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. :)