Weekend Love

We are headed to Asheville this morning for our first wedding of the "season" and I am pretty excited! I LOVE the mountains and I'm so glad I get the opportunity to get up there this year. I'm also excited to see this guy tie the knot:  

circa 2008

Congrats Charlie and Lillian! WOO HOO!!! But thanks for also making me give up going to see my Wolfpack play in Atlanta.. Just kidding, I wouldn't miss their wedding weekend for the world. So instead I will live vicariously through facebook and all my friends going to the game and watch it at some sports bar in Asheville. But in the meantime, let's get pumped for an AMAZING weekend ahead!! Y'all have a great one!!

via YOUTUBE

xoxo,

a.

Fiance turns 26!

Happy happy birthday to my handsome fiance!

So lucky to have spent three birthdays together so far..

 birthday circa 2009

 birthday circa 2010

birthday circa 2011

To my fiance,

I love you and look forward to celebrating birthdays together

for the rest of our lives. Whether it's 40, 75, or 100

I'll be lucky to celebrate with you as your wife.

xoxo, a.

Wedding Gifts & Ideas

Fall is right around the corner but for me, wedding season is just getting into full swing! Between now and December we have 3 weddings to attend and of course our wedding in 75 days! All these weddings got me thinking about presents.

I know everyone has their typical registry and we do too, but I'm the kinda gal that really appreciates something unique too. One of the shower gifts we received was a vase with our new monogram etched in and I was SO excited! It just made me think of all the unique gifts out there and also made me think about what brides appreciate the most after they got married too!!

So does anyone have any favorite gifts they've give or received?! These are some of my favorite ideas:

These adorable ornaments are perfect for a new couple! And they can be customized!

I just purchased a "new home" one for our friends that bought their first house! Coton-Colors.com

I love the idea of a custom cutting board, whether with a new monogram or perhaps the state you're from! 

They are of course, functional, but can still be art! Etsy.com

I think your wedding gift doesn't have to end with the wedding either. How fun would it be to be given the opportunity to have a custom map of your honeymoon?! etsy.com

What about those foodies and winos out there? I LOVE this idea because it's the gift that keeps on giving!

Wine boxes for 3 different anniversaries! wineforweddings.com

And why not fill it with wedding appropriate wine?! swansonvineyards.com

Those are some of my fun ideas that would be great to receive and to give! What do y'all think? Any recommendations or suggestions? I always love to hear new ideas!

xoxo,

a.

p.s. my schedule is a bit hectic the next few weeks including fiance's birthday, a wedding in Asheville, my bachelorette party and even bridal portraits!! so forgive the lack of posts coming up! i'll be sure to give you something to look at though!

FOOD: Don't read if hungry!

Y'all, talking about food really shouldn't be any problem for fiance and I. We LOVE it. We love the process of going out, trying new things, new restaurants, and making sure we have a wonderful night stuffing our faces with amazing delicacies! When it comes to thinking about the wedding menu though, I'm stumped.

We want our wedding to be a reflection of us and we want it to be a good party! Our first date was dinner and our wedding band and I feel like our wedding should be just like that too! So we've kinda decided that we want a more relaxed feel to the reception including the food situation. Heavy hors d'Oeuvers type of situation, possibly some mini bites?! I'm not even sure. Our caterer is a great friend of ours who owns this amazing Italian restaurant, Babymoon Cafe, but our menu is definitely NOT limited to just Italian so that's what's making this so hard!

One thing is for sure I want some anti-pasto! Meats, cheeses, crackers, fruit, olives, the whole thing. YES YES YES! 

NOM NOM. I love cheese. Ok, so step 1 done, we will have one type of food y'all! Another thing we love is bruschetta so we're thinking that's a must as well as a salad since a lot of our ideas are not so healthy.. We DEFINITELY want some sliced beef peppercorn crusted tenderloin (YUM!) and grilled veggie like squash, zucchini, artichokes, etc. 

Of course some seafood is always a good choice in the south, like some mini crab cakes and the ever so southern, shrimp and grits! We can even make it into a grits BAR! WHAT?!

I like the idea of something interactive because then it allows people to be creative and do what they feel is right. BUTTTTT this is about all we've decided on.. I'm definitely not elated about the fact that we can't decide much more. I like the peace of mind that comes with making some final decisions. Sigh.

Here are more ideas that I've come across via Pinterest though:

sweet bacon wrapped chicken bites

mac and cheese cups

mini eggplant rollatini  

 country ham biscuits

 

mini fried chicken and waffles

Welp, that's all I have for now. My brain is tired of thinking about tasty food. I hope logistically what we want can be done and if we're doing heavy hors d'Oeuvers I just hope it's enough for all the guests as well as some decent options for friends with dietary restrictions. Sometimes it's stressful being a bride y'all!

Anyone have any suggestions or input?! I'd love to hear from you!

xoxo,

a.

Rehearsal Dinner Inspiration

It was probably about February when we started discussing rehearsal dinner details with the future MIL. We always wanted something casual like a Pig Pickin' but could never think of a great venue to allow that to happen.. in November. :( But we knew a great restaurant in town and booked that for our rehearsal. Done and done. 18 Seaboard was our choice with an awesome menu but pricey meaning we'd have to cut the guest list to just the immediate bridal party. We definitely did not mind but part of us just couldn't stop thinking about keg beer and a pig on a grill (especially during tailgate season).

Well our church isn't a practicing church so you can have any kind of gathering there which made us think of the huge room below that could seat over 100 people and allow for some imagination to dress it up. Since we also are having a decent amount of out of town guests we reconsidered and realized that we could have our pig pickin' there! I'm so excited that things worked out and that we don't have to leave the premises and that it can be more low key and relaxed.

These invitations make me think of a true southern pig pickin':

 invitation box

                        invtation crush                                                                         invitation box

 

 etsy

etsy

So FUN! And what's great is that a typical BBQ theme incorporates the red and white theme which we want to encompass our rehearsal in anyway because we want to pay homage to our Alma Mater, NC State! Since it's the night before a home game it's perfect, and we can tie in our grooms cake that we discussed here. 

I'm excited to see what happens! I don't have any say in it, which is a good thing since my mind can run all the time thinking of fun ideas! But I'll leave you with a few links to some FANTASTIC inspiration! YEEHAW!

• A Charelston rehearsal dinner by Kellie Kano 
• A Western style rehearsal dinner perfect for fall 
• A ridiculously insane rehearsal in Aspen by Aaron Delesie

All this read and white talk makes me excited for football, and because our mascots are totally in love too. Go pack!

xoxo,

a.

A groom in photos

Since I swooned over the beauty of a dress last post, why not acknowledge how extremely gorgeous a man can look in his finest details. Honestly I can't wait to see how gorgeous fiance looks on our wedding day.

Jose Villa

Kellie Kano

 Melissa Hayes Photography

m three studio

Troy Grover

Kristin Vining Photography 

erin hearts court

AND I couldn't help but show you this little beauty because I'm pretty sure, black tie and all, fiance will be wearing these bad boys:

Kristin Vining Photography



I love a sharp dressed man... mmmmmhmmm.

xoxo,

a.

A dress & a photo

There's nothing I love more than a bride that has just put her dress on and the details that can be captured through a photo from that day.. it's like they're speaking sheer beauty...

style me pretty

 

jose villa

 

meredith perdue

 

100 layer cake

 

elizabeth messina

 style me pretty

akil bennett

m three studios

nancy ray photography

KT Merry

erin hearts court

carl zoch photography

xoxo,

a.

THE Shoes

When I started shopping for my dress I started shopping for shoes. I know that's incredibly embarrassing but I just love the shoe shots from weddings and I knew I wanted to be a fabulous bride wearing fabulous shoes! (Definitely the vanity in me so I apologize in advance.) Well, fiance's aunt works at Neiman Marcus so I had been browsing and browsing but a 30% discount on designer shoes really doesn't add up to much. (Thanks any aunt L!) I just couldn't see spending over $400 for shoes as much as I MAY have loved them.

January came and I knew my dress was coming so I wanted to have my shoes for my first fitting. I came across the Kate Spade "Charm" shoe and thought that was the shoe for sure! Plus it came in gold glitter.. what more could I want?! Well I loved the shoe, but the shoe did not love the dress. When I took the shoes back with me for my second fitting I kept snagging the tulle and it made me paranoid, especially mom. 

It IS super cute right?! So I went back to my Neiman about a month ago and went searching because I knew the once yearly sale was coming up and I had in fact, had my eye on a particular pair of amazing Valentino's that would be within my price range. Well I went to Neiman to try them on one more time and they were just SO high and I don't normally wear heels so they made me a bit nervous..

Well Neiman had a sale rack with an awesome pair of Jimmy Choo's on clearance that I really loved and fiance loved, but gasp, they had a spot on the leather!! And I was NOT paying for damaged goods especially for my wedding and when they're still quite pricy.. But they were fab. (These were similar but not the same.)

Since they were a bit damaged I didn't want to get them but I notice how much more comfortable I felt in them versus the Valentino's because of the straps at the top. The lady at Neiman mentioned a store in Charlotte, Coplon's, that was down the road and how they might have something. Low and behold it was a store I had received information about after I had done some searching on a particular pair of wedding earrings I wanted to purchase!! (More on the earrings later!!) So we hopped on over to look at their selection. Well they were having a killer sale and I walked over to look at a pair of sparkly Loubs that caught my eye. They were a 6.5 and on sale, but the tag was still a little high. I asked the lady if they were any more off and she said they had just made mark downs today and they were only $50 more than the Kate Spades!!! NO WAY. 60% off on a pair of Christian Louboutins!!! All that was left to do was try them on...

Forgive the iPhone shots and my tiny toes!

Sold!! I L-O-V-E these shoes!!! I can't stop looking at the photos. I'm so excited to wear something so fab and to know they're also unique. That's something I really wanted to capture with our wedding. Being unique to us and our own personal style and taste. A bonus, my mom loved the shoes and I picked up my dress last weekend and they didn't snag! WOO HOO! Plus I look forward to wearing them on many nights out. Too bad I can't wear them for the Bachelorette party, they'd be a great addition..

What are you wearing on your wedding day?!

xoxo,

a.