Bring on the RSVP's!

I have to say, checking the mail has never been this exciting!!! Each day I come home and look forward to opening it up in hopes of finding one our little, brown, RSVP cards!

Other than that, I suppose the countdown is finally REALLY real! This week we will hit 50 days...AHH! This past weekend brought a four day weekend with my main squeeze! We swore to do very little wedding stuff, and just enjoy our time together! The only plans we officially had was meeting with Judy to discuss and view all the decor plans! I'd love to share all of the pictures I took, but I don't want to spoil the surprises!!! We spent quite some time looking over all the arrangements and pictures of flowers! Turns out....Trey's aunt, Judy, is VERY talented!

We also spent several hours Monday up at Smithgall with our photographers, Amy Arrington and her husband, Brandon! Not only was it amazing to share our venue with them and discuss all the picture options! We dragged  walked with them through all of the cottages discussing all sorts of fun shots we could get throughout the area! One of my favorite ideas came from looking at the river! Trey and I will both have on rainboots while playing in the river!!! Now...of course, Trey...who takes everything too far...expresses his plan to push me into the river!...yes, with my dress on. Now, we'll see if that plan actually comes to fruition. Anyway, with that said....check out her site! They are amazing! Amy Arrington Photography

Now, onto a small stresser that came up this week! On Friday, Trey, Brett, Dawnn, and I went to Blue Ridge for a funeral. After over 5 hours with much of the church crew from Trey's childhood, we head home. While having dinner my frustrating, insane, wonderful man informs me that he wants to invite several people there! SAY WHAT! Then proceeds to ask how many invitations we have left....when I inform him that we had four extras, he proceeds to ask for not one, not two, not even THREE...but TEN. Yes, 1-0! MORE! Wait...WHAT? So, thankfully, I contact Ashley that evening asking for 10 more invitations! And OF COURSE, being as awesome as she was, obliged quickly! (And in my head I'm thinking...point for Sarah for finding someone to do handmade invitations!) So not only were they awesome and unique, but also incredibly accommodating! Check them out also...she can do anything! Palmetto Peaches

With that said, I am beyond thankful that we people who go along with our crazy desires no matter how spacey we could be! Thank you Amy Arrington Photography and Palmetto Peaches!

No chicken biscuits please!

All right, I officially understand why people say "I'm ready for it to be over." I absolutely, positively, in no shape form or fashion understand how people have long engagements. I feel like we've been planning this 24 hour long event FOR-EV-ER! (Note the Sandlot reference...) Now, please don't get me wrong...I'm not complaining, whining, griping, or well...anything else of the sort. (For those of you who like to reference my "tirades..." But I am ready for this day to happen! I'm ready to finally have my dress at home, I'm ready to see how everything has come together, I'm....just....READY! So with that said, onto what has been accomplished lately...

After getting our bands picked out, the wonderful Ashley Deas (whom I work with) from Palmetto Peaches (you can find them on ETSY!!!) dropped off our invitations to me one day at school! EEEKKKK!!!! Okay, now let me preface this by stating just how shockingly amazing and responsible my fiance was! I called him on my home one day and he informs me that NOT ONLY did he pick up stamps for the wedding and the RSVP postcards, BUT he also got postcards that say "Love" on them. Now, perhaps I should've given him more credit, but I was sure he was going to come home with 80 flag stamps. Silly me! Now mind you, the RSVP postcards were not quite as perfect......they had apples on them! Oh well, at least he remembered to get them! We're making progress people! So,  moving on....with invitations in hand, I called in "the troops" to help me address them all! With a Dunkin Donuts coffee in hand and a bagel toasted, we sat down for roughly 3 hours addressing, stamping, filling, and even checking addresses. Now if there are two things I've learned from writing the addresses by hand it's this: just sit down and do it. Get it done and over with. The second thing....make sure you get extra envelopes for any errors. Turns out...white out, not to be used as a back up plan in this case!

They were all dropped off at the post office last week...and now we sit back and wait to see who will be there to celebrate with us! (Perhaps one of the best parts of this planning process!)

Now to perhaps the bride's most worrisome appointment...the dress fitting. This past Sunday was my first dress fitting. I'll be honest, I was nervous. Not sure why...I haven't changed much...but nevertheless, I was still nervous. After waiting for what felt like hours (due to the lacing that got mixed up on multiple occasions), she zipped it up! Now I know they talk about these "bridal" moments....and I will say, there have been no tears. HOWEVER, this is the third time I've put my dress on now, and each time it just gets better and better!!! I even made Mom take a picture of me this time! (Okay, a little vain....)

After getting my dress all sorted out, I got to see Ellen in her dress also! Now I realize that perhaps a "fun" dress was maybe not the direction many people would've gone...that was exactly where we went! I L-O-V-E-D her dress! I loved it on her...I loved the color...I loved the fit! I just loved it all! It was so exciting to have both of our dresses fit, look good, AND only need minimal alterations! WAHOO!

From there, we moved on to the tux shop to meet the boys and decide what they would be wearing. I must admit this is the appointment I have been dreading perhaps more than my dress fitting. For months Trey has adamantly wanted a traditional black tux...with a white dinner jacket. Now, let me set the scene....2pm in April in the middle of a state park. White dinner jacket + state park? Not my favorite idea. We have gone back and forth in this discussion so there was no telling what direction we would finally end up going. As Mom and I arrived, sure enough Brett (who would be representing Trey) was standing there in a black tux...with a white dinner jacket. I tried really hard to be open to it...I did. However, it just wasn't my favorite. So, we decided to look at some other options....we ended up using both my brother and Brett to model what Trey would be wearing and then what the best man, groomsman, and man of honor would be wearing. Thankfully we agreed on.....a black tux-style suit for Trey (YAY!) and a dark charcoal suit for all of the other guys! It looked so great and I am certain it will look wonderful on all of the guys! Now...in remembering to "pick my battles," Trey has asked for all the guys to wear..........BOW-TIES! Yup, you saw that right. Bow. Ties. Welp, I can't have everything go my way! :)

And now, we sit back and finish planning the smaller details!

Take courage when the road is long...

I cannot fully put into words how thankful I am for long weekends....however, not quite so much when they are FILLED with activity and very little time for relaxation! But, with a wedding quickly sneaking up on us, it appears that no week or weekend will be quite from here until the end of April! In the meantime, I'm trying to enjoy it...take pictures...and experience the entire ride!

The weekend started with a cake tasting...HELLO! Now, I realize that we already found a place to create cupcakes for us...and yes, we are also going to another cake shop! Okay okay...so we like sweets...quite a bit! :) So, as we did our marathon weekend a while back Trey very sadly, with a pouty face, was such a trooper when we found out that Truelove's wasn't quite able to put together his DREAM cake! The one thing my dear sweet man has said from the beginning is how he wants his "rugby ball cake!" When I tell you, an excited man....I mean E-X-CITED! So, you can imagine his disappointment when it appeared that his dream would not, in fact, be coming true. When that realization hit, we opted to look for his cake elsewhere. That led us to Memorable Creations! This lady is ridiculous, amazing, incredibly talented, no....BRILLIANT!   We walked into her shop and stared in awe at all that she was able to do! CHA-CHING! So, after trying vanilla...strawberry!, chocolate, and a spice cake...we began the discussions. What design did we want? What cake style? How many would it feed? With 84 cupcakes, yes...84...get hungry people, already ordered, we knew we needed to keep it reasonable. The trickiest part was figuring out how to get the design in Trey's head onto her sketchpad. However, we did and we left VERY happy! I will be having a deliciously beautiful strawberry cake topper while Trey gets his spice cake rugby ball! Wins all around! (And okay, so I had a little fit about the possibility of pink in the signs and I chose the pinkest cake around....I don't care! I wanted my strawberry cake damnit!)

Now, let's move on to Sunday...Sunday was the day we were going to pick out our wedding bands. Trey spent quite a bit of time prepping me and informing me of just how much it would cost and what to expect. Now mind you this came in the form of: "You won't be happy with a $100 band." or "You know you're going to want diamonds in it!" or even "Sarah, you're going to want a blingy platinum band!" Basically spend lots of time picking at me and trying to poke fun at being materialistic. Now let's take a quick moment to go back to when we went engagement ring shopping...my criteria? 1) I wanted to like it. 2) I wanted it to look good on my hand. 3) I wanted it to SPARKLE! So, with that said...I think materialistic falls very low on my list of descriptions!
So we set our appointment at the jewelry shop where Trey got my ring! We walk in and are immediately swept up by the same person who assisted Trey the first time around. Our original plan was to look into getting a "jacket" style band. When we were informed that they started at $3,000!!!!...we changed our minds quickly! So as I walked around and started at all the stunning rings, Trey and Brian spent time finding my band! I knew that at the end of the day, they would select something beautiful and once they had a few options, I would look at those and make a decision. I was not interested in looking and pairing the rings over and over again! It was very different from the couple who came in behind us where the lady walked up to the counter with very specific specs on what she wanted! I immediately felt like I hadn't put enough time and research into the process...however, at the end of the appointment, we found the perfect band and Trey left with the idea of getting the other piece to the jacket for our 1 year anniversary! :) (We'll see if he remembers that a year from now!!) Now, Trey on the other hand fully embraced the idea of getting himself something pretty! He tried on pinky rings (I blame you the Godfather movies....) he even tried on one blingy ring...definitely not his style! I will admit, with some of the rings he picked out with such funky designs, I was a smidge concerned about his style...however, after continually looking...we found reason (haha) and picked out an amazingly simplistic yet awesome ring! For all future men looking at engagement rings...just an FYI: Platinum is expensive. You've been warned!

Needless to say, after ordering 2 specialty cakes, and 2 gorgeous bands...I was THRILLED to see payday come today! :)

Next up, invitations!

And now we need napkins?

So it would appear to me that we are in the period of time where my weekends, evenings, and even throughout the day are spent thinking about, making notes about, and being active in terms of that which will be our wedding! With that said, the lovely checklists that come in form of apps, Pintrest lists, websites, and continual "to-do's" mentioned by previously married women are not nearly as thorough as they need to be for a person refusing to utilize a wedding planner....and that's my soapbox!

My first (at least in my mind) pseudo-Bridezilla moment came a few weeks ago when the design for our road-side signs came into my e-mail inbox. When I tell you...pink. Sheesh! Okay, so looking back perhaps the pink wasn't nearly as glaring as I originally had thought in my mind. And after seeing them in person, there is no pink, in any shape form or fashion, however, due to the magic of the computer...I could not focus on the wording or design, all I could focus on was the blushy pink filling the background. I was quite upset, so much so, I made my very tolerant fiance listen to my worries...and then made my very tolerant hmm...aunt-in-law (not sure if that's proper form or not!) listen to my woes! She did a MAGNIFICENT job of listening and consoling and explaining how we can handle and remedy this situation! With that said...at the end of the phone call, she proceeds to ask me if we've thought about what color napkins we will be having. Okay people...for the record, I'm good with taking part in the big decisions, but I now understand why people hire someone else to make those decisions...ugh!

In other news, my wonderful mother of the bride has made a decision on her dress! Can I get a WOO WOO??? This was very exciting news and funny...in a stressful sort of way. Here were the choices...

 Two very different choices...two very different prices...two very different designs....and her decision????

The GREEN ONE!!!!

I was VERY excited for a decision to finally be made! After calling my dress shopping, and ordering the dress...and going through the rush (thank goodness they waived that!)...it should be here the end of March! Fingers crossed for easy alterations, a great fit, and one happy MOB!

Upon calling to inform my mom about her dress order, I informed her of my plan (because I'm crazy) to create my own Thank You cards. Okay Okay...I get it, WHAT? WHY? HAVE YOU LOST YOUR BLOODY MIND? And the short answer is...potentially.

My thought was....this will be a great way to save a little money...and could potentially be kinda fun....and even let me pick exactly what I want versus looking at a few, ten or more, tons and tons of possibilities! Well, my dear, sweet, supportive mother informs me that why yes, I have, in fact, lost my mind! Oh well! Hopefully it will turn out to be fun and not something that leaves me running through the house with smoke coming out of my ears! 

I'll post more about our recent cake tasting (yes, we had to pick another place....) and wedding band shopping here shortly! 82 days to go!

How did we get to only 99 days??

So turns out, hitting the actual year of our wedding brought on MAJOR feelings of "we've got a whole lotta junk to do!" Now, please don't think for a minute that I didn't realize we had a lot to do...I just didn't realize that as soon as 2013 hit and I saw that we are almost to a double digit countdown, I would suddenly be overcome with a sense of "what on Earth have I been doing for the past 6 months?" Alas, such is life, and I suppose it's time to get crackin'!

So, what was accomplished this week....
-HOPEFULLY a dress for my mother
-Found and spoke with our officiant
-Set up my first fitting appointment (so please, do not offer me a cupcake until after February 10!)
-Found a lady to make my "something blue" for the inside of my dress
-Met with a make up lady

If I can keep up 4 things a week...we should be fine! under control!  able to avoid a complete meltdown!

So, time to elaborate on what was accomplished (gotta focus on the postives right?) After much clawing, scratching, demanding, nicely reminding repeatedly Mom and I headed to a dress shop close to where I live! Now, if there is one thing I've learned watching multiple woman (and remembering the thoughts in my own head) try on form fitting dresses...it's this...no matter how secure you are in your looks and body, you WILL be insecure at some point. So, after going through a few styles dresses (avoiding the "I'm older than 60" look and "I'm a sexy cougar!" look of course!) we found something that looked stunning. Beautiful. Amazing. Perfect! I, of course, was thrilled but knew it was Mom's choice. So, we immediately go see color options and, as if by fate, found a GORGEOUS light green color that would match not only her skin tone, eyes, etc...but also it would match so perfectly with my dress, the bridesmaid dress, the flowers, the venue, EVERYTHING! So here I stand, my innards doing somersaults hoping my mother "says yes to the dress" and I'm followed with "Let me think on it." Oy vey. (Kisses Mom!) So, with the remembrance that this is for my mother and at the end of the day I want something that she loves and makes her feel amazing, we move on to the Mall and run through a few department stores. Pretty disappointing really. So, we have an appointment at one other place this Sunday! Fingers crossed for something amazing!!

Next up, we have debated an officiant for a while. We wanted it to be someone special, someone who knew us, and could speak about us. So, we finally decided on Trey's uncle, James. We spent some time with him during our vacation a few summers ago. He is thoroughly enjoyable and has some sentimental value to both of us. We had not had the opportunity to speak with him since he lives in Fort Lauderdale and we haven't seen him in a while, so when I found out he'd be coming to the Deaver Family Christmas I was ELATED! I immediately called Trey and informed him of our good fortune, and he responded (in true Trey fashion) "well good, that way if he disagrees we can send him 'swimming with the fishes' in the river." Yup, that's what I'm marrying, can't you tell I'm proud? Well, after we cornered him outside and proposed our idea of having him officiant, he was thrilled! WHEW! Check that off the list! It will be so wonderful having him stand up there facilitating our ceremony!

Now to my moment of "oh shit!" (Sorry for the language...it happens.) I blame it all on my "Man of Honor." Tuesday night (the night before I went back to school) he sends me a message stating: "What are the dates for your bachelor and bachelorette parties?" Now, in 2012 I thought "we've got PLENTY of time for that." In 2013, I'm a little stressed because it isn't scheduled yet! But it all will be, I just know it...so it's fine! And had it been left at just that...I probably would've been okay. Unfortunately, I didn't stop there. The stream of questions went something like this, "When are we going to schedule those? What's the etiquette behind those? Who is supposed to plan it? Who is supposed to pay for it? When are your showers? How many showers are you having? Who is going to be hosting those showers? Are you going to have them themed or just family? Perhaps your mom could talk to my aunt about helping out? When are we going to have an invitation sample? Are we planning on doing direction cards? What do we need to do about the scrapbook? Are you planning on going to look at those soon?" GOODNESS GRACIOUS...and I wondered why I didn't sleep that night. Hmmm.... my favorite part was the following day when I got not one, not two, but THREE text messages stating how I need to get in touch with our photographer about the polaroids and speak with the girl who is setting up our invitations about when they will be ready. Whew...I love my fiance, I love my fiance, I love my fiance.

And here, I thought he was going to be worrying about our honeymoon. Silly me. :)

So, as we move through the next few weeks, just send a few positive vibes my way! They'd be greatly appreciated! Turns out, I haven't had a bridezilla moment yet! (Although my fiance may disagree!)

Tis the season for REGISTERING!

"Sarah, you might as well go by yourself?" "It was very stressful!" "That was my least favorite part of wedding planning."  Each of these statements were made by friends regarding preparing for our up and coming registering experience. After much thought and deliberation, we opted to register at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (purely for convenience sake...you're welcome in advance.) and Williams Sonoma (for those "wish list" items.

I'm sure Trey felt like my "nagging bride" mode came in FULL SWING when it came to registetering. I felt like it needed to be done around the holidays...just in case...and he didn't. My main squeeze wanted to wait until January, when we would be....sending invitations, finding/ordering the groom's and groomsman attire, scheduling things for the honeymoon, determining and testing a place for the rehearsal dinner, confirming cake/food/rentals, and well, I'm sure I'm leaving something out. With that said, I pushed....and pushed...and PUSHED to have this done before I went back to school! And thankfully...he caved! :) (I knew there was a reason I was keeping him around!)

So after spending a morning on a Skype date with our friends Meredith and Jason, whom we are going to visit during our honeymoon, and purchasing the plane tickets for our honeymoon (which will leave me living like a gypsy for the next five weeks until our next payday!), we headed on our ready to grab scan guns and have a field day! After 2 1/2 hours between BB&B and Williams Sonoma, we had a whooping 38 things on our registry. Much to the dismay of the Williams Sonoma woman who promptly informed us that it was necessary we add more the registry and think of our guests who would be purchasing these said presents. Now, I will say, after over 3 years of living together, having a man who loves to cook...there simply was not and is not much that we need. So, we got some extras...towels, sheets, etc...and we've selected a few replacement items...pots and pans, silverware, etc...and we added a few new items, such as an ice cream/frozen yogurt maker (perhaps not the best idea for someone with lactose intolerance) and a fondue set (cha-ching), and the best part...my square plates!!!

Now, I will say, for those of you who are simply "so concerned" about a variety of options, we will be looking online at adding a few items...and we'll also be considering other registry or honeymoon fund options! Don't you fret! :)

After it was all said and done...I can't wait to check back over the next few months and see what fun things we'll have to play with after the wedding! And quite frankly, it wasn't too awful at all! Whew! Next up, invitations!

As the year comes to a close...and our wedding gets closer...

With Christmas now behind me and 2012 coming to an end, I suppose it's time to update! (Even my father pointed out that it has been quite some time.) The honest truth is, there hasn't been too much wedding excitement happening! But, with what has happened, I suppose I can fill you in!

Throughout this process, things have either been incredibily easy, or a bit of a challenge. The venue...a challenge. Photographer...easy! Food...easy! Cakes...EASY (and SCRUMPTIOUS!) Even rentals...easy!

Now where we struggled first was...bridal party. How big is too big? How small is too small? Where do we stop? Who do we choose? How do we select people that 20 years from now are still making a point to be in our lives? Do we have to have an even number? Are we going to hurt the feelings of people we care about? Decisions...Decisions..   With that said, we opted to go with a bridal party of four, two on Trey's side, two on my side. Yes, it's small, however, we felt like perhaps we needed to keep things small, people who were close by, and those who have been an integral part of not just my life or Trey's life, but our life as a couple. So, ladies and gents...I present to you:

Best Man: Brett Deaver

Groomsman: Brian Hales

Man of Honor: Destin Dunham

Bridesmaid: Ellen Forstrrom

As you can see, I'm hoping we picked some winners! :) Trey and I decided that since we were having such a small party we needed to "wine and dine" and hopefully coax them into agreeing to assist us and provide all the help that we are going to need! Now, we haven't had the chance to wine and dine everyone yet, but we were able to take Destin out to a lovely French restaurant in Atlanta called Atmosphere...and when it finally came time to bring up why we were taking him out, he already had things figured out! Apparently, we are nearly as sneaky as we thought! Oh well, turns out Ellen is MUCH MORE oblivious to our sneaky ways as she did not see it coming at all! We met Ellen at one of our favorite tapas restaurants in Crabapple called Sip (thank you Susanne Oreszko!) She was so thrilled, she got in touch with her mom immediately to tell her the news! With that behind us, our next step was bridesmaid dress!

With only one female to shop for, mom and I had a blast! Ellen was like our own personal Barbie doll (thanks for being such a good sport!) In true fashion, Ellen was running late! Thankfully my dress had just arrived and I was able to try it on!!!! (When I tell you...longest 3 minutes of my life while they laced and then zipped it up!) Now, I have to admit (as a sidebar) that I love my dress even more now than when I picked it out! WOO HOO! So after probably 8-10 dresses, we decided on an incredibly fun, yet flattering, tea length, sweetheart neckline with fun pick ups dress in the most gorgeous shade of purple! Err...I believe it's "eggplant" to be exact! Check that off the list! I can't wait to see it on her in the proper color and size!

Now, the most recent (and perhaps longest) discussion/difficult decision we've come across is invitations. We don't want something too expensive as...the majority are going to be thrown away. Yet, we don't want anything that doesn't match the day either. I'm pretty sure together we have looked at more invitations than venues! (And that's hard to top!) Thankfully, one of the ladies I work with has an Etsy store where she and her sister make PAPER PRODUCTS!!!!! As soon as I found that out, I immediately bombarded this poor girl with a slew of questions in hopes of having our dream invitation created rather than found! With that said, we are currently in the process of getting a sample put together and I couldn't be happier! However, once they are all made, we will be looking to recruit those wonderful members of our bridal party to help address, stuff, seal, and stamp all of our gorgeous invitations! For those of you in need of paper products, here is Ashley's store on Etsy! Be sure to take a look!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PalmettoPeaches?ref=shop_sugg

As for our next steps, welp, I've got 2 pages of things to do! Thankfully that dear fiance of mine will be taking an ENTIRE week off in January to start running some errands, getting things locked down, etc! For now we are looking forward to registering tomorrow (I'll be sure to blog about that once we're all done...hopefully with no horror stories!) and enjoy our final 115 days!