Wedding Wednesday: {Guest} Post for our Photographer

Hi everyone and welcome to Wedding Wednesday! You think things would have slowed down for me since our wedding but they sure haven't. I didn't want to throw together a half done post so I decided to share the guest post I wrote last week for our wonderful photographer, Arastasia Rolain. I got a little emotional writing it because my photos, her work, were something I was so passionate about. I hope you enjoy it...you can read it HERE and make sure to read the one she wrote about us too because it's incredibly sweet!

Our amazingly talented photographer, Arastasia.

Thank you for stopping by and I promise next week will bring a new and exciting post!

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday and What's Hap-Pinning?! so check them out too :)

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Oh Hey, Friday! [Best Week Ever]

Hooray for Friday! I'm so happy to be linking up with the ladies over at September F A R M and The Farmer's Wife for Oh, Hey, Friday! Here's a recap of the best week I've had since we moved to Atlanta.

If you follow me on Facebook you saw that last week I finally sold my beloved Heidi Honda. I had been looking for a new car for a couple months now and couldn't find something that felt like "me." I kept making excusing for buying a new car but once I sold mine I decided I wanted to have a car within the next week. We hit the dealerships all weekend, I test drove a bunch and dealt with more car salespeople than I'd like to. On Monday I called back the dealership where we got Brian's new Escape in March and she told me she found a car that had everything I wanted. She sent me a link and I feel in love. Right after work I went and signed the paper's for my new lady love Felicia Ford.

 And to answer your question...yes I do say, "bye Felicia!" whenever I walk away.

She has all the bells and whistles I've been dreaming about and a moon roof that became the cherry on top. Here's to having a beautiful car that has my back[up camera] and that I got completely on my own with 0% APR. #AdultWin

Tuesday I got the news I've been hoping for since we moved to Atlanta and was told I'm going to be brought on full time with my company. I've been working as a temp for the past year and completely feel in love with the company. I'm so excited to "officially" be an employee, more details to come later. For now here is my adorable congratulations gifts from Brian, he's just the sweetest.

Being a long distance friend to all my friends is a struggle sometimes. You both have to make the effort to stay active in each other’s lives and I feel like I’m pretty good at it most days. Wednesday was one of those days. After talking with a friend and knowing how down she’s been lately broke my heart but Frontier and Spirit airlines pieced it back together with $39 each way flights so for just under $80 roundtrip I was able to book a much needed girls trip over Halloween weekend! 

Thursday night after work we hopped on a flight to spend the weekend in Cleveland. I'm so happy to be able to tie up some loose ends up here before next month and that my bestie, Erika, is coming up from WV to see us!

Just win I thought things couldn't get happier, this morning we got our wedding license!

I'm off to enjoy LebronLand. I hope y'all have a great weekend! Any fun plans? Tell me about it and comment below :)

 

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Wedding Wednesday: The Top 4 Lists You'll Need for Your Wedding Week

Happy Wednesday y'all and thank you for stopping by for Wedding Wednesday, I'm so glad you're here. I seriously can NOT believe tomorrow marks ONE MONTH until our wedding. We're celebrating by flying up to Cleveland to get our marriage license on Friday. I'm a definition "type A" personality so checking off a task on a to-do list is one of life's greatest thrills for me. In honor of the big day being four weeks away I'm sharing my top four wedding checklists to make sprinkled with some photos from our recent engagement session by our wonderful photographer, Arastasia Rolain!

via Arastasia Photography

Packing List
This list is crucial if you're getting married somewhere other than where you currently live. If someone can't drive to your house to pick up something you forgot and be back in 30 minutes you better make this list. For me the biggest struggle was getting everything up to Cleveland for the wedding without having to break the bank in shipping costs. We were able to load up our car with wedding supplies on our trip to West Virginia for my bridal shower for some of Brian's family to take back up to Cleveland with them. This was one of my more brilliant ideas not only financially but emotionally as well. Once those items were out of our house I stopped worrying about them and boy was that a fantastic feeling. Top items you'll want to include for this list are: your clothes/toiletries for the week, rehearsal outfits, wedding supplies, wedding party gifts, checks for your vendors, your marriage license, and a "Call Anyone but the Bride" contact list.

via Arastasia Photography

Shopping List
If your wedding is a DIY extravaganza like mine you'll want to make sure you have all the supplies for crafting so you can hit the ground running when it's time to put things together. I made a spreadsheet shopping list that is divided into categories so I can shop in an efficient manner. I'm hosting a bridal party brunch the morning of my wedding as we get ready so I didn't want to forget any food items. My shopping list spreadsheet is divided into these categories: brunch items, alcohol, brunch decor, craft supplies, wedding decor, welcome boxes, and emergency kit supplies.

via Arastasia Photography

Wedding Week To-Do List
To me, this list is what will most certainly keep me sane. I'm going to have some amazing helpers through out the week so the days I have help have more tasks. My "wedding gift" to Brian is that once we step in the church for our rehearsal I will not be worrying about things getting done, I will just sit back and soak up the memories being made. He's convinced that I'll get most everything done on Thursday and Friday I won't even really have much to do, I hope this is the case! For this list I made a spreadsheet with columns for each day and after writing down everything that needs to get done I started assigning tasks to days of the week.

via Arastasia Photography 

Our location was beautiful but very muddy from the rainstorm the night before, this is Brian teasing me about not being able to strut it in heels in the mud.

Shot List
Not that kind of shot you lushes! A list of "must do's" for your photographer and videographer, but let's be real I'm probably need a jagerbomb or two by the week of the wedding! This list will help you create your wedding timeline and help both you and your photography/videography team so everyone is on the same page. For this list I made a document with actual photos I've seen on Pinterest so no time will be wasted in trying to explain how we want the pose to go. I grouped the photos together by when they'll been taken, all the "getting ready" shots are together and all the wedding party photos are together. As far as our wedding video we sent links to the videos we liked most to our videographer so he's knows what "scenes" he needs to capture. I hate standing around trying to figure out what to do so I figured the less everyone has to worry about what the do the better the day will flow.

via Arastasia Photography
This is my "Real Fiancee of Atlanta" money shot. 

I'm not the realistic bride that thinks everything is going to go off without a hitch and things will be perfect. I am however someone who likes to have an order to things and plans in place so that when something go wrong everyone can get past it quickly. Every time I start to get loco about my lists and timelines Brian tells me to watch the Scheana's wedding episode of Vanderpump Rules and I quickly realize that I don't want to be like that on our wedding day. However if Pandora and Lisa want to send some Vanderpump Vodka and Sangria my way I'll gladly accept.

via Arastasia Photography

I'm off to pack and get ready for our weekend in Cleveland. I'm linking up with Macy & Nikki for Wedding Wednesday and Jenn & Jessi for What's Hap-Pinning. I'd love to hear about your wedding lists and wedding day timeline tips and am happy to help you with your list questions so comment below and as always thanks for stopping by!

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Labor Day Weekending

I hope y'all had a fantastic Labor Day weekend! Don't you wish every weekend was a three day weekend?! I had quite a busy couple of days so here's my quick recap!

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to drop the dogs off at "camp" so we could make the drive to Beaufort, South Carolina. We drove up to have a last minute engagement shoot with our wedding photographer, Arastasia, on Sunday and decided to make a little weekend trip of it. After we got settled in to our hotel we watched my Mountaineers win the first game of the season!

Our photo session was on Sunday morning. We got some great shots in downtown Beaufort around some of the most gorgeously southern Spanish moss trees (my request) and then headed to the beach (Brian's request) for some shots. We can not wait to see how they turned out! Later that night we got to meet two of favorite people, Molly and Katie, for dinner in Buckhead. They were in town because Molly was wedding dress shopping and boy did she pick a gorgeous gown! I can't wait to see her in it this May at her wedding in Florida.

Yesterday I spent the day fulfilling my dance team coach duties by holding the first round of auditions. We had some great talent come out and my captains are just the sweetest. I'm so excited for this new adventure because it's already been so rewarding!

What did you do over your Labor Day weekend? I'd love to hear about it! Comment below. Linking up with Biana.  Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for Wedding Wednesday!

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Weekend Update: Charleston...made in Carolina.

This weekend I spent in the beyond beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina with my amazing childhood friends Meg and Ross. The last time I was there I was about 8 years old so it was nice to experience it as an adult this time around. Here are a few highlights from my trip! After dropping our dogs off at The Wag Factory we went downtown to a little Greek place called Saffron where we had wine, hummus, and the most amazing Greek dessert torte that wasn't photographed because we devoured it in about 45 seconds. The next morning my fiance Brian and I decided to walk to through through the city to a little breakfast place we saw had great reviews on Yelp called Sunrise Bistro Xpress, it did not disappoint! Here is my breakfast burrito that was cut to look like sushi and Brian's breakfast pizza that had sausage gravy and an omelette on top, delicious!

I'll be honest a morning stroll seemed like a lovely idea at 9AM when we left the house but the walk back was rough because it was already around 97 degrees by 10AM! However in between my whining that it was too hot I was able to get some lovely pictures... This is Cannon Park. I was told that there used to be a museum here but a fire destroyed most of the museum and instead of rebuilding it they salvaged the front entrance and turned the property into a park, this has Leslie Knope written all over it to me lol!

To my wonderful Bravo obsessed surprise my friends live on the same street, and only about 4 houses down, as Patricia Altschul, the scene stealer of one of my favorite shows Southern Charm. I tried my best to play paparazzi and get some shots of her beautiful home.

Once we got back we quickly changed into our swimsuits and hopped in the car to head to Isle of Palms for a birthday party for my friends' friend and a day at the beach. The beach house we were at was incredible! It had the perfect size pool and even had a full size sand volleyball court. I left my phone in the car so I didn't have to worry about it getting wet at the pool or beach so here's a picture of us crossing the Ravenel Bridge :)

That night we ate dinner at The Tattooed Moose and I had the Thanksgiving Sammy, if you're in Charleston go there and thank me later. Sunday before heading back to Atlanta we went to my friend Meg's salon so that she could do a quick wedding makeup trial for me. It was my first time with airbrush makeup and wowza! It's the only way to go girls! I'll spare you the "before" shot and just let you see the finished product, that stayed perfectly placed for over 10 hours when I washed it off. It made me want to test the 16 hour guarantee airbrush makeup advertises.

So there it is, my quick trip to Charleston. We loved it and can't wait to make another trip up...when it cools down a little!

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