Christmas...its the best time of the year

Santa was great to Will and I this year! 

We got a ton of things for our one day house. We got a crock-pot, glassware, Christmas china from Pottery Barn, cookware, and much much more.  I love Christmas with my family because we spend about 3 hours opening up gifts, taking our time, talking, and eating! It was odd being the first Christmas without getting clothing since we need a lot of home things but I must say the most exciting part was getting my ELF ON A SHELF!!!! :)  It was great.  The elf on the shelf tied string to my bedroom door and I had to follow the string down the stairs and into the living room to find it tied inside of the box.  Once I opened my elf on a shelf he got into a lot of mischievous trouble exploring the house :)

Joey also got me my first cookbook! I need the practice so I have decided I am cooking the remainder of my winter break!  Tonight I made Meatball Pie, it actually might have been the best meal I have ever made....which isn't saying much because I have made some pretty awful stuff before.  The cookbook might be the key to Will eating well once we are married! 

Now that Christmas has come and gone I have been busy during my time and I finally got around to cleaning my closet...I have 3 bags of clothes to donate and my closet is still stuffed full.  I am now wondering how I am going to live once Will and I share a closet.  

I know I haven't been too busy wedding planning but I sure have been busy thinking about all the things Will and I will need once we have our home...so while I was out shopping with my mom this week I purchased our first piece of furniture! It was an exciting moment! The purchase was pinterest inspired after spending countless hours looking at home decoration. When I found this beautiful bench I knew I had to have it because I had pinned something like it on my own pinterest board :) An added bonus is that Ella absolutely loves it...she was finding a comfy spot soon after I had carried it in. 

I can't wait to put it in our entry way one day :) It doubles as a bench and storage.  

New Obsession...

Pinterest! If you haven't heard of it you must go check it out! I love looking at pictures and this is just the place.  Here is a cute photo I saw and want to take a similar picture with our flower girl and ring bearer on the wedding day :) Thanks Pinterest for the idea!

Getting a Head Start on Wishing

Last night after work Will and I were trying to figure out how to spend our evening when I gave the suggestion to go start our gift registry.  I threw the idea out there thinking Will would shoot it down and not want to send his Friday night in a store.  However, Will was in on the idea.  So after a nice dinner with my parents we headed out to Target.  We decided Target might be a convenient place for our guests to shop and they do have some cute home stuff that is affordable.  We scanned a ton of kitchen items and we even added a few fun things that Will was interested in so that he could get excited about "manly" presents.  We also registered at Bed Bath & Beyond this morning.  We picked out plates, glasses, and other exciting things.  It ended up being a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be and Will was super helpful.  He gave his opinion on a lot of things which I was thinking he wasn't going to be too interested in.  We had a lot of fun talking about what our future house is going to be like, it made us wish we already had one. But the awesome thing is that we are saving a lot of money right now so that we can afford our dream place sometime soon! Now I can't wait for my bridal shower in the summer :)  Here is a sneak peak at our registry:

Sadly, I was excited about this new food processor because it also will chop/slice food and if you have ever tried cooking with me then you would know this slicing option is good for me because I can't use a knife to cut a thing in the kitchen :(

This clock made me think of all the Pottery Barn catalogs that come in the mail :)

I love ANYTHING monogrammed! If I can add a "W" to it, then I want it! I even interested Will in some beer glasses (even though he isn't a big beer fan) just because we could add "Wheeler" to them!  

Flowers, Cake, Harpist...Oh My!

Well I first need to start off by saying I survived the 1st quarter! A lot of my parents asked about the wedding at parent/teacher conferences because apparently my kiddos are so excited that I am getting married that it has become the talk around a lot of families kitchen tables.  2nd graders are too cute!

So about a week ago we when to Twinbrook Florist to talk about flowers and my goodness were they great! Before even showing the women some example pictures I had found on the internet she pulled together all of the flowers I wanted in only a few seconds.  I told her I didn't want any roses or carnations and that I wanted a lot of texture to my bouquet.  She went off to the back and came back with this...

This is just a sample of the flowers that will be in my bouquet and it will have a green grass cage as you can see part of that to the top right of this sample.  So now flowers are said and done and Will made the deposit on one of this days off this week :) 

The next day, after our flower appointment, Will and I went to taste the cake at a place in Reston.  The cake was good and we defiantly liked the pumpkin cake! However, we had to listen to this man for an hour and half talk about how he was the best Willy Wonka.  With them being in Reston and our wedding being in Myersville, it was going to be quite the haul and a hefty charge.  We are still thinking about it because we did love the pumpkin but we are going to try other cake places, maybe a little closer Myersville, before making our decision.  

Finally, the harpist idea has become quiet the hassle.  Apparently a harpist will only play outside if there is perfect weather between 62 and 85 degrees.  With our ceremony being outside we are starting to wonder if we should take the risk on a harpist because if we do, we have to not only have the sun shining but also have just the right temperature.  So with that said...we aren't sure what to do.

The good thing is flowers have been picked! :) 

P.S. I have become obsessed with etsy.com because I have been looking for a hair piece, props for our photo booth, and other miscellaneous fall items.  If you have never visited etsy.com before you must give it a try! 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! October has flown by and I can't believe November starts tomorrow! 

(Will and I carved our pumpkin last night before he traveled half way around the world for work)

Almost 11 months to go!  Wedding planning has been slow lately with school taking up most of my time.  However, this week is packed full of parent/teacher conferences + wedding planning.

On Wednesday my Mom and I are going to our second flower appointment to figure out what flowers to use in the bouquets and boutonnieres. I don't want any roses so I am ready to get creative.

Then on Thursday Will and I are going cake tasting! One of the appointment I have been looking forward too :)  We are going to try a pumpkin cake which I am super excited about since I have the whole pumpkin theme going on...why not continue the theme into the flavor of the cake? I hope it tastes as good as it sounds.  The cake place specializes in butter cream icing to look like fondant so I am also excited to see what is looks like.  A colleague of mine went to the same cake place and said you get to take home whatever you don't eat at the tasting so I can't wait for cake leftovers...I am starting to sound like a fatty.  I am just addicted to sugar.  Also, the cake place will bake you a complementary cake on your 1 year anniversary so Will and I can enjoy a fresh cake when we celebrate our first anniversary.

Then on Saturday my Mom and I are going to meet a harpist to listen to some of her music.  This week Will and I also signed our DJ contract another thing is checked off the list!

More to come after a busy week of planning.  We are still way ahead of schedule and I am liking it!

A Year From Today...

WE WILL BE ENJOYING OUR WEDDING DAY :) By this time next year our vows will be said, our cake will be cut and we will have spent one amazing evening with family and friends! I hope the day won't go by too fast!

Tomorrow my mom and I are taking a ride up to Myserville to check out some near by hotels, see what the fall foliage looks like, and possibly eat lunch at the place Mrs. Wheeler is thinking about having our rehearsal lunch/dinner at!  I just came across the cutest way to have our family and friends sign a "guess book" but instead it is a tree that we can hang in our house one day.  I really like the one with orange leaves :) Check out some examples I found online:

 lovliday.storenvy.com

 simplydivineevents.blogspot.com

  simplydivineevents.blogspot.com

 This month I have set some goals to keep me on track and to take my mind off school because I have been spending a lot more time at school this year than I did last school year! This month I am hoping to make appointments to pick out flowers for bouquets, go cake tasting (something I am looking forward), and get our save the dates out. Our save the dates should be coming in about two weeks.  I still need to get cracking on getting those address! We will see if I can get all of my goals accomplished this month.

Happy Birthday Will!

Today was Will's 24th birthday! This morning I was telling him how crazy it is going to be on his next birthday when we will be 5 days away from our big wedding day! Even though it was his birthday today we finally started to play with our engagement photos. First, we decided that we are going to turn them into a photo album so I spent 2 hours putting together an album on costco.com while he watched football with my Dad.  Then I decided we really needed to get our save the dates done so I started playing around on this website called wedding paper divas.  We found this save the date with a little calendar on it but then it bothered me because the photos were not symmetrical and I thought the calendar made it a little bit cluttered.  When I was just about to give up on playing with save the dates for the day I came across this one on the website that I feel in love with.  I spent 5 minutes inserting our photos and changing the date and that was that.  We bought them and they are going to be on their way in a few weeks!  Check out the proof, I even got to add the cute little picture of my shoes :) Now it is time to start collecting every ones address...I have been dreading this part of the process.

www.weddingpaperdivas.com

Wedding Expo

Today I went to the bridal expo at George Mason University with my Mom, Joey, and Pam.  We had a great time together people watching and tasting cakes!  We found a great cake place in Reston and a great place that makes wedding dress cookies for my bridal shower.  The best part was that Joey found an amazing harpist at the expo.  Since I am not the one with a music ear in the family my brother has been put in charge of all ceremony music.  While we were there he found this great girl and as I listened to her playing a few of her samples I decided Joey was right and a harpist would be a nice touch to our ceremony.  I think it is a great idea because with an outdoor wedding we aren't able to have a piano/organ.  Also, Joey's friend Stephanie is going to sing during the ceremony so the harp will be a good accompaniment with Stephanie's great voice.

 Waiting for the fashion show to begin

I've decided we are going to go with a plain cake with the ribbon around each tier. 

It keeps it classy and simple...a theme that is starting to unfold.

More Engagement Pictures :)

Our wonderful photographer Jessica Schmitt has put some of our pictures on her blog, please feel free to check them out at Jessica Schmitt Photography. Leave us a comment on our blog and let us know which one is your favorite! We would love to hear your opinion.  I must add that when I first saw them I was running around the house and jumping with excitement, I had my mom and Joey laughing so hard they were almost crying because I was being so ridiculous.  Our favorite comment was when Will tuned in and said he looked like Huck Finn because we decided to roll up our jeans when we went into the fountain to take pictures. :) We are a little silly sometimes.  Hope you enjoy our photos!

Sneak Peak

Yesterday our photo session was perfect! The sky was a beautiful blue and we had a nice breeze too.  We took a ton of fun pictures at the Jefferson and we had a little fun when we went to the Roosevelt because we got into one of the fountain. We even got a beautiful sunset picture on our way back to the car. We had a great time with our photographer and her husband!  Thankfully we took our pictures yesterday because our back up date was today but with the 5.9 earthquake today they closed most of the monuments in D.C. along with the bridges into/out of D.C.  It would have been a nightmare if we were planning to go today.  Our photographer sent us a little sneak peak today. Hope you enjoy!

Jessica Schmitt Photography 

Jessica's husband took pictures of her taking pictures of us for her website :)

Engagement Shoot Today!

Will and I are taking our engagement photos today!  It has been a long month of picking out just the right outfit for the shoot but with the help of my brother I was able to find my dress at White House Black Market. I am excited about my cute shoes too!  The plan is to take our photos at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and then head over to the Roosevelt Memorial to take some pictures by the waterfalls there.  Hopefully everything goes as planned.  Our photographer recommended using some props so Will and I went to Michael's this morning and bought a cute little chalk board to write messages on.  Here is a example of using a chalk board.

stylemepretty.com

On another note Will's Tungsten ring came in and we didn't like it.  It doesn't look like it did in the photo.  We wanted a brushed finish ring but the ring that came has a shinny polish finish.  Today we went to a jewelry store and found something closer to what he wants and ordered it.  Hopefully this time when we see the new ring it will be more what we were expecting.  Now we just have to return the old one.  We are still looking for a ring to match my engagement band exactly.  

Stay tuned for an update after our photos today!!!! :) Keeping my fingers crossed the sky stays bright blue!

(p.s. it's my last week of freedom/summer before I go back to school next week. I am secretly excited to get back to my classroom, I have lots of new plans for my room this year!)

August = Productivity!

This month has been a productive month so far and it's not even over! With 2 weeks left until I am back at school working to get my classroom all set up I have been busy getting some wedding planning done. So far this month:

1. Research photographers
2. Meet with 3 photographers
3. Pick photographer and sign contract
4. Engagement shoot (to be done August 22nd or 23rd!)
5. Officially ask bridesmaids to be apart of the wedding
6. Bridesmaids order dresses and shoes
7. Start wedding website (to be released after engagement photos are added to it)
8. Look at wedding rings and order Will's
9. Begin to research DJs


I love checking things off the list! The biggest accomplishment was choosing our photographer! We are really excited to begin working with her and we are excited to say that she inspired us to have a "photo guest corner" where our guest can take pictures and download them at home after the wedding.  It is not like a regular photo booth where you go inside of a booth to take pictures.  Instead it is an area at the reception with props, frames, white boards and a 2nd photographer to take your picture.  We are excited about this because it is something we hadn't considered before.  It is going to be a lot of fun :) Check out this awesome photo booth!

After my wonderful bridesmaids ordered their dress this month so I could check it off the list and not have to worry about the dresses being discontinued, I took them for some wine tasting and we had a great time :)

Sharing some Sangria at Paradise Springs Winery in Clifton, VA 

Bridesmaids and their wine glasses I made :)

And last but not least, Will's wedding band has been ordered and is on its way! Here is the band he picked

www.tungstenworld.com

More updates to be added after we taking our engagement photos next week :) 

Finally The Colors Are Picked!

So for the last 4 months I have been unable to make up my mind about the color theme for the wedding.  I started wanting a rust orange, then switched to brown, and then to green, and now have finally made up my mind. (I know it's not a big surprise that I couldn't make up my mind... it was a big decision) About 3 months ago, sometime early May, Joey, my Mom and I went to look at dresses to start thinking more about colors.  We had a blast and Joey looked great in some bridesmaid dresses ;) as you can tell he was thrilled.

We did successfully find the bridesmaid dress that I would like but they didn't have a sample in the colors I wanted.  My Mom modeled it for me.

We left thinking we would go with green so we could add pops of orange and brown to go with my fall theme  and not to mention Will's favorite color is green.  But then the more I thought about it I wasn't sold on the green idea because I didn't want my bridesmaids to look like they were in camouflage when we take picture on the green golf course.  

Yesterday, however, we went back because my Mom's MOB dress came in.  She looks absolutely stunning and sassy! :)  We brought one of the bridesmaids, Miss Ana Godlewski, to look the bridesmaid dress we picked out and to get her input on the color theme since the green wasn't working for me.  She modeled a few dresses but she looked wonderful in eggplant purple so finally the colors have been settled. We are going with eggplant purple with accents of silver and rusted orange (because I want pumpkins). The dress below isn't the dress I chose, it is just shows the colors the bridesmaids will be wearing.  The actual dress style is the one my Mom is wearing above. 

 The dress will have a silver sash

Thank you for being such a great model Ana! :)

After our eventful day of dress trying on I went home and found some shoes that I like on zappos.  I am so excited about my zappos find because they have free shipping!! I think I am going to order one pair to make sure the purples match before having all the bridesmaids order their shoes.

Annie Betsy Purple Satin from zappos.com

Overall, yesterday was very eventful and I am excited to cross another thing off my summer to do list :)

My Wedding Dress Is IN!!!!!!!!

I got a call on Thursday that my wedding dress is in!!! It was not suppose to be in until next August but the place I bought my dress made a mistake when they were ordering.  They did not look at the year of my wedding therefore they ordered it and it is HERE!!! :) My mom and a few bridesmaids are going to see it next Wednesday. I am not doing a fitting until this time next year but I want to go see it and put it on because the store is going to be holding it for a year.  I began my shoe hunt and every pair of shoes I have fallen in love with are quite pricey. If price wasn't a worry (because Will and I are saving to buy a house) then I would buy these Benjamin Adams shoes.

myglasssliper.com

My moms MOB dress is also in so we are going to pick it up this weekend! 

On another exciting note Will and I have made our first appointments to meet two photographers.  We are meeting them on July 30th and I can't wait :) 

Hello Again!

I can't believe the last time I posted was May 1st! Life went crazy in May and June!  First, I finished my first year of teaching, YAY! :) It was a great year and I miss my kiddos but I sure am enjoying my time by the pool now.  Second, Will graduated from the academy and is back home after 4 months of training.  His parents, my parents, and I all went up to New Jersey for his graduation last week on June 24th.  We are all so proud of him!

Congrats Will :)

Now that Will is back home and school is done so I have finally gotten back to wedding planning. Next on my to do list is to find a photographer.  I have started the photographer hunt but it is very overwhelming.  There are millions of photographers and after about 30 minutes of looking at their websites they all begin to look the same.  Will and I have decided that we are going to take our engagement photos down in D.C. by the monuments so now we just have to find the right person to take the photos.  If anyone has any photographer suggestions or recommendations please feel free to leave us a comment.  

William's HOME!!!!!!

This weekend Will came home, it was the first time I have seen him in about 10 weeks.  It was a long wait but it is worth it because he is doing an awesome job at work!! It's weird to think it was the first time we have seen each other since the weekend we got engaged.  Will road the Grey Hound home and decided he was never going to ride it again because "it smelled like feet the whole bus ride." It was an eventful weekend home because Will bought a new car and now he doesn't have to take the bus back and watch Saquatia eat noodles with her 3 inch finger nails. :)  I love his new car because it has heated seats...my favorite car feature.  Will loves it because it gets 42 miles a gallon because it is a TDI.  Overall, a fabulous weekend together :)

PS. we found our future dog...I named her Bailey

In Honor of the Royal Wedding!

Today as everyone knows was the Royal Wedding!!! All I really wanted to see was the dress but it ends up that my mom and I got an idea for our rehearsal dinner.  After seeing outrageous hats we decided that we should incorporate outrageous hats into the rehearsal dinner for a fun twist.  :) Check out some of these wonderful hat pictures from today to get your hat ideas ready, thanks to people magazines website.  

 A blue canoe? 

 UFO landing?

 Evil Step Sisters?

 More Evil Step Sisters?

 Bird Nest?

Are you getting any signal with that TV antenna on top of your head?

 Going for a garden look?

 I think we have black netting in our garden too to protect those flowers from the deer.

 Kate and her sister looking ravishing!

Day #3 of Dress Shopping!

Third time = the lucky charm! We found the dress today at Hitched! My mom, Joey, and I first went to a place in Old Town Alexandra and found a few fancy (as our dear friend Drew would say) dresses but despite having an appointment we were very rushed by the bridal consultant and we ended up leaving empty handed. Since we had plenty of time until our next appointment, we stopped for lunch at a little Greek restaurant for a few laughs and to feel like we were eating at the restaurant from the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".  Then we went in to Georgetown/D.C. and had an AMAZING appointment at Hitched.  Everyone that worked there was so helpful and friendly. I had found a dress that I liked online and we went to Hitched because they were the only place that had the designer that I was looking for.  It also ended up that the designer was having a trunk show so I got to try on dresses right off the runway!!! Man are those models skinny!! I was able to put on the dresses but they were snug.  However, I ended up loving the original dress that I had gone in there to see.  Of course I knew it was the dress after crying :) I must have tried on about 50 dresses over this past week and this dress was the only one that brought tears to my eyes...that or they were tears of shock over the price.  I was told it was "the Mercedes of wedding gown fabric" by the Amsale representative LOL! I put my down payment down and the dress is being ordered!!! It is an Amsale dress...which is a little ironic because the first movie Will and I ever saw together was the movie "The Hangover" and in the movie the bride is wearing an Amsale dress. Must be meant to be ;)  I can't wait to wear the dress on the big day!

Photo of the day: Joey being inventive with veils

Overall, one very successful day!! 

Day #2 of Dress Shopping

Today was defiantly not like Monday! First we went to Ann's Boutique right near my house.  It was such a let down...never go there to buy ANYTHING! They are sooo rude and know nothing about dresses. I wanted to add a beaded belt to a plain dress but she didn't know what a belt was and she only brought me sashes. Also, a high schooler was in the dressing room with me to "assist" me while putting on the dresses but really all she did was take the dresses off the hangers instead of helping me zip them up.  It was very unprofessional as this high schooler also had large black X's on her hands from her wild night out the night before.  Also, their selection of dresses was sad.  Overall, it was a let down.  However, for laughs I had my mom try on this dress and she looks like Cruella De Vil (minus the black and white hair).

Thanks Mom for being a good sport and entertaining me :)

After that we went to a small boutique and found a dress for a very reasonable price. My mom loved it but I am still liking the dress from Janette's more.  We shall see... 

On Friday we are venturing out to Olde town Alexandria and Georgetown to look at dresses with Joey!!! I am looking forward to Joey coming with us because we are sure to have some good laughs whenever he is around :) More to follow...

Day #1 of Dress Shopping

Today my mom and I went to Jeanette's Bridal and we were there for 3 hours! I tried on about 15 dresses and I found 2 dresses that I really liked but I am not 100% sure if one of them is "the one."  We shall see after the week is over and I have tried on about 100 dresses.  ;)

However, on a more exciting note my mom found her Mother of the Bride dress after trying on her second dress.  It is BEAUTIFUL on her and she looks stunning! It is so classy and we picked a cute little quarter length sleeve jacket to go with it.  I am so excited for her.  We also found a very cute bridesmaid dress that we both really liked.  I can't wait to have some of my future bridesmaids try it on soon. 

Our next dress adventure is on Wednesday so stay tuned!

"Marry Me"

I love this song by Train! Ironically the first time I heard it I was driving home from school the day before Will proposed :)

Dress Designers!

After weeks and weeks of looking online and in catalogs I have found a few dress designers that I like! I first fell in love with an Amsale dress and am going to try it on this Friday at a bridal shop in D.C. called Hitched! My mom and I are beginning the dress search tomorrow though! I have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon and two appointments for Wednesday as well.  Besides Amsale I have found a few other designers that I like such as Lazaro, Jim Hjelm, and Alvina Valenta.  I do not want Will to know anything about the dress so unfortunately for all you blogger fans I will not be post any pictures of the dress or hinting to style, silhouette, etc.  So it will be a big surprise on the big day.  However, along with my dress I have been looking a bridesmaid dresses here and there.  Even though I am far away from truly looking at bridesmaid dresses here are a few dresses by Jim Hjelm that have caught my eye :)

 Love the color, not so sure about those ruffles though

 Love the one shoulder

Beautiful back, but most likely not in red

*These photos are from http://www.jlmcouture.com

Bridal Expo!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to the blog! School has gotten a little crazy with the beginning of the 4th quarter starting and spring break less than 2 days upon us (thank goodness)!!

So my mom and I went to the Bridal Expo at the Dulles Expo center on April 10th.  My goodness was it a fun people watching experience! Plus we got a few ideas for the wedding and we started the photographer hunt.  This photographer hunt is going to be harder than I expected.  Many of the photos are starting to look the same to me and I am not sure how I am going to pick just the right photographer.  It is one of my top priorities so I will spending a lot of time in the next few months focusing on a photographer.  The best advice I got from a photographer at the expo was to find someone that you click with and get along with because Will and I will be spending a lot of time with them on our wedding day.  I also want to take our engagement photos over the summer so hopefully I find a photographer before then :)  (I apologize in advance for the awful quality of the photos below because I had to use my phone, next time my mom and I will not forget the camera). 

Idea #1

At this flower booth a florist gave us the idea that we can cut maple branches with fall colored leaves and hang tea lights from the branches.  Cute idea and something to consider for the foyer.  

Idea #2

Continue strict workout schedule and healthy eating plan so that I can have my dream dress and not look like  a tissue box exploded on my dress.  I am not a fan of puffy, fluffy things. 

Idea #3

Wrapping personalized ribbon around the stem of little pumpkins as party favors

Overall my mom and I had a wonderful time together and had lots of laughs! 

In the upcoming week we are going to possibly start a wedding dress hunt and I am sure with a nice long week of no work I will be able to start gathering more ideas.  More to come :)