Wedding Wednesday: 23 Days

Hi and happy Wedding Wednesday!

There are just 23 days until we say "I do" and although I feel a tad bit overwhelmed by everything we still need to do, I really am just so excited to see everything come together and celebrate with our loved ones. I think we did a really good job of getting as much done as we could earlier on so this last month wasn't quite so stressful, but it still amazes me how long our to do list is. Just yesterday we applied for our marriage license so I'm happy to cross that off our list!

Photo by Lora Rodgers Photography

Here's what we have left:

• Finalize our music selection and send it to our DJ
• Put the finishing touches on our vows.
• Finish preparing gifts for my bridesmaids
• Wrap groomsmen gifts
• Finalize the cupcake order and display with the bakery
• Submit a final headcount to our caterer
• Decide on the table layout for our reception
• Seating chart for our reception (I am kind of dreading this one so I've put it off as long as possible)
• Buy beer for reception (we've already purchased all other alcohol, so this should be an easy shopping trip)
• Have my final dress fitting (this weekend!)
• Finalize the wedding day plans and photo schedule with our photographer
• Schedule an appointment for a haircut/highlights the week of the wedding
• Schedule nail appointment week of wedding
• Develop wedding day timeline
• Pay for our wedding night hotel
• Send rehearsal dinner information and wedding day schedule to wedding party
• Shop for our honeymoon (I'd love to scoop up a new swim suit, floppy hat and maxi dress for our trip to Punta Cana, but this is if and only if I can find some extra room in the budget)

Now that I have a visual of our to do list, I have to admit I'm feeling a slight sense of panic. I'm hoping I can get a lot of these crossed off before next week so the next few days are going to be busy, that's for sure!

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday

Wedding Wednesday: Engagement Photos

Happy Wedding Wednesday! Today marks just 100 days until our wedding and I couldn't be more excited about life right now.

This past Saturday morning, just one week after our engagement photo shoot, Jonathan was working and to be quite honest, I was being a lazy bum at the house. Just as I was getting motivation to get up and go grocery shopping, I received an email from our photographer with our engagement photos. It was like Christmas morning! I proceeded to spend the next hour or so looking through them, then calling my mom and viewing them again while she looked. I couldn't wait for Jonathan to come home from work so I could show him. We sat down later that afternoon going through the hundreds of proofs we were sent to pick our favorites to share with friends and family.

I wanted to take today and share some of those favorites with you guys. I honestly never thought I'd never have photos like this. They are so fun and flattering and I think they really represent us. Our photographer did an amazing job capturing our relationship and personalities. We were able to get some really good shots at several different spots in downtown Orlando. We couldn't be any happier with the whole experience. Thank you to Lora Rodgers Photography for capturing us so beautifully!

 

What do you think? Did you have an engagement photo session? How did you incorporate the photos into your big day?

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday!

Is Wednesday too late to post about my weekend?

Well, hello there.

Against all odds, I'm finally making an appearance in the blog world this week. There's been a lot going on, one of them being me losing my gas cap this morning and calling several gas stations to track it down. I did track it down, thank goodness, but that is neither here nor there.

Side note: While complaining about this to Jonathan this morning, he texted me saying, "Count your rainbows, not your gas caps," which put a big smile on my face and made me laugh. This, along with many, many other reasons, is why I love that man.

I'm leaving for my annual work trip tomorrow...at 5:30 a.m. to be exact, so I've been busy all week preparing for that. I also had the most amazing weekend. I know you're all probably thinking weekend posts are for Mondays, but just go with it.

Friday night was perfect. We were trying to figure out if we wanted to go out or stay in when it started monsooning outside and we decided that staying in was a pretty good idea. We made an awesome seafood dinner, watched a movie and drank several glasses of red wine. Life has been jam packed with family gatherings, wedding planning, work, etc., so this was exactly what we needed.

Saturday we headed to Jonathan's grandparents' house for a big family get together. Jonathan's aunt and cousin were visiting from California and we even had my parents joining us, which I was so very happy about. We ate, we drank, we danced, we re-enacted our proposal for Jonathan's aunt and talked a lot of wedding stuff. Such a perfect day and can I just say that having a dance party with my mom and my future in laws was absolute perfection?

My dad headed home and left my mom with me for the night because we had big wedding dress shopping plans for Sunday. We hit the road to spend the night with my sisters and had such a great time gossiping and spending some quality time together.

Sunday was the day I've been waiting for...wedding dress shopping! In all the wedding details I've planned so far, the dress was one thing I hadn't started looking for yet, so I was anxious to hit up a few salons and see what I liked. After my momma, sister and I met my maid of honor, Taryn for a big breakfast, we headed off to our 1st of 3 appointments, where we also met up with my friend Laura so she can join in on the fun.

I'm pretty emotional and as I've been planning our wedding, so many times I've found myself getting super emotional when I think about our day. I do have to say though, putting on a wedding dress for the first time made everything so real for me. Finding a dress I loved at my first appointment really made me envision walking down the aisle on our day and I was completely overwhelmed with joy.

Like I said, I did find a dress I loved at the first place, but my mom encouraged me to head to our next appointment so I could try on a few more and compare the dresses. I liked my consultant at the first place, but my second appointment is exactly what you envision your wedding dress shopping to be like. We walked into The Collection in Winter Park and the girls immediately started looking through the sample racks while I checked in. We were greeted by our consultant, Mimi and I loved her immediately! The girls had picked two sample dresses to show me, so I told Mimi I definitely wanted to try them on first. Long story short, I found my dress and I couldn't be any happier about what I'll be wearing the day I say I do. I'm so surprised by the style I went with, but it is true when you find the right one, you just know it. Even better, it was a brand new sample dress and we got a great deal on it!

After purchasing my dress, we headed up the road to celebrate with a champagne toast outside of our venue. We took lots of photos, drank and celebrated, then headed to a late lunch in Winter Park to continue the celebrations.

Momma and I

This day is one that I will never, ever forget. Sharing these moments with my mom and seeing her genuine excitement and emotion when I came out in my dress is a memory I'm going to cherish forever. Being able to share this day and so much excitement with those ladies was so amazing. I'll never forget calling Jonathan to tell him I found it and just being flooded with tears of joy on the phone with him.

Needless to say, I'm so excited about finding my dress and I can't for Jonathan to see me in it on our wedding day.

Things are slowing down a bit in the wedding planning process since we have most of the big decisions made already. I'll be in Philadelphia for a week working, so I won't have much time to do anything else. We are focusing on the honeymoon right now and I'm looking forward to getting that booked soon. It's going to be a hectic few months, so we'll be looking forward to the vacation!

I hope you're all having a wonderful week!

Everyone has an opinion

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Today I'm going on a bit of a rant and I hope you don't mind.

When Jonathan and I got engaged just a few weeks ago, I had so many questions for him. How long have you been planning this? When did you get the ring? Oh, is that what you were doing the day you said you had a "work thing?" Did your family know you were about to propose? Who else did you tell?

He filled me in on the details and told me that while his family was fully supportive of his plans, several friends, neighbors, acquaintances he told weren't quite so supportive. He said he stopped telling people after getting comments about how he is too young to settle down, how he hardly knows me, how we are moving too fast, etc. He just didn't want to hear all the negativity and I can't blame him.

From a friend saying we spend too much time together, to a family member saying "Don't you think that's a little fast?" when Jonathan gave me a key to his house, we're used to the criticism. That's life, I guess. People are always going to have an opinion. I'm sure you or your relationship has been criticized a time or two so you know exactly what I'm talking about. We typically brush this kind of stuff off because none of it matters. When it comes to relationships, my thinking is this:

If you aren't in the relationship, you are in no position to criticize it.

Anyway, getting back to our conversation on that most wonderful day, I reminded Jonathan that this is only the beginning of dealing with the opinions of others. If it's not people criticizing our relationship, we'll have people who don't like the food we have at the wedding or people who don't like the music the DJ plays. People will have an opinion on what we put on our wedding registry, what we choose to name our kids, how we discipline our children, the list goes on and on. We decided right then and there that we have to stay true to ourselves and we can't worry about what others think. Just because everyone is entitled to their own opinion doesn't mean we have to let their opinions affect us.

Unfortunately, as I'm wedding planning and making arrangements for us to move in together after the wedding, I'm finding this whole "don't worry about what others think" thing so much easier said than done. 

See, we have some decisions to make as we move into the next phase of our lives together. One of the more controversial decisions we've made is about our pets. Jonathan has a cat and as you all know, I have a dog. We both love our pets. Unfortunately, we haven't had much success in getting our pets to get along. I don't mean they haven't become best buds (I obviously never expected that to happen). I mean they don't even tolerate each other. We have to keep the cat locked in the bedroom while Blake gets the run of the house. If Blake sees the cat, he attacks. We've tried to introduce them on multiple occasions and we've tried a few different approaches. They are no closer to getting along now than they were the very first time we introduced them. Add to that the fact that Blake is really bad with children and you have a really difficult situation. 

While it's easy to say one of us just has to get rid of our pet, this just isn't fair. If I give Blake away and we keep the cat, Jonathan will always feel guilty and I'll always feel a little bitter about it and visa versa. Nobody wins in this situation. The only fair thing is for both of us to find a good home for each of them and start fresh. This breaks my heart, but I know it's the only fair thing to do. I also know that it will save us the stress and frustration of trying to manage both animals who don't get along.  I also can't imagine trying to bring children into our home with Blake being so bad with kids. I'll feel a little better finding Blake a new home with a close friend or family member, so that's what I'm hoping for. As you can tell, it's a tough situation. 

While I don't want people (my family, specifically) to criticize me for giving Blake away, I have to trust they know me well enough to know I don't take this lightly. I'm not a cruel person. I love Blake and the thought of giving him away breaks my heart. This is difficult for me, but I have to do what's right for Jonathan and I. At the end of the day, we have to live with whatever decisions we make. Other people may criticize, but that isn't something we can control, unfortunately.

Needless to say, I know we'll be criticized for this, and many other things throughout our life together. Heck, I'm sure a few of you are even judging me right now based solely on our decision about the pets.The worst part I think (and the reason I am writing this post) is that I am criticizing myself, too. I shouldn't be concerned with what other people think and especially need to stop judging myself. 

At this point I'm kind of just rambling so I'll just stop, but I feel a little better. Thank you for reading. This is why I blog, to sort out my thoughts and get things off my chest. At the end of the day, I'm not perfect, Jonathan isn't perfect...we are both just trying to do what is right for us. End of story. 

You have my whole heart for my whole life.

Happy Monday everyone! I've been working on this post all morning, but I keep getting distracted by the gorgeous engagement ring on my left hand.

Jonathan proposed over the weekend! 

Needless to say, I was absolutely shocked. We have talked about the future a lot but I had no idea when he would pop the question.

We've had plans for several weeks now to visit my parents over the weekend. They bought a new house a few months ago and invited everyone up for the housewarming party. The party was Saturday and we spent the day hanging around the pool and around the bar my dad built in their dining room.

Later in the afternoon, while we were all standing around the bar, he grabbed my hand and told me he wanted to make a toast to my parents and their new house. He started his toast by talking about how wonderful my family is and then starts talking about how special I am. This is about the time I started rolling my eyes and getting mad at him for making the toast about me when we are celebrating my parents' housewarming. His voice started to crack as he said he started saying he doesn't know how he could ever live without me and this is when I realize this isn't just a toast to my mom and dad anymore.

Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. This handsome, loving, sweet, supportive, funny, kind man proposed to me. I obviously said yes and kissed my future husband as my family celebrated around us. This will forever be one of the best moments of my life.

I've never really had a particular scenario in mind when I thought about getting engaged, but I can't tell you how special it was for my family to be there for this. Seeing my mother's reaction is something I will always remember and I'm so thankful for that.

With all the more reason to celebrate, the party went on and we all had an absolute blast. I was sure to FaceTime my older sister right away since she lives in Buffalo and wasn't able to be part of it. We snuck off to my parents' bedroom to call her and before going back out to join the party, we took a few minutes to ourselves to let it sink in before heading back out to join the rest of the party.

I am absolutely overwhelmed with joy right now. I can't believe this is my life. I don't know what I did to deserve this wonderful love but I thank God for bringing him into my life.

So, how was your weekend?

Linking up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans