Three.

Three years ago, after brunch with Hannah, I came home and started a blog. Today, nearly 500 posts, thousands of readers, and two redesigns later, MinneapoLiz is celebrating its third anniversary, and I couldn’t be prouder.

I started to write this blog in a season of unhappiness and lack of direction, and since then have grown (and grown up) immeasurably. It’s so gratifying to look back on the past three years through blog posts, and not only see what I chose to share, but to remember what I didn’t share. So many posts hold subtext for me, or trigger a memory of a back story…heartbreak, stress, fear, and lost friendships, but also revelations, joyful moments, sheer silliness, and personal triumphs. Above all, the thread I most appreciate seeing is a true, bone-deep gratitude for the people in my life who have had my back, stuck with me and supported me in everything I do…both on and off the blog.

While this space takes a ton of work to maintain, it continually forces me to pay attention to my own life, and has taught me how to be present in a way I don’t think I ever have been before. Believe me – even when it goes quiet around here for a while, I’m living a life that is truly full and rich, and I attribute a lot of that to MinneapoLiz forcing me out of my own comfort zone. With that…here’s to another year of adventures, friendship, and exploration, and here’s to you for sticking with me throughout. Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading, today and any day! 

E&J Squared: A weekend of weddings!

I love weddings. I love attending them, and after Eva and Josh's this July, I love being IN them. That said, it's really hard to be in/involved with back-to-back weddings, which is what happened to me last weekend of July! Eva and Josh tied the knot on the 29th in a gorgeous riverside ceremony at the Nicollet Island Pavilion, and Erin and Josie wed the next day in a sweet St. Paul garden. Yours truly may have not actually left her bed that Sunday...eek! 

First up, Eva! Her bridal party got together on Thursday afternoon for a little champagne and snacking at Salut in Edina...complete with profiteroles for the blushing bride! 

Claire and I really needed the drinkies after an exciting-but-exhausting expedition to find her some nude heels for the next day. Way to leave it to the last minute, C--you'd be lost without me to be your personal shopper *octopus emoji*. 

After happy hour, we all headed to A La Mode right around the corner for manicures, and then sped back downtown for a lightning-fast rehearsal! 

I'd say the ladies of Team Clutch Bridesmaids are halfway cute. The next day started bright and early, with my behind in a makeup chair at 7am on the dot. Although I'm never feeling particularly sparkly at that hour, showing up at Eva's parents' house to see this put me in my place: 

Um, hi, most Zen bride ever. We rocked out to some 90s dance jams, sipped mimosas and snacked all morning on Eva's mom Kathy's totally insane brunch spread. I couldn't imagine a nicer, lower-key way to start a wedding day! 

Quick snap of our gorgeous flowers...I loved the hypericum berries and palest pink roses! 

Bridesmaids all done up and ready to roll! 

We seriously could not have had a prettier day to be on the Mississippi. I love the Nicollet Island Inn...what a picturesque place to get ready! 

The photo above is courtesy of the delightful Ian of Hanson Photography, who was an absolutely hilarious and winning addition to the day. Claire and I kidnapped Eva's dress and took it outside for a photo shoot with Ian and his second shooter. What you don't see in this photo is that Claire and I were so worried about getting the dress dirty on the floor that I ended up taking my shirt off to cover the pavement underneath. So we're out of frame giggling madly at the fact that I'm half-naked. It's kind of hilarious and wonderful. 

ALL DONE UP AND READY TO GET MAWWWWIED!!!!!!!

More Ian magic above. While Eva headed off with Ian to do her first look with Josh, Claire, Kyla and I joined their parents and the groomsmen for a picnic lunch on the shores of the Mississippi. The weather could seriously not have been better! 

Fun story: the wedding party was supposed to rendezvous with Eva, Josh and the photographers at the Stone Arch Bridge at 3pm. We showed up at 3, but no bride and groom in sight. So we panicked, thinking we might be at the wrong end. A fun practical joke from a passerby had us walking the bridge all the way to the other end, about half a mile, in heels. Then we realized they weren't there either, and walked the bridge AGAIN. E&J showed up about fifteen minutes later, at which point we, naturally, walked out on the bridge YET AGAIN. OW FEET. 

More Hanson Photo magic above and below! How freaking happy do these two look?! 

Funny story number two of the wedding day: Legitimately seconds after this photo, I twisted oddly and the zipper of my dress ripped out from neckline to butt-crack. Turns out it had been sewn wrong to the lining, so while the actual dress moved with my body without issues, the lining didn't let the zipper move with the rest of the dress. We finished all bridal party pictures with my dress hanging open all the way in the back, and Eva's personal attendant Kim had to sew me into the dress before the ceremony started. YIKES FRIENDS! It ended up fine and you couldn't even tell, but I was a nervous wreck until after dinner (when it was clear that Kim's stitches would hold up through a WILD dance party!). 

MARRIED! The ceremony was short, sweet and beautiful...highlight? Kyla, the maid of honor, and Nils, Eva's brother, performing "The Prayer" as a duet during the unity candle lighting. I was in tears...so pretty, so much love. 

Ian kidnapped the happy couple for a little sunset magic...

Then WE kidnapped them for some drinks, some photos, and a hell of a lot of dancing! This six-some right here closed down the dance floor and then requested a few more tunes to round out the night. Eventually we got kicked out because it was absolutely time for their wedding to be over. So we went to the Shout House, naturally! 

Quick shout-out to Greg here...this guy was truly the best wedding date ever. From tearing it up on the dance floor to holding my tiny airplane bottles of alcohol, babysitting my purse during the ceremony to actually cutting me out of my dress at the end of the night, he wins Plus-One MVP of the year for sure :) 

DAY TWO! Erin and Josie, aka the second E&J of the weekend to tie the knot! Kelsie was a personal attendant, and with her counterpart in New Orleans for a conference, I got tapped to help out morning of the wedding at the venue, Dakota Lodge in St. Paul. While I may have still been drunk from one too many Shout House gin and tonics the night before, I powered through and had a little fun (while holding back the hangover, woo!). Fast forward to the ceremony, where Erin truly looked like the most excited bride ever: 

Their ceremony was officiated by Josie's sister, and was full of heartfelt personal anecdotes and the sweetest, most tear-filled vows I've ever seen. I was smiling and crying all at the same time...gotta love happy tears at weddings! 

Kelsie and the rest of the Winona ladies having a little too much fun with the puff balls we so carefully decorated with that morning! We found out quickly that they made perfect photo booth props. 

While the girls got their puffball on, the guys looked askance from the sidelines. CLASSIC. 

Winona alums! 

Besties! Ignore my mess of a head and hungover slits for eyes...YIKES back-to-back weddings are clearly not good for my general level of attractiveness. 

Erin is a teacher, and accordingly crazy crafty. She made the photobooth and all the props herself - how cute did it turn out?! We had plenty of fun messing around in there all night! 

Kelsizzle absolutely killed it that day - being a personal attendant is NOT easy, especially when your assistant is holding back vomit and begging for bottled water all morning, ha! 

As the night went on, the dance floor got crazier. Unfortunately, I tapped out early as I was falling asleep on my feet! 

Happy wedding, Eva and Josh! Happy wedding, Erin and Josie! Unmarried friends, please consult me so none of you plan weddings back-to-back ever again! 

Sunset on the Savanna

Another week, another gala...sometimes it's miserably tough to be community-minded and to have an affinity for dressing up, am I right? 

Kidding! Last Thursday, I was invited to join a group of colleagues to attend the Como Zoo's Sunset Affair, the annual fundraiser and gala event that provides a major source of funding for Como's educational programs. This year's theme was "Sundown on the Savanna," which a: sounds a bit like a cheesy romance novel, and b: was so perfectly branded and advertised...see below. Needless to say, when I got my official invite in the mail, I was all like "Yes, and can I get a glass of champagne up in here, and also when do I get to pet a giraffe?" 

With the heat index expected to soar above 115 degrees, however, I was not exactly feeling my gala-sparkliest that week, and there was of course nothing in my closet that fit the bill for "Africa-casual-chic." Solution? Anthropologie, duh, where I picked up this breezy high-low dress on Monday. I'm completely in love with it and am going to wear it all the time, pretty much. 

With my hair all pulled up off my neck, a giant pair of gold earrings and sunglasses in tow, I headed out...still feeling a bit attitudinal, per Snapchat. 

Upon arrival, we were chauffeured from the parking lots to the event in golf carts...such a fun way to start the evening! After checking in, our group immediately found the bar, and with a G&T in tow, I spent way too much time perusing the auction items and pretending I could afford an 11-night safari. As soon as I had been properly reality-checked, we headed out to make our own safari! 

The zoo was closed to the public for the event, which meant the animals were extra-active and we could get up close and personal like never before. I spent no less than 20 minutes freaking out over the giraffes...even the baby was 10 feet tall, and they were so striking and fun to watch!

The ostriches were unafraid to get up close and personal with us...I think they thought we had food? Either way, they were incredibly entertaining. Such odd-looking creatures! This one kept popping his head above, then below, the fence in the weirdest little undulations...I couldn't NOT laugh at him, and so he'd do it again and again. Probably trying to figure out what the hell was so funny about his normal everyday neck stretching routine or something. 

The Como Zoo has undergone a bit of a baby boom in recent months. In addition to the aforementioned baby giraffe, they have a 10-lb baby gorilla and a brand-new, 18-day old baby girl zebra...and the zebra above, Thelma, is due any day with another! The evening's auction included the naming rights to the new baby, and while I was definitely tempted to bid, we couldn't settle on a name. Adam voted for "Charlie," I pushed for "Daisy" as her mother's name is Minnie, and AJ was all about "Abigail," as in "Abigail the Zebra," or "A-Z." 

Whatever her name ends up being, witnessing this was enough to completely make my night. The heat and the setting sun truly did make it feel like we were enjoying a sunset on the savanna! 

Of course the zoo was dressed to the nines...cocktail tables with gorgeous floral arrangements were scattered all over the outdoor spaces, and each bar was covered in the prettiest batik-print linens. 

Our table for the night's dinner was IN the gorilla enclosure, with glass on all sides looking out into the gorillas' outdoor play space and one giant window facing into their indoor jungle-gym type area. We watched a video featuring one of my colleagues, Sheila, who sits on the board of Como, and learned a bit about the gorillas while we took our seats and savored the night's first air-conditioning. 

While we dined on coconut-curried chicken with tomato coulis and a fantastic apple-and-plantain salad, one of the zoo's gorilla trainers did a series of demonstrations with Virgil, a 400-lb 14-year old gorilla. Watching him respond to the tiniest movements of her hands and head blew my mind. At Como, animals are taught to participate in their own care by responding to visual cues with their own body movements, enabling keepers and trainers to perform medical examinations and checkups without traumatic anesthetization. Seeing it in action amazed all of us...especially as it highlighted just how HUGE the gorillas were. 

We also learned that the animals at the zoo receive a "daily enrichment" designed to make sure they stay happy and healthy. Our trainer for the evening explained that the gorillas get a harp performance twice a week. I, needless to say, did not believe this...until I Googled it and found photo proof along with this article. For some reason, I find that completely hilarious...it makes me wonder what else people will dream up. (Image above via the Star Tribune!)

As soon as we finished dinner, we headed back outside into the twilight to take advantage of an obscenely awesome dessert buffet and admire the animals one last time before heading home. The baby zebra was cuddling her mom under a tree, the giraffes were settling in for the night, and the heat had abated just enough to be comfortable. Before we went our separate ways, we snapped a photo with a few members of our group...dessert not included. Perfect way to end a fantastic evening! 

A Balsam Lake Bachelorette

It's been a crazy marathon of events leading up to Eva's wedding next Friday, and we just checked a big one off last weekend...her bachelorette party! We headed to her family's cabin on Balsam Lake in Wisconsin for a weekend of swimming, sunning, and celebrating one of her last weekends as a single lady, and we got so lucky with gorgeous weather the entire time we were there. 

As soon as we had all our food and liquor for the weekend unpacked, we hit the dock and sunscreened up. I, however, dodged the food-and-beverage cleanup because I gave myself the all-important task of preparing the weekend's second-most important guest. 

This is Laverne. She's a seven-foot inflatable flamingo with a sassy attitude and a penchant for floating. We had WAY too much fun with her all afternoon, and by "we," I might mostly mean me. Total impulse buy when I was having a slightly cranky day and decided nothing would make my summer more basic or happier than jumping on the novelty floatie trend in a big way. 

Our bride-to-be jumped on board right away...

...and we passed plenty of time floating off the dock sipping drinks and chatting (probably way too loudly, sorry neighbors) about all things appropriate for a bachelorette party...that is to say, inappropriate for just about everywhere else. 

Then we hit the boat! 

Eva captained, while I held down the plethora of floaties in the back. 

Selfies abounded. 

Sun was soaked up, and all too soon we were feeling a little too toasted and headed back for the dinner-and-lingerie portion of the evening. While Eva prepped the burgers for the grill, the bridesmaids did a little decorating. 

Tee hee! We played the cliched-but-oh-so-fun game of "guess who brought what lingerie, if the bride guesses right the giver drinks, if she's wrong she drinks." Eva did terribly at first, which was hilarious, and eventually caught on right in time to make us all giddy and tipsy. 

Post-dinner, we debated staying in and instead decided to get our bachelorette out on the town. By "out on the town," we mean "deep in a townie bar," and in Balsam Lake, that means Blacksmith Shop.

We rolled in around 8pm with Eva in her veil, and immediately became THE hot entertainment of the night. I think it became a game to see who could help us check what off our bachelorette list...

...starting off with "Spin the Shot." Eva ended up with some kind of Midori and blue curacao shot, while the rest of us ordered rounds of vodka Red Bulls and gin and tonics before heading out back. What's out back, you may ask? 

Why yes, as a matter of fact, the evening's feature was a mechanical bull. Which we shamelessly made Eva ride, multiple times, while the live band was warming up. Other items checked off our list: 

Take a selfie in the men's room, which was hilariously labeled "Outboards" (women's was "Inboards," ha!). We played dumb when the bartender came to pull us out, and acted like we didn't know what an outboard motor was...which...riiiiight. 

We took blow job shots, some more successfully than others (in life as in shots hahaha). 

We did shots with the bull operator. 

And Claire went home with the classiest and most innovative headwear I've seen in a long time, a nice Bud Light cowboy hat! 

After dancing our faces off to the country band that didn't know any Zac Brown, we cranked up "Chicken Fried" and headed home to play a classic bachelorette staple: 

HI BLAKE. (We named him, along with the guy on the reverse, Antonio.) Hilarity ensued. After a little more chatting and a lot of chugging water, we passed out for the night and slept through some pretty intense thunderstorms. 

Sunday morning's breakfast was exactly what the doctor ordered...tons of fruit and two breakfast bakes soaked up any residual alcohol in our systems. A successful bachelorette for sure! Next stop, #sandersons4eva in just NINE days! 

A bridal shower for Eva

Rewinding a bit from the craziness that has been the last several weeks (last night was my first weeknight off since before the Orchestra Gala, eek!)...a couple weekends ago, we the bridesmaids of Eva and Josh's wedding threw Eva an absolutely ridiculously great bridal shower. If I may say so myself. Which I decided I may. 

My mother, who is an unmitigated and unquestionable rockstar, gave us the run of the Lakeville house for the days leading up to the shower, and did more to help us out than any of us even realize. Without her guidance and coordination, there is no way this event would have turned out as just-plain-prettily as it did. 

The shower also offered me insane opportunity to indulge my crazy Etsy habit. I ordered digital files of invitations from Pretty Little Papers, which set the pink, gold, gray and mint green color scheme. From there, it was straight out binge-ing on Etsy goodness. Below: cute straws courtesy of Glitter Me Sweet, which I thought looked adorable floating in iced coffee, elderflower-rose lemonade or our lethal and delicious sangria. 

About that sangria...um, hi. The recipe is from Kitchen Treaty, and we quadrupled it. Which, in hindsight, we probably didn't neeeed to do, because that meant the sangria was essentially four entire bottles of Chardonnay, a full bottle of white rum, and the world's least generous splash of Diet Sprite. Add in the fruit, which soaked in so much alcohol it basically was liquor-pickled, and you have the recipe for a VERY drunk bridal shower. Drunkest? Bridesmaids. Aka Claire and me. Oops. The fact that we sat in my kitchen after the shower ended just eating the fruit straight out of the pitcher probably didn't help. (Tags from the Target dollar section, perfect handwriting courtesy of Mrs. Pettis in third grade.)

We set two tables, one in the kitchen and one in the dining room. My mom's gorgeous china and glassware, linens and napkins from Party City, and stunning flower arrangements courtesy of Jodester and her gift for all things requiring a green thumb looked beautiful in both rooms, IF I MAY. 

I MEAN REALLY. (Confetti was another Etsy purchase from "PaperConfettiDotCom," and although you can't really tell in the photo, it was sparkly. I loved it.)

I wasn't kidding about Jodester's gift for florals...just look at these! 

Just for fun, a cute Claire-Lizzie pic from pre-sangria hours of the day. This is also before my hair went completely haywire in the absurdly humid 95-degree heat we were dealing with all day.

Also included in our Pretty Little Papers invitation suite? Games galore...I think there were four or five different options included in the printables file. We went with two...a "What's in your purse" game where each participant got a certain number of points for having items, and the classic "How well do you know the bride?" quiz game. Prizes included cute coffee mugs and pens that my mom picked up at Hallmark...just fun little things to actually incentivize winning! 

The pompoms on the mantel are Martha Stewart and the Bride to Be banner is from Amazon. Chalkboard sign (down by the presents!) is another Target dollar section find. 

Before things got too out-of-control crazy humid, we took a TON of pictures out on our deck! My mom's flowers were off-the-charts beautiful this year and the setting couldn't have been prettier...again, if I may say so myself. 

Pre-getting drunk bridesmaids...oops. Prob not the best practice for the wedding...OR IS IT? 

My mother might as well be a fourth bridesmaid at this point. Apart from providing and arranging all the flowers, she cleaned the house top-to-bottom, helped us decorate for hours, found pretty much the entire menu, grocery-shopped with me, and kept me from flipping shit at least half-a-dozen times. She ALSO hand-cut envelope liners and invitations with me for close to two hours at an Office Max on a Saturday morning. Needless to say, she is the true MVP of this entire day. LOVE you to pieces, Jodester! 

The bride with her birth mom and future mother-in-law, who I totally fell in love with and can't wait to hang with at the wedding...

And of course the bridal party, looking appropriately lovely...for a moment...

...before we just couldn't restrain ourselves anymore. Oops. 

FOOD! My mother made cinnamon coffee-cake muffins, and we went nuts on the fruit skewers. Adorable heart skewers courtesy of Etsy shop Ellen084...they might have been my favorite detail of all. 

We also made two different egg casseroles...a spinach and artichoke one by A Spicy Perspective, and a gruyere-and-sausage strata from MyRecipes. Both turned out to be absolutely delicious, and I'm already planning to make them again for pretty much every out-of-town event I have...there are few easier ways to look like a rockstar houseguest than whipping up an insanely good breakfast, after all. 

By this point, not only were all of us fairly buzzed, but the humidity had taken my fairly under-control hair and turned it into the stuff of swamp-monster dreams. YIKES, CAMPERS. 

After brunching, we scored games...

...opened presents...

...and capped off the day in the sweetest way possible with cupcakes from Sweet Treasures in Lakeville! We mixed and matched five flavors, and each was as decadent as it was pretty. (I went with the salted caramel and only refrained from scraping my plate clean because I didn't want to scratch the china. Oops.)

I think the bride approves...

Woo! One event down...next stop, this weekend's bachelorette party and then it's time to get this girl down the aisle!