When Chad and I got married, I was a bridezilla about one thing, and one thing only:

The music at the reception.

The morning of my wedding, while I was supposed to be sitting still for the makeup artist to do her job, I had my laptop in my lap burning a CD that the band could play while they were on their breaks.  My do-not-play list was about 100 songs long, and I scoured the internet for every awful, cheesy wedding song that I could possibly tick off.

What I wanted: Classic Rock/Eighties Dance Party.

What I got: So… um.

Bon Jovi?  Tom Petty?  Whitesnake?  Guns and Roses?

Yeah… not so much.

But there was this moment, at the very end of the night, when the band seemed to realize that the all the oldies and the wedding songs had been played, and that the people who were still dancing were basically all under 30.

So they threw us a bone.

And that bone was Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’.

So now, when I remember our wedding, I remember the cake and the flowers and our families and how happy I was.  And how, weirdly, one of the happiest moments of the whole crazy day was when I finally got my 80s Dance Party moment.

And best of all: they followed up with a Michael Jackson montage (that one was Chad’s request).

None of this has anything to do with the outfit I’m wearing, except that whenever I see train tracks, I think of that song, our wedding, and just kind of smile.

Lanvin top, ASOS skirt, gifted Falke tights, Alexis Bittar and J. Crew bracelets, gifted Payless heels, gifted Chanel sunglasses (via Lenscrafters).

I took these at about 8 a.m. on my way to work the other day, so please excuse the bleary sleepy eyes.

I tried on this dress way back in September and came really close to buying it, but I held out (it was full price) and managed to find it on sale for 40 or 50 percent off on the Kate Spade website two days after Christmas.  I’d almost resigned myself to living without it, so I was pretty psyched to find it in my size so heavily on sale.  It’s conservative enough for work, but still incredibly fun — it’s pretty rare to actually find a great work-to-play dress, but I think this one actually manages it.

I’m thinking of getting the hem shortened a little bit, what do you guys think?  I’ve found a great tailor here (Nick Lopez, if any of you live in Houston) and it’s amazing how much a little nip and snip can turn a good dress to great.

And if you’re wondering about the title of the post, this Rachel Roy clutch is part of her Kindness is Always Fashionable (I agree!) line, and 100% of the proceeds go towards relief efforts for victims of natural disasters.  I love pieces that, in addition to being really beautiful, actually make me feel good about carrying them.

Kate Spade dress (still on sale!), gifted Rachel Roy Ghana clutch, Forever 21 bracelet, gifted Payless shoes.

I know I’m a broken record on this, but I really don’t think you can say it enough.

I am so, so lucky and so grateful for all the amazing opportunities that Sugarlaws has brought me — I can never quite get it out of my mind that if I hadn’t started this blog back in 2007, I probably would never have had so many incredible experiences that I’ve gotten to have just because of Sugarlaws.

And one of those really incredible experiences was this video I shot last week, along with Noritake, Macy’s, and the Knot!

We had so much fun shooting this segment on china and wedding registries, adapting a few of my recipes to complement the dishes, and generally dishing (no pun intended… no, seriously, I actually wrote “dishing” in a post about china and did not intend a pun) about what couples today want and need in their kitchens.  As you guys know well, there’s nothing nearer and dearer to my heart than that.

The full video will be out next month, but I couldn’t resist sharing some quick snaps we shot that day!  Since most of my videos on this site consist of me talking into a Flipcam on a tripod, it was pretty exciting to work with a real, professional film crew.  As I’m sure you guys can tell from the photos, I had a total blast.

Getting Mic-ed Up!

With Jamie from Noritake

Demonstrating a homemade raspberry sauce with Anja from the Knot!

Chatting About China!