I'll NEVER be too old for Disney!

Well I must say that it is time to brag on my fabulous MOH, Miss Rosalie Barbour!

First things first I must issue official blog congratulations to Rosie. Back in March I received a FaceTime phone call from Rosie flashing some bling. Before she even had a chance to say anything I was jumping up and down and screaming  screeching! Rosalie is engaged to an absolutely amazing guy named Adam Fowler. I couldn't pick a better guy for Rosie, and I know they'll be very happy together for a long, long time! I can't wait for their special day in January, and to return the favor and stand up by Rosie like she is for me!

Sharing this special time in our lives has been absolutely wonderful. Forget any of that drama you saw in Bride Wars. Planning our weddings together has brought us closer together over these past few months. It's so wonderful to have someone to talk to and bounce ideas off of, especially when we're both going through the exact same things!

Once it became time to start discussing Bachelorette ideas I had some hesitation. I've always dreamed of going to Disney and wearing those bridal Minnie Mouse ears, but I wasn't so sure that everyone else would like the idea. Well leave it to my Bestest Best Forever Friend to keep me in check and make sure that I got what I wanted. After toying around with ideas about going to Charelston, Savannah, and a weekend in the mountains, Rosalie promptly reminded me that Disney is what I've always wanted, and that the weekend was supposed to be all about me.

Needless to say, I am thrilled to announce that we'll be heading to DISNEY WORLD for my Bachelorette weekend! Some people might think that it's lame, but this chick has never been all about the crazy partying, and I made it quite clear up front that there would be no inappropriately shaped party favors and the like. It's just some good old fashioned fun with my girls and the mouse :)

Thank you Rosalie for pushing me to stand up for what I want, and for helping my dreams come true!

It's The Little Things :)

Beautiful :)

A Second Dress and a Third Pair of Shoes!

Now don't go thinking anything crazy like a second dress for the reception. I love my beauty of a wedding dress far too much to change out of it after the ceremony. Instead, I'm talking about my rehearsal dinner!

I have "pretend shopped" at ModCloth for ages, but haven't ever had the guts to actually buy anything. That was until I saw this beauty!

I have also been hunting a fabulous pair of pink shoes for a while. I knew that I didn't want to wear stiletto heels since we will be outside and on grass for the ceremony and good part of the reception. I had no interest in aerating the lawn for them, or in falling and breaking my ankle! And without giving anything away about my dress, lets just say everyone agreed that flats would be the way to go. 

I decided quite some time ago (read as before we were even engaged) that I would wear these pink glitter TOMS for the reception.

But I knew I wanted something a little dressier for the ceremony, pictures, etc. Enter a trip to DSW with my mom and the purchase of these.

Noticing a trend?

 

Well now that I had this fabulous new rehearsal dress I figured it was a good excuse for new shoes! I didn't want to do flats since this dress was short, and remember that I didn't want to rock any skinny little heels. So, I searched the internet for months until I finally found these lovelies! DSW to the rescue again!

So that's how I ended up with two dresses, and three pairs of shoes! Anyone who knows me should know that I am NOT the fashion guru in our family as that job usually falls to JD! Who'd have thought I'd have more wardrobe changes than him!

Honeymoon! Honeymoon!

After months of research and looking at literally dozens of properties, we have FINALLY selected a honeymoon location!

We are headed to the Paradisus Playa Del Carmen - La Perla!

 

We will be flying out of Orlando and spending 8 days and 7 nights lounging at the resort, zip lining over the jungles, riding amphibious vehicles through caves and rivers, snorkeling, exploring Mayan ruins, checking out wildlife, fishing for more "monster fish" and much, much more! We are so excited! Come on November!

We were so fortunate to work with South Georgia Travel to find a phenomenal deal for our resort, flight, and excursions! Our travel agent, Brenda Wetherington, was able to get us a deal for over $1500 cheaper than anything we could find!

 

 

 

Engagement Pictures!

For years I have been stalking following photographer, Jenny Evelyn, and her blog. Back in 2008 she shot a friend's engagement and wedding. I have dreamed of one day being a Jenny Bride!

Well the date was set. We were all ready with our outfits and locations. We couldn't wait to meet Jenny! Then, only hours before our sessions, we get a phone call from Jenny's assistant. She was in a car accident on her way to Valdosta as she was leaving Macon! Fortunately, it was only a fender bender and Jenny wasn't hurt. We promptly rescheduled for the next day.

Fast forward 24 hours. We were anxiously awaiting Jenny's arrival at the house to shoot pictures with the pups. Then Jenny called and said that the weather was awful and she was more concerned with getting pics on the VSU campus sicne she drove all the way down. After a quick wardrobe change and a quick trip down to campus we were ready to meet!

I was so excited to meet Jenny! She was just as fabulous in real life as she was online! We hit it off instantly, and she kept us laughing the whole time. The weather blew over so after spending about an hour and a half on campus we headed back home to snap pics with the dogs, and then downtown for our "glam" pics! 

We couldn't be happier with how our pictures turned out! Follow the link to see her blog post!

Jessica & JD: Engaged VSU Love Story!

 

 

Yet Another Dress: The Moms!

While we were in Tallahassee for our first registry trip we started getting texts and phone calls from Karen, JD's mom. She was out shopping and found two dresses that she really liked. She was really worried about buying her dress, because my mom hadn't bought hers yet. We all know that etiquette states that the MOB should buy her dress first. Well, I told Karen that I loved her dress, and that I knew for a fact it was nothing like what my mom was looking for. So she got the green light to go ahead and buy her dress! It's absolutely lovely and looks so great on her!

While I was home for Spring Break I took my mom shopping for her dress. I was hell bent that we weren't going to stop shopping until we found her dress. She wasn't quite so convinced. She saw a dress online and fell in love, but not a single store in GA carried the designer. We were worried that she wouldn't find another she liked as much.

We started the day off at Bravura over at The Avenue at East Cobb. We had HORRIBLE service! It was quite clear they were more interested in devoting the entire staff to help the pageant girl that was in the store trying on several thousand dollar dresses. We had zero help! Never the less, we managed to find a few that we really liked, snapped some pics, and headed on out the door. What a crummy experience!

Next stop was Bride Beautiful, which is where we found the bridesmaids dresses. We went ahead and ordered the girls' dresses, then moved on to trying on dresses for mom. We found one that I loved, but mom just wasn't quite convinced. I started to realize that other dress was still creeping into her mind.

We left without ordering a dress and then headed over to Wedding Angels down the road. We tried on a dress that was similar to the one I loved at the store before. I was convinced. That was it! I loved it! Mom even said she loved it! I even had her convinced to go with a color that I thought would look great, but she never would have tried it. She was walking back into the dressing room when she saw another dress. It could have been twins with the one she originally saw online!

She decided she had to give it a shot, and as soon as she put it on she had tears! We knew it. That was her dress!

I'm so excited to finally have all of the women's fashion behind us! Now it's just up to JD to pick the boy's suits!

Registry: Take Two!

Since our first adventure into the world of registry was a total bust, we decided we needed to give it another try. We had no idea what we really needed to be getting, so me called in the big guns... my mom! We went home to ATL for Spring Break and decided to spend a Saturday at Bed Bath & Beyond with my mom.

We were more than blessed by the service we received at the BB&B by Lenox Mall! But, almost too blessed! We went in and spent almost 3 hours with our own representative! She sat at the little service desk with us as we picked our china, flat wear, crystal, luggage, etc. Then, she walked us through the entire store and helped us select exactly the items that we needed! My poor mom just followed us around the whole time! The best part of the whole thing was that JD was actually enjoying the process this time. Why? He got to hold the gun the whole time! Ladies, that is my biggest suggestion for registering. Let your guy use the gun so that he feels involved!

After the 3rd hour we were only halfway through the store and feeling quite burnt out. We proceeded to thank our registry specialist, and left to reward ourselves for a successful registry trip by getting Chick-Fil-A milkshakes! We knew there were some more things we wanted to add to the registry, so we headed to a different BB&B (crazy I know!) to spend another hour finishing our registry.

By the end of the day our BB&B registry was complete. My life long dream of clicking through that kitchen section finally came true. I couldn't be happier with the whole process. Everything we need in one store!

Here's a fun little tip that I found out while registering... everything is $30 cheaper at BB&B than at Macy's, Belk, etc! Make sure to shop around!