taking a break

After a busy few weeks chock full of wedding related tasks, the future mister and I took a much needed break. On Sunday we hit the road with some friends of ours and spent the afternoon in Atlanta watching the Braves and Phillies play! The icing on the cake, though, was a spectacular post-game concert by the Avett Brothers!!




It was so nice to just be able to get out of our apartment and have fun, especially with only 40 days to go! Did you or do you plan to take any "breaks" right before the wedding?

white christmas and splitting the holidays

I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday! It was a white Christmas in the mountains - truly a winter wonderland. We actually ended up spending an extra day because of the 5+ inches.


This Christmas was my first away from my family. Definitely strange, but still wonderful to be surrounded by my new family and experience new traditions. The future mister and I lucked out in that we didn't have to really hash out how to handle the holidays. We just followed in the footsteps of his older sister and her husband by alternating Thanksgiving and Christmas. So this year my family got us for Thanksgiving and his for Christmas. Thanks to technology, we were still able to have a pseudo Christmas with my family early last week via video chat. Video chat also allowed me to continue my Christmas Eve tradition of watching A Christmas Story with my little brother. I might have been hundreds of miles away on my future in-laws couch watching a different television, but my brother was right next to me, on the computer, laughing with me at all our favorite parts.

"I can't put my arms down!"

How do you split up the holidays with your significant other?

merry, merry

The future mister and I are off to the mountains for a few days where I'll experience my very first Christmas away from my family. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

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'tis the season

I cannot believe that we are already almost half way through December! For the past few weeks I have been going back and forth about Christmas cards. Last year, I got super crafty and made these....and well, after the save the dates, I just didn't have it in me to DIY this year. So I wasn't going to send any out at all. But now cards are arriving in our mailbox everyday from friends and family and the thought of not sending out a Christmas card annoys me. Another plus - they are a great excuse to use some more of our engagement photos! Now I could have just gone to TJMaxx and picked up those cards with the photo slot (we've done that in years past). But then I would have had to worry about printing our own photos and, again, I just don't have the time or energy. Enter shutterfly.com - super cute designs and minimal effort. Yes! They have flat photo cards, flat stationery cards and folded greeting cards with hundreds of designs to choose from. Here are some of my favorites:

Christmas 2010

Air Mail Wishes

Dazzle and Sparkle

Snow Globe

Simply Peace

Starlight Joy

Full of Love

Holiday Love Sketch

I love the hand lettering of the last design, but the future mister isn't a huge fan. So we're probably going to go with the first design. It's simple and will let whichever engagement photo we choose take center stage.

Are you sending out holiday cards this year? DIY, store bought or photo cards?

*The opinions above are my own, but I am receiving 50 free holiday cards from shutterfly.com for writing this post.

personal goals

I am so, so proud of my soon-to-be husband this morning! He, along with some of our friends who were in town visiting, ran the Athens Half Marathon on Sunday morning. He signed up over the summer indicating that he could run it in under 2 hours and 30 minutes. After training for a few months, he set a personal goal of running it in under 2 hours. Well.....

My future mister ran 13.1 miles and beat his goal by over TEN minutes!!

1:46:25 - 259th out of 1791, 29th out of 123 in the men's 25-29 age division

He deserved it, as did the rest of our friends who ran! Here are some more pictures of our weekend:

Saturday night I cooked everyone a spaghetti dinner - the boys were watching the UGA/UK game

pinning their bibs onto their shirts

all dressed and ready to go

City Hall at 6:30 am

the runners

and they're off!

at the halfway point I started jumping up and down and causing a big racket

look at all those runners!

Jonathan at the finish line

Patrick at the finish - unfortunately this guy stepped right into my shot

Nathan at the finish

Katelyn at the finish

the future mister and his groomsmen, post-race

so proud!

City Hall at 9:55 am

Did you and/or your fiance set any personal goals prior to the wedding?

one year blogiversary

We are almost to the end of October and I just realized the other day that I started blogging around this time last year. October 7th to be exact, so I'm a bit belated.

Happy one year blogging anniversary to me!

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I didn't have too many expectations when I started this blog, and looking back, I'm really proud of myself for sticking with it. I used to write in journals beginning in middle school and since graduating from college I can't say that it happens all that often any more. I didn't realize how much I missed writing my thoughts down until I started blogging. It's been a very rewarding experience so far and the best part is that I will have a great keepsake from the wedding planning process!

Thank you all for following along. I appreciate your support and your feedback. Fellow bloggers, what got you started?

tgif!

Oh yeah, so glad the week is over. We had our first Thursday night girls' night of the year and I didn't get to bed until 1, so I'm dragging a bit today.

Another weekend without big plans, which is a good thing because I've got round two of me against the yudu. I should actually say me against my stupid printer because I haven't even gotten far enough to hook the yudu up. The first step of the screen printing process is to print the design onto a transparency. Well on Sunday, I found out that my (new) printer doesn't print on transparencies! It took me all day to find a work around of strategically taping the transparency to a piece of cardstock in order to get the printer to feed it through. I was finally successful around 4pm and decided that was enough for one day. The goal for this weekend is to get the image burned on to the screen and perhaps, if I'm lucky, a test print.

Enjoy the weekend!

I'm marrying a grad student

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Both of these comics are a pretty good representation of my life.

Giant box of ramen from Sam's Club - check
Bill paying - check
Hours of proofreading - check (I've even fallen asleep once or twice!)
5.5 to 6 more years until graduation - check

And although the future mister's thesis isn't dedicated to me (probably wise, since we weren't yet engaged), I did get a mention!

To be honest, I probably have it pretty good. While I pay the bills, menu plan, grocery shop, keep the house tidy, proofread/edit, act as a sounding board, reassure, encourage, and praise, the future mister does all of his own laundry, helps with the cleaning when possible, and tries to carve out some time for the two of us every weekend. Unfortunately, it's sometimes very difficult for me to remember what he does do to help after I've come home from a long day at work, am tired, cranky and starving, the house is torn apart and I need help right this second to get dinner on the table. It is frustrating, to say the least. And if the future mister is tired, cranky and starving too? Whoa - bad news bears.

There are definitely ways that we can both improve - PATIENCE probably being the biggest area - but I'm glad that we are doing this together. I'm not really consoled by the fact that it "will all be over someday" because, let's face it, five or six years is a long time (on top of the three that he has already completed). I am reassured, though, by all of the day to day victories: making a good comment in class, getting positive reviews from his students and professors, publishing an article and, my favorite, the way my future mister's face lights up when he finds an exciting piece of new research. It is my hope that these little things will continue to sustain me through the coming days, weeks, months and years.

Anyone else in grad school or living with, engaged or married to someone who is? How do you deal?

close, but no cigar

They're not invitations (oh, how I wish I were that on top of things). And they're not programs either. So what on earth are they??

The future mister's way of asking his guys to be groomsmen! After my paper dolls went out a few weeks ago, he decided that he also wanted to ask in a unique way. What did we come up with?

Cigars


Wrapped in a letter with the future mister's family crest, printed on parchment paper with hand torn edges (for that "old timey" look)



Sealed in red wax with an "M"

(Notice how I had to channel my inner MacGyver in order to get the paper to stay wrapped)

Ta da! What do you think?

on a roll

Hope everyone had a fabulous 4th! Ours was filled with good food and great conversation.

Here's another wedding project we completed last week:


Come back later this afternoon for the full reveal! Any guesses?

starting the week off on the right foot

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! I'm in an unusually good mood this Monday morning. Probably because I had such a productive weekend. I FINALLY finished the project I've been working on and it turned out way better than I ever thought it could! I can't wait to share - although it will probably be about another week until I can. I also finished up designing some table numbers for a friend's wedding. Here's a sneak peek:



Tonight I get to see the future mister after another weekend apart. It was nice to be able to get so much done with him gone, but three days is long enough.

one year

In one year:

I will wake up to my last day as a single woman.

I will get prettified.

I will gush and gab with my favorite girls.

I will step into a dress that makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.

I will walk down the aisle on the arm of my father (probably trying not to sob uncontrollably).

I will walk toward the love of my life - my complement - my best friend.

I will say my vows.

I will walk back up the aisle on the arm of my husband!

I will laugh.

I will cry.

I will smile until my cheeks hurt.

I will eat some amazing food and cake.

I will dance the night away with our closest friends and family.

And last, but not least, I WILL BE MARRIED!

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it's about the marriage...

Last week I had a wedding dream. I've had a few before this one which were mostly along the lines of "everything-is-screwed-up-nothing-is-right-my-wedding-is-ruined-!!". This time my dream was quite the opposite. Yes, everything was different. First of all, the location was at the beach. We were getting married inside at the top of a bluff that overlooked the ocean. The photographer didn't show up for the getting ready photos or the ceremony. The catering was all wrong. I had a completely different dress on. But the most amazing thing about this entire dream was that I was completely calm.

Not the right dress? That's okay, I still felt beautiful and I was getting married.

Not the right venue? Still okay - I was getting married.

The photographer didn't show up? Perfectly fine. Somehow a back-up showed up. And I was getting married.

Screwed up catering? Still great. No one would know but me and the groom anyway. And, yep, I was getting married.

At the point in the dream right after the ceremony, I was walking along the beach hand-in-hand with my new husband and I started talking about how a big part of the ceremony was left out. I was on the verge of getting worked up about it when a huge wave of calm happiness washed over me. It was a wonderful feeling. And I could still feel it as I slowly woke up.

I think that was one of the best dreams I've had in a long time. Certainly the best wedding dream since I didn't wake up in a cold sweat, heart pounding. In this dream not one single thing that went wrong mattered. Why? Because when it comes down to it, that day is not really about the wedding at all. It's about the MARRIAGE. I really hope that I'll be able to successfully carry these thoughts and feelings with me until our actual wedding day (especially when I'm weeks or days away and ready to pull my hair out).

Does anyone else have any good wedding dreams to share?

weekend recap & celebration dinner

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I was off on Friday, again, but this time it was for a small medical procedure. So I mostly took it easy this weekend. Lots of time on the couch watching movies. The only time I left was on Saturday for a picnic in the park with friends to celebrate the end of another semester. The future mister just completed his first year as a PhD student. Here we are this time last year at his M.A. graduation:

Another year down, four or five more to go. I'm incredibly proud of all that he's accomplished so far. So we're going out tonight to celebrate at our favorite restaurant - Farm 255. We haven't yet lived here for one year, and we've gone to this restaurant for every special occasion - after our engagement, his birthday, end of fall semester, my birthday, parents in town, etcetera, etcetera. Not surprisingly, this place is at the top of our short list for rehearsal dinner locations (more on that later).

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Yum - I can't wait! Is there a particular restaurant that you frequent for special occasions?

savor the moment

Sorry for the brief hiatus. Work has been pretty crazy! It is not only the end of the semester, but I have also been covering for a co-worker who's been out since his wife just had their first baby. I did have a three day weekend, though - so that was nice. I indulged on Saturday by staying in my PJs most of the day and reading this:

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If you're not a fan of Nora Roberts or mindless romances, this might not be the book for you. But I enjoyed it. This is the third book in her Bride Quartet series (the first two were equally as good!). The series is about four friends who plan weddings together - Mac is the photographer (Vision in White), Emma is the florist (Bed of Roses), Laurel is the baker (Savor the Moment) and Parker is the planner/coordinator (Happy Ever After - out in November). Although the books are extremely predictable, the characters are likable and engaging. If you're a fan of chick lit (like me!), this book (and all the rest) are must reads!

typeface lovers anonymous

If there were such a thing, I'd probably be a member. For as long as I can remember I've always been enthralled with handwriting and fonts. Instead of doodling pictures or patterns in the margins of my paper, I doodle words in different styles of handwriting. I love inspecting other people's signatures. For a high school art project I had the task of drawing some sort of picture on the front page of my sketchbook. Instead, I used colored pencils to draw the words of my favorite things in block print, bubble letters, cursive, etc. I think you get the point.

Before I show you the fabulous (at least to me!) typeface I found for our wedding paper paraphernalia, I'll go through my favorite font websites and some of my favorite typefaces.

The BEST site for free commercial-use fonts. This came in handy while I was working as a designer (font used: blackjack).

Sometimes you have to sift through some junk, but this site has a very large free font library (font used: jane austen).


This is primarily a pay per typeface site, but they have about 300 or so listed as free (font used: good dog).


Submit your handwriting samples and have them turned into your very own font (font used: pea missy cursive). Super fun (and free)!


My go to place for free distressed type (font used: porcelain).


This site isn't free, so I've never actually purchased any of their fonts. But I do enjoy receiving their weekly e-newsletter (font used: Impact).


Last but not least is Veer. See that right there? That's our wedding font! Yes, I paid money for it, but this typeface was exactly what I was looking for - inspired by 18th century handwritten letters, romantic, and customizable. You see, there are multiple versions of every single letter, which makes it look more like handwriting than a cookie-cutter font. Let's see this baby in action:




Any other font lovers out there? What are your favorites? Has anyone else paid (or considered paying) for fonts for their wedding?