wedding updates

Oh Gosh.  Looks like I just found a new way to waste time.  As if blogs/facebook/perezhilton weren't enough, I have now discovered Pinterest and it is heaven.

In wedding related news, we are sending out our invitations this week!  More on this later. 

Also, we are having engagement photos done in a couple of weeks so last night we went dress shopping.  Originally I wanted to wear a cute casual sun dress (because it is still 100 degrees in Las Vegas....God help us...) but I ran into trouble finding something appropriate.  I bought an adorable flower printed strapless dress that I later found out would not be the greatest idea from a photography standpoint.  Who knew you should stay away from prints for photos?  Not this girl.  So last night I stumbled upon this dress and was worried it was too formal for our engagement photos (as we are taking pictures outside in a park) but J loved it and talked me into purchasing it. 

So AFTER purchasing the dress J says "oh wait, I thought that was for the rehearsal dinner.  It's kind of formal"  Um.  Apparently we had a misunderstanding.  For the hour that I was pondering if it was too formal for the engagement photos and he kept assuring me it was fine, he must have not truly been listening.  Imagine that!  Oh men....

I'm still deciding what to do about this.  The dress is adorable, but maybe not 100% what I was going for. 

Evolution of the Centerpieces

Along this whole wedding planning process I've been blazing my own trail and completing tasks at my own pace. I find that I am getting a lot of things done way ahead of schedule and other things (that are seemingly less interesting and/or more stressful) are being put off and forgotten about. One thing that I'm really excited about it making my own centerpieces. So while I still have not booked a florist, scheduled our cake tasting or found a seamstress to fit my dress (holy crap these things NEED TO BE DONE), I have been busy playing around with centerpiece ideas.

Our wedding is in January and I wanted it to feel like a winter wedding. In looking around online I found several pictures of centerpieces using bare branches instead of flowers, which I loved. Here are a few pictures that have inspired me:

I also had bought a crap ton of white birch candles that I wanted to somehow work into the mix.  Our linens are black and formal-looking, so I am still figuring out how to mix in the branches and wood while making everything appear formal and not "too rustic" or out of place. 

So here is just a sample of the crap I've been buying (and returning and buying again....this wedding is making me crazy)

And this is where the centrepieces started:

So I wasn't thrilled about them, and then I found white birch-ish looking branches at Michaels yesterday (on sale!)  So I returned the darker branches and now our centerpieces are looking more like this:

They still aren't done, but what I think I am going to do is find crystals (either clear or aqua) to hang on the branches.  I am also going to use these babies somehow (because I bought 904809843 of them and just think they are so darn adorable)

Part of me hates all of the planning that is going into this wedding and part of me thinks I'll miss it when it's all over. 

the girl who fell off the face of the earth...

Wow.  Just when I thought my blogging career was over, I decided today may be the day to jump back on the bandwagon.  I enjoy reading blogs so much, and feel like I need a creative outlet.  I am still unconvinced that blogging is for me, however I'm not willing to give it up quite yet.
So what has happened in the past couple of months? 

* I flew to South Carolina and spent a few days in Myrtle Beach with my family (and got stung by a string ray!!)

View from the pool at our hotel:

My stung-rayed cankle!

Cool kids wearing beach hats (how darling are my niece and nephew?!)

* My future SIL and her friend visited me and we gallivanted all over Vegas like crazy tourists

(note the clear stripper heels.  Mine literally had poker chips and dice in them.  So vegas chic.)

* I finally received my degree!  I waited (impatiently) since completing my program in March and it finally arrived.  I feel so legit now.  And smarter (note the glasses....that I only wear when trying to appear intellectual)

The biggest thing certainly, is that J came home!!  This was truly the beginning of me falling off the face of the earth.  I literally have been spending every waking non-working moment with him and it has been so great.  We have hit the ground running with the wedding planning since he's been back and are in the process of getting our invitations sent out and planning the rehearsal dinner (I will post about these things at a later date...)

Also, I have started a second job where I am actually using my Masters degree and getting compensated for it (what a novel idea!)  I am now part time faculty at a local college and teaching a course in the nursing program.  This is really exciting and scary for me and I find that I really want to be great at this which is adding a little stress to my already stressful life.  It's certainly challenging.  On the one hand I feel really proud of myself to have accomplished this goal by the ripe old age of 26, yet sometimes I feel unprepared and in over my head.  It is actually my second semester teaching but I still feel so new at this.  Hoping I can improve upon my teaching skills and gain more experience this semester. 

So here's to a new (and more successful) blog beginning.  Let's hope I stay inspired :)

Kansas City!

This week has been the best birthday week ever!  J and I have birthdays just a few days apart and for whatever reason never seem to spend our special day together.  Literally, in 5 years we have celebrated our birthdays together ONE TIME.  So last Thursday I was chatting with him on my way into work and we both realized we were off that weekend.  This seriously never happens lately so we kind of joked about me flying out the next day but left it at that; a joke. 

I went about my night at work and J texted me later that next day flights on Southwest would set us back nearly $900.  So that was that.  I forgot about it and went about my day (night) at work.  The next morning when I was driving home from work I couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of being able to visit J.  It was almost our birthday week and we hadn't gotten presents for each other yet.  I texted J (who was already at work) and asked if we should just do it and consider it our birthday gift to each other.  He was on board and I also realized I still had a $100 Southwest gift card to use up.  So I booked my flight and flew to Kansas City that afternoon!  The flight was totally full so it was somewhat of a miracle that I was able to purchase the last direct flight in Kansas City that day just 9 hours before I flew out!

Kansas City was actually a really fun place to visit.  There is a possibility we may move there next year, so it was fun exploring the area and contemplating where we may like to live someday.

We hadn't seen each other in 2 months!!  Best impromptu vacation ever!!

Rings

Today is a shitty day so I thought to myself "hey rather than bitching, who don't you post about something fabulous and happy?"  Which leads me to my rings. 

J and I picked out my engagement ring together.  While I think this may be taboo to some couples, I had an idea of the type of setting I liked and wanted to be involved in the process.  J knows me well and always does a great job of picking out gifts for me, but he was open to choosing a ring together.  Last July we went ring shopping together and I fell in love with what later became my engagement ring.

We found this beauty at Ben Bridge.  It's a Scott Kay setting and we choose the diamond separately.  It was actually really fun looking through the microscope and seeing each individual diamond and evaluating its cut and clarity.  I loved how thin and delicate the band was and immediately knew that this was the one.  I found out later that J purchased the ring the next day although I had to wait until nearly Thanksgiving for the proposal!  Way to make a girl wait!

Soon after we got engaged I began looking at wedding bands which was a lot more work than I had anticipated.  I knew I wanted a thin band with diamonds, but finding one that matched my setting was kind of a nightmare.  Eventually I found a diamond eternity band that was thin enough to match but still had enough sparkle without taking away from my solitaire.

Love them. 

New Purcahses

My family is going to Myrtle Beach next month for vacation.  I have been looking for a big beach hat for a couple of months now and finally found one yesterday.  Behold, my new hat:

It's kind of obnoxious, no?

I also purchased this giant beach bag.  For $11.  Seriously.

And last but not least, this fabulous dress from Francesca's Collections (they have a website but we are lucky to have a faaaabulous store in Vegas that is 10X better).  It has horses on it, which is kind of random, but I love it :)

Goodbyes

Just got home from dinner with friends to say goodbye to Lindsay and Tony.  It's hit me hard that they're moving away because Lindsay has been such a big part of my life out here in Vegas.  We started our nursing careers together, working in the PICU and kind of hating our lives for awhile there.  We have supported each other through so much together.  Divorce, death of loved ones, hard situations at work, family drama, engagements and her wedding just last week.  It is so hard to make good friends and when you find those people, you just know that they are meant to be in your life for more than just a season.

Our time in Vegas is slowly starting to wind down.  Our other good friends just moved to Texas for residency, and with Jonathon away this summer it's hard not to feel alone at times.  I am hoping we can make the most of these last months here and keep in touch with the friends that we have made along the way.