La Jeune Mariée

Guess what?

My gown has officially arrived to the Kleinfeld store in NYC!!! And, in a few short days, it will be making its way southwest to Columbus, Ohio, where I will have it altered. It's so exciting! I've already set up my appointments for my alterations with a highly recommended seamstress located in Westerville, OH. I received the recommendation from a bridal boutique in Worthington called La Jeune Mariee. (That's French for 'the young bride', for those of you who don't speak French...) From what I understand, she is the best of the best, and I am very excited to be working with her.

In two months, my gown will officially be complete. And in three and a half, I'll be walking down the aisle in it.

Time to accessorize!

Etsy

Unbelievable. Unique. Utterly fantastic.

We.heart.etsy.com.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the site, you have to check it out! It is basically an online smorgasbord of artists of all different colors promoting their unique and handmade goods. You can find nearly anything on this site. You can have nearly anything custom designed. And best of all, nearly everything is reasonable. (A word that is semi-unfamiliar in the wedding world.)

We have been very pleased with our first purchase from etsy.com. (Actually, we haven't received our product yet, but I am sure the quality will be unsurpassed, and can therefore promote a website that has yet to deliver.) Our wedding will be delighted with multiple purchases from etsy.com.

It is all still very exciting!

April Showers

We waited, and waited, for the Maryland public schools to announce high school graduation dates. For some reason, they wait until a month before school lets out before they have it figured out. I suppose this works well for any snow days that need to be added on to the school year, but it is my understanding that seniors don't have to make up snow days...

Nevertheless, we wanted to wait until we had found out the exact graduation dates for my sister, Amy, and Brian's brother, Brent, before we decided on dates for our bridal showers. (Both will be graduating from high school this year in Maryland and Ohio, respectively!) And since Spring Break has come and gone, and there is nearly a month left of school, we now have solid dates for graduations...and showers!

Brian's wonderful Aunt Kathy, along with some extremely helpful hands, have offered to host a 'Couples Shower' for us. That will take place here in Ohio on Saturday, June 12. My beautiful Mom, along with my lovely MOH, have offered to host another shower in Maryland for us on Saturday, June 19. AND, it is very possible that we may have another shower here in Ohio to celebrate. (Details to follow on all...) We are very lucky to be surrounded with so many loving and caring people.

So far, our April showers have been very effective at promoting growth in the future months!

Dr. Suess Is My Hero

We received our first invitation design!
The look is incredible! It is absolutely divine!
There are minor changes that we would like to receive,
But, all in all, the design is hard to believe.
It captures the look and the feel of our day,
And says exactly what we want it to say!
The graphic is great and the layout is clear.
It has turned out precisely as we would like it to appear.
I'm shocked, and amazed, and ecstatic, too
And so excited for our invitation debut!
I'm thinking we're only one month away
From sending our invites to our party in the U.S.A.! (Thanks, Miley!)
In just four months time, our wedding will be here.
Come celebrate as we embark on the married life frontier.
If this doesn't convince you, please take it from me:
It will be unforgettable! That is a guarantee!

Sometimes I get so excited about something that I randomly just have to bust out a rhyme...I did miss my calling: I should've been a rapper.

The BP (Part 1)

It is time, ladies and gents, to introduce our all-star cast (at least, all-star to us...), and line-up for our Bridal Party!!

We'll start with the obvious:

Bride: Erin - aka 'E'
Groom: Brian - aka 'Hendricks'

The Girls:
Maid of Honor - Tamara - we take our days back to middle school!
Bridesmaid - Brandi - friends since our days at Virginia Tech!
Bridesmaid - Shalini - aka 'Shalu' - another fellow Hokie!

Bridesmaid - Amy - lovely sister of the bride; friends since she was born...
Bridesmaid - Shanna - we take our days back to high school!

The Guys:
Best Man - Mike - aka 'Mikie'; brother of the groom
Groomsman - Matt - aka 'Chevy'; friends since the days at Ohio University...
Groomsman - Jeff - aka 'Giesse'; friends since grade school!
Groomsman - Nathaniel - aka 'Than'; friends since high school.
Groomsman - Patrick - aka 'Wickline'; friends since Brian stole Patrick's seat on the bus...in grade school...

The Kids:

Ring Bearer - Miles - will be nearly 6

Ring Bearer - Ben - will be nearly 4

Flower Girl - Crystal - will be nearly 3.5

The Ushers:

Brent - brother of the groom - delightful

Travis - brother of the bride - charming

James - brother of the bride - entertaining

We are so lucky to have all of these very important people stand by our sides on this wonderful day. Each and everyone in our Bridal Party holds a very special place in our hearts. We are who we are because of them, and we are thankful, every day, that they are a part of our lives.

Project Wedding Invitations

This past weekend, Brian and I met with two people regarding our wedding invitations. We went into the first meeting not really knowing what we were looking for. We came out with clearer ideas, but still had not found anything that caught our attention. At the second meeting, we saw something that we both liked (HOORAY!), and we are now in the process of finalizing our decisions.

But, to be quite honest, this is not an easy task. There are so many options when it comes to invitations: square or rectangular, traditional or non-traditional, script or block font, layered or not, modern or 'old-school' (...they may have called that something else...), and these are just a few of the options. Then, once you pick a few options and put them together, you get to look at 85 different invitations of the styles you just chose, and then you have absolutely no idea what options you just selected, much less what you even want.

Oh, and don't get me started on colors. They have every color of the spectrum to choose from, and really give ROY G BIV a run for his money. The problem is, I am definitely a fan of pretty colors. So much so that I almost completely changed the colors of our wedding because I saw this really pretty blue that I absolutely adored. (Project wedding invitations may well turn out to be 'project redo the entire wedding' if I don't stop.) Nonetheless, Brian talked some sense into me, and I snapped back to my senses and decided to stick with our chosen few.

Really, this has been one of the hardest things we've had to do for our wedding, so far. (I suppose we are pretty fortunate.) We have one more meeting tomorrow evening to discuss our invitations and we are confident that we will have something tangible in the next few weeks.

In other non-wedding related news, Jack officially graduated from Puppy Kindergarten last night! He won a new toy which we now call our blue 'Koala Walla' for "being cute" and mastering almost all of his tricks. We are very proud!

Being good and listening...for the moment...

Our diploma. (And new toy!!)

Taste Test

Last night we had our first tasting at our reception venue, and we got to see the lovely space that we have rented for our reception night. It was absolutely amazing to see The Venue there in person and at night when we will be throwing our bash. The atmosphere is absolutely incredible, and the view is awesome!

Incredible atmosphere!

Awesome view!

Our chef!

The food was delish, the company was delightful (Mary and Tom - Brian's Mom and Stepdad joined us), and the night was overall productive. The great thing was that our venue had additional vendors there (linens, invitations, a photo booth company, etc.) where you could sit and chat about additional wedding items. And, since I am a huge (understatement) photo booth fan, we all just had to have a go:

Photo Booth Shenanigans!

It's amazing how fast August is approaching. Seeing our venue last night made it all very real. After a brief lull, wedding details are starting to pick up again!

Moments

There are moments throughout all of our lives that we will never forget. Moments of joy, moments of hope. Moments of sorrow, moments of fear, moments of freedom. We are all unique in our own way, but we all have moments. There are moments we share with others and moments we encounter on our own, but together those moments unite us.

Some moments fill you with so much joy and happiness that you just can't control it. You don't have words to describe your emotions. You are overly excited, and even that doesn't do your emotion justice. These are the moments that put our mundane life into existence. These are the reasons we remember the moments and not what we were doing days before these moments occurred.

This weekend was one such moment: my brother, Travis, proposed to his girlfriend, Shanel, and I was overcome with a happiness that brought tears to my eyes. Being able to share the experience, this moment, with them, family, and friends meant so much to me and everyone around me. It was in that moment that I just couldn't be happier. I was brimming with love and happiness and excitement, and you could easily sense that many of the people there were also feeling the same. Not only are we connected because we are family, but sharing in this moment together made it unforgettable. (Not that Travis or Shanel would ever forget this day! I'm just saying it was monumental to all of us being there as well.)

Congratulations, Travis and Shanel! We are so excited for you!

(Click to view all photos.)

150 Days!

We've literally hit 150 days until our wedding, and even though we started the countdown a while ago, it feels that much more real to see such a nice round number! It seems like it's a lot closer in 'day' terms as opposed to 'month' terms. For example, 150 days feels right around the corner. 5 months feels like we've got some time. But there are both one and the same - six of one, a half dozen the other - and somewhere, middle of the road, we are well on our way.

150 days and counting!!

Our Recent Life

With the arrival of March, spring is in the air and we are now one month closer to our wedding! It's still chilly and there is still snow on the ground, but the prospects of warmer weather and sunshiny days are much more tangible.

In our wedding world, we've been working on finalizing the Bridal Party, the Bachelor Party (actually, I think Brian has pretty much nailed this one down - more on this later) and the Bachelorette Party, looking at invitations, and starting to iron out some of the finer details for our big day. We also have our first, and probably only, tasting at our reception venue this month. It is here that we will make our decisions on what food we will have at our reception. We can't believe how fast it's all happening. August will be here before we know it.

In our non-wedding world, we've been relaxing, exploring the world with Jack, playing ball, taking walks, and tending to all the 'normal-world' stuff you need to tend to. And speaking of our dear, sweet puppy, he is at the vet, as we speak, having is 'baby makers' removed.

He was under strict instructions not to have anything to eat or drink after midnight last night. Fortunately, at our Monday night puppy class, we played 'Pass the Puppy', and he received more than his fair share of treats from all the other puppy owners. It was our way of thinking he was able to at least have a late night snack that he otherwise would not have received!

He has been such a joy to have around the house. Bun is still not a huge fan, but we've been keeping the peace. Here are some updated photos of Jack:

We are keeping him in our thoughts and preparing a lovely feast (his normal dinner) for him when he returns tonight. Despite what he had to go through, we know he will be excited to be home!