Empire State of Mind

Hubs and I are off to NYC this weekend and I'm SO excited. New York definitely has a special place in my heart. It's gorgeous, stylish, sexy, and mysterious. I.just.love.it.

I'd love to be an NYC bride too... Wouldn't you with gorgeousness such as this?!

LOVE the Gramercy Park Hotel

Walking around the streets on NYC.. le sigh

Reception at the St. Regis..

A wedding at the Foundry.. LOVE!

Grand exit..

A city hall park wedding for two

Just married

Beep beep!

xoxo,

mrs. a.

Groomsmen Gifts

As promised I wanted to share with you our gifts that we gave all the important men in our wedding party. We only had a best man and a groomsmen but we had two ushers that we didn't want to differentiate too much from. Since only one of the men is a State fan he got the cufflinks and the other mentioned he never had a flask so we gifted him that. Each got a wallet as well from Charlottes, as well as the two ushers, so that the gifts were pretty similar and useful. Hubby has a wallet/clip wallet and he loves it!

1. Monogrammed wallet, Charlotte's Inc. 2. NC State cufflinks, Nordstrom 3. Monogrammed flash, Bailey's 4. Money clip, Charlotte's Inc.

Hope these gifts can provide some inspiration for you too! Although small, they're useful and can be used for some years to come. Men can be a little more difficult to shop for but a good bottle of scotch can always do the trick too! ;)

xoxo,
mrs. a.

Bridesmaid Gifts

I'm sorry for my absence lately but I had a request from a friend getting married to reveal details on our gifts for our bridesmaids and groomsmen and I wanted to share with you all our purchases.

I wasn't one of those that necessarily wanted to have matching earrings or jewelry for my bridal party but a dear family friend owns a a jewelry business back home called Jewels of Pinehurst and I asked her to whip up some of her beautiful pearl earrings for my girls. She graciously did so and they were stunning and now I wish I had a pair too! I coupled their earrings with a monogrammed acrylic box from Monograms, Inc. and put all the wrapped gifts inside a tote from Weddings Chicks with their names. I also purchased the totes for the mother of the bride and mother of the groom for all of our weekend festivities!

1. Monograms, Inc. 2. Jewels of Pinehurst 3. Wedding Chicks

I felt that the gifts were simple and sweet as well as everlasting because the earrings are beautiful quality that will last them forever. They even ended up wearing them on the wedding day because they went beautifully with the Amsale bridesmaid dresses in charcoal. I gave the gifts at our luncheon and after I followed it up with mani's on me! What do y'all think of the gifts? Would you have liked to receive this?!

As for the men, stay tuned for my next post!

xoxo,
mrs. a.

Living without Internet...

Sorry y'all, I'm still without Internet but I do have my handy dandy phone! It's definitely not as easy to blog via iPhone though, but I had to break my silence today because it's an important day!

Four years ago today hubby and I officially started dating! He says it's silly to still celebrate today but I think it is fun to be reminded how long ago that really was and all the changes we went through since meeting. We graduated college together, moved into our first apartment, traveled, started new jobs, got engaged and most importantly, got married! What a fun ride it has been so far and I look forward to all the years ahead, anniversary or not.

This is us from the night we met, January 17, 2009. Yes we started dating just a few days later. When you know you know! I love you!

A Short Break

I may be disappearing for a few days and as much as it breaks my heart, it's because...

It's not a super amazing move, we're just moving into a larger apartment at our complex but it's a new beginning and we're excited! It'll also allow us more room to think and decide what new steps we'd like to take as husband and wife. So if you don't see me for about a week, you'll know why, but know that I'll miss you!

xoxo,
mrs.a.  

 

Bridal Portrait Reveal

After getting my wedding photos back looking at my bridal portraits definitely took second priority. GASP! But I wanted to get back to basic's and take a trip down memory lane and share with you some of my bridal portraits. 

Taking bridal portraits is definitely a very southern thing and not every gal does them. I was on the fence about it but then I was thinking that if I'm sitting here paying for hair and makeup and NOT trying the dress on it seemed like a waste. I really wanted to experience it all. It was definitely a decision I'd recommend to other brides because I LOVED my bridal session! It was so fun to get dressed up, walk around downtown Raleigh, and smile for the camera for over 2 hours. A little much but it was so easy working with Sarah Der!!!!! She is amazing, number one, and uber sweet number two. She didn't make me feel rushed or pressured and allowed for our session to be complete before packing up and leaving even though it was her anniversary!! I was so grateful and the pictures are just magic, so thanks again Sarah! You rock!! (OH and if you're looking for a portrait or wedding photographer, definitely contact Sarah, she lives in Chapel Hill and she is TOO cute!!) And a special shout out to my incredible hair and makeup artists, Fiquet Bailey Swain of Luxe Apothecary in North Hills and Kari Berry of Marigold Parlour at Seaboard Station. If any brides out there need assistance on their big day I HIGHLY recommend both of these lovely ladies!

OK, so I started my photos at our reception venue, The Stockroom at 230, because I needed somewhere to put on the dress and we got some good shots out of the venue but we wanted to take advantage of daylight so we quickly began our walk downtown:

 

Then we ventured to City Market with the old cobblestone streets for a bit of fun and some of my pumpkin love.. What's that? Pumpkins?! You'll see!

We wanted to use the last bit of daylight so Sarah asked if I knew anywhere with some wide open space because downtown Raleigh was sucking up all the daylight with the shadows. I said YES of course! Where hubby is the head pro, Lonnie Poole Golf Course!! I quickly called him and told him he had to leave and we were on our way for some last shots!
 

 

Capping the evening off with some Wolfpack love!!

Well, there you have it! My bridal portraits! Sorry for the mass amount of photos but it was hard to choose which ones especially since we did so many different locations and styles. It's fun to see all of them in one place though. After the fiasco of having to reschedule and almost giving up, I loved the end result and Sarah was so quick and prompt in helping me get the photos quickly so we could use them at the reception. Like I said, bridal portraits may not be for everyone but I had a blast and I think it would give any bride a sense of calm and confidence in preparation for the big day!

Happy Monday!

xoxo,

mrs. a.

  

A Look Back at What Was 2012!

  

In 2012 we traveled to Beaufort, Topsail, and Ocracoke Island during the summer months and adopted our sweet little Kit Cat in January. 

Photography by Meredith Perdue
  
We took our engagement photos in March with Meredith Perdue at the North Carolina Museum of Art, and we loved every minute of it...

then we mailed our Save The Dates!

 

In April we booked our honeymoon to Antigua and we booked our cake baker. We also selected our linens and rental items and flower girl dresses.

We booked the amazing Dickens Band to jam the night away at our reception.

 

I celebrated my 25th birthday at Fox's Liquor Bar with great friends.

  

We were honored to have been thrown a couple's shower at Lake Norman, NC over 
the 4th of July, by my mother-in-law and sister-in-law.

We went and saw Jason Mraz and Christina Perri and ventured to 
Asheville for a friends wedding and did some exploring! 

I got to bachelorette party it up in Wrightsville, NC the weekend after Asheville with the most amazing girl friends in gorgeous NC weather, it was a BLAST!!!

 

 I got to vote this year and watch the olympics, hubby and I applied for our marriage license, we got to celebrate Halloween with our neighbors and we went to see one of our favorites, Dave Matthews Band in December.

One thing I've yet to tell you more about, are my BRIDALS, with Sarah Der!!! What a fun day that was, and how gorgeous the photos look! Can't wait to recap soon!

 

Photography by Sarah Der

 

In September we spent hours stamping our invitations with vintage stamps but then we finally got to mail them! What a sigh of relief that was. We also received our rehearsal invitation in which YOU helped me choose my rehearsal dress!

 

But what we all waited so long for... we got MARRIED!!!!!! It was the absolute best day of our life! Hubby likes to say that the two weeks we were away from work, getting married and honeymooning were the best two weeks of his entire life and I have to agree!!!!

 

Photography by Meredith Perdue

 

Our honeymoon in Antigua was all we could've dreamed and more, and then once we were home it was Thanskgiving the day after and the beginnings of our first Christmas! Thanks for the help in selecting our Christmas card!

 

That was a small wrap of 2012 but WHAT A YEAR it was!!!! It was by far the greatest year of our life thus far and we are so excited to see what 2013 has ahead for us but all the years we'll celebrate as husband and wife. Afterall the wedding is just the process but the marriage is for life, and we want to communicate and love each other every day through our vows that we spoke on November 10th, 2012. 

Thank you to each and every one of you for being part of the process, especially since I started this blog in 2012. It really was such a blessing! I hope you all have a beautiful 2013!

xoxo,
mrs. a.