Our Sweet Beginning: Practice Makes Perfect

The day before our wedding, Brian and I met our families and wedding party at the Concord Point Lighthouse in Havre de Grace, MD to rehearse our wedding ceremony with Brian's minister. I spent the day with some of my favorite ladies, getting my hair done, making our nails pretty, doing some last minute shopping, and totally failing to document it in pictures. For our rehearsal, I exercised my bridal right to wear white a day early, just for practice!

We ran through the ceremony twice, and I used the pretty ribbon bouquet that Amber and Zoë made me at my shower. Brian and I wrote our entire ceremony, and it was crazy to hear the words we had written months ago imagining our wedding day, as we were standing in the place where we would very soon become husband and wife. Crazy and surreal moment!

We had absolutely beautiful weather for the rehearsal, but when I checked the weather on my phone for the following day, there was a 60% chance of thunderstorms. I was incredibly nervous, but figured that at least we had one pretty mock ceremony and got 'pretend married' at the lighthouse if things didn't work out.

After our run-through, Brian's parents hosted an amazingly beautiful rehearsal dinner at MacGregor's. We enjoyed some delicious food, including Maryland crab cakes, blackened chicken pasta, stuffed crab claws, and (Brian's favorite) cannoli chips and cream, in a private banquet room overlooking the water.

We took the opportunity to say a few words, thanking our family and friends for being with us on the most important and exciting weekend of our lives, as well as for their support throughout our lives and journey together.

At the end of the night, my favorite Phi Mus and my adorable flower girl headed back to my house for a good old-fashioned sleepover before the big day! I actually got in bed around midnight and was (miraculously) able to fall asleep, despite my nerves and excitement about what was to come. :)

Our Sweet Beginning: My Bachelorette Party!

Now that things are starting to settle down and we are getting situated in our new home in the lovely Peach State, I really want to get back into the swing of regular blogging. I hope I remember how! :)

I do want to do a couple of recaps of our big wedding events. Our wedding day was the the most perfect expression of us as a couple and probably the happiest day of my life, so I am really excited to share the details! I don't have my hands on all of the professional pictures from our amazing photographer yet, so those posts might wait just a little while. In the meantime, I wanted to share pictures from my bachelorette party, which was held exactly one week before our big day.

My lovely bridesmaids planned a fun-filled night to celebrate my last official outing as a single lady! We had a yummy Japanese hibachi dinner (my FAVORITE!) with the bridal party and my mom and (soon to be) mother-in-law, and then headed Girl's Night Out event at my favorite local vineyard, Boordy, with some of my very favorite people!

We sat on the lawn, sipping wine, eating cupcakes, and listening to some live music.

Then, we headed over to a local bar for some good old fashioned shenanigans. It was a night that reminded me of our fun college days. :)

Such a fun time! I am so lucky to have these girls in my life, and I have definitely already felt the sadness that comes with having to say "see you later" and move away from such amazing friends.

April (Bridal) Showers :)

I am down in Savannah for Spring Break (yaaahooo!) and while Brian's at work, I thought I should do a little bit of catching up on my blog. :) The first weekend in April, my bridesmaids threw me the most beautiful bridal shower ever! The theme was "April Showers Bring May Flowers," and all of my girls, with my mom and Brian's mom, made the day so special!

I started out the day by enjoying some of the delicious food (like my sister's now signature Curry Chicken Salad with croissants) and ran around to greet everyone who had come to celebrate my day!

The food spread!

Delicious desserts....cupcakes and cake balls! :)

Then, it was time to open presents! Brian and I have certainly been spoiled by our friends and family, and I can't wait to finally have somewhere to set up all of our new kitchen things! While I opened gifts, all of the guest played Bridal Shower Bingo. Before I started, they filled out their card with gifts they thought I might receive. When I opened it, they crossed it off on their Bingo card. I thought it was really cute and took some of the focus off of me while I was the center of attention, which made me much less nervous. :)

Opening a gift from Shannon....a "woozie" aka wine glass coozie :)

Filling out Bingo cards!

But, by far the BEST part of the whole day was celebrating with a room-full of family and friends who have supported Brian and I throughout different parts of our lives, and now as we plan our wedding. I can't believe it's been ten months since we got engaged, and our big day is just around the corner!

Me and another Lauren, one of my good friends/running buddies from high school!

Me and my Phi Mu sisters :)

Me and my amazing bridesmaids!

 It was a perfect shower, and I am so grateful for everything these ladies have done for me to make the days leading up to our wedding special and memorable. :)

(...and because I can't even believe it, here's a screen shot from the app on my phone that's been counting down the days until our wedding since we set the date. Crazy!)

My First Bridal Shower!

Yesterday, I attended the very first shower where I was the guest of honor! My first bridal shower was a small get-together hosted by a group of my mom's close friends. It still has not really hit me that Brian and I are getting married in a few short months, but this was the first time that I actually felt like a bride.

All of the details of the shower were so cute, but as I was just a bit overwhelmed, I did a really bad job at taking pictures! Hopefully some better ones surface in the next couple of days. But from the cake, to the food, to the favors, the hostesses of this shower really put a lot of thought into making everything perfect. It was really nice to spend time with some people who I don't get to see very often!

One of my favorite details was the drink choice...a peach Bellini! I love the small odes to Georgia that have cropped up in our wedding planning, and it gave me one more idea for our reception. :)

We were gifted so many amazing things, and let's just say that our future kitchen will be outfitted perfectly! I could not believe how generous everyone was. Our flower girl, my cousin Zoë, gathered up all of the bows from the gifts and Amber helped her make the beautiful ribbon bouquet you see above. :)

Brian expressed that, while he was so excited for me about my shower, he knew I would mostly receive "kitchen stuff that he probably won't be using." His mom ensured that that wasn't the case when she gave us a kitchen item that Brian has lusted after since the day I met him.

THE Margaritaville Margarita machine! I think he was more excited than I was!

I am overwhelmed by the generosity of our families and friends. Brian and I are certainly blessed to be surrounded by so much love and support. My first bridal shower was definitely a reminder of that!