Shopping Spree

I'm a little late posting about all of the wedding-related events of last weekend, but here goes...

On Thursday morning I took a little (okay, okay...big) trip to Hobby Lobby.  I bought a ton supplies for one of the DIY projects I'm most excited about for our wedding.  Without getting into too many details (I want there to be plenty of surprises for our friends & family to make the day special & exciting!), it involves collaging, something for each table, and a way for our guests to make memories that we can look back on later :)

Friday, Andrew & I stopped by Men's Warehouse in Snellville.  We won't need to order the guys' stuff for quite some time, but since he'll be out of the country until pretty much a month before the wedding (not enough time to measure & order one after he gets back), we figured we'd go ahead & get his measurements taken care of.  I don't know if they measure the same way or if he'd even be able to stop in a suit place in Europe & ask if they'd measure him.  So if you're reading this brother, take it easy on the pasta & wine in Italy :) Oh & they were having a buy 1 tie, get 1 tie half off.  He bought one for himself & I bought the tie on the left to give to Anthony...it's our wedding color & everything!  The picture is basically exactly how I want our wedding colors to be.

Saturday was definitely the most exciting & fun day for me!! Priscilla of Boston in Atlanta is going out of business...they'll be closing their doors in December.  Thursday I got an email from them (I signed up to receive their newsletter months ago) saying that all of their "party dresses" would be $25 for Saturday only (they're trying to get rid of all their samples).  I decided to go and check it out, hoping that I'd be able to find a dress for the rehearsal dinner or a shower.  The picture above is the dressing room they put me in...yikes!  There was another chair in there & even a robe.  I ended up buying a Christmas dress & a nice dress that I'll be able to wear the next time we go out somewhere really nice (our 4-year anniversary is coming up in February...are you reading this honey?) & I picked up one for my mom too.  I looked through the wedding section...first at the "reception" dresses tyring to find a cute, short white dress to wear to the rehearsal then at the actual wedding dresses.  They were all still out of my price range (& the whole store is 50% off).  Another problem I had with them is that they are all sample dresses...meaning that you can't order something especially for your size & that the dresses have been tried on by dozens of women (the one I liked most was ripped & had buttons missing).

I'm not too worried about not finding a dress at PoB last weekend...I didn't have anyone there with me to make the day special & I'll have all day in a couple of weeks to go shopping with my best girls! :) :) Can't wait to post about that one!

Great Capture

The title is a term that I have heard people say to photographers before on their shots.  I feel like it really is a fitting compliment.  I would never want to say to a photographer that their camera takes great pictures...that is totally WRONG.  It would be like telling an oven it made great pies ;) Well, I feel like Anthony & I made a "great capture" with out photographer, Melissa Hume!  I honestly can not say enough good things about her.  We met on Saturday afternoon at the Lenox Mall Starbucks (mom & Anthony came with).  Let's just say, could I possibly love her more?!  We had already been exchanging emails & pictures of weddings & our styles match up so well.  I just want to spill all of the little details to her because I know she'll understand & appreciate them!  So since things went so well, we are already in the process of filling out a contract...I don't want her to get booked up!

 We have chosen to go with the package that includes the digital negatives (edited CD) of both the engagement session & the wedding itself.  I'm so excited about this because I know I'll want to use the images for a ton of different things.  & I'll get to post a bunch on here for everyone to see! 

Since I'm obviously SO bad at finding ways to procrastinate on homework (no, of course I'm not supposed to be typing up something for me & Kera's group project tomorrow...) Nicole figured she'd help me out & got me totally addicted to Pinterest.  I'm especially obsessed with the wedding boards!  If you want to see some of the stuff I've been doing, click here.  I've been getting such great ideas, one of which is making a seating chart on old window panes.  One of the leaders at our church, John Powell, owns a siding company called DuraCraft.  I asked him this morning if he did windows & what he did with the old ones.  He told me that they just put them in a dumpster & offered me as many as I wanted :)  When I tried to see if he would let me pay him, he acted like I was crazy because they just throw them away anyway.  John is the definition of generous, so this doesn't surprise me at all.  I still want to figure out something to do for him & his wife Tina to show my appreciation.  I'm thinking one of those last name paintings that I've been working so often on lately.  I'm also thinking about how to use these as an altar for the ceremony but I'm not sure on that one yet.

 

Another way that I have found to bide my time (which I forgot to post earlier...oops) was making a photo book.  David's Bridal sent me a coupon for a free $30 book from Shutterfly, so I made the book below!  It was so fun & I can't wait to put it on our coffee table someday :)

 

A couple of less positive notes:

 I have been having terrible wedding-related dreams lately.  No, I'm not talking about worrying.  Thank you everyone for your advice on Facebook to not care so much about the wedding, but that's not the problem.  I'm fine during the day, but I'm dreaming that we're getting married in the dark (outside, in the early evening?)  or in the rain (possible, but I've never really thought or worried about it).  Worse yet, I'm stuck the day of with no one to do my hair or wake up late, even forgetting the day altogether.  One of the worst ones last night was that I was stuck making the extravagant & intricate crafts from Pinterest the day of the wedding.  Horrible.  I need to be able to get some good sleep at night or else my immune system is going to fail me!

Lastly, I've been getting more & more annoying comments on our new colors.  As nicely as I can possibly say, get over it!  Jeez.  As much as I don't want to be rude, I think it is really disrespectful to turn your nose up at anything I choose. I know I changed it from the original Apple Green to Candy Apple Red & people have to adjust, but the main color is still Aqua/Turquoise; it shouldn't be that big of a deal.  It even still has the word "apple" in it.  Just if you don't have something positive to say, please keep it to yourself.  Period.

Swatch Switch

Well, we have hit the less-than-11-months point.  While we are getting more & more excited about it, things are continuously getting busier! I posted a picture of the September calendar in the wedding planning planner above, & while it doesn't show how much we have going on in the other realms of our lives, there is a lot of it! School, work & church are the other biggest priorities & are what is keeping us so busy aside from wedding planning.  The main wedding-related thing we have going on for a while is hopefully a meeting with a potential photographer, Melissa Hume Photography this weekend.  We love her work & are excited about possibly having her capture all of our wedding memories!  Will post about that meeting when it happens :)

(Shout out to Mandie for telling us about her!)

If anyone gets bored or just wants to look at another great photographer, check out Ashah Photography & look through her portfolio & blog.  She's amazing too & is the preferred photographer of The Cotton Warehouse but is just a bit too far out of our price range.  Plus she's incredibly open about her faith & how much she loves Jesus, which is awesome!

Even though we are pretty far along in the process, I happened to change my mind about one teeny tiny little thing.  Don't worry, it isn't the date or something huge like that.  But it is pretty major.  One of my best friends, Kera admitted to me that she had envisioned some of the same colors for her wedding somewhere down the road.  Not that I'm opposed to having the same colors as someone else, but it got me to thinking about what other colors could look good with Oasis Blue (which is a definite for sure no matter what color) & I came across red.  Not orangey gross red but like a deep cherry glossy red.  I got so excited about it & inspired by this color.  There are a lot of possibilities with Apple Green, but it really just doesn't seem like me & I never had a specific vision in mind with this color.



I came across this picture on Google Images & it just encompasses all that I want our wedding to be.  Simple, classy & artsy...something that really lets our personalities come out.  Blue for him and red for me...I'm just not really a plain apple greenish kind of person, so I'm much happier with red.  I want everything to come alive with color, & apple green just wasn't doing that for me.  When I started picturing red in our wedding, it was like my world lit up.  I had specific ideas about everything I wanted & all of the little details just fell into place in my mind.  I couldn't be more excited about what may seem like such a small change in detail to some.

Not everyone has been thrilled with this change, but that has just reminded that me that this is our wedding & no one else's.  It's supposed to reflect Anthony & I, so I'm having to learn that not everyone's opinion actually matters at all.  We want to share our special day with everyone, but would like for people to remain positive & not complain & keep any negative comments to themselves :) I have been surprised by how many people aren't afraid to express differences of opinion (about color, time of day, time of year, food we should have, photographs that should be taken, etc.)!  But I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing because as long as he & I are happy with it, that's pretty much all that matters! We still love y'all anyway!

Sidenote: my cousin Nicole got me to join Pinterest so she can share cute wedding & art ideas with me...I'm super pumped about it but a little worried about how much more it will distract from my schoolwork ;)  in fact, I'm in Jittery Joe's pretending to be doing homework & writing this blog as we speak! So on that note, more to come soon!