To Give Thanks

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  Not only is the food some of my absolute favorite foods I also really enjoy spending time with family and the true meaning behind Thanksgiving.  I try and take time frequently to remind myself of all of the blessings in my life to be thankful for, but sometimes life gets hectic and it is easy to forget.  It is nice to have time set aside every year to remind us to stop and be thankful for all the wonderful things we are given.  So on this glorious holiday here are just a few of the things I am thankful for:

• My wonderful family
• My amazing friends- I really do think I have some of the most amazing friends a girl could ask for!
• My health
• My job and it being in a city that I appreciate
• My cats and dog (I know, I know- but they really are wonderful companions and they make me happy)
• Diet Coke (call it an addiction, but a nice diet coke really can make it all better)
• Hulu (that little invention has saved me a ton of money in cable bills!)
• Grooveshark.com (especially when my Pandora has run out)
• Fall (the weather, the trees, all of it!)
• Beautiful photography
• A good glass of wine
• Days off with nothing to do but lounge around
• Sweat pants, yoga pants, and scrubs (I really would wear them everyday if I could-sorry Nick!)
• Flowers that smell as beautiful as they look

I know some of those are cliche but I think it is important to be thankful for those things we often take for granted as well as the small unexpected things in life.  There are many many other things I am thankful for and I am going to try harder to find a few blessings everyday to stop and be thankful for!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

How is it already this time of year?

Nick and I just got back our engagement pictures (which I will post about soon) but first we need some help on a more pressing matter!

We all know there is a major holiday right around the corner and Nick and I have decided to take the plunge and send out joint Holiday cards this year.  Since we just got fabulous pictures taken it only seems right to make them photo cards. (I would typically wait until after Thanksgiving to start all this but if we decide to go the photocard route we have to make sure we have enough time to design and order them) I have used Shutterfly before for prints and photobooks and liked the results and I also found an incredible deal**! So we thought we would start there for inspiration and inspiration we found- way too many cool ideas to choose from!

Here are some of my favorites:

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 I also like something like this so we can use more than one pictures:

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 So clearly I prefer simple, clean designs and I am leaning towards a black and white photo with splashes of color in the design.  Being the indecisive person I am, I really just can't decide!  So faithful blog readers, which do you prefer? 

**Check out more Shutterfly cards and learn how to get 50 free cards here.

Who Knew Engagement Rings Were So Smart?

Who doesn't love opening a trashy magazine and finding a quiz entitled "What your shoe choice says about your personality" or "What your handbag says about your spending habits"  Well I received one of my many weekly wedding emails and in trashy magazine style this week's had a link to an article titled "Engagement Rings: What Your Engagement Ring Says About You".  So of course I clicked.  According to this article the type of engagement ring you want or in my case have can tell you everything about your style, relationship and wedding...who knew!  I found this all the more intriguing because Nick was very proud of the ring he purchased for me (reminder I had absolutely no input but was also very proud of the job he did all by himself).  So to refresh your memory here is a picture of the ring:

Simple, round solitaire.  So what does that say about me, you ask?

Round Engagement Ring

Your style: Traditional. You always look utterly put together.
Your relationship: Bottom line: you're marrying your best friend. Here's to a lifetime of sharing inside jokes and having someone really get you.
Your wedding: Relaxed, romantic and unfussy. It takes a lot of planning to make things look this effortless, but you'll pull it off.

If you recall Nick's post "The Ring" he chose my ring because "[It] reflects some of the great things about Martha. It is simple and its traditional..." So I guess Nick got that part right.  I'm not sure I always look put together let alone utterly put together, but I can aspire to do better at that if nothing else.

The other two I think are right on.  That describes our relationship quite well and the description of our wedding being relaxed, romantic and unfussy is exactly what we have in mind.

So maybe these crazy articles have a bit of truth in them after all.

If you are curious what your ring (or dream ring) says about you, here is the link

I know I said outside of the box...

When I said I was intrigued by bridesmaid's dresses that were a little different and possibly outside of the box this is not what I had in mind:

nor was this:

and definitely not this...

While there are some cute dresses on Tony's site, I am really not sure any of them are the look I am going for. 

Next up...Bridesmaid's dresses

Now that I've ordered my dress, I suppose it is time to move on to the other necessary dresses for the day.  

In the midst of wedding dress shopping my sister mentioned that I needed to get on asking my other bridesmaids so they could all start looking at dresses, especially since she is pregnant and will be showing soon.  Which I agreed it will be difficult to picture what a dress would look like minus the baby bump.  So while we waited at Clarice's my mom and Nick's mom were looking at a couple of bridesmaid dress catalogues and spotted a couple they liked.  After I finished trying on dresses, my consultant had a few extra minutes so we decided to make Sarah try on a few dresses.  The first dress she tried on was this cute number:

It obviously would not be in those colors and we would probably ditch the bow but I thought it was cute.

I honestly don't remember what the second dress she tried on looked like, clearly it didn't do it for me.  The third dress she tried on was something different that I wasn't sure that I would like until I saw it on her and now I think I may have a hard time going back to something simple like the one above.  The third dress looked a little something like this:

I am not 100% sold on this yet.  I really want all my bridesmaids to really like the dress and feel comfortable in it and even in a perfect world be able to wear it again so I will wait until we can all decide together before making a final decision, but the idea of something a little outside the box with a print is really growing on me!

The search for the perfect dress- Part 2 and 3

so I have been seriously slacking lately and I apologize, but good news I have a few posts on the way.

First let's start with the continuation of this post on the search for my wedding dress.  Again because both Nick and I have agreed he won't be seeing me in my wedding dress until the wedding I have decided to keep any photos of dresses out of the post even if it isn't THE dress or I'm not in it.  So sorry for the boring lack of photos post (promise the next few posts will be full of pictures).

On to the story:
Halloween weekend my mom, sister, dad, and niece as well as Nick's parents made the trip to St. Louis.  We had a weekend full of wedding fun planned.  Everyone arrived late Friday evening so we could all be up early for shopping on Saturday.  We met at Nick's house early for a good breakfast and then the girls were off to go dress shopping while my dad took my niece to "Boo at the Zoo" and Nick and his dad ran errands.

We arrived at our first stop just as the opened for the day so it was pretty quite.  This store, which shall remain nameless, was a giant BUST!  My consultant had no personality and really just wasn't getting the idea.  I tried on several dresses but didn't even really like any of them let alone were they even close to what I wanted.  I think we were there for less than an hour before we decided it just wasn't happening.  It was still a little too early for lunch so we drove by the church where the ceremony will be.  Unfortunately it was locked but everyone got to see the pretty outside.  Then we enjoyed a lovely lunch at Dewey's, one of my favorite St. Louis restaurants.   After lunch we still had a little bit of time before my next appointment so we stopped by the potential reception site.  The room was in mid set up for what appeared to be another wedding so it was nice to get an idea of how the room could look.  (NOTE: We are still waiting on a few pieces of paperwork from them before it is official and then I will make that big announcement).

Then it was time for my next appointment at Clarice's.  I could tell almost immediately that this store would be better than the last.  The girls were much more friendly and Kelly my consultant got what I wanted immediately.  This store also had the dress that I thought could have been the dress when I went shopping in Ohio so I was excited to try it on again.  Before I showed that dress of to my mom and Nick's mom I wanted to try on some other options as to not cloud anyone's judgment.  The first dress Kelly had me try on was awesome all of the sudden I was all sorts of confused but I wasn't worried because I figured once I tried on the original dress it would all be clear.  So we tried on a few other dresses, some of which I didn't even leave the dressing room in.  I had gotten pretty good at predicting not only what I would like but also what I thought my crew would say about them :).  So then I tried on the original dress and sadly I was still very confused.  Everyone really liked this dress and now we were all a bit torn between this dress and the first dress.  They were very similar dresses, slightly different neckline, embellishments and fabric, but otherwise very similar.  There were things about each dress that I liked and I just couldn't decided.  So I decided to sleep on it.  I left the store thinking I had made up my mind but then every few hours my mind would change.  I think it changed at least 10 times over the weekend.

So Monday morning I decided something had to be done.  I was going to find a 3rd store that carried both dresses, go by myself and try them on and see if that helped.  So Tuesday after work I went to a little dress shop close to my schools.  I walked in the store and was greeted by a little old woman, who had to have been at least 90.  She was very sweet and I told her I wanted to try on 2 dresses and I knew which 2. She told me that Betty was helping someone else but could help me as soon as she was finished.  So I sat a few minutes and waited.  Then out of the dressing room comes another bride in dress #1.  Betty asked me what I was looking for and I said "Well the one she has on and 'The Hunter'. (For some strange reason wedding dresses have names and dress #2's name is "Hunter")  This other girl also had "The Hunter" in the dressing room to try on, but both Betty and the other girl very graciously worked with me while she continued to try on dresses as well.  I wasn't sure how I felt about seeing the dresses on someone else and was worried it would cloud my judgment even more.  After the other girl took off Dress #1 Betty helped me put it on.  It felt just as amazing as it had the first time I tried it on and as I expected without any other voices it was much easier to follow my gut and make my decision.  I still tried on dress #2 just to be sure but in the end I decided the Ohio dress, first dress I fell in love with was the one!

It took me about a week to get my measurements straight but yesterday the dress was officially ordered!  Now I just have to wait 8 months for it to come in so I can put it on again.