Here comes 2011! YAY! :)

2010 is winding down! We've got a lot of things ready for the wedding and are working on pulling the whole thing together now. Way exciting. We've got a DJ now and are finalizing things with ceremony musicians, got the place, got the dress, got the guy... pretty much ready to go! :) We'll be ordering bridesmaid dresses soon, ordering invitations, and finalizing the food, flowers, and general decor soon. Lots to do! Here's a peek at some of the things we've got going on!

 

I had a wonderful Christmas. Every year I feel so lucky for all my friends and family, and this year was no different. Tim and I spent our last unmarried Christmas spending time with family and it was great! Until I gave him my cold and he was confined to bed.... haha.

I also got to go to Disney the week before with a couple of pretty awesome girls.... That was pretty epic and will require a blog of its own. :)


Things I'm looking forward to in 2011

1. Getting married

2. Graduating

3. Moving OUT of my parent's house and IN with Tim and Voltron

4. Kate and Fern's weddings (I love that my family is growing in all directions!)

5. Gisela's graduation (this requires a trip to NYC in December, so double yay)

6. Putting together a home

7. Sharing tons of firsts as husband and wife

8. My first "real" Christmas tree

9. Being an actual PT instead of a student

10. Learning to cook for two. (I've kinda got cooking for 1 down... when I need to. Tim and I have different tastes in foods, though, so this will be interesting!)

Things that Tim is looking forward to in 2011

1. Marrying me.
2. Our honeymoon
3. Not being sick. (he has a cold that I so graciously gave him for Christmas)
4. More Star Trek books being published
5. Living together
6. "That's about it."

Music related folks drive me nuts.

I need help! I'm going nuts trying to figure out this music stuff. We're in need of ceremony musicians (preferably a string quartet) and a DJ for the reception who can play a mixture of salsa, pop, and more traditional wedding reception music.

We've only really talked with the Augusta Symphony Orchestra for the ceremony music, and I just really was not a fan of their attitude. I don't think it's too much for professional musicians to play the music that we choose for our wedding.

For DJs, I've been in contact with a couple and they really aren't following through with providing references or a sample contract. Kinda irritating when you email, speak with them on the phone, email some more, and you still don't get something you've been personally told is "not a problem" to supply.

SSSOOOOOooooo.... if you have any suggestions for ceremony musicians and/or DJs I'd super duper appreciate it. Thanks!

Happy birthday, Me!

Tim was able to take a bit of time off of work to come up to visit me for my birthday! He came up on Tuesday (the day before my birthday) and brought Voltron. It was soo great to come home from work and eat dinner together and watch Glee together and everything. I, of course, went to bed early while Tim read his book. Pretty much a perfect night. :)

On my birthday morning, I woke up and got to play with Voltron while I got ready for work. It was so fun! He gets so excited when you wake up so he can finally play instead of laying around. Too cute! Work was good - My CCCE, CI, fellow student, and I went to the Urban Market near Grady for some amazing burgers, fries, sweet potato chips, and milkshakes for lunch... Totally recommend Grindhouse Burgers if you're in the area! I got off of work a little early and came home to hang out. After a brief nap, we video chatted with my sister and had a wonderful breakfast themed dinner made by Jessica - breakfast pizza and cinnamon cake! So yummy! Juan, the older of my younger brothers, was able to come over for dinner, too. All in all it was a great family dinner! Jessica even gave me a platter off of our wedding registry as a birthday gift! Tim had to leave so he could be at work in the morning..... And then I moped around for a while. Two more weeks until I move back to Augusta and only about 6 more months before we get to go to bed together and wake up together every day. I'm so ready to not say goodbye anymore!!

Anyway, it was a great birthday! I so appreciated everyone who called, texted, and facebooked me. It definitely put a smile on my face every time my phone would buzz with a new email notification! :)

Down to the Details

For the most part, all the big stuff is decided on and booked and done. The only big thing that continues to elude me is the whole music thing. For some reason, anyone related to music in any way has decided to only occasionally semi-respond to my emails and/or phone calls. Come on, guys. You're supposed to be professionals. *sigh* Hopefully I'll be able to nail something down soon. Beyond that, we're really just working out the details now. It's crazy that we're at that point already! Hopefully it'll be pretty smooth sailing from here! Some of the details we're working on now are the wording of the invitations, finalizing the menu, finalizing the centerpieces, how we want to arrange the ceremony and reception, and choosing linens for the tables. With every item I cross off my to-do list, I can picture the day that much more clearly. I just want the day to be here and get married and dance and have fun! I'm excited to keep moving forward and piece the details of the day together. And even more excited that it's just over 6 months away!

Sick day. :(

I've been dealing with a cold all week and finally my voice is entirely gone on top of all the other cold symptoms. So, my CI told me to take the day off and hopefully tomorrow I'll at least feel better even if I don't yet sound it. But now I'm stuck at home in bed feeling yucky with nothing really to do all day. My plan: to catch up on TV shows as I fall in and out of drug induced sleep. Here's an update on some wedding plans:

We finally picked out wedding invitations! Yay! I'm excited about them. And we chose the fabric/color of the sashes for the chairs for the reception, so now we can turn our attention to napkins and tablecloths. Programs are pretty much done, just need to wait until it's closer to the wedding to print them. Found the ribbon for the cake and bouquets and my veil is pretty much done! I think my mom is putting off finishing it b/c she really wants me to wear it differently from how I want to wear it. We'll see. Now that I have my shoes I'll go try on the whole ensemble and we can try the veil both ways to see which I like better.

I've been playing with how I want to wear my hair. I've found some pictures of what I think would work well, and I'm really looking forward to trying them out when I get back home. I had my hair cut to a bob last year right before we got engaged, so it's just now getting past my shoulders. Still trying to figure out the music thing. I didn't appreciate the attitude that accompanied the Augusta Symphony Orchestra's string quartet and I've been directed to another organization so we'll see how that goes. DJs are crazy expensive. I've been in contact with one who is more reasonably priced but he hasn't really been returning my last couple of emails, so we'll see how it goes. That's pretty much it. Not too much going on lately. I'm definitely looking forward to being back in Augusta permanently so things can keep moving more consistently.

And now it's nap time. Hope this made sense. I'm kind of out of it....

:-)

My last couple of blogs haven't been too wedding-y, so here's a wedding filled one! First, I thought this video was wonderful. It starts out as the Father of the Bride's speech and turns into quite a production! Take a look here!

Second, I think the registry is complete! It's kinda hard to think about what you'll need when you've never needed to do it before. When I lived on my own in Milledgeville, Jessica already had practically everything. Same with Tim and his roommates. So it really is like starting from scratch. The things i'm most excited about from the registry are our casual china, cookware sets, mixer, and flatware. Our casual china is the perfect mixture of our tastes. When I saw it I could picture eating dinner, doing the dishes, and a color scheme to decorate with. The only problem is that they're seasonal, so we'll see what happens. We registered for two cookware sets: one non-stick and one stainless steel. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not that big into cooking, so the lower maintenance the better. My mom has the same non-stick set that I registered for and my cousin has the stainless steel set, so I've worked with both and really like them. As far as the mixer goes, everyone I know who has one swears by it. Its versatility in preparing meals (and desserts!) is especially attractive. The flatware that Tim and I settled on reminds us both of sets that our parents have/had while we were growing up. (Side note: I just said "were" growing up... That's weird because I definitely feel like I'm still growing up...) I held it in the store, which definitely helped me settle on it.

Third, I finally found shoes! Yay! They're everything I was looking for and fit quite well into our budget. Annndddd..... I don't know what else. It's like everything is happening all at once, but little by little things are falling into place. My mom and I were talking today about how we're both ready for me to move back home so we can actually get things done without needing a million texts, photo messages, and emails as part of the necessary process. Still need to work on finalizing our ceremony musicians, DJ for the reception, and rentals... and a bunch of tiny details. One of my bridesmaids, Amy, will be returning from Rwanda for a visit in a couple of weeks! I'm really excited to see her in person and catch up and do wedding stuff with her! It's going to be a busy time! :-)

A talk with Barbie

Last night Jessica, Blake, and I went to a Halloween party at their neighbor's house. There were quite a few crazy costumes! There were a lot of people, food, and drinks. :) As I was moving through the party meeting all the neighbors and chatting about costume choices (I went as a candy corn, by the way) I came across a woman dressed as Barbie. She showed me her pink purse and shoes to match her outfit, told me which house was hers down the street, bragged about her new dog, and then asked me what I do. When I told her that I'm finishing PT school and doing a clinical rotation at Grady she hugged me. She went on to tell me about her aunt who is in a rehab facility right now and is not expected to live much longer. She told me that every time she visits her aunt all she hears about is how the PT helps her walk around and encourages her in every thing she does. Barbie told me that she thinks encouragement is the most important thing that the PT provides for her aunt. She talked about this for a long time. I could tell that she really needed to talk to someone about her aunt, so I listened and let her talk. It really made me realize how physical therapy doesn't just affect the specific patients but their families, too. While her aunt is worsening medically, whatever activity she does with her physical therapist gives her and her family hope. Barbie seems to be having a hard time with her aunt's prognosis but appreciates anything that keeps her aunt doing as much for herself as she can. And she credits physical therapy with a huge part of that.

Hi, Me!

I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. It's amazing what being away from the stresses of the classroom can do for you! I didn't even realize how often I was having headaches until I stopped having them. I'm back to my generally happy self - less negative, more positive. My use of :) in texts and emails has even increased! It hit me over the weekend that I started to recognize myself again, and I really missed me.

Over the weekend, one of my oldest friends got married! It was a beautiful wedding and Kelly was glowing! I was very excited to see her so happy. It was so fun to spend a weekend with my girls and my fiancé celebrating such a wonderful event. We ate, danced, laughed, and ate some more. It was a perfect weekend.

I'll be heading back to Augusta this weekend for a fun-filled wedding planning weekend. Meeting with my coordinators, Carol and Dianne, catching up with my parents about a few things, and trying on the shoes that my mom found for my wedding day! Hope they work out!! :)

What to choose????

As we prepare to mail our Save the Dates to our family, a few loose ends have come up. First, we need to make sure that we have set aside enough hotel rooms in our blocks to accommodate our LARGE amount of out-of-towners. Our guest list has been relatively stable for the last couple of months so we can finally begin to plan with some real numbers. Second, we need to piece together our registries! :)

Jessica, my Matron of Honor, and I sat down with our laptops one Saturday and began going through Macy's and Bed Bath & Beyond's websites. I was so overwhelmed and glad to have someone who's been through it with me. Jessica was able to tell me what she actually uses, what she likes or doesn't like about certain products, and what she should have registered for. This helped me tremendously. And it allowed me to set a good base to go from when Tim and I get a chance to finish adding things. Jessica and I pretty much got through the kitchen stuff, and Tim and I have been slowly adding somethings here and there as we come across things. The items that have been the most difficult to decide on so far have been casual china, flatware, and bedding.

Tim has one request (well, it's really a demand) of the casual china. He wants them to be square shaped. This is a fun idea, so I'm on board with it. However, it did make it that much more difficult to find plates that are square and fit in with some sort of decor that I had in mind. (This "decor", by the way, is really more of a feeling at this point. I'm still trying to figure out what I want my "big kid" decorations to be like.) I was walking through Macy's one day and there they were - the perfect plates! Seeing them helped me envision how other things should look so that everything can flow well together. The only snag is that they're seasonal, so they may not be in stock until the wedding. We'll see. If we don't end up being able to get those, there were a couple of other settings I saw that could work and have a similar feel. But I really really like these, so hopefully it'll work out.

Flatware.... Tim and I both really like the same style of flatware. It's just really hard to find at an affordable price. It's really hard to find a balance between nice/durable/what we like and priced so that we may actually get it. Anyway, we'll see. Our ideal flatware has been "out of stock" for months according to the sales people, and the closest thing we could find is twice the price.... Maybe I'm worrying too much about it, but I'd hate to end up with 3 settings or worse, none at all. I also definitely have this fear about the dinnerware I talked about above.

As far as bedding goes. I still have no idea. I can't find anything that I can picture with our furniture or curling up with Voltron in. The search continues!

Any tips on the "Must"s and the "Must Not"s?

Getting down to it

It's starting to feel kinda close-ish! We have about 8 months before the wedding, so deadlines are approaching! We have a lot of stuff already taken care of but some things are still up in the air. Take my shoes for example...

So I fell in love with a particular pair of shoes. And when I say love I mean full-blown lust. I dream about these shoes. They're amazing. They're everything I never knew I always wanted. I heard that in a movie somewhere but it doesn't come to mind now. :) Anyway, come to find out they're over $400. That's so not happening. Sad face major. :( So I've returned to the search for shoes. I can't get my dress altered until I find shoes, but we still have time so it's no big deal. Yet.

Our Save the Dates are designed and about ready to go! The general layout and content of the programs has been set up, officiant booked, and a bunch of other fun stuff. It's been different working on things from Marietta. I work on things on my own time and at my own pace and then something comes up from Augusta that reminds me that I'm not doing this by myself. Ha. I'm grateful for the help and feedback, though. My parents have been great throughout this. They had a big wedding meeting with our coordinators yesterday. I was kinda upset that that I couldn't be there. It's weird, their planning my wedding without me. We had a big talk the other night, though, about what I've been thinking of and what Tim and I want, and judging from what they told me about the meeting they really presented that at the meeting.

I'm also thankful for our coordinators, Carol and Dianne of CPR Distinctive Events. They have kept an eye on the details as well as the big picture. I feel a lot better being away from everything and focusing on my clinical rotation knowing that they're there to make sure everything gets taken care of.

It's kinda weird not being at home. Everything's changing. My little sister is in NYC, my little brother is being smart and stuff at Tech, and my baby brother is going to be making a big change in his own life soon, and I'm planning my wedding. Life's nuts. And it doesn't get old. No matter how much time has passed, I still get crazy excited that Tim and I are getting married. I'm so excited and looking forward to being together all the time... as well as living with the puppy full time! This part-time mommy thing is not my favorite. Although, it felt really good seeing how excited he was to see me last weekend. He even blew off Tim to follow me upstairs! :) I love my Voltron!

I saw my first surgery today. And I didn't even get light headed or anything. Just like a big kid. It was awesome. It was a skin graft to bilateral hands on a 3 year old. Sometimes in hydro therapy when we're removing the surgical dressings we think, "I wonder why they did that..." It was really neat to be right there next to the surgeons when they were making those decisions so I could hear their train of thought. I've been working with this patient for a few days and will continue to follow him while he's at the hospital, so this will allow me to see the entirety of his care at Grady. My CI (clinical instructor) will be leaving for some personal reasons, so Monday I start with a new CI. I'm really nervous about it because I know that their personalities are so different. Hopefully it will be a smooth transition.

This weekend is one of my oldest friends', Kelly's, bachelorette party! I'm extra excited to spend the weekend with amazing friends celebrating Kelly's last few weeks as a fabulous single lady. And on October 2 she will become a fabulous MARRIED lady! Yay!! So excited for the next few weeks! :))))

Making a Plan

Over the last few months I've been slowly putting together the ceremony program as things have been getting more solidified. I was having some trouble figuring out the layout for the program, but thanks to Lorin that's not a problem anymore! She let me use her program as a template from which to work. This has been such a help because I was having trouble deciding what should go where and getting all he names of the bridal party to fit in an organized manner. As I went through I was trying to figure out he details of the ceremony; the readings and music definitely took the most thought. 

I knew one reading that I want, but I wasn't sure how many we should have and what any of the others should be. I asked Tim's opinion, but he wasn't too concerned with it. So I went to the best source I know for nice, romantic, classic, poetry and such - my sister. She graduated in May with a BA in literature, concentrating in British literature, and is now (officially as of this weekend) working on her master's degree in teaching so she can be a high school English teacher. I put her to work on it and before too long she had given me a list of poems/book excerpts that she thought may work for us. It was definitely easier to get Tim's feedback his way. After a few days of searching and reading and discussing dozens of poems, bible readings, and other book excerpts we finally found one that we think fits us! The amount of time and effort that took to find that one reading also helped us decide that we ate okay with just the two readings. :)

Music has been another thing altogether. I've looked for and listened to tons of music, but I didn't have a great idea of what I wanted. That's the thing about doing something different. Every wedding in my family has been the same - a Catholic ceremony in a churn with a full mass service and organ hymns. We're having a non-denominational service outdoors and we can basically do whatever we want with the ceremony. As much time as it took to find 2 readings, finding enough music for the ceremony took even longer. And after a while, all the songs I was listening to started to sound the same. With the help of my future big little brother (and his roommates), I think we may have the ceremony music finally figured out! I'm excited to show the songs to my parents and see what they think! It's mainly traditional music and a couple less traditional songs. Thank goodness for YouTube, which allowed me to actually hear the music similarly to what it would sound like; this definitely helped me figure it out. As fun as this wad to watch, you can definitely NOT expect to see this at our wedding.:)

Working in the burn unit has been awesome. I think I really can see myself doing his in the future, which is a relief since it's what I thought I wanted to do. I think I'd like to spend some time in the outpatient wound clinic to see different types of wounds as well. I've spent some time on the general acute floors, and it really wasn't doing it for me. We just did the same thing basically with every patient. It's interesting to see the dynamic here and compare it to what we've been told to expect. On gen acute they don't do any wound care, hat's he nurses' job. There's also so many patients that it's impossible for everyone to get seen ad they should. The PT department is definitely understaffed. They have been interviewing lately, so hopefully his will get better soon. On the burn unit, there's only 1 full time PT and 1 prn OT, so he only patients that get seen by PT are the ones who need hydro therapy or physical rehab for mobility. It's definitely different from what I expected and leads you to prioritize who needs PT the most and who can handle his/her wound care on his/her own. I hope to learn more and be able to take on more complex cases with less input from my CI. I'm gettib there! I've already got my own case load of more simple cases and am doing evaluations of all patients independently. Of course, the patients vary from day to day depending on how quickly the patients heal. That's one cool thing about it- there's always something new to see and learn about!

Hope all the rest of my classmates are having as rewarding an experience as I am!

A New Adventure

I spent the week between classes ending and moving to Marietta with one plan in mind: to have no plans. It worked out great for the first few days; then, I had to get somewhat structured to make sure I got everything done before I left. A lot of running around, running errands, and catching up with friends and family in those last few days! 

I got to see what my mom has been working up with my veil. It's beautiful! I'm so excited to try it on with the dress once it's finished. And it's extra special because my mommy's making it. :) We've hit a bit of a snag with the shoes I wanted (they're waaaayyyyy more expensive than we thought they were), so it's kind of back to the drawing board with those. I've got a couple of ideas up my sleeve, though. We've gotten a lot of other things done in the last few weeks, largely due to our wonderful wedding planners: Carol and Dianne of CPR Distinctive Events. They've helped us with finding our officiant, musicians, and a ceremony coordinator, choosing the chairs for the ceremony, deciding on the best layout for the reception, and generally keeping an eye on the details that make the big picture come together.

I spent my first few days in Marietta settling in and tying up loose ends with paperwork at Grady. Yesterday I spent 8 hours in a classroom doing orientation (so super awfully boring) and today I ventured into the wonderful world of Burn Physical Therapy. I was really nervous going in, but everyone was so great! My CI is so relaxed and handles my million questions wonderfully. I feel genuinely comfortable asking her anything, as well as doing the same with any other therapists there. In my first day, I assisted with hydro therapy treatments, wound care (debriedment, bandage changes, skin/graft care), taught a patient an HEP before being discharged, and did some documentation. The patients I worked with had crazy stories; a brief synopsis of one patient includes burns, a TBI, C and T spine SCI's, and a transmetatarsal amputation in addition to multiple comorbidities. It's such an eye-opening experience, especially having grown up in Augusta and this being my first in-patient rotation. I really hope I can cut it!!

From left to right: Jessica helping me put together my desk in my PURPLE room, Mr. Darcy napping after the drive to Marietta, and my new name badge that took attempts to make correctly. :)

Dear Double Sticks....

We did it! We finally finished our classes and can now venture out into the pseudo real world of PT! Such an amazing feeling to know that it's behind us and we made it through to the other side. Still kind of unbelievable, actually...

Ok, so you all saw me cry plenty Thursday night, but in case you still didn't know: I LOVE YOU GUYS AND I'M GOING TO MISS YOU SO MUCH! Seriously. We've been on this roller coaster together for the last 2 years and I couldn't have chosen better people to share that with. You guys kept me sane when I honestly thought I was losing my mind. The way we rally behind each other really shows me who we are. We take care of each other. I say this in present tense, because we're here. I'm here. For good. If anyone ever needs anything ever ever, I'm here. And the best part about it is that I know those feelings are reciprocated. We're the kind of close that doesn't go away. And if nothing else, see you all at graduation!!!!

Here are some pictures of some of my most memorable moments over the last couple of years that you were a part of. It was crazy looking back at pictures of the first summer, knowing how I never thought we would actually get to where we are now. And in less than 1 year, we will be Doctors of Physical Therapy! Woo-hoo!

P.S. - I love my paper plate award: Most Likely to Update Blog During Class! :)

best. dress. EVER.

In case you didn't already know... MY WEDDING DRESS IS IN!! :D I called Friday afternoon to check on the status of my dress since it was supposed to be in next month, and the woman told me it just arrived that morning! I was THRILLED! She asked when I wanted to come in. My response, "Um, right now!" After 7 lonnnnggg months (remember, I ordered it in January) I finally got to wear MY dress. And it was grand. I was elated. It was the first time I was wearing it in my size. The one I tried on in January had to be rolled up and clipped, so the only idea I had of the back of the gown was from the designer's pictures online. I stood in it and pranced in it, took an endless amount of silly pictures in it... I tried to talk my mom into letting me drive home in it. Of course, she wasn't having any of that. I also ordered my shoes and a little something for my hair. I wish I could plaster pictures all over here and Facebook! Alas, you will all have to wait to witness the fabulousness that is my bridal gown. ;)

Saturday, my mom and I chose and purchased the fabrics to make my veil. My mom made a practice one a few weeks ago. Up until that point I hadn't really been able to picture myself with a veil, but as soon as she placed the practice one on my head the whole picture came together. I could clearly see myself walking down the aisle. And now with my perfect dress here... I just couldn't picture it any other way.

Less than 10 months to go! :)

Food and Flowers

Amidst a family beach trip and a visit to my best friend/Matron of Honor (Hi, Jessica!) we actually managed to get a bit done over my mini summer break. A couple of things that have changed: we're going with green bridesmaid dresses instead of that bronze-ish color and a mixture of lavenders and greens for the flowers! So excited! :) We also decided to use a wedding coordinator to help pull together the details and organize the logistics of the set-up/take-down of everything; hopefully this will remove some of the stress from my parents so they'll relax a little more. Here are a few snippets of the new color scheme. The dress all the way on the left in the first picture is what the bridesmaids will be wearing!

Caterer

My parents interviewed with Roux's Catering and loved them! I couldn't go b/c I was doing some school stuff, but I've had their food before at other events and my dad's office uses them for their yearly Christmas party, so we're all familiar with their work. We're discussing the tid-bits of the menu so we can do our tasting and finalize it! Yumm! :)

Cake

I already chose a design, so now we're trying to find what to put inside of it! Our first stop along the cake tasting tour was Cake Occasions by Katie Jiminez. Her pound cake was good, but she doesn't do samples of different flavors.... soooo we would basically be purchasing a cake without ever tasting it before. And chocolate is a must around my family.


We also met with a woman who bakes/decorates cakes part time. She's done beautiful, yummy cakes for some of our family friends's events so we were glad to be able to talk with her about our the wedding. Her almond cake was great -- fluffy with a subtle taste of almond so it's not too strong. Her chocolate cake was oh so so so yummy!! Moist and rich... We brought some home with us, although it probably won't last too long as soon as my brothers realize it's there!

Flowers

The first florist we met with was at Cudos. It was the first time we really discussed what exactly we wanted for every aspect of the day. We're going to need a ton of flowers: large bridal party + a minimum of 20 tables + other miscellaneous arrangements... yikes! The woman was very nice, and handled my mother pretty well, but she's never been to Sacred Heart. She didn't even know where it is. It's kind of strange for someone who lives in Augusta to never have been to Sacred Heart and even moreso to not even know where it is. So, we'll see. I'm really excited about the prospect of including purples in the bouquets and centerpieces. Purple's been my favorite color since i was little, so I'm really pulling to have it included. My parents are having a bit more trouble visualizing it. They're more of the "show me an example in person that I can hold" type of people... so maybe once we get a few samples they'll be able to see what I'm picturing.


The next florist we met with was at Martina's. We made the appointment with no one in particular, so we were excited and surprised to find that the man we were meeting with was the same florist who did the flowers for my quinceañero! It was really neat to talk to someone who was a part of the planning process for that. It also made my parents feel better talking with someone who knows the venue, caterer, and area in general really well. He loved our ideas and was so well organized! The difference between him and the woman at Cudos was so obvious that it made it easy to make the decision. He was more organized, volunteered more ideas, was able to give us an estimate in a matter of minutes (the other woman took a week and gave an incomplete estimate even then), and was able to speak with experience. My mom and I left knowing that with Martina's everything would be taken care of and we could relax more about the big picture.




I'll make sure to post an update once we have everything officially booked and stuff. I'm really excited that these things are getting done now. I was a little worried about not being able to come home often enough to do wedding stuff while I'm in Atlanta this fall, but now I know that we have the most important things pretty settled. Knowing that we have the wedding coordinators to overlook everything and keep us on track is such a relief! Plus, having these things chosen helps me to picture the whole day more clearly. Before, I had some ideas but the only thing that was concrete in my mind was that Tim and I are getting married! Now I can see the where and the how and the colors and the evening unfolding. Can't wait!!! :)

Let's get the ball rolling again!

I hate school. This statement should sufficiently explain why I haven't done much wedding planning lately. I could elaborate, but this is a happy place. :) I have a little time off of school next week, so I hope to get at least the caterer booked. And maybe the cake.

For a caterer, I'm interested in Roux's Catering. I've had their food before and really like the menus they offer. Anybody have any other recommendations? We're pretty open, with the exception of "southern" type foods... They're good and all, but don't really seem to fit in with our wedding style.

I have a cake design picked out already (you're going to have to wait for pictures), so does anyone have any recommendations on bakers? I don't really like cake or icing a lot, so it needs to be especially yum. Otherwise, I'm tempted to go for funfetti. :) I tasted a few of Edible Artistry's cakes when we were putting together Kate and Kevin's engagement party cake, but the only one I really liked was the strawberry and that just doesn't feel wedding-y. I think I'd like an almond flavored cake, as that's what's traditionally used in Puerto Rico. By the way, the engagement cake was decorated beautifully, though, and the party went really well!

I'd reeeaaaalllllyyy appreciate any advice/recommendations on caterers or bakers! Thanks!!

Engagement Pictures!!!

Josh/Scot finished creating his masterpieces, so now I get to share them with you! They turned out SO GREAT! Seriously. I love everything about them. They're so natural. We didn't ever really pose for any of the pictures, we just walked and talked and laughed and were us. And he did such a wonderful job of capturing that.

Here are just a few of my favorites... Pretty much randomly chosen because they're ALL my favorites! :) Check out my Facebook page for the rest of them!

So so so so happy with them. Can't wait to hang a few on my wall and incorporate them into the wedding planning!!  I love that Josh was able to take these for us. It really made us so much more comfortable in front of the camera. If you know me, you know how awkward I can be. Especially when someone's staring at me! So it really made it easier and more relaxed knowing that our friend was on the other side of the lens. 

Joshua Lucas.... you're awesome. :)

Dress Your Wedding

Just thought I'd share this with you because I thought it was sooo funny! David's Bridal's website has this link where you can create your bridal party and dress them up! Neither my dress nor my bridesmaids' dresses are from David's Bridal, but I couldn't resist creating a "close-enough" representation just for fun -- with the exception of my dress, which DOES NOT resemble the dress in the picture! The funniest part to me is figuring out which bridesmaid is which! Haha! There are very limited options for the actual person, so sometimes the differences were made to just be able to differentiate between the girls! Check out our wedding website to see if you can tell them apart! AnaAndTim.OurWedding.com The colors, people, and flowers aren't quite right, but you get the idea. :)

Click here to make one for yourself!

Thanks for showing me this, Kate! It definitely kept me entertained for a while over the weekend!

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! :)

I ♥ Macy's!

Over the last few months I've been starting to think about what kinds of things to register for. Tim lives on his own, and I did while in undergrad, so we already have some things, but I've been trying to fill in the gaps of what's missing and what really should just be replaced. I know that I have plenty of time to work through this before I need to actually put together a registry, so I've been focusing a little more on trying to choose styles, themes, patterns, etc. One thing that I keep coming back to is china. 


Surprisingly, Tim has had a lot of input about our everyday china. For the most part, Tim is the typical "You figure it out and tell me when to show up" groom, so I really enjoy when some random aspect of wedding planning catches his attention. Even if it is the shape of the dinner plates. Tim has taken a very strong Anti-Circular Plates stance in preference of square plates. :) Too cute. I think we're going with stoneware for our everyday china... something in a pretty blue or green maybe?

As for our fine china... I found a pattern that I thought I liked (Waterford - Alana), but I couldn't find it in any stores here. When I asked a salesperson at Bed Bath & Beyond about it, he said that they're not carrying it in the stores anymore because it didn't sell very well. He also was able to describe what it looks like in person to me, which is important because the same picture can look different on every computer screen. From his description (and a few other people's corroboration of it) I decided against choosing it. So I decided to let it rest for a while and I would search more later. Then, when I was waiting for Voltron to be done at the groomer's, I stepped into Bed Bath & Beyond to kill some time and I came across a china pattern that caught my eye.  In addition to being beautiful in person, they had a 40-piece 8 person setting that was on sale for half its price! This definitely piqued my interest. So, being the nerd that I am, I researched customer satisfaction ratings for this item. Everyone said great things about it! I wasn't sure if I should go ahead and purchase it now or if I should just wait and register for it and see what happens, so I asked a few family and friends about it and they encouraged me to go for it. A few days later, I got a Macy's advertisement in the mail for their one day sale that priced the same 40-piece set for even less! Coupled with a gift card that I got from my super-duper future sister-in-law (or in wedding chat talk: FSIL... haha..i'm a dork...) and a store credit my mom had, we ended up getting 8 settings for less than the price of 1! I couldn't be happier about this decision. I love every piece in this pattern, and am so excited to have gotten such a great deal on it!

So, here it is! Mikasa - Parchment in all it's glory. :)

I also went to my first Southern Living at Home party at my other FSIL's house, where I purchased some really cute appetizer plates they had in my wedding colors. Super excited to get those in! It's fun to start seeing things like this come together. Every little thing is like a reminder that this is actually happening and we're actually getting married. When I showed the china to my youngest brother, he said, "It's fancy. It's like Mom's plates." It was really funny to me to have a comparison made with my parents' wedding things... because they're adults. It's hard for me to feel like an "adult" a lot of the time because I'm still in school and still living with my parents, but sometimes the little things (like buying some plates) make me realize that I am an adult. And adult things are happening in my life. Like getting married. :) So so happy.

Spring Break - Woo-hoo!!

FINALLY!! I get a few days to not stress too much about school.  Of course I'll be spending quite a bit of time on my research and other school projects, but at least I can do that from home. (PS - I left my lunch box in the fridge at school, so I'm hoping no one throws it out.) I'm definitely looking forward to relaxing, shopping, maybe some tanning, and just catching up on life. As soon as school starts back I'll go back into my hole for a couple of intense weeks, so I'm hoping to make the most of my free time while I have it.

I think I've got the BM dress issue figured out -- I've even gotten my mother on board with the knee-length dresses! When I sent out the options to my bridesmaids a majority of them showed a preference for one particular dress and the others selected it as their second choice, so I'm pretty sure it's settled! This is super exciting (and relieving) to me. I'm still in the process of figuring out some accessories, but progress has been made! I'm soooo glad that we have so much time in which to decide everything because I can't imagine having only a few months to plan EVERYthing. I mean, it's taken me months of sifting through BM dresses to find one that would work!

I know it seems like I may be stressing too early about things that I have plenty of time to figure out, but my little sister/Maid of Honor is graduating from undergrad college in May (suma cum laude, of course!) and will be leaving for grad school either in June or August, depending on which school she chooses, so I really want her to be here while I plan at least the big things so that she can be a part of it. It'll be strange having her so far away since the closest school she applied to (and has already been accepted to) is NYU. We're so used to seeing each other a minimum of every other weekend, and we spend quite a bit of time on the phone, so it'll definitely be hard to try to plan such an important day without her right next to me. We share a brain. For real. If you've ever seen us together, you know what I mean. I ♥ her and I'll miss her tons.

In other news, Masters week is upon us. To those of use who live in Augusta, this means a minimum of 30 minutes longer to get into restaurants, traffic making a 15 minute drive into a 1.5 hour drive, crazy out-of-towners trying to cross Washington Road on foot while cars have the right-of-way, and general overpopulation of the entire city until the tournament is over. I plan to be a hermit and leave my house as little as possible until everything is back to normal. With the exception of wedding planning trips, of course! I have to choose a priest and meet with him for the "Go ahead" before I can set a date (yay for Catholic red tape, right?) so I'll be making the church rounds throughout the next few weeks to get an idea of different priest styles. Exciting stuff!!

Alright. Back to doing nothing. :)