Fonts, Monograms, Cardstocks, & Ribbons Oh My!

Well I met with Allison Barnhill Designs about a month ago to design our Wedding Invitations.  I finally received the email with the sample invitations and the different monograms and fonts we chose.  After looking at them Mike and I both narrowed it down pretty quickly to which one we liked.  We are set with the monogram we picked, but the more and more I look at the fonts I start to like one more then the one we picked then I'll go back to the one we picked!  Ah decisions, decisions...good thing I have until July when they go to print to make any changes!

So we LOVE monogram option # 2 but, don't like the font that is used on it, but here's the real kicker, I kind of really LOVE that font on the inside of the invitation...but I can't have all those different fonts going on!  I know one thing is for sure...we both like the design of Invitation # 3.  But I have a feeling that we will stick with the original font we chose which is the font on the invitation design we like best, # 3!

Invitation 1



Invitation 2




Invitation 3



Look what came in the mail!!!!

I'm so excited! I cannot wait to taste all the  yummy food they offer!  As I have told you before Mike and I keep hearing about how awesome the food is at the Beach Club!  One person even told us it was the best meal they had ever had!  My mom and Dad are going to go with us too (I mean they are the one's paying for it, they should have a taste too ; )  Plus my Dad hasn't seen the venue yet, so I'm so excited for him to see it!

Our Honeymoon is booked!

After the concert on Friday we got up nice and early and made the drive from Salisbury to Davidsonville to meet with our travel agent Christi from travel bug travel agency.  Mike and I both have never left the United States so choosing a destination for our honeymoon was kind of a hard decision.  I had posted on facebook for inputs of where to go, since October is a tricky month because of hurricanes and I had a number of people tell me St. Lucia.  It is in the hurricane belt, but rarly gets hit and hasn't gotten hit directly in years.  Plus a few of Mikes friends from BGE have been to the Sandals La Toc in St Lucia and highly recommended it. 2 couples went on their honeymoon there, one was in the month of November, and the other couple went for a friends wedding in October!  They said the weather was great in October.  Mike and I checked the place out online and read tons and tons of reviews on the place.  There were a lot of mixed reviews, but I truly believe it all depends on the type of person you are.  It doesn't take too much to make us happy were pretty easy going so I think as long as you have a good attitude everything will be fine!  After meeting with Christi and discussing the Sandals La Toc and the different room options we decided on booking the Romeo and Juliet Oceanview Butler Suite on the Bluffs!  She highly recommended getting a room with butler service as well as many reviews that we have read.  It seems worth it and it seems like it would be a disaster if you didn't have it since they basically get dibs on everything first, dinner reservations, beach and pool lounges, and so on.  The other nice thing about staying at a Sandals resort in St Lucia is that they have 3 in total all being 15 minutes apart that you can shuttle to and you have access to their beaches and resturants as well. I like to keep the mind frame that i'm only going to do this once, may as well do it right!  After marriage there is going to be more bills, your going to start having kids and it will only get harder and harder to do things like this, so we may as well take advantage of this luxery while we can!



View from the Romeo & Juliet Suite




Romeo & Juliet Suite





Beach at the La Toc




The Bluffs, where are suite is located




Other side of the Bluffs




Main Pool







More wedding planning!

On Friday before Mike and I left for the concert my sister went to Annapolis with me to meet with Allison Barnhill Design to design our wedding invitations.  She only meets with people during the week so Mike couldn't make it, but I think it's safe to say he didn't mind missing this...There was so many choices to chose from I knew exactly what I wanted, except when it came to the font!  Oh there was so many choices!  Luckly I got to pick my top 3 favorites and she will design 3 samples and email them to me so I can actually see what they would look like and I can pick and choose what I like from there.  I can't wait to receive them and actually see our names printed out with the information from our wedding on it!  It will be so surreal!  I will meet back with them at the end of summer as well because were going to have them design our wedding programs, escort cards, menus, and table numbers so they all match and keep the same theme.  Below is a sample of one of her previous wedding invitations that our's will be very similar too!

Allison Barnhill Design

All you gotta do is put a drink in my hand!

So being the awesome fiancé that I am, I got Mike VIP tickets to see Eric Church for this past Friday!  So we have a little history with Eric Church.  Mike introduced Eric Church's music to me on our first date.  He took me the Chart House in Annapolis and he must of played his one song "Guys Like Me" 20 times that night!  I didn't mind because it was a cute and catchy song that instantly became Mike's ringtone!  Eric Church is one of Mike and I's favorite artist and we have seen him in concert 3 other times prior to this show. He had his 3rd album released this past July while we were on vacation in Emerald Isle's NC the same day that Mike proposed.  I had preordered the album on itunes so when Mike and I hopped in his truck to go to the restaurant where he proposed we jammed out to his new album. 

The concert was a blast and he is still the best performer that Mike and I have ever seen! 



Waiting for the Private VIP showing





Our VIP table mates




The second love of my life ; ) Not the best pic I forgot my digital camera...womp womp.



Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

I went with all 8 of my bridesmaids to shop for dresses on Feb 4th.  We went to the same Bridal Salon where I got my wedding dress because they had a big selection to choose from.  I really love the look of all different bridesmaid dresses in the same color family like such;

I was expecting that either everyone would end up picking 2 different dresses that they all liked, that it wouldn't work out and I was going to have to decide on 1 dress, or that they would all find a dress and then there wouldn't be a color to match.  I wanted champange colors or close to it.  I had a few rules, they all had to be short dresses, and they could not have any type of fabric bows or flowers on them!  I wanted all my girls to be in a dress that they liked and felt comfortable in.  So many people have different styles and not everything looks good on everyone.  I wanted them to feel pretty too, I didn't want them standing up there with me feeling, ugly, frumpy, fat, and hating the dress they were in.  I have gorgeous friends and I want them to look goregous on my wedding day!  At first I was kind of worried!  There were dresses flying everywhere!  The poor girl helping us probably thought this was going to be a disaster!  Luckly it worked out so much easier then I think any of us thought possible!  We had all dresses picked out in an hour!  Only 1 style dress is being worn by multiple people, BUT they had 3 different colors in my color family so it worked out!  I'm so happy everyone found a dress that they like and are comfortable in.  The dresses range in colors, some are champange, some are brown, some are taupe, some are latte, and there is even one stone color.  I will admit I got pretty nervous a few days later and thought OMG what did I do, but looking back on the pictures I know it's going to be unique and I will love it!  They will all have their hair up in similar messy do's as well as the same shoes and jewlery, to keep it more unified and the groomsmen will all have champange color vest and ties with black tuxes.  I think keeping all the men in the same color will help keep it clean looking, trying to match them to their partners dress would of been too much and sloppy looking.  Plus the champange vest/tie will match all the dresses no matter what color that girls dress is!




My lovely Bridesmaids/Best Friends



V-Day

So Mike and I decided that we weren't really going to do too much for Valentine's Day this year since we have the wedding coming up and a lot of our money is going towards that.  To be completely honest I had forgotten all about Valentine's Day and found myself in Hallmark the day before with about a dozen other men looking for the "perfect" card.  It was actually pretty funny listening to the jokes they were all cracking and then seeing me in this sea of last minute men shoppers.  I feel like the older I have gotten the less concerned I have become with Valentine's Day.  The flowers and stuff are nice and I greatly appreciate what Mike gives me, but I'm one that tends to think it's overrated. Mike does plenty throughout the year to show me how much he cares about me, I don't need one silly day a year for him to prove that he loves me when he does it everyday =)  I honestly wasn't expecting anything from him besides maybe a card but when I woke up and walked out into the kitchen that morning before work he had this sitting there for me!

I was totally surprised and of course loved it, especially after we had discussed not doing anything for each other.  That night we did go to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants CD Café down on the Island.  It wasn't anything too special since we go there on a regular basis, the food there is to die for!  The place was packed which was to be expected since it's a pretty nice place to eat especially for a day like Valentine's Day.  The wait for a table up front was over an hour, but that was fine with us since we like to eat in the back at the lounge.  When we walked back there, there were 2 seats left at the bar so we hopped in them and stayed there for the rest of the evening.  We never really even ate dinner we ordered some oysters Rockefeller, had a few drinks, and then went home. 



Next V-Day we'll be Mr. & Mrs. !



It was a nice time and very relaxing minus the couple next to us.  The husband was rude and pushy (complaining about the wait time, it's V-day and you're in a packed restaurant that's on the small side, what do you expect? This is why I think EVERYONE should serve tables, they should really make it a graduation requirement, seriously then people would get it a little better) and his wife would not shut up!  They had a guy in the lounge playing a guitar and singing some tunes and this lady decided to sing along to her husband rather loud which quickly became annoying and kind of gross because she was being so mushy.  The lady that was sitting next to Mike though was a women who moved to Maryland 4 years ago, she looked about to be in her 80's and I believe her name was Gretta.  She moved up here from Florida to be around her family after her husband passed away.  It broke my heart to see her alone on Valentine's Day and to hear her talk about her husband to us.  They were married for 54 years, so uncommon these days and something that should really be applaud.  But, I think she was enjoying herself, her glasses of wine, and our company.  Mike and I tend to make friends easily when we go out especially with older people.  We are always meeting such nice interesting people.  Gretta reminded me a lot of my Grammy Mag.  No matter how old you get and no matter what happens to you in life you keep on enjoying it!  I admire these type of people so much and hope that when I get older that I can have attitudes like them and be full of energy, and that one day Mike and I will be the old couple out sitting at the bar talking to the younger couples!