Photos are here!!!

And our photos are here! Cheyenne, once again, out did herself and I love every. single. one. on the blog. Just a couple of my favorites are below and the rest are on her blog!

www.cheyenneschultzphotgraphy.blogspot.com





All images, of course, are by Cheyenne Schultz. Check back in a couple days to see Part 2!!!

Married Life ...

Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time ....


Ha! But how true it is. Now that Jason and I have everything finally cleaned up after the wedding disaster, we are trying to get our house exactly the way we want it. We've been looking for outdoor furniture and a grill for some time now, but have had trouble finding a nice set that was small enough to fit on our balcony and affordable. But, leave it to Ikea!!

Awesome Ikea chairs

First dinner on our new furniture!

These awesome chairs and the table were marked down to $20 each! Amazing! We liked them so much I went back and got two more today. They had several left if anyone wants one!

Sneak Peek #2!

Thanks to the fab Cheyenne Schultz, we have two more preview pics from the wedding.

Please ignore the cleavage :)

Sneak Peek!

Hi again! I can't believe its already been 3 weeks since the wedding! It was honestly the most amazing day of my life. I have never felt that much love and joy all at once! Getting married is a pretty incredible experience in itself - but to be able to share it with everyone that you love is even better!

The last couple weeks have been pretty tough for me. I was so occupied with all the wedding things before, that I had something to do every single minute of the day. But now, I have all this free time and I don't know what to do with it! So I suppose I will update you all!

I simply cannot wait to see Cheyenne's photos from our wedding - I know they are going to be awesome. And man - the photobooth was a huge hit! But in the meantime, thanks to a little TV appearance by the best wedding coordinator anyone could ask for, Alyse Woodward, we have a few preview shots!

Check out her newly updated blog to see more shots from the wedding and a few of my bridal portraits that were taken at the Reese family home!

This is the bridal portrait I displayed at the reception!
All images by the fabulous Cheyenne Schultz

WEDDING WEEK COMMENCES!

It's finally here and I am so excited! After having a rough couple of weeks - for many reasons - the week of the wedding has finally arrived and at this moment I am NOT stressed and am totally excited!! We drove up to Raleigh yesterday and are staying at Jason's parents early this week. We spent the whole day relaxing and sunning by the pool and then went to see the Hangover tonight. (I mean ... there's a jungle cat in the bathroom!!!) So we are doing pretty good. Tomorrow I will hopefully get to see two of my lovely bridesmaids who came in early (Yay Crystal and Jess!) and then running errands. We need to deliver final checks to the vendors and print the programs. And if we get those things done -- we will be set! Oh yeah, and we have to get our marriage liscence too :) Don't want to forget that!

I will try to keep you all updated this week! And to bring it back to where this whole crazy thing started ... the night we got engaged at Canoe!

6 days!!!!

Two weeks from tomorrow ...

I'll be a married woman. In the words of Joey Lawrence: Whoa.

At the beginning of this week I was totally fine. I mean not fine because I am getting over a nasty cold, but not freaking out about everything I have left to do. But then it caught up with me today. I don't know why I'm getting so worked up - bottom line is that the wedding can happen and I not do another thing. That's a pretty good feeling. Yet I can't leave it at that. I realized that I really have no vision for my centerpieces and that I just have a random collection of candleholders that I have no idea how they will go together. I just this morning ordered the bridesmaids shoes. And I have all these cute ideas for gifts for them, but I haven't actually done anything about it. I just get so annoyed with myself sometime as to how I let my thoughts run away with me, but then no actions follow. And as you can tell by the time of this post, my worries have led to insomnia. I cannot get to sleep, but once I finally do, I can NOT wake up in the morning - therefore wasting my whole day when I could be productive.

So, I am going to try my very best to keep things in perspective. The wedding will go on. And it will be wonderful. I can not do anything else and it will be just fine. I get the things on my to-do list done, and if I don't, it probably wasn't that important. In two weeks, I get to have a moment that I will never again have in my whole life --- every person in the world that I love dearly will be in the room celebrating with me at the same time. I am sooooooo excited for all the events and time we have planned to spend with our guests, that once Thursday gets here, it will be all fun and laughs and love from there on out. And most importantly - I get to finally marry the person I love more than anything. I cannot wait. BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!


And to remind me of why we are doing this whole crazy thing ....
:)

Featured on Weddingbee!!!

My favorite wedding blog featured us as their picture of the day!  Yay!

http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/05/19/gallery-photo-of-the-day-26/

Check it out!

And the winner is ... (and pink shoes!)

Number 2!!!

I just loved them too! I was torn between earrings one and two, but I decided to go ahead and order #2! Paypal makes it way too easy to order things online ...

In other news, I think I may have found some pink wedding shoes! I have been looking for months now and just haven't found what I was looking for. Well that's not totally true - I have found several pairs that I like but they are either unavailable because they were last season or they are way too expensive.

For example:

The elusive JuliaRae's .... unavailable. But I am scouring ebay.source

Another cute pair of Nine West's ... but also from last year.

source

The perfect Kate Spade's ... but they are $300.source

The even more ridiculous Christian Louboutins at $700 (or $150 for the knockoff)

source

And so I keep searching. But today I found these ....

source

They were only $50 and I really like them! I ordered them and hopefully they will fit and be super cute when they come. I WILL find the perfect pink shoes!

6 weeks away!

This countdown is getting serious!  This weekend Jason and I picked up my wedding band and it is absolutely gorgeous!!  I can't even describe how cool it is to put that sparkly band on and think about what it will be like for Jason to put it on my hand on my wedding day!  Insane.  We also updated our registry, started a little craft project, and finalized a few details about the upcoming shower!

This morning Jason and I volunteered in the Waumba Land area at Buckhead Church in the two-year-olds room.  Wow those kids have energy.  Jason and I were both terrified going into it because they have so many rules about changing diapers and sanitizing and stuff, but it turned out okay.  We will go back for another apprenticing session before we commit, but we'll see.  Perhaps three's next time ... 

So on the docket this week, finishing school (wooooohooooo!), preparing for my cousin's wedding in Taylorsville, finalizing flowers, photography (a very exciting surprise perhaps?), and shower plans.  I've scheduled a bridal portrait June 1st with the fabulous Cheyenne, which I am totally stoked about, but then I realized that I had nothing for it except my dress!  I still haven't found any pink wedding shoes, but I think that I wouldn't want to wear them for my portrait anyways since we'll be outside at Granny's.  So I might wear one of the 3 pairs that I've already purchased that either doesn't fit right or is the wrong color just because I won't care so much to get them messed up.  But we'll see.

So onto the other details for my wedding day look.  I want a long veil for the church but they are ridiculously expensive so I am going to make one with the help of my grandma.  But I've wanted some sort of hair flower/feather to wear during the reception.  I've had this particular one bookmarked for many months and I finally ordered it today!  Eek!  

source

Don't laugh, I know it looks completely ridiculous but I think it might really work with my dress.  If not I can return it.  Its just so fun!

As for jewelry, my mom purchased a beautiful set for me for Christmas, but it just wasn't big enough for my wedding day.  My dress has little adornment so I need some serious bling in the jewelry.  I've had a hard time deciding and would love your input.

Check these out:

Option 1:  Vintage-style earrings from Anna Bellagio

This was my early favorite and one of my first bookmarked pages.  Plus, they are pretty similar to the ones Mom picked out but bigger.  This website actually has a store in Duluth which is about 45 minutes away.  I could drive out there sometime next week to see them in person, but I might just order them anyways.

Option #2 - Another vintage style from White Aisle

These are so pretty!  Very vintage.  Unfortunately I can't find many other pictures of these and you can't return them, but are affordable at $60.  I hope they are good quality.  White Aisle has some beautiful jewelry at really good prices.

Option 3:  Super-shiny from Emitations

Sorry, this was the best picture I could get.  Check the link for more pics.  These are ridiculously sparkly but might be a little ovet the top.  Also the most expensive option.

Option 4:  Crystal Drop earrings from 1928

Probably the smallest of the options, but this just looks really elegant.  I love the swirl at the top but I don't know if it will be enough.  Beautiful and very affordable at $32!  They have some very pretty and affordable stuff on their website as well.

Which one do you like the best?????

Leave a comment with your preference, Option #1, #2, #3, or #4!!  

Julie and Jason on VintageGlam

We're on a blog!  I know this means nothing in the real world, but somehow in the twisted world of wedding websites - I was seriously excited to be featured on Vintage Glam Weddings!!!  Check out our post here.  She featured our engagement session with the incredible Cheyenne Schultz and the inspiration for our shoot.

In other news, our invitations are now out and we are counting down the weeks!  I get quite excited to get RSVP's in the mail :).  I have also secured a hair appointments and am about to sign the contract with the florist.  Yay!  That makes all of the vendors.  Plus, I only have 8 more school days left, which means its about to be full time wedding!

In the next couple weeks we will be super busy with the end of school and two weddings.  My cousin Candace is getting married on the 23rd and I will be a bridesmaid for that and my dear friend since 11th grade Ryan is marrying the lovely Meridith on the 30th.  Which will also be the date of my next shower.  So yay!  wedding mayhem!

Invites, flowers, shoes, and more updates to come!

Honeymoon!!!!

Our honeymoon is officially booked!  One of the first things I did when I started wedding planning was start researching honeymoons so this has been a long time coming!  From the beginning, Jason and I made the official honeymoon rules:

We could only go to places that ...

1.  Neither one of us had been before

2.  You had to use your passport

3.  Didn't take forever and a day to get there (since we are on limited time)

So that put us somewhere in the Caribbean/South America.  We are both a bit adventurous (lion tracking anyone??) so we weren't looking for a lay-on-the-beach the whole time kind of honeymoon.  Which led us straight to COSTA RICA!!!

Even after we decided on Costa Rica, it took us forever to decide on a place.  Costa Rica has an extremely varied ecosystem and climate, so even within a small country, there are tons of places to visit.  So after much debate, we decided on the Quepos-Manuel Antonio area, on the Pacific coast.  Even though it is green season, we decided to risk a little rain and go to the jungle.  I mean, it is the rainforest.  Its kind of the point :)

Unfortunately, traveling back to Atlanta from Raleigh and Jason's work only afford us six days, but a fabulous six days it will be.

We will be staying at Issimo Suites  in the fabulous Royal Suite, complete with our own pool and jacuzzi!  Its right in the middle of the jungle, overlooking the beach - can't get much better than that!

Best part of visiting Costa Rica is not the room (though that is very important ;) but the insane activities you can do there.  My top activity list is:

1.  Canopy zip lining - a must in CR

2.  Hiking/animal watching in the rainforest  (I luv monkeys!)

2.  Horseback riding on the beach

3.  Sailing/Snorkeling/scuba diving

4.  Riding ATV through some serious jungle mud!  

5.  Visiting the Arenal Volcano and the natural hot springs.  Volcanos are seriously cool (hot) and the one here is active daily.  Plus the magma warms natural hot springs that cascade down the volcanic mountain.  I can't think of anything more sexy than swimming in a naturally warm waterfall on your honeymoon!  Unfortunately the volcano is a ways from our hotel, so we'll see if we make it there.

What a beautiful country!  I CANNOT WAIT!

PS.  Planning for spending a week in Egypt = little work for me this week!

photo credits:  issimo suites, costa rica holiday, tourcostarica.com

Not in Egypt ...

Today I was supposed to be touring the pyramids in Giza.  But I am not.  At the last minute they weren't able to get all my arrangements made to join my school's trip to Egypt.  I found out late afternoon Friday and they left on Saturday.  Needless to say, I was seriously disappointed and dreading being at school this week instead of traveling the world, but I'm cool now.  I got my first update from the kids and they are having an amazing time.  What an amazing experience it must be for these children who have hardly ever left Atlanta!

Plus, it was a blessing in disguise because my invitations came on Friday!  I was pretending that I was going to magically get them all done an addressed before I left, which never would have happened.  So I was really glad to have the weekend to work on them.  They are beautiful and totally unique!  Just the way I like it.  I used etsy vendor Letterpunch Design  with the wonderfully talented Laura Nehls and they turned out amazing!  She probably sent me 20 proofs or more until they were perfect, and really worked with me when I was under a time crunch to get them done!  I can't say enough good things about working with Laura!  

Plus, did I mention that they were totally affordable?  We did the DIY option and put them together ourselves!  I wanted to create my own invitations anyways, so this let me pretend like I had done something :)  Big thanks to Rebecca for helping fold and glue on Friday!

Sneak preview thanks to Laura's etsy site:

I can't wait to get them mailed out!  I am working on the labels now, and as soon as the stamps come in, we'll have them out by the end of the week!  yay!

She works hard for the money ...

Wow, haven't posted since March 29th.  I am seriously bad at this.  And considering how exhausted I am, I shouldn't even be posting now.  But so many things are happening!  We are almost at the two month mark which is detail time.  I have many things to catch you up on:  Spring Break Raleigh trip, florals, shoes, ties, etc!  So I am going to try to catch up one at a time.  Work is ridiculous right now as we only have 5 weeks of school left and every single day has some kind of interruption.  Its going to be difficult to even get all my school work done not to mention the wedding things.  And then a little Egypt thing came up ... more on that later :)

Oh, I almost forgot.  Hot pink is like a standard color for summer. EXCEPT in the year I'm getting married.  I don't understand!  This year its all coral and orange and yellow and other icky colors.  So I am searching everywhere for hot pink details for the wedding, namely hot pink shoes.   More on that later as well ...

But on the good news side:

TIE BAR is awesome!!!  Jason and I had started to look for pink/blue ties for the groomsmen and were finding nothing.  And then I happened upon this fabulous website.  

And ta da!

source

Its practically the same tie I wanted all along!  AND they are only $15 a piece!  Anybody looking for cute ties, or inexpensive ones for groomsmen must look here!  Hopefully they are as cute as the picture and are good quality.  We'll see.

And since I have 6 weddings this year not including my own, I am in serious need of some new dresses.  I have longed for a lovely item from Anthropologie, and I now have my first one!

Source

I'll admit it looks a little ridiculous in the picture, but its adorable in person.  I think it will be perfect for a shower or my cousin's August wedding.  Plus, two of the buttons had popped off but someone had stuck them in the pocket, so it was on sale!

Must sleep ... getting immunized tomorrow.  :)

PS.  Post title alludes to the fact that I am working ridiculously hard these days and I loooooooove Kris Allen.  He makes me swoon.  Killer version of She works hard for the money.  Ignore the creepy picture.

3 month mark!

This weekend we hit the 3 month mark! Exciting and scary! I keep having this feeling like I have so much left to do, but in reality I have almost everything booked! The only vendor I still need is the florist. Any recommendations in the Raleigh area?

Last weekend we went to Raleigh and set the menu (delish!), met the DJ and did our cake tasting! Swank Cake is so awesome - they send you home with the cake tasting to-go box so you can enjoy it at home, instead of the pressure of doing it in the store in front of the bakers. Swank offers 6 kinds of cakes and 16 kinds of icing and fillings! And since we chose a square cake, each tier will be 4 layers of cake, 3 layers of filling. For a 3 tier cake, that is 15925248 permutations of cake and filling options (check that Rebecca!). For you non-math folks, it was heck of a lot of options and it was really hard to decide. But we decided on:

- Red velvet with cream cheese icing for the bottom (biggest) layer

- Chocolate cake with 2 layers of chocolate mousse, 1 layer raspberry filling for the middle layer

- And a white cake with a lemon mousse for the top, for a lighter choice!

They were all delicious, but we thought these would cover all the cake bases!

Since then, we've gotten about half of our save the dates labeled and ready to be mailed! I think its absurd that I'm sending STD's 3 months before the wedding, but since we've printed them already, we might as well send them. At least that's what Jason tells me in order to keep me sane.

I'll post the full save the dates later, but here is a sneak peak ... this is the photo we used on the front! (from the fabulous Cheyenne!)

And in other news, we finally joined a small group at Buckhead Church!! Yay! I am so excited to get involved. I really want to meet more people (couples!) in the Atlanta area and have never been in a Bible study group before. Everyone in our group has been married 3 years or less, so I think its going to be a great place for us to start!

Have a great week!

off to Raleigh again!

Jason has been up in NC for work this week, so we are taking advantage of that and I'm meeting him in Raleigh tomorrow for some wedding planning. We managed to squeeze in appointments with our reception site, DJ, and the cake guy!!! I have been very indecisive so far about what I want the cake to be like, but we are having a square cake, because the number of people match up number of guests better. As a girl who loves everything color, I was surprised to find that I'm really drawn to clean, white cakes.

Here are a couple examples of my favorites from Swank Cake Design our fabulous baker. The rest of the pics are just some incredible cakes that I've seen that are awesome and definitely out of my price range :)

The next ones are from the fabulous CakeGirls, who make insane cakes.

And last, a totally unique modern cake courtesy of Brides.com

Have a great Friday!

very productive wedding weekend!!

Finally after jetting all around the country, Jason and I had a weekend at home in Atlanta for the first time in a month or more. And we couldn't ask for a better weekend because it was 75 and sunny all weekend!!

But of course, we spend most of it inside trying to get a few wedding things done! We went to the fabulous Brown & Co. jewelers to look at wedding bands! Ian, the owner's son, has been so great to work with and always remembers us when we come in. Great customer service really goes along way.

I, of course, have to be difficult and would love to have a band made to match my custom engagement ring that Jason designed with them last year. It of course is expensive and apparently gold/platinum is the only thing that is up in this market. But alas, Jason did such a good job with the engagement ring ... the wedding band should do it justice.

Ring inspiration:source: the tiffany legacy

Jason is a fan of the uber-manly tungsten-carbide rings that are the same metal drill bits are made of. How appropriate for my engineer :) Lets just hope they never have to cut it off him, because it can't be done!

source: Benchmark rings

We haven't made any decisions yet, but it was fun to look!!!

Also, we went to Men's Warehouse and picked out tuxes for Jason and the groomsmen. I was not loving this process because the tuxes, while nice, are kinda blah and because Jason has the skinny track star look, I was worried about the fit. But he tried on several and they looked good, so I can't wait to see him in the whole look! Unfortunately though, I didn't love any of the vest choices, so I am on the lookout for fabulous hot pink and blue ties for the guys to wear to liven it up. I'm thinking a very straight-out-of-j.crew look for the men!



perhaps like this?

Also made the Save the Dates!!! Very late, I know, but hey, better than not. Hope to get them in a few days!

ps. today at school .... I put an inkpen behind my ear and it busted all in my hair. I have had black/blue/purple hair all day ... and even after washing it, its not totally out. Oh, the life of a teacher :)

life gets in the way

After my crazy weekend visiting Jason's family in DC, spending 8 hours in an airport while Atlanta got snow (what???), yet by the time we get home its all gone... I was exhausted! But luckily God gifted me with a snow day yesterday :) yay!

But of course, when school started again today, it was kicking me in the pants for all the fun over the weekend. Our juniors take their graduation test in less than two weeks, so we are in full swing of test preparation. Plus, we are constantly being interrupted by visitors like the US Surgeon General (wow!), Andy the Bachelor from season 10 (*sigh*), and a CNN news crew. As wonderful as that is, it makes my life very stressful! And so I wish and think about planning the wedding, without actually planning anything.

Luckily I have Jason who pretty much secured the DJ today. Excellent. I am very very close to having all the vendors lined up!

Which means the fun stuff is soon to come. So to help lower my stress from school and as a reminder that the lovely wedding details will come soon, here is my night's wedding inspiration.

what a lovely exit :)

source: oops - coming soon

4 month mark!

I passed the 4 month mark this week! yay! but also eek! I have so much to do!

I knew I would be bad at this blogging thing ... but I will try to post more often. I need to ... it will keep me focused on all I have done, and have left to do!

At this point I have accomplished:

- booked church and pastor and organist (yay Aunt Amy!)

- booked reception site

- purchased and have dress (big yay!)

- booked the best photographer ever! (big big yay! .. and more to come on that soon!)

- booked the cake

- bought a ton of candle holders and random decor stuff

- purchased the bridesmaid dresses

And that's all I can think of ... eek! that is not a very long list. But I am working on it and am about to add some more things very soon!

Here is the March to-do list:

- finalize the DJ (we're down to two... just have to decide)

- send out the save-the-dates (incredibly late I know ... but better late than never)

- choose and order the inviatations

- make a trip to Raleigh to meet with cake guy, DJ and 1705 about the menu

- book the honeymoon (Costa Rica here we come!!)

That is a lot ... but we can do it. Jason is being very helpful so we'll keep you posted. In the meantime ...

Here's our adorable bridesmaid dresses! Thanks to some wonderful friends (Audra, Priya and Ronnie!) I ordered these randomly on a Monday night while watching the Bachelor without even thinking! But they worked out great, plus they were only $90, down from $250!!!

Presenting the J.Crew Lydia ...

now I couldn't find a picture of the actual color which is "Atlantic Blue" but this is the dress. The actual color is still a dark blue, but much lighter than the navy. Now, I'm not even going to talk about how ridiculously cute these would be in the pink, but I promised my sister no pink dresses!

source: www.jcrew.com

SHOUTOUT: Priya!

I must mention, and give full credit to, Ms. Priya Roy for naming this little blog. Yay Face!

Vendors: 1705 Prime

I am so excited about the vendors we've booked for the wedding. After debating for several months, Jason and I finally decided on a Raleigh wedding which was perfect for the two of us. It is where we met and where we eventually plan on settling down (eek, can't believe I even said that!).

Once we started looking though, the reception site choices in Raleigh were not great. I was dead set on not having a country club or hotel ballroom wedding if I could help it, and really wanted something unique. My first choice was the insanely beautiful State Club at the Park Alumni Center on our alma mater's campus. The ballroom there is gorgeous, with two grand staircases and huge windows that look out over a lake. AND its on NC State's campus. AND it is the Park Alumni Center - which is fitting because we were both Park Scholars. But alas, it was very expensive and they were NOT feeling the "Park Scholar" discount. So that was out, which is okay, because its a very formal location and we are not having a very formal wedding.



So then we found the fabulous 1705 Prime owned by the fabulous Rocky Top Hospitality group (owner of Hi-5, Bogarts, Red Room and Michael Deans for all you Raleigh people). We knew already that the food would be great from their other restaurants, and as soon as I visited, I knew this was it! It was well priced and had the vintage loungey-vibe that we love. Bring on the dark wood and the wine, this place is perfect!!!

Source: 1 and 3 and the middle two are mine!

I love the big dark wood chairs, the round dance floor (no parquet, yay!) and the huge bar area. (Is it obvious that I like to party?). It really lends itself to having a good time!

The only downside to it is that there are multiple rooms. There is a main ballroom with the dance floor that holds 100-120 people seated; a second ballroom that holds 75-80 people seated and then the huge bar area. So definitely all of our guests will not be seated in the same room, which I don't love. I HATE when people go to weddings and feel like they've been placed in the outcast room. So, my challenge is to set up this location so that no one feels left out. One of my mother's few requests is that everyone has a place to sit (and I agree) so I really have to be clever about where I sit people, where I place the food, and how I arrange the flow of the room.

Has anyone had to deal with multiple rooms for the reception before? Any advice?