First Attempt

First inspiration board! Built on stylemepretty's website (my favorite blog... check it out at http://www.stylemepretty.com/ ).

I am beyond excited that this actually worked!! Behold the wonders of technology! :)

Much love to you all... (more to come on this lazy Sunday)

I survived...

... the National Board exam (NAVLE)! And I'm still alive! It was a little touch and go there for a minute, but I made it out with a very tiny piece of sanity left intact.

As I'm sure all of our loyal readers have noticed I've been slacking in the wedding-planning lately. Studying took its toll. My vacation from school is upcoming, though (1 more week) so I'm hoping to make some sort of progress at that time.

I received my invitation in the mail to my dear friend Kellie's wedding today - so excited! There is so much change ahead for all of us for 2010. Its going to be an exciting & eventful year.

I hope the Thanksgiving holiday found you all well. It found me as it usually does, blessed & thankful. The reminder at holiday times of loved ones we've lost leaves a tinge of sadness, but renews appreciation for those still in our midst.

Black Friday found me with a new $40 pre-lit Christmas tree (yay!) that will be going up in the house tonight. I'll be sure to post pictures soon!

I'll conclude with a few pictures of inspiration I found trolling the blogs random nights during my externships... (hm, I can't figure out how to make the picture go at the bottom. Formatting tips, anyone?) Anyway, LOVE that WINDOW. Need to find one of those. NEED. haha :)

Best seats in the House

Hi. I know I've gone missing, but you all can cancel any ransoms you might have promised. I've escaped momentarily from the craziness of life and will do my best to be better about updating this thing as we go along on our journey.

As it is, though, this post is better suited to talk about those that, as Andy aptly put, will have the best seats in the house at our wedding. Four of them are from my family of origin; both sets of my grandparents passed away when I was young. I was closest to my maternal grandmother, whom we (the kids) nicknamed "Dean" (I still have no idea why - but, quite cleverly, her full name then became Dean Martin... sweet!). I had thought until about a year ago that I was around 7 years old when she died, but after visiting her grave realized I had been only four. Its strange how vivid memories can be from such a young age. I remember coloring with her (stay inside the lines!), I remember watching Golden Girls with her sitting on the edge of her bed, I remember sitting at the kitchen table putting rollers in her hair. I remember her at our house on Christmas morning (I think thats the year I got my big plastic kitchen from "Santa") making cookies for the family. My memories of her from so long ago give me comfort today for Kinley (and maybe even Avery)... I hope they'll be able to guard those few precious memories of their great-grandfather and what a wonderful man he was.

I don't have many memories of my paternal grandparents, and my maternal grandfather died before I was born. Though my time with my own grandparents was short, I was incredibly blessed to be enveloped into a great relationship with Andy's living grandparents. When I was younger I did the obligatory dreaming about my future husband, but I can say I never gave a thought to the second family I would gain when I married. And now, I often wonder how it is that I got so lucky to stumble into such love (all the way around - parents AND grandparents - not to mention the future husband himself). Though I didn't get much time with Andy's Papaw, that time was sweet. I was aways met at the door with a hug and and a smile, with kind words, sweet stories, jokes and laughter soon to follow.

I spent a lot of time awake by myself last night, as I've been on a night shift at school and have adjusted somewhat to that schedule. I have so many great memories, which funnel themselves into thoughts about the fleeting nature of time on earth and my abundant gratitude to the God whose seen fit to bless me beyond measure. You see, by any doctor's estimation, I shouldn't have even had the privilege of meeting Andy's grandfather. He had been battling prostate cancer for 18 plus years; near the onset of that fight he was given an 18 month survival prognosis. That is not to mention the plant accident he was involved in when his two children were young that nearly claimed his life. Not only did I get to meet him, I got to love him. And for that I am thankful.

-

Bearing witness to the passing of a wonderful person gets you to thinking about all of the other wonderful people in your life. So, I send my heart to my mom, whose endless guidance and love has made me who I am; to my dad and Doug who contribute botomless support, love, and hugs(Doug); to aunt Nita & uncle John who I am ever-thankful for as you conquer your own health struggles; to my cousins with whom I've shared countless good times and look forward to those ahead (I even love you for those times I got blamed for the stuff you did at my house, ha!); to my stepbrothers who can make me laugh and push my buttons all in the same sentence (but in good humor, of course); to all of Andy's family who have welcomed, loved, and supported me for years already - I'm so glad and proud to call you family!; to all of my friends without whom I simply could not make life work (there truly aren't words for how fantastic each of you is); and lastly, to my love... you have made my life more beautiful, more rich, and I look forward to experiencing all that life has for us, together. May we experience a love like theirs.

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Were a star quenched on high,

For ages would its light,

Still travelling downward from the sky,

Shine on our mortal sight.

When a good man dies,

For years beyond his ken,

The light he leaves behind him shines

Along the path of men.

--Alexander Russell Main

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Cheers, in celebration of wonderful lives lived to the fullest. If you're reading this, know that you are loved this day & always!

To Dean, Maxine, Charles, Sonny, Papaw, and Mr. & Mrs. Knight: we miss you and love you, and the best seats in the house will always bear your name.

My Much-Awaited Debut

Hello? hello? Is this thing on?

Ah, ok, that's better.

Groom-ish guy here, chiming in with a tip: Don't tell a prospective bride she's stressing out, particularly when it happens to be true.

Everyone says planning a wedding is a big job, but the fullness of that reality doesn't really sink in until it begins. I thought planning the engagement was going to be the end of the hard part, and I didn't really have any anxiety about that at all. At least not until we got to the place, I put my hand in the bag, grasped the velvet box, and at that moment my mind went blank. To my credit I did manage to form intelligible words, but all of the suave and romantic things I had planned to say were gone as if they had cought the last helicopter out of Saigon. Fortunately, the event had the intended end result so I guess what I said was good enough.

As we basked in our newly-engaged glory a truth hit me: That was not the end. Fifty-seven months of dating does not culminate in an engagement. There is a wedding after that and someone has to plan it. Most grooms (still a strange sounding word to self-apply) are happy to be let off the hook and let the girls take over at this point but I figure hey this is my one chance to see what a wedding looks like from the other side (unless we consider reality television, which I rarely do) so I thought it would be fun to take a more hands-on approach, within reason. Also someone needs to make sure that there is a sufficient supply of refreshment at the reception, if you catch my drift.

We've only been doing this for three weeks now but plans have shifted to and fro so hopefully we are nearing a point where the basics are settled on and the big aspects can be addressed. We've looked at a few venues so far and are thinking outdoors but keeping options open at this point. Yesterday we went and checked out the tres fabuleux 7F Lodge in Wellborn, and when checking with the lady in the office about available dates I said something to the effect that we hadn't decided on a date yet but it was a ways off, next summer at the earliest. She matter of factly noted that that wasn't "a ways off" at all, and it became immediately clear to me that next July in a wedding planner's eyes might as well be next Tuesday. It's a completely different mindset.

So far everything is going well, but searching Google for wedding resources can be like drinking from a firehose. Weddings are a huge industry and the amount of stuff out there is a bit overwhelming. It reminds me a bit of a recent discussion I had with a customer about painting, and he was nonplussed at the lack of availibility of White Paint. Sure you can go to Lowe's and look at 387 different shades of neutral blankness. What you can't do, however, is buy White.

I'm beginning to think that planning a wedding is going be a bit like trying to buy White Paint, but if everyone out there will just remember my earlier advice I think we'll be ok: Don't tell a prospective groom he's stressing out, particularly if it happens to be true.

That is what I said, isn't it?

Things I love...

Good evening family, friends, and whomever else in cyberspace might be listening...

Happy fourth of July! I hope your holiday weekend has been wonderful!

First, the credit for the 'title photo' belongs to Jessamyn Harris photography via the stylemepretty.com wedding blog. Gotta give credit where its due... great picture! And, definitely something I love... milk glass & flowers (2 for 1)! This picture is truly SO me. Its simple, beautiful, and embodies something antique, traditional, and classy. I always feel like an old soul.

I am currently reading (in addition to the, ahem, 3 to 5 other books on my nightstand daily) Altared, edited by Colleen Curran. I very definitely recommend it to anyone interested in a good story relating to weddings, life, love.

I have spent the last three weeks of newly-blinged-left-hand happiness enveloped in a sea of internet frenzy. Who knew there were so many darned wedding websites? All full of great information and ideas (okay, most anyway). So, in my point-and-click mania I found a couple of standouts. On the photography side, though these peeps are quite far away and won't be on hand for our party, they are super cool!

http://www.justinmarantz.com/

This is the first part of their biography as printed on their website:

He picks up our new Crate & Barrel Rococo stripe dish towel and snaps it lovingly in the general direction of my backside. My posterior. Derriere if you prefer. "You wash, and I'll dry." For us, this one simple statement has become much less about a division of labor and more like a mantra for life. He's the rock in our marriage, but he never forgets that rock would be nothing without the roll. And I'm that high wire tight rope walker, who always remembers how lucky she is to have him as her soft place to land. I'm up and I'm down and everywhere in between and he just stays the course, steadily pushing us, moving us further along the journey. He may be dirty dishes and kitchen cabinet doors standing wide open, but I'm three day old glasses of milk on the nightstand. And for us, it just works. Because at the end of the day, we know we'll fix it all. Together. We're better together. We're stronger together. And together we know we can always count on... "You wash, and I'll dry."

I couldn't read that without thinking of Andy & me. I don't know about the milk, per se, but I have been known to harbor some unintentional science experiments from time to time :-p

So, in the end, I'm not sure who will read this and to anyone who does there are NO guarantees it will even be entertaining or useful in any way... but, its fun! Stay tuned, maybe I'll get more clever as time goes on! :)