Wedding Day Timeline

Let's talk timeline y'all!! I started making a wedding day timeline probably about 8 months in advance to the wedding. It slowly progressed the more I met with vendors, settled on how I wanted to organize things, and once I had my final meetings with hair and makeup. I originally saw the idea here from the fabulous Emily over at Southern Weddings:

I kept searching and searching for something that I really liked but it's sad to say that I loved what Emily had done and may or may not have taken the idea of "The Best Day Ever".. mostly may! Whoops!!!

It IS only a word document but I spent a lot of time on it, thinking it out, discussing with my photographer the pros/cons of it and how long I should allow for different sessions of photos for the day. We did a first look so for me that was SUPER important to dedicate a lot of time to this section. Meredith recommended most people settled on 30 minutes but I decided I wanted 40 minutes, and let me tell you, I could've gone for hours and wish we actually had more time to get some really different shots but that's how things worked out that day, 40 minutes. We arrived everywhere on time, minus my original thought that I'd be able to take a few portraits of myself with Meredith because my hair and makeup artists went over their allotted time because of lack of help.... WONK WONK. That really was my only snafu of the day too, so that's probably a good thing! (Make sure you confirm with your makeup/hair how long it takes to complete one gal and if they are going to need to bring help make sure they do and if they don't make sure they arrive way before you originally though!!!) It DID work out though because it allowed me to send hubby and the boys to campus and me surprise him on campus, so everything worked out in the end.

Here it is and it's available for download thanks to Scribd!! Sorry it's so long, but you'll see how much went into it and how we stayed on top of being on time and where we needed to be! I also have to say that although it was the butt of many jokes that weekend, everyone in hindsight said it was VERY important for making our wedding day go VERY smoothly!! (Score one for me! I even included directions to ENSURE everyone was where they needed to be!) The map on the timeline is from WeddingMapper.com in case you're wondering.

Wedding Day Timeline by

Ridic right?!! BUT it was such a valuable tool!!!! Hope y'all don't think I'm too crazy! ;)
xoxo,
mrs. a. 

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.

I'm BACK! And it's wedding week!!!!

Y'all, I have the internet again!! WOO WOO! And yesterday marked 3 months since we tied the knot and I thought it was high time that I started recapping some our wedding events now that I have all my photos in my possession. I admit that I'm a photo hog and I LOVE taking photos and being able to look through them and document events in life so for me not having control over the photos of our wedding events was tough! Luckily my brothers girlfriend, Erica, and dear friend, Lee, were there and brought their cameras to help document my life. I'm SO grateful they were there and offered to do so for me because on the way to my luncheon, I was thinking "OMG I don't have a camera?!" WHEW!

For our luncheon we went to a little french restaurant in Raleigh called Coquette, and we had mimosa's, quiche, cheese plates, and yummy truffle fries! It was a perfect little brunch setting that allowed for our group of about 18 women in my life. 

Here are some images from my luncheon:

 

custom cookies from Bambino's Bakery 

 some presents!

 my sweet little niece and flower girl Macy

 some of the gang

 flower girl present time

 mom opening her custom portrait

 opening my christmas ornaments

Hooray! What a wonderful start to my amazing weekend!! OH and right after we got some mani's:

I shamelessly got suckered into buying the "blushing bride" nail polish by Essie.. Dang you Essie and your fabulous marketing..

Stay tuned for our Rehearsal dinner!!

xoxo,
mrs. a.

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.