Save the Dates

January-April, my and Tres’ lives are non-stop. We literally travel almost every weekend, so planning a wedding has been difficult lately. To be honest, I haven’t even thought about our wedding in awhile. I feel so behind on everything, but it will just have to wait until May. EVERYTHING ALWAYS has to wait until May with us! The last month has been a busy one, but the next month will be an even busier one… just the typical work travel and occasional fun travel. In the last few weeks, we have been to Orlando, we just got back from Palm Springs this week, we will be heading to Knoxville this weekend for the Easter holiday, the week after we will be going to Destin, and the week after that, it’s back to Orlando! Some of it is for fun, but most of it is for work. That’s just a little peak into our lives currently… you don’t even want to hear the previous schedules of January-March! I am not complaining though… it’s nice to not spend all of our weekends in the same city. But I’m telling you, when May rolls around, we couldn’t be happier with our Memphis weekends!

Ok, so on to what this post is really about… SAVE THE DATES! Somehow with our busy schedules, we managed to get our Save the Dates out a couple of weeks ago – and yes, I am just now finding the time to blog about it!

So, the goal for the Save the Dates was the classic scheme of our wedding: unique, untraditional, and “oh-so-southern!” So I decided to go with southern-vintage handkerchiefs, and they turned out better than I ever expected! We have to give all the credit to Tres’ best man, JG, who screen-printed them for us… thanks JG!!! The most difficult part was deciding how I was going to mail them... not to mention what size envelope to get! I finally decided folding them and tying a pretty ribbon around them worked best! Above are the images of each of the three hankies once I folded them. Below, are more pictures of the beauties - before folding!

Lucky Number 7!

On this day seven months from now, I will be meeting my groom at the altar. Seven months is SOOOO SOON! I cannot believe this! I didn’t even realize how soon until I counted the months we have been engaged… exactly six and a half months!!! I still find myself telling people that we “JUST got engaged.” Time flies by so quickly, and I know October 17 is going to be here before either of us even realize it! SEVEN MONTHS TO GO… Lucky us!

Here's to The Blog Fairy!

LOOK EVERYONE! I have a new header and awesome navigation links!!! All thanks to The Blog Fairy! I found out about her services through one of my blog buddies and am so glad I went ahead with it. She is very talented and did a great job on my blog (have I ever mentioned my ENVY for talented graphic artists...?)

Since I had already started this blog and many friends and family were already keeping up with our wedding plans this way, I didn't want to do a regular wedding site, so Tres and I agreed we would use the blog as our wedding website. I had no idea how to make my blog all spiffy and fun, so as I mentioned earlier, I turned to the Blog Fairy! Now, all of our guests can come here for all of our wedding information! YAY!

I plan to fill in the About Us, Our Wedding, and Travelers links soon, so keep checking back this weekend! I should have it taken care of soon! In the meantime, I will leave you with current wedding fun:

• Save the Dates go out Monday!!! Have I mentioned how fabulous they are? Beautiful, vintage handkerchiefs! As soon as they are out, I will post pics.
• I bought my bridesmaids gifts yesterday. I am out of town, so I figured I may as well go to one of my favorite stores to get them (that we of course don't have in Memphis... I've clearly planned all along to purchase these gifts on one of my out of town trips for that very reason). I think some of them know what the gifts are, so boo on it not being a surprise, but oh well! When they see it, they won't care! CLUE: The gifts are fabulous and made by one of my favorite designers!
• Honeymoon plans are being avoided for some reason (could it be that we are both out of town… AGAIN this weekend?) Anyway, I have decided we need to get on the ball with this, so I am thinking of setting a deadline for the next couple of weeks. The good news: we have decided on the destination: TURKS AND CAICOS HERE WE COME… in October :)
• Hotel block has been reserved! Tres got us hooked up with a great deal at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. Our guests are going to LOVE this hotel! Tres has stayed here a few times for business trips, and while I have only seen pictures, I think it’s the perfect hotel in the perfect location!
• I took Ginger Bridesmaid dress shopping again and…. (long pause here)…. I am almost 100% certain the dress has been found. I am going to take my Mommy and Tres to the store to see the two choices before I make my final decision!
  
  This is the latest wedding news… More to come soon!

Q&A from the Bride

*Note - I had no idea what pictures to put on this post, so I just found some randoms!

When I first started my blog, I ultimately wanted it to be for friends and family alone and if an occasional outsider found it and liked it, then what the heck… I’d love for them to read it! Well, that was before I discovered the huge, amazing blog world! All I can say about is… WOW. While it’s totally overwhelming, it’s also fabulous at the same time! I had no idea there were so many people out there who were blogging about weddings, marriages, and just life in general! The best part about it is, you run across a stranger’s blog who you have never known of your whole life, then you start reading their blog, and you think to yourself… why have I never met this person? We could be best friends!

We all have our best friends from childhood, high school, college, and work, but what about those ladies out there who you never got a chance to meet because you didn’t live by them, go to the same college as them, pledge the same sorority with them, or work with them? It’s a shame that there’s a big, huge world out there, and no matter who you are, you will never get to see it all! Well, thanks to blogging, it IS possible to meet those strangers!

That was just some insight on my new profound love of blogging. With that said, I will go into what my post is really about! On a fellow bride blogger’s site, I noticed she had a Q&A session for her readers. I thought it was adorable, so I totally went ahead and copy and pasted all her questions to answer for myself. Read my answers, and if you have any more questions, ask them! I would love to do another Q&A on my blog! Thanks to Classy, Southern Bride for the questions!

About Our Wedding:

Did you take engagement pics?
Not yet, but when we do, I know they are going to be AMAZING! We are from Memphis and getting married in New Orleans, but I didn’t let that stop me from trying to find the best photographers out there with just the style that matched ours - who were not from either place. Photography was a #1 priority for me, so I was willing to go near or far to find the one made just for me and Tres. So where are they from? Florence, Alabama! And who are they? Armosa Studios! Check them out… they do exquisite work!

Have you picked your dress yet?
I sure have! I am so picky about everything, and I have driven myself completely insane making sure everything is “perfect” for this wedding. Surprisingly though, I found a dress in about two hours! Read the story here!

What part of wedding planning has been the most fun?
The attempt to correlate everything perfectly with our theme has been so much fun for me. It has been challenging in some cases, but I have gotten very creative!

What has been the most stressful part of wedding planning?
I am surprised I haven’t been MORE stressed out. So far, the bridesmaid dresses have made me question my sanity. Three trips down and numerous magazines and websites later, I am still not 100% sure I have found “the one.” Also, our travel has put so many little things on our to-do list on hold because there’s just no time to get it done!

Are you keeping or changing your maiden name?
Of course I am taking his name!!! I am very attached to “Tatum” though. Not to toot my own horn, but I think my last name is adorable, so it will become my middle name. :) (P.S. My girlfriends think it's hilarious that I refer to my last name as "adorable." Haha!)

Other Questions:

How long are you going to wait to have kids?
Hummm… I do not like this question. As a matter of fact, I have a feeling people asking me this after we get married will become my biggest pet peeve. It’s not something I think about at all right now, so ask me again in 5+ years.

What is the one thing about marriage that you’re most excited about?
Being with my best friend as an officially committed couple under God’s word for the rest of my life is why I am most excited. The thought of working hard together through good, bad, happy, or sad to overcome the odds and stay together until we parted by death is clearly a challenge for all couples, but I look forward to smoothing out every bump in the road Tres and I cross. Like I have said before, if I can make marriage happen with anyone, Tres is THE ONE!

Who does most of the cooking?
I cook, he grills… We split it pretty evenly. And if I cook, he’ll do the dishes, and if he cooks, I’ll do the dishes.

Where is your favorite place to shop?
BCBG Maxazria... hands down. Luckily, I go out of town a lot, so I always bolt to the nearest BCBG (since we don’t have one in Memphis). I also like the occasional Forever 21 run. Tres likes Hugo Boss and a few others, so clearly, he’ll wander his way there when we are out of town!

What is your occupation and your soon-to-be hubby’s?
We work at the same place, and let me clarify this… we do not work in the same department. I clarify because we get this all the time: “Oh how cute… ya’ll get to see each other all day every day and do work together?” We actually have totally different jobs. We both work for Varsity Brands, Inc., the cheerleading company, (what you see on ESPN is what we do… our company puts on those events). I am in media as the Content Editor of Varsity.com and also host of Varsity TV and Varsity News Now for our On-Demand news channel. And Tres is the VP of Sales and Operations - highly involved with the sales and marketing of Varsity.

How did you meet and how did he propose?
We met through work – officially conversing for the first time at a work friend’s birthday party. You can read the proposal story here!

PLEASE ASK MORE QUESTIONS! I am a Q&A freak! Haha! Have a great weekend everyone!

Losing it… All over Bridesmaid Dresses

“There will always be one thing you will drive yourself crazy over… mine was invitations. Apparently, yours is bridesmaid dresses.” Ginger, one of my matrons of honor said this to me just a few weeks ago, and I totally believe it. For some reason, since Tres and I got engaged I have been obsessed with finding the perfect bridesmaids dresses for my girls. I know for a FACT I have looked at more pictures of bridesmaid dresses then I ever looked at of wedding gowns. Not to mention, I have already dragged Ginger bridesmaids dress shopping once, and I plan on doing it again this weekend!

I have been to every bridesmaids dress site that I know about, stared at hundreds of pictures online and in magazines, and even looked at some in person. Conclusion? I HATE THEM ALL! There is no nice way to put this, but bridesmaid dresses are just ugly. I don’t know if they intentionally make them that way to make the bride look good or what, but it’s disturbing to me. I am grateful to have a pretty group of girls who will stand at the altar with me, and I intend for them to all look STUNNING!

FROM SHORT...

The dress (above) was the dress that I thought was "the one"... until my girls tried it on.
I really still like it a lot because it's so "vintage Jackie-O," which is what I was going for with my maids.
I think I can figure out a way to make the long ones vintage and classy too though!

This dress (above) is just sassy and fun, so I had to throw it in!

So the conclusion to that is… I have completely driven myself crazy – all over bridesmaid dresses. Ultimately, my idea was to go short and untraditional – even if I had to settle on a semi-formal wedding as opposed to a formal one – I was DETERMINED to have short, untraditional dresses. Why? Because in case I failed to mention it, I hate bridesmaid dresses and the long ones usually make me cringe. I was totally willing to turn my planned formal wedding upside down – all over bridesmaid dresses!

When I first started looking, I refused to look at any actual bridesmaid dress websites. I went straight to Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Sacs Fifth Avenue, and Macy’s hoping to be the one and only bride EVER to find a dress my girls would actually wear again. I discovered this is a total joke… you just can’t do it! 1) If you are set on a particular color and it’s not black – good luck finding a basic, classy, plain dress in the color you’re aiming for and 2) even if you do find a dress your girls could actually wear again, if they are all friends, then none of them will actually do it! I mean, who wants to show up at the next cocktail party in Suzie-Q’s bridesmaids dress?! … I didn’t think so.

TO LONG...
I like this one (above) the best so far - based on a picture.
I think it's very untraditional for a bridesmaid dress.

This one (above) is timeless and classic and the fabric is gorgeous!

These two I like because they are sooooo different, yet they still have that vintage, old vibe!

So after thinking I found the perfect one (short and untraditional... first picture on this post) and having two of my girls try it on, I was completely let down. I learned to never take a five foot tall friend to try on a dress you saw a 6’2 model in a magazine ad wear. Now while Melissa and Ginger are way prettier than that model ever thought of being, they just aren’t the same height, and it just didn’t look the same. So after about 8 more short dresses, Ginger timidly suggested she try on some long ones. I agreed… at this point I would have let her try on a pants suit if she thought that may look better – I was completely over the short dress look! Once she started trying on long ones, I got kind of hooked on them. I found more than one I liked, and it put a smile on my face because now we can go Black Tie Optional for our wedding, which in my opinion we couldn’t do with short dresses :) Now while it’s exciting that long dresses don’t make me cringe anymore, I still haven’t the “perfect” bridesmaid dress. This could be an on-going struggle, but one thing I have learned: NEVER SAY NEVER! Almost everything I said I would “never do” in this wedding I have done so far, so…… I think I’m done with that word! I like the long ones I have posted above. Please give me your opinions!

Hesitant about the Honeymoon

At this point in my life, the thought of getting on a plane and going somewhere NOT for work sounds beyond fabulous! Tres and I have both been traveling every single weekend for work. Neither of us has had a weekend in Memphis since the new year started! I honestly have not unpacked my suitcase (except to wash the dirty clothes out of it) in A MONTH! And this will continue for us both until sometime in April! I believe we have two weekends off from travel in the next two months… whew! I think that’s why this blog needs to be written… because I need to imagine myself somewhere that doesn’t involve my job! :)

With that said, you can imagine how much wedding planning has been done... ZILCH would be a good word! We’ve had Save the Dates sitting at the house ready to send for a month now (to die for cute by the way). When are we going to send them? Who knows?! We don’t even have time to think about it! When we get time back, our next move will be deciding on the honeymoon. This has been a conversation we’ve been having for several months now but can’t decide on where to go! So far, the only thing we have made a certain decision on is not going anywhere with a long flight. Since we are already having a destination wedding, we decided we don’t want a long flight that will exhaust us even more than we will already be. We also don’t want to be “tourists” on our honeymoon. So… all signs have pointed to the Caribbean. The big question now is WHERE in the Caribbean?!
We think we have it narrowed down to St. Barts or Turks and Caicos. We like different, trendy places and after much research on every single island in the Caribbean, these two seem to be right up our ally! We just can’t decide on which one!!! We have been back and forth about this 100 times, so we need HELP! We have GOT to get this thing booked! Has anyone been to either of these places or know anyone who has? Where would you go… Turks or St. Barts?!

Touches of the South – Vintage Style

Over the years of throwing friends bridal showers, birthday parties, and most recently, baby showers, I have made party planning a hobby of mine – it’s truly become one of my favorite pastimes. Therefore, getting to plan a wedding that is all my own has been the ultimate project for me! One thing I have learned in my party planning days… every event must have a THEME. In my opinion, no party or event can even be organized without one, especially a wedding!

When considering our wedding theme, I took into consideration our personalities and background. Who were we? Where did we come from? With me being a true and proud Mississippi gal and Tres being born in Charleston, South Carolina and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, I think of us as sweet southerners. When I told Tres I wanted to have a “southern kind of wedding,” his response was not what I had hoped. “Southern? Like redneck, country music, and bare feet?” I laughed (we don’t even like country music) but was slightly bothered by what seemed to be his immediate view of the south. I explained to him that my view of the south is “Pretty, classy ladies in big hats (with big hair under them) sitting up perfectly straight in chairs under a magnolia tree sipping tea with their southern gentlemen inside the white plantation home, dressed professionally, bourbon in hand talking about their work day.” THAT is my view of “southern,” and I resent any northerners, westerners, or easterners who think otherwise! :)

Needless to say, Tres said I could theme our wedding however I wanted, and soon after, I found myself falling in love with a “vintage” look, deciding we should tie retro into our theme. The outcome: “a southern kind of vintage wedding.” Here are a few touches we will be adding to bring out this theme perfectly!

A Plantation Home – Our location really set the tone for a southern wedding. Southern Oaks is an absolutely beautiful plantation home in New Orleans. It call it “very Gone with the Wind,” having everything from big white columns and fanciful shutters to a faultless landscaped lawn and winding aisle.

Magnolias – I have never really been a flower person, so when I began thinking about bouquets, I was a little discouraged. I didn’t want my girls carrying the typical bundle of flowers – I wanted something unique. The magnolia is by far my favorite flower, having a bloom that looks like no other – large, fresh, perfect, and most importantly… southern! The flower is actually Mississippi and Louisiana’s state flower, and with me being a huge ambassador of my home state, MS, and us getting married in LA, I knew it was meant to be. The magnolia will actually be the “signature” image of our wedding. My girls will all carry a single magnolia bloom down the aisle, and it will also be found on our invitations/stationary and possibly our cake!

Cotton Blooms – Nothing says south like the “flower” that comes straight from a cotton field. When thinking about my bridesmaids carrying magnolias, I knew the large flower would be too large as a boutonniere, so I put my mind to work and got creative. I couldn’t think of another signature southern flower, but one day out of nowhere, a cotton blossom came to mind. I never realized how perfectly beautiful this bloom was, and I decided it had to be the groomsmen’s boutonnieres. I asked Tres his thoughts, and he gave me his approval!

Horse and Carriage – Oh so southern! My dad and I will be riding to the end of the aisle on a horse and carriage before I walk down the aisle. After the ceremony, Tres and I will ride away in it.

The Food – We will have everything from gumbo, jambalaya, shrimp creole, shrimp kabobs, seafood pastas, oysters and shrimp, lobster tails, crawfish apps, crab apps, muffalettas, beignets, and the list goes on – very New Orleans southern style food and over 70 different choices!

The vintage touches will be subtle but will also be found throughout the wedding! Everything from the Jackie – O bridesmaids dresses and pearl broached necklaces to my veil will be vintagy. More to come on that!