More Planning

Happy Easter Monday! Last week I met with the florist and came up with ideas for the church and reception. I also showed her a picture of a bouquet I liked. I think it's mainly going to be Gerbera dasies, with some other flowers mixed in. This is the picture I found that I showed her:



We also met again with the caterer and finalized the menu! Finally one thing that's completely done! :)

Saturday we had our engagement picture "photo shoot" with Mary Stafford. She took a TON of pics. I hope there are a few that good! ;-) We started off down at my grandmother's old farmhouse then went up the road and stopped by the creek in a couple place and then we ended up at my Grandma's house. I'm super excited to see how they turn out! I should have them back in a couple weeks.

Today I plan to order the invitations and enjoy this beautiful day!

Punta Cana here we come!

The honeymoon is booked! We decided to go though Christian Travel to plan our honeymoon to make things easier for us! They are wonderful to work with! Our travel agent, Charlotte, told us some stuff about each resort we were interested in-- both the good and the bad! We did some research and talked to some people who had been to a few of the places and we decided that Punta Cana sounded like a dream! It is found in the Dominican Republic and it out of the "hurricane belt" which is nice since we will be traveling during hurricane season! The resort is all inclusive--that means food, drinks of all kinds, activities like snorkeling and horseback riding, are all part of the price we pay. We won't have to carry any extra money unless we want to buy gifts, etc.
We will be leaving Monday after the wedding and staying until the following Monday. Several people told us not to travel the day after the wedding b/c we will be very tired and not up to dealing with the stress of airports. The plan is to stay in Charlotte Sunday night and fly nonstop to the island Monday morning. I don't know all the details yet but we put down a deposit on the trip and the final payment is due in June. I'll keep you posted as we get more details! If you want to check out where we will be staying here's the website:

http://www.excellence-resorts.com/all-inclusive-resorts/caribbean/punta-cana-dominican-republic/punta-cana-overview.htm

I have the best friends!

Today is the first day of spring and the first time I've been out with just a few of my girl friends in a long time! We couldn't have asked for nicer weather for the road trip! Paige, April, Erin, and little miss Brenna, and myself headed to Roanoke to go shopping and to meet my sister-in-law. The mission-to find a bridesmaid dress!

Since I've been in 7 weddings I know this is no easy task and can become a bit overwhelming when everyone in the wedding is a different body shape! I went in with the color I wanted and just told the girls to pick out what they liked and just try them on and we could decide. I even told them I didn't mind if they got different dresses (same color) as long as they looked nice standing together. They ended up trying on several different dresses but we found one that they all liked. I think it's very pretty and will look good on all of them. I hope my two bridesmaids that couldn't make it today agree! We missed you Sarah and Karen! We also found my niece's flowergirl dress and got it ordered too!

After ordering the dresses we headed out to get something to eat. It's so nice to just sit and chat with your best friends. I don't know what I would do without these girls. They are all amazing women and I'm so blessed to have each of them in my life. They didn't have to be in my wedding but I'm so thankful they wanted to share the day with me. I know the dresses weren't cheap girls and if I could afford to buy a dress for each of you I would have! Thank you girls for being awesome friends.

I think our mission was accomplished and everyone seems to be satisfied with the dress. Here's a pic of the dress in the "Lipstick" color.

The Details

Wedding Date: July 24, 2010 at 4:30

Church: Memorial Baptist Church in Pulaski. This is the church where my parents were married. I wanted to get married at my home church in Giles, but it is too small!

Reception: Dinner reception at Radford University in the Muse Banquet Hall--there will be dancing so bring your dancing shoes!

Maid of Honor:
Paige Farmer (my cousin)

Bridesmaids:
Whitney Miller (my sister-in-law)
Sarah Marrs (my friend since early childhood)
April Seiple (my best friend from work)
Erin Halsey: (another best friend from work)
Karen Sweeney: (my roommate from college)

Flowergirl:
Peighton Miller (my niece)

Best Man:
Josh Jones (Justin's brother)

Groomsmen:
Shannon Miller (my brother)
Jarrad Collins (Justin's best friend from back home)
Daniel Phipps (Justin's best friend from college)
Steward McGuire (Justin's cousin)
Jamie Rupe (our friend--his wife set us up!)

Ringbearer:
"Little" Stewart McGuire, Jr.

Ministers: Wayne Monroe (My preacher during my high school days) and Justin's preacher from back home will also have a part in the ceremony.

Photographer: John McCormick--he's the photographer for Virginia Tech and does weddings on the side with his wife. He seems super nice!

DJ: We will be meeting with Forrest Fire Entertainment one day this week to finalize details with them.

Florist: Still deciding...

Cake: I'll be calling a lady here in Pulaski that comes highly recommended and she did my cousin's cake which was YUMMY! :)Let's hope she's available!

Invitations: any suggestions for cheap but elegant looking invitations?

I have my dress...but I can't post anything b/c I don't want Justin to see it! Let's just say it's beautiful and Peighton says that I "look like a princess"! :)

Color: My girls will be wearing a pink-almost red shade called Lipstick. We haven't found a dress yet! The boys will be wearing black tuxes and vests and ties in a shade called Watermelon that almost matches the girls' dresses perfectly!

Flowers: I hope to carry regular dasies, gerbera dasies, and other bright colored flowers!

I think that's all for now! I'll update the rest when I figure it out!

The Proposal...

On Friday while at school Justin sent me a text asking what I wanted to do for dinner. I suggested we go to Cracker Barrel for dinner since I didn't have any food in the house besides chicken and I was sure he was tired of eating that! :) So when I got home from work we went to eat then came back to my house. We weren't home probably more than 15 minutes before Justin suggested we play a game. Which isn't out of the ordinary because we play a lot of board and card games in the evenings while watching TV and such. He suggested we play scrabble so he got the game and handed me the box to set up the game.

**side note here--when we first met and starting dating we chatted a lot on facebook at night and we would play the online scrabble game while we talked. Last year for Valentine's day he bought me scrabble--which I thought was really sweet since it's how we got to know each other. We have played it a lot during the year we have been together.**

Ok back to Friday night...when he handed me the box I thought the box felt lighter than it should and I was just about to say to him that he must of forgotten to put part of the game back in the box the last time we played b/c it felt too light...but I slid open the box and he had arranged/taped the tiles on the tile holders to spell out Will You Marry Me? and had my ringbox there too. He got down on one knee and asked me to which I of course screamed and threw the box to the side and tackled him. After a few minutes he said "You never answered me!" I simply said "of course YES!" :) He then said you didn't even look at your ring! So he opened the box and put the ring on my finger. :) It is beautiful! He did a fantastic job!

We then went to see my parents and called some of our family and friends. We left Saturday morning to go to Big Stone Gap to see his family and share the news with them. Everyone is super excited---including us! :)We will be getting married July 24, 2010.