february reads

I haven’t done one of these in a while (the last one was back in October), so here we go! 

The Vacationers by Emma Straub / This is very much a summer read, so if you are escaping the cold winter and relaxing on a beach somewhere, I suggest you bring this along. The characters are somewhat annoying, but that’s the point.

Unbroken: A World II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand / This book was just...wow. It’s an incredible (true!) story that is very inspiring and emotional. I haven’t seen the movie, but I can bet that the book is WAY better.

Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares / The final installment of the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” books. I’ve been reading these books since I was in high school, and it was time that I finish the series. This one was super sad and very heart wrenching.

Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead / Confession time: when I was a little girl, I wanted nothing more than to be a ballerina, mainly because of the shoes (I guess I’ve always had a thing for shoes). An entertaining story about a dancer, with a slight twist at the end.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart / This book kept coming across lists as a to-read book of the year, and while it was a quick read and entertaining, I didn’t think it was OMG AMAZING, you know?

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd / I really enjoyed this one. I like historical fiction, especially when it is loosely based on real person’s life, and so I pretty much breezed through this. It is an Oprah book club pick, which comes with all the stigma attached to that, but she honestly picks some really good reads!

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra / This was another one that kept getting rave reviews, but I had a hard time getting through it. The storyline is almost too bleak. It’s one of those stories where everything is connected, though, which redeemed it a bit for me.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes / So many tears. I highly recommend it – it would be a good one to read in a book club, especially with the topic it addresses.

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler / I thought it would breeze through this one, but I had a hard time getting into it. I love learning about the lives of past authors, but for some reason I just couldn’t get excited about this book. I don’t know where the disconnect was.

What are you reading?

wedding planning update: 3 months to go!

Landon Jacob Photography via Southern Weddings

Since my last update…

— We received our invitations, which are stunning! You can see a sneak peek of the envelopes on my Instagram

— I finished the bridesmaid gifts!

— Purchased some monogrammed Jack Rogers for the honeymoon

— Speaking of the honeymoon, we booked our car rental – Mustang convertible or equivalent :)

— Scheduled my hair and make-up trial

— Decided on ceremony readings

— The guy’s attire is figured out and purchased!

— Purchased custom cocktail napkins – I’m really excited about these!

— Purchased my rehearsal dinner dress

—   Wedding cake design is finalized, and the cake topper is purchased, though we still need to decide to cake flavors

—   Purchased table number signage

—   Purchased the postage for the invitations

—   Matt purchased the groomsmen gifts

Next up on the list?

— We have a wine tasting at our venue this week, so I’ll pick the wine and champagne choices then

— Need to iron out the transportation details

— Continue compiling ceremony and reception details (guest book, centerpieces, signs, etc.)

— Get invitations to calligrapher to address

—   Start working on escort cards – this will probably be my one and only DIY project, so we’ll see how it goes

our save the dates

Happy Monday, friends! It feels good to be back on a normal schedule. Last week North Carolina got some snow and ice along with freezing temperatures, which forced me to work from home for the week. By Friday I was going a bit stir crazy! 

I did get my invitation suite last week (!), but today let's talk about save the dates!

I decided to send our save the dates very early, since most of the guest list is from out of town. We sent them in July – yep, ten months out from our wedding date! This may seem a bit too early, but I wanted to give people plenty of time to start saving for those costly plane tickets, wedding presents, outfits, etc. Weddings are expensive for the guests too!

We decided to go with Minted for our save the date design. I’m not sure where I first heard about Minted, but they are a great resource for all kinds of invitations, save the dates, holiday cards, business cards, birth announcements, you name it. Their products come for independent designers, but they are affordable and good quality. I would have gotten my invitations from them (more on that in a later post), but I just couldn’t decide on a suite.

Minted also has save the date magnets, which I knew for sure that we wanted to do. And I’m glad that we did – we have gotten so many compliments on the fact that our save the date is a magnet; who knew this would have such an impact on people?!

We wound up going with the “Love Stories” style. We loved the fact that it has multiple pictures (what better way to show off our engagement pictures!) and that it almost looks like chalkboard writing, which is going to feature prominently in our signage at the wedding.

Here’s the final design that we ended up with!

I had a lot of fun arranging the pictures, and arranging them some more, and arranging them again…you get the idea. :)

I took advantage of Minted’s complimentary guest addressing, and sent these babies out. It was fun hearing the excitement from our friends and family over these. Hopefully everyone will be able to make the trip to North Carolina in May!

our engagement photos

Hello, lovely friends! Matt and I had our engagement photos done back in May, but I wanted to share them with you all today. We had a great time shooting with Samantha Floyd (she was so patient, and spent so much time with us) and now, we have these photos to look back on and remember this season of our lives! Here are few of my favorites:

I am very pleased with how they turned out!

We ended up taking our photos around Durham, including Duke University’s campus and library – how could we not, with our engagement story?, the Eno River State Park, and downtown Durham.

kittens!

Along with all of the busyness of wedding planning, there have been two little crazies to join the fun – that’s right, Matt and I got kittens!

My beloved Miss Kitty passed away back in December after 12 good, long years with her. A couple weeks later I started missing the companionship of a kitty, and so Matt and I started looking at adopting a kitten. I have never had a kitten before (I adopted Miss Kitty as a full grown cat), and I have to say, it has been quite an adventure!

We adopted two kittens because the place where we adopted them from insists that cats under a certain age be adopted in pairs, mostly so that they grow up to be well adjusted cats.

I can see why they say that – our kittens wrestle together, eat together, sleep together, even use the litter box together at times. They will groom each other, too, which I think is the cutest thing.

Without further ado, meet Chewie (Chewbacca), and Calypso!

Chewie is much smaller than his sister – they think he may have been the runt of the litter – and for awhile there had have his weight monitored. He is doing well and was able to get all of his shots and be fixed without any problems!

It’s funny to see their personalities developing. Even though they are from the same litter, they are very different.

Chewie is very vocal, especially when he is hungry. He likes to sit in your lap and snuggle up against your neck at night while you’re sleeping – all whilst purring like a motor! He does not like to be picked up, and is what the vet calls a “social eater,” which just means he needs a bit of direction to the task at hand during dinnertime. :)

Calypso is a firecracker! She is very playful and curious – you have to watch her around open doors! Oddly, she loves being picked up and held, especially when you first come home after a day at work. She is the more shy out of the two, and will sleep under the bed or couch most nights. She has some quirks, most notably a need to flatten a paper or plastic bag out fully; she’s even flattened out the trash in the trashcan!

While they are certainly a handful, I am excited to see them grow together!           

rehearsal dinner apparel + shoes

Now that I have a wedding dress and shoes, I can legitimately start thinking about a rehearsal dinner dress and shoes! It may be too early to make a decision on this, but if I have an excuse to buy a new dress and shoes, well, I’m going to take it. And the earlier I purchase things like this, the easier it is on my wallet, since I won’t have to buy everything all at once. I will circle back around to wedding day jewelry and hair pretties, but today, we’re going to talk about rehearsal dinner apparel.

First, let’s discuss the dress. I want to wear a white dress, obviously, but I have been having the hardest time finding something that matches my style and doesn't look too bridal. I don’t want to wear something that is too bling-y, because I have a specific shoe in mind, and I don’t want my dress and shoes to “compete” with each other. This has been hard, ya’ll!

I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for something that fit my criteria, and I believe I may have found it! A couple months ago, I noticed the lovely ladies at Southern Weddings Magazine wearing the cutest dresses that matched my style; in fact, I liked every single dress that the girls had on! I found out that they were made by designer Camilyn Beth, and hopped on over to her website to take a look.

After a lot of indecision over the different designs (this one in particular I kept being drawn to), I’m planning on purchasing the Fresh Air Dress in Ivory. I’m just hoping that it will fit without too much trouble!

(photo from Camilyn Beth)

Now, onto my rehearsal dinner shoes! After purchasing my wedding shoes, a particular pair of cute, sparkly heels kept appearing on my Pinterest feed and in wedding blogs with more frequency, and I would pause briefly on these images, wishing that I could wear that those beautiful shoes on my wedding day, too. But then I thought, why not wear these for the rehearsal dinner? (I may have justified this too easily, but hey).

(photo by Jodi Miller Photography)

Of course, these beauties are from kate spade. Aren’t they just lovely? An added bonus – they match the wedding colors, as well!

groom attire

I decided early on (much like the bridesmaid dresses), that Matt and his gents will be wearing suits on the big day. Matt doesn’t really care what he will be wearing, so long as it comes with a vest. I think I can make that happen!

(photo by Clary Pfeiffer Photography)

We wanted to buy a suit instead of buying/renting a tuxedo for three main reasons:

1) Buying means you can tailor, which means a better fit.
2) It makes sense financially to buy a suit that can be worn again.
3) The specific aesthetic we were going for lends itself to suits instead of tuxedos.

(photo by Ozzy Garcia Photography)

We also decided fairly quickly that the suits would be from J Crew. Matt has a pretty slight build, and most suits tend to make him look like he is playing dress up in his father’s work clothes, if you know what I mean. I love the look of J Crew’s Ludlow suit, and a trip to the store to try on some fancy jackets and pants confirmed my belief that a J Crew suit is the right choice.

(photo by Erich McVey Photogrpahy)

However, our timing was off on the season arrivals, and so we've had to wait until four months out from our wedding date to start seriously considering a suit choice, mostly due to the fabric of the suits. (I am not about to let my groom and groomsmen wear a wool suit at the end of May, in North Carolina, at an outdoor wedding!) The spring suits have finally made an appearance, but now I am stumped on the color! For the longest time I envisioned a light gray suit for the gents, but the lovely tan color is catching my eye more and more. I think it would look gorgeous with the soft pink of the bridesmaid dresses.

(photo by Bob Care Photography)

I emailed a J Crew wedding coordinator for some swatches, but what do you think? Do you like the gray suit or tan suit more? Regardless of the color, I would like the suit to be monogrammed inside the jacket. It will be a great way to remember the day when the suit is worn again! :) 

wedding weekend welcome bag inspiration

I thought I’d share some of the inspiration I’ve been collecting for our wedding weekend welcome bags. I know for sure that I want them to be bags, so that’s why I’m calling them bags as opposed to boxes, sacks, etc. Matt and I have thought a bit about what we’ll put in them, but I’m not going to spill the beans here, in case any readers will be attending the wedding. I don’t want to spoil the surprise! I’ll report back after the wedding weekend, though! In the meantime, here are a few examples that are inspiring me:

I love the simple hand-drawn map that accompanies this welcome bag, including the craft beer, and the little tie-ins to the wedding colors. (photos by Graham Terhune Photography)

A bag like one from Maptote is a great way to incorporate your state or city, and can also serve as an additional favor for your guests after the wedding is over. (photo by Max Wagner)

This wooden box lined with scrapbook paper looks soft and feminine, and pretty easy to DIY. You can find unfinished wooden boxes at Michael’s. Glue in some patterned paper and add a pretty ribbon, and you're all set! This one was designed by SimpleSong for Martha Stewart Weddings and photographed by Kate Headley.

A wire basket is a nice touch for a Southern country wedding, don’t you think? Add a big bow in one of your wedding colors and some carefully curated goodies, and you have an elegant welcome basket. (photo by KT Merry)

I don’t know about you, but I would love to receive an overflowing basket like this one! And that pink peony bouquet? Swoon! (photo by Adam Barnes and Katie Stoops)

A paper bag with sweet and simple touches is great for those on a budget. (photo by Love is a Big Deal)

This one is probably my favorite. I love the personalized bucket (how genius for a beach wedding?), the bicycle motif, and the bright, happy colors. From the very first welcome, this wedding looks like it’s going to be a fun weekend! (photo by Amy Arrington Photography)