Wedding Wednesday: Reception Details

Details, details, details! We tried and I believe we succeeded at keeping things fairly simple when it came to our reception decor. I have to admit that while I obviously enjoyed planning our big day, making decisions on all these little details was a little overwhelming. I mean, there is so  much to think about and the little things add up so quickly. We wanted it to look nice and fit with our theme and of course, our personalities but we also weren't about to spend time and money on things we honestly didn't feel were super important at the end of the day.

My favorites were obviously the navy and white striped straws and the coasters, which Jonathan made from tree branches he cut himself...he even ordered a custom brand and personally branded each coaster with our initials. I love, love, love that he thought of this idea and did it all himself...it added such a sweet personal touch to our decor!

It was pretty awesome walking into our reception and seeing all of our ideas and planning come together!

All photos by Lora Rodgers Photography.

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday.

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

So much to do and I've decided tonight, I won't be doing any of it.

Life has been nonstop lately and while that does have a lot to do with wedding planning and the holidays, I'm quite sure that with Jonathan and I's personalities, this is just the way our life is and will always be. We both love to stay busy, but lately I feel like we have so many things we need/want to do and not enough time to do any of it. Or we make time to do everything we need to do and we don't carve out enough time to just hang out and relax together or alone for that matter. Jonathan was hired to DJ a Christmas party tonight and I was invited to join him. Normally, I would be all about tagging along, but I decided against it. After being away last weekend and never really getting back into the swings of things this week, I wasn't really up for the party. Immediately I started thinking of all the other things I could do instead.

I could try to get together with my sisters or friends I have absolutely sucked at making plans with lately. 

I could knock a thing or two off our wedding to do list.

I could get some of my holiday baking done early. 

Those all sounded great until I stopped myself and decided that those things can wait. What I really need is some downtime to do absolutely nothing by myself. I'm going to pick up a bottle of wine, make myself a light dinner, get comfortable on the couch and find myself a movie to watch. I'm not great at forcing myself to just chill because I always change my mind and find something to keep my busy, but this is absolutely necessary. I feel like with just a few weeks left until our big day, I need to relax when I have the opportunity. I don't want to wear myself out and risk getting sick or anything in the next few weeks. My night of rest can't get here soon enough.

This is absolutely necessary and deserved, if I do say so myself! Now I just need to figure out how to navigate our television/Apple TV/Netflix situation because holy cow finding a movie can be so complicated these days. Happy Friday, everyone. I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Wedding Planning Survival Tips

Heyyyyy....remember me? I've clearly been spending too much time living my life to and not enough time actually writing about it. Oopsies.

My Thanksgiving was absolutely perfect and was followed by my bridal shower and bachelorette party on Saturday. I want to tell you all about it but I feel a bit overwhelmed with my to do list now that we are just a few weeks away from our wedding. I'm hoping to have some down time later in the week to fill you in on the fun and happiness that made up my Thanksgiving weekend. In the meantime, I'm linking up for Wedding Wednesday today!

We're less than a month our from our big day so we are busy wrapping up the last few details. Being in the home stretch of this whole wedding planning business, today I want to share a few tips that have helped me deal with the stress that comes with planning a wedding:

1. Don't go crazy on Pinterest. I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy seeing as most of us ladies start pinning to a wedding board well before an engagement is on the horizon, but hear me out. There is such a fine line between using Pinterest for wedding inspiration and being completely overwhelmed with ideas. Pinterest is such a great place for finding inspiration and helping you plan your wedding, but there is soooo much out there. Yes, there are great guest book ideas on Pinterest, but if you over-do it, you could end up making it more stressful on yourself having to narrow down your ideas and settle on one. So yes, use Pinterest. It has been super helpful in my planning, but once you have most of the big details figured out, I recommend scaling back a bit so you don't start to overthink and re-evaluate every decision you've already made.

2. Focus on the marriage more than the wedding. It was pretty early on in our planning when it occurred to us that the wedding can start to seem like something you are doing to appease everyone else but yourselves. At the end of the day, you know it's going to be an amazing day for the two of you, but it's easy to get frustrated making decisions that seem so insignificant to you in the big picture. My only advice is when the little details start to seem completely stressful and overwhelming, slow down and focus on the marriage part...the part where you say your vows, the part where you walk down the aisle, the part where you are announced as husband and wife. Those thoughts will bring you back to the most important thing, you as a couple. Your marriage and the life you're about to start together. Focus on that.

3. Take a break every now and then. Especially in the early stages, there are times you'll feel like all you do is discuss wedding stuff with your fiance'. No matter how excited you are about your wedding, there are times when you just won't be in the mood to talk about it. As much fun as wedding planning can be, it's a lot of mostly expensive decisions to make and tiny details to think about. It's absolutely necessary to purposefully take time off from anything wedding-related. What we've tried to do is have an overall goal of the things we want to talk about or accomplish each week and try to plan ahead what days/nights we are going to tackle those items. This way you have time together to just be together and enjoy some down time and not let the wedding take over your life.

4. You can't please everyone. The sooner in the wedding planning process you accept this, the better off you'll be. After getting engaged, it won't be long before you encounter the many, many opinions people want to share with you. For the most part, everyone of these people have the best of intentions, but there's just no way you can make everyone happy. There's also the possibility of people you weren't able to invite being upset with you and a million other things people might not be thrilled about. All you can do is show appreciation for input from others, be apologetic and straightforward with people who may be unhappy and move on from it. At the end of the day, this is your day and you have to do what's right for the both of you, even if others don't understand it or agree with it.

5. Keep it in perspective. It's just one day out of the very long and happy life you'll have together. In the very beginning of planning our wedding, I realized the chairs our venue provides aren't exactly the style chair I would prefer on our big day. After looking at how much it would cost to rent fancier chairs, I quickly came to the conclusion that I don't think when I look back on our wedding many years from now, I will even remember what the chairs looked like and I made up my mind to not worry about it again. I wish I could say I've been that laid back about everything throughout the process, but I do try to keep in mind that at the end of the day, we are going to be married and the little things that seem like a big stress aren't really going to have a huge impact on the happiness of our life together.

What would you add? Is there anything that has helped you remain cool and collected during the wedding planning process?

Next week I'll finally be back with an update on what we have left on our to do list!

 

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday!

Random Friday Thoughts

Happy Friday!

My mind is a little all over the place today. I'm also quite sleepy and I'm psyched to be getting out of work early today, so here are the random thoughts I feel the need to share with you all today:

Why are people so judgmental about others decorating for Christmas early? If you don't agree with decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving, don't do it, but there's no need to criticize anyone who does. Good Lord I'll never understand why so many people get so upset by something that has absolutely zero effect on them.

We picked up our wedding bands last night and I honestly couldn't be happier with what we chose. We each tried our rings on and in that moment, it really started to sink in that we are getting married in just over a month. I also had a really difficult time convincing myself to take the ring off. It's too beautiful. I just wanted to sit there and bask in its beauty all night.

Today marks the end of my third week of morning workouts and I can't believe I'm about to say this, but waking up at 4:45 a.m. is starting to feel...normal. I'm on track to run 40+ miles this month and considering last month, I believe my total was 8 miles...so you could say I finally got my shit together. I have a ways to go before I'm back to where I want to be, but I'd say this month is going pretty well so far in that department.

Just two days of work next week and Jonathan and I will be off to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. What could possibly make this better? Oh, yes, the fact that my older sister and her beautiful kids will be there, too. What could possibly make that better? The fact that just a few days later is my bridal shower and bachelorette party. It's safe to say next weekend will be completely overwhelming and full of joy. My heart just might explode.

Black Friday...I can't even go there. All I'll say is I'm quite sad about the fact that we live in a world where stores like Target are open on Thanksgiving. The Black Friday business is crazy enough and now it's going to take over the actual holiday it's centered around. Good grief.

Speaking of my bachelorette party, I ordered these beauties to twirl around in all night and I'm absolutely in love. Do I know what dress I'm wearing yet? Not a clue, but these shoes are a good place to start.

On that note, I'm off to shop around for a dress to go with that pair of sparkly goodness. Wish me luck and have a wonderful weekend!

Wedding Wednesday: 8 Weeks

Earlier this week I received an e-mail from Crate & Barrel informing me that we have just 8 short weeks until the big day. That's just 58 days. 1,392 hours.

There is still so much to do, but I can't even stress myself out about that right now because it's all good. All I'm feeling is absolute joy and excitement over how close we are to the big day. Our day. The day we get celebrate this wonderful love we've found with our family friends. The day I can't picture without doing this laugh/cry combination because I am already completely overwhelmed with joy. The day I get to walk down the aisle to this handsome man.

This man that looks at me and makes me feel so supported, so loved, so absolutely treasured.

This man that brings so much love and joy to my life everyday.

This man that I absolutely, positively adore. 

So yeah, on this Wedding Wednesday with only 8 weeks until our big day, I feel more calm than I ever imagined I'd be. Is that because I've got every little detail of our day figured out? Absolutely not. But the most important detail of our day, the part where Jonathan and I vow to love each other for life, to stick together, to raise a family, to honor and cherish each other every day...we're more than ready for that part...that's what's keeping me calm.

All photos by Lora Rodgers Photography.

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday.

We Can't Stress: a Miley Remix

I think we can all agree that planning a wedding is stressful. While we try to stay focused on the bigger picture and not let the planning and details stress us out, that is much easier said than done. There are so many times during wedding planning it seems you are really just planning the day for everyone else. Jonathan and I tend to be people pleasers by nature, so it's been difficult at times to accept that we can't please everyone and focus on the fact that it is our day.

On an unrelated note, I've been listening nonstop to Miley's new album and even though I hate to admit this, I kinda really love it. As I was running on the treadmill last week listening to "We Can't Stop," I couldn't help but think of my own wedding planning version of this song. This may be a sign (1) that I've completely lost it or (2) that I have too much time on my hands, but I bring you my wedding planning version of "We Can't Stop."

Feel free to play the music video as you read my lyrics below.

“We Can’t Stress”

It’s our wedding we can plan what we want
They’re our vows we can say what we want
It’s our day we do what we want
We can invite who we want 

We can serve what we want

It’s our wedding we can plan what we want
They’re our vows we can say what we want
It’s our day we can do what we want
We can invite who we want
We can serve what we want

Open bar and mason jars everywhere
Hands in the air like we don’t care
‘Cause they came to have so much fun now
 Bet somebody here might drunk now

If you didn’t get an invite
Can I get a “Hell, no”?
‘Cause space is gonna be real tight
‘Til the end of the night, alright

So la da di da di
We’re trying to party
Spending money on all the things
To make sure you’re all happy
This is our night
This is our life

And we can’t stress
And we won’t stress
Can’t you see this is our night?
Can’t you see where about to start our life?

And we can’t stress
And we won’t stress
We’re planning our wedding, not yours
Can’t please everyone and no, we’re not serving Coors
Yeah, Yeah

It’s our wedding we can plan what we want
They’re our vows we can say what we want
It’s our day we can do what we want
We can invite who we want
We can serve what we want

To our friends hurt by no invite
Mad about it like they want a fight
Remember the venue has a limit
If we didn’t want you there we’d just admit it
And everyone who didn’t get a plus one
Don’t cry at least you get to come
We’re so stressed out here
Getting so stressed out here

So la da di da di
We’re trying to party
Spending money on all the things
To make sure you’re all happy
This is our night
This is our life

And we can’t stress
And we won’t stress
Can’t you see this is our night?
Can’t you see we're starting our life?

And we can’t stress
And we won’t stress
We’re planning our wedding, not yours
Can’t please everyone and no, we’re not serving Coors
Yeah, Yeah

It’s our wedding we can plan what we want
They’re our vows we can say what we want
It’s our day we can do what we want
We can invite who we want
We can serve what we want

It’s our wedding we can plan what we want to
It’s our day we can do what we want to
They’re our vows we can say what we want to
It’s our life we can celebrate how we want to
Say yeah, yeah, yeah, ehh

And we can’t stress, oh
And we won’t stress, no
Can’t you see this is our night?
Can’t you see where about to start our life?

And we can’t stress

And we won’t stress
We’re planning our wedding, not yours
Can’t please everyone and no, we’re not serving Coors

Brides-to-be, please tell me you can relate to this. How do you keep calm and not let the stress get to you? I promise a Wedding Wednesday post next week giving you an actual update on our wedding planning!

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!

Our Weekend in Photos

one. Friday night was spent catching up on our marriage prep class homework. This is how excited Jonathan was to be doing homework on a Friday.

two. When we finally finished our homework, we opened a bottle of wine and started Season 1 of Orange is the New Black. We were instantly hooked and proceeded to watch most of season 1 by the time the weekend was over. 

three. Saturday was our engagement photo shoot in Downtown Orlando. My sweet sister did my hair and makeup. This is us right after she finished. So thankful for her help!

four. This is my sister's puppy, Lady cuddled up in her bed while we did my hair and makeup. She is too cute with all her toys. 

five. Jonathan and I were all smiles on the way home after our engagement photos. We had such a fun day and can't wait to see how they came out! We should get to see them in about 3 weeks.

six. Saturday night we went out on the town with Jonathan's best man, Tim. He moved to New York a few months ago and was in town visiting for the weekend. We had so much fun and can't wait to see him again soon.

seven. Even though most of my things are being stored for now, I had to go ahead and find a place for my sunflower at Jonathan's house.

eight. After marriage class was over on Sunday, we headed over to my house to load the trailer with the items we wanted to put in storage until we are ready to move it into Jonathan's house. We were able to load the trailer and unpack everything in just a few hours. I have still quite a bit of stuff to take care of at the house on Tuesday, but this was a good place to start.

nine. We also finally placed our wedding invitation order through Wedding Paper Divas. Here is a little preview of what we ended up with. I can't wait to get these babies in the mail!

Linking up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans. I hope you all had a great weekend!

it's a new day.

Hi, remember me?

I know it's been pretty quiet around here lately. 

With the wedding less than 4 months away and trying to coordinate the sale of my house, along with moving out of it, the thought of sitting down to blog hasn't been very appealing.

Honestly, I've let it all become too much to handle. My coping skills have gone completely out the window and to make matters worse, Jonathan has been feeling the same way. We are both at our limit right now, that's for sure. He's working 6 days a week and his one day off is typically spent in our wedding prep class, attending some wedding related meeting, making wedding decisions, etc.

Outside of work, my free time has been spent going through my house trying to figure out what to throw away, what I need to put in storage, what I can go ahead and move over to Jonathan's until the wedding, what I am going to bring to my parents' house while I stay with them for the next few months and what to give away. Switching gears from wedding planning, to house packing, to negotiating closing details has just been making my head spin.

We are both keeping things in perspective knowing that all the stress now is for a much greater cause and will be so worth it. We absolutely cannot wait to be married on January 3 and we know that the headache-inducing decisions we are making on what we think are silly things like linens, cups, table sizes, etc., are all going to be so worth the headaches when we are celebrating with our loved ones the day we are married. We know this. We know the sale of my house so quickly is an absolute gift from God. We'll be extra thankful when we come home from our honeymoon and don't have to deal with the stress of selling/renting/moving out of my house. We know this.

That doesn't mean we don't let everything get to us now and again. Our coping skills aren't where they should be because we are just weighed down by everything going on in our lives. There have been so many times lately where I've let a small hiccup get me so upset and worked up. In those moments, it's like I'm watching myself and thinking, "This isn't  you. You're better than this. You don't let things like this get you down. Who are you and what have you done with the optimistic, happy, rainbows and sunshine Amanda you used to be?"

I can recognize that I'm not dealing with things as I should be, that the stress I'm under is making it difficult for me to cope as I normally would. I can also recognize that this doesn't mean I've changed or become someone I didn't want to be. This isn't permanent. I know they'll always be something to stress about and worry is a part of life, but I need to not carry the burden of that stress and worry. I need to have faith and understanding that everything will be okay and my worrying won't make a bit of difference in the outcome.

The good news?  In just a few days, I'll hand over the keys to my house and with it, much of my stress and anxiety will be gone. The stress of being a landlord and friend, the stress of HOA payments, the stress of trying to keep up with the needs of a house I only spend a few days a week at. This will be gone. Sure, you can bet I'll shed a tear over this chapter of my life coming to a close, but that's another post for another day.

I'm really looking forward to the time I'll spend at my parents' house over the next few months, spending the hour or so before bedtime reading or relaxing rather than cleaning out my garage and being able to truly enjoy the final stages of planning our wedding since my focus won't be on my house anymore.

The even better part? This is all leading up to starting the new year marrying the absolute man of my dreams, moving in with him, making his home our home and enjoying life as husband and wife.

What I'm also trying to say here is that I'm back. I want to get back to writing regularly and enjoying it. I'm looking forward to filling you all in on some more wedding details and share everything else I've been up to. I really do love this blog and I'm excited to be able to make this a priority again.

I hope you're all doing well!

Engagement Photo Inspiration

Happy Wednesday!

We have our engagement photo shoot in just a few weeks and I've been browsing Pinterest lately to find some inspiration. I want our photos to reflect our relationship and personalities, but I'm also trying to stay away from anything too cheesy. At the moment, our shoot is scheduled to take place in Downtown Orlando, although we don't have a specific location figured out yet. I'm not a huge fan of incorporating signs and props into our photos, although I do have Jonathan convinced to have a few balloon photos involved. We're planning on two outfits each, one dressy and one casual.

Here's what I'm loving so far:

I love this candid laughing shot

This one is so sweet

I love her outfit.

This twirling shot is so cute.

I love her dress and how natural this shot is.

I don't want to get too stuck on having certain shots in our shoot, but I love all of these. I'd rather our photographer give us some direction and us just be ourselves. I think we'll get some really natural, sweet shots if we don't have specific things in mind. I have been using photos like this to give me some ideas for our outfits and I think I have that part figured out at least.

Where did you have your engagement photos done? How did you make sure the photos reflected your personalities and relationship?

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday :)

Breaking up with bread and other updates.

Hi everyone! I'm still feeling a little too distracted to get back to posting regularly, but I want to share a few updates on wedding planning and life in general.

To add to the stress of planning a wedding in six months, I've been wrapped up the last few days trying to figure out what we are going to do with my house. I bought my lovely townhouse almost 4 years ago and I don't regret it for one second. It has been the perfect first home for me and I've enjoyed my time there making it my own. With that being said, I am so looking forward to moving in with my new husband after our wedding in January. I planned to keep my roommates in my house to at least January and then figure out what we wanted to do with the house after that. Well, life is a funny little thing and things don't always go as planned. Things have changed recently and it's kicked my butt into high gear this week and we are making a decision this week instead. There is a good chance that by the end of this week, there will be a FOR SALE sign in front of my house and I'm feeling surprisingly optimistic about this possibility.

In other news, I recently decided it was time to break up with bread...more specifically, carbs. If you know me in real life, you know bread is my weakness. I can't turn down a dinner roll to save my life. Recently I realized I had been in celebration mode since our engagement on June 29. Cake? Sure, I'll have a piece. Ice cream? Why not? Drinks? Heck yeah.

This had to stop. I mean, our wedding is just a few short months away and I'd really like to feel my best on that day. It's been about two weeks and I've done pretty well at drastically cutting down my carb intake and increasing my exercise, protein, etc. I've lost about 5 pounds, which is pretty satisfying considering I don't have a specific goal other than to feel better, get toned and fit into my clothes a little more comfortably.

Most importantly, I feel great. I'm still treating myself to a yummy snack or dessert once on the weekend, but I feel more in control and better overall now that I've gotten my diet under control.

And because I can't let a Wedding Wednesday go by without an update...

I sat down one night last week after chatting with Jonathan on the phone and felt really inspired to write for some reason. I started writing and next thing I knew, my vows were finished. Yes, we decided pretty quickly that we wanted to write our own vows and I have been a little worried about how I would say everything I wanted to say without being too cheesy, too wordy, too serious, but I am so happy to have them done and I'm so happy with how they turned out. I'm sure I'll make a change here and there over the next few months, but I'm so happy I sat down to write that night! Now I just have to figure out how to say them at our ceremony without being an emotional mess.

We also attended our first marriage prep class at the church last weekend. We absolutely loved and I know it will be something we genuinely look forward to every Sunday for the next 12 weeks.

I've also made my decision on shoes, my veil and my wedding jewelry, so I'll be placing those orders in the next few weeks!

We also sent the agreement for our room block, so I was able to finalize our wedding website and share it with everyone. It's crazy to think of how overwhelmed I was when I went to The Knot to start our website and now all the information we needed on there is complete. I'm pretty psyched!

This weekend, my mom is coming to the appointment with the woman who'll be handling our flowers and I can't wait to start talking about bouquets and whatnot. Jonathan and I are also going to the jeweler to choose our rings on Sunday and I absolutely can't wait for that.

All is well, life is good, we are so blessed. That's all I have to say about that.

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday.

Life Lately

I've been neglecting this blog of mine quite a bit lately and I'm trying to fix that. Truth is, with wedding planning and traveling for work recently, I just haven't found any free time where I've wanted to sit down and write a blog post. Since my life has been consumed with wedding stuff, I thought I'd link up for Wedding Wednesday (for the first time) and fill you in on what I've been up to lately.

I did travel to Philadelphia at the end of July for my annual work trip. The trip went well and we came home with a handful of new clients which was awesome. I didn't love being away from home for a whole week, but I did get to catch up with a very good friend of mine from college, so that was a huge bonus! We might have had one too many margaritas and I followed that up with going on a Duck Tour with my coworkers the next morning. This was a terrible decision. Hangovers and a bumpy tour bus that splashes into the water do not go well together.

In other news, we have crossed so many things off our wedding to do list and even though I find myself only stressing out more about all the things we still have left to do, I'm so happy to say we've crossed the following things off our list:

Created our Registry

We decided to register at Crate & Barrel and Bed, Bath & Beyond and wanted to try and get both done on Saturday. I was a little worried Jonathan would check out after the first store (I even joked about bringing bacon in my purse to cheer him up), but he was so wonderful. We had such a blast choosing the items we'd like for our home. I'll try to share some of our favorite registry items in a separate post if I get a chance. It was an awesome day!

Booked Honeymoon

I couldn't wait to book our honeymoon knowing that having this amazing trip to look forward to would help us cope with the stress of wedding planning and busy schedules over the next few months. After looking at all-inclusive options in Jamaica, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, we decided on Secrets Royal Beach Punta Cana. I'm so excited. This is going to be the perfect place to celebrate our honeymoon and I know it will be absolutely unforgettable.

Booked Wedding Night Hotel

I booked our wedding night hotel this week and will be calling to block rooms at this hotel and one other for guests before the week is over. It's small details like this I want to get out of the way now so I don't have to deal with it closer to the wedding.

Scheduled Engagement Session

We scheduled our engagement photo shoot for September 14, but we haven't decided on an exact location and haven't even started thinking about what we'll wear. Any tips, advice, ideas on this are so welcome!

There is still so much to do, but I am pretty impressed with us since we've accomplished all of this just in the last week. We also just realized our number of anticipated guests is way over the limit for our venue. This has me freaking out a bit, but I'm assuming a handful of people will be unable to make it for the wedding. As much as I'd love everyone we love to be there, here's hoping some of them won't bring dates, children, etc. The guest list might be the most stressful part so far.

There you have it. An update on my life. Work has been super busy since I returned from my trip and our free time and weekends have been full of wedding planning and trying to get some time together to just relax. We're heading to the beach this weekend with some friends, so I'm looking forward to some down time. We also have our first wedding prep course at the church on Sunday morning and I can't wait for that!

What's new with you?

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!

Weekends are for Wedding Planning

I'm just kidding, but it does appear that way lately. We met with the DJ on Saturday and got that booked, so now that most of the bigger decisions have been made, things will calm down a tad in the wedding planning department.

Aside from meeting with the DJ and preparing our save the dates to be mailed, we did we actually went out both Friday and Saturday night, which we hadn't done in a while.

Friday, we met up with a few of Jonathan's guy friends for a few beers. His best man moved to New York today, so I'm glad we got to see him before he left. It was funny because on the drive over, we were discussing all things wedding, and when we got to the bar, Jonathan said, "No more wedding talk. Let's go have fun." I laughed because I knew that wouldn't happen. We hadn't seen a few of these guys since we got engaged, so the night consisted of wedding and lots of bachelor party talk. He didn't mind it one bit and it was fun to celebrate with the boys.

Saturday morning I woke up with a hangover. I had 4 beers the night before and was somehow hungover. This is when I realized I am super lame.

Saturday night, we headed downtown to meet up with my Maid of Honor, Taryn and a few of her friends. We had an absolute blast!

the ladies :)

Love her so much.

Taryn doesn't live in Orlando, but she has been working down here for a few weeks and should be here for most of the summer to help me with wedding planning. She has already been a huge help and I couldn't be more thankful for this girl.

We ended the weekend with a family dinner at Jonathan's uncle's house on Sunday. On our way home, we stopped to bring dinner to his sister who recently started a job with FOX35. She gave us a tour and we even got to sit at the news desk. It was pretty cool to see the set and goof off a little bit.

Bringing you a super serious new report :)

It was another jam-packed weekend and the next few should be a lot of the same. Next weekend, I'm going wedding dress shopping for the first time and I can't wait! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Linking up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans!

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. 

Remember when I got engaged then disappeared for a whole week?

First of all, thank you all so much for your sweet comments and well wishes on our engagement. We are absolutely thrilled and cannot wait to be married!

One thing is for sure...this blog has been the last thing on my mind since our engagement on June 29. See, just a few days in I learned our dream venue was pretty booked up and I just didn't want to settle on a new place. So we booked the venue for January 3, 2014 and jumped right into wedding planning madness.

I know 6 months to plan a wedding is a lot to take on, and we were both a little overwhelmed at first, but we can totally do this. Neither one of us wants an extravagant wedding and January works best with Jonathan's work schedule. He can easily take time off for the wedding and honeymoon without it impacting his business too much. We don't want a long engagement. We're ready to celebrate our wedding with the people we love and start our life together. Why wait?

After a week of planning, we've already chosen our venue, picked our colors, placed our cupcake order, narrowed down our photographer options, chosen our wedding party, created our guest list, ordered Save The Dates and chosen our officiant. I'd say we've got it under control so far. We have lots of smaller details to figure out like flowers, centerpieces, etc., but here are a few things that have caught my eye.

I like the blue vases for centerpieces.

I need these.

We have so many people who love us and are jumping in to help us plan. I have a day scheduled in a few weeks to shop for dresses with my mom and bridesmaids and we are taking care of the big decisions early so we can focus on the small details in the next few months.

At the end of the day, I know if we stay focused on our relationship and doing what is right for us, we'll have an absolutely perfect wedding day. I found this on Pinterest a while back and it's the mindset I'm sticking to when it comes to planning our wedding.

So many times throughout the past week, I've found myself staring down at this perfectly gorgeous engagement ring and I'm overwhelmed with love and joy. I honestly cannot wait to become wife to this wonderful, wonderful man. The best is really yet to be :)