Top Model: Koala Style

I've ventured into the world of modeling. Oh, you say you didn't know that?

Funny, I wasn't aware of it either . . .

With this Ring

You Guys, it's official, we are really, truly getting married. Or at least we better be. . .because we have rings!

A Different kind of Registry

Gasp! The secret is out! (ok it was neither a secret nor does it warrant a gasp, whatever) Nate and I have been living together for over two years. We aren't exactly trying to stock a house from start to finish. Our apartment; however, is a hodge podge of cheap college purchases and hand-me-downs. I welcome thieves to our home. Trust me, you'll be extremely under-rewarded for your efforts.

So while the traditional registry has its rightful purpose (We could really use some new kitchen gadgets and some non-crappy sheets) for us, we really needed a different kind of registry.

To China and Back!

Put your chopsticks away cause no, we did not actually go to China recently (or ever for that matter; it's on the bucket list). What I am referring to is registering for our fancy schmancy china set that we are going to use when we are old and sophisticated. Riiigghht. I'm not so sure about the sophisticated part, but we are almost certainly guaranteed to get old. It seemed only fitting for us that we should go the traditional route and add fine china to the list. I don't foresee us ever buying it for ourselves in the future and Nate and I absolutely love to entertain people.

My first thought when we were narrowing down where we wanted to register was to head straight to a big department store such as Macy's or Dilliards. I didn't invest much time in researching how registries work beforehand so I assumed that it was just something that everyone did. You go straight to Macy's, find the snootiest sales associate you can find, pick out your china, your 400 count egyptian cotton sheets, and your top of the line blender, and that was that.

Enter the wonder of the world wide web, and with it the quick, easy, and ohsomuchfun online registry. No longer did I feel like I was on a one way train to typical town; I had options! Pottery barn, Pier One, Williams Sonoma, Amazon, and even the store where you can never come out with just one thing, (Target of course!). We initially tried the in person registry at Pottery Parn and encountered a major FAIL. We enter on a Wednesday night thinking this will be a breeze. 45 minutes later we walked out having no idea what we just registered for, feeling extremelly overwhelmed, and had a hunch that the girl who was helping us had no idea what she was doing. 10 points for our intuition, because sure enough when we checked the online list several days later, it was very much blank. Yey girl at the store who didn't know what she was doing! A certain movie comes to mind.

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After this experience, we were officially terrified of the registry experience. Holy monkey was it harder than I thought it was going to be. I never thought that picking out a bunch of stuff that you wanted but didn't have to pay for could be so stress-inducing!

Online registry it was! A couple quick clicks and I could easily add things to the list or remove them at will. Oh the technological power!

CANNOT.STOP.ADDING.ITEMS!

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Slight problem. . .it is incredibly hard to register for china online. You can't get a good view of the pieces, it's hard to see if the colors really match with other items, and it can be so confusing!

"o.k so I have 12 sets of 6" butter plates, and then 12 sets of the saucer dishes and then I need to add the salad dish, but wait which size is that, 6" ok, but . . huh, that's the same size as the butter dish, sooo what's the difference? Well let me just add those anyway (click), oh, crap I wanted 12 not 122!"

Ughh, you get my point. We had to give the in store registry a second shot. We went to Bed Bath and Beyond to grab some items today and we passed right by their bridal registry section. Huh, I noticed, they have a lot of options with china and stemware, same brands as the big bad department store, well, we're here, let's take a look.

I eat my words about the evils of in-person registering. It was so much fun ya'll! The associate, Amber, who helped us, made the process go so smoothly. She was at the ready with suggestions and directed us to look around and see what caught our eyes. Nate liked one pattern, I liked another, hmm what to do?

Nate's favorite: The Crestwood Platinum Dinnerware by Noritake

My Fav, which was much more girly than his choice: The Parchment Dinnerware by Mikasa

Ooooo, pretty flourishes and swirls, yes please.

I had been inspired by a post by Miss Seashell over at weddingbee who had mixed two patterns together and the results were fantastic! I knew this would be the perfect solution for us. Our two favorites look like they were made for each other. A few decisions and an adorable bird napkin ring later, here were the results:

A perfect pairing!!! We were both really happy with the compromise and both very pleased with the results. The bird napkin ring has to be one of my favorite elements, it adds a little french country to the set and really speaks to our personality; traditional with a twist. I am looking forward to using these dishes for years to come on holidays and other special occasions.

It would be tempting to say that I am reformed on my idea that registering in the store is not so bad after all. We really enjoyed doing this together. But, just to keep my sanity, I think I'll stick to the click click aspect of the internet for all our other items. More on those other items later!

Did you conquer your registry demons? Or perhaps you were the lucky duck who conquered the scary in store scanner? If you're not to the registry point yet, are you looking forward to it?

*All photos unless otherwise noted were taken by moi!

Searching for our piece of "I do" turf: Part Two

After we said goodbye to  the dream of a Biltmore wedding, I had to sit down and re-evaluate our lists of wants versus the hard realities of our budget and, equally important, picking a place that we knew would reflect our personalities. There were just so many options out there on the Internet, it was almost overwhelming!

As a couple we would discuss the issue, think about it for a few days, then sit down and discuss it some more. I am one of those people who loves to sit down and solve all of the world's problems in one sitting. Nate is not one of those people. He needs to hear an idea, then let it simmer and marinate in his mind for a few days (hmm I wonder if I am hungry). If I give him that time (which really took some getting used to) then our discussions and brainstorming sessions are MUCH more productive. Talk about a major lesson in patience.

One of the ideas that we had was to choose a venue that was a lot closer to home; a Georgia wedding! That way we could visit the venue often and be a big part of the process. We also thought it would be easier on out of town guests as we knew the area well, could help them find reasonable accommodations and would have lots of great ideas for things to do while they were in town (other than attend the wedding of course!) Also, it would make it so easy for me to visit with local vendors rather than having to make decisions solely based off of pictures on their website. I mean, it's hard to know if what you see is what you get sometimes

Bob's wedding transportation service, FAIL

O.k. so if a Georgia wedding was what we wanted, we needed to narrow it down. City venues weren't for us, although the nighttime skyline of Atlanta is something to see! No, what we wanted was a beautiful outdoor reception with a garden feel and lots of southern charm. So I took my google searching north of the city in search of a beautiful venue with an amazing outdoor ceremony site. I don't want anyone falling asleep on me, so let's just get to the major contenders shall we?

First up: Chateau Elan

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This place is the hidden gem of  Georgia. A world class spa, golf course, and winery make Chateau Elan a HUGE wedding destination. I'm telling you, these people have weddings down to an art. The grounds are beautiful and the whole concept of Elan is that you never have to leave the resort area; so we could be rest assured that people would have plenty to do. The cons: unless people want to do a lot of driving, there are no alternate lodging options except to stay at the resort, which could really be a problem for some of our guests who don't want to spend an arm and a leg for a room.

Also, the chateau is beautiful, but it's also out in the country somewhat in the middle of nowhere. If we wanted people to really experience something new and make a big fun weekend out of our wedding, would this really be the best choice? Unless they really had a hankering to stare at cows, there would be a lack of places to go outside of the resort. Lastly for the negatives, PRICE. Yep, once again I fell in love with a venue that would put me in debt until I'm 90. Crap. . .

Next possibility: Barnsley Gardens (or as Nate mistakenly continues to call it, Beardsley Gardens)

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The main manor house was built in the mid 1860's and was the center of a beautiful but tragic love story of Godfrey Barnsley and his wife Julia. Today, the manor house ruins are surrounded by a resort, expansive gardens that feature hundreds of varieties of roses, and beautiful vistas of the North Georgia foothills. Ya'll it is a gorgeous place and combined with it's romantic history; what a hauntingly beautiful setting to hold a wedding. I seem to be establishing a pattern with my cons for venues so you can probably guess what I'm about to tell you: it was just too dang expensive for the kind of wedding that we wanted, it was really out in the middle of nowhere, and along with that, no lodging options for our guests!! Arghh the frustration!

Clearly I wasn't searching in the right places, I needed to switch gears yet again to find something that fit everything that we wanted. What did I learn from this searching?

Well first I needed to find a venue that wasn't all inclusive; we want out guests to have control over how much they spend on our wedding weekend.

I also learned that, although we loved the feel of the historic manor houses set out in the country, we weren't willing to sacrifice the amenities that come with having a wedding in a city.

Third, I needed to find a place that fit my champagne taste on a beer budget!

O.k. so we have historic, don't like the modern city, but not crazy about the rustic country, and really needed to stay on the cheap side for the venue price. I was beginning to think our piece of "I do" turf was just a figment of my imagination . . .

Um. . hello? Is this thing on?

SCREEECH! Ok it's working now. Can everyone hear me loud and clear? Cause here I am, the girl who swore that she would never be one of those "blogger" people, writing my very first, very scary post. Why scary? Cause, if you think about it, a blog is a lot like a diary. It's a collection of ideas thoughts and, yes, even those scary confessions that are normally reserved for YOUR brain and YOUR eyes only. Now, I have swallowed the crazy pill and decided that I too am going to broadcast my imperfections. . err. . .lovely ideas and thoughts to the world.

On to the introductions, cause that's what you really want to know right?

Oh yeah, and why on earth I decided to write this blog. First the short explanation:

Me, him, wedding, planning the whole thing, craziness

ok ok, now if you actually want details:

Well hello there!

I decided that it was imperative that I chronicle my current and upcoming wedding planning adventures. Why? well because A) it's pretty funny to watch me go into a tizzy about napkins (more on that later) and B) I want people to be involved in our wedding, and part of being involved is knowing what goes into a labor of love such as this.

I've been asked by several people as to why I didn't go to school to become an event planner. It truly is something that I love, love, love to do. I am a details person, and anyone who knows me knows that I swear by the almighty checklist. I enjoy using my creative vision to make all the moving parts come together into one big bowl of awesomeness. At the time though, I simply thought, "so much fun, but so not practical", and ultimately decided to major in finance. Well, being a finance major apparently worked out quite well for this gal, because that is how I met my soon to be hubby, Nathan. Everyone wave hi to Nate!!

the soon to be hubs (wow that sounds weird!)

In the fall of 2006 I was in my sophomore year at Elon University and well into full swing with classes and my two part time jobs when I decided to on a whim one night to attend a recruiting event for the campus business fraternity. Best decision EVA!!!! During the introductory meeting, I kept noticing this really cute guy sitting down the table from me. The whole paying attention to the rules about recruitment thing was going in one ear and out the other. I was too busy thinking, "Dang it!! why didn't I wear a cuter outfit?!" and "hmm I wonder if I can subtly find out if he is planning on going through recruitment?"

Turns out I wasn't the only one noticing people that night. When asked what first caught his attention he promptly responds, "your butt, such a great butt" (cue feigned shocked expression from me). Recovering quickly, he adds, "oh and your beautiful blue eyes!" Much better sweetie, much better. . .

Us on our first official date on Halloween (I was a pizza delivery girl, he was a douche bag). And YES I still decided to date him even after that costume.

College years are turbulent years. We cared about each other a lot, and like grew to love very quickly, but both of us needed to grow up a bit. We broke up and got back together several times while I was still in college (him being a year ahead). It took thousands of miles of distance while I studied abroad in Austria for both of us to realize that, for better or for worse, we were meant to be together.

What was the evolution of your love story like? did you fall in love quickly? Or did it take a while for your love flower to bloom? Gag, I know. . .humor me.

Up next: Why on earth I decided to blog about planning our wedding