Fun-filled Weekend

My weekend started off with a wonderful morning taking engagement pictures! We were worried about the rain, but it actually turned out to be kind of perfect weather. It was a little cloudy which just kept the sun from being too hot but no gray clouds or rain in sight! Scot (a.k.a.: Joshua Lucas) did such a great job! We didn't feel posed, we just talked and walked and laughed and had fun! I got a little peek of the pictures, and I'm so excited about them! They look perfect already, so I can't imagine how they're going to look once they've been edited. So so so so excited!! 


Saturday afternoon, my youngest brother graduated from high school! It was strange sitting there and realizing that all 4 of us are adults-ish now. I was so proud of him! After graduation we had a family dinner and spent some quality family time just hanging out and watching a movie. My little brother's growing up!.... Sort of. ;)

Sunday I slept-in and spent the afternoon trying on bridesmaid dresses and discussing engagement party plans for Kate! On my way home, I thought about how lucky I am that Kate is as wonderful and giving as she is. We're both truly happy for each other, and we both enjoy planning our weddings together. One example of this was today when we were trying on bridesmaid dresses for her wedding, and she suggested that I use a dress that I was wearing for my rehearsal dinner. Most brides would not take very nicely to another bride even remotely bringing up her own wedding during the latter's wedding events, much less bring it up to her. It's the little things like this that make planning a wedding so much more fun and intimate. I'm so glad to have my present family as well as my future family involved. And excited to be involved. And I'm lucky. So so lucky.

Engagement Pictures!

A long, long time ago (8 years ago, to be exact), right after Tim and I started dating, our friend Scot (better known to the rest of the world as Josh) took the first pictures of us as a couple. He was such a perfectionist about it, wanting the light to be just right and the angle to be just so. I remember telling him, "It's just a picture! Take it already!"

Tomorrow, Scot will be taking our engagement pictures! We're so excited! This will be special for us for many reasons. Not only will these pictures capture us, our love, and our excitement but we also get to share that with someone who was there when we met and watched us grow together. I'm very excited, delighted, and just happy about it.

Keep your fingers crossed for no rain!!

My Summer Break

I can't believe it's already been two weeks! Class started back yesterday morning, and I'm still in denial about it. I has a busy/productive/eventful break, though, which makes it easier to focus on classwork... Or more difficult... Not sure which yet. ;)

I took the first couple of days to catch up on sleep and visit wedding venues; this was both exciting and stressful considering that everywhere was already booking up and that all other decisions/aspects of the wedding depend in the venue, date, and time.


The first weekend, however, focus shifted to my little sister as we traveled to Milledgeville to watch her graduate with honors from undergrad! It was a surreal experience watching her all dressed up in her cap and gown knowing she's about to move to New York City to attend NYU for grad school. I was and am so proud of her and so excited for her!!

When we returned from Gisela's graduation weekend festivities, we hit the ground running with wedding venues hoping to have something booked by the time we left for NYC for a few days of fun. Tensions were high with everyone as we all seemed to have a different ideas of what we expexcted out of both the ceremony and reception, but in the end it got done and now we can move forward with less stressful aspects of wedding planning like flowers and cake tasting! :) And so, I'm thrilled to announce that Tim and I will be getting married on May 21, 2011 at Sacred Heart Cultural Center!





The last part of my summer break consisted of a trip to NYC with Gisela, Kate, and my mom. We had a great time! It was my second trip, but I loved doing/seeing things again as much as I did new experiences. We had so much fun at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum that my fully charged camera was already flashing the low battery symbol by the time we left! We went up into the Empire State Building our first night there; the views were amazing! We probably would have stayed up there longer if it hadn't been so cold and windy.

Friday, Gisela and my mom spent the better part of the day around NYU doing school stuff, so Kate and I explored on our own. We spent some time in Central Park, and I loved it! We spent 1-2 hours walking around and not only did we maybe see 1/4 of it but we also never walked the same path twice! So pretty!

We then ventured to the Rockefeller Center area (Eadio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, Rockefeller Plaza, and NBC) before heading to the Brooklyn Bridge. The view from the bridge was great! There was a plaque that showed the bridge  throughout the years, which was really neat to see.

That evening (Friday) we got all dolled-up and went to see "La Cage Aux Folles". We laughed so hard! Kelsey Grammer played the lead and he was perfect in it! It was great and I definitely recommend seeing it. 

Saturday, my cousin and his fiancée came down from Troy for the day and met up with us at the Statue of Liberty. It was such a beautiful day!

Afterwards, we went on a tour of Ground Zero. Kate's brother-in-law's aunt gives tours through the Tribute Center and was gracious enough to give us a personal tour. Last time I visited Ground Zero was 5 years ago, and at that point nothing had been even begun to be rebuilt. It was very powerful to hear the personal stories and hear all of the details that are generally overlooked as well as to see all of the progress that has been made over the years toward rebuilding the World Trade Center.


From there we went shoe shopping at the largest Macy's ever and made a quick run-through the African Mammals exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. That evening we had a great dinner where we were joined by a couple of my middle school friends, Jill and Shannon. It was so good to see and catch up with them! Sunday we returned to Augusta and I got ready to start class again on Monday. Boo. But it was my last first day of school ever, and I officially have <1 year before graduation!

On May 15, Tim and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary. It's crazy that it's been that long. I remember our first outside of class conversation and giving him my phone number and every detail of our first date so clearly that it feels like it was so much more recently that we started dating. And now we're getting married! I'm so excited and so blessed and so in love with him! I don't know where or who I'd be without him in my life. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I love love love him.  ♥

Official countdowns:
353 days until graduation
368 days until our wedding!!

I'm more excited and looking forward to the latter, but more ready to get the former over with. It's going to be a busy year!

Adventures in Venueland

The last few days have been filled with ups and downs as I've tried to make progress on booking our wedding venues. When I originally visited these places in December, I was told by each venue that I couldn't book them until at maximum one year out. When I checked back this week to try to book them, I was told by almost every venue (including the one that we had pretty much set on for our reception) that they were already booked. And making a difficult situation even more confusing, Tim and I decided not to have a Catholic wedding. When it came down to it, I wasn't comfortable with Tim going through the motions of all the red tape knowing that his heart wasn't in it and he was solely doing it because I wanted him to. I appreciate the effort on his part, but I would rather start our marriage off with a ceremony with which we are both happy and comfortable. Overall, it's been more difficult to find a venue for our ceremony than one for our reception; at least, with the reception we have more options. After dragging my mom around town for a couple of days, pep talks from Tim, Clara, Kate, and Jessica, and seemingly endless hours online searching for venue options, I feel like we know exactly what we're looking for. I want a more intimate feeling for the ceremony (which is my main concern, seeing how it's the entire point of the whole event) and my parents want something more elaborate for... well, everything.. but we're working on this whole "compromise" thing.


One thing that I realized was that I was trading off little bits of what I wanted at a time and was ending up heading toward a situation that I really didn't want. It's hard when everyone involved wants something different. I've been trying to find some common ground with my parents about it (and we did succeed in agreeing on the reception venue), but I think I really need to be more strong about what I want for the ceremony. When I think of my wedding, I picture myself getting married - actually standing there, surrounded by light, looking at Tim. Sometimes I feel like when my parents think of my wedding they picture the veil, the cake and dancing. I want to have a beautiful reception in which everyone enjoys him/herself, but I want to walk away from the day remembering the ceremony the most. My mom and I were able to narrow down our top choices for the reception venue (just waiting to hear back from one to see if it's available), and I think I even sold her on my ceremony venue idea. Now let's just see if we can get my dad on board....


Tim's taking a few of days off of work in the next week, so I plan on taking him to see the venues that my mom and I liked the most to get his take on them. Of course he's been updated with picture messages throughout our escapades, but you really get a sense for a location when you visit it in person. I really hope what we have in mind works out!

Lots to do!

Let me start by announcing that I'm officially in my 3rd and LAST year of PT school! :D SSSooooooo excited! It was a rough semester for me, especially the last month or so. I was really starting to lose steam and just get bogged down with the stress that accompanies PT school, but my classmates got me through it. They're amazing. There's something to be said for the camaraderie that develops between people who experience something intense together. We truly understand what each other is going through, and we know that no one else can understand it the way that we do. We're a team. The last few weeks have really driven that home for me, and I feel so blessed to be a Double Stick.

With this latest accomplishment comes a bit of a reprieve: 2 weeks of no school! Woo-hoo! It'll definitely be a busy couple of weeks, for which I am super pumped. My little sister graduates from college on Saturday, Tim and I have our 8 year anniversary, and I'm going to NYC for a few days with my sister, my future sister-in-law, and my mom! I'm very much looking forward to sight-seeing and meeting up with family and old friends. I also have a lot of wedding planning to do during the break while I have time to really delve into things. My goals: book the venues, update our wedding website (AnaAndTim.ourwedding.com), and possibly take some engagement pictures. We know where we want the reception to be, we're just a bit unsure about the ceremony venue. I'm planning on tricking my mom into going to look at them with me... ;) I'm not sure if the engagement pictures will happen before school starts again due to Tim's work schedule conflicting with my fun schedule, but we have the whole summer before I head to Atlanta for the fall for clinicals, so I'm not too worried about it; although, I'd like to do it sooner rather than later so it's not so terribly hot.... well, hotter.

I got my really cute appetizer plates that I ordered from Southern Living At Home! They're adorable!! And they're in my colors! :)