Somewhere over the Rainbow… I Got My Dream Man and Shoe!

The blog post comes with complete and utter excitement! The other day, Tres surprised me with the best surprise he has ever given me (next to asking me to be his wife of course). After a long day at work, a hard workout, and a quick dinner, I walk into the bedroom, and poking out from under the covers, I see this……

If you’re not screaming, then you’re reaction is NOT the same as mine! I was on the phone with Ginger, and I think our conversation went from a lot of chit chat to me saying, “Oh my gosh… hold on a minute… I think… Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh… AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! TRESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!” Ginger immediately says, “Is it the shoes?!?!? Oh my gosh, Call me back later.” She knew right away! Tres was in the living room, and I could hear him laughing. I tore open the card and read it – it was the sweetest card – and I ran into the living room and jumped right in his lap. Hugging, kissing, and squeezing him, I told him he was the sweetest, most thoughtful, amazing man I have ever known! I could not believe he had bought me my dream wedding shoes!

The background story on these shoes is: I have pretty much been eying them since we got engaged (clearly… just look at the picture on my blog post “My Something Blue must be my SHOE”). Honestly, I started shoe shopping long before I ever even thought about what kind of dress I wanted, and I know it’s become a popular trend, but I knew I wanted to jump on the “something blue shoes” bandwagon – it’s the perfect way to throw in your something blue and not have boring shoes, and these shoes had me at hello! I had already planned to buy them for myself for the wedding, but my wonderful husband-to-be took it upon himself to surprise me with them – I am a lucky girl to have him! Because of him I get my very own pair of “Beautiful Blue Slippers” – not to be confused with “Ruby Red Slippers,” but don’t these beauties make you think of Dorothy Gale herself?! When one of my bridesmaids, Amy Claire, saw them, she said, “Those are awesome… They look like Dorothy on crack!” When she said that, it was confirmed… I had to have those shoes!

For those of you who don’t know… When I was a little girl, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz was my role model. Several times a day, I would put on my blue dress, get my basket with my Pound Puppy, Toto, in it, and watch the movie – skipping around the house singing all the songs. This is no exaggeration, and if you don’t believe it, my mom will tell you the story of how a new VHS tape had to be bought because I wore the first one out. She will also tell you that she and my grandmother searched near and far for red, sparkly shoes but could never find them until I was too old for “Dorothy shoes.” So, I blame Dorothy for my love of shoes and possibly all women’s, but I also thank Dorothy for being the inspiration behind my choice of wedding shoes! If Dorothy herself could come back and design her own shoes, I can almost bet these shoes would be her creation!

Thanks to my wonderful, perfect, incredible fiancé – I get to feel like Dorothy Gale on my wedding day. I am not only ecstatic about these shoes because they are beautiful – they mean so much more to me because they are the wedding gift from the man I love. After the wedding, I plan to wear these every anniversary we have for the rest of our lives! The meaning behind them, the thought put into them, the blinding blue color, the sparkle, the RED SOLES… those shoes’ home is meant to be on my feet, and as we all know, “there’s no place like home!”

Ready, Set, ZAP!

We finally did it… let the gift getting begin- Haha! Last weekend, Tres and I finally got a chance to register, and what a fun experience it was – even for Tres who was NOT looking forward to it. I learned in registry shopping that the experience for the gals is a mind-boggling, indecisive, “is this the perfect set of towels?” decision making process. For the guys, it’s all about the ZAPPING! You know, the typical man vs. woman: simple and easy vs. complex and annoying. Yes, I have to say, the first step to realizing it is actually kind of annoying is recognizing it, but we just can’t help it can we?! After all, those towels will decorate our bathroom, those wine glasses will be seen by all our guests, and that china will one day be used by our grandchildren – it all has to be PERFECT! For Tres it was, “you like it… lets zap it… just let me zap it!” My response was always, “Tres we haven’t seen it out of the box yet, we have to take it out of the box and make sure it’s exactly what we want” or “Do these pots and pans make you WANT to cook because I want ones that make me DESIRE cooking!”

I knew I would be a stickler about every little item we registered for, so I wanted to us to choose stores we liked best. Target is my favorite go-to store and Macy’s is my preferred department store in Memphis by far; Tres agreed, so we decided on those two for our registry! I wanted to get all of our essentials at Target and all of our formals and classics at Macy’s. Needless to say, that day was one of the most tiring ones I’ve had in awhile. Do you remember being a kid and going to a fair, museum, or sight-seeing on vacation and at the end of the day, feeling like you couldn’t stand one more second on your feet or with your eyes open? After 6+ hours of registry shopping, that was how we felt. The amusement of the zapping dwindled for Tres and my desire for perfection became nonexistent; not to mention, we practically got kicked out because the store was closing, so while registering was a blast, it was also exhausting. If you haven’t done it before, I am giving you your first warning!

With all of that said about our registry experience, I want to leave you with my top 5 favorite items we registered for:


1) Our Flatware – I pick this as #1 because it’s Tres favorite item AND mine! We are both in love with our Dansk “Bistro Café” stainless flatware. It has the simple, modern flare that we both love.



2) Our China – Tres actually picked this China out months ago when we went for a “test registry” (Read more about this on my post, The Never-Ending China Debacle). I asked him to pick a few he liked, and we both ended up loving the Vera Wang “Blanc Sur Blanc” – it too is very modern but classic at the same time, and it’s also a perfect fit with our flatware.


3) HOTEL COLLECTION EVERYTHING – I am obsessed with the Hotel Collection line. We registered for their towels, sheets, and bedding. It’s all so beautiful and soft – the most comfortable thing you will ever dry off with or lay your body on!


4) Giada products – Ok, we have no idea how to pronounce this beauty’s name, but we decided in Target that we wanted all of her essentials. As Tres said, “I don’t like Martha Stewart and I don’t want her stuff,” and as I said, “Omg, Giada is so cute – we have to get all her stuff!” So it worked out in both our favors… although we did throw a few Marthas on there. How can you not?


5) Calphalon Cookset and Bakeware – I have always heard Calphalon is the best of the best, so we went this route with the nonstick cookware and bakeware.


The most exciting thing about registering at this point was actually getting the chance to knock something off of our never-ending wedding to do list. Only SIX MORE MONTHS to go!!!!!

Pink & Gold... Will Never Get Old!

I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself right now. According to several wedding magazines and wedding planner’s blogs, I have chosen a great color palate for our wedding, and I didn't even know it when I did! I'm sure I'm not the only bride to ever come up with this color combo, but since it seems to be popping up everywhere, I am thrilled!

Back in September when we got engaged, I immediately started thinking up a color scheme for the wedding. I had no idea where I wanted to go with it because I don’t really have a favorite color. I mean, if I had to pick, I would say blue, but I am really a neutral kind of gal. I love whites, blacks, beiges, and soft pastel colors that are timeless, and when shopping, I tend to stick to that color palate. With that being said, I pretty much had no idea what our wedding colors should be, so I started by considering the season… fall. Now, I am not too crazy about browns, crimsons, and burnt oranges (yes Lori, I know you love those, but you have prettier skin than me)… it just doesn’t cut it with my fair, freckled skin.

In the mist of searching for the perfect wedding colors, one day I randomly ran across a beautiful bouquet on the Martha Stewart website – it was blush pink, champagne, and gold. One look at that bouquet, and I knew exactly what I wanted our wedding colors to be! And I know I have mentioned it before, but I don’t even like pink. It’s just not my favorite color, and if you would have asked me a year ago if I'd ever have a pink wedding, I would have gagged. Back in my PHI MU days, I had a little taste for it, but wasn't pink crazy. But I now, think it's a fab wedding color. So in the end, I am representing my sorority AND have a fabulous fall wedding colors!

Why did I choose this palate? 1) Its soft, elegant, and timeless – just how I like things! 2) Something about it screams South-Vintage to me. Not sure what, but later on, wedding magazines and experts proved me right. 3) I will never look back at these colors and regret them being our wedding colors because they are so classic. 4) It's a great fall-color combo that doesn't exactly scream FALL. 5) I think it's very Marie Antoinette, french-like, and we are getting married in New Orleans - perfect! And 6) TRES AGREED TO THEM! I never thought he’d be ok with pink as our prime wedding color, but he was totally cool with it. I assured him it would be “dashes” of pink and not an overload.

So, why am I even more excited about these colors than ever before? BECAUSE I AM SEEING THEM IN FALL WEDDING MAGAZINES AND BLOGS EVERYWHERE! I just got one magazine in that dedicated it’s whole cover to pink and gold, I read an article the other day on why pink and gold is the perfect “vintage” look, I have seen countless wedding color palate examples with pink and gold, and I just read two wedding blogs today from planners who are pushing the pink and gold look on fall brides this year! When choosing these colors, I was hoping to be different because I had never seen them anywhere before, but now it seems to be a very popular choice this year, and I’m glad we’re still going with it!

*Photos from The Knot, Martha Stewart Weddings, Southern Weddings magazine, and Blue Moon Event Planning.