Pearls and Diamonds...and Turquoise!

Merry (belated) Christmas! :)

I spent my 22nd birthday and Christmas with Jordan's family on their farm in North Carolina, where there are no internet or cell phone signals. I'll be honest...while I had a great holiday, I'm very glad to be back, relaxing in my own apartment. :)

I wanted to make a post that somehow relates both weddings and Christmas, and I finally decided to share my bridal jewelry hunt with you. I'm not the type of girl who typically wears a lot of fancy jewelry...I own mostly big chunky plastic pieces that are super bold and funky. While I love them on a normal day, they aren't exactly what I had in mind for the wedding. As such, the search for the perfect wedding day jewelry has kept me rather busy doing internet searches for the past few months. Here's what I've found so far:

I mentioned a while back that my friend had made me a turquoise bracelet...I don't have a picture of the exact bracelet yet, but here's a very good likeness of it:

I've had a very hard time narrowing down the choices for my necklace...the neckline of my dress (a halter) looks best with a very simple necklace. I decided immediately that I wanted to have the pearls and diamonds look, even if I couldn't afford to have the real thing. Here's the one I want:

And I think these earrings match it perfectly! I wanted to go with something simple again, especially since my hair will be down.

I haven't liked very many tiaras or headpieces that I've seen online, so that might be something I need to go shopping for in person. However, I think I might stick with a simple headband rather than going with an elaborate tiara, again, since my hair will be down. One like this would be nice:

Now I'm off to watch Beauty and the Beast: Enchanted Christmas...it's one of my favorites! ;)

I love it I love it I LOVE it!!

I am in love with making inspiration boards, and tonight I made my best one yet! Enjoy!



You can get a better view here.

Dresses for my favorite girls

I think there is an unspoken rule among bridesmaids dresses: they are not meant to be affordable for college students or recent college graduates. David's Bridal is considered "cheap" and their dresses start at $100. Of my six girls, one is still in college, two are recent college grads (one is saving up for her own wedding and the other is probably going to grad school), another is working ridiculously hard just to pay her bills, one has four kids, and the other is my 12-year-old niece. I know that I personally don't have the money to spend $100 on a dress to be worn one time.

So it comes down to the age-old question...do the bridesmaids have to be matchy matchy or can they just wear something comfortable? Since it's our wedding, we make the decisions. Jordan and I have decided that we would rather my bridesmaids be comfortable and spend much less than $100 on a dress. Instead of purchasing "bridesmaids dresses," we're going to keep an eye out for sales at places like Dillards in the spring, and hopefully everyone can purchase dresses in similar colors and similar styles, but they don't have to match exactly.

Here are some dresses that I think would be awesome (but not necessarily all together):




Most people I've talked to have loved this idea, although there are a few people that think it will look sloppy or non-wedding-like. I'm not too worried about that, though...it's not like we're having a super formal affair, and I like the idea of having my bridesmaids smiling sincerely in all of our pictures, thinking, "This $30 dress is ridiculously comfortable...I think I might wear it again on Friday when I go out with my boyfriend." Here are some pictures of brides who have pulled off this idea quite well:

This next one is from Memory Makers Photography and it's my favorite!

In the end, as long as my girls brush their hair and cover up their naughty bits, I'll be satisfied. I just want them to stand next to me and watch me marry the love of my life. ... And then party. :P

Free Engagement Pictures!

We have some very wonderful friends, indeed. This post is dedicated (almost) entirely to my favorite pictures from our free engagement session with Matt Lovell of LH Images Photography. They are just getting started in the business and building up their portfolio, and we lucked out.

Now, PICTURES!

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Rainy days aren't so bad...

After all, umbrellas can be so romantic. :)

Perched on a tree branch above the river


Gettin' smoochy. ;)



One of the best pictures of us, ever. :)


We're using this one on our holiday greeting cards, lol.


And now for some funnies! :D




Aren't they wonderful? I am so absolutely thrilled. I have an entire Snapfish album full of them, so if you want to see them all, just comment and I'll send you the link. :)

Now, at the beginning, I said this post was almost entirely dedicated to pictures. The last tiny thing I want to share is an awesome blog that I check pretty frequently because it makes me laugh and cringe at the same time. Check it out!

Pssst, this is a secret!

We have indeed gotten our engagement pictures back, but I'm so swamped with homework and housework right now that I don't have time to share them. We just got back from a week in Michigan and I'm playing catchup.

However, I'm posting because I just bought something for Jordan that I want to squeal about!! I bought them for use in the wedding, but I know I won't be able to hold onto them for another 9 months, so I'm going to give them to him for Christmas.

They are Nintendo game cartridge cufflinks!!!! How perfect is that?!?!


I bought them from Etsy and cannot wait for them to arrive! I ordered one to be Tetris and the other Super Mario Brothers 3. I'll let you know what Jordan says when he gets them on Christmas morning!! :D

Approaching my last Holiday season as a single woman

Since Jordan and I are splitting the holidays between our families again this year, my family gets Thanksgiving and New Year's, and his family gets Christmas (meaning I'll be spending my birthday and Christmas away from home for the first time ever--I think I'm okay with that, though). But since I very rarely get to see my dad and stepmom, we've decided that we're flying to Michigan for our week-long Thanksgiving break. I'm actually quite excited about the prospect of maybe getting to play in a bit of snow this year (*sigh* It's been so long since I've been in real snow).

So my last Thanksgiving as a "Knoll" is just under two weeks away. Two days from now will be two years since Jordan proposed. It's been a heck of a long time. In less than one more year, we'll finally be married and neither of us has any idea where we'll be living or what we'll be doing, haha.

Anyway, since I've been in hiding for the past couple of months (AKA: desperately attempting to keep my head above the water that is my last year of college), lots of stuff has happened. I'll pick a few of the best things to share.

1. My bridal bouquet is just about completed! Here's a picture of what it looks like before they add the ribbon and pearls on the stems:


Just for reference, here's the picture I sent them of what I want on the stems:

The flowers are the "real touch" artificials in two shades of pink gerbera daisies and some stephanotis dispersed throughout. After shipping costs, I only paid $85! :) I ordered it through WedIdeas and they have been so wonderful and friendly!

2. Next, Jordan and I discovered that one of our friends is an amateur photographer looking to build his portfolio, and he asked us if we'd like to do an engagement session for free!! The day we were supposed to do it ended up being yucky and rainy, so we just did a quick "practice session" and got some pretty funny pictures out of it. About a week later, the sun was shining and it was gorgeous outside, so we met at the State Botanical Gardens of Georgia and spent a few hours traipsing around and posing for the camera. Hopefully our images will be ready to share soon, but here are a few from the practice session.

These are two he took so that I could use them for a UGA award I won:

And here's a funny one of me and Jordan...I was giving him "The Look". :P

I think it was really awesome of him to do that for us. :) His website is here, and if you know of anyone in north GA who needs a photographer, let me know and I'll get you in contact with him!

3. Finally, last but not least........................

WE GOT A KITTEN! Haha, that makes three kitties in our family. :) We've been thinking of a good name for her, and I say "Lucy," but Jordan isn't sure yet. I call her BooBoo. :)

And here are two of the haughtiest-looking pictures I could find of my other babies. ;)

My baby girl Nadia:

And my little man Dumbledore:

The end for now. :)

Not wedding related at all, but that's okay!

It's my blog and I can use it how I want to use it. :P

I'm just posting to say that it's ELECTION DAY and I voted for Barack Obama.

He's such a cutie. ;)