Bridal Shower: 85 Days Till I'm Hitched

First, I have to start off by saying I have AMAZING bridesmaids and a GREAT mother! They did such a wonderful job organizing, planning, and decorating for the shower!  This blog might be sweet and short with words but full of pictures!  :)  I had a wonderful time at the shower and am so grateful for all of our family and friends that came to celebrate our upcoming wedding.  The party started at 2pm and we had some foods and drinks. 

Entry 

Drink Table

Engagement photos as part of the decorations

Refreshments :)

Cute Gift Table Sign

My WONDERFUL bridesmaids 

Advise wreath

Cute ring and dress cookie favors for all of the guest :)

Then we got started with a quick game so that the guests could get to know each other.  We played a bingo game that was similar to a "find someone who" game.  The squares on the bingo board described different people that were invited to the shower and the guests had to find a person that matched the description and get five in a row to win a prize.  For example, some one of the boxes read "went to middle school or high school with the bride" and the guests had to find either my friend Corinne or my friend Malia in order to fill that bingo spot.  Donna was of course the first to get bingo because she is great at games!  Lydia came in at a close second and they both won a prize :)

The BINGO winners!

After bingo we played a game that Sara had made.  She and her husband interviewed and recorded Will and I had to answer the same questions Will was asked to see if we had similar answers.  Sara divided the movie into three parts: 1 Questions about Will, 2 Questions about me, and 3 Will's this or that.  I got a little nervous and didn't do too well with part one but I rocked part two and three :)  Will as super silly but it was fun for people who didn't really know him very well to see him on the video.

If you look close you will see Will being interviewed on the TV :)

Questions in the game

Me in the hot seat

After the game I opened gifts.  We got some wonderful things for our future house.  Overall it was a wonderful shower and I had a terrific time.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with everyone before they left but here are a few :)

Jennifer a great friend of mine from George Mason 

My beautiful mother and soon to be mother-in-law

A family friend of ours who has known me since I was a baby and it turns out she knew Will when he was  a child too!  What a small world!

Ladies Weekend in Charlottesville

So the adventure for my Bachelorette party started at 10:30PM the night before the party.  I was packing, all excited and ready for Saturday to come.  I had clothing spread all over my bed and all of the sudden I heard wind outside and boom....out goes the power.  So I grabbed a flashlight to clear off my bed and call it a night so I could get up early to pack.  Usually when our power goes off in a storm it comes back around 1 or 2 in the morning.  However, when I woke up at 6AM Saturday morning  our power was out.  At my parents house, when the power goes out so does our well water.  Therefore, I couldn't take a shower.  So I text all the girls trying to find a place to shower but our phone lines were down and everyone was having cell phone difficulty.  Finally, my wonderful friend Jennifer got her fiance's phone to work and I ran to their house to shower quickly before we left on our adventure.  I packed up quickly and we were ready to hit the road at 10:30AM.  We drove down and when we got to our hotel about about 12:30PM they had no power so we through out bags on a cart, headed to get sandwiches, and begin our wine tasting!  First stop, Blenheim Vineyard, which is owned by Dave Matthews Band.  It was gorgeous and we had a nice little wine tasting over looking their barrel room below.

After Blenheim we went to Jefferson Vineyard and had another tasting.  Our wine pourer was actually a teacher that used to work at Lindsey's school when she was a teacher in Charlottesville.  It was a tone of fun!

After our two winery visits we headed back to the hotel room with our fingers crossed that the power was back on.  Thankfully it was so we checked in, got cleaned up, and then changed into our black dresses for dinner.  We ate at a wonderful restaurant called Bang! We each ordered a special martini then did a little sip a pass with all of our martini's so that we were able to get a little sample of all of the great martini's they had there.  After dinner we went back to the room for a fun little game to see how well I Will and I know each other.  Then we headed out for a night of dancing.  We went to a bar called Trinity.  The dance floor was empty when we got there so we had a huge dance floor and stage to our self but it quickly filled up and we had a great time dancing! On the way back to the hotel room we made a little pit stop at a pizza place and took it back to our room for a little late night snack.  In the morning we woke up to a table that explained it all... pizza, Oreos, Doritos, glow sticks from the dance party, and Gatorade. 

Our room was a mess, it looked a little like the room from the Hangover...minus the tiger.  We had a few fun laughs, cleaned up, and traveled back home after stop at the bagel shop.  We left Charlottesville with some great memories and a terrific time was had by all! On another exciting note the night of my bachelorette party Will got the keys from our town house renters and we now officially feel like home owners.  Ana drove us back to our new town house and Will and I got right to work on renovating our future home. 

Tomorrows blog post will be all about our next adventure...designing Will and I's first home! 

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 :)

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