mini e-shoot

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Here are a few of my favorite photos from our mini e-shoot in Sylva, NC.

the old courthouse/now library - love this shot

All photos taken by Nick Breedlove.

a cause for celebration

Today our wedding is being featured on the super amazing Southern Weddings Magazine blog! Yipee!!! I've been reading their blog and magazine since before we were even engaged, and they were a huge source of inspiration during the planning process, so it's an honor to have been picked. Go check it out:

Part I

Part II

I guess what this really means is that now I can start the full-fledged wedding recap! So excited and can't wait to share the day with you!

pardon the interruption...

Hi all! I just wanted to interrupt these honeymoon recaps to excitedly exclaim that we have our pro photos! Actually, we've had them since last Thursday. However, for the past week I've turned into quite the selfish photo hoarder. I did send our family and friends the preview slideshow, but since Thursday the full online gallery has been allll mine (and the mister's, but I'm sure he doesn't click through them obsessively in his free time - like me). I still have to wait for the disc and there are so many pre-wedding things I have yet to share. So until I finally get to the wedding day recaps, here's a little teaser:

photo by the ridiculously talented Heidi of Our Labor of Love

just a little sneak peak...

My MISTER (!) and I are now in Barbados - waiting for our third room change (but that's a long story). I don't have much to say about Saturday other than, it was absolutely perfect. I can't wait to see the pro pics and tell you all about it when we get back!!

this is it

Our day is finally here. Almost two years in the making! As I type this, I am sitting in bed in my parent's cottage on the wedding property. With the perfect view of my beautiful dress hanging on the closet door in front of me. These are my last few moments of silence and reflection before the hustle and bustle of the day begins. I am ready. Today I am ready to commit myself to my best friend, my complement, my one true love. Today. Tomorrow. And always.

See you all on the other side!

grieving

Hi friends. It's been awhile, and well, this week I come to you with a heavy heart. Last Friday (the 15th) I received a gut-wrenching phone call, while at work, from my dad. My grandmother (grammy) had passed away unexpectedly from a heart attack. It's only been a little over a week since then, but it feels like at least a month has gone by. The future mister and I flew to Pennsylvania to be with my family, and I can't even begin to explain how emotionally exhausting it was. We are all in shock and still mourning.

I had just received her and my grandfather's reply card. A week or two later, I watched as they buried her in the dress she bought to wear to our wedding. Light green (one of our colors!) with ivory embroidered flowers. Simply heartbreaking.

In this time of loss and sorrow, I am still grateful for many things. That I was able to make it home to be with my family and that my last memory of her was giving her a hug goodbye at my Pennsylvania shower.

(Aunt Jackie, Grammy and Aunt Debbie)

She will no longer be physically present on May 21, 2011, but I know that she still "wouldn't miss it for the world."

Needless to say, my posting might continue to be light in the weeks leading up to the wedding. I've got so much more to share with you and hope to get it up here eventually, but I just don't have it in me right now. Thank you so, so much for following along during my long wedding planning journey. I've learned a lot and gotten some great feedback, advice and support. It has been such a rewarding experience!

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?

my Pennsylvania shower

Okay, now that invitations are out the door and I've had a few days to recuperate, I have finally been able to put a post together on my beautiful bridal shower held two weeks ago!

My mom and MOH chose a great local restaurant, the Apple Wood Grille. The last (and only) time I was there was after my confirmation in 8th grade - many, many years ago. And back then, it was called the House of Strawberries.

I loved the little trees MOH Ashley found - in the dollar section of Target no less! She used tiny clothes pins to attach some of our e-photos. All of the decorations were perfect!

The prizes for the games

cute jars filled with colored sugar and heart shaped measuring spoons were the favors

my cousin, Ashley's mom, MOH Ashley, my mom, me and BM Emily

After a delicious lunch of citrus chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, fettuccine alfredo and salad, we (or rather, I) played the "how well do you know your groom" game. I went in pretty confident - the future mister and I talk about everything! Well. I didn't realize how anxious I would feel trying to answer questions on the spot with 30 people staring at me! It was still fun, though. For every answer I got wrong, I had to chew a piece of gum. Out of 28 questions, I ended up with 12 pieces of gum. Ick. Funny enough, the questions that I got wrong were the ones that the future mister added to Emily's list - most of them history related (Who is his favorite Civil War general?, Who is his favorite Union soldier?). I read all of the future mister's papers and listen to him talk history all the time and I STILL got them wrong! Ack.

my very large wad of gum

After that, we moved on to opening up gifts. Most of the guests were very conscious of the fact that I flew in from Georgia, so I received a lot of gift cards and smaller gifts. The bigger gifts were shipped to our apartment. Everyone was so very generous!

Overall, it was a lovely day - I enjoyed catching up with friends and family and truly felt "showered" with love.

Has anyone else ever had to play the "how well do you know your groom" game? Hopefully you did better than me!

our little birds have left the nest

Or rather, I booted them out and celebrated once they were gone.



Now you know where I've been for the past few weeks! I've been having anxiety over the fact that these should have gone out weeks ago, but April 1 is still pretty reasonable - especially since our save the dates went out so long ago. Oh, and good thing we took that photo before I went in to the post office! For some reason, I thought the PO didn't close until 3 on Saturdays, so imagine my surprise when I walked in at 2 to see everything all locked up. I was not happy. The future mister saved the day when he went back in to check their hours for Monday and discovered that there was another post office open until 3! We were greeted by a very unhappy postal worker who gave us a hard time (about wanting stamps that added up to $0.81 and the fact that we had something bulky-a wax seal-in our envelopes), but we were able get everything stamped and shoved on their merry way right as she was closing up. What a huge weight off my shoulders!

If I ever again plan a huge party and want to make 130 invitations by hand, by myself, someone please remind me what a stupid idea it is. (They do look pretty, though!)

Keep your eyes out for the big reveal sometime next week!

the hangover (kit)

UPDATE (1/16/13):
Thank you all for the kind words and interest in my bachelor party hangover kit tags! Due to the influx of requests, please email me at hmgmcguire at gmail dot com to inquire about availability and pricing for customized hangover kit tags.

Please note that I prefer to be emailed directly (hmgmcguire at gmail dot com). I will not reply to comments left on my blog.

Thank you again for your interest!

-Heather


 Original post:

This weekend the future mister went to Charleston for his Bachelor Party. A grand time was had by all and luckily there were no babies, tigers, missing teeth or lost and sunburned grooms. I did have a bit of fun on Thursday night (and a much needed break from invitations) while I created these for the guys:

Hangover Kits! They each contained two bottles of water, two mini bottles of Gatorade, a travel bottle of Advil, Pepto-Bismol, hand sanitizing wipes, gum, and some Airborne for extra antioxidants and electrolytes. Oh, and the future mister got a small box of BC Powder, his preferred headache medicine.

And here's a closeup of the tags I made for each guy (Warning: there is some foul language on some of them. Not meant to offend, just quotes from the movie).

images from imdb.com, photoshopped by me

I was told my kits were "life savers" on Saturday morning.

What did your fiance do for his bachelor party?

MIA

I can't believe it's Friday and this is my first post of the week! I have lots to catch you all up on - my fabulous Pennsylvania shower being on of them. But first things first. On Monday I received a very important package:

SHE'S HERE! I waited to open the box until the future mister left the house for a softball game. And I had my mom on video chat so she was able to share the moment with me. The dress is about a size too big in the torso area, but I was expecting that. They also forgot to ship the veil with my dress, but that's all taken care of and will be arriving on Tuesday. Now I just have to schedule my fitting appointments! Until then, though, I have her hanging in our guest bedroom/my office/craft room. I know that the future mister wouldn't dare go in there, but it still makes me nervous.

Did anyone else have to worry about hiding their dress from their fiance?

rsvp help

I need some help y'all. I've been neck deep in invitations for the past few weeks and am just about ready to start printing my RSVP cards. I thought I had it all figured out, but now I'm second guessing myself.

Here's the original wording:

We have reserved ___ seats in your honor

Name(s): ______________________

___ Wouldn't miss it for the world!

___ Will toast you from afar


My concern is that if we invite Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow, indicating on their RSVP that we have reserved 2 seats for them, and only Mrs. Blow intends to come will they know that they are only supposed to write Mrs. Blow's name on the name line? Or what if Mrs. Blow thinks that since 2 seats are reserved for them and Mr. Blow can't come, that it's okay to bring Katie Blow who isn't invited to the wedding? Or am I just being crazy?

I did some research and discussed it with the future mister and here are the two other options that we are now considering.

Option 1:

We have reserved ___ seats in your honor

Name(s): ______________________

___ Wouldn't miss it for the world!
___ Number attending

___ Will toast you from afar


Option 2:

Name(s): ______________________

___ Wouldn't miss it for the world!
___ out of ___ attending

___ Will toast you from afar

Thoughts? Suggestions? Your help is much appreciated!

bride-to-be's little helper

It's just about time for the invitations to go out and I have more work than my two little hands can handle. At the same time, though, I'm too much of a perfectionist-control-freak to let anyone help me because the thought of relinquishing my control gives me more anxiety than actually doing it myself. Wow, I think I just made myself sound quite insane.

Anyway...

Yesterday I was convinced by a very willing future mister to let him help. And help he did. While I traced, he cut out about one hundred or so envelope liners.



Unfortunately, he's not all that comfortable helping me with the remaining invitation tasks (due to their skill level). But every little bit helps!

Did your fiance lend a hand with any wedding crafts?

THE call

Happy Friday! This week has certainly ended on a high note. Yesterday afternoon I received THE CALL. The most anticipated phone call for almost every bride. The call we anxiously await for months (or for me - a year and four months!). THE DRESS IS IN!

I purchased my dress at Kleinfeld's back in October 2009 during a trip to NYC with my mom. At that time, we decided that I would come home and have the alterations done at Kleinfeld's, which would guarantee that my mom could be there. Right after Christmas, though, the thought of having to somehow fit in and schedule another trip up North with all of the other stuff going on made me a sweaty, heart racing, anxious mess. So the dress will be shipped to me and I'll have the alterations done at the seamstress shop that Anne Barge recommended, which is in Atlanta. At least, that's the current plan.

Now I just have to (patiently??) wait for the delivery on the 21st!!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

what is this I see?

I spy, with my little eye....

beautiful handwriting courtesy of FSIL/bridesmaid Katie

the cutest return label

and a gorgeous shower invite!

This is for our couples' shower at the end of April in North Carolina. I'm so excited! The future mister is too, even if he did roll his eyes at me when I insisted on taking a million pictures before actually opening the invitation. Hey, this wedding stuff is only going to happen once, so I intend to document every last detail!