Bachelorette Party!!

Last weekend was my Bachelorette Party!!

My sister planned an amazing weekend with all of my close friends at the Lakehouse.

We had an amazing relaxing weekend.

Everyone arrived on Friday.

After some direction confusion and an unexpected stop, the crowd from my hometown made it!

Megan came all the way from Virginia! 

As did my AMAZING cousin Sandra who I hadn't seen in forever!

It was soo much fun to catch up with everyone and just all hang out together!

Jan was soo sweet and left after work on Friday to get to the lake around 11!

I was so happy she made it safe and sound!

We played some bachelorette pictionary and they gave me a lingerie shower!

We all climbed into bed around 3:30 am after talking and talking and talking!

I slept with my sis and sandra and was woken up at 9 by 4 of my friends sweet smiles!

We got dressed to play on the lake, but unfortunately the skies opened up and it rained the whole day.

except for about 30 minutes, and we made total use of it by hopping in the giant float.

Ashley arrived on Saturday morning with wedding movies galore.

I'm so glad she brought those!

All we did the rest of the day was lay on the couch and watch movies.  and of course eat!

Mom came later on saturday and made us an awesome dinner of baked chicken and mac and cheese!

We painted our nails and of course talked some more.

We all fell asleep to the move "The Wedding Date" i forgot how much i loved that movie!

On sunday everyone loaded up and went back home.

It was sad to see everyone leave.  We had sooo much fun and i felt like everyone got along so well.

Jan said she was happy everyone could come so the wedding day will be more like being with real friends instead of meeting everyone then.  

Here are some pics of the weekend!

Sunday night, Dad, Charlie, and Rob arrived for the series finale of LOST!!!

Who loved it!!??

Cause I sure did!

and I loved the make your own pizza night that went along with it!

This week we picked out napkins for the cake table, ordered the guest book, finalized the programs, and of course continued moving in to the apartment!

I cannot wait to post the "before" and "after" pictures!  We have a few more things to do but its looking so good!  I can't wait to live there with my husband!!!!!

13 days!!!!!

Bridesmaids: Lauren

Lauren is one of my oldest and dearest friends.

I went to a christian school in the 6th grade and met her.

We realized we lived literally a street apart and became instant friends.

Everyday after school was spent on her golf cart kicking over cones or just driving around listening to music.

During the summer we spent almost everyday at Myrtle Waves eating cinnamon pretzels and breaking all of the rules in the lazy river.

She went to summer camp every year for two weeks and I literally thought my world was going to fall apart.

We wrote each other every single day and I still have each of those notes.

In 7th grade we both went to another christian school that was thirty minutes away.

Lauren and I carpooled and never spent a morning or afternoon apart.

We loved every minute of it and felt just like sister.

We shared our crushes and secrets.

We skipped school together the day the new mall opened and faked sick together so we didn't have to sit through Mrs. Breault's math class.

We were constantly given "the eye" in class because we could not stop talking.

She became a basketball player and I became the number one fan so i could still hang out with her all of the time!

We shared all of our first days of school and went to both proms together.

And we graduated side by side.

her a bit more distinguished than I ;)

My life would never be like it is today if it were not for her.

She is one of my best friends and will always be so close to my heart.

Her family feels like my family and are still so close.

I would never trade her friendship for anything.

She still knows more about me then almost anyone.

Lauren has the kindest, most gentle heart.

She always gives the perfect bit of advice and is always looking out for others well being no matter who they are.

She still has the most encouraging words and i look back on those notes from when she went to summer camp and it takes me back to some of my greatest childhood memories.

As I mentioned in another post Lauren recently got engaged!

I am so excited for her and the new life she will lead.

Her fiancé Scott proposed in the perfect way for her and she said it was just like a dream.

They got engaged in Disney World where dreams really do come true!

Lauren will make the most beautiful bride and I cannot wait to see her say her vows.

She deserves all of the happiness in the world and it is my prayer that God will continue to bless her and show her smiles, love, and laughter everywhere she turns.

I am blessed to call her my best friend and have her stand with me as I get married.

A wonderful Bridal Shower!

Update: Thanks so much everyone for praying for my cousins.  They are still in orlando, and running some tests on Charlie.  We are praying for good results, so they can make plans to come back home!

Last week three wonderful ladies threw me the most amazing bridal shower!

It was so beautiful and perfect!

The shower was held in the parlor of our church, which is already beautiful, but they decorated in such a precious and perfect way.

I was so happy to see all of my friends and family and it gave me a preview of how amazing ti will be to have all of our loved ones together for our wedding day.  I could not have asked for a more perfect shower or day and I am so thankful to everyone who helped in giving me such a fabulous shower!

When we first arrived there was a pretty pink balloon and sign letting everyone know where to go for the shower!

As soon as we walked in we all headed right to the amazing cake!

Which tasted just as amazing as it looked!

They had the yummiest food including lemon bars, which are one of my favorites!

They even added the m&ms to the candles to commemorate how charlie asked me to marry him!!

They gave me such a sweet corsage! 

It really made it sink in that I was getting married!

Please excuse the hair, i had a minor straightening fiasco...

Two of my bridesmaids, Margaret Ann (green) and Lauren (blue) helped there moms in putting together the shower.

They were so sweet to help and did a wonderful job, it was great to see them again!

(the monday after, Lauren got engaged in DISNEY!!!whoo hoo!!)

Our other friend Christen (purple) also came to help celebrate!

Me and Mrs. Vicki!!!!!!

I received some wonderful presents and it was so exciting to get the firsts of what our home will be filled with!

The hostesses gave Charlie and I a panini press!!!

We are going to get soooo much use out of this! I am so excited!!

Charlie's mom started us out on our bedding with a super soft pretty blue blanket!

Our very first pot!!

A sweet cake plate in our china pattern!

Me and my grandma carolyn!  She wanted to stand on her tippy toes and me to bend down so we could be the same height!  She is so sweet!

It was such a beautiful shower and a beautiful day.

We received so many amazing things and I cannot wait to go back home and look through everything again!

I am so grateful to such wonderful friends and family!!

Only 83 more days!!

A fabulous wedding for a fabulous bride!

This beautiful girl has been like a big sister to me since middle school.

She took to me to my first late night movie to meet up with a boy that she knew liked me.

She made me feel like such a grown up when we went up to her lake house all by ourselves.

She has shown me what it is to be a successful and married.

and she made me feel so honored when she asked me to do a reading in her fabulous wedding.

I am so blessed to have such an amazing friend like her.

I look so forward to her being my bridesmaid in our wedding.

Her wedding is hands down the most amazing wedding I have ever been to.

Not just because of the beautiful flowers, the food, or the band, but because it was so neat for me to witness someone who i have looked up to for so long get married.

The beautiful ceremony was outside on the lawn of a country club in our hometown.

It was decorated with all kinds of greenery and the chairs were actually wooden benches.

It was overlooking the beach and a string quartet played as she walked down the isle.

It was truly breathtaking.

The reception was in dimly lit room that gave off a orange glow.

They made the room contemporary using fabric to cover the chandeliers and add to the glow of the room.

The dance floor was a brilliant white that went along with the lounge area.

The flowers were arranged so uniquely and consisted of oranges and yellows against the green and brown of branches.

She also had an amazing bar made completely of ice with a "s" carved in it.

I was so excited that we got to sit at one of the cool tables with the tall vases!

Ashley's mom is one of my parents best friends.  She is such a beautiful lady!

and soooooo much fun to be with!

Ms. Debbie and Mrs. Vicki are giving me the bridesmaids luncheon on our wedding day!

I am soooo excited and thankful they are doing this for us!

There is only one word to describe this wedding: fabulous!

not to mention the most adorable flower girl and ring bearer!

Ash, thank you so much for being such an amazing friend to me.

I do not know what I would do without you in my life.

You are the big-sister I never had and look so forward to sharing many more memories together!

Kudos to the cutest and craziest!

Love you!!

all photos by Lynn Daly

***(edited) Ashley just made her own blog! Go visit her at Kudos to the Fun and Fabulous!!

Fun filled wedding activities weekend part 1!

This weekend was oh so fun!!!

My bridesmaid Carson and Allston (her bf and charlies groomsman) threw Charlie and I a

Stock the Bar shower!

It was a blast!

Tomorrows post will be all about it and its awesomeness!!!!!

My friend Jan and my other friend/bridesmaid Megan came home with me for the shower.

We went to PF Changs friday night and saturday was a day full of wedding goodness.

My wedding shoes came last week so I got to see them for the first time on friday!

I was soooo excited to open them, i felt like they were made of gold or something!

I forgot to take a pic of them, and they aren't on the website anymore, but i pinky promise I will out a pic up as soon as I can!

So I thought the shoes were perfect when I opened the box,

but when i went to put them on my gigantic size 10 of a foot, they were tinsy winsy...

so we called to see if we could get an ELEVEN.......

which they do not make...

(I had the only 10 in the whole US of A! why must my feet be like the flinstones?)

We decided to wait to return them because my actual WEDDING DRESS came in on saturday!!!!

So we had an appt. later that day to try them on.

Saturday morning we had a cake tasting at 9 AM!

We tried a cake called the White Russian, with nutella in it!

It was yum yum yum!!!!!

Della then took us to the marina inn where the reception will be.

We talked about the layout of the tables and dance floor!

I am sooo excited!

Della then showed us some signs she made for us!

She made a bride and groom sign to go on the back of our chairs!

It is soo cute, with a pretty pink peony~

She also made us some "Mr" and "Mrs" signs that she saw I liked!

Each of these were in the Southern Weddings Magazine if you want to take a look!

This magazine is definitely my fav and I cut one to shreds for my notebook, so I want another to keep!

Seriously..its amazing!

anyway!

Everything looked amazing and we are soo excited to stay there the whole weekend!

Dad says he is more excited about his "daddy-o patio" than the actual wedding!

(which we all know isnt true!)

Then we went to lunch at Pine Lakes (where the ceremony will be).

We had an awesome lunch with megan, jan, caroline, and the rest of mine and charlies families!

after lunch it was finally time to go see MY dress!

I was so excited for jan, megan, and esp. my dad to see it for the first time!

We brought the shoes and veil to get the whole look!

As soon as i pulled the shoes out of the box the sweet ladies that worked there got soo excited!

They loved the shoes!

I tried on the dress and it fit almost perfectly!

Just a few alterations and it will fit like a glove!

We also decided that the shoes were too perfect, and that the length wasn't the issue, it was the width of the shoe at the front.  The owner of the store suggested we get them stretched a little.

So I think that is what we will do, the color matched soo perfectly, i hope it works!!

Oh and the place we normally take shoes to be repaired is kind of sketch..

i swear charlie and I saw a drug deal going down there on day....

So we are looking for somewhere else to take them!

The dress was even more perfect than the first time i tried it on.

I had forgotten so many of the details that  made me love the dress.

Also i think i watch "Say Yes to the Dress" too many times, cause I was sort of doubting my dress picking abilities..

But when I put it all on, I knew I made the right decision!

Megan and Jan loved it!

Dad immediately got his camera out and started snapping away, he also began asking a ton of questions about the detailing and how it bustles..thats how i knew he loved it!!

We had one more wedding errand to run that day,

WE FOUND THE GROOMSMAN SUITS!!!!!!!

We spent the whole day before searching from store to store and finally found the perfect suit at Jos. A. Banks!  The sweet lady said she would give us a sale price that made the suit buy 1 get TWO for free!!!

So we found a suit that is normally $550 and each groomsman is paying less than $200 for it!

Its exactly what I wanted!

Charcoal grey with light blue window pane stiching!

(once again no pic of this....i pinky again I will post it tomorrow!)

So we had to go show our dads the suit at the local Jos. A. Banks!

For anyone who still needs suits, I would 100% recommend trying them, they always have amazing deals on super nice suits!

I had the most amazing first part of the day!

 I promise I will be back tomorrow morning with a post dedicated solely to the amazing

Stock the Bar shower!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!

Bridesmaid dresses have been picked!!

Yay!!!

I couldn't completely choose without going to Little White Dress first.

I had to see their collection, because it would be the easiest option, i thought.

When we went I saw soo many cute dresses, but i have such a hard time picking things for other people, that they have to buy!!

It was soo hard.

Before we left I saw a super cute flower girl dress:

Then I saw dresses that matched with little rosettes on them!

I thought they were adorable, but I was not sold on them...

So we went outside and talked about it all.

I have always come back to the jcrew dresses.

After my last post on bridesmaid dresses, I called Jcrew and they said the dress was discontinued for spring in the peppermint color.

But it was on sale then (thanksgiving) for $98.

I was going to call everyone then, but i did not want to risk them running out of sizes and some girls being left out, or something going terribly wrong!

So i decided we wouldn't do Jcrew.

After the Little White Dress visit, I knew those Jcrew dresses are what would work the best.

So we crossed our fingers, went home and checked online.

All of the dresses were still there in all sizes (Yay!)

The price had been reduced to $68.00 on three of them! (Yay!)

There was a code EXTRA20 (which is still happening!) on jcrew.com and you get 20% off! (Yay!)

These were the ones!

So I called up all the bridesmaids and explained what an awesome price it was and how they could choose any style (except the one my sis chose), but that they needed to do it fast.

I am telling you what, I have the most amazing bridal party!

All 9 of them ordered there dresses and called me within the hour!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was soo excited!

So bridesmaid dresses are finally decided on and I think everyone likes them, at least i hope they do!

To make things even better, Jenn's dress, and my dress (of course i just had to have one!) came the very next day!

So did three of the others.

Jcrew is on top of it!

They came while we were at the lake, so as soon as I got home I had to race to open the box and try them on (they are super wrinkled because they just came out of the box!)

This is Jenn's:

and this is mine, Ashley, and Jan's:

and they all have pockets!!! yay!!

Carson and Margaret Ann chose the strapless dress:

Caroline, Sandra, and Lauren's dress is:

I think they are all so cute!

My mom found a her dress at Little also. It is such a pretty green that matches her eyes and hair perfectly!

160 days!

I am getting EXTREMELY EXCITED!!!!!!

btdub: Charlie has been begging me to hurry up and pick these dresses, he literally asks me every single day.

He went back to school for two days because he had to work, so I didn't talk to him while we were trying to decide.

He called later that night and I casually told him that all the girls ordered their bridesmaid dresses.

He was like "WHAT!?!" 

He was so happy that i finally picked the dresses.

Now its his turn to pick the groomsmen outfits...!

(yeah right....)