Budget and Beaches!

Money, money, money, monaaayyyy!!!! This past Sunday, Tres and I sat down and had “the talk…” The BUDGET talk that is! :) We spent literally the entire afternoon staring at a spreadsheet and mapping out our budget – what to spend on what, where to save, where not to save, etc. We were lucky enough to be given a great sum of money from my mom and dad to go towards the wedding, so we have been very grateful for that! But we have also learned that no matter what kind of budget you set, you will more than likely ALWAYS go over it. We have definitely gone over it, but we are not stressing about it… I love that saying, “Go big… you only get married once!” haha. And this is true, since we only get to do this one time in our lives, we are planning on not going overboard but having everything we really, really want!
It grows on trees... duh!

Sunday afternoon’s budget talk became Sunday night’s honeymoon talk! Now THIS was much more exciting than the budget talk! We love to travel together, and we do it a lot (I have a Travel Blog too)! So, I had been anxious to have this talk because I just know our honeymoon will be to die for! We discussed what we wanted and didn’t want out of a honeymoon. Here are our bottom lines:
Bermuda: There's nothing more unique than a PINK beach!

• Nothing “touristy”! At first, I kind of imagined us doing a place in Europe neither of us had been before, but the places we want to go in Europe are very touristy. The last thing I want to do is to be running around five different cities in a week’s time, trying to see 100 different attractions, with 10 different maps and tour guides in our hands, and so tired at the end of the day that I don’t even want to curl my hair or dress cute for dinner! No thanks! I am dying to go to Italy, but maybe we will save it for our one year anniversary!
• A relaxing place! Hence, nothing touristy! We will be off work for about a week for this, so I want my feet up and to not move a bone in my body the entire time. I want to be able to enjoy the days with naps in between and enjoy the nights without be tired (and also feel like curling my hair for dinner each night)!
• Not a long flight! This is Tres’ bottom line, and he has a good point. We are already having somewhat of a vacation wedding with it being in New Orleans. We will already be taking off some the week before to get down there and get settled, so we don’t need to go on a honeymoon where we are flying across the entire globe. A 20-hour plane ride will take a full day of vacation away from us on the way there and on the way back… No thank you to that too!
• Finally, a nice hotel room and good food! Just feed me good food, and I’m happy. Just put Tres in an awesome hotel room, and he’s happy... fair game!
The Turks and Caicos... tiny little islands

So, with all of this in mind, there is really only a few options, and they are all in the Caribbean! We, of course, have consulted with our good friends Trevor and Lori on this since they lived in the Virgin Islands for several years. This is what we are leaning towards (and this could completely change on any given day…): Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and Barbados - with Turks and Caicos and Bermuda being the favorites. We like the idea of Turks because it’s different and the development is very new over there. Plus, I have read that it’s where a lot of celebrities go for their “moon”! And we like Bermuda because of the pink sand, the good reputation, and it’s not really in the Caribbean… it’s more north than all the other islands and it’s all by itself! We are going to discuss this further. TO BE CONTINUED…

Never say Never...

OK, so I am really starting to freak myself out with this wedding! The more I plan, the more I change my mind about things. For starters, I am not a fan of pink… nope, not at all. I don’t despise it, but I have never really loved it either. I am a “neutral” kinda girl… blacks, whites, ivories, and earthy colors. Don’t get me wrong… when I dress, I am known to throw in a big splash of color on more than one occasion, but for a wedding… I like simple and elegant. That way, when you look back on your wedding photos in 20 years, you aren’t wondering why in the world you chose hot pink or neon purple as your wedding colors. Now, if those are your favorite colors, I say GO FOR IT, but they are not mine!

(ABOVE: Pic 1 - The bouquet that gave me inspiration. Pic 2 - How beautiful the colors pink and gold are together)

WEIRD THING #1…. I am actually considering pink. Well not just considering, but I am quite certain of it. No, my wedding will not look like Pepto-Bismol vomited on it, but I would like to go with an antique dusty-rose or blush pink with the complementary colors being gold, beige, and ivory. It’s strange why I decided I like this color combo so much, but I ran across a beautiful bouquet on the Martha Stewart Weddings website, and when I saw it, I thought… THOSE have to be the colors of our wedding. The combination is very subtle, neutral, and “warm” for the Fall season. What’s makes me choosing this color even more awesome is, until I decided to choose pink and get my dress from Brides against Breast Cancer, I didn’t even put two and two together and realize it’s fitting for me to choose pink because it’s the Breast Cancer color! AND the wedding is in October, and that is Breast Cancer Awareness month! How COOL! Oh yes, and also awesome… my sorority colors were pink and white, so I will be representing Phi Mu ALL THE WAY! One more thing: surprisingly, Tres is totally ok with pink!!! :)

(BELOW: Gowns I traditionally like and think I would look best in)

WEIRD THING #2 – I have said 100 times since I got engaged and even BEFORE I got engaged that I would never, ever have a full bottom ball gown “poofy” dress… never. I have never really thought it was “me.” Weird thing is…. The more I look at them, the more I like a certain type of them. I have actually even saved some in my “Favorite Dresses” file. To think I may actually consider trying some of these types of dresses on when I go dress shopping is shocking, but to think I could actually choose one of them is even more shocking! We will just have to see when that time comes though. I still LOVE Sheath dresses – very tight fitting, simple, and elegant. That seems more my style, but who knows? The thing about a huge ball gown…? You can only ONCE IN YOUR WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE ever wear a dress like that… so you may as well. What do you think…? Full and poofy? Or straight and tight?

(BELOW: The types of gowns I have been drawn to lately... for some reason)

I am a Bride against Breast Cancer

Things have been crazy around here! So crazy in fact, that I haven’t really even thought about wedding stuff for about two weeks now. But, it’s time to start thinking again… today marks a year and ten days until the big day! We definitely have plenty of time to plan, but I want to soak this up as much as possible because one day we will look back and know we will never have this time back!

The latest news: I have been working on my formal Bridesmaids cards the past few weeks. I wanted to formally ask my girls to be bridesmaids. I love DIY projects, so I decided to once again get “crafty” and make the cards myself! They are absolutely adorable, and I should have all NINE of them out in the mail or to each girl no later than next week. Hobby Lobby has currently thrown up in Tres’ living room, so needless to say, he’s over the Bridesmaids cards and ready for me to get them in the mail already!

More wedding news… My theknot.com checklist is telling me I need to start thinking about a dress, so I have decided where I want to get my dress! If you have never heard of “Brides against Breast Cancer,” look it up! It’s an organization raising and donating money to Breast Cancer research through brides. They go on tour each year traveling all over the country carrying thousands of dresses with them, and they have huge conventions where they sell dresses that are donated from runway shows, modeling shoots, designers, etc. If you buy a dress here, the money goes directly to the Breast Cancer Foundation. I LOVE philanthropy projects, and this concept is just fabulous. I would love nothing more than the money for my wedding gown to go to a cause as good as this! Unfortunately, the organization only travels to select cities, so me, my mommy, and my Nenne will be making a trip to Atlanta in January for this event, and hopefully, I will come home with a great dress!

Why Sunday?

We initially started thinking Sunday because we were going to try to get married on 10/10/10. Unfortunately, that date was already taken, but we still thought it would be good to have a Sunday wedding. I have worried a little bit about having our wedding on Sunday, but there are GREAT reasons why we have picked this day of the week. Here is our list of explanations for having a Sunday wedding:

- #1 reason: Our wedding party will have to take a day off of work regardless. If we had a Saturday wedding, they would have to take off Friday for the wedding festivities. So we figured, they can keep their Friday at work, festivities will be held Saturday, the wedding will be Sunday, and Monday will have to be taken off to travel home. Either way, it’s just one day missed of work!

- It’s a destination wedding, so for the people planning to come, they would have to take a day off of work anyway – no matter where the wedding is held.

- It’s the fall season, which means its FOOTBALL season, Tres says he would feel better knowing that there were no college games him and the guys would miss. So, the Saturday before while my girls and I are at the Bridal Luncheon, the boys can go watch football somewhere!

- We went to a Sunday wedding once, and LOVED IT!!! (SUNDAY FUN-DAY!!!!)

We are getting married in New Orleans!!!

On our last night in San Francisco we went to a spectacular sushi dinner and then discovered a cool hotel bar, The Starlight Room. While there, we started discussing where we should have our wedding. Tres had heard me say before that I did not want to have a Memphis wedding and he didn’t care to have a Knoxville wedding either. So, we started thinking of destination wedding ideas! We knew we wanted it close enough for all the friends and family to come who wanted to, but far enough and in an interesting and fun enough place for people to have a good time.

New Orleans had crossed my mind before for a number of reasons: His family is from there, a lot of his family is still in or around that area, it’s not too far from Memphis, and most importantly, his 89 year old grandmother who I just LOVE lives there, and this way, she would be able to come for sure if we had it there. So, when we started discussing it, I threw New Orleans out there not knowing what Tres response would be. To my surprise, he told me he had actually thought of the same place, and he would love to have our wedding there! (I’m telling you – we read each other’s minds… I am not even kidding!) We thought about how far it was from all our family and friends… those in Memphis, Knoxville, Austin, Jacksonville, Atlanta, etc. etc. After thinking about it, we realized this was the PERFECT place… all feasible driving distance from everyone! So it was set: NEW ORLEANS!!!!