Stephanotis Vibes

Shane and I Purchased a Madagascar Jasmine also know as a Staphanotis floribunda.

I thought they would give off a good vibe as we plan our wedding.   

Meaning: Marital Happiness

Best for : Bouquets and arrangements

Scent: Very Fragrant

In Season: Year-round

Floral Fact: These trumpet-shape blossoms are traditional bridal flowers, no doubt due to their meaning.

Click here to learn the meaning behind other popular flowers!

The not so Foxy Bridal Show...

Sunday, Shane and I went to another Bridal show at The Fox. It was hosted by Chic Occasions, the same company that hosted the one is Marietta. I was told that it would be different vendors and an overall better show. This was not the case. It was a lot of the same vendors, and they all recognized us from the Marietta show, and questioned us on why we had not called them yet??? Awkward. There were a couple of different vendors including a dance studio that specialized in Pole dancing, Strip tease, and lap dancing. You are not going to believe this but they actually had a pole set up at the bridal show and a girl was doing demonstrations!!! I couldn't make that up if I tried.

Shane and I talked to Savvi formal about some different options for Shane and the groomsmen. We got a picture with a guy in a offwhite/tan colored suite next to a white tux (which is what Shane wants to wear)

On the way home we stopped at Sam Flax on Northside and took a quick look. I didn't see nearly as many options as I did at paper source, and they didn't have a specific kind of die cut paper that I will need so in the battle royale of papers I think Paper Source may have won out this time! (sorry Sam!)

We need to re-gain focus on the hunt for a location. Currently setting up tours at:

• Anthony's http://www.anthonysfinedining.com/
• Marietta Art Museum http://www.mariettacobbartmuseum.org/facilityrental.html
• Villa Christina http://www.villachristina.com/index.php
• The Atrium http://www.the-atrium.com/

I will keep you posted.

"Paper Source is Marthatastic" ~ Nicole T.

Nicole is a huge Martha Stewart fan, and she has officially given Paper Source in the Virginia Highlands the Martha Seal of Approval!

Saturday we went to a wedding event at the store and as we walked through the threshold the smell, of paper, glue, and rubber stamps was intoxicating. They were doing demostrations and also we did one Make and Take project.

We learned how to emboss, wax seal envelopes, stamp emboss return addresses, line envelopes with matching paper, and so much more!!

I always knew that I wanted to make my own invitation and I had some idea of what I wanted to do but Paper Source has completely opened my eyes to new a wonderful things.

http://www.paper-source.com/

Here I am practicing my embossing technique:

Since we were in the area afterwards we popped over to the Carter Center to take a quick peak. It was very pretty, and I can only imagine what it looks like in the full bloom of spring, but I am still not sure that it is the right place!

Do something creative every day!

He said YES! (well, technically he said, Sure!)

For Valentines Day this year I decided to propose to Shane.... yes I know what you are thinking we are already in engaged, you already have a ring, yadda yadda yadda. But I say, who makes the rules?? Shane had expressed interest a couple of months ago in wearing a ring leading up to the wedding (since I get to wear a ring leading up to the wedding). So I purchased him a Manly engagement ring of sorts. An "EngageMan" ring if you will (I should have that trademarked!). Or maybe I should call it a Man-gagement Ring.

Side note:

{My parents actually did something similar when the were separated while my dad went through boot camp. He gave my mom a silver band of his that she wore around her neck, then once he proposed she gave the band back and he wore it during their engagement as his commitment ring.}

So after I bought this band I was just going to give it to him as a present, but I figured an EngageMan ring deserves a proper proposal. I brainstormed lots of crazy ideas with help from a couple of my bridesmaid ( they thought it was a little strange but didn't want to upset the Bride!). We talked about sky writing, sport arena mega tron, movie theater preview... all of these ideas were great just a little out of my budget! So I settled on a fun scavenger hunt around Acworth. Nicole helped me the night before brainstorm places, hints, clues, etc and we planted all the clues around Acworth.

Outline of Scavenger Hunt:

1. Hand delivered by me: Set of Keys and verbal clue "Hannah Montana holds your next clue and she loves Mohawks!" A few months before Shane had coached Terri's soccer team at Barber Elementary. Terri loves Hannah Montana and Shane debuted his awesome Mohawk at her final game I thought it was a no brainer, but it stumped him a little. We taped a Hannah Montana locked journal under the bleachers where we sat every game.




2. Inside the Journal it said: " Naomi Watts holds your next clue, but don't worry 'she never sleeps' " It also said your next clue had to be "rented". One of Shane and I's favorite scary movie is "The Ring" with Naomi Watts and one of the lines from the movie is "she never sleeps". Also I thought it was a fun double entendre that he would be getting a "ring" at the end of the hunt.




3. There was a card hidden behind "The Ring" in our Blockbuster that we frequent. The card had a dog on it and the next clue was "Let Rudy lead you to the next clue; Thomas W Bush sings to the rafters; 'Wood' you like to sit down" It was a three parter: We always walk Rudy at Logan Farm Park; We hid the clue at a bench dedicated to Thomas W. Bush; the bend happens to have a roof with rafters where the clue was actually taped, and the bench was wooden.




4. In the Rafters of the bench a Logan Farm Park was a box of chocolates that has a train on the front and it said "Cho Cho Choose me" I also drew a little street sign that said Main street. The written clue inside the card said "A little man holds your next clue".




5. The Acworth train car on Main St. was his next stop where he found a garden gnome reading a book. Inside the book it said "I am no Dummie" and the bottom of the gnome said "Where can you find enough books so you can read until your hearts content? Remember our first visit?" On Shane and I's first visit to the Acworth library Shane check out "Landscaping for Dummies" So the gnome himself was a big part of the clue.




6. At the library I hid a singing card in "Landscaping for Dummies" I wanted him to open it in the library and have everyone glare at him for making noise! The card said "It was fun watching fireworks in Acworth 2 years ago but now the area is under construction so be sure to look "under" to find the next clue".




7. The little grassy knoll where we watched fireworks has some constructions cones around it so I hid a little bunny with a fishing pole under one of the cones. We also fish at Cauble Park (better known as Acworth Beach).




8. That is where I was waiting with his EngageMan ring ready to pop the question.

Nicole filmed the whole thing and created this awesome video that I will try to post on here as soon as I can!

It was a fun day, and I think I truly surprised him with the conclusion of the hunt. (video to come...)

Terri the Artist!

Terri drew this lovely picture for me, of my engagement ring and other assorted love related doodles! I wanted to share!

SMOOCH!!!

Shane and I discovered this cool company at the Bridal show called Smooch. They were founded in the UK and are now growing to the US. They do not have a store front but instead they come to you! It was an enjoyable and extremely fun, relaxed process. We had a lovely jewelry consultant named Dominique! Originally from Washington State (yes I asked her about Forks! I am a nerd.) We hit it off and just talked about everything under the sun, as we looked through tons of ring options. They had a lot of cool rings and a lot of custom options. The possibilities were endless, which can be a little overwhelming. 

She helped Shane and I work through our completely different tastes in jewelry.  Shane likes yellow polished gold and I like silver matte! She helped us find a ring that we both liked that had elements of each of our tastes to symbolize us being together but still individuals. I loved it! I know I am a sucker for symbolism. 

It was a fun night! We didn't make a final selection, we are going to shop around a little more, but Smooch is going to be hard to beat!  www.smoochweddingrings.com

Who knew that ring shopping could be sooo hilarious!

Bling Bling! My fingers were throbbing after trying on so many different rings! ( and Yes! I have done some hand modeling you may recognize some of my work like Allstate commercials and hand washing signs in Primrose Schools!)

These were the final two rings that we finally boiled it down to: drum roll please.....

Mine is a white gold band with channel set bagguets that are set in the same direction that my diamond is set. 

Shane's was a two tone with polished yellow gold bands on the outer edges and a white gold band in the middle, we had also talked about including a bagguet in his ring to match mine.

The search continues.... 

I was Showered...

The Monday after Thanksgiving I went to work and instead of going to each individual person separately I gathered my whole department and asked them to come to Paul's office (while stealthily hiding my left hand!) Once everyone was gathered and staring at me I blurted out "I'm Engaged!!!" Everyone was so excited even though I think they kind of saw it coming, haha.

The next day, thanks to Nicole's skillful diversion ;) I found my desk "showered" with congratulations. There were signs, big white bells, heart balloons, and love confetti everywhere ( I am sure the cleaning staff loved that!). It was so sweet and thoughtful!

They also took me out to lunch at the place of my choosing and gave me lots of good wedding advice! I love my co-workers.... they are the BEST!

The "Great" Bridal Expo Feb 1

The reason why I put "great" in air quotes it because I am not convinced that was the correct word to use so I have made a list of other possible words that may have worked better;

• Common
  
• Medicore
  
• humdrum


• unexceptional
  
• congested


• crammed


• crowded

I would be willing to help them out with their Marketing! ;)

I guess Shane and I had high hopes for the show since we thought it would be huge and have great vendors, instead what we found was a huge line only to be funneled into an over packed ballroom with sup-par vendors. I guess i just expected more from a 'We' sponsored event!

We still had a good time, and made friends with the people we were standing it line with!

There were two savings graces to visiting the bridal show: Carpe Diem and Fifty Flowers!!

Carpe Diem was this awesome company that made Flip Books!http://www.carpediem47.com/

So cute and fun! They had tons of fun props you could use and then they filmed your for 7 seconds from that film they created a little flip book. Below is the cover and a couple of the pictures from when we made ours! We LOVED it!

The other saving grace was discovering

Blue Orchids Dendrobiums at http://www.fiftyflowers.com/

They take white dendrobiums and tint them blue!!! I loved them they were beautiful and would fit into a teal color scheme beautifully!

http://www.fiftyflowers.com/product/blue-orchids-dendrobiums_10.htm

When I got home I search the internet for some ideas of ways to use the blue orchids and I found this bouquet that I loved that included: white mini calla lilies, stephanotis, and purple dendrobium orchids that have been dyed blue. Love it!

I must say I missed my tiara but I thoguht these stickers were cute:

The Very Important Bride and her Very Important Groom!

Afterwards I treated Shane to a Vortex hamburger (Best Hamburger in Atlanta if anyone wants to know what the best hamburger lives!)

Good food and Puppy Bowl (thats right totally ridculous but I can't peel my eyes away from it) on the big screen! A perfect end to the day!