1 Day-The Perfect Wife

I know, I know, I haven’t posted in like 10,000 days.

Here’s an update: We have some people who seriously love and care for us and have made us feel like a million bucks.  Our wedding venue has continually caused problems and the people here are super mean.  The place is GORGEOUS though.  The cake came to the venue tonight and well… 1/3 was smashed. haha. Fortunately, we found one really awesome person at the venue who is going to fix it, with lots of roses. WOO HOO!  More importanly, I will be a McNair in 10 hours!!

Now, down to business.

I have always imagined the perfect wife to be something like this:

Let me tell you something, I tried vacuuming in heels once, never again.

How on earth am I going to be the “perfect wife” if I don’t wear heels, pearls, and wake up with my hair perfectly curled?  I know that’s a bit dramatic, but I’m sort of serious.  I tend to set pretty high expectations for myself.

If you haven’t met Jeremy, you’re missing out.  He’s the most amazing man I know.  He is so respectful, absolutely hilarious, super considerate, and crazy talented.  (That’s just a few key points)  I make that point to say, I want to be the best possible wife that I can for him.  So… how is that possible?  Have you ever read Proverbs 31, cause when I was a kid I read that and basically decided I would fail at being a wife.

Recently, as I was praying over those verses I realized that this ideal was actually attainable and an excellent guideline.

The Woman Who Fears the LORD

¹⁰ An excellent wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.

This is exactly what I want to be, unfortunately, I’m far from perfect, so how do I get there? 
¹¹The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
¹²She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.

I think this is something our society sort of scoffs at.  But I don’t want to mock Jeremy around other people, I don’t want to complain about him to my girlfriends.  I want to give him every reason to trust me. 
¹³She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
¹⁴She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar.
¹⁵She rises while it is yet night
and provides food for her household
and portions for her maidens.
¹⁶She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.

Granted, I’m probably not going to travel much farther than our local Target or an occasional health food store for our groceries, but that’s not really the point. Instead, it’s about a woman who is willing to work hard and seek out to the best for her family. It highlights the beauty of a woman who treats everyone equally and puts others first, even if it means inconveniencing herself and waking up early. 
¹⁷She dresses herself with strength
and makes her arms strong.
¹⁸She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.

A good wife cares for her body, is wise with her money, and uses it in a way that will produce a fruitful return. 
¹⁹She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
²⁰She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
²¹She is not afraid of snow for her household,
for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
²²She makes bed coverings for herself;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
²³Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.

Her husband is well respected among other men. This is key.  A man has got to be doubly respected at home.  
²⁴She makes linen garments and sells them;
she delivers sashes to the merchant.
²⁵ Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
²⁶She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
²⁷She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

The previous 4 verses explain how a wife not only does well for herself, in her kindness, wisdom, talent, and hard work, she brings respect to her husband.  What man wouldn’t be proud of a wife like this???
²⁸Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
³⁰ Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
³¹Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.

Here’s my final take.  Look at the characteristics that drive this woman.  No, you probably won’t buy a vineyard and plant it, and you may not know what a distaff is, but you can match the characteristics of this Godly woman and bring respect and honor to yourself, your husband, your children, and your God.

I don’t have to wear heels and pearls when I vacuum and scrub the toilets, but I owe it to myself and to my amazing husband-to-be to do all I can to bring honor and respect to our family.  These verses are the absolute best formula for that.  I know I won’t do it perfectly, but now I have a guideline.

In 10 short hours I marry the man of my dreams and I pray that through the rest of our lives we shine Christ’s light and are unashamed to tell of how wonderfully he blesses us.

31 Days-Wedding Planning on Steroids

This past weekend we had a couple’s shower there that has been planned since January and that I thought would never arrive! We also hadn’t finalized the perfect taste for our cakes, needed to completely start over with our wedding flowers, and hosted a baby shower for a good friend of ours.  This all had to happen between 9 am and 8pm on Saturday because we arrived late Friday and were leaving at 4am so that we could be back into town to drop off the dog at my place and get to church by 8. No big.

Hence the“Wedding Planning on Steroids” title.

Amazingly at 9am, we met with the florist whose name was Blossom.  BLOSSOM! Jeremy balked when he realized this, I forgot to warn him and I’m really glad he didn’t snicker when we met her! The woman was born to be a florist.  She was wonderfully helpful and between my mother and I we managed to arrange for a floral arrangement within our price range and according to our tastes in 30 minutes. Score.

Off to the bakery.  Oh my heavens! We tried custom-made cupcakes to decide on the perfect flavors and, they are, without exaggeration, the BEST cupcakes I’ve ever had.  Jeremy even blogged about it he liked them so much.  His cake will be devils food, with chocolate buttercream, and chocolate Bavarian filling. YUM!!!  My cake will be a simple 3 tiered white cake that is all moist vanilla, with buttercream icing, and Bavarian cream filling.  I cannot tell you how excited Jeremy and I are about the Bavarian filling, it’s beyond wonderful. No fondant for us, it makes for some pretty cool designs but I am not at all a fan of the taste. Plus, these cakes will be on display for maybe and hour and then we will devour them, why would I spend $800 on that?

2 tasks down and it was only 10:30!

All I really have to say about the shower is, wow.  I cannot believe the number of people who showed up to support us and the thoughtful gifts everyone gave.  Thank you, thank you!  We were so crazy blessed by everyone.

Next, stop back by my parents house, say hello to my sister and nephews, run to Wal-Mart to get final items for our friend’s baby shower.

We were running on adrenaline and by Sunday afternoon Jeremy passed out on the couch and I barely made it upstairs to my room before I was totally knocked out.

It was well worth it.

I still need to figure out the candies for the candy bar, we need to write our vows, finalize our wedding music, make our programs, and I hope and pray that is it!!!  At this point, if we forgot something. Oh well.  We’re getting married June 11^th, and that is the whole point of all this madness anyways!

38 Days-Contemplating Married Life

Today has been a very “married” day.  This seems to be happening more and more frequently, and I LOVE it.

This morning on my way to work I was feeling a little queasy, but figured it would pass.  At the gas station I started feeling downright nauseas and then realized that I had locked my keys in my car. Score.  Fortunately, I was at QT (the greatest gas station chain ever created) and there were very nice people inside who gave me a phone book, and a very nice customer who suggested a reasonable locksmith. By reasonable I mean, they demanded our first born, but hey, it’s better than their competitors who demanded all of our eventual offspring.

While this is happening I text my mother-in-law to be to see if she knows anyone in the area.  Meanwhile, as I peruse the yellow pages my stomach decides it would rather not keep the smoothie I had for breakfast, so I nonchalantly head to the sparkling clean QT bathroom, and return to call the locksmith.  Aside from the poor lady washing her hands as I rushed in, I don’t think anyone else could tell I was sick.

Then, I text Jeremy and he immediately has several rescue options available.  One involved driving 6 hours for a spare key.  That’s true love. 🙂

Needless to say, I’m feeling terribly so I went home and Jeremy showed up soon after and made me chicken noodle soup.  We ran a few errands, but I didn’t last long, so he brought me home.  Despite feeling miserable, my body does not want to sleep, so I’m quietly typing away as my hubby-to-be rests on the couch before work. I’m just in a rather contemplative mood and enjoying just being together.

I love the simplicity of it all.

I love him.

I love that I’m going to be his wife.

Oh my!  I need to wake him up!!!

Oops!  Well, he’s up and getting ready to head to work.

This week has been crazy for us.  But it’s great because it’s leading up to an awesome couples shower!! (how do you spell that any ways?  Is it an apostrophe in reference to a shower for the couple, or is it just an s as in multiple couples who will be attending??? My inner English major periodically rears its nerdy head. Excuse me.)  We also have a meeting with a new florist (I know it’s late to meet with a florist… there will be another blog with flower details) My fabulous sister, and maid of honor, has taken care of all of our cake details, so we will do a little bit of cake testing this weekend as well.  I’m SO excited!

No big news right now, which is why the blogging has been rather infrequent.  Mostly drama with the flowers and I’ll blog about that once it’s settled. 🙂 I found a fabulously simple bouquet from one of the photographers I blog stalk. 🙂 So, in case you’re terribly curious, here is what I’m hoping the bridesmaids’ flowers will look like:

38 days until I’m Mrs. McNair.

Get ready to read about my cooking attempts, our RSVP’s, new workout options, and more.  The days are ticking by and I LOVE it!!

58 Days- Wedding Photography and Embarrassing Confessions

I’m just going to begin this wedding blog by kindly asking that you do not judge me.

I’m serious.

I’m about to talk about a subject that makes me feel like one of the most conceited and self absorbed people on the planet.

Jeremy and I have always sort have been the designated “photographers” in our families.  When my parents gave me my first camera in high school, I fell in love.  I love to capture my nephews catching crawdads in the creek, playing football, or jumping ramps on their BMX bikes.  I love getting family pictures on the holidays, flowers in spring, pulling over to capture old rundown buildings, and capturing the clouds as the sun streams through them.

I love pictures.=

Jeremy and I would love to eventually have our own photography/Graphic Design company. Needless to say, we wanted to get some pretty phenomenal engagement pictures.

Engagement Session #1: We found an awesome photographer at a Bridal Extravaganza last year. Jeremy loved the pictures we took with her and I liked them pretty well. We decided we wanted her to do our wedding. Soon after, she drastically changed her style and didn’t do the things she said she would.

Ouch.

Jeremy and I started scouring Craigslist.

Engagement Session #2: Some good friends of ours started their own photography business so we said we’d be their models to help build their portfolio.

They took some really great pics, but we still needed a wedding photographer.

Okay…

Engagement Session #3: After several weeks one of us found some pretty awesome newbie photojournalism grads. Cool, right? We loved their wedding photography, contacted them, and they wanted to do an engagement session with us to get to know us and build their portfolio… Eh… We already have two… Oh well, it’ll help them.  We said yes.

Oye!

Turns out the engagement pictures weren’t at all what we expected.  They really captured the day, but we also ended up looking frightening in many of the pictures. Ech! Then they took wedding pictures of good friends and we liked what they did, but the style was entirely different than the wedding we had initially seen…

Oops.

They aren’t bad, just not at all what we expected.

Recently we sat down and really considered the situation:

If pictures are the most important part of the wedding day (aside from being married) do we want to settle for good photographers who aren’t at all our style? No. Since we hadn’t signed a contract, just in case, I signed up for free engagement sessions assuming we’d never actually win.

Well, we won.

Oh dear.

We vowed not to tell anyone, essentially to avoid looking like the single vainest couple in existence.

Then the pictures ended up amazing and were exactly what I’d envisioned. We clicked so well with the photographer that she offered to do our wedding for ridiculously cheap without us asking.

*Click the pic to go to her blog*

Oh man, now what?

I was actually embarrassed to tell my mom, afraid she’d think we were being silly and vain.  Amazingly, our parents really rallied behind us, because they understand how important photography is to us. They actually encouraged the switch.

So, we broke up with our second set of photographers and have finally decided on having Jenny Linh Photography shoot our wedding.

3rd times a charm, right?

61 Days-Suspenders, Wedding Workouts, and a Realization

Jeremy wore suspenders to church yesterday. Have I mentioned before that I have the COOLEST fiancé that has ever existed?  It’s true.

I’m not sure if Ryan Gosling wore suspenders over his white button up in The Notebook, but he should have.  That’s what Jeremy reminded me of today, except way more handsome.

I’m so excited for Jeremy and the groomsmen to sport their suspenders at the wedding!!!

Did I mention that renting suspenders from Men’s Wearhouse is free? Free! Awesome!

I know I said I’d write about my new workout buddy on Friday, but I just didn’t set time aside for that.  Sorry!

I need to make a confession: I’ve been getting bored with P-90X.

I’m just so used to changing things around and running more than anything else that working out in my bedroom or living room to the same 10 videos week-in and week-out has bored me.  So, I decided I would find someone to run with.  Since one set of neighbors scream at each other in the backyard and the other set is well… special… I don’t think I’ll ask either of those ladies to run, but I NEED to work out.

I am leash training Jeremy’s and my Australian Shepherd who doesn’t get enough exercise as it is… His big problem is tugging and if we’re running that problem should no longer exist. Good idea, right?  I’ll let you decide.

First 3 minutes: Lincoln runs into the road, zig zags in front of me and almost trips me 4 times.

3-6 minutes: We run north on the sidewalk & Lincoln tries to chase cars going south.

6-9 minutes: Lincoln clotheslines himself, sideways, on a stop sign.  Since he didn’t even yelp, I laughed, pretty hard.

9-12 minutes: Lincoln tries to Hoover vacuum leaves into his mouth as we run.

12-15 minutes: A tree is trapped between Lincoln and me by the leash and abruptly brings us to a halt.  Time to walk.

Next day: I try to walk Lincoln to the mailbox and he tries to run. Leash training ruined. *Head in palm*

Oh well, he’s cute, right?

On another note, today I had a humbling realization.  I believe I’m pretty blessed: I live in a free country, a have a phenomenal (suspender wearing) fiancé, a loving family, a college degree, a home, health, and most of life’s basic conveniences.

I’m pretty blessed.

Today I thought for the first time I realize that lacking something bodily or mentally is not a curse, and it’s not something evil God has done. Sight, use of my limbs, and being disease free are blessings.

We live in a country of people who feel pretty entitled to life’s comforts.  Who decided that we deserved these things?  Who decided that lacking in any area was a wrong to us?

If I see a child who is born blind I’m devastated for them and wonder, why?  Shouldn’t my thought instead be: How blessed I am to have this extra gift?

I need to treasure what I have and never grumble if there is a “lack” I never earned it or deserved it in the first place.  All the good that I have is a gift.

This certainly brightens my perspective on life.

————————————————————————————–

News Flash: We still need to figure out music and the wedding cake!  GAH!

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Suspender Photo Credits:

Top left and bottom right: http://www.mywedding.com/blog/real-couples/real-weddings/cassandra-joshuas-farm-wedding-from-forget-me-knot-weddings/

Top Right: http://onadaphotography.net/blog/wedding-sarah-tim/

Bottom Left: http://greenweddingshoes.com/real-wedding-andrea-wes-san-diego-wedding/

Center: http://weheartit.com/tag/groomsmen

65 Days-Facebook Proved It:He Can Deny It No Longer

If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, you’ll know that Jeremy and I have been dating quite awhile. On top of that, we’ve known each other since the 6th grade. Longer than I can recall, Jeremy and I have disagreed about when we became friends. I have always been determined that we were friends in the 6th grade but he claims that we weren’t friends until later.

Please note that the following statements are grossly exaggerated.

His argument is based on his idea that he was “the poster child for the nerd population” and I was “in the group of superpopular, superhuman people.”  (He even wrote a blog about it)

While we were in different groups in middle school, I always thought Jeremy was fun to hang out with. As proof, I have a very vivid memory when, in the midst of my “superpopular, superhuman” friends, someone over the school’s loudspeaker announced that Jeremy had gotten the part of the Jester in a school play. I cheered super loudly for him in the middle of class with no qualms.

Obviously, I always loved him. 🙂

Sadly, this memory dates to the 7th grade and only supports Jeremy’s claims.

Now, I have evidence to support the fact that we were, in fact, friends in middle school, despite our different “social status’ ”. I friend of mine from middle school randomly messaged me on Facebook a few weeks ago to let me know that she had found a picture of my fiance from 6th grade. Anxious to see, I opened the link to find something even better: Not only is Jeremy in the picture, I am sitting right next to him!!! In addition, I do believe our elbows are touching! *gasp*

Ta Da! Our very first photo together, in the 6th grade. When I tried to show Jeremy, the link was disabled and he couldn’t see it!!

Seriously???? 

Somehow he did some ultra photo stalking and found it, and then today I was tagged  in the picture so I was fianlly able to see it again! YES! 

Social Networking rocks.

I have now saved it and will post it on my blog for the world to see!

Not only must this go into the wedding scrapbook, Jeremy can no longer deny that he and I have been friends since the 6th grade. Here we are, in all our awkward glory, on a 6th grade field trip to the Alamo.

Tomorrow I’ll let you know about my new workout buddy and the plans to take part in the Word Press 5k!

67 Days-Yet Another Potentially Deadly Wedding Escapade

Don’t expect any cute fuzzies today. 

If you have been reading along, Jeremy and I have already had a pretty crazy encounter with a boiling hot metal ring and a mall fire. Today I faced another potentially deadly nemesis and didn’t recognize the full magnitude of my danger until the deed was one.

This morning after I was licking every single envelope seal for our wedding invitations I realized… Maybe that was a bad idea.

I have three nephews who are, well, boys. They love bugs, dirt, football, and put absolutely everything in their mouths as children.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve said:

 “Don’t put that in your mouth”

“Spit that out”

“Do you have any idea how dirty that is?”

“Do not eat that off the floor!”

“The five second rule is not a real rule!”

All of the reprimands came rushing back as I licked envelope, after envelope, after envelope.  I was on a roll and was, quite honestly, too lazy to go get a damp sponge and a bit worried that I would drown the invitations we’d worked so hard on. While I’m sure soggy invitations would be a topic of conversation, it’s not the kind of topic I would aspire to be the central figure of.  As I licked, thoughts trickled in.

“What exactly does this adhesive consist of?”

“How many creatures have walked across this and left their nastiness behind?”

Still I licked.            

“How harmful is this in mass quantities?”

“Should I take antibiotics or something just in case?”

By the time I finished I was so pleased that I ignored the consequences.  Out of curiosity and, admittedly, a bit of fear, I looked up possible negative side effects… Oye

Anthrax

40 Calories Gained (which is not okay because I didn’t do P90X this morning! 🙂 )

Paper Cuts

“Roach Jelly”

Malpractice where mop water was used to dilute adhesive

Cockroach eggs in small cuts in my tongue

To rub it in, e-how provided me with this lovely visual:

Gag.

While some of these side effects are ridiculous, others are too realistic to completely ignore, like anthrax.  Just kidding! I’m more worried about baby roaches inside of me. I suppose I should have listened to my own advice on this one.  Lord Jesus, please don’t let me get sick!

Advice: If you don’t have 72 hours to completely redo your invitations, buy envelope seals or envelope moisteners. While I’m sure I don’t have anthrax, this morning’s activities were probably not my brightest.

On the Bright Side: The invitations are lovely and in the mail!!!!!!!  Because of the small venue size, were only able to invite family and a few close friends, but we’re super excited for each of those people to attend! Plus,  it’s finally close!!!! YAAAYYYY!

P.S. Ironically enough, my blog was rather nasty today while Jeremy’s was quite sweet (in his witty/comical way).

68 Days-New Invitations, New Tuxes, and Being Too Sentimental

On Saturday we managed to accomplish a ridiculous amount, I worked, and we went to my girlfriend’s out-of-town wedding (which was stunning) all before the wedding planning began.

Remember our invitations?

Our wedding colors were entirely unheard of 14 months ago so finding them on anything was rather exciting. The fact that the invitations looked more like something that should say “Come Celebrate Bobby’s Fifth Birthday at the Howbowkentown Carnival” didn’t seem to cross our minds.

Plus, they came on cheap cardstock. Cardstock!!!

Classy.

To add some pizzazz Jeremy designed cards with our wedding website to match the invitations. At Fed-Ex we discovered this purchase might be a little more than we were hoping for, that our printed sample came out a gillion shades darker than the invitations, plus they were printed on better quality paper than the invitations. Joy.

At this point I am working very hard to take even breaths to avoid hyperventilation or a panic attack.

In the midst of our frustration the truth came out:

One of us hinted at not loving the invitations,

I mentioned the cheap paper they were printed on,

Jeremy teased about the childish design,

and I finally said I was embarrassed to send them out.

That did it for him; Jeremy decided we needed to go to Target to look at nice paper and said he would design invitations. The man is paid to produce graphic design work for other people, why on earth did he not design our invitations in the first place? Why were we so sentimental about those stupid Etsy invitations?????

At Target we found affordable, classy, invitation sets. Even better, the money we were going to spend on business cards and stamps for the other invitations was almost exactly the same as what we’d spend on the new ones. Excellent.

Next, we went to a new Men’s Wearhouse and Jeremy let them know we had sort of been coerced into ordering all of the bells and whistles at another Men’s Wearhouse and were hoping for a better experience. Excellent approach.

The lady was immediately ready to prove how much better their Men’s Wearhouse was and ended up putting together a package for our groomsmen for under $80! That’s HALF of what we were originally going to spend.

Sunday afternoon we explored Michael’s to find ribbon to add color to our new invitations. Michael’s is AMAZING. They have TONS of ultra-affordable wedding items.

Why did no one tell us about these stores??

Along with ribbon we found red wax to make monogrammed seals. Unfortunately, wax seals are not easy to produce.

Something tells me that drops of red wax on white paper and incomplete seals are not going to fit the classy look we hoped for! Plan B: wrap ribbon around to add a subtle burst of color.

Before evening church I cut ribbon, failed at making seals, and Jeremy worked on putting together the designs for our invitations. He’s the best. We only solidly decided on 2 songs. Haha You may be hearing about that to-do in a future post.

After our evening service I spent FOREVER wrapping ribbons around each invitation sleeve. If you don’t know me well, I sleep at night so staying up is a struggle.  To my delight, I woke up LONG before daylight to hail I thought was going to shatter my window! Special.

On the bright side:

I spent a ton of time with the love of my life. 

Jeremy saved the day. He comforted me and took over when I was stressed and emotional. 🙂

We have elegant invitations now!

Advice: Don’t spend hundreds on invitations: go to Target, Michael’s, or Hobby Lobby first!

75 Days-The Wedding Nazi

We’re getting married in the courtyard of a stunning mansion and having our reception in the ballroom. One of the MAIN reasons I chose this venue was because of picture opportunities.

Aside from actually being able to marry Jeremy, the 2nd most important part of the day for me is the pictures. The lobby of the main mansion is the PERFECT spot for a First Look.

Remember how our lovely venue let us know there would be another wedding on the same day and at the same time as ours?

Well… Apparently that means we are NOT ALLOWED inside the mansion for any pictures. What?

Calmly I suggested letting the other bride take pictures out in the courtyard while we took pictures inside for 15 minutes so we could both take advantage of all the lovely areas on the venue’s grounds. What response did I receive?

*Plastered fake smile* “Well, we wouldn’t want our other bride interrupting your day in any way, and we would expect the same courtesy from you.”

“I completely understand, the last thing I would want would be to ruin her day, I simply would like to schedule a time around 8:30am to take a few shots indoors, as this was one of my main reasons for choosing the mansion.”

“Right, right, of course.” *dramatic pause with fake smile* “As I said, we wouldn’t want your day interrupted and we expect the same of you. Everyone would be setting up at that time and we wouldn’t want you in the way. I can certainly talk to the other bride’s coordinator and see.”

30 minutes later

“I’ve spoken to the other coordinator and she doesn’t know her bride’s schedule so you can take pictures outdoors from 8:30-9:30am and if just maybe there is a small moment of time where there isn’t traffic indoors and I can’t see the whites of the other bride’s eyes, I’ll snag you so you can go inside for one minute to take a picture and run out. Okay?” *fake smile* “I think this is a wonderful compromise.”

WHAT? WHAT? Did you hear what you just said, woman? At this point I’m so disappointed and sad that I’m not going to argue with her. I may have almost cried.

I’m not picky about a lot of wedding details, but pictures are a HUGE deal for me. We’ll see how this goes, cross your fingers! I’ll keep you updated.

Despite this disappointment, the weekend was quite fun: Jeremy and I had great time with my family, planned our wedding shower with some wonderful women, registered for more kitchen essentials at Macy’s, did a little shopping and Jeremy bought me a yellow purse! Gasp

For those of you who know me at all, I HATE yellow. It’s pretty on flowers, babies, and other people, but NOT on me. When yellow gets anywhere near my face some crazy metamorphosis happens and I immediately turn into one of the following:

Needless to say, this is not the most attractive look for anyone.

Sadly, Jeremy loves yellow. So, as a compromise he has attempted to squeeze yellow items into my wardrobe and now my accessories. Amazingly, I LOVE the purse and it’s no where near my face, so all is well! 🙂

Plus, it’s from Fossil and we LOVE fossil. We also got our groomsmen gifts there, but I won’t go into too much detail in case any of them happen upon the blog. 

Have a great day and watch out for the wedding Nazis!!!

80 Days: Wedding Party, Colors, and Attire

Here is just a glimpse of what came in our packages!

Yay!! I can’t wait to see my precious little cousins and handsome nephews walking down the aisle with these! My cousins, well, I don’t know the proper wording for this relation… They are my cousin’s twin daughters… So, 2nd cousins? 1st cousins once removed?
Eh, anyways, they are SO precious! My nephews are 3, 8 and 13 (or will be by the wedding date). Do you know how hard it is to figure out how to give a special position to an 8 and 13 year old in a wedding?
The three year old was easy: Ring bearer. The eight year old will be a ring bearer too, even though he’s bordering on the age limit. The thirteen year old is the hardest. He’s too old to be a ring bearer, but he’s too young to be a groomsman. But we want him standing up with the rest of us because it’s a big family affair.
Really though, our wedding party is strictly family: siblings, brothers-in-law, cousins, and nephews. There was NO WAY we’d leave my oldest nephew out, but his age has made discovering the best position difficult. We’ve pretty much settled on junior groomsman but really wished we had a junior bridesmaid to match. Oh well, all the family will have a part, and that’s what matters most!

(If you have any suggestions for cool roles for my 13 year old nephew to play, I’m willing to listen. The only thing he can’t be is an usher, we want him up front with everyone throughout the ceremony. )

This last week has been all about the wedding party. We picked out vests, shirts, ties, and tuxes at Men’s Wearhouse, which is FAR more helpful than Tuxedo Junction and has color matching with David’s Bridal which made the process a TON easier. Perhaps they are “too helpful”, in fact they are rather pushy. Unless you intend to rent every possible item them will let you know how tacky your options are, thus encouraging you to rent more and in turn spend more.

After a whirlwind oc coercion Jeremy and I realized we had ordered too much… Fortunately, we saw these pictures and got some fun inspiration.

Click the photo for a link to the entire wedding blog!

We at least know that the guys will be in black tuxes and at this point we’re thinking suspenders with “pool” skinny ties. They’ll definitely wear jackets, but we’ll take them off for some cool pictures and they don’t have to wear them during the reception.

My wonderful bridesmaids have all already ordered and picked up their dresses which are “apple red”.  This is just an image taken from the David’s Bridal website and not, in fact, any of my bridesmaids. 🙂

Yay for getting things done!!!

A final note of advice: Please don’t let yourself be coerced into something you don’t want or you don’t think is right for the wedding.  If the etiquette doesn’t line up exactly or the style is unique, but you and your groom love it, go with it. 

You should ENJOY your big day and the planning!