First Wedding Nightmare

Soooo..Last night I had my first (and hopefully only) wedding day nightmare (in my sleep). It was just horrible..lemme tell ya about it..

So it was the day of my wedding. Things were not going very well as planned and I had to run to my place right before Brian came out for the ceremony. NO pictures were taken before the ceremony (not a single one!)..so after the ceremony, pictures began. I had a hard time getting everyone to take the pictures. My maids of honor's were MIA and my bridesmaids hated their dresses so much that they changed into jeans before the pictures even started. I WAS A MESS! On top of all that I ended up getting a different photographer (a girl) who had to be "Chatty Kathy" with all of the guests. I kept having to say, "Hellllo..can we take some pictures? I'm running out of time here!"..and then she disappeared...I was in some sort of warehouse and it was getting darker and darker. Brian was also MIA. I got all the wedding party into a single room for a picture, and someone locked us in! then a scene similar to a Saw situation started playing out until we finally broke through a window and got out. All the while my dress was getting dirtier and dirtier. I started on the hunt for Brian and finally found him in the basement frantically doing dishes. I told him that this was our day and that he didn't have to do that..so we went to get pictures. Now our photographer was an old dirty gross man in a beat up car. He was tying to take the pics from within his car. I couldn't stand it anymore. I cried. and I cried hard. I told Brian that our wedding was an absolute disaster. Then out of no where Laurie and Will (my actual photographers) showed up and said they would take the pictures. By now the reception was almost over, but I was a little happier because I knew that I would have good pics.

Ok, so let's just say a prayer right now that this is NOT how the wedding will turn out! PLEASE!

Engagement Pics Returned

Sooo..we got the pics back from our fabulous shoot..They were just loverly! Of course..there were some that I did not love because of me (downside of being a girl)...but after getting to see all 460-something, I am so very happy and looking forward to the wedding pics! Here are my favorites

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Engagement Pics

Soooo.....my photography team pretty much ROCKS!! We did our engagement pictures tonight and cannot WAIT to see the outcome! When I told Brian we were going to probably be taking pictures for 2 hours or so, he sighed, but by the time we were done he said, "Wow, that went by really quick" and yes, it is due to the fact that we picked the best photographers ever! I definitely felt like a super star! Thanks Streetlight Republic and our new friends Laurie and Will! :-)

Registering

So this blog post is almost a week late, but I've been busy busy with finishing up this semester.

Last Friday me and Brian spent the night chillaxin, while I registered for the two of us on Amazon.com. Brian wasn't nearly as excited as me when I found an entire kitchen set of matching Corelle dinnerware, containers, tea pots, even burner covers!! It was heaven!

The next morning, we woke up to a nasty day. We were supposed to do our engagement pictures, but it was cold, soggy, and looked like it was going to rain...soooo lucky us, our great photographers agreed to switch the date to the following friday. Since we had planned on going out, we decided to go to Target and register...and it. was. awesome!!!

After signing up,

we went to customer service to get our barcode scanner gun, and with it we got a little goody bag for joining "Club Wed". In it there were coupons (some for target, some for other places) and ~drummmmm roll plz~A $20 Shutterfly gift card!! This was very exciting for me because I LOVE shutterfly!!

Then..it was off to scanning! Brian was our primary scanner..and he was actually more helpful than even he thought he would be:

He let me scan 2 things..and no, we didn't actually scan this insanely large shaker.

So after spending about an hour and a half in the store, we were finally done. We covered all the basics and the rest is on Amazon! Now, the question to register at other places exist. I realize that not as many people love Amazon nearly as much as I do, and that's where a lot of the stuff we REALLY need is (dishes, juicer ;-), etc.)..so should I register for some of the same things in other places like Walmart and Bed Bath and Beyond?? Not sure!

Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

First of all, I haven't written a while because life has been crazy. My grandpop passed away on April 1, so between school and trying to figure out when we were going to go up to PA, wedding plans were kind of put on hold. As sad as it was that we were going to PA for grandpop's funeral, it was nice to see my family and spend time with them. During our trip I got to spend some extra time with my cousin Amanda, and we got to have a girls trip to the local bridal shops to try on dresses! It was fun for all of us! SO here are some of the dresses:

The girls just LOVED this one..could you tell?

This was actually a very popular choice..and apparently they both felt it made Em's butt look good, lol.

Me and my girlies!

Our last stop during the PA bridal trip was to David's Bridal, where my mom got in on trying some "MOB" (Mother of the Bride) dresses on..don't they look lovely with her old lady shoes?

So after trying on many dresses in PA and the ladies picking their favorites and getting measured. I came home, still not knowing what I was going to do. Then today, Ashton came in and we (along with Jamie and Addi) went shopping at Sugar Drop (where I got my dress). We had an awesome girls day out..They aren't a fan of pics, soooo I will only post this one of Ashton..I really liked this dress!

We spent lots of time trying on dresses and being silly (yes, I tried on a MOB dress):

Sooo..afterwards we all went to TJ Maxx and they helped me pick out a couple outfits for engagement pics, which are tomorrow!! We are very excited.

So the verdict on the bridesmaid dresses...........still up in the air!

Venue

And now for the venue..aka..the Green's Paradise! Below you will find a short walk-through of my wedding location.

This is the lovely house and stone stairs I will be coming out of:

This is part of the yard (at the moment everything is dead):

This is the straight shot to the ceremony area from the stairs..we will put chairs all over there and around the trees..just watch for falling apples!:

Here is a panoramic view:

The ceremony area:

US!:

Reception area for the tent:

Meet My Girlies!

So my side of the bridal party is complete! Of course, I could add several other girls, I am kind of limited to how many I could choose, so this is what I did:

Maid of Honor: Emily Allen

My baby sister, Emily, is one of my two maid of honors. I've known her literally her whole life, duh! She is more than just a sister to me, she is a best friend. I love her to death and am so excited that she will be moving home this summer to help me plan every little step of the way (and whip me into shape!)

Maid of Honor: Brittany Essary

Brittany is my BFF and my other maid of honor. She has been my BFF longer than I was actual friends with my sister (ya I didn't like Emily for a while). She has been with me through some really tough times and some really good times, so of course I would need her to be with me on my big day. There's way too much I could say here, so I'll stop at this, "I love her to freakin death!"

Bridesmaid: Jessica Lindner

I call Jessica my "lifelong" friend. She was my first friend when I came to my church when I was a young girl. I have some terrible pics of us because we went through some insane body changes through our lives, butttt, I'll save those for later! haha. We've also been through a ton, but then again, that's what almost 20 years of knowing someone will do to ya! She is such a great listener and knows just how to have a relaxing night (wine and a good movie or TV show :-)).

Bridesmaid: Amanda Clauser

Amanda, or as we've always called her, Amandalita, is my cousin and again, I've known her her whole life! She has always been hundreds of miles away, but as we've grown more we've realized how alike we are, and when given the opportunity to see each other, we have a blast! I hope that now we will see each other at least once a year (we are on a good roll so far!) I was so happy when she was excited about being in the wedding..and to add on a coincidence, me and Brian started dating on her birthday! ha.

Bridesmaid: Ashton St. Amant

Ashtonator, my "school" friend. I've known this girl since the 5th grade and we have been great friends ever since we coincidentally were on the Disney Cruise Line together when we were 13. (Swim Little Fishy, Swim). It's funny because a lot of what she made fun of me for in high school is actually how she is now...so she's not so mean to me anymore, lol. We want to be the next Martha Stewart and I hope that our craftiness will shine through at this wedding and right into our little business that will one day become a reality.

Bridesmaid: Jordan Fox

Jordan is my "college" friend. When me and Britt moved to MTSU we got put with 2 random roommates and one was Jordan. I knew I loved her before we met because she liked pineapples on her pizza! haha..but really..this girl is just amazing, I mean, the picture kinda describes my feelings for this girl. We ALWAYS have fun and can make a party anywhere we go--(wedding crashers, lol)! Not to mention, we have the 2 cutest dogs ever!

So there's my line up. Pretty nice, huh? Like I said before, I am blessed to have many girlfriends but if I put everyone I wanted to in the wedding then the audience would be kinda sparse! haha.

Who needs a florist??

Not me! So after looking at my budget and seeing how much flowers cost, I am opting out of hiring a florist. My cousin (where the wedding will be held) will grow some sunflowers for me, and the rest? Well, looks like it's time for my crafty side to shine! I guess I should also mention here that when Brian would buy me flowers it would actually upset me because I know how expensive they are and they just die anyway. So really, are buying real flowers for a wedding really me? Not really...

So, when me and Jamie went to the Bridal Ball in Franklin there was a booth called, Whim Wed that featured handmade bouquets. Below you will find a picture of the bouquet I fell in love with.

Whim Wed is on Etsy, so I checked them out. I about lost it when I saw that these bouquets were priced at $500!!!!!!! Which was when I started my hunt for tutorials to start one of my own. I also decided this would be more special because I could work on it with my girls and everyone will do at least 1 flower for the bouquet and I can keep it forever! :-)

My first stop was at Simply Vintage Girl where I tried making the flower below. It was fairly easy except I kept burning my hand:

Next stop was Duh Be, where I did the below flower without a sewing machine. This one was a bit easier because I held strips over the flame, which kept my hands out of the flame's sight:

So here are 2 of my flower next to each other. Thoughts?