Koala Chique

Allyson & Brian 10.1.11

2012-01-16T16:27:00.000-08:00

Head on over to Koala Chique to see the very first featured wedding for K Chique Events. Allyson and Brian were an amazing couple to work with!

A New Home

2011-11-18T10:49:00.001-08:00

Well, in the digital sense, that is.

Koala Chique has a new home now! I'll still be posting here for a while as well, mostly because I can't figure out how to add google connect and other important widgets to the new site yet, but you can also add www.koalachique.com to your google reader and follow me that way!

Side note: Anyone know how to add widgets using the wordpress.org platform? I'm so confused about all this new stuff. This is what I get for trying to get a fancy new site. . .

Another side note (cause I love 'em): Joy Kelley (aka Ms Poodle on Weddingbee aka how joyful designs) is the brains behind my beautiful new site! Pop on over and tell me what you think!

Top Model: Koala Style

2011-10-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

I've ventured into the world of modeling. Oh, you say you didn't know that?

Funny, I wasn't aware of it either . . .

Another day at work, same drudgery, nothing new, until I receive a text from Sara, our wedding planner angel.

"OMG, I just died! Why didn't you tell me you were going to be in the ad?!"

Cue quizzical look from me. I ask to see a pic of her source of excitement. Soon, I get an e-mail from her in my inbox, attached is this:

Thank goodness I wasn't driving or operating machinery. An accident would have surely ensued.

That's me.

In an Ad.

In a National Magazine.

That thousands of people will read.

. . . . . EEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!

The minute the fall issue of Weddings Unveiled hits newsstands here in the ATL, the Barnes and Noble near our apartment is going to find themselves emptied of every copy they have.

Cause I'm buying every one!!! Wawhooooo!

(If you're wondering how I ended up in an ad that I didn't know anything about, I'll sum it up by saying that my photogs sent the photo to the director of Modern Trousseau in NYC at his request, and the rest is pretty clear!)

Until the print version arrives, I'll have to be satisfied with looking at the magazine's digital version HERE. I'm on Page 12-13!

Nathan had the wonderful idea of framing the pages and displaying it in our home. I think it would be great to have another fun memento from our wedding.

Anything crazy ever happened like this to you?

Crickets

2011-09-28T12:40:00.000-07:00

Can ya hear em? Cause that's about all that's been happening on this blog lately.

100% my fault, I know. I guess it seems that telling you all about the drudgery of my 9-5 and repetitive laundry experiences just isn't quite post worthy. I'm a "less is more" kind of girl, so I tend to write less posts, and try to say more in those posts, then write many posts of fluff.

All Fluff aside, there's some exciting new changes coming to Koala Chique very soon, as well as another wedding to gush about! I'm keeping it hush hush for now, but I can't wait to tell you all about it!

{Source}

10 Years

2011-09-11T05:48:00.000-07:00

!0 Years ago, I was sitting in 9th grade homeroom, waiting for the bell to ring to head to our next class. The vice-principal suddenly came over the loud speakers and said that everyone needed to remain where they are until further notice and for the teachers to turn on their televisions.

The images that we saw, the smoke, the destruction, the despair, seemed so unreal. Sitting there in my classroom on a blue-sky Georgia morning, I struggled as a young teenager to understand what was happening hundreds of miles away. I had permanent goosebumps all day, even when we were sent home early, I sat at home with my parents in shock.

To those who have served or are serving our country, thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping me safe and protecting the American way of life.

To all the rest, hug your family and friends today, call them and tell them how much they mean to you. Life is precious, and we should never take our time here on earth for granted.

I'm curious, where were you 10 years ago?

Saturday Morning

2011-09-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Up with the sun (or perhaps a few hours later, the sun should have its moment of glory after all) and zipping down the road. The sights and smells of the farmers market. The variety of their harvest, it's like taking a step back in time, to a much simpler place.

Behold, our spoils of the trek.

Perhaps some vegetable lasagna with peach and sweet potato muffins for a delicious end to the meal?

I'm looking forward to dinner now. . .

What has you out and about this beautiful Saturday?

Today is just one of those days

2011-09-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

No, not the sad, everything goes wrong days. The perfect, blissful, sunny and cool, but not too cool, but yay fall is on the way! kind of days.

Sadly, I'm cooped up in my office. My windowless, fluorescent lit office. Between you and me, I have found way too many reasons to wander outside for a few minutes, just to get a few minutes of fresh air.

It's days like today, with the crisp air of fall on its way, that make me wish Nate and I were winding our way up the Blue Ridge parkway in North Carolina. Dancing leaves in the wake of our car, the clouds like marshmellows dotting the sky, and that crisp mountain air that I swear has healing properties.

When the weather turns cool, where does your mind take you?

{Source}

The Love Continues!

2011-08-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

As if getting featured on Southern Weddings fabulous blog wasn't amazing enough, our little labor of love has been recognized again! This time the ladies over at the Wedding Row have posted our pretty pictures for all their Charleston audience to see.

The excitement continues!

The Covet List

2011-08-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

In my continuing effort to procrastinate in finishing my honeymoon recaps and start my wedding recaps ( I've set a goal to get them cranked out before our 1 year, o.k. that's a really lazy goal, but I'm a lazy blogger, so it works) I am going to go on a sidetrack.

This is a pure and simple "I want" post. You know, that mental, or perhaps not so mental, running list of things that you have been jones-ing to have for months, and would surely die happy (or so we've led ourselves to believe) if you had them all.

Without further ado, I present to you, my current "Covet List"

1. Our wedding photos - . . wait, what? yeah, you read that write. The disclaimer: it's totally not our photographer's fault that we don't have our wedding photos yet. They have been in our online proof gallery for months, just waiting for us to purchase the digital negatives. The real reason behind the delay lies in the fact that we just never came up with the mula to buy them before the wedding, and are currently saving up to do so. I CANNOT WAIT until I can hit "add to cart" on these lovelies, cause recaps are fun!

2. THIS GUY

My regular point and shoot Nikon got me through a semester abroad and 4 years of college just fine, but now that I'm a big girl and want to take big-girl (read: not crappy) pictures, I could really go for a camera that can keep up. . .and actually take a halfway decent indoor photo. I mean, really, is that too much to ask?

3. A decent night's sleep, no . . . scratch that, an AMAZING nights sleep

yes, I've laid on one, yes, they are as amazing as everyone makes them out to be, and one needs to make its way to my house, STAT.

You see, sleeping is not just something I do to survive, I view sleeping as more of a hobby, I'm really really good at it, so why not have the best equipment for all of my . . . hobbying?

4. The "I Chee" of Kitchen appliances

Somehow, I've convinced myself that, if I possessed this piece of culinary genius, I would suddenly have the time, energy, and skills to whip up endless culinary creations that my friends "ooo" and "ahhh" over. Images of sending my tiny processor sailing over the railing of our 4th story apartment are coming to mind. . . .gimme gimme gimme. On a separate note, why does it seem that every recipe calls for a food processor? Are they trying to mess with me?

5th and Final on the List: I-want an I-phone!!!

Do I really need to explain this? It's the single best social networking, blog following, productivity fueled device out there right now. And my crap-berry just won't die!

Come hell or high water, I'm marching into my local Verizon in September and snagging my piece of the 2011 American Dream!

So tell me, what's on your current covet list? Maybe your list will make me add to mine ;)

For the Technology defunct

2011-07-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

You are not alone.

Back in 2006, when this new-fangled thing called Twitter was launched, most people had no idea what it was, and those that did were convinced it was just a fad. After all, no one cares about each other's lives enough to hear about updates every 5 minutes. . .right? RIGHT?!

For five years now, I have held fast to that conviction, holding my ground like the fated soldiers at the Alamo. I could see for months now that doom was imminent, but at this point in the game, why admit defeat?

The result, the booming world of Twitter got bigger than big and left this blogger in the dust. I have no idea what any of the tweets mean (#bigworldofbananas I'm looking at you #Johnny john). . .ummm what?! I did not hop on the bandwagon initially and now feel totally out of the loop and feel like I'm missing some huge aspect of today's social networking. "Follow me on Twitter!" All my fellow bloggers say. Um, sorry, can't follow, don't even know how to sign up for a damn account.

So tell me, social media savvy friends, if I'm still a Twitter Virgin, what's the best way to pop the tweet cherry and get into this oh-so-confusing world of knowing everyone's every move, all the time?

And if you dare, what the heck is Pintinterest?!!!

Honeymoon Recap!: Part II

2011-07-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

Our Honey moon Part II

Considering how hectic the days leading up to the wedding were, I felt that Nate and I had made a wise decision to make the focus of our honeymoon “relaxation”. In fact, as we made the 5 hour drive from Charleston to St. Simon’s Island the morning following the wedding, relaxation was our to priority.

After winding our way down the Georgia coast, and seeing more than our fair share of roadside fruit stands, spindly pine trees and miles and miles of flat landed blacktop, we drove over the bridge headed to the island. I rolled down my windows to take in the salty breeze, and instantly felt the weariness of the wedding stress begin to ease. I grew up not very far from St. Simons, and had made many trips to it over the years before my family made the move to the big city of Atlanta. So in a way, it felt like a homecoming.

After driving down the main track of the island, past the handful of T-shirt stores and the whimsical downtown area that hasn’t changed a smidge over the years, we found the realtors office easily and grabbed our keys and info packet to the condo out of the night deposit box (the building used to be a bank, I found that humerous at the time, as we coasted through the drive through). Five minutes later we unlocked the front door to the condo and begin the process of unloading the gigantic pile of wedding gifts, wedding décor, and suitcases from my busting-at-the-seams Honda. Thank God the condo had an elevator, this place was four stories tall!

We took the obligatory tour of the condo, then when our grumbling stomachs could wait nor more, we drove the mile back to the downtown area and grabbed a bite to eat at one of the local joints, Iguanas. Think Jimmy Buffet meets Flo’s diner.

We both had the shrimp po boy, which was delicious and oh so fresh.

And when the waitress found out we were on our honeymoon, this is the adorable drawing we had waiting on our bill.

Couldn’t she have just comped us our meals instead? I’m kidding, really. . . I actually saved the receipt because I thought it was so sweet.

We stuffed ourselves on fresh shrimp, then headed down to the pier to catch the sunset.

When the air became too cool to be hanging out on the pier, we drove back to the condo and had a great time opening all of our gifts from the wedding. We took turns opening, while the other recorded the gift and the sender on my mac.

It was so much fun seeing what people had given us, and felt like our first “official” married couple moment. Sounds weird right? I know.

Day two of the honeymoon included sleeping in ridiculously late (We slept, and slept and slept some more) then hunting down the only coffee shop downtown. Yeah, we were “that” couple. Typing away on our macs on the first full day of our honeymoon, muching on our scones, getting our caffeine fix, and pouring over the pics that people were already posting from the wedding. We knew we couldn’t spend all day at the shop (we would have on any other trip) so we packed up our macs and drove down to the closest beach access. We spent the rest of the afternoon taking a walk on the beach followed by a stroll downtown to peek in the shops full of chotchkies and all those beach items that every merchant feels the need to fill their shelves with. That is seriously all our lazy selves did that day. Relaxation was the name of the game, remember?

{Lots of gratuitous feet pics, we were in a foot mode that day, apparently}

For dinner we headed to my favorite restaurant on the island, the Crab Trap.

Nate went all caveman on the crab legs, while I opted for the less labor intensive fried shrimp and crab cakes. I don’t remember the last time I ate that much, it was soooo good! If you ever venture to St. Simon’s, make it a point to visit this place.

Day three was beach day! And the genius (yours truly) suddenly got it in her head that she was Snookie and half Italian and could lay out all day with only SPF 12 TANNING LOTION on. That was the dumbest decision I have made in a long time. The second dumbest decision I have made in a long time was to turn my chair so that the right half of my body was getting all the rays, and the left was getting none. What?! I wanted to view the waves, not the fat guy sunning himself down the beach.

At least Nate was the smart one and actually applied sunscreen with a decent SPF.

Too bad he used the spray bottle and didn’t read the part that said to RUB IT IN. so by the end of the day you had lobster girl (on the right side only, ughh) and splotchy boy.

Lobster girl and splotchy boy made their way to CVS for the third time so far on the honeymoon (trips one and two? Oh, I’ll tell you all about that during the wedding recaps, it will all become clear) and bought the store out of their Aloe supply. Once completely coated in the sticky gel, we spent the rest of the night watching reruns on TV and cursing our fair-skinned selves.

And because I can’t be concise to save my life, which has resulted in this post becoming a full blown essay, there will be a honeymoon recap part III to tell you about the last leg of the trip!

It just keeps getting better . . .

2011-06-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

Being married is amazing, and it's really hard to top that feeling of being side by side with your best friend, partners in crime for all that life promises to bring.
But Southern Weddings Magazine, you sure do make a case for being almost as amazing. Why amazing? Cause our wedding is up for all the world to see!

I was so honored to be Southern Weddings very first Southern bride of the month, and now it feels like the super delicious icing on the cake to have our wedding featured as well!

Head on over to their site to see Part I and part II will be up later today!

oh and also. . . .eeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkk!!!!!!! (followed by happy chair dance)

Honeymoon Recap!: Part I

2011-06-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

I mentioned a while back that Nate and I would be taking a "minimoon" of sorts following the wedding. The problem was, we had no idea where to go!
We initially thought about staying at one of the beaches just outside of Charleston for an extra few days, which would be quick to get to after the reception and eliminate the need for extra driving. But yikes! The swanky beach side hotels also came with swanky expensive rates. After all the money that was dished out for the wedding (totally worth it!) Option 1 was a no go.

{Dear Swanky hotel, Be less expensive, Sincerely, poor bride}

Option number 2 was to head west to the mountains of North Carolina for a lovely few days in a cozy cabin. As we are both mountain people, this seemed like an appealing option.

{Source}

Until we started looking into the closest "mountain destination" from Charleston that would have fun things for us to do.

Right. . .that would be Asheville, the same Asheville that Nate grew up in and is quite familiar with, the same Asheville where we would be within 15 minutes of his parents. I mean, my new-in laws are great, but hanging with them on our honeymoon? No thank you!

There we were, a month before the wedding, with no hopes or plans for a honeymoon, and had all but resigned ourselves to driving back home and spending our days free from work vegging on the couch.

Suddenly, the honeymoon clouds parted, the sun shone down, and we got a bit of luck passed our way. Turns out that one of my step-dad's clients, a nice middle-aged lady who is sweet as pie, (let's call her J shall we?) owned a condo that she used as a vacation rental when she wasn't staying there herself, and offered to let us use it for practically nothing.

And where was said condo located?

{Live Oaks}

{Boats in the harbour}

{Sunset along the beach}

JACKPOT!

For the price that we could be staying at a Motel 6, Nate and I suddenly found ourselves the proud dwellers of a 6 bedroom condo on beautiful St. Simon's Island, GA. Aside from the fact that I had no idea what we were going to do with 6 bedrooms (sleep in a different room every night? I dunno). The arrangement was perfect for us, and with that, the honeymoon plans were made!

Having spent my childhood less than 30 minutes away from St. Simons, I was thrilled that we would be spending 5 nights on this beautiful island that is truly Georgia's best kept secret.

Up next: What we did on our honeymoon. . .besides recovering from the wedding!

Tea for Two!

2011-05-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

I didn't get to share with you before the wedding, but remember my idea way back when about the favors for our lovely guests? Well I hate to brag, but I'm gonna! Cause our favors turned out so cute!

Since my Mimi (does anyone else call their grandmother Mimi?) was baking all of the cookies for the favors and wasn't able to come into town until the day before the wedding, the actual assembly didn't take place until the night before the big day! My mom later told me that she, my grandmother, even my grandfather and step-dad all formed a "favor assembly line" in their hotel room at about 11pm Saturday night. Cookies were stuffed, ribbons tied, and when I saw the cute stack of "tea for two" favors on our guest book table the next day, I couldn't have been more grateful to my family for making it happen.

Here's a quick rundown on how the boxes were assembled:

1. Fill the 4x4x4 favor box with a little crinkle paper fill (must cushion the yummy cookies so they don't break!)

2. Using some candy poly bags that I purchased from Bags and Bows, 3 cookies from my Mimi's famous recipe were placed into the box.

3. Followed by a pair of Earl Grey tea bags (which we found to be surprisingly inexpensive!)

4. I can't really call this an actual step, because do to the last minute craziness at the rehearsal, they never made it into the box, but what was GOING to go in next was a little 3x 3 card that said:

"Please enjoy this tea for two,

with cookies lovingly made by Katie's grandmother, 'grandma's name',

as our way of saying thank you for being a part of our special day!"

Sigh. . . sadly this never made it into the boxes, and I feel terrible because I feel like my Mimi didn't get credit for all of her hard work. I was sure to thank her over and over for making them though! Nate and I are still munching on the leftovers! (They keep for a long time, trust me).

5. Finally, the box is sealed and tied with a cute ribbon and "Tea for Two" tag, which I made using a small craft punch. I nixed the wrapping paper idea due to cost and the sheer amount of time it would have taken to wrap them the night before. If I had the cookies ahead of time, I probably would have included the paper.

The favors were certainly nothing earth shatteringly brilliant, but they were just perfect for our intimate affair and we received many compliments from guests! I am just glad that I was able to include some family tradition into our wedding, even in small little ways.

What do you think? Did my vision translate into reality? Or am I just speaking a different language altogether?

Greetings from the other side!

2011-05-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we celebrated our one week anniversary of being married. A week already, and yet it feels like only a moment. I guess the realization is proof that life just keeps on trucking, wedding or not.

Can I be candid for a moment? Because it feels so so good to be married. I'm a wife, I'm somebody's Mrs., and now I know what people meant when they said, "It only gets better from here".

Oh, and that little thing called our wedding? It was amazing, beautiful, and darn near perfect. I can't wait to share all of our lovely wedding recaps with you, moment by moment. Until the lovely rolls of film are developed and headed our way, I'll fill you in on our mini-honeymoon to St. Simons Island, GA and the festivities leading up to the big day!

Just for fun: A quick iphone snapshot after getting back from the after party, ready for the first real sleep we had had in days, the very last picture from our wedding day.

When the Going gets tough

2011-04-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

the tough forget to blog . . .

Yep, you can just put a big fat fail sticker on me, cause I've been a bad bad blogger. I wanted to share with you guys all about:

The amazing tasting we had with the caterer, and how I can't wait to stuff my face with the deliciousness
The gorgeous bridal shower that MOH L threw for me last weekend, and all the gifts that made me want to jump up and down like a kid at Christmas.
The massive crafting session that ensued when I decided that I wanted a tea-stained, scalloped edge look for the escort cards and just HAD to go all fancy for the ceremony programs (seriously, why did I complicate my life?)
the last minute fated decision to hire a videographer, and why it's going to be so freaking awesome.
I even wanted to tell you about the highs and lows of all the wedding related stress that I have been trying to muck my way through. Lot's of mucking, not lot's of progress being made.

But here I am, admitting to you that I am just plum out of time. We say "I do" in a mere 3 days, and as much as I wanted to share all of this with you, life got in the way.

In short, this is a big fat "I'm sorry". I don't have much of an excuse, but I'm hoping you'll forgive the internet silence.

Here's what I can promise:

I'll be back, this time as a Mrs. and with the help of the fantastic photographs shot by Joey and Jessica, I'll be ready to tell you all about our wedding. Cause, you know, it's fun to show off!

Signing off as a Miss. . .

~Katie

Invites Revealed!

2011-04-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

Now that the RSVPs are all back in, I figured it was safe to reveal the invites without ruining the surprise. Let's get to the pretty paper eye candy shall we?
Well, hold on a minute, you might need a little background. Initially, I had my heart set on letterpress invitations. I loved the texture and the elegance of a simple letterpress invitation.

{One of my favorites, "Meeting Street" from Delphine Press}

We even found Daniel and Allison of Ink Meets Paper, a great new letterpress studio in Charleston that is currently run out of their home. They are such a great couple (albeit with a grumpy kitty) who invited us to their home for some coffee and a tour of the studio. It was so cool to see how the letterpress actually works and to hear the story of how they aqcuired theirs.

Sadly, I had to stay true to my priority list, and realized that, although I loved pretty paper as much as the next gal, it just wasn't one of the items that our already limited budget would allow us to splurge on. so we said goodbye to letterpress and went the more economical printing route. With no design skills to speak of, and no idea how to use illustrator, indesign, or any of those other crazy good but crazy hard to learn programs, I had to turn to the experts.

Our planner, Sara with Southern Protocol, pointed us in the direction of Studio R, and I am so glad we decided to work with them! The end results speak for themselves, AND we saved a hundreds of dollars by going the printing route. Honestly, I think I may even like it more than letterpress . . .

{Our invitation suite, all put together!}

{The assembly line, complete with hot cocoa!}

Aaaaaannnnd this is when I got lazy with the picture taking. Guess you'll have to see the lovely invite details after the wedding! (Blogger FAIL, I know, I never remember to take pictures!)

Did you go the letterpress or printing route? Or perhaps you are one of the few, the proud, the brave, who made the invites yourself?

With this Ring

2011-04-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

You Guys, it's official, we are really, truly getting married. Or at least we better be. . .because we have rings!

{Personal Photo, Glad Nate always has his iPhone handy!}

You can't see them in this photo, but I have a row of diamonds along the top, but the side detail is my absolute favorite! At size 4 and 1/4, my ring is too tiny to engrave much on the inside, but they did manage to squeeze the date on the inside. Nate was able to engrave much more, including the title to our first dance:

Charleston 5.1.11 "You & Me"

I know this sounds weird to say, but I think I love Nate's band more than my own. Perhaps because it says to the world "Hey! he's mine!" or perhaps because I can't wait to slide it on his finger. Either way, we are so excited to have them in our hands! Now we just have to avoid the temptation to wear them around the house. What? I need to make sure it really really fits . . .

On a side note: 20 days. . . . well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!

Outfitting the Entourage: Part 2 - The Guys

2011-04-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

Why didn't somebody warn me that there were approximately 1,667, 845.7482374 options for men's clothing? And they say that women are complicated, pu-leeze!

Whew, got that off my chest. Yeah, deciding on and locating the right option for the guys was a job and a half, and I didn't even get paid! It didn't help that, initially, I had a very clear picture in my head of what I wanted the guys to wear, and refused to consider other options. What did I want the guys to wear, really really really wanted them to wear?

THIS

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and THIS

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and THIS and THIS and THIS!

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Hello, my name is Katie, and I am a 3-piece suit addict.

I literally spent MONTHS combing the internet, searching desperatly for the perfect 3 piece suit option for Nate and all of the groomsmen. I love the vintage look of the suits and how the vest keeps the look dressy even when the jackets come off. They are just so stylish, no? These types of suits have experienced a huge resurgence in the wedding world, so they should be easy to acquire right?

WRONG, oh so very WRONG.

Oh sure, if you want to drop a hefty penny (or more accurately about 10,000 pennies), you can have a custom made 3-piece suit. J-Crew even had a really cool linen 3-piece option, but Nate vetoed the linen look, citing it as a fabric that easily wrinkles and looks to casual to him. O.k. fine, he was probably right, but I just didn't want to admit defeat.

6 months into the search, 3 and a half months to the wedding, and defeat suddenly became the reality.

*SOB. Farewell suit pipe dream, parting is such non-sweet sorrow.

With hopes dashed, I became very "whatever you want" about the whole suit thing. Sure I went along on the shopping trips, but secretly I was pouting my loss and really, I just wanted Nate to pick something. We knew we wanted a light colored suit, and had to wait until February for all of the spring lines to start rolling out. It took a while, but we finally found a winner!

{Source}

This is the website pic, which is in tan. Our suits will be "Oyster" which looks more like the suits in the top pic. It took several hours of in-store waiting (still mad about that) and some serious back and forth, but we were able to secure all 5 suits for the guys from Jos A Bank at a great price! 65% off plus a gift card from FMIL resulted in Nate getting his suit for less than $100 bucks! Whoopie!

We are thinking of pairing the suits with the classic southern seersucker tie in sage. Any thoughts?

Am I the only one out there who thinks stores should start offering 3-piece suit rentals again?

Outfitting the Entourage: Part 1 - The Gals

2011-03-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that I stressed over selecting the bridesmaid dresses more than my own gown? Or that selecting and ordering the groomsmen outfits took hours longer than the entirety of my dress shopping? No? Well I can hardly believe it either.

Here I was thinking it would be a simple and easy process. . . Perhaps it was karma's way of saying, "Ha! You thought you got off easy with the dress shopping, well think again silly bride!"

Choosing an outfit that multiple people can be happy with is tough. For a while, I was tempted to jump on the bandwagon of the mismatched bridesmaid dresses.

Perhaps a creamy coordinating pastel palette?

{Source}

Or how about these adorable vintage inspired patterned dresses?

{Source}

Even one color with varying patterns looks simply stunning.

{Source}

In the end though, I said no to all of the above. I may be old fashioned, but I am still a sucker for the unified look of the bridal party. Also, I don't think that finding a dress to flatter multiple figures is as hard as everyone makes it sound. Sure you may be more limited with your choices but guess what? I didn't want a strapless miniskirt on my gals anyway!

{Source}

ahhhh, bridesmaid unity, how I adore thee. Classy, cute and effortless. I am loving the brick wall behind these gals, it is such an amazing pop of color, so bright, so sassy . .

ahem, right, back to the dresses. The criteria I had for the dresses were:

No strapless, I want my gals to be able to dance the night away without doing the perpetual "pull up"

{Source}

No not that pull up (although I am insanely jealous of that woman's upper body strength), This one:

{Source}

Whew, good thing she was wearing a pretty bra right? Yeah, I don't want this to happen on our wedding day. Frankly, strapless dresses annoy the crap out of me, and I almost never wear them.

Other criteria:

The dress needs to be an A - line. My bridesmaids are all beautiful shapes and sizes, so an A-line will be the most flattering for all of their body types.
The dress needs to be a light, breathable fabric. The wedding will be outdoors, in the south, in the spring. Humid much? I want the ladies to be glistening, not drenched in sweat and counting the minutes till they can ditch the dress.
The dress needs to cost less than my first car. In other words, we are all on a budget, so let's not go crazy with the dress price, mk? Thanks bridesmaid dress makers.

Let's skip the boring part where I went through a million contenders for the dress and get right to the "and we finally found one!" part.

{Source}

It's Jim Hjelm style 5907 from their 2009 collection.

{Source}

It's light, feminine, romantic, and universally flattering. With a gathered natural waist, and fluttered straps, this chiffon over cashmere number is going to be stunning on the bridesmaids!

Oh and just in case you're worried, they won't be wearing it in Ivory. If you're not worried, well then. . good for you! They will be wearing blush versions of the dress.

Looks a little too bubblegum on my screen, but you get the idea! I love my bridesmaids and I want them to feel beautiful and feel like themselves. So while I choose the dress, I am giving them freedom on which shoes they buy, what jewelry they wear, and how they want their hair styled. If they're happy, then I'm happy!

How did the hunt for your B-maid dresses go? Any feedback on the chosen dress?

Up next: The guys get their gear!

A Different kind of Registry

2011-03-11T11:03:00.000-08:00

Gasp! The secret is out! (ok it was neither a secret nor does it warrant a gasp, whatever) Nate and I have been living together for over two years. We aren't exactly trying to stock a house from start to finish. Our apartment; however, is a hodge podge of cheap college purchases and hand-me-downs. I welcome thieves to our home. Trust me, you'll be extremely under-rewarded for your efforts.

So while the traditional registry has its rightful purpose (We could really use some new kitchen gadgets and some non-crappy sheets) for us, we really needed a different kind of registry.

I had been reading about several different sites offering "honeymoon registries" where guests can deposit money to the site, the couple cashes out, and uses the money to have fun experiences on their honeymoon. I really liked that idea, but since we are having a belated honeymoon, I didn't want the whole focus of the website to be on the honeymoon.

Then I found depositagift.com. This site was a step up from the others. It was easier to navigate, and I loved the fact that you can customize what types of events or goals people are contributing towards.

I created a category for our honeymoon that we hope to take to Scotland. People can "give us" a night at a quaint bed and breakfast in the highlands or a tour of one of the many Scotch distilleries. We also want to be homeowners someday (and say adios to our annoying upstairs neighbor that is always screaming at her kids), so I also created a category where people can gift us funds for our first home. When the wedding is over, we simply "cash out".

{Our Home Page}

O.k. the truth: This website is just a better way for people to give us cash. Yeah, I know, they could just write us a check, but what's the fun in that? This way people will know and feel that their money is actually going towards something tangible. I'm really excited about this registry, because, after all, we are young, we are poor, and mamma needs a new pair of shoes (or at least grocery money?) there I said it. I will say the only con to this type of registry is that there is a small fee ($2 I think) for guests to give using the site. I think it's worth it though, considering guests don't have to hassle with mailing us a check or bringing anything to the wedding. After all, the website can't run for free!

I've heard of good customer service, but this takes the cake! Check out this sweet post card that I received from Dana, founder of Deposit a Gift, a couple of days after we set up the registry.

{Happy Engagement Katie & Nathan! I hope setups been fun. I'm here if you need any support :) Cheers, Dana}

What a nice touch to have the owner of the company send you a postcard! I am all about being personal so this really won me over.

Did you or would you register for any "unusual" items?

60 Days! And a Reason to Celebrate

2011-03-03T08:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I had two reasons for celebration, not only did we hit the 60 day mark until the wedding (eeeekkk, can hardly believe it!) but I also turned the ripe old age of 24 (well not quite ripe, but well on the way it feels like).

So Happy Birthday to Me!

Good things that happened on my Birthday

I received lots of texts, phone calls, and facebook love from friends and family. Loved all of the birthday wishes!
We got a new Furbaby this weekend! Everyone say hi to McKenzie, or Mac, or Mac Attack :)

{Hello Everyone! I am the cuddle-meister, prepare yourselves}

3. Nate took me on a wonderful birthday dinner to one of my favorite restaurants; Season's 52! everything on the menu is less than 500 calories, and the food is fresh and amazing!

We both decided to order seafood, as Atlanta is not exactly known for it's great seafood places. We try to order fresh fish whenever we have the opportunity!

{Rasberry Tea-Tini with Firefly sweet tea vodka, pure deliciousness}

Nate ordered the rainbow trout with mixed vegetables. The flavor was fantastic and had a great smoked taste to it.

I went for the fish of the day, the grilled Mahi Mahi, served over Shrimp Risotto and vegetables

Was it good?

umm, yep I'd say it was pretty yummy!

If you haven't been to Season's 52 before, put it on your bucket list!

{gratuitous car iphone shot, because we always forget to do it when someone is actually around}

To cap off the evening, Nate had thoughtfully brought home some yumminess from my favorite sweet shop in town, Gigi's Cupcakes!

{Strawberry Cream, Baileys with Almonds, Sweet Potato on top, and wedding cake!}

Yep, I stuffed my face with cupcake in my PJs, moaning and muttering between mouthfuls about how delicious they were. Nate knows the way to my heart. . . food, and lot's of it.

As much as I love these cupcakes, there was no way we could eat all of them last night, I feel a mid-afternoon cupcake snack coming on. . .

What's been giving you reason to celebrate lately? Something big? Or perhaps you're just joyful about the weather?

Southern Weddings Blog Feature

2011-03-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to announce that Southern Weddings Magazine has launched a new monthly blog feature called "Southern Bride of the Month" in which they spotlight a bride in the throws of wedding planning. Details about the proposal story, the dress, and how the planning is going are all gushed in an interview style post.

So guess who gets to be the Guinea Pig?

ME!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, this chick got to tell the lovely ladies over at SW all about her wedding, and share some fun engagement photos and my inspiration board, which has been taking shape over the last 8 months.

Head on over to the Southern Weddings Blog to see the full feature. Leave them some love in the comments! And what the heck, leave me some love here too, cause comments kind of make my day :)

Being Grateful

2011-02-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

I haven't written about them yet as I want it to be a surprise for all our guests, but our invitations arrived from the printer a couple weeks ago (side note: eeeeeek! so exciting). With their arrival came the need to finally track down those missing addresses, figure out the envelope addressing issue, and assemble the invites 'till the wee hours of the night.

Yesterday, I decided to lament about my frustrations with printing out the guest envelopes one by one. . by one. What does any normal, rational, overly dependent upon social media individual do? They update their facebook status.

I got the usual "Likes" and a few comments offering to help me finish the never-ending stack of envelopes, (which was very much appreciated by the way!)

One response was different.

A couple years ago, I had the chance to study abroad in Austria for a semester. A fellow exchange student and I took a long weekend and flew to Paris for a little fun in the city of love. We met a guy from Australia and a woman from Washington and the four of us took on the town together. It was an amazing 5 days. We all remain in touch through the wonders of the Internet.

Australia (as he will be known in this post) sent me a chat message in response to my status.

He said, "As arduous as this task may be, be grateful that you have found love."

Not to be too dramatic, but his sentence rocked my wedding world. It was so simple, yet had such a profound effect. It put all the hard work, many hours, and tears of frustration and joy surrounding this wedding into rightful perspective.

I was reminded of why I was doing all this. I was reminded to be thankful for having found someone to love with everything I have. I was reminded to appreciate every day and every moment that we have together. This wedding isn't just about printing envelopes, or what shoes will go with the dress, or even what song we will choose as our first dance. It's about celebrating having found love, and promising to commit to that love through the ups and downs that we will surely face in life.

So tonight, as I continue to work on our invites, muttering obscenities at the printer for constantly jamming, I will remember to be grateful. Grateful that love found its way in, grateful for the chance to give my love out. I feel refreshed about our wedding and have a new excitement for that day to arrive.

Until then. . .

Engagement Photos Sneak Peek

2011-02-16T07:14:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday, Nate and I had the joy of travelling to Serenbe Farms, a pastoral landscaped sustainable living community just south of Atlanta, to have a fun and playful engagement photo session with the amazing Lauren of I love you Much Photography and Design.

We had a lot of fun planning for this shoot and gathering cute props to use. The weather was blissful and surprisingly warm for a weekend in February; no complaints from us!

Oh, and there were baby lambs . . . nuff said.

Despite feeling REALLY awkward in front of the camera initially, Lauren assured us that, yes, everyone feels awkward and that, no, it is not a big deal. So we relaxed and just went with the flow.

Here are a couple teaser pics, more forthcoming in the weeks ahead!

{ I Love You Much Photography}

{I Love You Much Photography}

* Head on over to Lauren's blog to see more of her amazing work! Thanks Lauren! We had so much fun!

A Hair Affair

2011-02-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

Romantic, textured, soft, and feminine. All words I would use to describe the "wedding day do" that I am hoping to achieve.
I could write paragraphs trying to describe this look, but don't pictures say it so much better?

{Via Joey and Jessica Weddings}

{Hello Jessica B, you look better as a brunette}

{And Jessica A, Don't change a thing!}

{Via Joey and Jessica Weddings}

{Loose hairstyle Yes, Edwardian Gothic collar most definitely No}

{Somebody help me Source this thing! bad Blogger, bad!}

{Jane from Pride and Prejudice}

{ via 100 layer Cake}

See? My somewhat ambiguous descriptors make total sense now, right? right?

I have been trying so very hard to grow my hair out so that the stylist can achieve this look.

Check out me at the beginning of last year in the first pic from this post. Short chin length bob! Definitely will NOT work for my wedding day look.

How far have I come in 1 year?

{Yay fuzzy Facebook Pic!}

That will work!!! In fact, I'm really getting used to having long hair. It's fun, and I can do so much with it.

It was rather serendipitous how I came across the stylist for our wedding. Remember the wedding that I gushed about here? You know, the one where I knew I had found our perfect photographer? Notice how two of my inspiration pics above are from that very same wedding? I wanted that hair! It was perfect.

I immediately e-mailed the stylist, Tanesha, owner of Affair Hair, and asked for a price quote. In short, Tanesha is so sweet, her prices were right in our budget, and her portfolio was incredibly impressive.

I'm going out on a leap of faith here. Since our wedding is over 5 hours away from where we live, I'm not even sure if I will be able to have a hair trial. Perhaps one the week of, but definitely not before. If nothing else, I'm going to bring all of the above pics with me the day of the wedding and let her work her magic. I completely trust Tanesha and know that she will be able to bring my vision to life.

Now if I can just get my hair to keep its curl longer than an hour, we will be in business. . .

The Search for the Dress

2011-02-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

I read all the time about brides who literally spend months looking for THE dress, often buying several dresses resulting from indecision about what they really want. It scared the crap out of me reading these stories. Was I really going to have to spend hours and hours drowning in taffeta and silk, awkwardly stripping my clothes off in front of strange women? Trying to play the "I know you've seen hundreds of boobs before so I'll act cool about this, but let's see how good I am at covering up all of the essentials AND dragging twenty pounds of dress behind me" game.

Ughh, it just sounded miserable and I'll be honest, I wasn't looking forward to dress shopping. GASP! I know, how un-bridal of me. It's just that I had never really given a lot of thought as to what I wanted my dress to look like. I felt completely unprepared and had no idea what kind of dress would look good on me. Silk, Taffeta, A line, Mermaid, halter, strapless, sweetheart neckline or straight line?!!! My awesome solution to the overwhelming options? I didn't look at all. Great plan I know.

This plan was going along swimmingly until the end of last summer, when I suddenly realized that I needed to get on the hunt ASAP, or I was going to be walking down the aisle in my sweatpants (which actually sounds incredibly comfortable, but perhaps Grandma would have a problem with this?).

So the very next Saturday I recruited the woman who knew me best; Mommy dearest, and off we went to our first stop.

I had heard about an appointment only sample sale going on for a gown distributor in Atlanta. They are only open to the public once a year for this sale, the rest of the year they sell directly to dress retailers. I could browse a great sample of gowns at great discounts!

Let's get right too it shall we? The place was small, we weren't helped for almost 30 minutes, and I felt like I was having to change in front of the whole store. Since all of the samples were in sizes 8 and 10, it was a little hard to envision how each dress would look altered to my size (I'm a tiny person if you haven't picked up on that). We were off to a great start. . .not!!! (channel Borat here). Here are a few that I tried on.

Can we talk about my face in this pic?

I really liked this dress, the lace was really pretty and it was so light and breathable. The neckline was not flattering on me at all though, and I felt super self conscious about the lack of straps. How was I supposed to boogie down at our reception if my dress was going to be falling around my ankles the whole time? (somehow I don't think Nate would have a problem with that).

Yikes, bad lighting= really unflattering photo

I really loved the train on this dress. It definitely had that "sexy" vibe to it. Satin, off the shoulder neckline and very very comfortable. I also loved the beading along the bust line. The cons: I thought that it wrinkled very easily (I mean, do you see the wrinkles on this thing?!) and it was a very modern looking dress for the type of wedding we were planning. It was a contender, but I could not see myself buying a dress at the very first place that we went. Since the sale was only going on for that day, I was going to have to commit if I wanted it. We left with the promise of returning by the end of the day if we were going to buy. So on to the next place!!

Our next stop was a dress consignment shop located in Buckhead. I'll keep the name of the place anonymous because of what I'm about to say. The shop owner was a crazy, overbearing, BEOTCH. There, now that I got that off my chest. I will say that she was very nice to my mom and I, but we heard her having a phone conversation with someone on the phone that would have you shaking in your boots. She was screaming and threatening the person, and it made trying to be excited about the dress I had on just on the other side of the wall a leeeetle difficult.

This is where I channeled my inner princess.

Note the aforementioned dragon lady in the corner!

It was poofy, princessy, and really freaking heavy!!

I love the veil!!!

Part of me was in love with this dress. It was the quintessential princess bride dress. It screamed "bridal" and I loved how it swished like a bell when I walked. I even momentarily thought about buying it. It was just so much. . . gown. I felt like I was drowning in it. So we sheepishly said goodbye to the Dragon Lady (secretly hoping she wouldn't eat us) and moved on.

Our third and final stop of the day was Kelly's Closet

Sorry for the bad pic, it's hard to find pics of this place!

Can i just say that I thought Kelly's Closet was the cutest little place and was exactly what I had envisioned in terms of the "dress shopping experience". The cutest, comfiest couches nestled in between some of the most beautiful delicate gowns, and full length gilded mirrors to admire the potential dresses.

I found my dress here, on the very first day of looking, and I am head over heels in love with it. how do I know it's the one? My mom cried, and then I cried, and then it was just a big cry-fest. I knew the minute I put it on that this was the dress Nate would love. Speaking of Nate, he reads this blog, which is why I'm sure you'll understand that I'm not posting a pic of the dress! Such a tease I know, but only 3 short months before everyone gets to see it in action!

What was your dress shopping experience like?

Pressing the Easy Button

2011-01-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

Planning a wedding is hard work. With all that hard work, comes a slew of really difficult choices to make. When it came time to choosing out photographer however; I kind of feel like I pressed the easy button.

{Thank you Staples for this fictitious button}

Well ok, not literally, but choosing our photographer was the easiest planning decision I have made so far. I spent hours searching the Internet for someone who fit the look and feel I had in mind. Even our planner suggested a couple photographers that she had worked with in the past, but when I saw their portfolio, I wasn't wowed. They were nice, but I wasn't looking for nice, I was looking for take my breath away.

"Now wait a minute", you say, "searching for hours on the Internet doesn't sound that easy."

You're right, it wasn't. The whole process of looking left me feeling frustrated. I felt like I was never going to find the photographic Yin to my wedding Yang.

Then I saw this post over at Style me Pretty, and I knew I had found them. (this is the point where it got easy. See? I was going somewhere with the easy button)

Sigh. . . Pictures just don't get any better than this

{All of the above breathtaking images are from Joey and Jessica Photography}

After seeing these pictures, I knew they were going to be our photographers. I called Joey up and hit it off instantly. They were quite a bit more than we had originally budgeted for, but I took one look at our priority list and knew that splurging on photography was worth it to us to have the day captured perfectly.

On a side note: I just have to gush a minute and say that Joey and Jessica are seriously the coolest couple. They are great to talk to, have such an excitement for life, and it definitely shows in their work. So imagine my delight when their photo shoot was chosen to be on the cover of Southern Weddings Magazine!

{Way to go you guys! Head HERE for more of this adorable shoot}

O.k. gush over. I was just so excited for them! One of the reasons we chose them was because Joey and Jessica shoot predominately with film rather than digital. While some may argue that this reduces the number of quality pictures, I think it is a testament to the skill of the photographer. If a photographer can take tons of amazing photos and not have the luxury of instant view and delete as is the case with digital, then that says something to me. Plus, I absolutely love the rich color and sharp quality of good old fashioned film.

Decision. Made. Easy.

How easy (or hard) was it to choose your photographer? Was there another time in your wedding planning where you pressed the easy button?

Making good on my priority list

2011-01-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

I'm not rich. There, I said it. Lest any long lost relatives come to me hoping for a piece of the pie, I am here to inform you it is a very small pie indeed.

{Source}

What does this have to do with our wedding? Well if you are like me, spending hours on end drooling over stunning images of weddings that had a limitless budget will tend to give you that "I must have the best of EVERYTHING!" feeling.

Yeah, back to the not being rich thing. As much as I would love to, I simply cannot have everything my little greedy heart desires. So I had to prioritize.

Prioritizing our wedding meant that I needed to identify what was most important to us as a couple, and what things could fall a little further down the list and that we would be ok if they weren't completely perfect.

Here is a list of our priorities, and a list of things that aren't so important:

1) An amazing photographer - when the wedding day if over, the cake has been devoured, the dance floor has been torn up (by the guests' amazing dancing skills) and the guests are gone, the only thing you have left are the memories. . and the photos. So for the love of all that is good about weddings, we needed a photographer that could capture our day perfectly.

{Love it! Source}

2) Southern food at its best - We are NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, a caviar and lobster kind of family. When I think of good wedding food, I think of finger licking, savory, stick to your ribs kind of food. More importantly, 90% of our guests simply will not eat fancy food (more than 3 ingredients? you can forget that!) So we needed to find a caterer who could bring us the best the south has to offer, and serve simple food. . artfully.

{Shrimp & Grits, you are my B*tch lover!}

* 10 points for any one who can name the above referenced movie. hilarious!

3) Location - I am of the firm belief that if you pick a venue that jives with how you want your wedding to feel, it makes everything else (setting the mood with decor, lighting, and music) so much easier. We needed to find a place that oozed with southern charm. And we did!

And now for the things that are not so vitally important to us:

1) The flowers - Yes, of course I want our flowers to look pretty. Beyond that, I'm not worried about it. I know the general color scheme that I want, but I'm not obsessing over specific flowers that MUST be included or how big my bouquet should be. I picked our vendors because I felt that I could trust them, so once I convey my vision to them, I back off and let them do what they do best. If the flowers don't turn out exactly like I pictured, I certainly won't lose any sleep over it.

{Yeah, I have no idea what most of these are called}

2) The attire - I love my dress and I will tell you all about it in a separate post. Beyond that, I chose the bridesmaids dresses after minimal searching, am giving the groom and his men full reign on their look, and am letting my maids choose their own accessories and shoes. Why? Because I want everyone to look good, and know they look good. If they are comfortable, I will be comfortable. I'm not going to pull my micro-management card on this one. Let's be honest, I have waaaayyy more important things to obsess over.

{O.k. well maybe the guys can't wear ANYTHING they want}

3) The Paper goods - Photoshop? Gocco? Yudu? Illustrator? ummm, yeah I have no idea how to operate or use any of these. Nor do I want to learn. Here are some of the amazing paper creations that I see in the blogosphere.

{Source}

{source}

{Source}

Say it with me. . .ooooo, ahhhhhh. Gorgeous paper goods at every turn. Do I have the skills to produce said gorgeous paper goods? No freakin way. So I will resign myself to having minimally pretty designs that I can somehow scrap together on Microsoft word, and call it a day. It would be nice to have pretty paper things and I envy those brides that posses skill in this department. Ultimately though, it won't matter one cent and our wedding day will still be fabulous. I'm doing all the paper goods myself (Except for the invites, more on those later!!), so let's KISS (keep it simple stupid!).

I have to give myself a pat on the back here, because despite my tendencies to want everything at its finest. I have really stuck to my priority list and given those things on the "must have" list the bulk of the budget. It means we will be sure to get what's most important to us before we run out of money to pay for it!!

Have you had to prioritize (and perhaps re-prioritize) your "must haves" for your wedding? What would be your must haves if you aren't planning right now?

The Proposal Story

2010-12-12T15:33:00.000-08:00

It's taken me a while to write this post. Mostly because its hard to capture the emotion of being asked to marry someone. That and coupled with the fact that riding high on emotions causes you to forget some of the details. I wanted to tell the story right. So here's my best shot . . .

We became "officially" engaged on July 3rd, 2010. I say officially because we knew we were getting married months before he actually asked. Some would argue that beginning to plan our wedding before Nate proposed was doing things a little backwards. I think it's a personal preference thing. We knew we wanted to get married in 2011 and I loved the idea of having it in the spring. We had discussed it. . and discussed it some more. So the fact of getting married was no surprise for me; and I wanted it that way. Frankly, if I girl has no inkling that her boyfriend is going to propose and then he pops the question with no discussions on marriage, kids, live values etc. . .isn't that a slight problem? I'm a planner and I needed a year to plan the wedding we wanted. So I planned. . without a proposal.

That being said, I wanted a proposal to remember; something to tell the kids and grandkids if you know what I mean. It was also important to me that Nate had a chance to do things his way and "play the role". I knew he wanted to ask me, I just wasn't sure when.

Then reality hit. To sum things up, an engagement ring just wasn't in the financial cards. I was "ok" with it. It was just a piece of jewelry after all, and although my disappointment was obvious, I knew that ultimately all that really mattered, was being able to marry each other.

So I forgot about rings (tried to) and stopped hoping for a proposal (mostly). So it should come as no surprise that when Nate suggested a 4th of July trip to visit friend R in Charleston (now groomsman R!) I suspected absolutely nothing. I really should have been suspicious, yet even when I complained about not wanting to make the drive, Nate was incredibly insistent that we go on this trip; I should have known something was up. So I relented, and off to Charleston we went.

On Saturday, the night of the 3rd, Nate, myself along with friend R and friend D, walked downtown to find a place for dinner. The weather was typical Charleston summer weather. Even though the sun was dipping behind the trees, the heat and humidity still hung in the air. My sunburn, gained from the day we had spent at Folly beach, had turned me into a touristy lobster. Friend R suddenly stopped on the sidewalk.

R: "Oh man, I just realized I forgot my wallet, D, walk back with me to grab it, (to me and Nate) we will meet you guys at the restaurant."

Me: (slightly annoyed at this point) "um, ok, we'll text you when we decide where to go"

I found out later that R did not actually forget his wallet. This was all part of the plan.

Nate and I continued on towards the waterfront to hunt down a dinner location. I was hungry and was very focused on naming off dinner options, when Nate suddenly announced that he wanted to walk over to waterfront park.

Me: "???, ok, but there's nothing to eat in the park."

We reach the fountain that looks out over the pier. Nate is fidgety and acting really weird. Then he says he wants to show me something over in the grass.

Then, at that moment, I knew something was up.

I feel like a total bride FAIL at this point, because I don't really remember the details after that!! I know I know, isn't that terrible?! My memory of what came next comes in snippets.

I know we sat down on a bench, I know that the sun was almost completely gone below the horizon and that the gas lanterns in the park had come on. I remember that the air smelled like gardenia blooms, delicious smells from the restaurants over on King Street, and the salty brine of the harbor.

I remember Nate asking me what it is I loved so much about this park. It is my favorite place in Charleston, the best of what Charleston has to offer, the beautiful buildings, the towering trees and spanish moss, and the beautiful view of the water.

He says something, something about how pretty I look, something (ok let me ask Nate really quick what he said. . . )

o.k. back, He said that we had been through so much together and had so many wonderful memories and that he could think of nothing better than spending the rest of his life with me.

He got down on one knee, cue ugly crying face from me, and asked me "Katie, will you marry me next year in Charleston on May 1st?" Then he opens the ring box and I gasp.

It was my mother's ring. even after her divorce from my Dad when I was three, she had kept the ring all these years. I didn't recognize it for a second, it had been changed to white gold from the yellow gold that she preferred.

Me:" It's so pretty, wow, it's just so pretty. . "

Nate: "So, um ,is that a yes?"

Me: "Oh! Yes yes! sorry, yes I will!"

A crowd of tourists that happened to be walking by had stopped to watch the whole thing 30 feet behind us. At the nod of my head, they errupted in cheers and congrats, causing me to erupt in a fit of giggles, I shouted "Thank you!!!!"

As we left the park, Nate repeated his question:

"So what do you love so much about this place. . .now?"

I love it because . . . it's where I said Yes.

No pictures of us in the park, we were much to excited to pause for pics. I will leave you with a picture from our dinner that we finally got around to that night. Sunburned, excited, and so so happy.

To China and Back!

2010-12-07T13:58:00.000-08:00

Put your chopsticks away cause no, we did not actually go to China recently (or ever for that matter; it's on the bucket list). What I am referring to is registering for our fancy schmancy china set that we are going to use when we are old and sophisticated. Riiigghht. I'm not so sure about the sophisticated part, but we are almost certainly guaranteed to get old. It seemed only fitting for us that we should go the traditional route and add fine china to the list. I don't foresee us ever buying it for ourselves in the future and Nate and I absolutely love to entertain people.

My first thought when we were narrowing down where we wanted to register was to head straight to a big department store such as Macy's or Dilliards. I didn't invest much time in researching how registries work beforehand so I assumed that it was just something that everyone did. You go straight to Macy's, find the snootiest sales associate you can find, pick out your china, your 400 count egyptian cotton sheets, and your top of the line blender, and that was that.

Enter the wonder of the world wide web, and with it the quick, easy, and ohsomuchfun online registry. No longer did I feel like I was on a one way train to typical town; I had options! Pottery barn, Pier One, Williams Sonoma, Amazon, and even the store where you can never come out with just one thing, (Target of course!). We initially tried the in person registry at Pottery Parn and encountered a major FAIL. We enter on a Wednesday night thinking this will be a breeze. 45 minutes later we walked out having no idea what we just registered for, feeling extremelly overwhelmed, and had a hunch that the girl who was helping us had no idea what she was doing. 10 points for our intuition, because sure enough when we checked the online list several days later, it was very much blank. Yey girl at the store who didn't know what she was doing! A certain movie comes to mind.

Source

After this experience, we were officially terrified of the registry experience. Holy monkey was it harder than I thought it was going to be. I never thought that picking out a bunch of stuff that you wanted but didn't have to pay for could be so stress-inducing!

Online registry it was! A couple quick clicks and I could easily add things to the list or remove them at will. Oh the technological power!

CANNOT.STOP.ADDING.ITEMS!

Source

Slight problem. . .it is incredibly hard to register for china online. You can't get a good view of the pieces, it's hard to see if the colors really match with other items, and it can be so confusing!

"o.k so I have 12 sets of 6" butter plates, and then 12 sets of the saucer dishes and then I need to add the salad dish, but wait which size is that, 6" ok, but . . huh, that's the same size as the butter dish, sooo what's the difference? Well let me just add those anyway (click), oh, crap I wanted 12 not 122!"

Ughh, you get my point. We had to give the in store registry a second shot. We went to Bed Bath and Beyond to grab some items today and we passed right by their bridal registry section. Huh, I noticed, they have a lot of options with china and stemware, same brands as the big bad department store, well, we're here, let's take a look.

I eat my words about the evils of in-person registering. It was so much fun ya'll! The associate, Amber, who helped us, made the process go so smoothly. She was at the ready with suggestions and directed us to look around and see what caught our eyes. Nate liked one pattern, I liked another, hmm what to do?

Nate's favorite: The Crestwood Platinum Dinnerware by Noritake

My Fav, which was much more girly than his choice: The Parchment Dinnerware by Mikasa

Ooooo, pretty flourishes and swirls, yes please.

I had been inspired by a post by Miss Seashell over at weddingbee who had mixed two patterns together and the results were fantastic! I knew this would be the perfect solution for us. Our two favorites look like they were made for each other. A few decisions and an adorable bird napkin ring later, here were the results:

A perfect pairing!!! We were both really happy with the compromise and both very pleased with the results. The bird napkin ring has to be one of my favorite elements, it adds a little french country to the set and really speaks to our personality; traditional with a twist. I am looking forward to using these dishes for years to come on holidays and other special occasions.

It would be tempting to say that I am reformed on my idea that registering in the store is not so bad after all. We really enjoyed doing this together. But, just to keep my sanity, I think I'll stick to the click click aspect of the internet for all our other items. More on those other items later!

Did you conquer your registry demons? Or perhaps you were the lucky duck who conquered the scary in store scanner? If you're not to the registry point yet, are you looking forward to it?

*All photos unless otherwise noted were taken by moi!

It's DIY . . . Now wipe your Mouth!

2010-11-29T16:34:00.000-08:00

One of the first major projects that I decided to tackle for our reception was making napkins. Why make napkins? Truth be told I could just as easily use paper napkins (I mean hello! You wipe your mouth and hands on them) or we could have probably swung it and rented cloth napkins. They are not that expensive to rent in the grand scheme of things.

Can I just skip the napkins and have this cutie at our reception?

But no! Some part of my brain says, “the napkins must be unique, the napkins must be homemade, and surely doing it ourselves will save tons of money!”

Well, hmm, brain, I hate to break it to ya, but I think we spent way more money on the fabric than it would have cost just to rent the darn things. But unique? Check! Homemade? Most definitely! I think they will add such an elegant and colorful addition to our table décor. Because in wedding world napkins morph from utilitarian to “décor”, right? Of course, duh. . .

Only one problem: I had no idea how to make napkins. Let me give you a little background here. I was really into theater in high school. I spent a lot of time. . .correction. . I ate, slept, and basically LIVED in our theater in high school. On stage diva extraordinaire? No, not this chick. I was the black wearing, headphone sporting, paint on my face backstage girl. I worked the sound booth, the lighting, had a stint as Student Director and spent many, many (did I say many, cause it was a lot) hours constructing sets and costumes. I got pretty familiar with my mom’s sewing machine during those years. It too took up residence in our tech theater department during our tech theater costume finals. It’s not exactly a new model, so it takes some finesse to work. Here it is!

Source

Totally kidding, the machine is in fact, not that old. Ok for realz this time:

Personal Photo

Hello napkin making new best friend, yes it probably knows I am buttering it up so it will be nice to me during our napkin making adventure. It was time to get friendly with the Singer again.

It took me an hour just to re-learn how to thread the machine. . . there were definitely grumblings heard from the dining room during this process.

After a quick trip to Hobby Lobby for supplies (ha! Lies, the lady at the fabric counter knows me by name because I spent so long in there) I returned home to set up napkin making base camp. Can you see the explosion of crap behind the sewing machine? Yep, our dining room aka “base camp”.

I found a great tutorial online for how to make one sided napkins. I needed to know how to do two sided though, so I winged it (wung it? darn you grammar!). You see, when you use a nice pretty non-cotton fabric on the front, it essentially becomes, as Nate observed, a pretty lap decoration and nothing more. In order to actually serve the function of a grease and liquid absorbing napkin, it has to have a cotton-esque or linen fabric on the back. Linen = holy cow batman that's expensive! So I went with good old cotton.

Here's the skinny on making the napkins!

The supplies:

Above Pictured: Large cutting mat, yard stick, rotary cuter (seriously, make the investment, buy this, it will save time and your sanity), scissors, pins, thread, and seam ripper (cause mistakes happen)

First: cut your fabric into the square size of your choice. I wanted my napkins to be around 12" and since I was going to have a 1/2" edge around my seam, I cut my squares at 13". Your fabric, your choice.

Second: Line up your front and back fabric squares. Make sure the "fronts" are facing each other, cause you will eventually turn the fabric inside out.

See the threads hanging? yeah, backside out, like I said

Three: Pin the fabric in place! Make sure your pins won't get in the way of your sewing machine foot when you are running it through, you may have to test this out to get the right width.

Four: Sew Sew sew! You want to sew around 3 sides of the fabric leaving about a 2 inch gap on the fourth side. It's like sewing a pillow case! Only . . . no pillow. . .

Five: Reach in and pull the fabric inside out and end up with a wonky looking blob like this

Six. . oh jeeze you can count never mind. Use the blunt end of a pencil, or other stick object to straighten out the corners of your fabric. I went with a wooden grill skewer.

Once you have all the corners poked out and nice and straight, run the napkin back through the machine to sew the 2 inch opening shut, then iron and admire the results!

Sage green front with useful cotton backing!

These napkins are going to provide a great pop of color on our ivory linens and I think they will fit right in with our southern affair with a pride and prejudice twist.

So I have appr. 65 more of these to go, but hey, Nate won't mind not being able to use our table for the next 2 months, right?. . .right?

What DIY projects have you tackled lately? Were your efforts met with success?

Putting the www in Wedding

2010-11-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

I know I want to keep our invites simple. The invite itself, a postcard style RSVP, and the outer envelope. No fancy pocket fold contraptions, no "wedding booklet", no belly bands. Just clean and simple (read, less expensive).

Therein lies the problem. If I want simple invites, then I need another way to inform our guests about all the things that would traditionally go into the invitation. Directions, lodging, reception and ceremony info, and registry preferences. So what's a girl in 2010 to do?

Create a wedding website. 99% of our guests are tech savvy enough to type in a URL, and a website is by far the easiest way for all of our guests to access any info they may possibly need about our wedding. In fact, it may be more information than they ever care to know.

I spent a good chunk of time today reading up on all the major "create your own" wedding websites. Some are free, some are not. Let's explore.

{Wedsite}

Wedsite was just. . .o.k. I wasn't really impressed by the templates and the interface was not very intuitive. Moving on. . .

{eWedding}

eWedding is a great site. It offers a variety of templates and is fairly user friendly. Yet I still felt like I couldn't customize the templates enough and they all seemed to be very "modern" looking.

{Wedding Website from the Knot}

Way before we even got engaged, I was a shameless member of the knot. When you sign up with the knot, you automatically have a website that is linked to your profile that also syncs with your guest list manager on the site. It was easy to use, and I even set one up for us to show how easy it is. The templates were kind of . . .meh. I wanted a website that I could truly customize and make it truly look like us.

I ultimately decided to go with wedding window

Although this one is not free (a monthly membership to have unlimited use of the site) I was really really impressed with this site. Creating our website was so incredibly easy and I was able to customize the colors, photos, text, well, pretty much everything about the site. It also comes with a handy budget tracker and guest list manager that is so fun to use! 45 minutes worth of fiddling with it, and here are the results

As we add info to the site, it will show up on the left hand side. Yeah, it's a little blank right now, but I am crushing on our wedding website big time! Now when we send out our invites, the only info they will need to know is our URL! I plan on adding information in the coming weeks so the website will be ready to go when guests receive their invites.

How have you used technology to make your wedding or life easier? Did you decide to make a wedding website?

Our Cake gets a Crown

2010-11-23T12:05:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm talking about our cake topper, the "crowning" glory of the pretty confection that will take center stage during our reception. Don't ask me why this was one of the first details that I focused on after all the major stuff was decided, cause I have no idea. O.k. that's a complete and utter lie. I focused on deciding on our cake topper early on because of one very very scary (for my wallet) discovery; Etsy. This crafty website for all things handmade and vintage quickly made its way into my favorites toolbar and I haven't looked back since. I love the discoveries I have made on there; fun, unique items from jewelry to wooden signs to original artwork. It's a treasure chest of goodness! And with so many different sellers, everyone can find something in there price range.

O.k. since Etsy isn't paying me by the line for marketing I'll shut up about how much I love them (but I do so so much!). On my very first trip through Etsy I had cake toppers on the brain, so it was for cake toppers that I went a 'searchin. Cuteness overload! I knew I didn't want the traditional cake topper, bride in white, groom in tux, surrounded by white plastic and lace, you get the picture. Who knew there were so many amazing cake topper options? Behold the toppers!

Cute as pie turtle toppers from seller kikuike

A totally unique take on the traditional topper by seller mudcards

Ok so this next one is definitely not my style, but how cool would it be for a Dia De Los Muertos or Goth themed wedding!

Creepy but cool skeleton cake toppers from seller fuzzydicecreations

I could go on and on, there are animal toppers, stick people toppers, wire figurine toppers, custom carved wood toppers, and yes, plenty of the traditional ones too (boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, shrimp scampi, shrimp sauté. . .Bubba Gump anyone?). I found so many that I liked, but none that I couldn't live without. Then I stumbled upon seller BentBranch and my heart melted at the sight. . . oh how freakin adorable is this?!

I convod Krista, sewing mastermind behind this cutie lovebird and she set up a custom listing for me. We went back and forth several times as I was so picky about the fabrics to use on the boy and girl bird. (Don't let anyone tell you that the details don't matter, because they do). Krista even added a little sign with our wedding date in the middle that really brought it all together. I am so impatient when it comes to things like this, but she was so prompt to respond to all of my questions! She was so easy to work with and I couldn't be happier with how the process went with her. We finalized everything, I gave her the go ahead, and then the hardest part of all, I had to wait. . . Did I mention my lack of patience? Oh right, yeah I did, several times.

A couple weeks went by. Then one day after work I went to check my mailbox and found the package fronm BentBranch waiting for me! It was like Christmas . . . times ten.

Oh what's this? A package? For Moi?

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Here are the adorable results

I think these will be a perfect addition to our cake and cannot believe how well they turned out.

Anyone else out there an Etsy addict? What's your cure? Cold turkey? Or do you give in to the awesomeness?

Wedding Doors

2010-11-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

I bought two doors today. . but these are no ordinary doors. They are the wedding doors.

{Wedding Door number one, aren't you lovely}

{Wedding Door number two, I heart you}

These doors travelled well over a hundred miles to be with me, and although our relationship is new; I'm in love already. A found an amazing antique dealer and artist out of Alabama who had some wooden shutters for sale. The conversation went a little like this:

"Hello, this is Joseph?"

"Hi Joseph, my name is Katie, I'm responding to your ad for some hardwood shutters that you have listed on craigslist."

"Oh, yes! Are you interested in the shutters?"

"Well. . .no actually, I'm not"

"Ok so. . ."

"You see the door that's in the corner of the picture? Will you sell me that?"

A ridiculously low price sealed the deal, and they were on their way to Atlanta in a pickup truck. Worn, weathered, and showing their age, these doors are just. . . perfect.

Now, you may wonder, what on earth would I use two old doors for?

Hint Hint, it has something to do with this:

{Source}

Do I smell a DIY project? Why yes, yes I do. You'll see more of these wedding doors, because they will be making an appearance at the reception. For the time being, they are taking up what little space I have in my dining room and furbaby Elmo thinks they smell very very strange.

My Right Hand Retailers

2010-11-07T11:42:00.000-08:00

I've gotten quite used to ducking into stores every day on my way home from work, looking for. . .well I'm rarely sure of what I'm looking for other than "for the wedding". Sometimes I look to get inspired, other times I'm shopping for any excuse to start another crazy crafting project (I'm a glutton for punishment). If a detail from an inspiration shoot catches my eye, I suddenly think I'm Martha Stewart and dash off to the store to gather my supplies.

A couple hours later when I am throwing the hot glue gun across the room and muttering obscentities, I second guess my Martha Stewart-ness.

Crafting abilities aside, there are a handful of retailers, both online and brick and mortar, that have become my go to places when I need (insert litany of random wedding crap that I am accumulating) for our big day.

Online all things handmade and vintage mecca Etsy

{From etsy seller thebackporchshoppe}

{From etsy seller heknowsmyname}

{From etsy seller cupcakesocial}

{From etsy seller lampgoods}

Whether it's signage, veils, invitations, or jewelry, etsy has got it all. I feel good about shopping here too; it's a website for the small business owner who has got some serious talent. Oh and the mason jar sconce? It has nothing to do with wedding shopping, I just really really want one.

Crafting Castle Michaels

With their amazing coupon deals and the ability to house pretty much everything under the crafting sun, I have been going to Michaels quite often to find materials for my paper, stamping, cutting, glueing, and painting projects. I can get in serious trouble in this store. My wallet gets the shakes when I step foot on the premises. Don't worry wallet, the crazy crafting only has 6 months left to go.

Paper Source

With an online store and a location not too far from me, this has been a great place to look for the right card stock and textured paper for all of my little projects that have come up. I am going to personalize our eventual invitations with a pretty envelope liner. This will be my first place to look.

Antique stores, lots and lots of antique stores.

What better place to find milk glass vases, unique display items, and other vintage treasures than at the hundreds of antique stores that are sprinkled throughout my part of the state? I was never much of an antique shopper before I started planning, but I have learned to love the thrill of the find. Especially when I do some haggling with the owner and get some great prices on items! I have managed to score some great blue mason jars and a really cool looking barrel so far. Frankly, I have no idea how I will use them yet. I'll find a place for them, though Nate has his doubts about the barrel . . .

What have been your go to places in the planning process? If you're not planning, is there a store that you always seem to find exactly what you are looking for?

The Tale of the Unplanned Planner

2010-11-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

Old Self, pre-wedding education says:

"Small wedding of maybe 50 people tops, wedding in a city that I've been to before, nothing too out of the norm in terms of concept. . how hard can it be?"

Ha, haha, hahahahaha!

Old Self, I laugh in your face.

Planning weddings is hard y'all. Not hard in a "wah, poor me, I have to pick a shade of peach" hard. I'm talking about some major number crunching, spreadsheet creating, negotiating and following up with vendors, and juggling a bunch of monkeys (aka our friends and family. . no offense), spending hours on the computer to create one stupid program kind of hard. I really, honestly, truly thought that I could handle planning our wedding all by my little self. Yet when I started to research, I discovered that there was so much more to this than pick a dress, grab the groom, and go.

So I lived, I learned, and then I got Luvs. . or rather I fell in love, with the ladies at Southern Protocol.

Ah Lizz and Sara, I remember it like it was yesterday. A rainy spring evening, me standing outside the restaurant that the rest of my family was already inside, enjoying their dinners and leaving me to my wedding craziness. I talked with Lizz and Sara for 5 minutes, trying to drown out the crappy 80's music that said restaurant was blasting out the speakers, and they just. . . got it. I hardly had to explain what I wanted, and they started to put into words what I had been trying to conceptualize for months. I was completely at ease and to be honest, completely giddy over the fact that they sounded as pumped about our wedding as I did.

It has been the best money ever spent. You think me to be dramatic? For your consideration, ladies and gentlemen of the jury:

Not sure the best caterer to go with in Charleston? Oh I'll e-mail Sara, she'll know

Need an idea for the right table linens that will go with the napkins? Oh I'll e-mail Sara, she'll know

Help! My future in-laws need ideas for a perfect rehearsal dinner location! Oh I'll e-mail Sara, she'll know, she always knows.

See what I mean? This is just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on about the pros of having a planner, but you get the gist. I'm so glad I decided on having a wedding planner; it has made planning this wedding FUN, not frustrating. Not to mention, Sara has been a fantastic mediator for all of the little "sticky" issues that come up. I don't have to be the bad guy, which I love. I'm a conflict avoider, what can I say?

I know that having a wedding planner is not for everyone. Heck, when we first started all this, I didn't even think it would be possible budget wise. We made it work Tim Gunn style, and I'm so so glad we did. If you can't fit a full on wedding planner into the budget, get a DOC (day of coordinator). Trust me, I've heard from other brides, you don't want to be cat coraler on your wedding day, you want to be the bride.

Would you, or did you, consider hiring a planner for your big day? Or are you the brave bride going it alone?

Inspiration Origination

2010-11-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

I wish I could take credit for having a completely unique, all new ideas, never before created wedding. Let's be honest though, that's pretty much impossible. With the thousands and thousands of weddings that occur each year, it's a safe bet that whatever idea you may have, someone, somewhere, in some fashion or form, has done it before.

Take heart! This is not a bad thing. I can take all of the things that I love most from other's weddings and mesh them together; adding a dash of my own perspective and personality. No worry about not being unique, because even if I were to borrow every single idea from anothers wedding, it is still unique because it is OUR wedding.

Without further ado, I present the weddings that came before me, and why I love them oh so much.

The first wedding is in fact, not a real wedding at all, but an inspiration shoot styled by the talented Anne Sage over at The City Sage. All photos from this shoot were taken by Lisa Lefkowitz . Pride and Prejudice was the dream for this shoot. I love the modern regency elements that were incorporated; it was a perfect balance of feminine details and refined elegance that defined the period.

O.k. o.k. the pictures really speak for themselves

{Source}

Soft feminine florals and fluffy petals

{Source}

Vintage looking frames and a classy jacket for the groom

{Source}

Scroll work patterns were abundant and milk glass and ceramic completed the garden party vibe.

I was also smitten with the wedding of Alicia and Ian in Tabernash, CO. Alicia, who was Miss (now Mrs!) Cowboy Boot on weddingbee, planned the perfect country vintage wedding on the ranch that had me squealing with delight.

{Source}

Ali and Ian's wedding is what really sealed the deal for me in terms of color palette. Before I really got into the thick of planning, I had been under the assumption that I would be going with a much brighter color palette.

This wedding changed all that.

The peaches and cream colors that gave a soft ethereal glow to the decor and attire was just so romantic to me. Natural, organic, and such an attention to detail. Granted, our wedding will not be country in the slightest, but there are some major elements of this wedding that I plan on pulling in; including that yummy pie bar (more coming on that!). I also loved the natural looking flowers that Ali chose as her centerpieces and bouquet. Almost as if she had wandered through a garden and gathered them up.

This next wedding is a more recent addition to my inspiration palette. As soon as I saw it, I thought of "Elizabeth Darcy meets southern charm".

The Classic Bride wedding

{Source}

I love the creeping fig climbing the walls, the large urns with overflowing southern blooms of hydrangea and magnolia, and the simple elegance.

{Source}

The classic southern details of this wedding are everywhere! Spanish moss initials? Genius I tell you! The crisp white and green palette and the sterling silver accents really give a timeless quality to this wedding.

With the amazing pictures from these weddings as my spring board, I knew that I had the makings of a super cool (fabulous? chique? posh?) no, just really cool wedding. So thank you brides of yesterday, for giving this bride of tomorrow a freaking clue as to what her wedding should look like.

Where did you get your inspiration from? All in one place? Or a little of this, a little of that?

Change is a Comin!

2010-10-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

You may have noticed it has been a little quiet around here lately. There is a reason! Koala Chique is getting a new look and a new home, coming very soon! My dear friend over at Moose Wreck Designs is putting the Chique in Koala Chique!

More fun wedding talk coming again soon. So much to catch up on!

Lasting Love

2010-10-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

“Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.”

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery~

The statistics are grim: the divorce rate in America is hovering around 41% for couples in their first marriage. Nate and I both have personal experiences with divorce; both sets of parents in fact. We understand that it was all for the best and that all parties involved are much happier now because of this decision, but it has left us both a little gun shy in the marriage department. We struggled with the idea of a lasting relationship and what it truly takes from both sides to be in a happy marriage. As a result, our expectations for one another in the early stages of our relationship were high reaching to put it lightly. Of course, we are human, thus we fell short of each other's unrealistic wants; naturally, disappointment ensued.

It was the little things that unraveled us, the WAY he said something or perhaps he left his wet towel on the floor, which I was convinced was a testament to the overall health of our relationship. Or perhaps it was the terse manner in which I said something that came across as a little too harsh, or the bobby pins that seem to infiltrate every corner of his apartment. None of these things were a big deal in themselves, but because we didn't tell each other it was bothering us, it became a big problem.

Now here's the good news; we are not who we were four years ago. Are we all knowing and ever wise when it comes to making our relationship work?, No way jose! But I've been doing a lot of thinking about this lately, what with that little thing called OUR WEDDING coming up, and I've come to a conclusion. Our marriage is gonna last, and here's why I know this to be true.

~We fight and yell. . and that's ok

{Source}

I'm not going to sugar coat it, fighting with the person you love the most sucks. You feel anger, guilt, and in my case, an overwhelming desire to be stubborn at all costs. Why is this good for us?

Because it's communication. If we are angry, we let each other know. If one has hurt the other's feelings, we let each other know. If we are feeling like we are being pushed down the priority list in the other person's life, we let each other know. Some may argue that yelling and fights in a relationship are unhealthy, but I make a case for the opposite. Yes, if all you do is fight and nothing healthy comes of it, that is bad. However, if you can express your emotions to one another in an honest manner, make progress, find a solution and move on, that is so so good.

~It's not what we are doing, it's the fact that we are doing it together

{Source}

Folding laundry is the bane of my existence. I avoid it all costs. Right now there is a huge pile of clothes sitting on the couch just waiting to be folded; it's taunting me. You know what makes folding laundry suck less? Folding laundry with Nate.

It doesn't matter if we are having a night out on the town or cuddled up on the couch absorbed completely in our Macs (nerd alert!), it's better because we are doing it together. We enjoy the simple things that daily life brings, because we are experiencing it together. Him making his scrambled egg whites in the morning (as I look on in complete and utter disgust). Wandering the isles at the grocery store, and inevitably spending a good chunk of our time in the wine aisle. Taking a walk through our neighborhood as evening settles in and the sun sinks below the tree line . . it's the little things that make up a life together, it's the little things that make it all worthwhile.

~We never go a day without saying "I love you"

{Source}

Even if it sounds repetitive, even if what's really going through your mind is "wow they are really getting on my last nerve", say it anyway. We try never to assume that the other person knows how we feel, because assuming has never worked out well for us. So we say it, and we say it every day from a place of honesty and sincereness. Nate is so much better at telling me this than I to him. I need to tell him even more.

~We make goals, and we accomplish them together

{It's good to have goals}

I'm trying to get in better shape for the wedding and Nate offered to be my workout buddy cause I need some serious motivation that never seems to appear when I exercise alone. Strange. . .
We are both itching to go on a trip to Scotland. It probably won't pan out to go for the honeymoon, but we are saving up a little at the time so that someday we can both realize a dream. Even last week, after we had finished dinner, we peered into the kitchen to find that a mysterious kitchen elf had come in and trashed the whole place! Not to be defeated by mischievous elfin behavior, we gave ourselves the goal of cleaning up the kitchen, and rewarding our gallant efforts with a trip to Starbucks. Amazing, you throw coffee in the mix and it's crazy how much you can accomplish in such a short period of time. Goal. Met.

~We compromise, and learned to say "I'm sorry"

{Source}

Say it with me, "I'm sssss. . .I'm ssssss. . .I'm sss. ." ARRRGGG! Why are these two simple words so freaking hard to say!? I have a stubborn streak a mile wide and six feet deep; it is BAD. Admitting my wrongs is one of the hardest things I have ever had to tackle. I hate admitting I'm wrong, it feels like an admission of failure. It's also a very humbling experience.

But sometimes, I just know that I have screwed up. I said something hurtful, I dismissed his feelings, and it makes me feel cruddy. So I screw up the courage, take a deep breath, and spit it out, "I'm sorry". Whew, wow the sky didn't fall? That's not so bad.

Not only have we learned new vocabulary, but we have also learned to take a step in the other's direction. That is, we have to compromise. Sorry Burger King, oftentimes in a relationship, you can in fact, NOT have it your way. More often than not, it is not about you at all. It is about the other person, and how much their happiness means to you. I may be less than thrilled about the creepy tiki mask that Nate insisted be hung in our apartment, and he may be less than stoked about my choice to cook with copious amounts of butter and salt (I'm southern! It's in our genes!), but we smile, shake our head, and move on.

This is not a soap box preaching on how perfect our relationship is (quite the opposite!)It is a hard learned lesson and the message is this:

A lasting love is not one that is perfect, love is after all, not a feeling, but a commitment. Acknowledging each other's flaws, and loving them all the more for it. A commitment to appreciate one another, support each other, and most importantly, laugh as much as possible.

Searching for our piece of "I do" turf: Part Three

2010-10-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

Remember here where we started our search in the great state of NC? Then we started looking here for the perfect place in my home state of GA. To summarize: I struck out both times. I was learning though! Learning what it was we were really looking for in a venue. We discovered that we wanted: historic, in the city, not all inclusive, and budget friendly.

A few weeks later, I was sitting on my computer, sifting through old photos from college and past trips. Scrolling through the thousands of pics, I came across a trip my parents and I had taken back when I was in high school to Charleston, SC. It was such a wonderful weekend, the beautiful lantern lined streets, the top notch dining options, and the beautiful views of the river and the marsh. As I reminisced, it hit me. This was it. This was where we would get married.

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Historic? Most definitely

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Non inclusive? Of course, we could choose from an array of options and our guests would have plenty to do.

{Charleston Sunset}

Budget friendly? If we played our cards right, we could make it happen.

As soon as I mentioned the idea to Nate, he was completely on board and loved the idea. Good thing as I was running out of ideas; not kidding. Deciding on the city was the hard part, choosing a venue in this amazing city was incredibly and surprisingly easy. With the help of an amazing wedding planning duo (more on that later!) we were able to set up a weekend to travel to Charleston and choose the ideal venue. It only took two places, (shocking I know!), yep only two venues to decide where our wedding would be held.

Stop numero uno: The River house at Lowndes Grove

This place was gorgeous, so I will let the pictures do the talking (all taken by my amazing assistant with his superior iphone skills and detailed note taking at each stop. . . that's you Nate)

They were actually setting up for a wedding when we arrived; it was great to see how they were dividing up the space into dining, dancing and the mud wrestling pit. . .just seeing if you were paying attention.

The River House

Inside the River House

Check out that awesome dance floor!

The View! (Saved the best for last)

The ceremony would take place outside, with everyone looking out towards this breathtaking view of the river. Then dinner and dancing would move to the inside and brick patio area. My parents (who came along to offer advice and errmm, financial support) Nate, and I all agreed, this place was pretty and would definitely work for the feel we were going for. Was it the one? We just weren't sure. We decided to look at the two other sites on our schedule for the day; in the cars we piled; down the road we went.

Our next venue option sealed the deal. It had charm, uniqueness, and was just oozing with history.

FINALLY! Our piece of I do turf. Oh you want to see pics? Well alright . . .

29 Montagu St

This early 1800's private residence gem actually fell in our laps because our awesome planner knows the owners of the house. It is right in the middle of the downtown historic district, walking distance to all the best hotels and restaurants, and completely within out budget. The best part? Well duh, did you see the pictures?! It's so so purdy. I just want to kick back in one of the porch chairs with my mint julip and shout "I do declare!" for no apparent reason.

After we saw this place, we only looked at the third venue for about 5 minutes, because truthfully, we had already made up our minds.

Ceremony on the lawn, cocktails on the porches, and getting down on the dance floor under the stars. I'm zipping my lips now about the venue, you'll have to wait to get all the details!

Did you ever struggle with a decision only to have the right answer reveal itself in it's own good time?

Do Me a Favor

2010-10-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

I would like to interrupt the never ending saga of finding a venue to talk about something that was one of my first big wedding ideas; and one that I am beyond excited about. Wedding guests, this one is for you, cause I'm talking about favors.

I knew of the typical wedding favors: the bubbles, the monogrammed tea candle, the personalized mint tins

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I am all for minty breath and cute candles, but these ideas just weren't. . . us. I imagined something either useful or tasteful for our guests. Not tasteful as in "woah so tacky", but tasteful as in "oh yumo that's so good".

Lightbulb moments are my favorite, and I have them often. I will be thinking about something completely unrelated to the topic at hand, then WHAM, brilliant idea!

Marrying (pun totally intended) our love of food and sipping hot drinks during the cold months, I devised a favor that represents Nate and I to a tee (ha, see! I did it again).

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My grandmother has the most delicious tea cookie recipe that I plan on using to bake up some edible favors for our guests. The cookies will be shaped like so

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I think I am going to try my hand at royal icing to give the cookies an extra special touch. What goes best with tea cookies? Why, tea of course! We will probably choose an earl grey variety or a black tea variety and package two tea bags with a few cookies.

It would seem that the experience of opening a wedding favor is much like opening a present; there is anticipation involved. Who doesn't love opening a box all wrapped up cute? This is one of the most obvious ways we will be showing our guests how much we appreciate them for being there for our special day, I want to take the time and do some beautiful packaging. Perhaps some cute boxes all wrapped up with a pretty ribbon? Or perhaps some adorable patterned favor boxes such as these from Jane over at Olive Hue Paper Goods

{Lovely Photo from here}

I found some olive green ribbon at the dollar bin at Michaels. If I can find some wrapping paper that I love I think we will be all set! I can premeasure and cut the ribbon and paper ahead of time to cut down on the last minute push. Since I can't bake the cookies until the week of (any volunteers for assistant baker?) you will have to wait and see how it all turns out!

I am hoping that by making the gifts both practical and personal, our guests will appreciate and enjoy this little labor of love. Perhaps a little midnight snack when they get back to their hotel room?

Since I'm a novice, any tips out there for applying royal icing? I hear it's tricky.

A Comforting Thought

2010-09-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

I was sitting on the couch this evening, drinking my first cup of hot cocoa of the season (yes I know it's still September, but this is how much I love hot cocoa) when I started thinking about why it is that I love this steaming mug of chocolate so much. Yes, the huge pile of marshmallows that I loaded on top certainly added to the experience, and the fact that I'm drinking CHOCOLATE should be a dead give away as to why I love it, but there was something more.

Hot chocolate is a comfort thing, just like a warm fuzzy blanket, a roaring fireplace, the smell of fresh baked cookies, and the flicker of a candle. It makes you feel safe, blissful, and gives peace of mind. But comfort is so much more . . .

Comfort is knowing that someone will be there for you through thick and thin.

Comfort is knowing that someone is there to dry your tears when you're sad and make you laugh till the tears flow for an entirely different reason.

Comfort is being wrapped in a hug so special that you feel like you have just come home.

Comfort is waking up to someone and saying a silent thank you that the love you share was, in fact, not just a dream.

Comfort is being able to have an entire conversation with someone, without ever uttering a word.

Comfort is being able to be a complete goof around someone, and they will be the ball.

Comfort is imagining your life 40, 50, 60 years from now, when the wrinkles run deep with a life well lived, your hair is variant shades of grey and it takes you a little longer in the morning to get the "kinks" worked out of your joints. Imagine yourself then, and then realize that the person who promised to stand by you decades ago, is sitting in the rocking chair right next to you, their eyes, framed with wrinkles to match your own, are filled with more love and devotion to you than ever before.

I look forward to our wedding for so many reasons. The joy of the day and the time spent with family and friends, the beautiful flowers, and probably the most amazing dress I will ever wear.

Beyond all these things, however, there is the realization that I am saying "I do" and "I will" to my best friend and the one who knows me more than I know myself. We are making a commitment to be there for each other for whatever life throws our way. I will never have to look back and wonder if there is someone there to support me if I stumble.

As I finish the remains of my chocolate treat, long cold as I always take too long to drink it, I think about what our marriage will be like and I smile, because I know it will be an even better version of the love we share right now. More real, more lasting, more powerful. "Us" will still be "Us" in 50 years, just add wrinkles and wisdom.

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What a comforting thought. . .

Searching for our piece of "I do" turf: Part Two

2010-09-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

After we said goodbye to the dream of a Biltmore wedding, I had to sit down and re-evaluate our lists of wants versus the hard realities of our budget and, equally important, picking a place that we knew would reflect our personalities. There were just so many options out there on the Internet, it was almost overwhelming!

As a couple we would discuss the issue, think about it for a few days, then sit down and discuss it some more. I am one of those people who loves to sit down and solve all of the world's problems in one sitting. Nate is not one of those people. He needs to hear an idea, then let it simmer and marinate in his mind for a few days (hmm I wonder if I am hungry). If I give him that time (which really took some getting used to) then our discussions and brainstorming sessions are MUCH more productive. Talk about a major lesson in patience.

One of the ideas that we had was to choose a venue that was a lot closer to home; a Georgia wedding! That way we could visit the venue often and be a big part of the process. We also thought it would be easier on out of town guests as we knew the area well, could help them find reasonable accommodations and would have lots of great ideas for things to do while they were in town (other than attend the wedding of course!) Also, it would make it so easy for me to visit with local vendors rather than having to make decisions solely based off of pictures on their website. I mean, it's hard to know if what you see is what you get sometimes

Bob's wedding transportation service, FAIL

O.k. so if a Georgia wedding was what we wanted, we needed to narrow it down. City venues weren't for us, although the nighttime skyline of Atlanta is something to see! No, what we wanted was a beautiful outdoor reception with a garden feel and lots of southern charm. So I took my google searching north of the city in search of a beautiful venue with an amazing outdoor ceremony site. I don't want anyone falling asleep on me, so let's just get to the major contenders shall we?

First up: Chateau Elan

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This place is the hidden gem of Georgia. A world class spa, golf course, and winery make Chateau Elan a HUGE wedding destination. I'm telling you, these people have weddings down to an art. The grounds are beautiful and the whole concept of Elan is that you never have to leave the resort area; so we could be rest assured that people would have plenty to do. The cons: unless people want to do a lot of driving, there are no alternate lodging options except to stay at the resort, which could really be a problem for some of our guests who don't want to spend an arm and a leg for a room.

Also, the chateau is beautiful, but it's also out in the country somewhat in the middle of nowhere. If we wanted people to really experience something new and make a big fun weekend out of our wedding, would this really be the best choice? Unless they really had a hankering to stare at cows, there would be a lack of places to go outside of the resort. Lastly for the negatives, PRICE. Yep, once again I fell in love with a venue that would put me in debt until I'm 90. Crap. . .

Next possibility: Barnsley Gardens (or as Nate mistakenly continues to call it, Beardsley Gardens)

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The main manor house was built in the mid 1860's and was the center of a beautiful but tragic love story of Godfrey Barnsley and his wife Julia. Today, the manor house ruins are surrounded by a resort, expansive gardens that feature hundreds of varieties of roses, and beautiful vistas of the North Georgia foothills. Ya'll it is a gorgeous place and combined with it's romantic history; what a hauntingly beautiful setting to hold a wedding. I seem to be establishing a pattern with my cons for venues so you can probably guess what I'm about to tell you: it was just too dang expensive for the kind of wedding that we wanted, it was really out in the middle of nowhere, and along with that, no lodging options for our guests!! Arghh the frustration!

Clearly I wasn't searching in the right places, I needed to switch gears yet again to find something that fit everything that we wanted. What did I learn from this searching?

Well first I needed to find a venue that wasn't all inclusive; we want out guests to have control over how much they spend on our wedding weekend.

I also learned that, although we loved the feel of the historic manor houses set out in the country, we weren't willing to sacrifice the amenities that come with having a wedding in a city.

Third, I needed to find a place that fit my champagne taste on a beer budget!

O.k. so we have historic, don't like the modern city, but not crazy about the rustic country, and really needed to stay on the cheap side for the venue price. I was beginning to think our piece of "I do" turf was just a figment of my imagination . . .

Searching for our piece of "I do" turf: Part one

2010-09-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Choosing a location for our wedding and reception was certainly an evolution. This most likely places us in the majority category, as most do not find there venue on the very first try. I imagine this has a lot to do with "getting the feeling" and has very little to do with anything else. This is not to say that money and logistics do not play a role in the decision. In fact, our choice was based on influences from all three. Yet if you don't have the feeling of "this is it" then it's a lot harder to make a choice.

Even before we were officially engaged, Nate and I had picked out exactly where we wanted to say our vows and celebrate with family and friends. Nate is from a town called Asheville in western North Carolina. It's a very popular vacation city for people from all over the country. The mountain climate is so perfect for outdoor activities in the spring and fall. A fairly liberal minded town set in the very much republican south, Asheville is known for its amazing non-chain restuarants, numerous art galleries, drum circles and birkenstock wearing residents (don't believe me? look it up). Asheville is also very well known because of this place:

The Biltmore

Nicknamed "America's Largest Home" the 250 room Biltmore Estate was built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt as a relaxing country home for entertaining and activities out on the grounds. He and his wife Cornelia, hosted guests from all around the world for weeks at a time. Nate was the lucky duck who actually had his prom at Biltmore, and although I was not bestowed that privelege ;) I have been there many times over the years and see something new everytime I go. Today, the estate grounds include a winery, extensive gardens, shopping and restaurants located in the old stable yard, and a world class Inn boasting beautiful vistas of the Appalachian mountains. This brings us to Venue choice #1.

The Inn at Biltmore

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hmm, when I think Inn I don't exactly think something like this sprawling french style chateau of a gem. Isn't it picturesque though? On a trip to Asheville following my college graduation, Nate and I made a stop at the inn because we heard it was really a great addition to the other attractions at the estate. Both of us had seen the main house many times before, so we thought it would be great to see something new. The decor on the inside was so similar to that of the house and had some beautiful ball rooms for events. There was plenty of light pouring in through all the windows and there was even a wedding going on in one of the rooms when we arrived. Not wanting to crash a wedding, we slipped out the side door and worked out way around to the back patio area.

The wide staircase on the back patio area was flanked by stacked stone pillars, which really made for a grand descent. The back of the Inn wasn't all that pretty, but it sure was big! I need to clarify that, at this moment, neither of us were looking at anything with wedding goggles (similar to beer goggles, but without the awkward hookup at the end of the night). In our minds, we were still far away from venue hunting and talk of weddings. Then we turned around and saw this.

Um, wow. . .Can't you just imagine it? The altar right in the middle with the breathtaking view of the mountains as the backdrop? The guest craning their heads to see as the bride descends the steps and makes her way through the grass. The soft breeze that carries with it smell of the mountains: laurel, moss, and pine. We didn't say a word to each other; we just looked at each other and new exactly what the other was thinking. This was the place that we wanted to commit to each other and pledge our love. How could it get any better? We both had connections to the mountains and to Biltmore and an outdoor wedding would be so so us.

As you can probably guess, with a name like Biltmore comes a price tag to match. It only took a few hours of preliminary research to discover that this mountain vista location was going to be far beyond our budget constraints. This was in the days before we had even established a budget, so when I say the price tag was high, I mean sitting on a cloud with the angels high.

The other big thing I noticed: I saw five brides the day we were there, FIVE, in one day. Several were out on the main lawn in front of the house getting their portraits taken. It was obvious they could see one another. This may be something that would not bother another bride in the slightest, but I came to the quick conclusion that I would be so upset if I saw another bride on my wedding day.

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I was actually quite surprised to see the brides in the same place. You could see the planner standing in the wings for both of them. It was curious as to why the planner wasn't trying to keep the brides from seeing one another. Maybe no big deal for them? For me, it chips away at that glowing thought that the day is all about you and your new husband. I know that ultimately if this did happen, I would get over it, but I'll avoid the situation if possible. The idea of not seeing another bride on your wedding day can be a tall order in popular venues such as hotels and yes, even Biltmore. Sadly, for both reasons of budget and a desire for bridal monopoly, the dream of a wedding at Biltmore got shelved.

Not to be discouraged, the hunt continued! I have to give pause and credit to this moment of seeing this grassy lawn, because thinking back on it, this was when the desire to plan our wedding truly began.

Up next: moving the venue choices a little closer to home.

*Personal photos unless otherwise noted

The Waiting Period

2010-09-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

You only have to talk to me for five minutes to know that I am a planner. Yes, I cuddle with check lists, excel spreadsheets give me the warm fuzzies, and I would never think of diving straight into something without mapping it out first. Spur of the moment, fly by the seat of her pants kinda girl? Sooo not who I am. I'm not an action packed, good at sports, musical genius or anything of that sort. Nope, what I am folks, is an organization loving, concept creating, perfectionist of a planner.

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So, as I alluded to in my last post, I was channeling all that planning energy into planning our wedding. Only. . wait, there was no wedding yet. . . because he hadn't even proposed yet. Ha, yeah sounds so ridiculous now. I don't think I'm the only one out there who has done this though. In fact, I KNOW I'm not the only one who has done this. You meet someone, you fall in love, and then one day you wake up and that sneaky little wedding gremlin is sitting on your shoulder, telling you that things are getting serious, and you should PLAN PLAN PLAN.

Before you know it, you are the girl who is talking about possible venues, color schemes, and oh yes, the ring. People look at you quizzically and ask, "oh, are you engaged? I must have missed that, Congratulations!"

(Cue sheepish stance, complete with uncomfortable squirming)

"Um, well, no not technically, but, it's coming soon! So I'm just planning ahead. . "

I can look back on it now and laugh at that awkward period of "almost engaged but not quite" or as many choose to refer to it as "the waiting period". But I wasn't laughing at the time.

Nate and I had talked about it many times before. After everything we had been through, we had come to the black and white conclusion that we were meant to be together. I wanted to grow old with him, and he wanted to grow old with me. Having come to that conclusion, I surmised that the next logical step would be for us to get engaged pronto so we could get married and start this growing old together business. Funny thing about relationships, and life in general for that matter, is that it is not all about what you want.

There were so many other things at play in our lives at the time; hunting for new jobs and starting those jobs, picking up and moving to another state, and the lovely lovely recent state of the economy all took a front seat to my ants in the pants mantra of the super fast engagement. I am a traditionalist to the core, so the "Will you?" was all on him and the "of course I will" was all on me. I knew that I just needed to be patient and wait for the right time for him to ask me and all would be well.

But honestly, I wasn't very good at waiting. In fact, I really stunk at it. I was constantly talking about getting married, or shoving ring pics in his face, and whining (Yes, I whined, I was a 5 year old, what can I say?). In my most dramatic of moments, I sometimes felt like I was going to grow old just waiting on him to ask me that one freaking question. We fought often during this time. I think he felt pressured to ask me because I talked about it so often, but he wanted to do it when I wasn't expecting it: in his own way and own time. And there I was on the other side of things feeling like our relationship had stalled and feeling a slight bitterness for the gender roles (he asks, I answer) that I had promised myself I would stick to.

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A funny thing happens when you love someone. You are able to step outside of your own feelings, wants, and needs, and put the emotions and happiness of your partner above your own. It took me a while, but boy did I have a lightbulb moment. I realized that each time I pressured him about buying a ring or where or when he was going to ask, I was stealing some of the joy that he deserved to have while planning the proposal. He needed time and space to think about the where, when, and most importantly, the how. I wasn't allowing him that chance. I was making the proposal a stressful and negative thing, when it was supposed to be a happy and romantic thing. Worst of all, I was putting a strain on the wonderful relationship that we shared. I was letting the need to know everything, stick to a timeline planner in me get in the way of being a good partner. Not cool me! Not cool!

So I backed off, I enjoyed our time together, I stopped asking about the rings, we stopped looking at rings, we went back to just doing the things we always did, being a couple goofballs who drink way too much coffee and I was able to, once again, look forward to our engagement with a positive outlook. No more, "when is it going to happen?!" and lots more, "when it happens that will be great". Was I able to completely stop thinking about weddings? No, not even close. The constant perusing for wedding insiration?, yeah that didn't change one bit :)

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and now. . .the Y

2010-09-01T14:01:00.000-07:00

I guess the next biggest question beyond "who we are" is "why am I doing this?" Well, keep your shorts on I'll tell you.

Months back, when I was just the wannabe engaged girl pouring over wedding website after wedding website, wedding blog after wedding blog looking for inspiration for when my planning time came, then quickly minimizing the screens when Nate came into the room (Cause seriously, what guy who hasn't even proposed yet wants to see his girlfriend on a wedding website?), I realized something. It wasn't the pretty pictures and the inspiration shoots that inspired me the most. Of course, they are fun to look at and can be a wealth of help when it comes time to decide on "the look". It wasn't the helpful countdown checklists and the budget calculators that inspired me the most. Well alright, a budget is never inspiring, it just sucks.

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What inspired me the most were the honest, real, heartwarming, frustrating, silly, joyous, and yes sometimes even angry and sad accounts from real brides who have gone before me. They wrote of the trials and tribulations of establishing (and sticking to!) the budget, the excitement of carefully crafting and later participating in the ceremony with their new hubby, the fights that almost inevitably occur when one is planning something that impacts so so many people, and the happiness that occurred when they worked out a resolution. They wrote of the details, oh the details, the many many little things that no one who has never planned a wedding will ever understand. Yet to the bride, each little decision was so special and so meaningful, because they did it all for the joyous celebration that was their wedding. The napkins, the flowers, the venue choice, the invites, they wrote of it all.

And when it was all over they wrote about the happy moments of the day, the frustrating "why is our timeline so off?!" moments, and the tender moments that will stay close to their hearts for years to come.

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That right there, folks, THAT is inspiration. I am comforted by the fact that so many have gone before me into this world of wedding planning and come out on the other end fairly unscathed. I am humored by the mishaps that occurred along their journey and I am impressed at how they overcame them. The words of advice that so many list give me a mental arsenal for planning my big day and allow me be real with myself and know that no, not everything will go right, but YES!, it will be a beautiful, wonderful, imperfect day indeed.

So now its my turn to pay it forward. I hope to write about the good, the bad, the ugly, and yes, the details in the hopes that some other soon to be engaged gal will find my words and think, "hey I'm not the only one going through this" or "hey! that's exactly what I needed to know." If that happens only once, then I have succeeded. So, with my definition of inspiration in mind, prepare to be inspired . . .

Um. . hello? Is this thing on?

2010-08-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

SCREEECH! Ok it's working now. Can everyone hear me loud and clear? Cause here I am, the girl who swore that she would never be one of those "blogger" people, writing my very first, very scary post. Why scary? Cause, if you think about it, a blog is a lot like a diary. It's a collection of ideas thoughts and, yes, even those scary confessions that are normally reserved for YOUR brain and YOUR eyes only. Now, I have swallowed the crazy pill and decided that I too am going to broadcast my imperfections. . err. . .lovely ideas and thoughts to the world.

On to the introductions, cause that's what you really want to know right?

Oh yeah, and why on earth I decided to write this blog. First the short explanation:

Me, him, wedding, planning the whole thing, craziness

ok ok, now if you actually want details:

Well hello there!

I decided that it was imperative that I chronicle my current and upcoming wedding planning adventures. Why? well because A) it's pretty funny to watch me go into a tizzy about napkins (more on that later) and B) I want people to be involved in our wedding, and part of being involved is knowing what goes into a labor of love such as this.

I've been asked by several people as to why I didn't go to school to become an event planner. It truly is something that I love, love, love to do. I am a details person, and anyone who knows me knows that I swear by the almighty checklist. I enjoy using my creative vision to make all the moving parts come together into one big bowl of awesomeness. At the time though, I simply thought, "so much fun, but so not practical", and ultimately decided to major in finance. Well, being a finance major apparently worked out quite well for this gal, because that is how I met my soon to be hubby, Nathan. Everyone wave hi to Nate!!

the soon to be hubs (wow that sounds weird!)

In the fall of 2006 I was in my sophomore year at Elon University and well into full swing with classes and my two part time jobs when I decided to on a whim one night to attend a recruiting event for the campus business fraternity. Best decision EVA!!!! During the introductory meeting, I kept noticing this really cute guy sitting down the table from me. The whole paying attention to the rules about recruitment thing was going in one ear and out the other. I was too busy thinking, "Dang it!! why didn't I wear a cuter outfit?!" and "hmm I wonder if I can subtly find out if he is planning on going through recruitment?"

Turns out I wasn't the only one noticing people that night. When asked what first caught his attention he promptly responds, "your butt, such a great butt" (cue feigned shocked expression from me). Recovering quickly, he adds, "oh and your beautiful blue eyes!" Much better sweetie, much better. . .

Us on our first official date on Halloween (I was a pizza delivery girl, he was a douche bag). And YES I still decided to date him even after that costume.

College years are turbulent years. We cared about each other a lot, and like grew to love very quickly, but both of us needed to grow up a bit. We broke up and got back together several times while I was still in college (him being a year ahead). It took thousands of miles of distance while I studied abroad in Austria for both of us to realize that, for better or for worse, we were meant to be together.

What was the evolution of your love story like? did you fall in love quickly? Or did it take a while for your love flower to bloom? Gag, I know. . .humor me.

Up next: Why on earth I decided to blog about planning our wedding