Tuesday, November 19, 2013

wedding videos are so worth it (here's ours!)

I'm going to skip the part where I say how terrible I feel for letting this blog go silent for 2 months (though I feel so terrible) and skip the part where I talk about how busy I am and how I just didn't have time for it (we're all busy, am I right?)... and just go straight to the part where I say "Hey! Watch our wedding video!"

PSA: I'm looking at you girls who aren't married yet... you're one day going to wonder if you should spend the money on a videographer... you're going to crunch numbers and think "there's just no way to make it work"... it's going to make you go slightly crazy when you realize what all you could get for the money that you would pay a videographer...... bypass all the stress, do it. Write the check and never look back.

You're going to spend a lot of money making sure friends and family have a good time at your wedding... do this for you... do this for the day that you and your new husband get to sit on the couch and relive the day you became husband and wife... do this so you and your mom can sit and just scream over how happy you are that "YOU DID THAT", you planned that! All of that.

It's magical. It's priceless. Just write the check :) pay it off later.

I'm going to stop rambling now...


Charlie+Erin from Earthswell on Vimeo.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Wedding "recap" Wednesday

I can still participate in this even though I'm now an official wife, right?

Let's do a quick recap...

I made the "we're married!" announcement here and gave a quick sneak peek of one of our wedding pictures.
Then I told you all about the beautiful, breathtaking, "can you believe this view??" rehearsal here
And then you heard all about part I of our honeymoon in Hawaii, here.
...and if you follow me on instagram, then you've been seeing a few glimpses into our wedding pictures :) I'm in love.

I could honestly keep spilling every wonderful detail about the wedding here... but eventually you all will get sick of it, and eventually I will need to accept that talking about my wedding months down the road just isn't acceptable. Almost as unacceptable as eating a warm chocolate chip cookie without a freezing cold glass of milk... it's just wrong. 

But the good news for me is, it's only been a month since the wedding so I am giving myself the grace to still talk about it for the next month.... possibly bad news for you.

But this blog? It's about our life. And right now, our life is very much so still looking back and recalling the wonderfulness of our wedding day. Bare with us - eventually you will hear all about the exciting life of us newlyweds. We're up to a lot over the next few months - our weekends are jam packed this fall and I can't wait to get all of the festivities kicked off.

In the mean time - a few more wedding sneak peeks, shall we?




Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Honeymooning in Hawaii {part one}

Did you see the pictures from our rehearsal? 

When C told me that we were going to Hawaii for our honeymoon... I was thrilled! But I honestly could have never expected the trip to be as incredible as it was.



We left from Atlanta and flew direct to Honolulu - from there we jumped on a plane and headed to Kauai.



Not many people have heard a lot about Kauai. It's the "garden island" of Hawaii, which is why we chose it. We aren't really into the 'commercialized' locations, Kauai is less developed which really let's you appreciate the beauty of the land. We stayed on Kauai the whole time and looking back, we wouldn't have done it any other way.




Our room! My gosh, our room. Waking up and looking at the pacific each morning became so dang addicting (view from our balcony in the picture above). Once we returned back home after the trip I kept waking up every morning and saying to C "will you please go open the blinds so I can see the ocean and palm trees?" Ha - reality really sucked.


We stayed at the Grand Hyatt on the island, and I can't say enough good things about it. The whole property was beautiful.



The 6 hour time difference really had us confused at first. Our first night there we were asleep by 8:30 and awake the next morning at 5. We were like kids on Christmas morning - jumping out of the bed and running around finding anything and everything there was to do.

We had access to the club room at the hotel, so that's where we always went for breakfast and it was soooo good. After having breakfast that first morning we walked around the property, checked out the beach, played some volleyball and then got to feed some of the koi. We had to kick some of the kids out of the way to get the prime spot ;)



After that, we hit up the saltwater lagoon - which was our favorite! Hawaii oceans aren't the safest, and when you're in Hawaii, who wants to just look at a pool? The saltwater lagoon let us get a piece of the ocean without the fear of drowning... plus, it was right on the beach so you could hear the waves crashing it. Perfection. 


 For our first dinner we went to a restaurant on the resort property called Tidepools. It's really well known and we were so glad that it was at our hotel. After the wedding and all of that traveling we wanted to just hang close by. Our swordfish and monchong were delicious.



We had the best mix of relaxation and adventure during this trip. The adventures we went on were really our favorite part of the trip! 



Part II coming up next. Until then, I'll be over here homesick for Hawaii...

Sunday, September 1, 2013

The practice "I do"

I will forever and ever remember our rehearsal for the wedding. It's got a special place in my heart. 




We pulled up to the ceremony location and there sat the chairs... Just simple black chairs, but I lost it. There it was. A dream turned real life. 


Then we actually started to run through the ceremony. My heart was so FULL! 


Being an outdoor wedding, there were times I wondered if we were doing something wrong by not getting married in a church. But y'all? This view? ... This is all Gods work. I think we were right in the midst of his house more than we would have been in a church. We found a lot of comfort in that. 

 
I even clicked my heels at the first mention of ..."and this is when I'll announce you as husband and wife" :)



When I say this was the perfect weather... I mean God and mother nature got together and ordered this one up just for us.  Perfect sky, with just the right amount of clouds. And it was a cool 65 degrees - y'all I never could have made it through the weekend without the little slice of fall weather that was given to us. It was a gift!!! And a much appreciated one. 


This spot right here was everything more than I could have ever imagined. I am a mountain girl through and through, and for us to have been married here? I am so humbled. 


Soon... You'll hear the story about whether or not the weather was this glorious for the wedding? ........ I don't think any of us could have guessed what was in store for the next day. 

But this? This was a "brochure day" - this was a day that only God and a few special people that we know in heaven could pull off. And that will forever remain engraved into our hearts and memories. 




Friday, August 30, 2013

Five on Friday!

Happy Friday!

I'm linking up with Natasha (and others) for Five on Friday! I mean what better day of the week to reflect on things you're loving? This is one jam packed list of excitement! Let's get straight to it.
1. We're Married! August 17th was a good, good day. Being married is better than I could have ever imagined. We were surrounded by so much love on our wedding day and I cannot wait to begin sharing all of the details on here. Until then, below are some of the sneak peek images we've gotten back - excuse the fuzziness. I'll get the crisp, clean images up soon!

2. Honeymoon in Hawaii! After the wedding, we headed to Hawaii to celebrate there for the week! My gosh! What a gorgeous place! You know it, a whole blog post devoted to this trip as well. Swoon. I keep looking at images wishing we were still there.


3. Football! Overly excited about football kicking off! We will be cheering very loud of the Tigers on Saturday night - I'm so glad game day will be there this weekend, planning on lots of yummy tailgating food on Saturday and a full day of watching the coverage from Clemson. I had a good four years there.

4. Dahlias - Throughout the wedding planning process I kept falling more and more in love with Dahlias. Aren't they gorgeous? I have a new favorite flower.

5. Fall Time - Get here now AND FAST! Something's wrong with Atlanta and we've been in the 90's here and are forcasted to stay there for a few more days. This has got to stop. Get me cooler temps, boots, scarves and some colorful leaves pronto. My favorite time of the year!

See? A jam packed post :) Can't wait to star spilling the beans on all wedding and honeymoon details! What are you happy about this Friday? Will you be cheering on your favorite football team this weekend? Are you like me and counting down the seconds until fall is here?

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

We're Married!!!

This guy is mine! Can you believe it? Luck, I tell ya. I got a good one.


It was a perfect day and we had the time of our lives! I've got so much more I want to share... the details (finally!), lots of pictures, the emotion, the love... and yes, the weather. You'll never believe the story I've got for you about the weather. 

I look forward to sharing it all with you.. including the honeymoon! We just got back from Hawaii yesterday and there is plenty to share about that as well. 

Really, I'm still completely soaking in the past 2 weeks. This has been such an incredible season of life  for us, we are so humbled by all of the love that surrounds us. Now excuse me while I go watch some TV with my husband ;) 

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

four things that go through your mind...

When you're four days away from your wedding...

1. Wait? Who's getting married? I assure you, at some point during the wedding process... whether it hits you a month in or when you're four days away from the big day, you will find yourself completely baffled at the fact that all of this planning, all of this running around, all of this excitement... is for you and your fiancé. There will be a moment, where out of no where, it will smack you right in the face... you are getting married.   




2. Was that really the best decision? I'm one of the best people in the world at not making decisions. I am so bad at them - like last kid to get picked for kickball in elementary school bad at making decisions. I can't even decide where I want to eat dinner, so you can imagine the last 8 months and all of the decisions I have had a hard time making. Don't be alarmed when you step back and realize all you have made a decision about and have a moment of "uhhh... was that the right decision?" - go with your gut! I did...every time and I'm not second guessing now. Turns out the gut knows what it's talking about.



3. He chose me? Honestly... sitting here on the couch right now, I want to just lean over and say "Really? Me??? You're sure you want to do this whole life thing with me?" He has made it clear, hello, look at this bad boy on my left hand that I am the peanut butter to his jelly, and he is to mine... but I still find myself so humbled by the fact that I'm going to get to do life with him. I guarantee walking down the aisle, it will be another moment of "wow... he really chose me". My heart is humble. 


4. How much weight can a person lose in 4 days? Just trust me on this one... no matter how hard you work leading up to the wedding... you will calculate this - you will be calculating how many work outs you can get in and play around with the idea of living off of smoothies until you say I do. Don't do it. Be healthy, but be proud. Be your best you. 

5. (I lied... there are 5) There are good people in the world - It's going to cross your mind 10000007 times throughout your engagement. You'll turn around every minute and someone else will be offering help, people will truly be asking how you are and want to know, and strangers will give heartfelt congratulations... soak it in. Soak in all of the goodness. So much good around us right now, so much love... and I am just in awe of it all.


Four days before your wedding, you should also be getting a lot of beauty sleep. It's almost midnight here - don't point out the bags under my eyes when I share our wedding pictures ;) 

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Bachelorette Weekend

There's something about being in a beautiful place with your favorite girls.

My bachelorette weekend was really perfect. My friends went above and beyond and customized the whole weekend around the stuff I like... they even did the grocery shopping based on my likes... I mean come on.

My friend has a beach front house in Ponte Vedra, so we packed up Thursday afternoon and hit the road.


We were worried about the weather, but ol' Chantel (the tropical storm at that time) decided to let us have our fun... which we very much so appreciated.

Thursday night we ate at a popular local restaurant called Taco Lu's. Have you ever had bang bang shrimp from Bonefish? It's one of my favorite things. Well Taco Lu's put shrimp that was similar to the bang bang on a taco... and now, in my mind, they can never do any wrong. It was so good.



Friday night we ventured to a place called Caps On The Water - again, Ponte Vedra, you know how to make good food. But the best part about this place? The view. It's the place to go to see the sun set, and we were not disappointed.


Saturday was spent lounging by the pool... a beer in my hand and my girls to gossip with? I'll take a never ending order of that, please and thank you.

I don't know if you can tell in the pictures... but clearly I was in my happy place. There are few pictures of me actually smiling... I never stopped laughing.



My Maid of Honor has a job that lets her travel the world (yeah, I know... so cool), so she made the weekend a little more exciting by bringing us her favorite bottle of champagne from SPAIN! I realize Spain sends drinks over to America for us all of the time... but it tasted so much better knowing that she had bought it and brought it straight to us from there. It also didn't hurt that we chose a beautiful afternoon to walk on the beach as we drank it. Again, my happy place. My MOH also got me lingerie from Cannes, France. I mean, come on... probably one of my top gifts ever.





Our last night was where we really exerted the energy. Now, I am no bachelorette that is going to spill the secrets of the weekend, but let me assure you, we had a blast. Ponte Vedra is a short drive to Jacksonville, so we hopped on a party bus and hit the town in a big way.

It was a good for the soul weekend all the way around. More than ever, I am grateful for friendships. When you're going through such a big moment in your life, it's easy to look around and realize why these people mean so much to you. I couldn't imagine this time without any of them.

And now... I am going to check the weather for our ceremony. We're in the 10-day forecast, people! Are you sending up your requests for good weather to God and Mother Nature? We certainly appreciate your help :)

...in other news, I am obsessed with my dslr... tell me these pictures don't beat those of an iPhone. We're going to have fun with this baby in Hawaii!

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Wedding Wednesday - The (WE ARE 10 DAYS AWAY) List


I wrote a post similar to this when we were on the 70 day countdown to our wedding... and then, some alien came down zapped all of our brains and now here we were, 10 days away from the wedding. 

Really, I don't know where the time went. No clue. There was a bachelor party in Vegas, a bachelorette party in Ponte Vedra, lots of time at the gym, some dress fittings, lots of chats with my mama turned wedding planner, and then here we are... responding to people with "Yeah! We're getting married NEXT week!" 

We are pumped... we are talking about it constantly and tying up the loose ends from this detail to that, but I really have no idea where the time has gone. We only had an 8-month engagement, and honestly I wouldn't have done it any other way. If I had another week to wait I would go crazy - I am so ready to be married to C and am just wanting it to get here, NOW! 

Anyways, the point of my story... girls who are engaged, girls who are dreaming to become engaged, listen to me loud and clear... they are not kidding about it all going by fast. Soak it all in. Soak in every emotion you feel during it. Because one day, you'll find yourself 10 days away from your wedding day... not sure where the time went, and wanting to keep the engaged excitement forever,  but not wanting to wait another day until you are MARRIED. 

I've got 100 other things I want to share with you guys, feelings you get during the process, my bachelorette weekend, and then of course, after next Saturday every.single.detail. I've wanted to share before now, but it just seems wrong to spill the beans before the actual day. 

So I leave you with what will be my last list update - because let me tell you about all that will need to be done next Wednesday... this list update will not be happening. 

Going through this list and updating it gave me some major pep in my step - I'm feeling accomplished... sure I wish I had a rehearsal dress, but for the most part we are here... we are at the finish line... I see my groom at the end of the aisle and every bit of this wedding planning makes it all worth it. 

Somebody grab the tissues, it's going to be an emotional week and a half... 

Set a date
Book ceremony venue
Book reception venue
Book photographer
Book our band for the reception
Get the wedding party on board
Create wedding website
Register
Take engagement pictures 
Decide on Save the Dates
Finalize guest list 
Send out Save the Dates
Buy my wedding dress!! 
Book ceremony musician
Choose pretty bridesmaids dresses
Decide on shoes/jewelry for bridesmaids
Choose groom/groomsmen tuxes 
Have groomsmen get measured
Get a gorgeous dress for the MOB 
Purchase veil 
Decide on hair accessories 
Decide on wedding shoes & jewelry 
Hire ceremony coordinator 
Hire reception coordinator
Book the minister
Pre-marriage counseling 
Book chair rentals for ceremony 
Book chair rentals for reception
Finalize reception menu
Finalize centerpieces for reception 
Hire a calligrapher
Book hair stylist 
Book cake baker 
Book hair stylist
Schedule hair trial-run 
1st dress fitting 
Final dress fitting 
Create ceremony programs  
Have programs printed
Create wedding invitations
Have invitations printed out 
Mail invitations
Book rehearsal dinner venue 
Finalize rehearsal dinner menu
Order rehearsal dinner  invitations 
Buy a dress for rehearsal dinner
Plan cocktails w/ friends for after rehearsal dinner 
Buy bridal party gifts
My bachelorette party 
C's bachelor party 
Bridal showers
Purchase my wedding band 
Purchase C's wedding band 
Make "must have" list for photographer and videographer
Get marriage license Will be happening literally days before the wedding... that's the tricky part with getting married in a different state where you don't live
Decide on guest book
Decide on favors 
Get favors together
Decide on welcome bag gifts 
Finalize transportation from wedding to reception 
Finalize transportation from reception to our room
Book wedding night room
Book honeymoon 
Get new clothes for the honeymoon! 
Gift for C
Gifts for our parents 
Create itinerary for the day sooo closeeee
Plan bridal brunch
Music selections to band and ceremony musician 
Order thank you notes
Remain extremely calm on the day of
Have a chat with Mother Nature to make sure we are all clear and good to go with my request for a beautiful weekend For real, please send your good vibes for a beautiful wedding day. PUHLEASE. 
GET MARRIED! 

I will be back tomorrow and Friday with other fun wedding info. Isn't it the week before your wedding you shouldn't be blogging? What is this? I barely blog for the whole 8 months then all of a sudden I can't step away. Per usual. 

Friday, June 7, 2013

Five on Friday!

Oh Friday, it is so very good to see you again. It's a rainy day in the city, as I imagine anyone on the East Coast is experiencing the same thing. So our normal plans of Friday night Landsharks and oysters on our favorite patio are shot... which means, it's a good drink, pizza and a redbox rental on the couch tonight. Just my kinda rainy night. 

I'm linking up with Natasha (and others) for Five on Friday! I mean what better day of the week to reflect on things you're loving? Let's get straight to it. 

1. This Fine Baby - I've had my eyes on one of these fancy guys for a while now. My sweet Mama (I could sing her praises forever, people) gave this to us as a wedding gift! She knocked it out of the ballpark with this one. I can't stop taking pictures... and probably have more pictures of random objects than would ever be necessary. Do I know how to use it? Not necessarily, but I'm pretty good at pretending. 

I've been looking into some opportunities to take a class to learn more - especially before we head off on our honeymoon. I'm determined to get this picture thing figured out, so I won't spend the remainder of my life spending every pay check on people taking pictures of our little babes running around. I want to be able to capture some moments too, ya know? In the meantime, I'm really excited to put this to use and capture memories with our family and friends. C & I will be going on some outdoor adventures this weekend for some practice - I'll be sure to let you in on how it goes. Any tips on learning how to use it better? Any websites that were helpful to you? 

 


2. Essie - I don't know what it is, but having color on my nails and toes does some kind of pep in my step wonders on me. I love the brightness, and that's a big deal... because looking in my closet there isn't much color, there's beige, white, grey, black... but when it comes to my nails, you can't drag me away from the brights. I especially loved the bright pink I tried recently from Essie.


3. Blurred Lines - Listen to this song (!!!!) and refrain from dancing. I dare you. This has been the theme song to many dance parties around the apartment lately. We just cannot get enough. Also, don't know that I've ever given Robin Thicke enough credit. Boy is doing so many things right. And those blue eyes... they make you weak in the knees, don't they? And anytime Pharrell puts his name on something = instant hit. 
*If you're around small children, your parents, co-workers or get easily embarrassed by little clothing... I wouldn't watch the video. But still... you should listen to the song. 


4. Target (especially their beach bags) - Do they ever do anything wrong? I walked in one night to buy paper towels.... I came out with this perfect beach bag. I said it was Honeymoon purchase... but it has already been put to good use out by the pool this summer. How could I just save it? It was practically begging me to use it. 


5. Game of Thrones - I don't love it this week... but I've been told I should. Is it true? Are you a Game of Thrones fan? Have we been completely missing out? MUST we jump on board immediately?? 

Hope you have a pretty summer weather, bright nail polish wearing, fun beach bag carrying, full of listening to Robin Thicke and taking pictures weekend! ;)

Don't forget to join in on the fun and link up