Engagement Pictures

I thought I would share some of our engagement pictures that we had made in November. The pictures were taken by Jerrod Brown at Camp Sumatanga and downtown Attalla.

Wedding Book

My wedding book arrived this week!  I ordered it at the bridal show in January from Alan's Invitations. It immediately caught my attention because it's not the standard white leather guest book that you commonly see at weddings.  I love choosing wedding items that are personalized and creative.

The front of the guestbook.

It has our monogram in brown on an ivory background with a matching brown ribbon.

Note, these are not the colors of the wedding.  They are, however, the colors of my house so that we can continue to display our wedding book after the wedding is over.

- my mommy's idea and a good one I must admit!

The book is filled with pages to document all the details of the wedding

and the guests who attend.

And you all know how I love to coordinate!  So I had to get the matching monogrammed pen!

You may be wondering why I chose a J instead of W for the pen.  The book includes pages for bridal shower guests to sign their names so I will take the pen along with the book to those events. It didn't seem appropriate to use the initial of his last name before we are married. We both share first names that begin with J so this pen can be used at showers and will still be appropriate for the wedding. That seemed more reasonable!  Yes, only I would think about these things!!!!

Save the Date

Addressing, stuffing, sealing, stamping..... Whew we have been busy sending out our save the dates!!

For those of you who are not familiar with the save the date concept, here you go.  Save the dates are notifications of a summer wedding so that guests who plan on attending the wedding can schedule their summer vacations accordingly while saving the date for our big day.  A formal invitation follows a couple of months later.

The idea behind the save the date is simple, but the process of creating a save the date is not so much! Most of the choices available are cards with standard colors.  Of course, I didn't like any of those options. Fortunately, my fabulous wedding photographer brought in a graphic designer to create a save the date just for us!!   The graphic designer used the wedding color (purple), my favorite engagement picture, and lots of pretty scroll work to design a magnet. 

This is our save the date magnet!!!

I hope all of our guests like it as much we do!

Valentine's Day

Before I met my prince charming, Valentine's day was never a holiday I enjoyed. That's probably because I was a single gal for so long!  For years, I referred to Valentine's day as Single Awareness Day (SAD) because the holiday draws attention to all the single girls wishing for a soul mate.  What a day to build a girl's self-esteem!! Fortunately, God is good and delivers your soul mate to your doorstep when His timing is right.

I am so grateful to have finally met my soul mate. We had a wonderful Valentine's day together. I received my first surprise when I arrived at work on Friday. A package had already been delivered for me! I opened the package to find this box.

 When I opened the box I found 9 little chocolate frogs!! So cute!!

The one in the middle must be the prince because he is the only one wearing a crown...

On Valentine's day, we started our day by attending church followed by a yummy lunch at Tavern.  We arrived home just in time for a dozen red roses and a teddy bear to be delivered at my door!  

 

 Beautiful!!!

So sweet! Prince charming and I spent the remainder of the day resting, relaxing, watching the Olympics, and enjoying one another's company. Absolutely perfect!! I simply couldn't ask for more.

 

Creating Heirlooms

As I have mentioned before, there are gazillions of details to think about when planning a wedding.  My latest concern has been finding a knife to use when we cut the bride's cake. Of course I could go buy a brand new knife, but wouldn't it be more meaningful to use something that belonged to my parents?  

After suggesting this idea to my mommy, she immediately went to find the cake knife.  It still has the ribbon and flowers from their wedding day nearly 33 years ago!! Now the plan is to have my parents' monogram and date engraved into the knife. After our wedding, my fiance and I will have our monogram and date engraved too.  We will start a new tradition and pass the cake knife down for years to come creating a family heirloom.

Wedding Details

Wedding planning is so much fun but overwhelming!  There are a gazillion details to think about.  Fortunately, I love attention to detail.  It's the small things that make me happy. Anyway, I thought I would share a few of my plans for the big day.

These are the colors of the wedding - apple green and purple.

The chair ties at the reception will be in purple.

I love green apples so they will be a part of my centerpieces for the tables at the reception.

They will also be on the groom's chocolate 3-layered cake!

Samples of the yummy wedding cake we tasted last Friday.

I can't wait to see my cake - it will be 4 layers of white on white.

Simple, elegant, and classic!

A sampling of the flowers I want to use for the wedding and reception.

I love bright and vibrant colors.

Hope you enjoyed a small peek into the wedding planning festivites!

More to come soon!