Tick Tock

We, dear readers, are rapidly approaching the 5 month and counting mark.

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At this point, Ben and I have been engaged for a leisurely 1 year and 9 months. We'd plan a little here, plan a little there, and, maybe some of you other brides who have been engaged for-ev-er can relate, up until now it has felt like we're planning this mythical "wedding" that will be, you know, sometime in the future, and everything will just happen because we say it will. Well it doesn't feel that way anymore. Everything finally, FINALLY seems to be actually happening. Our wedding is real, baby, and it's coming at me like a freight train.

This thought was recently brought to light this past week when several things happened:

1) I suddenly realized Save the Dates are due (if not past due) to go out before Christmas. Eeeek! Do we have all of our STDs done? No. Do we even have a solid guest list yet? No. Our familial habit of procrastination rears its ugly head yet again to bite me on the butt.

2) Ben and I started to discuss some financial matters, such as what our financial goals and values are, etc., based on a book we're reading together (Smart Couples Finish Rich, by David Bach),  and I was shocked to discover that we'll be a "household income" in less time than I thought. Note to self: Stop. Buying. Shoes.

3) I switched my cell phone service from my family's "family plan" to our very own newly-minted family plan. I'll tell you, there's nothing like a cell phone to really bring home the symbol of the bride leaving her family to cling to her husband!

So anyway, time's a-tickin' and this wedding feels more real to me now than ever. You know what that means.....the DIY craziness will commence in 3....2....1.....

What milestones made you fully appreciate the reality of your coming wedding? Are you as bad a procrastinator as I am, or do I get to take home the gold? I'd love to hear your stories!

To Inspire to Perspire

So, like many of my fellow brides, I would like to drop some poundage before our wedding.

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I have been chubby all my life and for years it has been a source of insecurity that just jumps out at me everytime I see a full-body photo of myself. In recent years I've really managed to come to terms with my appearance and have learned to love and understand my body and what does and does not work for me. Plus, the mister loves me just the way I am, so I've got that goin' for me too ; ).

Now, the funny part is, by the time the wedding gets here Ben and I will have been engaged for 2 YEARS AND 2 MONTHS!!! You heard me. 26 months and I wait until 5 measly months before to get my butt in gear. Oh well. Better late than never right? Besides, I'm not trying to move mountains here. My dress fits as is and I'm happy with how I look in it so I'm not exactly looking to drop 4 sizes. I have conceived a highly realistic plan to tone and trim that I know is totally doable if I stick to my guns.

And that's why I have this:

That's right, baby. A weight loss inspiration board!!!!!

Now you can see the full extent my wedhead has infiltrated my brain. When I first decided I would keep a food journal noting everything I eat, the water I drink, my weigh-ins and measurements, and my general feelings about the day and my progress, I also decided to print out some pictures that would remind me of why I'm doing all this. That's when my wedhead brain said "make an inspiration board just like you did for your wedding!!" And so I did.

Now up there you're looking at my wedding dress, two shots of the b-e-a-utiful resort we are going to on our honeymoon (more on that later!), some water, veggies and a scale, a picture of Kim Kardashian's fab body (because I'll never be a stick-skinny super model, but I could definately achieve this), and a giant lose weight easy-button that I wish I owned.

So now when I go to write down my meals and snacks in my journal I can whip this out and be re-inspired all over again. Let me tell you, the food journal is a wonderful tool. I have found that if I have to go to the trouble of writing it down and tallying the calorie, fat, and fiber count, I'm much less likely to eat it. This greatly helps when the cookies in our fridge call my name or when Zaxby's teasingly winks at me when I pass it on the highway. I wholeheartedly recommend it. I'll try to keep everyone updated on my progress and what works and doesn't work.

How about you? What are you doing to look your best on your wedding day? Got any tips and tricks for me? What restaurants seduce you off the road to hot-body town?

Color Me Greedy

Can I just take a small moment to sigh over the wonderfulness that is an Aqua and Poppy wedding?

This fabulousness is not of my own design. I totally stole it.

The red! The blue! The POP! I mean, really, it's one of the hottest combos of the year and I. Want. It. Alas, it is not to be. Yes, I already love the other colors we have chosen and the classy, chic vibe they give to our wedding, and blah, blah, blah, but that's not enough to stop the drool from dripping onto my keyboard every time I see it used.

This one too.

So what was my bright idea? I'll use it for our rehearsal dinner! Who says rehearsal dinners can't have colors? I already have a lot of stuff in that aqua, 'cause it's kinda close to our blue already, and it'll be super easy to add some red! Success!

Our rehearsal dinner will be a semi-casual outdoor barbecue at a beautiful local park. I want to be able to have a relaxed, Southern barbecue feel to offset the formal, fancy affair at the wedding and I think this color scheme will be lighthearted and fun enough to achieve our goal! Plus, I found this little guy that I so desperately want to use on our rehearsal dinner invitations:

Get it? A pig for the pork barbecue and the little hearts for luuurrrve. : )

So what do you think? Got any ideas for fun aqua and poppy outdoor babecue rehearsal dinner decor? Is it too macabre for this adorable little pig to invite guests to eat him and his friends? Let me know!

A Vision on the Hill

When I last left you, dear reader, in the hunt for our perfect venue, I had just had my wedding bubble burst: the Fernbank Museum of Natural History was WAAAAAAY out of our budget. What's a sad bride to do?

Well take a gander at this:

Isn't she gorgeous??? Allow me to introduce you to our lovely wedding venue: Bona Allen Mansion in historic Buford, Ga.

We found her quite by accident, while driving around on one of our aimless drives we like to make on weekends. Coming out of the historic district of Buford, Bona Allen presides over the horizon, perched on a hill at the edge of town and visible all the way down the main road. We couldn't help but stop and stare when we turned that corner and saw it shining in the sun. It was pretty much decided that day that if all the numbers worked out and the inside was as gorgeous as the outside, this would be the place we'd say I Do.

And so it is. Come May I'll walk up the beautiful brick walkway and marry Ben under the large arches on the front porch. The guests will be seated on the lawn under the big Magnolia tree and then everyone will enjoy a cocktail hour in the garden around back before moving inside for the reception. Here's some of the pics from our first visit to Bona Allen so you can all take a look-see. Forgive me, it was freezing and raining that day, and they were setting up for another wedding, so some of the pictures are dreary looking. It'll be much prettier in Spring!

This is the garden where the cocktail hour will be held. On the left is a better view of what it looks like inside the gate, but on the right is what it will actually look like in Spring. You know...with actual flowers and trees and stuff : )









On the left you can see an example of what one of the rooms look like. Reception seating will be broken up all throughout the rooms on the ground floor (it's pretty open, though) and in the balcony, on the right, as well. The balcony overlooks the main foyer where our cake and guest book will be displayed.

And finally, the patio outside where all the dancing and fun will happen. It needs some sprucing up, to be sure, but I'm not quite sure how to go about that yet. Hmmm. We'll see. Any ideas?

Putting On Your Fancy Pants

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No, not those fancy pants! (Please, anything but them.) I'm talking about wedding duds, and what they mean to you.

There are SOOOO many ways to describe wedding dress codes: casual, cocktail, semi-formal, formal, black tie, black tie-preferred, white tie, white-trash...ok, maybe that last one is just here in the south, but you get my point. What I'm concerned with is how to get the guests at our wedding to look like this:

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And not this:

source  Though let's be fair, these guys ARE wearing bow ties.

At least they know that weddn's are a time to pull out all the stops.

Anywho, between certain groups of family and friends and acquaintances on both of our sides, there is a high probability of some ...ummm...mixed... attire. I'm not trying to be a super-snob, I promise, I just want everyone to look nice at an event that we have put our very heart and soul (ahem, and hard-earned money!) into.That means no jeans, no T-shirts, no spandex, and please, for the love of God, no cutoff clothing. Nobody want's Uncle Billy Ray's dress-denim fray to snag on Grandma Lucille's sequined jumper, or Cousin Jackie's low-rider mini skirt to make Grandpa Bob's eyes pop out .

Also of concern is the fact that our ceremony will be outside in the middle of May (our reception will be inside) and here in north Georgia, May gets a little iffy. It could be a nice 70 degrees with a little wind like it was this year, or it could be touching 85 with baking sun like the year before, even at 5:00 in the evening. Trust me, we're praying for the former.

In the end, I think we're going to go with asking everyone to dress in semi-formal evening attire, and include the info on the bottom of the invitation so they can't say they weren't told. That means suits and ties for men, and cocktail dresses, or at least nice pants-blouse combos, for women. I figure if the heat gets too bad maybe guys can go sans-jacket and tie to lighten up a little bit.

What do you think? Do you have the same fears of underdressed guests that I do? Is semi-formal attire an appropriate choice? Let me know!

Wedding Reality Checks

Here's a little story about what might have been....

Besides the guest count and date, as every bride knows, one of the biggest first decisions you'll make when wedding planning is deciding where you're going to have the shindig. The Venue. The magical, romantic, place-of-your-dreams spot where you choose to pledge your life to your one and only. Easy-peasy, right? No, sadly, this magical place is also one of the first times a bride's wedding bubble gets burst.

Why might that be you ask? Money, honey.

Enter The Fernbank Museum of Natural History here in Atlanta:

Source: 1, 2, 3

Yes, you're seeing this correctly. Fernbank holds weddings in it's massive white lobby or out on a patio overlooking the state's only old-growth forest, and then brings the party inside where guests dine and dance on real limestone fossil-embedded floors under e-NOR-mous dinosaurs and a beautiful atrium skylight. Couldn't you just die?!

From the first moment I realized you could have weddings here I was hooked. The ambient glow, the history, the uniqueness, THE DINOSAURS!!! It's no secret that I'm a huge nerd and luckily, Ben embraces this side of me. Also, the first place Ben and I ever went as an official couple was his college Homecoming celebration at Fernbank. Perfect! There is even a breath-taking star gallery you could hold a cocktail hour in!

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But then I checked rental prices....*POP*      (that's the sound of my wedding bubble bursting)

With beverage minimums, rental fees, and staff we would already be well over $10,000 and that's WITHOUT food, rentals, entertainment, etc, etc, etc. Our modest budget just couldn't support that kind of blow.

Despite my parents' protestations that they could, as Tim Gunn would say, Make It Work, if it was what I really wanted, I knew deep down that, short of cutting the guest list down to nil and only serving crackers with cheez-whiz and water at the reception, my dream wedding under the dinosaurs wasn't going to happen. But I couldn't let it go and actually planned the wedding around Fernbank for a while, until something happened that derailed my one-track venue mind.

In the end we did NOT choose Fernbank as our venue. What changed our minds? What other place could possibly hold a candle to the dinosaurs? Will this new place actually fit our budget and allow us to have more than 4 people and real food at the wedding? Stay tuned for the dramatic conclusion...

Inspiration Innundation

I have a confession to make...I was totally that girl who kept a notebook with all the pictures I could get my hands on of my future Dream Wedding pasted in it. Anyone remember that episode of Friends when Monica pulls out her wedding book after Chandler proposes? Yeah...that's me.

Source The Book's about 40 seconds in : )

Well, when the time finally came when I knew my REAL dream wedding was just over the horizon, I whipped out my trusty book and.......had a good laugh. Apparently, things you want when you're 15 just don't cut it nearly 10 years later! I know, imagine that. But then I got down to bid'ness.

Was anyone else as overwhelmed as I was by the sheer amount of great ideas that exist out there in the wedding world? Especially for an indecisive girl like me, I simply couldn't wrap my head around all the options I had to choose from. Quirky and silly? Formal and extravagant? Homey and southern? Colorful? Monochromatic? Black and white? Inside? Outside? Rooftop? I simply couldn't decide! Kudos to all you brides out there with all the fabulous details I drool over day in and day out.

And that's why, as I like to say, our wedding has a bit of a multiple personality disorder. Clean lines and modern influence meets vintage setting and detail. Bright bold teals and metallic pewters meets classic pale blue, black and white. Inside AND outside. Here's my inspiration board to help you understand what I mean by all of that:

Sources: 1, 2, 3: me, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

In the end, all of our details should come together to make a nice mix of clean modern and vintage charm. I hope. That's the plan anyway. Are any of your weddings suffering from MPD and inspiration overkill like mine?

The 1st Day of Spring....Now with 100% more diamonds!

So we left off in early January of 2008. I knew Ben had a ring, though I didn't know what ring, and I was anxiously waiting for a proposal. Now, I was terrible in the phase. I would anticipate, prepare, and disappoint myself time and time again. This wasn't Ben's fault, mind you, but all mine. I wanted the propsal to be a complete surprise, yet every important date or evening out that came up my mind would trick me into believing that night was the night. Valentine's Day? nothing. Our 1 year and 5 month anniversary? nada. A random Saturday night at Chili's? zilch. It was torture.

However, unbeknownest to me (though I did wonder why he was so dressed up to hang out with his buddies), Ben sat down to lunch with my mom and dad in early March and asked for my hand in marriage. My parents were so touched by his gesture and after some gentle teasing said of course.

Me on the way to dinner the night of the Big Day.

 Do I look happy or what? : )

     Cut to early morning, March 20th, 2008. Of course, that day I woke up late for work and ran around the house like a madwoman trying to get ready. My hair straightener had broken, so my hair did it's most hideous not-washed look-I'm-a-dead-rat coif, my clothes were wrinkled, and to make matters worse, my mom was running around behind me constantly asking when I was leaving. She was driving me nuts!

    

     But then, loaded down with books and my breakfast, I flung open the door to see Ben, down on one knee on the front porch of the home I grew up in, holding my beautiful ring in one hand. After I picked my jaw up off the floor (and screamed the always eloquent SHUT UP!!! I think) Ben proceeded to say all kinds of nice things to me about how much he loved me, how great our relationship is, and that "Today is the first day of Spring and now the first day of the rest of our lives. Will you marry me?" What commenced was a lot of hugging and kissing and calling in late to work, while my family gathered around to congratulate us. He had even brought a dozen red roses and my favorite Starbucks! You can't have him ladies, he's all mine : )

Sidenote: I must say, to hear Ben tell his side of the story is pretty amusing. Apparently while I was sleeping late and stressing out, he had been up since 5:00 am, nervous and excited, and spent the morning parked down the street in a stranger's driveway calling my mom every two seconds to see if I was leaving yet. He also ended up perched on one knee on our hard wooden porch in the freezing cold for more than half an hour due to my lateness! Too funny.

So that's the story of my proposal. There was no fancy restaurant involved, no hot air balloon or helicopter ride, or any of the other thousand ways I had imagined my proposal to be. It was simply a boy, a porch, and my loved ones (minus my sister...sorry Nic!) but it could not have been more perfect if I had planned it myself. I will never forget the nervous twinge of his voice when he said my name that morning and the way we both couldn't stop grinning at each other when all was said and done. Ben doesn't constantly buy me presents or do grand romantic things, but sometimes the simplicity of what he says and does for me blows my socks off.

So how about you? Was your proposal a complete surprise? Did he experience pain and discomfort to make your day perfect? Tell me all about it!

My Precious

     Almost a year and a half after we started dating Ben and I knew exactly where we were headed--straight down that long white aisle! After dropping many, many, many hints about ring styles and loudly ooohing and aaahing at various jewelry stores while wandering through the mall one day, he finally got the hint and designated one Saturday in early January 2008 as our Official Ring Shopping Extravaganza.

     All dressed up, we hit every jeweler in the enormous Mall of Georgia that day, exploring styles I liked, styles I didn't, and rings that simply made me go glassy-eyed in pleasure. Now when it comes to rings, engagement rings especially, I've always been an equal opportunity lover of all styles. Halos? Yes, please! Three-stone with etched band? Sure! Sapphire side stones? Come to mama! I'm not picky. The only thing regarding style that I've always known is that given the choice between a large solitaire on a plain band and a smaller carat weight ring with multiple stones and antique detailing, I'd always go with the latter. Size didn't matter, but detail did.

So we searched and tested and eventually found my beauty. Throughout the day Ben would slip each ring that I loved onto my finger and test drive it a little, asking me how I felt, and we eventually narrowed the choice down to three: two beautiful princess cuts and a three-stone ring that made me cry the minute it hit my finger. The choice between the rings was his to make, because I didn't want to know ahead of time, but I think the crying was his sign that it was The One. : )

 At this point I knew he had the money to buy a ring (in fact, he even bought the ring that day when I wasn't with him! Sneaky man...) but I didn't know what he would choose or when he would propose. The anticipation was KILLING me. Various scenarios ran through my head a hundred times a day about when he could do  it, how he could do it, and every time a significant date came up, I'd dress my best and take extra time with my makeup, and be all nerves and butterflies. When, man, WHEN??

Up next you'll hear all about the lovely proposal, but until then, check out my precious, the three-stone tearjerker that even comes with her very own matching wedding band!

How about you? Did you help pick out your ring or was he all on his own? Spill it!

All About Us: A Drama in 3 Parts

Ben and I shortly after we got engaged, March 2008

Part I: Why we owe our relationship to Interview with a Vampire.

Ben and I first met a LONG time ago, in the summer of 2004. One weekend I decided go rent Interview with a Vampire at our local Movie Gallery after I'd been reading about it online. Nothing like Brad Pitt to give a single girl a hot Saturday night! Walking into the store I was greeted by a super-cute boy who, though they didn't have the movie, proceeded to compliment me, ask for my number, and drop a mind-blowingly large amount of pick-up schmooze on me. Kind of creeped out, kind of intrigued, I refused to give him my number, but still managed to find every excuse in the book to go into the movie store over that summer. But sadly, I came back from a two-week vacation to discover he had quit! For the next YEAR I thought about him and wondered what might have been if I had given him my number that day. For some strange reason I couldn't get him out of my head.

Part II: In which pizza makes a love connection. Or not.

Flash forward to the next summer, 2005. My best friend and I walked into a local pizza joint to grab some dinner and, bam! There he was, conjured out of the blue, eating dinner with his Aunt Judy. We ate dinner together that night, I gave him my number, and we hung out a couple of times. Boy did we have sizzle! We just clicked, and as Ben used to say, it was comfortable. It was so good, I couldn't eat for days, which is quite a feat, let me tell ya. Unfortunately, he was also talking to another girl at that time and ended up choosing her over me. To say the least I was hurt, angry, and sad when he stopped calling me and wouldn't answer my calls. I felt dropped, discarded, and like we were missing out on something that could have been really great.

Part III: "Let's just be friends." Yeah right.

Again, let's skip forward to the next March, March of 2006. Ben had long ago broken up with the skank very nice girl he had been dating and contacted me to hang out again. The first night he called me, we spoke on the phone for 3 hours about everything. He made it very clear he wanted to be more, but I refused, and insisted we would just be friends, that's it. And we were. We became the best of friends in fact, but that sizzle was back. I'm serious, the chemistry between us was CRAZY! For my birthday that year (our's are actually only 3 days apart, but I like to claim this one) he took me to dinner and a movie and we finally held hands. In fact, I had a huge bruise for days from where my arm was pinned between his and the arm rest. It wasn't long before we had our first kiss and it was all over. We were more than friends and everyone knew it. On October 19th of that year I finally submitted to us being a "thing" and that was it. We never looked back, we are still the very best of friends, and I never regret one moment of our courtship.

Ben and I barely a month after becoming an official item

We were thrown together by God, or fate, or whatever you want to call it, three different times at three very different parts of our lives. The first two times neither of us was ready to be in a relationship and we agree that had it happened then, it never would have worked. But instead, the third time it was perfect. In October of this year we celebrated 3 wonderful years together. Our relationship isn't always smooth sailing, but we are partners, both commited to working on what we know is a great partnership.

How about you? Was your relationship rocked by troubles at first? Were any of you "just friends?" I'd love to hear all about it!

Living with Wedhead

Wedhead (noun): the state in which one rolls directly out of bed and can think of nothing else but weddings (their own, in particular) all. day. long.

Symptoms include: lack of concentration at work, constant checking of Weddingbee, yakking ad nauseum to other (uninterested) people about your super sweet, vintage-yet-modern, totally-diy details, uncontrollable watching of Bridezillas marathons, etc.

Friends, my name is Kelli, and I suffer from wedhead. I wake up every morning and gaze lovingly at the mountain of paper, punches, and other wedding-diy paraphenalia piled up in the corner of my room, just wondering when I will next get to play. I am guilty of spending hours online pouring over pictures of different uses of ribbon. I know the difference between 7 different (they are TOO different, Ben!) shades of tealy-aqua blue. I very nearly convinced myself I could hand fold several hundred origami roses. Come on, it'll be easy, I told my mom. I'll teach you!

Yeah, it's bad.

Living with wedhead can often be a burden (like, when people actually expect us to work. I mean geez, if they wanted me to work, they'd take the internet out, am I right?), but boy do I suffer gladly. Planning our wedding has been the most exciting, fun, excrutiatingly wonderful and emotional time of my life and I look forward to sharing my journey to the altar with everyone that'll listen through this blog. I hope I can help share with ya'll the incredible inspiration, emotions, details, and people that surround our special day and everything that makes our relationship so nauseatingly wonderful. : )

Thanks for reading!