Three Weeks From Today!

With three weeks left before the wedding, I think I've finally entered panic and stress mode, which is not much fun at all. I don't have anything big left to do, but there are so many small details that have to wait until almost the last minute, and it's making me a little nervous.

Here's what's left (in no particular order):

• Haircuts for both Jordan and me
• Jordan still has to write his vows
• We kinda sorta still need to get our marriage license...
• Have our rings inspected and polished one last time
• Track down the 43 invitees who have still not responded!
• Tweak the seating chart
• Figure out how many chairs to rent and also how many places to reserve for the reception
  
• Final dress fitting/pressing
• Make our centerpieces and favors (though these have to wait until a few days before the wedding because they'll spoil)
• Put together the bridesmaids' bouquets (mostly because the flowers STILL have not arrived, uggggh!!)
• Find an iPod dock to borrow and run through the entire playlist on my iPod to make sure the battery will last through the ceremony and reception

I feel like I'm going crazy! I think it's about time for kitty cuddling and some Scooby Doo watching. :) And since I love to share pictures, here are some of my babies:

Nadia is such a fluffybutt! Isn't she gorgeous? :)

Boo is a little goober and she likes to pose for the camera. :)

And Dumbledore is just slightly special...he lays like this a lot. :)

Bachelorette Party!

Here's the formula for my amazing bachelorette party: Rollerskating + Delicious Italian Food + Dancing at 8Es Bar = Incredible! I had 6 wonderful girls with me and it was such a great night!

We started with rollerskating at Skate Around USA. It was super sketchtacular and I think all of us girls realized just how long it's been since we skated. It was quite an adventure trying to keep from busting it in front of a bunch of 12-year-olds, haha! Dinner at Olive Garden was fabulous! I think between the 7 of us we consumed about 20 breadsticks and 3 bowls of salad! :) Dancing at 8Es was ri.dic.u.lous. We had such an amazing time and only had to deal with a few creeps/jerky people. The DJ played several of the songs we requested, including two of my favorites: "It's Raining Men" and "Eye of the Tiger". We danced like crazy and asked interesting people to take pictures with me. :)

Amelia bought me an awesome sash and tiara:


Me with two of my beautiful bridesmaids:



After 8Es, while waiting for our DDs, I apparently decided to "Care Bear Stare" all of the girls. Amelia caught it on camera:


What a fabulous night! I love all of them so much. :)

Oh, and a while ago I made a post about groomsmen gifts. Well, we finished "monogramming" them and they look great! :)


28 more days!

Bridal Portraits Are Here!

I finally received my bridal portraits back!!!! I am absolutely in love with so many of the pictures, so it's going to be hard to pick out only a few to share!

All of these were taken by Matt Lovell of LH Images, who is such an awesome guy! Enjoy, and remember to click on the image to see the high quality original!

Amelia and I call this one the "Mermaid" pose...haha. I love it!

This is the image I used for my bridal canvas to be displayed at the reception.


We wanted to get a shot in front of the lamp post where Jordan proposed, but it had a big sign in front of it, so we went to the next one down! :)


This one looks like I'm emerging from the grass, and it reminds me of a mix between The Lady of the Lake and The Lady of Shalott.


I absolutely adore this picture for so many reasons!


And of course The Arch! It was nice to have pictures done around Athens since we won't be getting married here.

That's it for now! Just over a month away now!! :D

Ceremony details!

Now that we are about a month and a half away from the wedding (AHH!), it's time to start making decisions about some small details.

The Mansion's Marble Garden Courtyard is really spectacularly gorgeous, and I don't want to fill it with a bunch of decorations that will take away from its beauty, so we've decided not to use big flower arrangements or anything like that. Instead, we will have just a few white chairs, with garlands made of pearls and pink daisies draped across the backs of the chairs. We will only be renting enough chairs for immediate family, elderly guests, and any pregnant guests, along with their spouses. Here is a picture of the chairs we will rent, followed by a picture of the daisy garland I made for just $6 with supplies from a Michael's craft store!


The picture of the courtyard shows a wedding set up to face the pool area. I am actually requesting that our ceremony be set up 90 degrees to the right, facing a gorgeous moss-covered wall. Hopefully that will work out! This picture kind of shows the wall, although there is more moss and greenery on it now than when the picture was taken:

I need to consult with our photographers, though, and see if that will create any problems for lighting, etc.

Finally, because we are having limited seating, I created some seating cards using a daisy template I found. I think they are adorable! I'll be handwriting everyone's name, but for the purposes of the preview, I used the font from our invitations:

They will be folded and placed on the appropriate seats as little card tents. :)

Only a few more DIY projects left to complete, and then we are ready! We have to make our centerpieces (because we are using jello, we have to wait until the day before), and we have to make our favors (again, we have to wait until close to the wedding because they are animal crackers and I don't want them to get stale). In less than two weeks, I am having a program-putting-together and bubble-unwrapping party with two of my favorite girls, so that will be another task completed! Yay for progress!

How to plan a long-distance wedding without going crazy

First of all, we can now officially say, "We're getting married next month!!" How exciting! And yet, a little nerve-wracking too since I feel like there's still so much that hasn't been settled.

Today I checked two big items off my wedding to-do list, and in the process learned a couple of important lessons about how to plan a long-distance wedding without going crazy.

First lesson: technology helps. A lot. I used iTunes to organize all of my wedding music into various playlists. Each playlist is obviously named (like "Wedding Cake Cutting" and "Father/Daughter Dance"), and a friend will just set my iPod to play the appropriate playlist at the right time.

Second lesson: visualization also helps. I am fortunate enough to have a bridesmaid with family who lives in Savannah, and they have offered to decorate the reception room for us, since we won't have time to do it ourselves. Using bridalcanvas.com, I created images of what I want the tables to look like, so that they will know exactly where everything should be placed. For example, here's the cake table:

Yay for two important, but not-so-thrilling, details being completed! And I haven't gone crazy yet! :)