march update

March has been a fairly busy month. 

The wedding countdown is in high gear. 

23 more days! 

I have already posted about my awesome bridal shower at the beginning of the month. 

D had a bachelor's weekend in Charleston, SC. 

We both love that city. 

While D was on his bachelor's weekend, 

my little sis, M, and I went wedding shopping and had a fun girl's day. 

I baked a peach pie for Pi day! 
And made homemade whipped cream. 

I spent a week in Orlando, FL for a work conference. 

I was a presenter at the conference and was nervous as hell. 

But the presentation went really well. 

While I was in Orlando, a few of my coworkers put together a mini bachelorette party for me. 

I love the ladies I work with.  

My coworkers also gave D and I a wedding shower. 

One of my sweet nieces had her first birthday. 
So, D and I traveled to my hometown for her party. 

I had a really fun Easter. 
D's mom wanted all of us adults to hunt for eggs this year. 
It was flooding but we all had a lot of fun. 

This past weekend I dipped my toe back into the wedding planning pool. 

D's best man got married last weekend 

and I was their day-of coordinator. 

I forgot how much I love wedding planning and coordinating. 

D and I are discussing me starting my event planning business back up. 

I told him I want to start slow and only coordinate for a while. 

Saturday was fun but exhausting. 

At the end of the night I had taken more than 24,000 steps. 

life lately & wedding update

I have not posted in ages. 

So, what better time to link up with Kristen! 

Life has been busy, busy. 

Between the normal 40-50 hr work week and wedding planning, 

I am also taking two grad courses this semester. 

What was I thinking?!?!?!

I briefly contemplated taking this semester off. 

But that would have put graduation a semester off as well. 

And I will only miss finals week for the wedding. 

I have already cleared that with my profs. 

But, man oh man, the workload is killer. 

That is life lately! 

Work, school, and a little wedding planning thrown in. 

Now for the fun stuff, wedding planning updates. 

We have DRESSES!!! 
All of them. 
Mine and the bridesmaids. 
Woo-Hoo! 

As I have mentioned in the past, 
I was dreading the wedding dress part. 
We did do the "go try on dresses" thing. 
I did not find anything I liked for my dress. 
But all of the bridesmaids did. 

I wanted each of them in different dresses in the same color. 
I just do not think there is a single dress out there that looks great on everybody. 
And I wanted my girls to feel as pretty as possible on my wedding day. 

Here are their dresses: 

I really want to show y'all my dress. 
It is completely non-traditional. 
But D does occasionally read my blog and I do not want to spoil the surprise for him. 
I did find it online and not in a store. 
I can let y'all know that it has pockets! :D 

We are on the downward slide of things now. 
Only 84 days to go! 

wedding wednesday: shoes & an update

First, I just want to say that I have started 

my advising schedule for the year, 

which sucks my free time. 

So, posting will not happen super often. 

I know ... Surprise, Surprise. ;) 

--- 

Y'all, I got my wedding shoes this week. 

I love them! 

Of course, I am wearing Converse with my wedding dress. 

Speaking of the wedding dress. 

I have not even started dress shopping. 

I absolutely dread it! 

I hate shopping. 

I really just want to buy it online. 

But EVERYONE else wants me to try on dresses in a store. 

I will probably compromise 

and do the whole dress trying on thing with my girls, 

but, then, still buy the dress I want online. 

Other than that, planning is going excellently. 

We are getting our engagement pictures done next month. 

So, I have decided that we will combine our Save the Dates with our Christmas cards. 

Gotta save that money! 

We have finally narrowed down our invitations. 

Here is a sneak peak of the style, 

with our wedding monogram: 

Okay y'all! 

Did anyone else out there dread the wedding dress experience? 

Or did you love the dress shopping experience? 

Help! 

wedding wednesday #1: book arch

The venue has been chosen 

and the wedding date has been picked 

April 30, 2016. 

That means I have almost a full year to bore y'all with wedding posts. 

But let's face it, 

with the way I post that will be like 6 posts. 

:D 

This post is all about this awesome book arch I found on Pinterest. 

{source}

I would LOVE to incorporate this into my ceremony. 

However, there is one small problem. 

My book-loving heart cannot murder destroy this many books. 

Do y'all have any ideas how to do this without harming the books?! 

I am thinking that as much as I love the look of this arch, 

it will not be in my wedding. :( 

This is the other option I really like for the ceremony focal point. 

{and it doesn't kill any books} 

{source}

What are some other ways I could incorporate books into the decor? 

weekend recap: the one where i get engaged

{This actually happened three weekends ago.}

Y'all, I am ENGAGED! 

April 25th was our two year anniversary. 

We decided to go to Asheville, NC and the Biltmore Estate 

to celebrate our anniversary. 

I never in a million years thought we would get engaged on this trip. 

In hindsight, it was the perfect time to get engaged, 

I was just expecting it later in the year. 

I was all prepared to blog about the trip, the food, and the Biltmore. 

Planning posts in my head during the trip. 

The food was delicious. 

The Biltmore was beautiful. 

The trip was amazing! 

But for now, I will fast forward to the important part. 

We had heard that Biltmore on Saturdays are crazy busy. 

So, we did the Biltmore on Friday. 

Don't get excited just yet, 

I did not get engaged at the Biltmore. 

Most people would think that the Biltmore would be the perfect setting for a romantic proposal. 

And for most women it would be a dream come true. 

Luckily, for me, D knows me so much better than that. 

I am an introvert to the max and 

HATE being the center of attention. 

D knew that I would not enjoy a public proposal. 

Saturday was our actual anniversary. 

The weather had been beautiful the entire trip, 

but, of course, it was raining Saturday morning. 

Which messed up D's plans a little bit. 

He had planned to propose that morning while we were 

out exploring Asheville; 

maybe on a mountain overlook or downtown. 

I do not think he had an exact plan in mind. 

But when he saw that it was raining, 

he decided to do it in the hotel room. 

And I am so glad he did. 

It was a private, special moment just between the two of us. 

No, I  do not have a picture of THE moment he proposed. 

{Much to the disappoint of D's sister. ;)}

But that is okay with me. 

The proposal fit our relationship to a tee. 

It was simple and perfect! 

Now let the wedding planning begin! 

{Linking up with Weekending by BLovedBoston}

crunch time

I am officially in crunch mode for the wedding. 

It is this Saturday!

I am leaving tomorrow for the farm so I can get more accomplished. 

It is tough planning a wedding 250 miles away! 

Luckily, I am working with the best Bride & Groom. 

Of course, I am in no way biased. ;) 

When Isa first asked me to help plan her wedding in only 4 months I thought we had all lost our minds. 

But everything has gone surprisingly smooth.

We have yet to have any issues come up at all. 

Hopefully, the next week continues to be more of the same!

flowers & favors

The wedding I am planning is in October
so the bride wants and arrangement of fall flowers 
for the bouquets and centerpieces. 
I think the dark reds, burnt oranges, & yellows
will look gorgeous against the dark purple of the 
bridesmaids' dresses.
What do you think?

We are still in decision mode on wedding favors. 
The bride's favorite idea is
monogrammed Hershey's Kisses.
We would put a few in a cute bag or box
with a label that read
"Kisses from the New Mr. & Mrs."

Do any of you have any cute favor ideas?

{click on pics for source}

the one about the dresses

This will probably be the first of many wedding posts!

We had a SUPER successful day dress shopping. 

Five of us went shopping, Isa {the bride}, her mom, her sister, her maid of honor, 

& me {wedding planner extraordinaire . . . lol}. 

We picked out Isa's dress, all of her accessories, 

the bridesmaids' dresses and shoes in just 3 hours.

Isa went with the very 1st dress she tried on. 

It was just perfect!

Her maid of honor and her sister only 

tried on about 5 dresses before we found the perfect ones.

Source: swagbucks.com via A. Elizabeth on Pinterest

{Isa's dress}

Source: swagbucks.com via A. Elizabeth on Pinterest

{MOH's dress}

Source: swagbucks.com via A. Elizabeth on Pinterest

{Bridesmaid's dress}

Source: dessy.com via A. Elizabeth on Pinterest

{the MOH's & Bridesmaids' dresses will be in this color}

I do not know why the pics are not centered.

Stupid blogger ;)

So, what do y'all think about the dresses?

hey y'all

Um, so yeah,

it has been over a month since

I have posted anything.

Sorry about that!

I just have not been in the blogging mood lately.

This is the first time I have even logged into blogger in about 2 weeks.

{via}

Nothing really exciting has been going on in my life. 

I work and the come home and apply for jobs.

That is pretty much it. 

And I am sure you do not want to hear anything about

my panic attacks over not even getting one single interview yet.

{via}

One exciting thing that has happened is 

one of my very best friends got

ENGAGED!!!

And she has asked me to be her wedding planner!

So I am in total wedding planning mode.

I am like a kid in a candy store when I have something to plan.

I will do some more posts letting y'all know 

how the planning is going.

{via}

Hopefully, I will be able to get back into the swing of things! 

Thanks to any of my readers who are actually reading this 

you are pretty awesome :)

{via}