A Whirlwind Week (& Some Other Great Stuff)

Let's just say that the past week has been one of the craziest and best weeks...ever.  I guess I should just give a rundown of the major events in order!

Mom & I went to the Bahamas for my spring break, which will probably be our last girls trip for a while.  It was fun, but I definitely missed Anthony every second.  I'm glad to say that will be the last time we go so long without hearing each other's voices for a loooooooong time.  Also the last time that we are apart & don't get to see each other for that amount of time hopefully forever.  It was definitely reaffirming to me how much I missed him & how much he missed me; I'm glad that I don't like spending so much time without him, if that makes sense :) I do think that a certain amount of space & alone time is healthy for relationships (because you don't want to get sick of each other. & seeing your man is so much sweeter when you've had to go a while without him, so you appreciate it more), but this was absolutely over my limit!  The next time I'm on a beach somewhere will be with him on our honeymoon...yay!

A couple days after I got back, Mandie & I went bridesmaid-dress shopping to get her dress ordered.  Most people know by now, but the reason that Mandie wasn't feeling up to going shopping on the last trip was because of a little brother or sister for Carson River!  So thankfully she was feeling good enough to go with me a couple weeks later & get her dress ordered.  She'll be pretty prego at the wedding, so we had to get her dress ordered in a long & super big size.  We got it worked out though!  She'll just need to have it altered to fit her baby bump when it comes in :)  We knew which dress she was going to get when we got there, but decided to try on a few just for fun.  They were all pretty awful though!  Even though it was fun, this little shopping spree came close to being a total disaster because I had to get my car serviced that morning & had no idea it would take until the afternoon!  (Our appointment was at 11:30!)  Luckily, Mandie was already in the area so she picked me up & off we went :)  Everyone's dress got ordered that day after Mandie's form was completed, so they will all be coming in at the same time & getting altered in plenty of time for the wedding...or so I'm told.  That's one of my biggest fears about something not going well with the wedding...their dresses or my dress not being ready in time.  I know I should be more concerned about the groomsmen's attire, but I'm just not :/  I need to get the ball rolling on that & get those suits ordered!

Last week, a friend/realtor from church (Heather) posted a link about Property Virgins coming to the Atlanta area this April-September.  I didn't think anything of it when I saw it (even though we have been looking at houses casually) until Jay (our minister/small group leader/softball coach/friend) suggested to me that we should be on it.  I had some pretty serious doubts, but he & Kim & some friends from school continued to encourage me to do it, so I ended up emailing the casting agent & applying.  I figured "what the heck, this could be fun" & Anthony has always wanted to be on T.V...hopefully this will save me from having to go on the Amazing Race ever ;)  I heard back from the guy (Michael) straight away, within an hour probably.  We got the ball rolling by filling out an 8-page (!) questionnaire & setting up a Skype interview for Thursday evening...yes the next day!  I thought of all my questions/reservations about the show during the time that was passing over the next day & all of them were answered pretty seamlessly by Michael, so I grew more & more excited about the possibility of being on the show.

I had basically told Michael that we were not going to use a realtor unless we were selected to be on the show when he asked me if we had someone in mind.  He suggested that we go ahead & look for one, but I told him that I would hate to pick a realtor & then not get selected on the show & have to tell them that we would not be giving them our business anymore...that's just not the right (or Southern...gotta show the rest of the world how we do it in Georgia!) thing to do, & he seemed to understand that.  He also seemed impressed/mildly amused at me saying this, so hopefully that scored us brownie points somehow?  Anyway, he emailed the next day saying that we were not yet cleared with the network, but that the producers loved us & we should go ahead & start looking for a realtor.  Translation: you're on the show, there's just a final formality that we have to go through but I know you'll get it.  Eeeeekkkk!  I messaged Heather (who, by the way has been so great about answering all of my silly real estate questions) straight away to try to secure a realtor.  She highly recommended Jen Baxter, who my mom & I had a phone conference with on Monday.  Let's just say that we love her & are so glad she'll be walking us through the process of the show & buying our first home :)

I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself, huh?  Before all of this PV stuff, we had already scheduled a couple of appointments to go to house-showings on Saturday, so we went ahead with that as planned.  We didn't love the first one, but the second one definitely has some potential.  It's a lot of house for just the two of us even after we start a family, though, so we're probably not going to end up getting it.  

The real fun on Saturday began when we drove down to Sharpsburg to have engagement pictures with our photographer taken.  Have I mentioned how amazing she is & how much I adore her & her pictures?!  To make us feel even more lucky, we found out that she is going to be retiring from wedding photography after this year, & we are so honored to be working with her!  I basically told her that she could do whatever she wanted with us & I would trust her instincts, & I am SO pleased with the results.  Once we get the CD with all of the edited pictures, I'll post them on here, but until then you can look at the sneak peak here on her website.  Can't wait to have a million of these hanging in our future home...or for the pictures that she's going to take at our wedding!  

Yesterday was my 21st & I couldn't have asked for a better birthday!  Besides all of the regular birthday festivities that have been going on & will continue until the weekend...Missy emailed me & let me know that our e-shoot was up on her blog!  Best birthday present ever :)  it made my heart happy to see all of those sweet pics of us, like this is really real now!  Second best birthday present ever...Michael calling me to wish me happy birthday & to tell me that we got network approval & will officially be on Property Virgins.  We will be filming April 22, then again May 6 & 7.  Sooooo excited about all of these things!  :)  Plus, Anthony got all my new Tim Tebow Jets gear ordered for my b-day.  Today, Britt & Charissa suggested that we mention him, my love for him, & Anthony's resemblance of him to the producers & try to get him on the show.  Umm, how amazing would that be?!  He will be in Gwinnett May 2nd anyway for a leadership/charity conference....................... ;)

Okay, I'll be updating again super soon about all of these things & more!  Recent inspirations before I go!

Red & aqua keys (sent by Kera)/red & aqua candles at HobLob.

This was in a book that I was using for one of my lesson plans.  See? It's not that uncommon!...sorry kiddoooooos ;)

Turquoise jeweled globe at Solomon's Mines in the Bahamas...ONLY $2200! 

Glassware in our wedding colors from the Lalique store in Atlantis...also ridiculously expensive.

(Yes, I know it's backward. MacBook photo booth, what can I say?)  Fans that I got for all of the BMs in the Bahamas...I got one too, but my colors are the opposite.  They'll be fun in pictures & useful for keeping us cool on the wedding day.  I'm sure it will be miserably hot, but it'll be so worth it because it's going to be the most epic day ever :) oh, & a reminder that if you want to complain or be miserable, you certainly don't have to come!  Just a thought ;)

Found this in Clint & Mandie's junk drawer...one of their wedding favors!  Our date, just 5 years earlier.  So crazy :)

Britt pointed out that her sweatshirt & athletic shorts were just the right colors in math today!

More soon...I'll post SO MANY engagement pictures whenever I get the CD in the mail...get excited & get ready to be sick from the lovey cuteness! :)

Just 5 More Months!

We are officially 2/3 of the way to our wedding!  Genuinely hard to believe that we have already been engaged for 10 months.  Everyone told me that time would fly, but it still surprises me that it has gone by so quickly.  I think we have both been so busy with school, work, etc. that it's hard to keep track of how many days are passing.  February & March (& kind of January) are especially packed because of his birthday, Valentine's day, our anniversary, AND my birthday.  (Between all of that & Christmas, definitely our most expensive time of year!)  Plus, it's right around mid-term for both of us, and the time leading up to spring break is always the worst at school.  Luckily for me, I've already gotten done almost all of the things that I need to for the time being.

Short blog tonight, but here are the recent inspirations that I've become so fond of posting:

Dish scrubby & pot holder that I knitted on our church ski trip.  For our future red & black kitchen :)  Can't lie, I did borrow that idea from Nicole & Dustin!

Kera made cupcakes for her kindergarten class in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday!  She looked everywhere for cotton candy & we finally found it at Chuck E. Cheese.  They're red velvet with blue cotton candy...plus the Coke in the back adds even more red.

Bed Bath & Beyond sent us these cards that we can send out to our guests informing them that we are registered there.  I think that's kind of tacky, but they'll be a fun little keepsake to remember this season of our engagement!

Me & mom will be going on our last girl's trip before I'm married here pretty soon.  I'm really excited but sad that I'll be away from Anthony for so long without being able to talk to him!  Fortunately, it's the last time that will happen for hopefully a very LONG time :)  

Dressed for Success

Today was bridesmaids' dress shopping! It started off a little rocky (did I mention that I barely slept a few hours last night due to terrible storms & "stray bullets" in our area?), but turned out GREAT!  I couldn't be more thankful that God has placed these girls in my life, to say the least!!  

I guess I'll just start from the beginning.  At 12:30, we met at Chili's in Loganville for lunch...me, my mom, Haley, Kera & Katie.  Mandie wasn't feeling well so she wasn't able to be with us, but I think we did pretty good picking out a dress for her. :)  Plus with so many BMs & so many busy schedules, 3/4 isn't too bad!  

After a really yummy meal, we headed off to Lorna's Bridal (also in Loganville).  To say the least, it wasn't the best experience.  We made it fun, but there weren't nearly as many dresses from the line I wanted, & everyone only liked one of them.  This is a problem when it was the same one & they were all going to pick different dresses.

Instead of wasting a whole day on a bust shopping trip, I gave everyone the piece of paper that had all of their possible dress choices (all the same designer & fabric so the colors would match) on it & told them to star which ones they wanted.  After that, I called a couple different stores to see if they had every single dress...I wasn't about to waste another appointment & more of everyone's time & gas.  

Finally, Charme Bridal in Buford had every. single. dress. that we wanted to look at/try on.  A couple of them were the long versions of the short styles that I wanted (everyone's will be short & chiffon fabric since it'll be really hot outside), but we were able to see what the tops would look like.  That was great because Haley & Kera ended up choosing those two dresses!  They all loved the first dress they tried on, which is pretty crazy if you think about it.  All three of them were able to get their dresses ordered today, which is really good because they apparently take 3 months to come in & 4-6 weeks to alter (after you have your alterations appointment).  Yikes!  I guess I should have figured it would be a long the because my wedding dress was estimated to take SEVEN months to come in, then about the same amount of time or more to alter.  

I don't want to post any pics of the dresses they chose because that should totally be a surprise!  But...here is a dress that I tried on as a possible for Mandie.  It's the perfect color, which is why I'm so eager to show it off :)  

I can't wait to see everyone's dresses all in this color, matching the ties I've picked out exactly.  Not to mention, the styles will all go together SO perfectly & I'm so glad that everyone got to pick their own style!  I love mismatched but coordinated BM dresses.  & everyone got to get a dress that they really liked instead of having to settle!  It's just so exciting because BM dress shopping seems like one of the wedding things that is more like pulling teeth for most brides.  This was just fun!!!

After we got back in town, just the girls decided to go to Bruster's for ice cream, which we had all been craving.  It's little bonding moments like these that I appreciate so much & am glad to see that we all get along so well.  I can't wait for everyone to continue getting to know each other better in the coming months because it will make the actual day all the better!

Gotta say, I'm super thankful that they didn't mind driving 40 more minutes (& Haley Rae didn't mind using her gas) to have another hour-ish appointment & driving 40 minutes back!  I know Saturdays are a rest day, but they were really great about everything!  Just so awesome. 

Look for another post tomorrow because it's the 4th! :)