Pictures

Wow, has it really been over a month since I wrote anything here...yikes.

Anyway, just a quick line (and promises to be a better blogger) to show you all the engagement pics we just had taken.

Go Here and click the wedding gallery box and then on the next page, client proofing at the bottom of the page. powersengagement is the password. you have to use your email to log in but they don't send you anything.

Favorites?

Update

Hmm, what have I been up to? Not much really. Just boring, being in town stuff...

I did the Air Force Half Marathon last weekend and I got my best time ever for a half marathon so I was pretty pumped about that. It felt really good to make a goal and then accomplish it. The funny thing is that I didn't really do that much running between my last half a month ago and this one. I did exercise a lot but not necessarily running. Good to know that I don't lose the running ability even without running all the time. I enjoy mixing it up a bit and I enjoy racing so I am glad to see that I can do both.

Other than that I have just really enjoyed my time at home. I get to see and talk to Craig on a regular basis, I get to go to the gym and try new classes (like Zumba and real Pilates), I get to go to trivia on Wednesday nights and actually do stuff with my Dayton friends. I almost can't believe it. I really needed the break. I worked entirely too much this summer. I can barely name anything I did and now it is going to be cold here in a couple months. That makes me so sad. I have been trying to work on my work-life balance lately. I think that when I am out of town it is so easy to work until all hours of the night to try to get things done but I just can't do that on a regular basis. It sucks. Since I am home now I usually start work at 8am (not a far commute from the bed, across the hall and to the desk) and I normally don't take a lunch (cause what am I going to do) unless I exercise during the day so I am trying to make myself stop working after 8 hours. Sometimes it is hard because my job is all about problem solving and if you have ever done a crossword puzzle where you only have one or two clues left, you know how hard it is to just put it down and walk away. I have come up with creative ways to make myself stop and most of them involve crafting or exercising :-) HA!

I finally started allergy shots a couple weeks ago. I have in my head that these will be the miracle that will allow my to not have to take Claritin every day of my life but we will see. I am only a couple weeks in. It sucks cause it is an hour and 20mins roundtrip, twice a week right now. Bleh. Oh well, it is only for 6 months or so and at least it gets me out of the house in daylight! They are quite the cocktail and I have to get 2 each time I go. I had them put it all in there...all plants, dogs, cats, dust mites...you name it. I did hear one lady on the elevator today tell a kid she had to get 3 shots so at least there is someone who has worse allergies than I do. These suckers are pricey so I hope they work...looks like I will be doing a little figuring of how much I need in my FSA account next year. Yikes.

Wedding planning is still going well...I had a minor freakout today because the hotel that I had blocked rooms at has changed names and I wanted to make sure our contract was still valid because that is the weekend that the convention is here but I called the other day and they said it was. Then I started to panic because I realized that I didn't block enough rooms (and the hotels are sold out) but I looked on the actual hotel's website and you were able to book rooms directly, guess they aren't switched over in our work travel database that still had them as a Doubletree. I booked a room for Craig and I and noticed that the rates were a lot lower than the blocked rooms so I sent an email to the sales lady asking to drop the price and if we can add more rooms (since apparently it is not sold out).

We are trying to narrow down our honeymoon choices. If you know me, you know I love a good deal and if we book by Oct 14th then we can save a bit of money so I want us to decide by then. Here are the finalist:
Ireland
Italy
Holland

I have been to Italy but not Tuscany and I have been to Holland (which I really liked). I would be happy with any of them so we just need to pick one. I think that Craig is leaning toward Ireland or Holland (cause you get to ride a barge down the river and it is a little more "city" like than the other places). He knows that I would probably rank them as Holland third but I would not be disappointed with any of them. I loved Amsterdam when I went with Erin 10 years ago and the Ann Frank House is by far the most moving museum I have even been in, EVER. Plus, Holland would be less flight connections :-)

Other than that, I haven't done much of anything...I feel like I don't talk to anyone anymore...guess everyone is busy with fun fall activities!

Favorite Weekend

What did I do you ask? NOTHING...or at least nothing with a set agenda. I have not had a weekend like this since APRIL! APRIL people...not a single weekend since then that I was home and didn't have to pack to go out of town or really that I was home without a million things to do. It.feels.awesome. I spent Saturday watching college football and sewing some headbands. I fit in a little workout. Sunday was more of the same...crafting, organizing crafts, etc. Today, yep, right back at it :-)

I did manage to get my coupons all organized on Friday or Saturday, I can't remember which.

I have only been home for 10 straight days but it feels like a lifetime (in a good way). I was traveling so much and having such a stressful time at work that I couldn't relax even when I was home. Now that I have been home for 10 days I feel so much better!!! I have been eating well, I got exercise in almost every day and I just can relax without having to worry about flights and reservations and auditors!

Wedding planning is also going awesome. I have to admit that doing it pretty much on your own is hard. I don't think that I realized how hard it would be but it is starting to all come together. We booked our caterer after a lot of back and forth. We really liked the food at a local restaurant in town but the display is probably not as "pretty" as the other place that only does catering...the problem with the second place was that I didn't love the food. The stuff we were going to have was ok but overall I was not impressed. I don't get it because it is one of those places where every raves about it...eh. I tend to be turned off by those kind of places in general.

My mom and Alyson came up last weekend to go dress shopping. I had 2 appointments with different bridal stores in the bridal district in Reading and then one other place that doesn't take appointments. We went to the first place and I was a bit overwhelmed. Everyone that lives in Dayton seems to get their dress there so I thought it would be a little different. Everyone warned me of the big dressing room where everyone changes together but that didn't bug me in the least...those of you who lived with me in the sorority house remember I would walk around in a bra to go iron my shirts....don't care. When we got there there was some consultants that I didn't feel like I wanted (they were older and didn't appear to have any fashion sense judging by what they wore), luckily we got a cute, younger girl :-) After you get assigned a person you are taken to look at the dresses and pick out what you want to try on. I sort of thought it would be like "Say Yes to the Dress" where they would look at pictures you bring in and then pick stuff out for you...not so much. I didn't know how to spot what the dresses looked like while they were in a bad...how could I tell what the cut was?? UGH. Luckily I had several pictures so my sister, mom and I just looked for the sweetheart neckline that I thought I wanted. I also gave my list of pictures to the consultant. She pulled a few on my list and when we had about 6 or 7 I was ready to try on. She had pulled one that I had on my list but when I looked at it I thought it had too much beading. The first few dresses were good and I liked them but when I tried on the dress that I had claimed had too much beading, I LOVED it. It really looked good for my curvy body shape :-) It was sort of funny since I hadn't even wanted to try it on. My mom and sister loved it too. I tried on a second one by the same designer (which is the same designer that Morgan's dress is so had it not been for her, I wouldn't have looked at this designer and found my dress) but with less beading and I still liked the shape but the combo of the beading and the shape is what made it look so good on me. I tried on a few more dresses of different styles and some that I had on my list but I didn't like this or that about them. The consultant offered to pull more but I told her I wanted to put the beaded one back on...and then I didn't take it off for the next half hour as we did the veil and all that...I am really happy with my choice. So happy that I cancelled the other two appointments and an hour and a half after we walked in the first store, we were done! HA! The rest of the weekend we did other wedding stuff (saw the venue, made paper flowers, etc). The weather was gorgeous in Ohio (as it has been since minus Friday and Saturday this week) it was sunny and 75 with no humidity...ahhhh. If anyone is interested my dress is Casablanca 1957. I am not going to post any pictures of me in it. The arm workouts have begun :-)

We also made our appointment for our engagement photos. I can't wait. I need to find an outfit. We are doing them Oct 25th. It will be chilly here by then so if you guys (Meghan) have any good ideas as to cute outfits I could wear, let's see them. Remember, I am not skinny so it needs to be something that would look good on someone with some curves. Craig will probably just wear jeans and a plain t-shirt (he wears the more fitted ones and it will likely be black or blue). I haven't decided if we will do anything other than casual outfits yet.

Sorry it was so long! Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend.

Wedding Wednesday

Lots happened in the wedding planning this week :-)

Dresses: I went to David's Bridal on Saturday with my sisters and my mom and I definitely learned what I liked as far as silhouette goes. I didn't really love the consultant that I had...she wasn't very good and didn't really listen and didn't bring me half the dresses I wanted to see. Oh well. I have decided that I probably want a fit and flare dress with a sweetheart neckline...the more rounded the better. There was one dress that I really liked but I am not sure about it completely. Next weekend my mom and Alyson will be up here and I have 3 bridal places to go to in the bridal district in Reading...including the largest shop in the country...yikes. I looked up designers the other day to find ones that had what I liked and in my price range...am I crazy to not want to spend a ton of money on a dress I will wear once? I mean, I want to look good but I don't want it to be a huge chunk of my budget. We picked out the bridesmaid dresses...so cute!!

DJ: We met with another DJ and then decided to book one we met with a couple weeks back. I think he was my favorite but I went through the process and let Craig decide :-) Luckily he picked the same one I liked (isn't it fun when you are on the same page...it is the little things).

Food: We had another tasting tonight and I must say that I wasn't the hugest fan of the food. It was ok but this is the place that everyone talks about and I think that the hype is more than the food. It is supposed to be fancy (and people need to stop telling me that because it makes my expectations too high) but I thought it was bland...the things that we would get for our wedding were good but I didn't like the other stuff. We also went to a wedding (Craig's ex) in March that used them and the food was just ok. She said they didn't get what they were supposed to have and the lady that they had worked with wasn't even there but then she told me to use them...weird. They are known for their displays and how pretty everything is so that is something to consider. I think that we are going to see what the quote comes in at. If it is close to the other place then we might pick them but if not we will go with the other place. I liked the other place better anyway.

Ceremony: I researched and sent Craig's sister all the information to get ordained to marry us :-) She was very touched that we asked and I like that she will be included. Also, Craig has decided to have people now (not sure if I wrote on here about how he didn't want any groomsmen). He decided to have his (our) friend Adrienne in the wedding on his side and then one of his guy friends. It is a little non traditional to have a girl on the guy side but she really is his best friend in Dayton so it makes sense. She is going to wear the same dress as my sisters but in black and will be on his side.

Decor: So, I think that this whole time I have been struggling with what exactly Craig envisioned...he kept saying he didn't want "formal" but then when we talked to DJs or caterers he was saying things that would make me think formal. So, I finally had to get a definition...he doesn't want the ceremony, invitations or reception to be real formal and "stuffy" as he put it but he does want us to have an elegant wedding in the decor and all that...sort of hard to explain but is it sad that I get what he means? It helps me tremendously with all the decorating and my dress and all that so I am glad I got that figured out.

Next up we have to figure out times and whether we will do a cocktail hour and stuff. Then we have to figure out the whole engagement photo deal. We are going to do them in Oct because the leaves are gorgeous up here so I still have some time. Everyone we have told about our photographer that is a wedding vendor LOVES him and raves about how good he is...I am glad that we (I) decided to splurge on him :-)

I have been busy and am SO CLOSE to having all the major stuff done! YAY!

Dress Shopping

Obviously I have not kept up with the Wedding Wednesday but since I don't think people read that much anyway, it is ok if break my rules :-) I have been beyond busy at work...the kind of busy where you are working and starving and you look up and realize it is 2:30 and you haven't eaten and the cafe is closed or when I think that I will run downstairs for a mid afternoon latte to wake me up and the store is closed because it is 6...good times. I think that I added some stress to my days by trying to meet up with friends here in Atlanta...I probably would have been a little less stressed if it weren't for that but then again, I like to see my friends :-)

With all of that going on, I have not had a ton of time for wedding planning lately but I have somehow made progress. Craig and I have talked to two DJs (one of which emailed us later and said they had another client they had already met with that was interested in our day and I talked to her yesterday and the other client booked). For some reason I don't really believe her...I think they didn't like us for some reason (though we only met with them for 15mins) but maybe not. We have done two tastings. The first one was this place where I went and picked up a pan of food that we were supposed to put in our oven to heat back up and try. It was everything all in one pan...I am not a fan of my food touching and usually eat one food at a time :-) Oh well, the food was ok...the potatoes tasted like a mix and so did the mac and cheese. C loved the mac and cheese. All the chicken was sort of rubbery tasting and a lot of it tasted salty. There were a few really good things in there though so all was not lost. The second place is an actual local restaurant in town and we really liked that food a lot and the lady was super nice. The first guy reminded me of the soup nazi but for catering. We have one more caterer and one more DJ this Monday and Tuesday and then I think we will have those two things set.

On Saturday I am going to David's Bridal with my mom and my sisters. I am excited but part of me is a little nervous. I have never seen myself in a wedding dress and something about it makes me nervous (not in a scared way, more in an excited sort of way). I picked out a few dresses online and I have sent them to a couple people...it is so funny to see the responses cause everyone tells me their fav (which I love) but I think between everyone at least every dress has been picked once :-)

I also have gotten a mock up on the centerpieces...most people like them but my mom and sister didn't like the gray colored ball and my other sister didn't love the yellowish one. I honestly think that it is because the picture is one I was trying to take really quick...the gray one looks dull and the yellow one is reflecting the flash. The good news is that I will not have to make as many flowers as I thought I would...good news because we really didn't make any at the beach and I am not so sure I am actually going to have any help with this little project like I thought I was. I still have the visit in two weeks from my mom and sister so maybe we can do it then. Other than that I am going to try to have a party with some of my OH girls where we have wine and make them...they said they would help. I just feel awkward because a lot of people say they will help but then how do you bring it back up again without being rude? When they come over how do you just start the craft portion of the evening. Hmmm, I guess I will have to figure that one out. At least they are not quite as time consuming as I thought.

We also think that we have the favors picked out. We are making them and did a trial run at the beach...now we learned a couple things and are going to do another trial run when my mom and sister come to OH.

So, everything seems to be moving right along :-)

Wedding Wednesday

For the makeup, I think that I am going to go with the airbrush. I am doing a practice run of both the hair and the makeup before the wedding so I will know what everything looks like. I also heard that you can go to Sephora and get a make over for a $50 giftcard. I am sure there is $50 of stuff I would get a Sephora or I could use it as a gift. I am not going to do that for the wedding but thought about doing it for the engagement photos (which are actually going to be in October because I really want pictures of us in the fall and I am never going to ever get Craig to agree to pictures after the wedding). HA!

Today's theme is centerpieces. I am using the picture of the white pomanders as my inspiration sort of..I like the multiple balls. I am thinking of doing them in different colors though and different sizes (like the group of orange balls). These are all made out of tissue paper!! I love how they look and at about $5-8 a piece it is way cheaper than having them made out of real flowers and it gives me winter project :-) If I see you any time between now and then I might just recruit you to make some with me :-) You cut the tissue paper, and then fan fold it and tie wire around it (see the picture with the green, that is after they are folded and with the wire around it). Then you fluff it up and make it into a flower (see orange flower) and then you use the wire to stick them in the styrofoam ball and it turns out like the picture :-) Perfect. My mom actually used to make these flowers when she was young and they made floats out of them...she should have never told me that, HA! I am going to get the stuff to try a trial run at the beach in a couple weeks. I already ordered the tissue paper so I just need to get the balls and the wire. After we make the sample, I am just going to work on the folding until it gets way closer to the wedding...no need to have all those pomanders all over the house, I don't even know where I would put them!

Don't worry girls, I don't have the tissue paper with me in Atlanta so I won't have everyone making them this weekend at the beach...though part of me thinks it would be pretty hilarious to see what they would look like with all the liquor Molly purchased today! HA!

I also think that I know what the favors are going to be but I might want to keep it a secret...I can't decide yet.

Other than that, I emailed 3 DJs the other day, one is booked for our date so we have 2 to meet with and I have another one that we could meet with and a couple friends that know people who do it or have been married in Dayton. C has finally agreed to go meet with them so we will do that in a few weeks.

C also decided that he doesn't care about going to taste the caterer's food because "of course whatever they make for a tasting is going to be good, but that doesn't mean the wedding food will be good" HA! There are basically three choices for our location (there are 6 preferred caterers but one is just sandwiches, one is German food, and the other is something too casual too). Of the three left, one is a little fancier in the prep and the other sounds a little more like us so we will see. They are all basically the same price so that doesn't even really help. I guess I will try those out on my own and then we can pick out what we want.

Light at the end of the tunnel

I can finally see it...I think??

Work has been insane lately and by insane I mean that I work 10hrs a day and don't even realize that I have worked that much because I don't look up the whole time. I am not even sure I went to the bathroom today. I know there are lots of people who work more than 10hrs at a time but it just feels like this is so intense and it is the first time in a long time that I can't actually get everything done by the deadline...and that includes delegating out every single piece that I am allowed (sometimes it HAS to be me that does the work). Because of all the drama lately, they have me in Atlanta to help for the next few weeks. On the one hand, it is nice that they know I will figure out the problem but on the other hand, it sucks that I will be out of town for 6 weeks straight. Eating out that much certainly doesn't do anything for the waistline :-) I got to Atlanta on Monday and actually don't have a flight home but I think that I will book it for next Friday (was hoping to come home on Wed but it doesn't look like that is happening). That will be 12 days straight...it might be the longest that Craig and I have been apart :-( I thought that it would drag on but I have already completed two days and it seems like I just got here. I think that the saddest part is that we had a bad storm at home yesterday and lost power so all the food I bought C to eat while I was gone is probably bad now :-( It was out for 12hrs.

I have squeezed in a tiny bit of wedding planning, didn't get to post last week because it was Friday before I realized that I didn't post but I will save all that for tomorrow.

This weekend is a beach trip with some of my ATL ladies and I am pretty excited about it. I have to confess that part of me was sort of sad because it meant being away from home for so long but now I know that going to the beach with the girls will be way better than going home and trying to rush around and get stuff done in the 2 days I am home. I will relax so much more at the beach and plus, I haven't seen some of these girls in months (or years!!). I can't wait!! I think that work the way it is lately, I can appreciate a week of doing nothing (not normally my style at all, I get so antsy). Now to figure out if one of the bathing suits I packed when I came to Atl is actually appropriate to wear in public...yikes!