Showers, Showers, Showers!

It's been a while since I posted. Sue me. I've been busy. I've been sick. It's been whatever.

So far we have had 3 of our 5 main showers, and 1 of my 2 school showers. That's right... SEVEN showers in all!

The first one was my "friends and family" shower. My lovely aunts and my mom's best friend, Mrs. Corrine, hosted this shower at my Aunt Judy's neighborhood clubhouse. We had so much good food, and it was wonderful to see all of my family and friends together. Most of the guests were my parents neighbors and friends from the yacht club, as well as my aunts, my uncle, and my cousins. It seems like all of those people practically helped raise me! This shower was kitchen themed, so JD and I got a lot of recipes and nice supplies for the kitchen! However, I must say that my favorite gift was my Meyers Lemon tree from Allan and Drew! Three of my four bridesmaids were there, and we got to start my bow-quet to carry for the rehearsal! All in all, it was a lovely day!

The second shower was one that we had at my school. The elementary school in Lowndes always have school wide showers for a teacher's wedding, and for her first child. I've been looking forward to this day for years! It was kind of interesting having it at Dewar, especially since I  barely know most of the people that came. However, it's the thought that counts, and my grade level did a wonderful job putting it all together! We got a lot of gift cards, so those will definitely come in handy!

Shower number 3 was with JD's aunts and cousins (all girls). His two aunts hosted, and we played some really fun games! It was my mom's first time meeting many of his family members, and definitely seeing them in their element. Rosie had never met any of them, so it was nice for her to put names to faces. She's definitely heard a lot about them over the past 7 years! This shower included two of the things we really wanted... all new bedding for our master bedroom, and all new bathroom stuff too! Woohoo!

And finally, at least for now, the 4th shower was JD's Parent's Church Friends Shower. This was the biggest shower by far. I think something like 30+ people were there. We went to one of the hostesses' house, mingled about, ate delicious food outside under the stars, then came back in for games and presents! Our cake was really cute, as were the decorations! My bow-quet doubled in size, and we got some wonderful presents! I think most of these people probably just brought stuff to this shower instead of having to haul it all the way down to Valdosta! My parents had never met all of JD's church people, so it was fun to see them get thrown into that mix of people. It's definitely a group where you just have to dive in head first and hope you come out on the other side!

 

So that's all for the showers for now. I have one more this coming weekend at the Swan House in Atlanta, and it is being hosted by some ladies from my church back home. Then in two weekends I have my final shower here in Valdosta, and it is being hosted by my Valdosta girl friends! SO excited :)

Suits... The Most Difficult Fashion of All!

So, who would have ever thought that picking the groomsmen's fashion would be more difficult than the bridesmaids? Who would have thought it would be harder to make one boy (JD) happier than to make 4 girls???

Oh, wait... ME!

From the very beginning I let JD have free rein over the attire for himself and the guys. He is quite obviously the more fashion conscious member of our little family, and he would pick something much nicer than me. After all, it wasn't until recently (read as the last year or two) that I finally learned a suit isn't just a suit.  Not only that, but it is nearly impossible to buy an unaltered off the rack suit without looking like anything but a sack of potatoes.

Side note... one of my biggest pet peeves about looking at wedding pictures is seeing grooms and groomsmen in saggy, baggy, unatrractive suites or tuxes. YUCK!

Anywho... JD and I discussed and agreed on a nice medium grey shade for the suit, and that we wanted the ties to be the same color as the bridesmaids dresses. There ended my say so, and there entered the drama.

Mr. GQ decided that the groomsmen needed to purchase their own suits so that they may be properly altered and fitted. And, it's not much more expensive than it is to rent one of those nasty, who knows what's happened in it, sweat bags of a tux from some massive chain.

His first choice would have been a bespoke suit from Savile Row, but we didn't feel like several thousand dollars per suit plus multiple airline tickets and a several month timespan would really fit in with our plans.

Instead, we set out to Joseph A Bank, one of JD's top choices for fancy wardrobe purchases. They're always running some kind of super crazy deal like buy 1 get 50 things free (<--- obvious exaggeration used to make a point). One of JD's groomsmen used one of these similar deals to get his groomsmen's suits, so it seemed like a perfect option. Unfortunately, after a trip to Jos. A Bank in ATL we were told we couldn't get what JD wanted for less than a price that we'll just call way too expensive. Ouch.

Off to Mens Warehouse. They couldn't do it for less than an even more obscene amount of money. Strike 2. (JD has expensive taste)

Then we headed to the mall... Dillards and Macy's were the same story. Strike 3.

We wandered into JCPenny and actually happened to find a suit that we liked. With their new square deal thing they have going we would have been able to get the suits for the same price as renting a tux.  Unfortunately, my "a suit is a suit" attitude was quickly overruled. I could tell by the look on his face that JD's soul was dying inside at the thought of wearing an off the rack JCP suit. Yes. My fiance' is a fashion diva and a coffee snob. And I absolutely love him for it.

After another trip back to the Valdosta JAB "just to see if they could do better than the one in ATL" we were pleasantly surprised. We met the lovely Skylar who seemed to make our dreams come true! We found a fabulous suit that came in the exact color we needed, and, with Skylar's 70% off magic, was EVEN CHEAPER THAN THE JCP PRICE. We left with great big smiles on our faces and plans to get everyone's sizes.

Fast forward two weeks. We come in with everyone's sizes and are ready to make the order. Next thing you know, it's all fallen apart. Little did we know, the suit had been discontinued and only the sizes and colors remaining were available. Three of the six suits were unavailable. Without going into all of the many, many stressful details, let's just say I cried. Twice. We're talking big old ugly elephant tears.

Two hours later we left the store thinking that the store manager, Gerald, really did have superhero magical powers and that things were all better. However, as we pulled into the neighborhood we got the dreaded phone call. Something was wrong. We turned around and went back.


More tears. More magic.

Finally, the nightmare was over. We ended up with the SAME SUIT that JD tried on at the first trip to Joseph A Bank before any of this even happened! However, somehow Gerald's magical superhero powers got the price back down to where we needed it to be.

We returned to Joseph A Bank at least 5 times (probably more) over the next month to get JD's alterations done, and to pick out ties and shirts for the groomsmen and my dad. Fortunately that part was MUCH easier. They had exactly the color and style that they needed. However, Mr. Fashion Guru had to speacial order his own tie online. Nothing off the rack for that boy ;)

So, all of the fashion really and truly is finished. The boys all have their suits. The girls all have their dresses. The moms are taken care of. The dads are taken care of.

Whew!

Where to begin???

So much has happened in the past month! Here's a short, sweet, and to the point update...

• Bridesmaids dresses have arrived!
• We picked jewelry for the lovely ladies.
• Our guestbook came in... it's beautiful :)
• JD has finally picked suits for the guys! I'm quite excited about how handsome everyone will look!
• We purchased my wedding band, and it's tucked away safely until November.
• Invites went out, and our first shower is in 3 weeks!
• My Aunt Donna has volunteered to address our invitations.
• The day of schedule is coming together.
• I've started working on the table numbers. So excited!
• Wedding gifts started arriving... it's like Christmas morning every single time!
• We're starting to pick our music for the big day.
• Mom and I went shopping to pick out her bling for the wedding.
• I gave up on growing my hair and chopped it off. I'll be a pixie bride for sure!

As my summer wraps up and the school year begins I'm busy working in my classroom. We're closing in on 3 months, and I know we're getting down to the wire. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting anxious. However, with the help of my mom, JD, and my lovely ladies I know everything will work out for the best!

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!

Southern Weddings Magazine

So I totally forgot to make mention that my sweetie and I were in a blog post for Southern Weddings Magazine. It was kind of a big deal :)

Click here to check it out!

Tallahassee and Registering

It was two days before our engagement picture session, so JD and I headed to Tallahassee to do some shopping. We were still trying to decide exactly what we were going to wear. A full morning of shopping proved unsuccessful and we decided to make outfits we already had work.

While we were there we figured we should go ahead and do some registering. We knew that we wanted to register at both Macy's and Bed Bath and Beyond, neither of which are located in Valdosta. We started out with Macy's since we were already at the mall. Let's just say that registering is a lot more overwhelming that one would think.

JD and I already live together, and before he moved in I already had "everything" to start a home. However, the things I have are old busted up six year old things from Walmart. Example: a six dollar toaster that managed to melt a bagel wrapper to the side and top. We had to wrap our heads around the fact that it is in fact OK to upgrade and register for "grown up" things. We also realized that everything we have is in fact mine, and he didn't have any say so in picking things... right down to the house we live in! This is going to be our life together so we want to have our own things.

Then came the registry "gun." JD was quite disappointed that it wasn't in fact shaped like a gun :) We set out to zap as many things as we could. Then we became overwhelmed. Who knew there were so many different options of so many different things! We quickly decided to just click anything that looked cool, and figured we could edit the registry online once we got home.

I was definitely having more fun than JD, but I wouldn't have expected it to be any other way. Little girls are raised playing house and picturing themselves having nice kitchen things. JD was more concerned with why we couldn't register for a surround sound system for the TV and new golf clubs. Believe it or not, and my mother is SO proud, I even registered for fine china. Since I was little I have opposed to registering for and owning fine china and crystal. I didn't see the point of it, nor did I understand when I would use it. But, as soon as that registry gun hit my hand, I felt that I needed china. I didn't just need it, but I had to have it!

We left Macy's feeling good, but starting to get tired, and headed over to Bed Bath and Beyond. We walked in and immediately felt overwhelmed. There was a wait to register because they were so busy! After a few moments of walking around we quickly decided to head back to Valdosta and give BB&B another shot on another day. This registry stuff is intense!

Save The Dates!

So from the beginning JD and I sat down and prioritized different things for the wedding. Photography was the most important, so it got the biggest chunk of the budget, followed by venue, food, flowers, etc. Let's just say that we decided that putting a bunch of money into something that people would eventually throw in the trash wasn't our top priority. In other words, save the dates and invites were an area where we were looking to save money.

JD and I decided to design the Save the Dates on our own using good old fashioned Microsoft Publisher. We must say, we were quite pleased with the results...

Then we used Vistaprint.com to print them out. That's right. We didn't use any fancy paper or printing company. We saved a whole bunch of money by doing them ourselves. However... something happened in the printing process. All of the postcards had a strange white border on either one or two sides. To top things off, it wasn't the same side on each card. My thought is that the postcards weren't aligned when they printed.

Being the OCD anal person that I am I decided that I had to cut them all off. Insert paper cutter and a glass of wine... An hour later the Save the Dates were all finished. A small price to pay for the amount of money we saved.

So... Save the Date! 11.10.12

Saying yes to another dress!

If I thought picking MY dress would be one of the hardest parts of wedding planning I was dead wrong! I quickly learned that picking a dress to make all four bridesmaids happy would be much, much more difficult.

Initially I let the girls give me their opinion on long or short dresses. After some consideration, I was leaning towards short dresses. Finding a dress long enough for my 6 foot bridesmaid seemed challenging. Then, after shopping with Rosie we decided long was the way to go. She and I searched for a dress that would complement mine, and it was quickly decided that long and chiffon were the way to go.

We went from J. Andrews, where we found several lovely options, to Alfred Angelo, where we narrowed down selections even more. However, I was not a fan of the one that the rest of the girls liked. So once I got home that night I took to the internet to find something I liked even better. I came up with these five options.

From there, I narrowed it down to these two and let the girls take a vote...

 

It was a 3 to 1 vote for the second dress. We had a decision. All we had to do was get the girls fitted and decide on a color...

 It seemed like all was going well... until the girls started trying them on. My girls are all pretty tiny, and yet somehow, this dress was NOT as flattering on them as it is in the pictures... Go figure. Turns out that those pretty ripples are not in fact there in real life. It's actually a flat front that shows even the tiniest bit of tummy. Eww.

So, my mom and Rosalie were champs and spent an afternoon at Bride Beautiful in Atlanta hunting for a suitable replacement. We tried making decisions through text message pictures, but quickly realized that we could use FaceTime on our phones to actually see the dress! An hour later, Rosalie had tried on at least 5 more dresses and we finally selected the PERFECT dress for all four girls! Thanks to Jennifer at Bride Beautiful for your help and patience with us :)

All four girls have tried on the dress, and it looks FABULOUS on all of them :) We couldn't be happier with the choice, and I know my girls will look awesome the day of!

You'll have to come to the wedding to see the final pick :)