Popping the Question

One of the first hard decisions earlier on was determining our wedding party.  Narrowing down potentials for the wedding party was an extremely difficult task.  At the same time, we were also looking for an intimate group of those who had the greatest impact throughout our relationship.  The ones we gushed to for hours about after an amazing day together, or we called in the middle of the night when we had our first fight.

Despite all of that, we've ended up with 14 attendants and 1 hairy dog. As my mom likes to constantly point out, we have a very large party. From my experience, it's a pretty standard size. But, we don't typically agree on most things. What do you think is the "right" size for a wedding party?

After narrowing down who we wanted, I sought out the help of my trusty adviser, Pinterest for ideas.  I knew I wanted to ask the bridesmaid in a unique way.  While pinning around one day, I found the perfect fit - handcrafted paperdoll cards.  I'm no paper-crafting expert, but these cards were easy enough and pretty low on necessary artistic skills needed to complete the task.  Total, it probably took me an entire Sunday afternoon just because I had to make five individually cut paperdolls with attached weaves.

I added some finishing touches, slapped together a little card with everyone's contact information, and added a black band with the potential BM's name and stuffed them into envelopes to present. It was so fun to be able to have something to give each girl!  The anticipation as they opened their envelope was unsurpassed. Luckily enough, everyone who I asked eagerly agreed!

Officially an Officiant

We found someone to marry us!  Now my mom can finally release the panic button that everything is going to come together up until the fiancé and I are all lined up in our wedding-best waiting to get married, but there will be no one standing in front of us to marry us!  And then the wedding will be ruined and it'll be such an embarrassing day.  A stain on both of our families. Forever.

Yet, really, how could we forget to book the officiant?  We didn't.  And, we wouldn't. Things take time and there's pleeenty of time to get to it all.  There's no need to panic quite yet.  Let's save all of that for at least the week before. One of my co-workers planned her entire wedding in 3 months. In less than 90 days, she planned a wedding, they successfully got married, and no one died.  If she can do it, I can do it in over 4 times the amount of days.  Challenge accepted.

I am so enthusiastic about the officiant we selected.  He married our friends Stephanie and Robby many moons ago and has been marrying happy couples for over 20 years. He's from Ireland and speaks like a native Irish.  He has many, many tales of the homeland.  We had a lengthy two hour meeting with him to discuss the entire ceremony, so the most important part of the wedding day (besides the getting ready and reception and after party parts) is planned out and ready to go. It should be pretty simple and painless for all the guests.  I do hope that each and every guest sheds at least one tear.  If they don't, then no cocktails for them.

Some scenes from Stephanie's wedding in 2010:

Dream, Dream, Dream

I heard that wedding planning slowly takes over your life so that is seems all you're doing is living and breathing wedding. Your friends grow bored with you quickly as your one-dimensional conversations are always about the upcoming wedding and just drag on and on.  The peak of this wedding overload is when it creeps into your sweet dreams and you suddenly wake up in cold sweats after a horrifying nightmare where all of your table linens are African Violet and not Raspberry like you had planned for months. What a disaster indeed.

While I haven't had any dreams like this, yet, I have had a few engagement related dreams.  I've always been a pretty active dreamer.  In fact, yesterday I was telling a friend that Josh and I were getting Korean BBQ for his birthday, which we did.  Later that night, in my dreams, we were enjoying Korean BBQ with those same friends and then decided to get Bubble Tea. After driving to the nearest Bubble Tea dispensary, I hopped out of the car to make my purchase and came back with two teas, one for Josh and one for me, completely forgetting our couple friends in the back seat!  The rest of the car ride home they could not stop saying how rude I was!  And then I woke up.  Well, not really, I woke up at a normal hour some hours later, I'm sure. 

The point is (yes, there is a point), my brain runs rampant while I slumber.  The first night of our engagement, I woke up several times in the night in a panic that I had lost my brand new ring, or that the diamond had fallen out, never to be found. Or, that I broke the diamond.  Is that even possible?  Dreams sure are silly sometimes.  As the wedding day gets closer, I can only anticipate what new and exciting dreams are to come!

Besides having a weird dream over the weekend, I also helped Josh celebrate another year of birth - Happy Birthday to my best friend, one who I can vent all my vents to, laugh nonstop, and truly is my one and only love! 

 Also, notice Winston stalking in the background.what.a.creep.

 

Wedding Band or DJ?

Last weekend Josh and I, along with my parents, attended a wedding of a long time family friend.  Over 20 years of friendship!  The dancing started immediately when the doors opened into the reception and never slowed down, not for a second!  By the end of the night, the bride and bridesmaids were all on the band's stage dancing up a storm. At one point, one of the singers brought out his glowing finger gloves for a special treat. It really was a fun wedding and now the great debate - wedding band or DJ?  I'm at the point where I just don't care, I want music that will be lively and get people dancing.  This band did that. There, done. Book the band.  However, a DJ does have its differences and can offer up a wider variety of music, to make sure the party don't stop til the wee morning hours.  So, I've challenged the fiance to look into local DJs and find one for our celebration.  We'll see what he comes up with.

As far as the wedding last weekend, we knew it was our queue to leave when some inebriated girls pulled a chair onto the dance floor and started offering special lap dances to their dates and my father remarked, "Is that some Miley Cyrus dancing over there?"

 47 years of marriage right here!

The Latest Happenings

Since the wedding dress was purchased, most other wedding planning has been on hold.  All I need to get married is a dress, right?  Silly me, that's not how it works at all.  I've come back to the wedding world and actively pinning pins and calling vendors once again.  It's been a nice little break but as my mother keeps reminding me, vendors need to be booked and there's so much to do.  A couple of things that went down last month:

• Got lunch with the future MIL, just the two of us.  It went good, real good. Of course, we spent the majority of the time talking about our common interest, Josh.  What better person to talk about my spouse-to-be than his mom?  She knows him best! He, of course, immediately told us we're no longer allowed to get lunch together.  Ha! How will I get all of my vital information?
• Emailed a couple of DJs about music, didn't respond to their responses.
• Traveled to Seattle to see my MOH and some other great girls, and had the most fun of all time. We walked Seattle, ate oysters, wrangled bulldawgs, and danced, and then danced some more.  A perfect girls trip warm-up for the bachelorette party next year.

Said Yes to the Dress!

I got it! I finally found the one!  It's perfect and beautiful and I can't wait to put it on and never take it off.  It was all a little anti-climatic since my mom and I were out shopping the weekend before when we found the dress. The store owner actually pulled it from the racks and suggested I try it on.  Not to disappoint anyone, I added the gown to the stack of ivory and lace to try on.  And, it was perfect.  Everything I was looking for in a dress and more.  It was lace with interesting details and a gorgeous back.  I'm seriously never going to take it off. Lots of pictures were taken and then we decided to hold off and think about it.  I'm not really one for impulsive decisions, ya know?  So, a week later, my mom and I returned.  I tried the dress on again; it was still lovely.  The bridal consultant said we could take all the pictures we wanted, but, been there, done that!  She then she took some measurements and we were on our way out the door.  In reality, this whole trip was abbreviated because I had massive sunburn from watching the Dawgs lose on Saturday and was not enjoying the lacy dress pulling on my third degree burns. Oh no, I was not enjoying it at all. Mental note: don't fry in the sun the day before the wedding.

And since I can't share wedding pictures - got to keep somethings a surprise - especially for nosy fiances!  Here's a picture of the Game Day gang with Papa King:

Registeries

We registered and it was so. fun.  Looking at all the pretty things in a store and simply scanning them into some system and then they appear on a list and could, potentially, one day be ours! There's so much to love about registering, people should register for things all the time.  We're all set up at Pottery Barn and Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  Pottery Barn is such a cute and lovely store, I just want to move in; move into the store and live there forever.

Josh wasn't so interested in dissecting silverware and which fork pattern looked better versus another fork pattern, but when we made it to the bathroom section he stumbled upon the robes.  And suddenly, he's always wanted a nice, plush robe! So, we scanned one into the list. It's that easy - what my sweetheart wants, he gets!

Dress Shopping Part II

Two of my trusty bridesmaids joined my mom and I on the search for a dress the other weekend.  We ventured to two dress shops, refueled with salty Mexican foods, and then made a final dress shop stop.  About ten total dresses were tried on, zero were purchased. Finding a dress is getting to be a difficult task.  There's so many options and I'm having a tough time figuring out exactly what I want. People make it seem like you'll just know when you try the right one on and tears of joy will flow freely.  I'm not convinced.  I've already tried on four dresses that very well could be "the one" and not a tear (of mine) was shed. 

Typical to this summer the weekend of the dress search was, yet again, another rainy weekend.  As we dodged rain bullets, we made our way into Winnie Couture for dress shop #1.  Winnie's is all pink everything, the store is sprayed with extra flowery scents, and champagne is served. They really go all out to give that special feel to make dress shopping a memorable time.  We had our own semiprivate area with a full length mirror and couch.  For someone reason step one of dress shopping (being handed a glass of champagne immediately) was bypassed at first.  But, Kat quickly corrected that situation and we were all soon enjoying a fine glass of bubbly. I knew I asked that girl to be in the wedding for a reason - way to step up to your BM duties!  I tried on one dress in particular that I really loved.  It was an ivory gown, similar to the dress from the very first day of dress shopping.  A strapless, lace top and satin bottom with a lace trim.  The only issue, it was waaay out of budget.  As in, waaaaaaaay out.  Alas, with fineries such as wall-to-wall pink and sparkling refreshments on tap, this is to be expected.  After lackluster haggling with the bridal consultant, we hastily made our way to the next stop.

Dress stop #2 can be described as the-complete-opposite-of-the-first-store.  Where the bridal consultant at Winnie's was attentive and knowledgeable, this was not the case.  The dress selection was also lacking.  This store was so lacking in wedding fun, we might as well skip ahead...

After a pit stop at a local Mexican joint and to dry off from the rain, we finally made our way to Alfred Angelo's.  This place happens to be right around the corner from home and a place I have casually cruised by many times; only noticing it after freshly being engaged.  Funny how adding a ring to the finger opens your eyes to everything around you, or at least wedding related things.  This shop had a wide selection of affordable gowns.  There were two dresses in particular I couldn't make up my mind about.  The first one wasn't strapless, but had a mesh-type front and a "V" style back and flowed out to a long lacy train.  Very unique.  The second dress was a more creamier color and had a halter top with a large ballgown, complete with pockets.  Two very different looks, both unique.  Decisions. Decisions.  Luckily, my mom and I have two more shops to visit this weekend with even more dresses to try on and fawn over.  This dress trying stuff is pretty fun.

Emergency Vet

Over the weekend, between dress shopping and setting up registries, Winston was dealing with a mystery illness. He was lethargic and wouldn't eat and spent all day curled in a ball hiding under a chair.  When we went outside, he bee-lined for the grassy patches and scarfed down as much grass as he could, just to vomit it up moments later. Concerned, we took him to the emergency vet Saturday night. And after $150 were told they didn't know what was wrong with him and to just monitor him and see if he improves.  Not very helpful.

Well, Winston didn't improve.  Before he would eat a treat and get up to go outside, but not anymore.  He looked like he was in extreme pain; I swear I saw him crying.  He was crying tears of pain! I didn't even know dogs could cried! Our little boy was in pain and there wasn't anything we could do.

First thing Monday, we took him to our regular vet where she immediately took him in and ran tests and took xrays.  Over the next two days Winston was plugged into an IV and given pain meds and even spent a night back at the emergency vet for over night care. Turns out he has pancreatitis, which is the inflammation and swelling of the pancreas.  There's not really a determined cause to it, but from now on he will definitely be on a strict zero "people food" diet as fatty foods are thought to trigger it.  Not that we were sitting around giving him people sized portions of food all the time, just a piece of steak here and there.  I definitely would rather be safe than sorry and out of pocket 2K again!

Tuesday afternoon we were able to take him home, along with 3 types of meds and a prescription formula diet.  His appetite has picked up and he's trotting throughout the house more and more like himself. We have a final check-up visit with the vet on Monday, but I think Winston is going to be alright! Monday we'll find out what changes to his diet we'll need to make, I know he's going to be eating low fat from now on.

Our biggest lesson learned is do not feed dogs people food.  No matter how cute and how hard they beg, it's not good for them. Do not do it! Luckily, Winston loves his veggies, carrots and green beans in particular, so he'll still be able to enjoy a "treat" here and there.

A Bridal Shower

Last weekend I was one-fourth of a team of party planners for a childhood friend's bridal shower. It was a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme with special guest, Audrey Hepburn! Some highlights from the big celebrity event are below.

Dress Shopping

This past Sunday my mom and I had our first dress hunting experience! I tried on six dresses. Most were lace. One dress in particular was awful, it fit like a limp noodle.  I don't even know who would want a wedding dress without any structure to it, but that was the dress for them.

The dress I liked the most was fitted with a strapless lace bustier and satin bottom, trimmed with additional lace  The top part was perfect, but the satin part was silver.  I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. The lace stood out more, which I liked, but the dress was still silver.  If you have to decide whether or not you like it or it's the one, then it's not the one, right?  It's still on the list, for now.

Whenever real life mimics fake life (television, movies, etc.) it's always a surreal experience.  My dress stylist asked me after each dress "Do you love it? Do you say yes to the dress?"  I felt like I was being filmed for my starring performance on Say Yes To The Dress. But, I wasn't and I did not love it or say yes.

What do you think of dresses outside the "normal" ivory and white colors?  Too rebellious?  Wave of the future?

Registries

During some "free time" at work, I decided to look into some registries.  I've always loved Crate & Barrel and immediately signed up online.  However, after looking at their selection this season, I'm not sure I want to stick to this registry, but I can't find out where to cancel it.  We'll just have a random registry floating out on the internet, forever.

The first and only item Crate & Barrel recommended to me is a single knife.  One knife. This ominous registry item frightens me.  Especially since it's Friday the 13th.  What do you think of the single knife?

One knife, better for stabbing you with m'dear

I did look at Pottery Barn's wedding registry and it looks fantastic.  I've already picked out all of our bedroom linens. Josh's input will come later, as I unwrap the new duvet and lay it out on our bed. :)

We have a date!

Saturday, August 16th, 2014

We have a venue and date booked and now all of the real planning can commence! First, I need to find a countdown clock so I can get up to the second reminders of how close we're coming to the big day...

Next items on the to-do list:

• Picking a Photographer

• Dress Shopping

My favorite thing about having a date picked out is now I can actually respond when people ask "Oh, so do you have a date yet?"  I can respond with "YES, yes we do".  Of course, I don't want to tell just anyone about the date.  It's secret information and we don't want all these wedding crashers and rift raft showing up the day of.  SO, I thought just making the announcement on this public blog would be appropriate. :)

Venues

According to Mindy Weiss's "Wedding Planning Book", finding the venue and picking a date is one of the first steps to planning a wedding.  Luckily, I have parents who enthusiastically volunteered to step up to this task.  And, I am so grateful because they have saved me a ton of time.  Yesterday was the culmination of their searches as I visited 3 venues in one day.  When I do things, I do them and like to get it all over with all at once.  Nothing leisurely about me!

So, on a whirlwind Thursday of a day, my mom and I visited 3 venues in between work. The first venue we visited was very different from the other two.  Each place was more and more overwhelming as my wedding "stress tank" continues to fill up; there is just so much to plan. So many decisions need to be made when it comes to planing a wedding, and each time I speak to a wedding industry expert, I learn something new that I hadn't even thought of before. Of course, something new that I now have to do and couldn't live without!

Venue Option #1 
Villa Christina - the location is perfect. It's right by major transportation and a brand new hotel is opening in June 2014 that is going to be attached to the venue. It couldn't be more convenient for guests!  But, I've been to this venue a ton of times for other occasions, and it just doesn't feel like "the place". It's very hotel-y and doesn't have quite the Southern charm I'm looking for.  But, maybe convenience will outweigh that?

Venue Option #2
Roswell Founder's Hall - a beautiful historic home. This is actually where the first Veterinarian in all of Roswell lived, or something like that; I'm not good with details. There's even a built in bar for all to enjoy! This place has everything I'm looking for, the old historic charm, an outdoor ceremony spot, and more... 

Venue Option #3
Primrose Cottage- the first permanent residential home in Roswell, home to the King family.  Which is so funny because I happen to have a King family member IN my wedding!  It's just meant to be, right?  The wedding Gods are sending me signs, I must accept them!  This house is very similar to Founder's Hall, but with more options.  There's more outdoor space, multiple choices for ceremony set up, and 3 floors of fun where guests have free range throughout the entire event.

Not actual fireworks.

Primrose Cottage is my favorite and even Josh came by on a second tour and agreed.  Once he looked over the list for the cocktail and dinner meal options, he agreed even more.  The stomach really is the secret to any man's heart!

I'll guess we'll just wait and see where we end up!

The Dog in Two Lovebirds

Since today yesterday was National Dog Day, what better way to debut our little pup?

When Josh and I first started dating, I really wanted a dog. Like, really really.  I would run after dogs in the streets, yank them away from strangers and cuddle them endlessly as I baby talked sweet nothings, squeezing all my love into the defenseless little guy.  I was nuts for dogs!  For our first Christmas together, Josh, knowing how much I wanted a little dog, had a big surprise for me.  I was so excited! It had to be a dog, it was the only thing I ever really wanted! And, it was Christmas.  All dreams come true on Christmas!

Well, this dream did not come true. Instead of a real, live dog, Josh gifted me a book:  21 Things To Do With Your Dog.  The dog I didn't have. I had 21 things to do and no dog to do them with.  But, despite this hiccup, our relationship did still go on and just under a year my real present arrived!

Josh finally broke down and agreed we could get a dog, for my birthday.  After stalking Pet Finder online, I saw a little black and white dog with a big pink tongue named Harvey.  We drove an hour away and it was love at first site. Some money was exchanged, a quick haircut (and name change), and we were on our way home, now a complete family of 3.

Winston's first day at his forever home.

 

 

The various hair stylings 
of Winston

What to Wear

This question has come up a couple of times - Do you ever remove the ring? Josh is a firm believer that once the ring is on the finger, it never comes off, it's a permanent fixture.  I agree, for a man.  But, my sparkly bauble just can't stay on when I work out! After a hard day of working at the office, I like to come home and immediately remove all jewelry, put on some gross, nasty clothes and hit the gym.  I'm a little worried that prancersizing around the gym all bare fingered might give off the wrong signals.  I really don't want the millions of single guys up in the gym approaching me like I'm a single lady and ready to be hollered at!  Well either way, if won't be an issue, my "gym" is out of our apartment complex where no one is a regular and absolutely no one makes eye contact.  It's like an unwritten rule - that I love.

I've talked to a couple of friends about this in depth, some said yes remove the ring for all household chores, working out and sleeping, but then some never remove their ring.  What is right?

What are your thoughts?

Bridal Extravaganza

If I thought I felt overwhelmed before Sunday, I was wrong. So wrong.  I left the Bridal Extravaganza with a huge bag of pamphlets and magazines and a sore shoulder from carrying all that junk. My bridal magazine collection has doubled. And I have a growing stack of vacation literature for our dream honeymoon to Mexico, or Antigua, or St.Lucia, or wherever! I'm sure there is a brochure somewhere in this pile of dead trees that covers any picturesque tropical locale you pick. I went with my mom, the MOB, and Jennifer and we each left with an elephant sized satchel.

We made a visit to all of the booths, unfortunately, there wasn't a money machine.  I really shouldn't have factored this unrealistic expectation into the equation, but I did and the amount of disappointment I feel is insurmountable.  In fact, there weren't that many give-aways at all, or swag as we peeps in the biz call it.  This was highly disappointing because I thought I was going to run away with a fist full of cash and a free dress, cake, make-up, and honeymoon.  Jenn and I did get to sit in a Rolls Royce for free, that was nice. I also won a prize for "free" make-up and hair trial.  Well, to clarify, I won a "free" reimbursement of a make-up and hair trial after I book a day-of make-up and hair appointment for the low price of $425!  These wedding vendors sure are tricky! We also enjoyed a sampling of cake, a droplet of prime rib, chips and guac, and a thimble of delicious blueberry lemonade and then watched a fashion show. 

The event itself was enlightening. Hey, I'm getting married.

This whole wedding thing is too much work.  Getting the families to come together, researching venues, worrying about money, even just having time to do anything, nobodys got time for that!

Bridal Show

I'm attending my first bridal show this Sunday at Atlanta's Premiere Bridal Extravaganza.  I hope to sample delicious cakes and try products and win free things.  Supposedly, I'll be able to "visualize, touch, and even feel the excitement", we shall see.

 I'm really excited to get some ideas, talk to vendors and just start figuring things out.  As a person who plans out everything, I don't like not having things figured out, even if we've only been engaged for three weeks.  People keep asking so many questions, I just feel so behind!  I want everything to be all nice and neat and laid out and ready to go for the big day that is (unofficially because there's no date yet) a year away!

The Mrs. from last weekend's wedding went to a bridal show and got to jump into a money machine to win cash.  I think all her winnings got her discounts on tux rentals or something along those lines, but I want to be that girl in the money machine.

So many free give-a ways - I hope to win them all!

Mags

My wedding mag collection is growing quickly!  It's only been two weeks and I'm already developing quite the library of all things bridal. If this keeps up, there will be hundreds of fine mags littering the coffee table in no time. This leads me to another question, at what point is it no longer "me", but "we"?  Our wedding, of course, is about us, but are they my mags, or our mags? "What's mine is yours" is something we've always expressed throughout our relationship, but I just don't know that I would call these magazines ours.

Thoughts?

Do I really have to share everything?

Oh man, I have so much to learn...

Weekend Wedding

Over the weekend I joined Crystal at her side as she married Will. These crazy kids dated for over six years and are just one of those couples that you can't imagine them without one another. They're like beans and rice, peas in a pod, corn on the cob, and many other fine food related analogies. We all agreed that it felt like they were already married since they're so perfect together - it was just time to make the whole thang official! The wedding was filled with fun times and great friends. After college everyone has slowly crept across the country in new pursuits, but whenever there's a wedding we're reunited and it's like we never left each other. That's one of the best things about weddings, people from all over coming back together to celebrate love!

The maids before walking down the aisle.












The freshly married, happy couple.

And of course, my first (and only) choice wedding date since 2010.

Sometimes I have to hold him by the neck so his head doesn't fall off during the picture taking.  It's a tough job, but somebody has gotta do it!

The Engagement

Imagine this, clear blue skies, waves crashing below against the rocky shoreline of Puerto Rico as the sun sets off in the background. Sounds like a movie setting for a storyline proposal right? Right. I couldn't have planned it better myself. So, with the setting just right I led Meghan up to the edge of the cliff. What will happen next? Do I push her over? No. Just the opposite, in a stunning twist of fate I hit one knee and pour my soul into the universe as I gaze deeply into Meghan's sun lit eyes. The rest, my friends...Is history.

-Joshua

After dragging me through the streets as fast as he could, afraid we would miss our dinner reservations, we paused at the top of a little cliff overlooking the ocean. As we looked out into the clear, blue ocean, Josh turned to me, dropped down on one knee and popped the question. I immediately said YES! After hugs and kisses, and a couple of tears, we asked the nearest person to take a picture of us.  He must have been pretty scared of us because he would not come closer than 20 feet...

-Meghan

So it begins...

Just relaxing on the beaches of Puerto Rico, reality didn't really hit until the plane landed at Hartsfield-Jackson - We are engaged! It's so easy living in paradise and living moment to moment, pina colada to pina colada, but now it's time to start planning! What better way to chronicle this whole exciting experience than through a weblog for all our family and friends to see? I'll try and update throughout the year and keep an honest viewpoint of wedding planning, and, of course, leave a surprise here and there for the big day!