Pages

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Wedding Wednesday: MY Real, Very Own Wedding!

It's a special Wedding Wednesday kids!!! You get to hear ALL about my big day!! 
{Disclaimer: This might be the longest post in the history of ever. Sorry, I'm not sorry}

*All pictures stolen from my family and friends' Facebook pics! Thanks guys!*

Here's a break-down of the day:

9:00-Wake up and go for a run. I ran 6.16 miles. (It was June 16.) I realize I am a huge dork.

10:00-Leave the house. Apparently, Travis was driving to our house at the same time, and made his mom (she was driving) take a different route so he didn't accidentally see me. AWWW!

10:30-Pick up bridesmaids and have breakfast at Panera :) 


11:30-Hair and makeup girls arrive. Of course there were mimosas involved. And Cantina salad, leftover from the rehearsal dinner!! Perfect!




{My lovely mother captured this great shot, and I have to say, it's pretty hilarious}

3:00-Almost done...Travis sent my present up to me! The "Mrs." Kate Spade necklace I had wanted...and, DIAMOND EARRINGS! He's a keeper! :) I started crying when I read his card. SOO sweet.



3:15-Put on the dress! No one, except my mom, Kathryn, Travis' mom and Travis' sister had seen the dress yet, so it was very special/emotional to have all of my bridesmaids and my dad see it for the first time!


{Here I am crying...typical}

3:45-Bridesmaids pictures in uptown Charlotte! It was so funny to walk down the street...people were staring and whipping out their cameras to take pictures. I've done the same thing for the last 15 years! So it was funny to be on the other side of it...



4:00-Get on the "party bus" and head to Freedom Park for more pics! It was so freakin' hot (I shouldn't complain, it was like 81 degrees, which does not ever happen in Charlotte in June...we got so lucky with the weather!), my dress was sticking to my legs!! I can't imagine how I would have felt had it been a "normal" June day!


5:00-Arrive at church. I started getting reallllllyyy nervous at this point! 


5:22-They had us walk around to the front of the church for my grand entrance! I spent what felt like an eternity in the back holding room with my dad. Thank God I had my adorbs 3 flower girls to entertain me and keep my nerves down a little.

5:30-Here Comes The Bride!!! I didn't cry walking down the aisle! I was so proud of myself!!! When we got up to the alter, though, my arms felt totally numb! But it was fine, Travis was also sweating profusely the entire time....we all were sure he was going to pass out! Poor guy!

{Can you see the sweat?!}

6:00-Ceremony ends. Travis and I stayed in the back room while the guests exited, and it was one of my favorite parts of the day. I hadn't seen him all day and it was just the 2 of us, so it was nice to talk about our days....and he told me his car had gotten back into!!!! He wasn't in the car, and the damage was minimal, so that was good.
Then we walked out to the ribbon wands!!! Remember those silly things that I gave myself tendonitis making?!?!?


6:15-After family pictures at the church, the wedding party headed uptown in the party bus to take pics uptown.


{My friend, Brittiany took this and added the text! LOVE it!}

7:00-Arrive at Bentley's and change into my "reception accessories"...haha. Oohhh, you know, I took my veil off and put on a headband, bustled my dress, changed into flip flops (Tory Burch, of course!) and OF COURSE, I had to wear my new diamond earrings!!!


7:20-Introductions and our first dance. Travis sang the whole song to me while we were dancing, which was really sweet.


7:45-Dinner is served! We only got around to to talk to half of the room, and then we were forced to sit and eat!!! Which, I am glad they made us do. Because I definitely would not have had a bite if not! Unfortunately, though, we didn't make it to the other half of the room until much later, and some people had already left, so we didn't even get to talk to all of our guests!!

{You can see Kay, the event coordinator, talking to Natalie...making sure we sitting down to eat!}

8:15-Toasts. Natalie and Grady both did TERRIFIC toasts that made me sound like an alcoholic with a bladder problem, but that's cool. 


My dad also made a super embarrassing toast...but then, my grandpa surprised me by giving an amazing toast that brought me to tears!! I love my grandpa, he is very special to me!! 


8:30-Crying continued for the Father/Daughter dance. I chose the most upbeat song I could think of (Here Comes the Sun) and my dad was trying to get me to stop crying by dancing like we were on the Dancing with the Stars or something! But I kept crying! Sorry, Dad!


Travis also had a wonderful dance with his mom, during which, I got myself together with a nice glass of wine.


9:00-Cake cutting! I brought out a UNC poncho so Travis would not ruin my dress!!


9:00-Midnight-So much dancing and fun, I couldn't even stand it! Originally, we had the DJ go till 11:30, but I didn't want it to end!!! I asked him if he could play another half hour...we could have stayed there all night though! 

{This might be one of my favorite pictures from the evening!}

At midnight, everyone went downstairs 27 floors to get ready for our sparkler exit. Travis and I stayed up to have one last dance to "Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney. This was my best idea EVER. I'm so glad we did this, I highly recommend it to anyone who is planning a wedding!!! Travis became so overwhelmed with everything that he cried! Y'all, I have never, ever seen this man even look like he is about to cry, so this was a big deal! And now he's probably going to hate me that I wrote about him crying on the internet. Sorry, honey! But it was a very special moment for both of us. I loved that part of our day.

We pulled ourselves together, and came downstairs to find NO sparklers lit! Apparently, no one had a lighter!! Thank God our friend Brad, the smoker, stepped up to the plate so we could have our sparkler exit! 

After crying hysterically about Natalie leaving me (I wouldn't see her the next morning because she had an early flight) and all of my other friends leaving soon after, we hopped into our town car and went to our hotel room. My sweet, sweet bridesmaids had somehow, sneakily decorated our room! 



It was the perfect end to an absolutely perfect day!!

Just to be more annoying/long-winded, here are the "sneak peek" pics my photog has already posted!!!
LOVE THEM!!!






Can't wait to see them all!!!!

{Whew! Are you still reading? Told ya it was long!}

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

I'm Back...and I'm MARRIED!!

OH HIIIIIIIII there friends! Wayyyy long time, no talk! Last time you heard from me, I was losing my mind! But I'm not anymore....so that's always good news.

Anyways...guess what?? 
I got mahhrriieeed! 




I bet you had no clue...haha!

I definitely want to tell you all the details about my wedding day...but I'm going to be super annoying and save it for a special "Wedding Wednesday" post tomorrow! (Don't hate me, k?)

But before the wedding, was WEDDING WEEK (obvi), so today, I'll tell you all about that (in list form because my life house is a little out of control right now, and lists calm me down a bit).

-I started off the week by packing up my entire classroom. In one day. Actually, like 4 hours. I was on a mission!!! (I'm terrified for August when I have to face the mess I left for myself!)

-Natalie flew in Tuesday and we immediately got to work:

First, we obviously had to take pictures by giant bulldogs. Standard. 
And, then we had to return the cheapo sparklers I thought I should buy. 
**BRIDES TO BE: DO NOT buy bamboo sparklers...I've read they can catch your dress on fire!! Much better to spend a little extra on the metal ones.

-Next we had to stalk the weather religiously, so it didn't change...


...eat Mexican food (duh)...


...and also bake 100 tarheel sugar cookies. Which completely destroyed my kitchen. And that was only the start of my house being messy....


-Thursday was Natalie's birthday, so naturally we celebrated by doing stuff for my wedding (she's a good friend!). We had to deliver all of the stuff for the reception to Bentley's, which was a MAJOR project! 


Luckily, we mentioned to one of the staff that it was Natalie's birthday, and he brought her some creme brule! 



After we returned from Bentley's, Kathryn, sensing the stress in all of this, sent over cupcakes to my house with a note that said "Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake!" She is is the best! :)


Friday was pedicures and the rehearsal dinner! 

{I love my friends in this picture LOL}

{love my bridesmaids!}

{Please excuse my soon-to-be-hubby's tiger tie...you have NO idea...I mean...seriously...longest story ever...I hate that stupid thing!}


Didn't Caitlin and her friend do a bangin' job on the groom's cake?!?!? WOW!! Travis loved it and it was better than I even imagined!

-Before I knew it, it was after midnight on my wedding day and time to go to sleep!!

{And why, yes, I did take a screen shot on my wedding day! Of course!}

You'll get more pics and such of the wedding day tomorrow!!! 
Get excited!!! :)

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Happy Birthday Travis!!

OK, so I may be super busy/losing my mind, but I just HAD to do a quick birthday post for my soon-to-be husband!!!


Happy 28th to my favorite grill master!!! 


I love you lots (even when you are being stinky and won't take a picture!!)
and can't wait to be your wife in 9 days!!!!


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Wedding Wednesday: Losing My Mind/Fav Etsy Vendors!

The big day is getting SOOOOOO close! 10 days away, to be exact!!!! EIYIYI!!! 
People are starting to come into town on Tuesday (yay NATALIE!! and my parents!!), and I feel like my to-do list is still about 8 miles long! There's all of these dumb last minute details (i.e. escort cards and something to put them on) and logistical issues (where is Travis going to sleep the night before? and where will the groomsmen take pictures before the ceremony--if I can even convince them to take pictures then??). 
Combine that with packing up my classroom (last day is Friday, whoop, whoop!), mentally preparing to move up to 2nd grade next year (can I get a hell yeah?!?), oh, and getting things for Travis' birthday tomorrow....I'm basically losing my mind!!!! 


I'm trying to focus on the real meaning behind our wedding day, but it's hard with all of this other crap to deal with!! Thank goodness for wine, great friends, and a very "even-keel" fiance!

But, I did want to share some of my favorite Etsy vendors with you today! Etsy (like Pinterest) has been such a help with this wedding planning process!!! All of the things I either didn't feel like making, or wasn't able to make, I just bought off Etsy!!!

First, I bought some of my bridesmaids' gifts from Etsy....but shhhhh can't share those yet!! :) They read this blog! 

But I also bought.....

My UNC garter! From Sew Unique Garters

A custom hanger for my wedding dress like this one! From CustomWeddingHangers

Tasting forks! From LazyLightningArt

Earrings that I might wear! From Poetry
*Bonus: She even sent me a 10% coupon for my next purchase from her!! :)

A sparkly headband for the reception! From SunKiss Bridal

And last but not least, my incredible veil! From Southern Artistic Veils. It was so much more affordable than the one at the bridal salon, and Maria did an incredible job!! Like, when I went in for my final fitting, the seamstress was sooo impressed with it!!!

Thanks Etsy!!! :)

This could potentially be the very last Wedding Wednesday post--or last blog post even--before the big day!! I'm going to try to write something next week, but with people in town, and my life getting even more out of control, I might not see this blog till we're newlyweds and back from ARUBA!! :) 
Catch ya later alligators!!