contradictory, but I'm sure those of you who have planned a wedding know exactly what I mean.


Life is full of such great and momentous experiences and I am so lucky that I have someone as wonderful as Mac to stand by me every day for the rest of my life. For those of you who missed it - here is the video of the day Mac proposed at his families' cabin.

For those who haven't watched the video - you may want to fast forward through the 3 minutes of charades that are at the beginning and turn our speakers kind of down, I get shriek-y :) Thanks for following the blog and checking out this post!

xoxox,
Samantha

Video Love and a Marathon for Charity

While my video isn't done and ready for viewing our AMAZING videographer, Mike Howard (with the help of his wife Amanda) from Memories Through Time posted a Spring 2010 Video Promo blog post and some shots from our wedding are included! The shots he has in there are so fun and I can't wait to see our video once he is done.

Along with this good news, I am so excited for this day to finish because tomorrow we leave for Seattle. After TONS of hard work, both training to run and raising money for The Leukemia Lymphoma Society through Team in Training, we are headed out to Seattle so Mac can run in the Seattle Rock-n-Roll marathon.

 

He is so excited to be going and is determined to make me fall in love with Seattle so we can move there some day. I am sticking to the fact that I love my sun and heat too much to ever leave, especially for somewhere that rains all the time, and not the good, warm monsoon rain that we have here. But, when trying to find pictures of the race stuff I saw that the Facebook fan page for the race has this amazing image of Lake Washington up. Now I know better than to go off one picture, but isn't it gorgeous? I may need a reality check when I get back so he doesn't drag me off to another state with hopes of pretty views like this (which I am sure only appear every so often).

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for a dinner on the top of the Seattle Space Needle.

Well thanks for checking in! Hope everyone has a great weekend. I should have some fun pictures to share from the weekend when I get back.

xoxo,

Samantha

A Little Taste of What's to Come

Last night, to my surprise, I got an email from our fabulous photographers telling us they had posted a blog with some of our photos from the wedding! I was beyond excited, obviously, so I dropped everything I was doing, which honestly wasn't much, and headed to the computer to check them out. Can I just say, I am IN LOVE with them. They are so amazing! I can't thank our photographers enough for doing such a great job and, really, they made it all so much fun. It was truly a great day, the BEST even, and we had so many great vendors that I can't thank enough. I am so happy that A&B Photos was there to capture the day (thanks Twitter) and Memories Through Time (our videographer) too - I just don't have stuff from him yet to show you and brag about, but I am told it will be soon too :) so excited!!! Anyway, check out the blog post HERE.

This is the first preview photos that they posted on Facebook almost immediately after the wedding. LOVE IT!

xoxo,

Samantha

Being married feels good!

We did it!! On May 22, 2010 Mac and I officially became Mr. and Mrs. It was absolutely perfect day, better than I could have ever hoped. Aside from a bit of family drama in the morning which caused a HUGE delay in me getting ready and ultimately making me a bit late getting out of the hotel and to the church there were no huge issues. The morning started out pretty groggy for me because I decided to go out with Nicole and Elena after the rehearsal dinner. But one I woke up and the girls started getting ready I was good. I spent the majority of the morning getting my pamper on with Kim and Colbi doing my hair and makeup then getting into the dress. Our photographer and videographers arrived during our getting ready time and once I was finally situated in the dress and read y to go we headed for the church.


Before the ceremony we just had a bunch of waiting around to do in the church classroom we were in, then just before I was supposed to give it to him, I realize I left Mac's wedding gift in my room. Our coordinator ran back to get it but unfortunately she didn't make it back in time to have us trade before the ceremony. So we just did it after. Of course it was SUPER hot that day and almost unbearable to be outside – especially in my amazing, but massive dress. So we took as many pictures as we could inside and did a few around the golf course right and resort right after. 


Once we got to cocktail we were taken upstairs to get a peek at the ballroom and it was absolutely breath-taking. Everything was exactly how I wanted it and the resort gave us the ENTIRE ballroom so it was really quite a sight walking in. From there the night just flew by. The toast we both funny and touching, we really couldn't ask for better friends and family. The combination of heat and the dress made me not feel well enough to eat or drink anything but water but once I got composure we made the rounds to the tables. It's weird I feel like I talked to everyone at least for a minute but didn't really see or hang out with anyone at the same time. 


Our choreographed first dance, which I thought I had completely forgotten just before we walked in the ballroom for the reception, was perfect we did the entire thing as we had rehearsed it and everyone, from what I could tell enjoyed it. 

The rest of the night was just really a blur of events that had me, at some point, taking off the slip under my dress and dancing barefoot on the dance floor all night with our friends. We haven't gotten the professional photos back yet but here are a few to give you a taste of the day/night. 

All-in-all I'd say we accomplished what we set out to do: Our friends and family had a great time. Between the cigar roller, candy table, photo/video booth, amazing food and incredible entertainment, I don't see the night going any better than it did and even the resort staff was complimenting us on how great the event was, one of the best they had seen. What more could a bride want for her big day?


Enjoy the pictures; I hope to be able to post the pro pics and video soon!!!


 
xoxo

Samantha

Bridal Shower

Yes, this did happen quite a bit back, and YES I have been promising pictures for, ummmm... ever, but better late than never, right? Enjoy!

The Room Before Everyone Arrived

Didn't my mom do a GREAT job?

We used tea sets from Mac's Grandma Marge

Me and my Grandparents

 Me and my soon-to-be family

I couldn't wish to marry into a better family

Me and my future sister-in-law

<3 her!

Me and one of my fabulous bridesmaids, Christy

Me and another fabulous bridesmaid - Barbara

 

My shoe cake - adorable, right?!?

Me and my family

Bow bouquet for the Rehearsal

compliments of my darling sister/maid of honor

What a great gift for a big sap like me

Christy gave us a basket full of things she hoped for in our marriage. Each item symbolized something different! :)

Well I hope they were worth the wait. I had such a blast and am so thankful to have such amazing women in my life. Between friends, family and soon-to-be family I couldn't be surrounded by a better group of women.

Well, I am a little more than halfway through printing now. So this may, or may not, be the last post for the evening-depending on how smoothly everything goes. Stay tuned to find out :) I REALLY should try to go to bed and get some beauty sleep though. Nobody like a bride with saggy baggy eyes, right?!?

xoxo,

Samantha