Good Eats

I absolutely love our caterer, Dean & Brown. Not only have they been super helpful in making sure all of the details are put together for our reception, but their food at our tasting this past December was absolutely incredible! Brian and I, along with my mom and dad, tasted so many delicious dishes and the food rivaled anything I've had at a restaurant.

I made up these menu cards to sit at each place setting using a template I found online. Here is the full spread:


Cocktail Hour
Fresh Fruit, Crudite of Garden Vegetables, and Assorted Cheese Display
Maryland Crab Dip with Pita Triangles
Italian Bruschetta
Cocktail Meatballs in Sweet and Sour Sauce
BBQ Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon

Dinner
Classic Caesar Salad
House Garden Salad with Balsamic
Vinaigrette and Ranch Dressing
Herb Crusted Top Round of Beef with Her Demi-glace and Horseradish Cream
Boordy Apple Braised Chicken (Stuffed chicken braised in Boordy apple wine and garnished with sauteed apple slices --> Boordy is my favorite MD vineyard and the site of my bachelorette party this past weekend!)
Penne Pasta with Vodka Cream Sauce
Seasonal Sauteed Vegetables
Oven Roasted Red Potatoes

Our cake is being made by a local baker, Desserts by Rita. Their cakes are so yummy and moist that I've stopped in a couple of times since our tasting to pick up a slice. :) We are having a three-tier wedding cake and an assortment of cupcakes! I mean, as trendy as they are, I had to have cupcakes at my wedding. I made the signs that will explain all of the flavors, as well.

Cake
Bottom Tier--> Vanilla Cake with Raspberry Buttercream
Middle Tier --> Vanilla and Fudge Cake with Mocha Buttercream
Anniversary Tier --> Fudge Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream :)

Cupcakes
Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream (Brian's pick!)
Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream (My favorite flavor combo)
Raspberry Devils Cake with Raspberry Buttercream (My sister, the maid of honor's, request)

So many people have told me that on your wedding day, you're too busy to eat. I really hope that isn't the case with all of this delicious food! I know Brian and I will do our best to enjoy as much of it as we can. :)

If the Shoe Fits...

For a long time, I wanted to give into the bridal trend of colored shoes. I love the color of my bridesmaids' dresses, and I thought matching my shoes to them would make for adorable pictures! However, I was met with a lot of skepticism when I started talking about my "something blue" shoes. It wasn't quite the reaction I was after. But, after I saw this picture from our photographer, Meaghan Elliott, I found a solution! (This bride's wedding AND Meaghan's photos were also featured on an amazing wedding blog, Style Me Pretty. How neat!)

My shoes are the Nina Culver in Ivory Satin. I ordered them from Zappos! I think they were around $65 on sale when I bought them. I love that Zappos has free overnight shipping both ways for VIPs. Not that I order shoes online a lot or anything. :)

 

I added the Flower Pouf shoe clip from David's Bridal in Pool to match my bridesmaids and for my "something blue." $12 total. :)

 Here is a sneak peak of the look when I first visited my dress at the salon. 

I'm excited to do a cute shoe shot with my bridesmaids, like this picture from Grant Issac Studio!

Adorable right?!

Curing the Dress Blahs

Apparently, I had a very common experience that brides when they first see *their* dress have. I had been thinking about this dress since I ordered it (which, if you remember, was months ago). Which gave me plenty of time to second guess my decision and wonder what-the-heck I was thinking when I ordered it. Which led me to peruse more dresses online with absolutely no intention of changing what I was wearing. Needless to say, it led to many confusing moments.

When I finally got the call that my dress was in and went to see it, things didn't improve. It didn't help that the dress was so wrinkled when I put it on that it was almost unrecognizable from the sample. It seemed a little snug in the ribcage area (which I later found out was because she had put the built-in corset on the tightest hook...they tried to talk me into taking it in at my first fitting but I was not having it!) and it just hugged my body in a way that I didn't feel was flattering. I just remembered feeling so in love with this dress, and now I felt awful in it! I had probably the closest I've come to a bridezilla moment before making my consultant reassure me approximately ten times that whatever it was could be altered; that the top could be taken out, the hips could be taken in, and the dress would look much better once it had actually been pressed.

This is SUCH an unflattering picture, but it pretty much encapsulates how I was feeling that day. You can tell I can't breathe and Jennifer and Jon look a little bit scared of my impending bridezilla wrath.

A couple of weeks later, I returned to the salon for my first official fitting. It was kind of an odd day, as my mom had to rush to West Virginia to be with my grandmother who had a heart attack the day prior. I was bummed, but bridesmaid extraordinaires Kristi and Amber were able to meet me at the salon, which I was so thankful for. (My grandmother later underwent quadruple bypass surgery, and is currently doing much better...definitely a crazy and scary time!) Once I met the seamstress and we began talking, things started to look up! To start, the seamstress didn't hook the corset as tight as it could go, which actually made me feel like I could breathe. Once she started pinning the dress, I could see it actually become mine. I could finally almost picture what it would look like fitted to my body. It made my freakout seem a little silly in retrospect. She showed me a couple of bustle options, and we all agreed on the best option.

My final fitting is May 19th, and it can't come soon enough! Especially since I totally forgot to document the first fitting in pictures. I hope my case of the Dress Blahs has been officially cured. :)

Handmade Rose Petal Soap

After my first bridal shower, I wanted to give the hostesses, 8 of my mom's friends, a small gift to let them know how much I appreciated their kindness and everything they did to make my shower special. Nothing I found in stores felt quite right, so I decided to make them rose petal soap. I intended on writing up a little tutorial about how I did it, but it was really a lot of trial and error. The first batch was not something worthy of giving to anyone as a gift! I eventually figured it out and packaged them up. They were very well-received by all of the women, and I'm glad that the bit of work I put into it was appreciated. :)

The text at the bottom of the tag reads: "I hope your next shower is as nice as mine was!" :)

Hair and Makeup Trial

This past week, I had my hair and makeup trial with Baltimore Bridal. Jamie and Megan are both super sweet, and I think they created a wedding day look that suits me and definitely plays off of my inspiration pictures. Here are a few of the pictures I showed them before being done up. :)

Hair Inspiration: a low, loose updo a la Carrie Underwood. Our ceremony is outside, and I don't want to deal with worrying about my hair blowing in my face or curls in my hair falling out if I leave it down. Wearing it all up just makes life easier...plus, Brian loves my hair up. Just a bonus. :)

Makeup Inspiration: I didn't really know what to describe to Megan, but I loved these pictures...

Apparently I was feeling very inspired by Carrie. :)

My hair and makeup trial took place at Megan's in-home studio about 20 minutes from my house. Altogether, the trial for both parts of the look took about two hours. I got home in time to take some pictures in natural light and look back at them to see how I felt about them. Aside from a couple of minor tweaks, I am really happy with how everything turned out! You'll have to excuse my pictures, as it is pretty difficult to take decent pictures of the back of your own head. The day of, I'll also be sporting a set of fake lashes that do not appear here...I'm a bit nervous about them, but they did look awesome! It feels totally vain posting so many pictures of just my face and head, but it is what it is! :)

The last picture is with the hair flowers that I will be switching my veil out for during the reception. They are the Kate hair flowers from the Etsy seller AmieNoelDesigns. Love them!

Everything is really starting to come together, and it gets crazier every day. Three weeks from today we'll be married! :)

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!)

Wedding Wednesday: Honeymoon!

Brian and I have been in the process of planning our honeymoon for a couple of months now, but I had been very hesitant to spill the beans. After Brian got leave for the wedding and a honeymoon, he had to submit even more paperwork to get our honeymoon location approved. We watched airfare prices climb, twiddled our thumbs, kept on researching, and waited. Eventually, Brian heard that everything would "likely" go through, so we booked without official confirmation (talk about rolling the dice!) This week, everything went through officially, so I feel much more comfortable sharing that we will be honeymooning in...

St. Lucia!

Narrowing down a location when the options seemed unlimited was tough! I knew that I wanted to do a lot of relaxing (after planning a wedding during my toughest year of grad school, the thought of finally relaxing is the only thing getting me through!) Brian also likes a little bit of adventure, so we definitely wanted to go somewhere with options! I think St. Lucia is definitely the right choice!

After stalking Jax's St. Lucia posts and picking her brain about her trip there (I love bloggidy friends...thank you, Jax!), Brian and I decided to stay at Jalousie Plantation! The resort looks absolutely gorgeous, and it was named one of the Top 25 in the World by Conde Nast Traveler so obviously we are in for quite the experience! :)

Plus, look at these pictures!

I will most likely park my butt on one of those glorious looking chairs/beds and refuse to leave. Ever.

Gorgeous view of the Pitons, one of the "1000 Places to See Before You Die." 

We are both soooo excited! As of today, there are only 73 days until we get married and 75 days until we relaxing as husband and wife in beautiful St. Lucia! :)