Bridal Shower Bliss

On Sunday, January 20, 2013, Jonathan and I had the most amazing Bridal Shower day! We enjoyed being able to hug some necks for the people that we care about so much and the day was simply beautiful. My family did such a great job of putting everything together and it was so sweet.

Dad and I getting ready for everyone!

Super excited to see all our family and friends!

My wonderful Mother who deserves a million thank you's.

My girls! These girls mean so much to me and it made my day to see them!

Jonathan and I were so excited about all of the wonderful gifts we received! We are so blessed. Loading the car was an adventure, but Jonathan and his Dad made it happen! It took us about 5 hours to unpack everything once we made it to Buxton. The kitties thought it was Christmas again and were flying through all the boxes and tissue paper - haha! We have even had fun using some of our items already - here are tonights adventures....

Dinner: Lasagna

Lasagna for dinner with our new lasagna dish, frying pan, and wooden spoon!

Dessert: Trisha Yearwood's Lemon Meringue Pie

Now... dessert... cute grinder to grind graham crackers for the pie crust!

Precious measuring cups to measure out sugar!

I have never been able to zest a lemon!! It was so much fun - I wanted to keep zest-ing and zest-ing! Haha

Sugar bowl in the background and another precious measuring cup! Are they not cute?!

Final result - ah-mazing lemon pie on one of our beautiful pieces of china!

As you can tell - I really had fun in the kitchen tonight and I am thankful to everyone that have filled our home with love! It is so wonderful to think of each person as we pull out an item. God has definitely blessed us!

Have a wonderful Saturday evening, y'all!

Engagement Parties

This past July my parents arranged a beautiful Engagement Party for us that was so wonderful! One of the main ideas that we have had with the wedding events is to make sure that everything flows together, so we decided that our centerpieces and arrangements had to display that shabby chic feel that we envisioned at the wedding. We had such a great afternoon and truly loved seeing everyone together in one place!

 Some of my wonderful family enjoying each others company!

 The appetizers! I absolutely love this Pepsi crate! I found this in the little town of Bunn, NC at a old antique store.

 Haha--we were a little sweaty! It was very toasty that afternoon!

Some of my bridesmaids all together!

 Most of our bridal party! :)

Mom and I ordered lots of flowers from the wonderful Chelsea Barrow at Greene County Florist!

Not only did we have a great family day with this engagement party, one of Jonathan's groomsmen wanted to throw us a little get together also that was a little more casual... so we had a pool party! Here are some pictures from that event...

Dad, Mom, and I at engagement party #2!

I was so happy Beth could make it!

We loved having everyone together again!

Of course I was on the hit list to get thrown in... haha!

Sweet Kathryn could make it and I was so excited! :)

To finish this up, we are so thankful for everyone that celebrated our engagement with us. Jonathan and I are so happy and we are looking forward to the big day! Can't wait!

Wedding Cornhole Boards ♥

This weekend Jonathan and I embarked on an adventure and let me tell you what a wonderful (and of course beautiful) adventure it was...

A few weeks ago we went and purchased a set of unfinished cornhole boards and bags to eventually paint and use at our engagement party and our wedding... well this weekend we spent our entire time together painting and painting and painting and right now we are sitting with the most fabulous set of cornhole boards ever. Can I just say I am swooning?

All our supplies ready to go!

Putting on the first coat of white primer... in the kitchen of course!

Beginnings of the border--we used painters tape for the lines.

Jonathan worked on our designs and this was the final product. We laid down tape and then used an exacto knife to make a stencil.

Here's our first board ready for paint! We were so nervous!

We painted it a grey-blue color and then pulled off the tape. Our first few pulls went really slow because we didn't want to mess it up!

Finished grey-blue board... LOVE!

A few hours days later here is our completed set.
We absolutely adore them!

Jonathan and I had a blast working on this project together and I am so thankful for the experiences we had. Yes, we argued over little details and then laughed about it later... haha. Experiences like this truly make us love each other more ♥

Have a great evening! 

The Little Details

This weekend has been a blast and I am loving all the little details of our wedding that are coming together. Every little piece is making me so anxious to see it all as a big picture on the wedding day. Last weekend I received a call that my wedding dress was in! I was so shocked that it had come in so quickly, so this Saturday I decided that I was going to take the trip to Raleigh to pick up my wedding dress and go to one of my favorite places... the Flea Market! Also... of course any trip to Raleigh has to include one of my very best friends, Angel. So, I called Angel up and we set a date!

I was so excited that Angel was able to go with me to the Flea Market! We had such a wonderful time!

Along with finding some awesome blue mason jars, we ran across these wonderfully hand made frames.

The whole idea behind our wedding is romantic, sweet, and simple. To me all three of those can easily be found in a shabby chic way. I have a little project up my sleeve that will include this frame and I will share it with you soon!

Finally... the main event on the trip was to pick up my wedding dress! I have already put it on twice just for fun since it has been in my possession! I love it and I can't stop admiring it. I absolutely can not wait to see Jonathan's face when he sees me at the end of the aisle.

To close my wonderful weekend, Jonathan and I also ran some errands today. A big part of our relationship is corn-hole... haha (I know so random!) Basically the deal is is that I really stink at it, but Jonathan is really good... so to be honest we don't make that great of a team, but it is something that we love... (I think he likes it when I step away from the game and let him play with someone else... haha!) so with that we have decided to include it into our wedding day. Yes, we will have corn-hole at our wedding and we couldn't be happier!  We are also going to use the boards at our engagement party, so today we went and picked up some unfinished boards that we can paint---post coming soon! Along with our corn-hole trip we also went to start our first registry... and WOW can I just tell you what a work-out it was...

I was so excited about the little "gun" thingy... haha! The lady at Bed, Bath, and Beyond thought I was crazy... but who doesn't?

Finally, as adventures on the wedding side of my life have been beginning to happen God has opened my eyes to many new thoughts about how we should live each day. I have learned a few lessons these past couple of months and I would love to share these lessons with you through my favorite Bible verses, Psalm 139... it sums up my every thought perfectly.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
 You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.

 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
 For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
 Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
 I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.

 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

I pray that your week is wonderful and that God will work in your life each and every day.

The Perfect Dress

Sooo... I know I can not blog a lot about today's adventure, but I did want to tell you about it.

This morning, bright and early, Momma, Aunt Jackie, Tracy, Grandma, and I all headed towards Raleigh to find the perfect wedding dress. I was so excited that we were going to meet Jonathan's mom (Elizabeth), Stephanie, and Angel there too! For months or maybe more.. haha.. I had had the perfect dress picked out from a picture online--I had a feeling it was the one, but of course I had to put it on.

I can't believe that today was that day.. it was the first dress I stepped into and the last dress I stepped out of. It was magical. I tried on one extra dress just to prove that it was the one and there was no denying it. I didn't even want to get out of it. I would still be sitting in it right now if I could. I will say that I did very good holding back the tears and there was about only one sitting in the corner of my eye when I saw myself for the first time. My Momma's wedding veil was perfect in every way with the gown and that made it even more special. I can't wait to see Jonathan's face when the doors of my church open.. whew.. the tears are almost flowing while I am typing.. ♥


...goodness, I love him.

On a Wedding Veil Hunt

Twenty-nine.. yes 29 years ago my parents said their "I Dos."

Tonight... Momma and I went to my Grandma's house on the search for her old wedding dress and veil. The other day while we were at Grandma's house for the traditional Sunday night dinner I thought about how cool it would be to wear my Momma's veil.... so tonight we took a journey into my grandparents attic... scary. Haha.

We were just a little nervous to head up there... but it had to be done!

Let's just say that this was not going to be an easy find...

Not only were there lots and lots of stuff up in the attic, it was actually slightly scary haha... my mind started to wonder because it was dark and dusty and just plain scary... We finally were feeling as if we would never find the dress and we knew Grandma knew right where it was, but she wasn't home yet... So while we were waiting for Grandma we started rummaging through some of Momma's old things... and look what I found

How awesome.. what great doodling. Too cute! This was Momma's notebook from when she was at ECU for graduated school.

One of her old college notebooks.. fun!

Finally.. Grandma finally walked in the door and as soon as we could get the words out of our mouths she was already pointing to the exact location of the wedding box.. haha

So here is what we found.. be prepared.. we are going back a few years.

We found it! We found it.

 Once we opened the box the memories flooded the room and Momma had actually forgotten that her veil had a cap on it.. haha way old fashioned for today. We were actually surprised though that it had not yellowed as much as we thought it would have. Momma and I are going to try our handy-crafty work at it to make it more up to date and a little whiter. I truly hope that it works because I would love to wear it on my wedding day minus the cap. :)

Now on another note... the wedding dress was in the box. Haha. So everyone (Grandma, Aunt Faye, and Momma) convinced me to put it on. Can I just tell you I felt like I was back in the Titanic times.. it was hilarious, but it was awesome because it fit perfectly.. maybe a little short in the sleeves and the length... ok so I will just let you laugh for a bit...

Momma's wedding dress.. It had been in the box for 29 years!

The dress had yellowed really bad and had some stain issues, but it was actually really cool to put it on. I can tell you though that I will not be wearing this.. haha, but it was fun.


I really hope that we can get the veil to be perfect so say some prayers!


Have a great weekend!

Engagement Pictures

On April 2, 2012 almost a year before our wedding day, Jonathan and I spent the afternoon with Eric Jones from Eric Jones Photography to take our engagement pictures. I had chatted with Eric about two weeks prior to our chosen date to actual plan when we were going to take pictures.. and little did I know that we would choose the most perfect day. In my parents yard my mom has azaleas that have been growing since I was little and now they are huge! They are a the main focal feature of my momma's handy work and I was so glad they were in full bloom... Jonathan and I also came to the conclusion that I laugh too much.. haha oh well. Well here are some of our candid shots + some of our favorites! ♥

Also, as our wonderful photographer was driving to my parents house he passed an old metal barn and suggested that we take some pictures there. I must say that some of these turned out to be some of our favorites!

 I hope you have enjoyed our pictures as much as I have... I think I have looked at them thousands of times and I keep replaying the day over and over. It was magical to spend that time with Jonathan.

Have a great weekend.

Bella Bridesmaid

Today I went with two of my wonderful bridesmaids, Tracy and Sarah, to Bella Bridesmaid in Cary. Dorothy came along too, which was wonderful! :) As we were walking up the steps to the store I was so excited... I had dreamed of the day I could walk into Bella Bridesmaid as a bride with some of my girls by my side! Oh it made me squeal! ♥

Sarah was our model for the afternoon and we put her in and out of a few dresses for a few minutes until she stepped out in this cutie...

So let's just say I started to jump up and down... the girls immediately knew this was the one I had been dreaming of! After the initial excitement we started to talk about fabrics. The one Sarah is wearing is made out of Silk Shantung and was a little poofy, so Christy (the wonderful owner), pointed out another fabric called Faille, which is a little bit softer and would fall like this...

Absolutely perfect and I picked it on the spot. It was everything I had been dreaming of and more! The dresses will be in a soft pink, which will be beautiful!

I also have to share this funny picture of Sarah and Kade while Sarah was getting measured... Kade was a little tired and in need of some major Mommy hugs so Sarah had to hold him while she was getting measured so she had to hold him like this.... haha...

To finish the wonderful day I of course had to take a picture with the wonderful Ms. Christy and say a big THANK YOU! :)

Until next time! ♥