Scarf Exchange!

I was soooo excited when I got to my mailbox and saw a package waiting for me! I think we should do another exchange of some sort.... Not sure what but we should think of something! Anyways, I was paired up with Jennifer over at The Adventures Of Our Army Life and she did such a good job picking out a scarf I can wear with soooo many outfits. Thanks so much! If you're not following her blog you definitely should!



Well I hope you all have a great weekend!

Am I being a Bridezilla???

Something I found out this weekend really frustrated me and I need to know if I'm being a Bridezilla or if I have a reason to be upset.

This weekend we attended a couple from high schools wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time! At the wedding we were sitting with a group of our friends and one of Zach's best friends brings up the fact that their sister is moving back to town earlier then expected and that her wedding is now going to be in the Spring instead of next Winter. When anybody says anything about a Spring wedding I get a little nervous until I hear the date. Well he said they were still looking into venues and they hadn't set a date yet. Zach asked him to remind her that our date was April 30th and to just keep that in mind when setting their date. Well later that day we were told that when he went to remind her of our date she told him they had just put a deposit down and their wedding will be May 1st! That means our wedding will be Saturday and theirs will be Sunday. A million things started running through my head. Zach's friend is a groomsman in both weddings and now I'm worried she will have her rehearsal dinner then night of our wedding and he'll have to hurry out of our reception. We also have LOTS of common friends and I do not know how many of them will be involved in her wedding.

So give me your thoughts... Is it appropriate for me to talk to her about not having her rehearsal dinner the night of our wedding? I don't want to come off as being rude or making my wedding the priority. But I do feel that I should mention that we have had our date set for over 4 months! Anyways, what do ya think?

Blog Award!

Laura at Lucky in Love and The Luckiest in Love has given me a blog award and I am very excited! It is called A Blog With Substance.



It is my very first Blog Award and it could not come from a more fitting person, Laura is who got me into the blogging world in the first place. Thanks so much! I know my wedding wouldn't be nearly what it's going to be if I had not met you and been introduced to the blogging community :)

I am supposed to sum up my blogging experience in 5 words. So here they are:

Inspiration: As a result of being a part of the blogging community I have received all sorts of inspiration and great ideas that have greatly impacted my wedding plans.

Motivation: Blogging has given me motivation to work on projects and get pictures on my blog to share with blog friends.

Encouragement: Some days when I feel like my ideas are not that great or all the time I've spent on something is not evident an encouraging comment from a blog friend brightens my day.

Stress-relieving: Blogging takes me away from school, work, and anything else that is causing stress in my life. It is wonderful!

Fun: Lastly, it's just plain FUN!

Now it's my turn to pass the blog award on to some deserving blogs! I absolutely LOVE these four blogs, if you don't already follow them you definitely should!

Shanna at Miss Arkansas Bride

Nicole at Seaside Smitten

Janna at Love The Moments

Laura at The Luckiest in Love I figured since you got this award the first time around for your wedding blog I could give it to you for your newlywed blog!

That's all I've got. I hope everyone's had a great start to their week!

LONG Overdue Update

So first I have to apologize for being absent from blogging for the past month! It has been a crazy month and somehow blogging was the thing I sacrificed :( So here we go with a month's worth of updates haha.

-So to catch everybody up with the dress situation I did end up purchasing dress #5! I fell in love with it and nothing I tried on at the trunk show even came close. I found myself constantly staring at pictures of the dress throughout the day and I knew that it was "the dress". I really think Zach will love it and I can't wait for him to see it on our wedding day (btw it is less then 8 months away now.... crazy!!!).

-Right after I bought my dress I had to go straight home to start moving. One of my friends Elisha, who is the best landlord ever (I know you read this, love ya!), bought a house and is renting out the rooms to a bunch of our friends. But of course we chose to move-in on one of the most disgusting days of the year haha. It was 100+ degrees outside and we were all completely exhausted after the move. But by the end of the day I was moved-in to my new house AND I had purchased the most beautiful dress I could've imagined!

-The second week in August Zach and I went to Los Angeles to visit my brother. It was soooo much fun! We were busy everyday from 8:00 am to usually past midnight. Throughout our trip we were able to go to a LA Dodgers game, go on a Warner Brothers Studio Tour, go on lots of shopping trips, go to the most awesome Karaoke Club in Hollywood, watch my brother film a show he is in, go to the beach, lots of sightseeing, and spend a lot of time with my brother who I miss soooo much! It was not a relaxing trip but it was a lot of fun and we made lots of memories we'll never forget :)

- Then came the start of my last semester of nursing school! I am soooo excited to almost be done :) This semester is filled with lots of clinical hours at the hospital and not much time to work. So Zach and I are both very excited for me to get out of school and find a full-time nursing job!

- We also officially decided on and booked a DJ and a Photographer, which i will blog about later. Everything is starting to come along really well and I am getting very excited : )

- I have also been very lucky to spend a lot of time with wonderful friends! Our new house has turned into a common gathering place and I couldn't be happier :) I LOVE my friends and I am completely cherishing these years of my life. One person I have been able to spend lots of time with recently is Laura from Lucky in Love and now her awesome new married life blog The Luckiest in Love. If you don't follow her blogs you definitely should! Her wedding was amazing and she has tons of DIY projects you can read all about. She is awesome and Zach and I absolutely love spending time with her and David!

Well I hope I caught you up on what's been going on and I can't wait to get back to blogging! My projects lately have slowed down with school but I hope to at least write weekly updates about wedding plans and just life in general. So glad to be back : )

I think I found "The Dress"!

I went dress shopping the past two weekends and I think I may have found "the dress"! I am not a person that makes decisions quickly so I knew I would not immediately have that moment where I knew 100% that I was in "the dress". But after trying on several dresses I kept coming back to the same one and I did not want to take it off! I already have an appointment next weekend to go to a trunk show where 52 new dresses are being displayed so I am going to keep my appointment just to see if anything catches my eye. The dress shop also did not have one of the dresses I really wanted to try on because it was at the Bridal Fair in the fashion show. So next weekend I will try on any trunk show dresses I am interested in and the one dress that was at the Bridal Fair. If I continue to come back to my current favorite dress I will get measured and order it :). Now for some pictures... I will show you pictures of several dresses and you tell me what you think!


#1 Front: I thought there was too much going on


#1 Back


#2 Front


#2 Back


#3 Front (You can tell how I feel about it by my facial expression haha)


#3 Back


#4 Front


#4 Back: Didn't think the back was flattering


#4 Side View: Loved it from this view!


#5 MY FAVORITE!!!


#5 Back


#5 Side-gather


#5 Other side


#5 With the bustle from the side


#5 With bustle from the back


#5 Corset back: This dress is too big so the corset will be much wider in the right size.


#5 Close-up of bodice detail


#5 Me with my Mom and Twin Sis/MOH


So I know that was a ton of pictures, sorry! So what do you guys think? The only thing I am concerned about is being self conscious because it is a figure forming dress. Also how do you think the bustle looks? Her idea was to pull the fabric up and under the dress opposed to on top so the side swept look could stay in place. Do you think it would look better in a more traditional bustle? I would LOVE your comments and opinions! Thanks!

Good News!

So I finally got a response from our pastor and he has approved us to have alcohol at our reception : ) For the past couple weeks it has been very stressful thinking about what we would do if he did not approve it. But now we can relax knowing that we have a church to get married in, a reception site, AND a pastor haha.

I have also just recently found my bridesmaids dresses and they are in the process of getting fitted. The dress I picked is the one on the far left, but it will be in buttercup (yellow). I know this is not a great picture but it's the best one I could find so far, sorry! The picture is from the Allure Bridals website.



I also may have found "the dress"! I had no intention of trying on any dresses for myself but my sister/MOH and one of my BM's insisted I try on the dress I had been eyeing every time I was in the bridal store so I finally did and I loooooved it! The only problem is that it costs more than I was planning on spending. I might be willing to spend more if in the end I believe it is "the dress". I want to try on more dresses just to be sure but I will be shocked if I really end up buying the first dress I tried on!

Did anyone have a similar situation where the dress they ended up getting was the first dress they tried on? Did you spend more than you thought you would on your "dream dress"?

Alcohol Issues...

Well I've been trying to put off writing a blog update about our ceremony venue because we're still waiting to hear back from the church! We had a meeting with the pastor last Monday and it went really well. I really liked him and think he would do a great job for our wedding. They told us as we were leaving that they would check the church calendar and get back to us to confirm the date. Also... when we were hanging out with some old high school friends last weekend I was talking to one of the girls that got engaged around the same time I did. I asked her how wedding planning was coming and where she would be doing her wedding. When she told me they were doing the wedding and reception both at the reception site I was somewhat shocked because she had grown up in the church that we were looking at as our possible ceremony site. As we talked I found out that she had heard from many other people that the pastor will not officiate weddings for people that are having alcohol at their reception! I kinda freaked out when she told us this but we already had our meeting set up so we would go through with the meeting and see how it goes. Well our plan was to bring it up in our first meeting to see what the pastor said. Well... that didn't happen. Really there wasn't a good time and we didn't want to come off as alcoholics! I didn't want him to think that alcohol was the most important thing to me because obviously it is not but it is kind of a deal breaker if he won't allow us to have it at our reception. The next day they sent us an email with all the specifics and rules for using the church and it did not include anything about alcohol. So I sent a reply email and asked about their policies on that issue. And.... I haven't heard back after 4 days! I decided I will give them till Tuesday, and at that time it will have been a week, and if they don't email me back by then I will call them. In addition they still never told us if our date is officially open.

What do you think? Would it be a deal breaker for you or would you just alter your reception? Has anyone ran into this with their own pastors?