The Bachelor and The Bachelorette Venture to Miami and Chicago

If you are in Miami or Chicago this weekend – WATCH OUT!!! The Bachelor and The Bachelorette will be out and about this weekend, and neither will be handing out red roses! As of Thursday, there will be a smokin’ hot bachelor runnin’ loose in Miami and a fabulous bachelorette hoopin’ it up in Chicago! Who am I talking about?! Me and Tres of course! This weekend is the party of all parties before we tie the knot:
The Bachelor and The Bachelorette Party!!!

Our friends have been planning this little retreat for us for several months now, so the excitement has been built up until I can’t stand it anymore! I can’t believe the time has finally come! And it came at the most perfect time… because this gal needs a break! And I know the future hubby does too, and what better way to get one than a weekend out with our best girls and boys!
Here’s a random itinerary for each party:

Who: The Gals
City: Chicago, IL
Hotel: Marriott Magnificent Mile
Goal: To be tourists, drink a lot of wine and champagne, eat as many amazing meals as possible, pretend we live in the 80’s, and be even more fabulous than we already are!Haha – that is only the gist of what we have planned for this trip… I can’t wait to see what else comes of it!

Marriott Mag Mile - Chicago!
Here’s the breakdown: On the days we are there, the cameras will be out and the flat sandals will be on our feet as we take on Chi-Town as tourists! We plan on doing everything from Sears Tower to Navy Pier, drinking much wine and champagne in between! On Saturday, we have brunch reservations at this fabulous wine tasting restaurant called Bin 36. They have flights of wine galore and what looks to me like a really scrumptious menu. Matron of Honor, Ginger, picked this place out. My girls aren’t dense… they know, hand me a glass of red, white, or sparkly, and a smile will come across my face!
As far as night time… get ready to hear about night #1! On Friday night, we are having official MADONNA NIGHT! Yes, you heard me right… Madonna Night! There is an 80’s concert going on at Navy Pier, where a band called Sixteen Candles is playing, and SEVEN different Madonna videos are showing up – that would be me and my six friends! We are each dressing as a different Madonna video. I will be Vogue, complete with the cones, and my girls will be everything from Material Girl to Papa Don’t Preach and everything in between! We will be listening to Madonna songs as we get ready in the hotel suite and then we will be rockin’ to the 80’s at Navy Pier– this should be a huge riot!!! Night #2, Saturday, will be our glam night. We will be going to dinner at the infamous, fancy Joe’s Stone Crab, and then we will head to a top hotspot: Enclave for bottle service, dancing, and pure fun!

Our Suite!!!

One of the best parts about this trip will be where we are staying! We will not only be at the awesome Marriott Magnificent Mile, but thanks to my wonderful friend, Lori, working her magic, we will be in one of the best suites in the hotel: The Governor’s Suite! I have only seen the 360 degree images of this room, but I do believe we are going to be more than pleased!

Who: The Guys
City: Miami, FL
Hotel: Loews Miami Beach Hotel
Goal: Golf, pool, beach, awesome clubs, and just be guys? Heck, I don’t know what all they are going to do! :)

Loew's - Miami As far as I know, Tres and the boys have everything planned from a game of golf one morning to drinks by the pool and on the beach during the day. And at night, I’m sure they will do nice dinners and go club hopping. Whatever they do, it will be loads of fun because Tres will have his very best friends there. I think there are around 10 of them going, so it should be a really fun crew! Tres’ friends like to really go all out and “do it up,” so I can only imagine the fun they will have in that great city!

So… to wrap up my blog post for the week, I have to bring this up. I get theknot.com updates sent to my email and one of the most recent ones was titled something along the lines of “His Bachelor Party.” I, of course, opened it because it was so timely for what was going on in our wedding planning process. In the post, this gal had written something on the message boards along the line of “worrying” about her fiancé’s bachelor party. Some of the responses to her question were good ones, but others made me cringe – women wonder why some men don’t want to get married, or when they do, they despise their wives nagging them.

HAHAHA!!!! Sooooo funny! Here are my thoughts: NO it’s not ok to question him having a bachelor party, NO it’s not ok to ask a million questions and nag him about it, and NO it’s not ok to worry yourself sick over it. 1) If you are worried, you probably shouldn’t be getting married to him in the first place 2) No one likes a nag… its grounds for divorce so stop now while you’re ahead. And 3) Guys like to have fun too… especially with their guy friends, and if you’re not going to let him have it now, what are you going to do when you get married?! Ok… I am done with my judgment for the day. :) Maybe I deal with the easier because Tres city hops for work/with his friends all the time, as do I at times, and we have never had to question it. I mean, if I had a problem with this, as much as Tres travels, I would be in big trouble. Maybe it’s because that’s how it’s been since we started dating, but maybe too it’s because we respect each other and want each other to have a good time – with OR without each other. Lesson of the Day: Let your boyfriend/fiancé/husband do what he pleases, and have a smile on your face when he tells you he is doing so! I promise, you will get one back from him when you want to do the same thing! Moral of the story: HAPPY BACHELOR AND BACHELORETTE PARTY TO TRES AND ANDREA!!!!! And here’s to more fun than imaginable in two of the greatest cities in the country: MIAMI AND CHICAGO!!!!!

Bad Blogger

There’s no other title for this blog but what you see above. Things have been crazy lately… between wedding planning, family in town, and Tres and I traveling, I’ve hardly had time to stop in and drop a line. Ok, so where did I leave off? Engagement pictures! The latest update on that is WE GOT THEM ALL BACK, and I am beyond excited about all of them. We could not be more pleased, and choosing which ones to print is going to be the most difficult part! The good thing about Armosa is they are giving us a disc with all of them on there – how fabulous is that!? So we can print any ones we want any time we want! Yay!

If you liked the sneak peak from a few weeks ago and want to see ALL of them, visit the link below. I plan on blogging about my favorite ones in the next several weeks, but until then, here they all are:
http://www.pictage.com/client/event.do?event=873299&emailFlag=true

Since then, we have also been on a wedding planning roll. We have been knocking our wedding to-do list out Tyson style! Two weekends ago, we made a final trip to New Orleans – the last time to visit the city until the big week, and it couldn’t have went better. Here’s what we have gotten done:

- Florist – I have not met with the florist in person yet and probably won’t ever. But I am not a bit worried because her work is exquisite! Each of my girls will be carrying a single magnolia tied at the bottom with a long gold ribbon. My bouquet will be two dozen Sweetheart Roses –
fully opened, some ivory and some very light pink, with Gardenias scattered. Gardenias look like small magnolias to me, so it should work perfectly with my girl’s bouquets. Each parent and grandparent will wear a sweetheart rose corsage/boutonniere. And like I have mentioned before, the groom and groomsmen will wear cotton blossoms. Ah, aren’t we just as southern as they come? Below are examples of what I want my bouquet to look like… just think of a mixture of these two:

- Cake – The cake baker is booked! We took care of this on our trip to New Orleans. After two tastings and a sugar headache mixed in with nausea (if you like cake, you will be fed well at a cake tasting), we went with what we ultimately thought we would go with in the first place: Gambinos. Tres calls this cake place the “Cake Boss” of New Orleans. Anyone and everyone we knew from New Orleans did not skip a beat when we asked them where to get our cake. Gambinos is a local favorite! Clearly, the cake will taste amazing, but what will it look like? We are doing three tiers, separated from each other, with an ivory color on the cake, and a large sugar faint-pink Magnolia on each layer. The look will be a mixture of these cakes:

- Rehearsal Dinner Site – We officially booked this while in New Orleans! For months, we searched near and far for a cool, casual, New Orleans style place for the rehearsal dinner, and I’m telling you, being from out of town booking a destination wedding is very difficult! All I have to say is thank goodness for the internet and email. Finally, we narrowed our website and email choices down to two, and after tours of both, made the final decision! Our Rehearsal Dinner will be at Oceana! It is located right on the corner of Bourbon Street , and our private dining room will have balcony access, never ending cocktails, and the best part… FABULOUS food! Seriously, if you ever go to New Orleans, I suggest you dine here. The food is New Orleans style, and it melts in your mouth. We did a tasting here, and we were SOLD! The dining room is also beautiful with a custom built wooden bar and wine rack on the far wall, Cajun décor, and like I said before – balcony access – just what we wanted! Since the wedding is so formal, our goal for the rehearsal dinner was casual, fun, and CAJUN! I think we nailed it here!

Here's the place!

- Rings – This was fun and easy… well for the most part it was. Tres’ was easy… he picked a beautiful white gold design out that we both loved. It was fun seeing him put on that eternal love symbol :)! As for me, my bands had to be custom made because of the shape of my ring. So, I have officially been without my engagement ring for two weeks now. I sure do miss it, but the fact that I am getting to check “rings” off my to-do list makes it all worth it!

Miss it :(

- Dress fitting – Did it! I got pulled, squeezed, and pinned a few weeks ago, and am due for my first fitting this weekend. I will be out of town again for work though, so looks like there will be a delay on it. I have to say, I am seriously excited to see my dress because not only did they alter and hem it, but they made a little change to the top of it! I won’t say what because I’d hate to give anything away, but I am crossing my fingers that it looks fabulous!

- Makeup and Hair – I finally got the courage to send in a deposit and mark this off my list. This has been an on-going process for way longer than necessary. I just have a real problem trusting people with my hair and makeup… it makes me nervous! So finally after in depth-research, reviews, and getting my bridesmaids opinions 100 times over, I have chosen Get Polished for mine and my bridesmaid’s hair and makeup!

- LASIK - Is.....Scheduled! But after hearing I have large pupils, I am TERRIFIED, so this could change at any moment. Apparently, my pupils aren't large enough to be rejected from getting the surgery, but I have the potential to acquire starburts and halos after the surgery, which means at night, streetlights, road signs, and anything with light can possibly put off a huge, glaring light that makes it difficult to see. This apparently only last a short time, but if I'm really unlucky, it could last forever. I think they were just giving me the precautions, but it scared the living daylights out of me! Please, friends, if you or anyone you know has had LASIK done.... Talk me into it. I am scheduled to get it done in exactly 2 weeks and need to make a final decision! I watched the Nick and Jessica Newlyweds Episode today where she gets Lasik... OMG - that show used to kill me! Sometimes I think I may just go ahead and buy the DVD collection, I loved it so much! If you have never seen this episode, watch below. I promise... it's so worth the laughs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVcXdOix988&feature=related

Well, I think that covers it all! A final trip to New Orleans down and many phone calls and emails to the other vendors, and I think we have it all under control. I have learned that planning a wedding is similar to running a business, only we are not making any money from this…. We are in fact losing money. Haha!

Engagement Pictures. AMAZING!

We all have the ability to tell a story – not all of us will have a best selling book or award winning magazine article published – but God gave us all the ability to have our voice heard, and we all have our own special way of doing it. Some tell a story better through word of mouth, others are better at physically demonstrating or acting out a story, and some even use sign language to tell their stories. Some of us tell a story best through writing while others draw, paint, and sketch their stories out. No matter what your special talent or skill is, it will always gear back to storytelling.

As for me, you don’t even have to know me personally to be able to tell what category I fall into; just look at my blog and it tells all. I am no doubt a “writing storyteller.” I express words best down on paper, and I love to share it with people. As a writer, I have never posted a "wordless" entry since I started writing this blog. Don’t get me wrong, I ADORE all of you guys’ "Wordless Wednesdays" and "Silent Saturdays" posts – after a long day of reading and writing it’s just what I need, and sometimes a gal just wants to look at beautiful pictures! But for me, I usually express myself in words.

My wedding photographers on the other hand… they fall into the “art storyteller” category. And can I just say the very gifted “art storyteller” category! I know it's difficult to believe, but thanks to the work of Armosa Studios, I may just be silent on this post. As you have seen in the past, I usually feel the need to tell a LONG story or write something that could be compared in length to a chapter in a book (what can I say, I love to write!), but today I am going to post in silence because these pictures speak for themselves. Thank you Tera and Wes from Armosa Studios who have such a knack and true talent for “art storytelling” and such a gift for bringing couples and their love for each other alive - all through photographs!

For more pictures from our shoot visit http://armosastudios.com/blog!