Engagement Pics...? Let's Just Get Married!

OMG – is my wedding this Sunday?! With the way I have been running around like crazy, you would think I am getting ready for a wedding – not just simple engagement pictures. But leave it to me to make engagement pictures bigger a deal than some make their own weddings! I have yet to meet our wonderful photographer, Tera from Armosa Studios , but in my last email to her, I had to confirm that she a) didn’t think I was crazy and overly involved and 2) that I had not already run her off before an in-person introduction took place! She has been a JEWEL though, and I can’t wait to finally meet her and work with her on this! To get an idea of my insanity here’s what I have been doing for the past few weeks:
Searching for the “perfect” vintage dress – Tres and I will change outfits twice, and we wanted one “vintage” session, so I went on the search for the perfect old school dress and FOUND ONE! It’ amazing – true vintage from the 1950’s, all white with bright yellow and subtle blue flowers scattered all over it, pleated skirt, high neck, THE WORKS! When I wear it, I feel a mix of The Wonder Years and Stepford Wives – both fabulous in my opinion! But being true vintage, there were a few issues with the dress: 1) It did not fit, so I have been to the seamstress a few times to get the perfect fit. Turns out, women in the 2000’s are shaped quite differently than those in the early 1900’s. And maybe I need a longer torso and larger behind? 2) It didn’t come with a crinoline petticoat (the slips that make those dress “poof” out), so I had to find one on ebay. Well, it came in, and I have never seen something so obnoxiously large in my life. To give you an idea, I put it on with the dress and Tres just started laughing. I looked like a character at Disney World… awful! So I got to cutting. I cut so much crinoline out, the floor of our living room looked like a cloud fell from the sky, but it now works appropriately.
Searching for Tres the “perfect” outfit – And yes, guys indeed wear "outfits." If that has not been confirmed, Tres and I made it official last weekend after running to every mall, boutique, and shop to get him the perfect vintage attire to compliment mine. We successfully came home with 100 bags and now have 100 different looks to choose from. We will be making a post mall trip to return the unused clothing next week. Fun, fun!

1,000 trips to the mall – Why can’t it take just ONE store to find the perfect accessories for outfits? I have looked at every store and Memphis for jewelry, shoes, etc. Every day on my lunch break this week, I have charged through the city of Memphis like a loon hoping to compliment my outfits perfectly. Let’s hope I got it right, come Sunday!

A kite… Yes, a kite – For the vintage session, we will be pulling a kite in as a prop. Well, I waited until the last minute to order the kite and realized last night that it STILL hasn’t come in yet. I have been blowing kitesrus.com up all day today. They assured me the kite will be on my doorstep when I get home. Kites R Us – please don’t ruin a perfectly good Friday, thanks!

Location, Location, Location – That’s what it’s all about, right? Well, our photographers were wonderful enough to come to Memphis all the way from Alabama to take the photos. Amazing – yes, they are! Since they don’t know the city, last weekend Tres and I aimlessly drove around downtown Memphis looking for the perfect spots to take the photos. You would think living there and walking all over the place every weekend would have helped give us an idea beforehand. Well, it didn't, and it officially took a whole afternoon. We only found a few promising spots, so we will be doing this all over again on Saturday!


Getting beautiful – Tres and I both have both finally decided a week ago that since we are getting our pictures made, we had better make more than two to three visits a week to the gym. We have both been there every day this week and though Friday is usually a HECK NO for me, we will be going again today! Did I mention tanning? Oh yes, I have been in those skin scorching beds all week this week. Not something I normally do, but for you, engagement pics… ANYTHING! We have also both had our updated hair appointments this week – cut for him, color and cut for me! I also have hair and makeup appointments (in different places… on two different sides of the city) before the pictures. If you have never seen a crazy person, come to Memphis on Sunday, and you will not be denied!
Outfit trial run – We rarely spend a night in on the weekends – actually never is more like it, but tonight, we will more than likely be taking the wine and food to the house. We will be having a fashion show in our living room with each other as our only audience. Haha - well actually, we will just be trying on everything to make sure it looks good together. Tres is going to hate that I mentioned this on the blog (he hates unmanly comments posted, and I think I just took the cake with this one).

Ok, so after zooming my car in and out of lanes throughout the city, running from store to store, ordering off of websites, stressing that packages won’t come in on time, and making numerous beautification appointments, I think we are finally ready for these engagement pictures! All we need now is good weather on Sunday… and maybe a minister? Minus the white dress, tux, and our families, I think we will be in the perfect shape to get married on Sunday. Tan, slim, made up, well dressed, GREAT PHOTOGRAPHERS – we have it all covered!

* Note - I really wanted to post all pictures from Armosa Studios, so everyone could see their wonderful, talented work, but I can't copy and paste pics from their website. SEE THEIR WORK HERE!

(Picture Credits: ClaytonAustin, SNS Photography, Vogue, Vanity Fair)

And the Winner is… BERMUDA!!!

Charlotte: “There’s Trey and I playing golf. Did you notice we’re both wearing Bermuda shorts?”

Carrie: “Bermuda shorts in BERMUDA?! You kids were crazy down there!!!”

If you are not a huge Sex and the City fan, you will have no idea that this sweet little dialogue comes from Season 3 – Episode 43, Escape from New York. But if you are, you will remember the scene in the diner when Charlotte is gushing to the girls about her Bermudan honeymoon with her new husband, Trey.

As for me and MY TRES (clearly spelled differently), we will, too, be going to Bermuda on our honeymoon, but I plan on doing a lot more than playing golf, and I also plan to come home and stay married for more than Charlotte and her Trey! Haha… once again, you must know the show to know what I am talking about!

So after a very PINK wedding, my Tres and I will head to a very PINK beach – one of the many reasons Bermuda was the island of our choice! Our other reasons include:

- The Idea – Our #1 no-no was being tourists on our honeymoon… running around with a map and list of places to see (we have years to come to do that, plus we’d rather join our friends for those type trips). We did know we wanted to relax, preferably in a beach atmosphere (put our feet up, play in the sand, drink a few cocktails, go to the spa, etc.).
- Location – We will already be out of town for our destination wedding, so we knew it wouldn’t be possible to go too far from home, so the Caribbean was a shoe-in. Not to mention, the flight to Bermuda is easy as 1,2,3!
- Time crunch – We will already be taking off work so much to get down to New Orleans and get things squared away before the big day, so we couldn’t go on a super long honeymoon. And dare we spend half of our honeymoon on an airplane!
- The Fabulous Resort – I have said before, Tres likes a nice hotel, and he has certainly rubbed off on me. I never thought I cared so much until I started x-ing off islands because of their hotel selection. The resort we found to stay in, Cambridge Beaches, is known to be the most romantic resort on the island!
- The Restaurant and Food Reviews – Food is always a top priority for us. We love a nice dinner with good food and heard that Bermuda has some of the best restaurants in the Caribbean! We will not be going hungry on this trip!

- LOTS TO DO - Bermuda is an old island. It's been around forever and been entertaining tourists for ages. We will have so much to do there, 6 days will not be enough!

As many of you know, we had narrowed our choices down to St. Barts and Turks and Caicos. Well, it became clear to us that no matter how badly we wanted to go to either of these places, it just wasn’t meant to be. We wrestled with Turks and Caicos until I couldn’t take it anymore. We found the most perfect resort I have ever seen in my life, Amanyara, and the place was closed down for renovations the entire week of our honeymoon. This was probably the biggest letdown for me while planning the honeymoon, but I knew we had to move on. We looked at several other resorts and none compared – it was like comparing Leonardo’s Mona Lisa to an eighth grader’s attempt at an art show, in my opinion. I have to say though, after that, we found a few we liked perfectly fine, but I kept being hesitant and neither me nor Tres would make a move in booking anything in Turks, so we moved along to St. Barts. We discovered the flights to this place were approximately 8 hours with stops. The whole point of going to the Caribbean was a short flight. In this case, we could have gone to the French Rivera or even have been halfway to Tahiti. Can I get a no thank you?! So we went back to Turks. We found a hotel we liked, went to book it, and guess what?! Those flights were impossible too! We just couldn’t catch a break!

The next step? Searching for flight time approximations to every island in the Caribbean! Luckily, Bermuda had been one of our top picks all along, so when we discovered the flights each way were 6 HOURS, we were slapping high fives and jumping up and down. After much difficulty, we had found our honeymoon destination! So all we need now are a few pairs of Bermuda shorts (Charlotte and Trey style, of course), and I need to brush up on my golfing skills. Watch out Bermuda – HERE WE COME!!!

Fashionista Bridesmaids: Not Your Typical Bridesmaids!

(ABOVE: The dress paired with fabulous gold, vintage neckalces. The actual color of the dress will not be the color you see on the dress shown - it will be the color you see in the background - Rosequartz. And can I just say, I debated 100 times on whether it was appropriate or not to post the dress, but it's just the bridesmaids - I think it's fine if people get a little sneak peak. Plus, it won't even make sense until it's all paired together in person!)

After about 5 shopping trips, 4 different stores, 100 different websites, and 1,000 dresses tried on… believe it or not – A BRIDESMAID DRESS HAS BEEN SELECTED!!! It’s gorgeous… well at least for a bridesmaid dress it is. Am I in love with it? I don’t know… because I hate bridesmaid dresses. Is it the best possible bridesmaid dress I could find? YES, no doubt it is! And believe me… I KNOW it is (and Ginger knows too) because every possible dress out there, we tried on!

At the beginning of this dress debacle, I was set on choosing a short dress for my girls and one that could NOT be purchased out of any magazine or store that has the word BRIDE or BRIDESMAID in it - I just simply wanted a dress that didn’t look a thing like a bridesmaids dress because I despise them, I really do. It could be the nearly 10 weddings I have been in, but if you haven’t already figured it out my opinion of bridesmaid dresses is nothing on the positive side. But my dreams were soon crushed when I discovered that if you are going to order a fabulous dress from Saks, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, BCBG, etc. – you better not be picky about the color because a great dress usually only comes in one or two colors, and pink is NOT usually one of them. I soon came to the sad conclusion that if I wanted a fabulous Rose Pink color, I was going to have to go the bridesmaids dress route.

After our first shopping trip and discussing the formality of our wedding, I not only decided to go down the “bridesmaid” road, but I decided to go down the “long” road. Our venue is very formal, our wedding is at night, and the guys started talking about wanting to wear tuxes – at this point, I had no choice… long dresses it would be! So after several shopping trips and thinking none of the dresses were “fabulous” enough, Ginger and I narrowed it down to two we liked. A few weeks later, we brought my mom to be the deciding factor. Ginger tried both dresses on, and we all decided we hated both of them. Really? Yes, really! So she was forced to try on about 10 more, and we narrowed it down once again and MADE A DECISION! Here’s why I like the dress:

It’s a Watters – Out of all bridesmaids dress designs I have despised, I have despised these least.

THE PINK COLOR! – Let me just say that finding a “pretty pink” is nearly impossible, and this dress comes in one of the most beautiful pinks I have ever seen (see in background of picture above)! ROSEQUARTZ is the official color my girls’ dresses will be.

It’s Fit for a "Lady" - It’s elegant, classy, perfect for a night wedding, and will look good on all body types.

I think of it as a Party Dress – In my opinion, this dress looks like something I would wear to a formal party and not feel like I was in a bridesmaid dress. I really, really think this dress is the furthest away I am going to get from looking like a bridesmaid dress and still go “long.” I told my girls this, and told them if they thought otherwise, they had better keep it to themselves, or I’d torture Ginger again and take her back shopping. This is no joke and they know it, so they have all nicely told me the dress “looks like a formal dress – not a bridesmaid dress.” Are they telling me the truth? Probably not, but I’m sure they are just looking out for Ginger.

On a final note, I intend on making these dresses even less bridesmaidsy. The ROSE-COLORED DRESSES will be paired with fabulous GOLD SHOES and a GOLD VINTAGE NECKLACES (see in picture above). I want all the necklaces to be different so they aren’t looking like a line of clones up there, but the shoes will all match. I think this will play up the “pink and gold” theme a lot and throw a bit of vintage flare into the mix. And need I say one more time: make these dresses look LESS like a bridesmaid dress!

* I want to give a little shout out to my wedding stylist, Sarah. Thank you for all your help! Check her blog out here: Southern Belle Fashionista!

Getting It Together... Starting with the First Dance!

Tres and I attended a beautiful wedding in Seaside, Florida this weekend. The wedding was so beautiful in fact, it made me stress out a little bit… no really, I’ve had 3 bad wedding dreams since that wedding! It’s not until you see someone else’s wedding that you realize the little things that need to be taken care of. I mean, we all know and remember we need flowers… cake… a dress. But what about little things like speeches, vows, the first dance song choice? To be honest, I had completely forgotten about all of these things, but when we saw them at this wedding, we started talking about it. Every love song that came on at the reception, we’d look at each other and ask, “First dance?” So, while I intend on thinking about our speeches and vows further down the road, I want to talk about our first dance ideas today. Here are our top choices as of now:

• “Wild Horses” – Rolling Stones or The Sundays (We think both versions are so beautiful)
  


• “Keep on Loving You” – REO Speedwagon (We are both huge 80’s rock fans… this is so suitable)
  


• “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” – Blood Sweat and Tears (the words to this song are so sweet, and it’d be so much fun to dance to)

Ideas and suggestions will be greatly accepted! :) I'd also LOVE to know... what did you and your husband dance to? Or what will you be dancing to?

P.S. Congratulations to Kris and Sara Killough– If your life together is as fabulous as your wedding was, you will live long, happy, perfect lives together!

*Image found on weddingwishlanterns.com

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.