WE ARE GETTING MARRIED IN 10 DAYS!!!!

 

I apologize for being MIA here on this blog of mine. It is for good reason though. I will be a married woman in 10 days. It hasn't really sunk in yet. It still doesn't seem real. People keep telling me that it won't seem real until I'm actual arm-in-arm with my dad about to walk down the aisle.

My mile long to-do list is slowly dwindling down to less than 10-15 things left to do. That makes me a really happy girl. In all honesty, since the day I quit my job, I have woken up every morning at 8am and worked on only wedding stuff until at least 5pm. You might ask, what possibly could I be doing? Just trust me that there is a million little things to think about and do when you're planning a wedding by yourself and doing most of the decor by yourself. I am so ready to be married to Aaron and not have to worry/stress about another wedding to-do. Don't get me wrong, I have had a blast with all the planning and fun stuff, but now I just want to be with Aaron.

I am feeling really good and stress free. I have had a few "moments" of extreme stress that I might have accidentally taken out on poor Aaron. He has been so good throughout this entire process. For a guy who doesn't like, or get into the whole idea of having a big wedding, he has done a great job of letting me plan my dream wedding. I love that he is my voice of reason when I go overboard and get too involved in the whole "wedding" idea. He is constantly reminding me that none of it matters as long as we are married at the end of the day. That is all that matters.

We are both extremely excited about everything. We can't wait to see all of our favorite people together at once. We can't wait for our honeymoon. We can't wait to call each other husband and wife. We can't wait to live under the same roof. We went over the entire weekend schedule last night to make sure we were both on the same page. We talked about whether or not we would cry at the wedding. All signs point to yes that I will 100% cry. Aaron thinks that he might tear up, but that he will be too nervous to cry. Aaron is shy and doesn't do big crowds of people. When I told him how many were planning on attending the wedding, he said he was going to faint standing up there. Lets pray that doesn't happen.

My goal is to take time to soak in each and every precious moment throughout our wedding day. You hear people say that it goes by so fast and it's all a blur the next day. I don't want that to happen, although, I know I can't control it. I pray that I am calm, stress free, and relaxed. Come on 10 days. Hurry up. We are ready!

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It- #21

Linking up again with Katie & Stephanie for Saw It, Pinned It, Did it!

 

My mom and I helped host a shower last week for one of our friends. I was in charge of decorations so I immediately went to Pinterest for some help.

 

Here is my Pinspiration:

Tissue Paper Tassel- source: thesmithnest.blogspot.com

 

And here is my version:

I made the tassel and banner out of tissue paper, decorative paper, twine, and a black paint pen. I thought the tassel garland would be a lot harder and more tedious than it actually was. It took 8 sheets of tissue paper and maybe 15-20 mins to make.

 

Here is my Pinspiration:

source:www.pinterest.com

 

And here is my version:

 

Here is my Pinspiration:

source:www.pinterest.com

 

And here is my version:

 

This is not my creation, but one of the other shower hostesses and it turned out too cute not to share.

 

Here is her Pinspiration:

source: www.pinterest.com

 

and here is her version:

 

Happy Thursday! Can't wait to see your projects.

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

 

 

1. I'm loving all my sweet co-workers who showed me a lot of love this past weekend. It was sad to say goodbye, but I had a blast with them at our last hoorah. We went out Saturday night to an 80's dance club and we dressed in 80's attire. It was awesome.

 

 

Then, on Sunday they had a cookout for me. Let me tell you, it was a feast. There was so much yummy food. We ate and then played some Just Dance on the Wii.

 

 

#2. I'm loving that I am spending this entire week with my fiance, Aaron in Arkansas. I have been playing housewife while he is at work. So far, I've put away all our wedding gifts (besides the kitchen stuff), deep cleaned the living room, guest bedroom, and our bedroom (I washed baseboards, ceiling fans, dusted all the furniture, and cleaned the carpets. It looks so much better.) Now, I just have to tackle both bathrooms, the laundry room, and the kitchen. Those will be the most time consuming.

 This is our guest bedroom so far. I still have to find candles for the yellow candlesticks, flowers for the vases, and I'm going to paint the lamps and re-cover the lamp shades in a fun fabric. I'm also going to re-cover my padded headboard in fabric. I plan on getting that done on Friday while I'm here. All that will be left after that is finding things to hang on the wall. I wish we could paint the walls, but since we're renting, that's not an option.

 I am in love with the guest bedroom quilt.

 This is our new comforter. We have quite a bit of work left to do on this room, but the bedspread is a good start.

 

The living room so far.

 

I know it doesn't look like I've done much, but if you knew what it looked like before, you would understand.

 

For instance, this is what our office looks like at the moment. We still have all our kitchen wedding gifts to unload and all my decorations and such. I can't believe I'm showing you this room, but eventually I will show you a before and after.

 

 We also have our hammock up and I've already spent some time relaxing in it.

And of course, it wouldn't be a home if we didn't have a yard sign with our initial on it (Aaron hates it by the way, and his friends have offered to come steal it out of the yard for him.) Clearly we need to rake the leaves in our front yard...oops!

 

#3. I'm loving The Pioneer Woman's new cookbook "Food From My Frontier"

My co-worker, Michele, got it for us as a wedding gift and I read through the whole thing yesterday. Oh my goodness, it made my mouth water. We made the sloppy joe's last night for dinner and both Aaron and I highly approved. They were delicious! You can find the recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/04/sloppy-joes/

 

#4. I'm loving that I get to meet a lot of new people this weekend. On Friday night we are going to one of Aaron's friend's houses for a cookout. Saturday, I will be painting faces for little kids at the hatchery's fishing derby event. Saturday night we will be celebrating Aaron's friend's birthday by going frog giggin'. Not quite sure what all that entails, if I did, I probably wouldn't go. I'm excited about getting "cultured" and experiencing something new. I've heard frog legs are really tasty, but I will not be trying them. Oh the stories I will have to share after this weekend. Just a city girl in a country world.

 

#5. I'm loving that our wedding is only 24 days away!! I have been super relaxed and stress free this week and I'm just ready for it to be here. I feel like I have pretty much everything taken care of and I can't wait to be here in Arkansas with Aaron permanently.

 

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Wedding Shower #2

The lovely ladies in my mom's Sunday school class hosted our second shower at the church. It was a wonderful shower with great food, decorations, games, and fun. They did an excellent job.

These are the wonderful hostesses....plus my mom.

My parent's Sunday school class probably isn't like most Sunday school classes.....maybe it is, but I just feel like they are such a tight knit group. I've grown up with most of the member's children since we were itty bitty, or I watched them group up in the church when I was grown and they were itty bitty. They are a very special group of people to me and my parents. They do a lot together. They go on vacations together, dinner parties, holiday parties, etc. Not only that, but they go through a lot of life changing events together....births, deaths, illnesses/diseases, children's graduations and weddings......the good and the bad. One thing they have done a thousand times and could probably do with their eyes closed is host a bridal shower. I'm so grateful they offered to host a shower for us.

The Invitation:

The Food:

If there's one thing these ladies are known for, I'd say it'd have to be their ability to cook. The food was delicious and homemade. Each guest was asked to bring their favorite recipe to share. I am very excited about trying them out for Aaron. I need all the help I can get in the cooking department.

The Games:

 

We played two games. One game required the ladies to search through their purses and mark off everything they had in their purse that was listed on the sheet. One of the items was a picture of the bride. I just knew no one would get that one, but to my surprise, one of my mom's friends had my senior volleyball picture still in her wallet. You never know when something like that might come in handy. The other game asked for an estimated price of various household goods. Whoever got closest in price after totaling them all up won a gift. I think the winner was .67 off. Pretty darn close.

 

We got some really great gifts at this shower. We are totally set with all of our kitchen appliances and gadgets and we got all of our bedding for both bedrooms. Thankfully, Aaron's mom took a load of gifts back with her when she left. Aaron also took a load last time he came so we have that all taken care of.

 

There were a few really cool sentimental gifts that weren't on our registry that we got and loved so much.

 

 This one made me cry. My aunt bought me a huge jar of Queen of Suds laundry detergent. If you haven't read my blog post about this, then you wouldn't understand why it would make me cry. To make a long story short, one of my sweet clients makes this soap to raise money for medical bills because her husband is battling colon cancer. It meant the world to me that my aunt contacted her after reading my blog post and bought a big jar of it to help donate to a great cause. Such a thoughtful, meaningful gift.

 I loved these Mr. & Mrs. hangers that Morgan made herself. She did an awesome job.

Aaron's mom's friend got me a card that had a sixpence in it. For those of you that don't know the old ritual it goes like this, "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a sixpence to put in your shoe." I thought that was such a neat and sweet idea. I will be wearing it in my shoe on the wedding day and I will save it to pass on to future generations. The sixpence is supposed to represent good luck and fortune for the bride and groom.

 

At our first shower, we got an awesome leather journal with our new last name and wedding year engraved in it. Our friend who gave it to us has a tradition in her family that they bring out the journal at family gatherings and holidays and everyone writes or draws in it and they pull it out and read through it at each new gathering. I think that is such a great idea and will be something neat that we can do to remember all the fun times. It will also be something cool that maybe our children or grandchildren will treasure someday.

 

I just love sentimental things....they make my heart happy.

 

Aaron's mom, me, and my mom

 

The wedding is officially 30 days away.....that's less than one month! We've made a lot of progress lately in the planning department.

 

- We mailed out rehearsal dinner invitations today

- Aaron tried on his ring and it fit and he loves it. Whew, thank goodness

- Aaron's bachelor party is this weekend

- I got my bridal portraits back and the printed images are in the mail

- We found out last week that my sister from another mother (Mariana, our foreign exchange student during my jr. year of high school) will be attending the wedding all the way from Bolivia. You have no idea how happy that makes our family. We cannot wait to see her and meet her husband. Seriously, the best news ever!

- The RSVP's are continually coming daily in the mail and it's so fun to look at them and read all the song suggestions. So far, we have received 19 regrets and 208 yes'. Keep the yes' coming!

 

Up next on the to-do list:

-Finish up the DJ song request list

- Organize and discuss the order of ceremony

- Design and print wedding programs

- Finish buying wedding party gifts

- Get marriage license

-GET MARRIED!!!

 

It's bittersweet because my last day of work is Saturday. I'm so sad to be leaving all my friends and clients, but glad that I will have a month off to finish everything up. I'll be leaving to go visit Aaron for an entire week and I can't wait.  We are going to work a lot on the house and I'll be taking my last load of junk. Ah, it's all becoming so surreal.

 

If you followed me for this entire post then I'm impressed. I'm sure you're so sick of hearing about our wedding. I promise it's almost over (even though I will be doing recaps afterwards for a while)....I just want to make sure this special time in our lives is documented for us to look back on :)

 

Thanks for reading! Much love.

We can't wait to see you in June :)

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It- #20

Linking up with Katie & Stephanie for SPD!

 

I made this week's project for a friend from work who will be an aunt to a sweet little girl soon. Since the baby shower has passed, I can share the project now.

 

Here is my Pinspiration:

 

 

 

source: www.etsy.com

 

And here is my version:

 

 

 

"Oh, Spit and Spit Happens"

 

Can't wait to see what you've linked up. Happy Thursday!

Saw It, Pinned It, Did It- #19

I really think you should join me in linking up with Katie & Stephanie for SPD. I would love to see your project!

 

I must admit, I didn't find this project on Pinterest. Although, I believe it is absolutely Pinterest worthy and I might just pin my own picture...is that allowed? Oh well, I'm doing it anyway and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I really can't take credit for this cute idea. I actually copied it from a girl who made it for my sister-in-law's bachelorette party. I knew the moment I saw it that I was going to steal the idea for the next bachelorette I knew. Now that my friend is a married woman, I assume it's okay to post this picture of the gift I got her even though she will probably kill me.

 

 

Step 1: Find an already cute tissue box, or decorate an ugly tissue box with cute paper. Mine was already cute so I didn't have to do any extra work.

 

Step 2: Buy a few different pairs of cute undies, bras, or nighties and tie them together in a strand with tulle.

 

Step 3: Stuff the strand into the tissue box.

 

Step 4: Tuck tissue paper into the top of the box.

 

Step 5: Make a card and decorate the outside as you please....VOILA, you're done. Easy as 1, 2, 3.

 

 Getting ready to open her gift. Yes, she opened gifts in a mini van because the restaurant was closing and they kicked us out. And yes, we stayed in the mini van until 2am having "girl talk"...a successful bachelorette party if you ask me!

The end result.

 

My sis-in-law opening up her tissue box. That's when I learned about this genius idea.

 

 

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm linking up with Jamie today for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

 

#1. I'm loving how beautiful life really is. This past weekend two life changing events happened to two of my childhood friends. It makes me happy to experience this fun season of life with them.

Congrats to the new Mrs. Lunn! She was such a gorgeous bride and the wedding was absolutely beautiful. I really enjoyed getting to explore Franklin, TN. Such a beautiful, fun place.

At the rehearsal dinner.

 

Remember last week how I asked for prayers for my friend that was on hospital bed rest because her little girl was trying to make an early appearance? Well, she had her sweet baby girl not only on Mother's Day, but also on her husband's birthday. How special of a gift is that? She is healthy and breathing on her own and she weighed 4lbs 10 oz and 18 in. Thank you, Lord!

When baby Emery was still in her belly at my bridal shower.

Precious Emery Ryan! Can't wait to meet her this week :) I love babies so much!

 

#2. I'm loving checking the mail everyday. We sent out our wedding invitations about a week ago and everyday since, there's been a stack of RSVP's waiting for me in the mail. It is so fun to look at them and see who all is coming to the wedding. On our RSVP's we included a line where people can write their favorite love song or song they love and that has been really fun to read too. I'm so excited to say that we've received 52 responses so far and not one of them has said they can't come.....WEEEEEEE! Makes my heart happy.

 

 

#3. This weekend we went shopping in downtown Franklin, TN. For the record, that is the cutest little area I've ever seen. I loved it and all the darling shops. I brought home a few souvenirs. One of them being an Oklahoma kitchen towel that I've been wanting forever. I showed my mom the towel and she just laughed. I thought it was kind of a weird reaction. Then, last night she gave me a gift that was supposed to be for a shower, but it wasn't ready yet. This is what it was:

The same Oklahoma towel made into an apron with our wedding date and my new name on the pockets. I am obsessed. Now I will really be reppin' Oklahoma as I cook.

 

#4. I'm loving the new jewelry that I bought this weekend as a souvenir. I love everything monogrammed right now.

 Q monogram earrings. What are the odds they would have a Q. I had to snatch them up.

My new last name initial. Can't wait to wear it once we're married.

 

#5. I'm loving that I will be in Vegas in 10 days...WOOP WOOP!

 

#6. I'm loving that Aaron will be here this weekend for pre-marital counseling with our minister. We are also making a road trip to Ft. Smith to see my host family and do prom hair and make-up for their not so little daughter. Can't believe she is a senior....scary!

 

Have a great Wednesday! Half way through the week :)