Bachelorette Weekend

We went to Charleston, SC for a bachelorette weekend. It was so much fun! Thank you to all of my bridesmaids - it really meant a lot to me and I hope you had fun too! I am in the last few weeks and they are crazy! I am tired (and so is my Mom!) and so many annoying details. I am exctied about a wedding I am in this weekend in Little Washington. Dutchess, my little puppy, is going to be staying at her "grandparents"house during our honeymoon. I actually got about 2/3rds of the responses back, which is actually pretty impressive! I'm going to the beach the week before with Mom and working on some things at the beach. I'm getting pretty excited about the wedding!!!

Invitations

So I have sent out most of the invitations. The only ones left are (surprise surprise) the ones that Rich was supposed to get the addresses for. So you can blame him if you haven't gotten yours yet! I have graduated (yay!) and am now working for 2 weeks before leaving for a month then July 1st I start full time (yay - I have a job). Memorial Day weekend is my Bachelorette Party in Charleston, S.C. and I am getting very excited! I only really have last minute things to do, like little stuff that is not necessarily necessary but I want to do it, and seating arrangements to do. I am so excited - it is less than 1 month away!

Marathon Weekend

So this past weekend was my marathon weekend. Here was my schedule:

Friday
7:30-11:30 Work
12:00 Pick up Sarah/Drive to the Outer Banks
3:30 Meet with Florist
4:30 Meet with Caterer
5:15 Leave for Washington, N.C.
7-10 Lauren and Bryan's Creekside Seafood Fest/Wedding Shower
10 Head to Elizabeth City

Saturday
10-12 Bridal Shower 1
12:15 Premarital Counseling
2-4 Bridal Shower 2
4:15 Hair appt
5:00 Bridal Portraits in Edenton

Sunday
Drive home
3:30 Work

What a weekend!!

Even though it was crazy jam packed - I had a lot of fun! First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who helped plan and who attended my bridal showers! I really appreciated it very much and it is very nice to feel so loved. The flowers are completely done! I have all of the bouquets picked out (already knew what I wanted) and I have picked all of the flower arrangements for the ceremony and the reception, including the centerpieces. The flowers are being done by the Holiday House in Manteo and I even needed a fake bouquet for my bridal portraits and she gave us one right then before we left! It looked real and she even added some star-gazer lilies to it! Then, we went to Kellys for our tasting. Matthew even came inside for this one - go figure. Mom and I finally agreed on a menu and put in the order. The food was excellent, as always, and we even picked out all of our passed hors d'oeuvres. She even gave us dessert for the tasting. Then I drove halfway back to Raleigh (I didn't know that Little Washington is on the other side of Williamston coming from Elizabeth City) and went to Lauren and Bryan's wedding shower. It was awesome! I got to meet more of their families and it was a fish fry so the food was delicious!! I was sad I had to leave and didn't get to lay out the next day at the riverhouse. The first bridal shwoer was really nice. Mrs. Barbara's friends were super nice to my Mom, sister, and I, and they decorated the church very nicely. They gave me some awesome gifts! Our premarital conseling session was, I think, better than last time. We talked more about things that are affecing us now. Then, I changed and went to the second bridal shower at Corinth. I had a lot of fun getting to see everyone again and I think my Mom did too! I was so happy to see everyone and am very thankful for all of the gifts they gave me! They even had star gazer lilies, fushia colored tablecloths (that I got to keep - thank you Mrs. Milie), and my favorite foods - sweet potato biscuits and sausage balls (thank you for telling them Mom)! Then, I had to rush off to get my hair done for my bridal portraits with Mrs. Jill (Photography by Jill). We went to downtown Edenton, a place she frequently goes to take bridal portraits. It is normally a beautiful, historic, quiet little town, but apparently this weekend was cycling weekend and there were bicycles and camping tents everywhere! There was even a live band and tent at the pier! First, I had to change in the car/parking lot into my dress. I had to walk by all of these people in my dress and some of them were taking pictures of me at the same time Mrs. Jill was. I was even proposed to by a drunk old man. I have to say that was one experience I will not forget for a long time! My Mom and Mrs. Betsy (basically my second mother) started crying during the first few pictures. After Edenton, we rode back to Mrs. Jill's studio (my old dance studio) to take a few indoor pictures. Then, my day was finally over. I went to Mrs. Betsy's with Rich to eat dinner (at around 10) and Matthew and his old friends all came over because they were all hanging out. It is weird to see them all in high school - and to think Rich and I's "first date" (babysitting) was with Matthew and Will (Mrs. Betsy's son) when they were 10 years old!! Now they are both taller than me and driving! Overall it was an eventful, but productive weekend and Rich and I pretty much have 2 months left until we get married! It is coming up so soon and I am so excited! Can't wait for graduation too!

Honeymoon!

So it is official - we have booked Hawaii! Rich and I went to AAA Travel this past Saturday and have found where we will be staying. We are going to the island of Maui! Here is where we will be staying - be jealous:)

http://www.westinmaui.com/?PS=PS_aa_Hawaii_Google_westin_maui_092808_NAD_FM

I am currently working on bridal shower guest lists. This is the not fun part of wedding planning b/c you are the one who knows the guest list. This means that everyone asks you for a list for whatever they are throwing. There will be a bridal shower in Elizabeth City on April 10th and one in Raleigh on April 24th (tentatively). Other than that, I am going to Elizabeth City March 6th to go order my wedding band!

Save the Dates!

I officially have the Save the Date magnets and am addressing the envelopes as I write this (well, I put them down to type, but you know what I mean). Rich and I also registered for gifts this weekend!! I was not as much fun as I thought it would be, but afterward it feels pretty good to have picked out most of our stuff! We haven't done any linens yet - bedding, tablecloths, placemats... - but we did almost everything else! We agreed on all the china and silverware; the only thing we had a little compromise on was the crystal! Who would have thought that I like a more simple pattern, and Rich likes more design on glasses?!? But we agreed on one and our lady at Belk was awesome! She wasn't too pushy and she said that we were very good decision makers :) We had a long day Saturday registering. We registered first at Target for 2 hours, then Belk for 3, then Pottery Barn for another 2. Of course, we both liked two very similar patterns in China and picked them both! (Sounds a lot like me, right?). One is Kate Spade with a ribbon (!!!!!) and one is Lenox with just a plain silver band. That pattern will be around forever in case any of the plates break. We registered for 8 and 8, so that they can mix and match! They look awesome mixed together. Also, for our everyday china, we picked a pattern that has I think 4 colors in it, but we mixed and matched that as well! I liked one pattern without the yellow and Rich liked the one with it. They looked so well together that we picked 2 patterns again! We also registered for sterling silver and stainless silver. Rich was actually the one who picked out most of the silverware designs. Go figure - the guy would pick out the things that you actually eat with, instead of the things the food goes on. We didn't pick out too much at pottery barn, but we did pick out some nice things :) If you want to look at everything we registered for, it is all online. You just need to go to target.com, belk.com, or potterybarn.com and click registry and then search for my name, our date, and our state! Save the Dates will be mailed this week!

Bridesmaid Dresses!

This past weekend, I went and found the bridesmaid dress that I had picked out from online! I went to the Bridal Gallery at Mac Gregor in Cary. Liz also finished the Save-the-Date pictures for the magnets! I will order them this week and they look awesome! She created a logo for Rich and I. This was more difficult that ever because I don't like our monogram - it spells aAr (like a pirate), she couldn't put R&A because that is Rich's name, we can't just use A because then it would look like everything was all about me and nothing about him. We finally had to go with A&R because that is just about the only safe option besides writing out our full names! Hopefully I will be registering for gifts the first weekend in February. I still need to pick out wedding invitations. I will keep everyone updated!

The bridesmaid's dresses were found on dessy.com and they are by After 6!

Updates

So I am now currently working on Save the Dates. Liz is helping me design them - they will be magnets - and hopefully I will order the magnets this week. I am going to send the Save the Dates along with hotel and parking information because it is on a Saturday and traffic will be horrible. They look really awesome! While down at the Expo, Mom and I took a tour of the Whalehead Club this weekend. The history is pretty cool. It was owned by the Knights and they were very wealthy people. They had his and her rooms (which was very common in the 1920s) and she even had salt water and fresh water for her bathtub because she was French-Canandian and believed in the healing powers of saltwater. I thought that was pretty awesome. The Whalehead Club is now a museum of the house because it was one of the first on the Outer Banks. They also have Tiffany sconces on almost every wall! Man these people were rich! I switched from having my tent on the South lawn to the North lawn, just because I liked the location more. The tent will be set up right between the Whalehead Club and the bridge over the canal. We can even walk along the docks which will be really neat on a warm summer night! I also need to finally decide on invitations, but this is a really long and difficult process. I have almost finished updating our addresses, but that takes forever too. I am trying to find a date to schedule a bridal party in Elizabeth City - I promise I am trying everyone who keeps asking me! I just got my schedules for school last week and am trying to organize everything to pick the best possible day. Rich and I also need to register for gifts, but I have heard that is actually fun! So much to do - hopefully I will be updating everyone on a more spread out time frame than 3 in one night!

Wedding Expo

So I went to the Outer Banks Wedding Expo over January 9-10th. It was pretty overwhelming, not just because of the amount of vendors, but because of all the people! I even told my Mom that we were going to have to be aggresive because people were rude! The vendors were all really nice, and they really liked that fact that I was from Elizabeth City. I only needed to book a ceremony musician, DJ, flowers, and look into places to get makeup and hair done. There were so many northern people! I even asked Nannette about it and she said she does weddings for people from New York and New Jersey all the time! She said she thinks it is very expensive up there, so they come down to the Outer Banks to get married because the beach is nicer. I also figured out that you can get back to Raleigh by driving through Manteo and it only takes 3 hours from Kill Devil Hills (where the High School is, where the Wedding Expo was)!!

Dress!

So right after Christmas I took my dress to the tailor to get a few things adjusted. She looked at the dress for a few minutes, and then started studying it. I thought something was wrong, but she immediately got really excited and told me my dress is completely hand stitched!!! I have to admit, I still think that is pretty awesome!

Frustrating!

So I am having a very frustrating week. The place where I wanted the ceremony to be held decided that it is too many people and they won't allow us to have it there. Also, the preacher I wanted, Dr. Head, the one who baptized me can't marry us. I wrote him this really sweet note since he is retired now, but he had already committed to a revival and even called that church to get out of it (which is so sweet)! But, of course, they have scheduled their homecoming that weekend as well and he can't possibly get out of it. At least I did get the linens done this week from Metro and the only major thing I have left is flowers. I did get the cake and photographer when I went down to the beach a couple of weekends ago. Oh yeah! I also finished my exams, which means I put our engagement pictures up on facebook! Check them out when you get a chance. Save the Date magnets will be coming soon!