Veils

Well I do not have a veil for my dress. I can not find the right one to match the coloring of my dress or the look I want. My dress it not white but it is not ivory, it is a shade in between so it has been pretty difficult to find the perfect veil. My dress does need a few alterations so the lady that will be altering my dress actually makes custom veils. I was real excited to find that out and she does a really awesome job with the ones I have seen so far. I will be bringing these pictures to her to show the kind of veil I want. But I also added some more pictures because this wedding was just really amazing out in Arizona.

Etsy Find

Well my birthday weekend was awesome! Friday some friends came over and we had a great time eating, drinking and playing catch phrase. Saturday I just relaxed all day with my friend Liz then I went to dinner at Bonefish with Lauren for drinks and appetizers so it was a great weekend.

I am a true etsy lover. I have bought quite a few things off of it for the wedding and also just household items. I came across some of these pillows and just thought they were really cute. Of course the grey color is my favorite but I like the second picture design the best. But look at some of her different ruffle designs. I think im going to purchase some for our bedroom.

Birthday!

Well it is my birthday today, so I am going to take the weekend off from wedding planning and just relax and not stress for a bit. My wedding invitations came in but the color was a little to bright for what I was expecting so the girl is going to tweak the design and reprint them for me. But they overall look really great. So that is definitely a check off the list. Now I just have to finalize all the addresses and send it all to the calligrapher in Gainesville.

But I just got called off work, so I'm going to enjoy the day of doing nothing and then I am having some friends come to my parents house tonight for dinner and just to hang out. So it should be a great weekend. I think I might even move some more stuff into our house. Because before I knew it next weekend football starts so I am going to be on the go so much!

Have a great weekend Everyone! Heres a picture of me when I was real young, I only have it on my computer because I have been working on our slideshow. Oh how things change. I wish my hair was still that color.

Wedding Videography

I have no idea why but I have been so emotional lately about the weddding. I get stressed but so excited and start crying its ridiculous. But I was watching these amazing wedding videos by Serendipity Videography. They are out of Arizona I believe and if they only lived in Florida I would hire them in a second. They are just so amazing and so special to have in the long run. I never really thought I would want a videographer that much but now I am second guessing myself. I am going to start looking into tonight. I spent about 45 minutes and watched 3 videos and cried in each one of them. Go Check it out at serendipityvideography.com

Happy Anniversary and Real Bridal Shower

First I wanted to say Happy Anniversary to my parents. They have been together for 30 years as of today. If Jeff and I have half the marriage they have we will be set. They are truly a great example of a successful loving marriage.

But on to today's Real Wedding. I have been seeing alot of wedding lately but none really catch my eye. But I did however see a Bridal Shower that is right up my alley. I am so into details its a bit ridiculous, but this is definitely a job well done.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Its my amazing mom's birthday today! She is my best friend and so awesome I could not imagine my life without her. But we are off to celebrate with the family. We always say this is our favorite week of the year because her birthday is today, my parents anniversary tomorrow and my birthday is Friday. So we celebrate every night all week. But I could not find a recent picture of my mom and me so this one is about 4 years old. But it will do.

Different Colored Bridesmaid Dresses

I saw this picture of a bride and her bridesmaids and I just loved how all the bridesmaids had different dresses and were wearing different shades. I think it really looked great. I also loved the brides dress a lot.

Flowers

Well when I think of a wedding three things come to mind: chairs, linens, and FLOWERS. I am in love with flowers and think they make any event you go to. Today I had the pleasure of meeting with my florist, Bill Wilson. He is absolutely amazing and really one of the best in the Jacksonville area. We just sit and talk for hours when I go see him. He just completely gets me when it comes to my vision. He definitely makes me feel at ease. He told me if he has to describe what he is doing for me it would be crystals, candles, and flowers. I was like my three favorite things in a nutshell. But I haven't really posted any of my inspiration pictures for flowers yet, so I will show a couple.

Real Wedding Tuesday

I saw this wedding on the knot and it caught my eye. It is a southern wedding from Charleston, South Carolina. They have some of the best wedding venues up there, wish Jacksonville had some places to offer like old plantations and so forth. But check this one out.







I love lanterns so much. I think they are rustic and really add a great touch. I actually just bought some cool Moroccan style white lanterns to use as our centerpieces at our relax casual rehearsal dinner. I think they are going to work great.

5 Months!

Well my mom and I went to lunch after church today and she said 5 months from today you will be married. It did not even occur to me that I was five months out. Sort of crazy how fast time goes and sort of scary that I have so much to do in such a short amount of time. I know these next five months will fly by.

I ordered our wedding invitations. I think they turned out fantastic. So I should be getting those by beginning of september and have to have them off to my calligrapher right away so I can get them back in enough time to send out.

I am meeting with my wedding planner and florist/design guy this week so hopefully that will accomplish quite a lot. But other than that I think I am doing pretty good on the side of planning. But for some reason I am a little stressed out. I lay in bed at night and have a million things running through my head that I have no control over.

A couple posts ago I wrote about how my friend/bridesmaid Allie was going to be gluing tiny crystals onto my wedding shoes. Well she finished and over 600 crystals or so later they look awesome. She did a fabulous job. I can not thank her enough.





Jeff has been so busy with football camp they have two a days and fan fests where all the kids come out and they sign autographs and so forth. So we really do not get to talk lately as much as we are use to. But someone posted a picture of Jeff at Fan Fest. I thought it was a cute picture and I am sure all the guys are making little kids days by signing jerseys and footballs. I wish I could have been there. But soon enough I will up there every weekend watching the games. I can not wait.




Also, my photographer wrote me an e-mail and said the canvas of Jeff and I was in and it looks great. So I am so excited to get that. I check the mail daily hoping it is here. But other than that nothing to exciting to post about today. Have a wonderful Sunday.

Shopping Day

Well my sister and her husband are almost all moved into their new house. It really has come a long way since they have updated it a bit. I will have to post pictures of it once all the furniture is in. They just got awesome wood floors put down which really changed the whole house. Which means I can start moving Jeff and I's stuff into the house where we will be moving after the wedding. My mom and I are going to go clean it next week and I want to paint the living room with a fresh coat of paint. So I am excited to get that going. I already started moving some of my boxes over there this weekend.
My dad and I went out shopping all day today, one of our favorite things to do together, as my parents are redoing the floors in their house and kitchen countertops. But we also went to look for fabric for those two wing back chairs I got at the garage sale. Who would have thought to reupholster a chair would be hundreds and hundreds of dollars. But in the end I will still be saving some money not too much though. But I found this awesome fabric that I am going to use. It has alot of colors I love so I will be able to keep this fabric for a while and it should go with pretty much everything.

Featured Bride and Blogger

Well I am excited to say I am going to be a featured bride on Florida Brides Blog. This is an awesome blog that is only for brides that are located in florida. There are so many great ideas and real weddings. I have not been featured yet but I will be sure to let you know when I am.

www.floridabridesblog.com also if you click on the buttons on the left side of my blog it will take you directly to the websites!





I am also a Wedding Chicks Bride Blogger, I love this site and was very excited when I found out. The website is www.weddingchicks.com
This is another awesome site for girls planning their wedding and blogging the process. If you are in the midst of planning definitely take a look.

Football Season

Well since it is Jeff's last season I really wanted to be at every game home and away. This also means I will have no time whatsoever to plan this wedding in the next five months. I will continuously be flying or driving somewhere so before I blink an eye it will be wedding time which slightly worries me. But I am beyond excited for the upcoming season.

Especially the Boston college game. I have always wanted to go to Boston so bad. My amazing dad booked flights for my mom, sister and I to go have a girls shopping weekend with a side of a football game. =) It will be so amazing to stay downtown and go to all those neat restaurants and stores. I was telling my mom tonight hopefully I can fine some cute dresses for my bridal showers and luncheons. Needless to say I will be extremely busy starting in 2 1/2 weeks. I think he has one bye game the weekend before Thanksgiving and that was the only time we could squeeze a bridal shower in. My sister was getting annoyed with me because she had to plan my bachelorette party around the football games, but I just can not pass up this. We will be so sad when this chapter of his life is over as it has been so amazing for him, education and football wise. I am truly proud of him for doing such a great job.

Recap From Yesterday and Real Wedding

Well as yesterday was an extremely busy day I did not the chance to post a real wedding. But first I i just wanted to recap on my eventful wedding day yesterday.

We went to the church, which my sister had yet to see. It was great. We did a walk through of where everyone will be prior to the wedding and so forth. The actual sanctuary is just beautiful with stain glass and just one long aisle. I was sad to find out that I will not be able to use an aisle runner. The church does not let the brides use them after multiple incidents of people tripping and falling. The carpet is red which I did not love but I will get over it. But we finalized all the times for the rehearsal and ceremony. So now I am off to order invitations! woohoo!

We then went to our second food tasting, which was amazing. We were stuffed after trying the first two things. We have decided upon our menu and I think it will really give everyone different things to choose from to make everyone happy.
Then we were off to pick out tuxes. My mom said it was the fastest decision I have ever made thus far in wedding planning. It was pretty simple I do not like tuxes but I found one that resembles a black suit almost exactly. I knew I wanted all the boys to wear flat front pants, ( i hate pleats they are awful) so that narrowed our choices down. We ended up picking out a Calvin Klein tux. I think all the boys are going to look really great in it.

But now on to the good stuff here is a real wedding. It was at TPC in Jacksonville, photography done by Pennington photography. They really got some great shots!

busy day tomorrow

Tonight I went over to one of my bridesmaid's, Lauren's house and she cooked an awesome meal for her husband, mom, step dad, liz (another bridesmaid) and I. It was really delicious I have been quite impressed with her cooking skills since she has been married. Especially her Oreo cheesecake tonight, which happens to be my all time favorite dessert. I really need to start learning how to cook or experiencing some different recipes.

But I have a extremely busy next couple of weeks when it comes to the wedding. Tomorrow my mom and sister and I are going to the church in the morning to do a walk through and finalize all the times for rehearsal, wedding day and so forth. Then I will be ordering my invitations next week. I am so excited the design came out so classy and elegant I really love the final outcome. I also need to figure out how long the aisle is because I really want to get an aisle runners since the carpet is red, does not really go with the color scheme but we will see.

We are then heading over to the reception venue for my second tasting I am going to try a couple more things so I can really decide what I like best out of everything. My sister is probably one of the best people to bring with me. She is so honest and has a great opinions and knows what she is talking about when it comes to food. I need to figure out a couple things as for draping and so forth while we are there.

Then we are heading to pick out tuxes or suits for the groomsmen. I am not sure what I want them to wear, but since our wedding is going to be pretty formal i think we should do tuxes, but not too big on the look of vests. But we will see what we find tomorrow.

Jeff started football camp which entails two a days and us barely getting to talk. He just called me at 1015 on his way home from practice and said he lost nine pounds from practicing so much. So crazy how hard they push them. I wish he could be here with me to do the food tasting. But I am real happy he at least got to be here for the first.

Oh and I got my sign, the one that is black and white and says griffin's est. 2010, in the mail today. It is so awesome. I have not taken a picture but I will have to post one. I can not wait to put it in our office or living room.

Registry

One of my favorite things to do thus far was our registries. Jeff even had a blast doing it. I let him have control of the scanner and he went a little crazy at times. But I think we got some really great stuff on there.
We are registered at Pottery Barn, Bed Bath & Beyond, and a few things at Target.

I keep hinting to my mom to make sure I get all my dinnerware & serving pieces from Pottery Barn. I am absolutely in love with almost everything there. But here are a couple of my top picks off our registries.

Our bathroom canisters for the master bath with our monogram.



Our dinnerware is the great white from pottery barn, we got both round and square sets so we can mix and match. I originally wanted to do different colors for dishes, but decided for white then I can buy patterned plates to go with it for different seasons and holidays. I also found an awesome heirloom serving bowl with a great swirl pattern on the rim that is awesome!









One thing that I am obsessed with is chargers. I really think it just makes a table setting. I love all different types of chargers. When I saw these french wired chargers I loved them. I then saw there was a wine rack, three tier stand, fruit bowl, candle holders and knew I had to get the whole set.





Also they have these glass domes a small and large one and I think they are just a great addition to have in your kitchen, very useful.



Last but not least, our pots and pans. Jeff picked these out and they are so awesome. I can not wait to use them.

In Need of Furniture

When Jeff and I get married we will both be coming into the marriage with pretty much no furniture. I have a king size bed, table, some kitchen things from my condo, he has a queen size bed, and a tv. Jeff's parents are so graciously giving us a couch and a chair with an ottoman.

We are not sure where Jeff will be getting a job so for the time being we will be moving into a house my parents have had kept around just incase one of us needed it. My sister and her husband have lived there and now that they just bought their first house they are moving out and so its mine and Jeff's turn. I do not want to decorate too much. I do not want to buy furniture based off the layout of this house because we do not plan on being there for a long amount of time . Just until we figure out what the plan is for jobs and where we need to go ( which i would love to be Charlotte, but wherever Jeff gets the best job that suits him.) But there are some things that we just need to get.

First off being a bedroom set. I have been searching and searching for bedroom furniture and I just can not find one that I am in love with. So I think I am going to be doing a little mix and matching.

I want a linen tufted headboard and I found such an awesome one which has now made it to my birthday list! =)



I also want a desk. I have to admit I am a pottery barn lover. My house one day will be full of pottery barn furniture. But for now I really just want this desk in antique white! It is so awesome with filing cabinets.




So hopefully we will be able to purchase these things sooner than later, along with a dresser for our bedroom.

Passports!

Well today Jeff and I finally went to go get our passports for our Honeymoon. It definitely cost a pretty penny for the both of us, but on our way home we could not stop talking about how excited we are for the honeymoon and all we want to do when we are there. So hopefully we will get those in four to six weeks as they say.

Believe it or not Winston-Salem, NC has one of the biggest Forever 21 stores I have seen and its a place where I could spend several hours. Every time I come up and visit Jeff and he goes off to football practice I tend to spend my time in this store. I really got some great things for the upcoming fall.

I really have had such an awesome time in Winston I am sad I have to go back to Jacksonville tomorrow. But one of Jeff's roommates/groomsman's girlfriend came up for the weekend too, Chelsea. We have grown to be such close friends over the years of the boys living together so we had a great time. Its always great being with her. We even hit up a bingo night. It was hysterical to see how serious people take this. We came out smelling like a smoke box but once we got use to our eyes watering from all the smoke we had a great time. Jeff and Chelsea both hit bingo so it was a successful night.