Pig Pickin' Rehearsal Dinner!

I have to say that our rehearsal came out SO fun!! The location of our rehearsal was actually the basement of our church, All Saints Chapel, and a very blank canvas. It worked though because we wanted a casual bbq theme and could not think of anywhere in our town to host such a thing besides our local restaurant The Pit, which I'm not a huge fan of. The church was rescued by a food enterprise company so it's non-denominational and you can host any type of event there, even WITH alcohol, so it was a win win situation because we were able to do anything we wanted and not have to leave after the rehearsal upstairs in the church.

As you may remember this is what our invitation looked like:

  Totally loved these invites I found of etsy by Sweet Magnolia Design.

Our theme was the pig roast and toast which allowed for whoever wanted to toast us could and we had some very memorable ones! A running joke of the weekend was my "wedding timeline" which I can touch on tomorrow. If I didn't have that timeline, I don't know what we would've done though!! (AND people admitted that too!) We also incorporated our alumnus status from NC State in our rehearsal dinner.

Let's get to the photos now shall we?!

 

Cutest flower girl/cheerleaders ever!

 

Love this moment with my dad! <3

 

Y'all remember how I asked for some help choosing a dress?! I ended up going with the white Zara dress to make it a little more casual but still feeling grown up and sexy at the same time. Plus it was a steal at $68!! I even had the perfect matching colored J. Crew sweater that was the perfect addition for a fall evening. I also took a page from Kate Middleton and paired it with nude pumps.

Now let's get this party started shall we?!

 

Signing our keepsake banner!

 

We served all beverages in these fun keepsake stadium cups!

 LOVED the grooms cake from Cinda's Creative Cakes!!

 

Hubs thanking everyone for coming.

 I don't know if I mentioned but we asked all guests to wear their finest red and white attire to go with our NC State theme and it was super successful obviously! How fun right?! I loved it!!

Loving some of the toasts!!

And of course, I couldn't wait to marry this man the next day!!!

 

So there you have it! Our rehearsal dinner!! It was a blast and I couldn't wait for the next day either. It was so nice to spend that extra time with our friends and family in such a casual atmosphere but also we were so thankful for our friends and family that spoke at our rehearsal with their kind words and encouragement. It definitely set the tone for the wedding day.

What do y'all think of our theme and how it came out?! Did I make the right choice with the dress?! 

xoxo,

mrs. a.

Etsy Finds

It has become a norm that when in doubt, go to Etsy! I have used Etsy a ton throughout this wedding process and thought I'd give a run down of a lot of vendors who have helped the process be possible.

1. Palm Papers: A boutique stationary and design studio. Lauren, the designer behind the label actually designs for Minted as well as having her own website, and everything she does is so classy and fabulous! AND she was the designer of our invitations! :)

2. Pack & Post: The lovely Samantha helped in assisting me in my selection of vintage stamps and she was local, but I found her on etsy! She has great stuff, check it out! :)

3. Sweet Magnolia Designs: Our rehearsal invitations were ordered through this vendor and I loved them! They fit perfectly with our them! What do you think?! I realized I never posted a final picture of them.  

 4. Veils of Art: I took a chance and ordered my veil on etsy y'all! And it came out pretty well, but you'll just have to wait another 11 days for any sneak peeks but you can check out their page. ;)

5. Sweet Bennett: I purchased a custom burlap banner for our engagement photos. Although I didn't use it very much it came out well and the shop owner was super nice and friendly and now our banner is featured on the site!

6. Garters by Kristi: Hopefully fiance doesn't read this but I purchased my garter shortly after being engaged and it HAD to be an NC State one of course! I love the garter because I have a toss and keep one too! 

7. Burlap Babe: Custom bridal hanger! I can't wait to use this on the wedding day to hang up my dress. It looks great and it'll look even better with my dress!

  

Well, there you have it! My top etsy buys thus far! Have you found things you love off etsy? Any other sites you may use?!

xoxo,

a.

Rehearsal Dinner Dress

As I have mentioned previously, our rehearsal dinner is a pig pickin' tailgate style in honor of our alma mater, NCSU. Basically what that entails is that it's a red and white theme with bbq and the fixin's! WOO! 

In terms of what attire I wanted, naturally I wanted to wear white, but we also asked our guests to wear red and white. But y'all, it's so hard finding a white dress, that fits and is appropriate for the theme. I didn't want anything too dressy but nothing too casual..

So here's what I've found and am considering. (Although I DO have to admit I'm leaning towards one specifically, but I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts!)

 Trina Turk Esteem Dress

 Zara v-neck dress

Zara pleated dress

BCBG lace dress

Marielle Lace Lilly Pulitzer

What do y'all think? I would love to hear what you're thinking about wearing or if you'd recommend anything!

xoxo,

a.

ONE month!

EEEK!!! Ok I'm getting a little giddy.. IT'S HAPPENING. We're getting married in 31 days! But alas there are still things to do and things that have happened in the past month. 

Let's get on with it so I can remember to do what I need to, because this gal, has become a little scatter brained lately.. oops!

DONE-ZO:

bachelorette party

bridal portraits!!

trail hair and makeup

shopped for MOB dresses

paint chalk boards

groomsmen got measured

walk through with rental vendor 

purchased grooms/maid gifts
purchased a few parent gifts
ordered accessories for reception

met with florist again

mailed invitations

received our first RSVP

ordered rehearsal dinner invites

ordered men's golf outing invites
mailed men's golf outing invites

received our first wedding gift! eek!

got our MARRIAGE license

worked on timeline with photographer

got pom pom's for exit

completed ceremony details

booked rehearsal dinner caterer 

my veil arrived 
got dress for bridal luncheon

started packing for day-of wedding essentials

 TO DO:

finalize wedding menu

finalize music selections

talk with the band

decide on wedding cake design & flavors

 select rehearsal dinner outfit

create reception signage

work on chalk boards
keep working on timeline
distribute timeline, contacts, etc to vendors/family

finish wedding party/family gifts

work on slide show for rehearsal

have dance lessons with dad

work on bar linens

 work on final vendor payments
order small details (i.e. napkins, koozies, etc)
call guests who haven't rsvp'd
send out bridal luncheon invites

put together oot bags & drop off at hotel

But really, OMG we're getting married. It's happening. We're doing this. My mind is having a hard time grasping it but the reality is, that it's quickly approaching! It's a very surreal feeling because it still doesn't feel like it's happening to me and that I'm just going to another persons wedding even though the past 14 months of my life have been consumed with planning. But I'm excited guys, really! I'm also excited for a vacation...

 Can't wait to see you Cocobay!!

xoxo,

a. 

My Hiatus

Sorry it's been awhile since I last blogged. This weekend was a bit crazy and here's a little recap of what happened.

I was supposed to take my bridal portraits today, but as a long of east coasters know, it's raining today!! Not only is it raining but supposedly it's going to downpour tonight from 4-7 when we were scheduled for portraits. So number one, we could not find an indoor venue available (nor did we reallllly want to) and two, my hair! SO finally around 1:00pm yesterday I threw in the towel and gave up on trying for today. It's frustrating because I was so prepared and was ready to do them and had the whole day off to do so. BUT luckily, everyone is available to re-try for October 4th, as long as I can work it out with my work schedule...

downtown raleigh session that i LOVE by Cade Bowman

We also realized that my future MIL had an unexpected trip to Asia and we still had not placed any order for rehearsal invitations.. Uh freak out mode here. Since we mailed the wedding invites last week, I knew we needed to get a start on those so that we could have our guests plan accordingly so I was rehearsal dinner invite searching all weekend!! I did find one and I'm OH so excited about them!!

OH and we DID mail our invitations!! I'm going to prepare a post about them later this week since I think everyone should have gotten them. But for now, here's a sneak peek!!

Our custom created wedding logo by our uncle!!! EEK!!! it almost has a D as an ampersand! our initials!!

 

 all packed up and ready to go!!

 

Ok friends, I'll be back soon!!

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.