Security

Sorry for the major incovenience but I have been prompted to secure this blog as I give out a ton of personal information and I don't want randoms knowing every detail about my life! I have selected a list of people who I think follow the blog from conversation.  I will add more invites to read the blog as I go and get requests, but I felt I had to do this to protect myself.  Thank you all for following along! It's been so much fun and I love documenting the process!

XOXO,
Andra

Less than a year out...

We are less than a year out and things couldn't be more crazy. The wedding planning has progressed slowly over the past two weeks.  May has been quite a busy month for us.  We were up in GORGEOUS Lake Toxaway for for the first two weekends of May celebrating my Mom's birthday and Mother's Day, and I just got back from New York for work on Friday evening.  It was a weird realization that I would not be spending my Mom's birthday with her next year as Kevin and I will be on our honeymoon.  We enjoyed a lot of family time and explored some amazing new hiking trails at Gorges State Park. 

New York was a blast, but it really made me appreciate living in Atlanta.  I was very happy to come home!  I went alone for business and had hoped that Kevin would join me, but we never got it to work out.  Unlike others, I don't mind eating by myself or traveling by myself.  I went up Wednesday afternoon for meetings that started on Thursday, so I found myself with an open evening in New York.  What's a girl to do? I luckily was staying at the InterContinental Times Square, literally a block away from the theater district.  I made my way to TKTS and scored a 50% off ticket to Phantom of the Opera!  Kevin was quite jealous as that is his favorite play.  It was awesome and a great evening! (solo traveling is not so bad when you have a theater right outside your hotel!)

Yesterday Kevin and I ventured to one of my favorite Atlanta entertainment spots, the Dekalb Farmer's Market.  Kevin had not visited and he was quite intrigued by all the food!  It is really quite a site.  If you ever come visit, it's somewhere I will take you- just for fun!  We came home and made lobster tails for dinner together- something about cooking in the kitchen together- quite therapeutic! 

Then we went to go see "Something Borrowed," the Emily Griffin movie I have been dyyyyying to see.  We were running a little late to our show time and me, being the anal person I am about time got a little anxious about the movie being sold out.  Kevin thought it was hilarious that I was getting so hyped up about a movie! It took us a while to find a parking spot which added to my worry that I wouldn't get to see the movie!  Thankfully, we made it in and found seats.  It was a phenomenal movie which I highly recommend.  Kevin said, "as chick flicks go, it was pretty good!"

This week will be pretty fast as I have a team building day on Tuesday for work.  The two options for the day that our team voted on were:
a) Braves game and lunch
b) Lunch outside and each person receives $20 to "pay it forward" in some form or fashion
I voted for option b as I really love the idea of "paying things forward."  As of Friday there was a tie 7-7 on the selection.

Mom will hopefully be in town this weekend to finalize my wedding dress selection.  I am so excited about this as I have narrowed down some GORGEOUS dresses!

Why is it that time goes by so much faster lately?

April 27th, 2012: 1 year from today....

Today marks exactly one year until our wedding day! And boy have I wanted to let the cat out of the bag but we had to wait until we were one year out to make sure our reception site was secure.  So now, without further adieu....We have set the date for Friday April 27th, 2012!  We will be holding our ceremony at our lovely church here in Buckhead; Peachtree Road United Methodist Church. 

The reception will follow at Cherokee Town Club which is literally 2 minutes down the road from the church.  We are so thrilled that the 1 year countdown has officially started! This time next year I will the happiest girl in the world! A lot of behind the scenes planning is going on and the Save the Dates are ready to be printed now! 

This past weekend, Kevin and I went home to Florida for Easter.  We spent a lot of time going over guest lists and details with my parents.  Here we are on Saturday for lunch at Mildred's Big City Cafe:

Time has been flying by and the next three months will do the same.  Kevin and I will be out of town every weekend in May and then June starts the wedding season for us.  We have several weddings throughout the summer of our friends and family.  I know this next year will be a flash- but I am so very excited for all that is to come!

Kevin and I are attending a work function for my job tomorrow night at the Atlanta Aquarium.  Kevin has never been despite his love for sharks.  So we are excited to get dressed up and attend this event for the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association. 

I am also throwing a baby shower for my boss at work on the 9th of May then leaving for a work trip to New York the same week!  Perhaps this is a little preview of what is to come over the next year!?

Kevin will be visiting his parents this weekend to go over their wedding details at home in Augusta and I will be celebrating my Mom's birthday in Lake Toxaway, NC (my most favorite place in the world!)  I am so thrilled for this year's cake (I always surprise her with a fancy cake for her birthday...this year's cake will be fantastic as I got the inspiration from looking through all my wedding magazines! will post pics after her day!)

Hope everyone had a fantastic Easter and is enjoying every minute of SPRING! (despite the tornado's and hail!)

Wedding Planning Weekend Sneak Peak

It's not even 9pm on Monday evening, and I'm in bed as I write this short post about the first part of this past weekend.  It was non-stop, go go go!  My Mother and Sister were in Atlanta this past weekend and we made the MOST out of every minute.  Friday afternoon, my sweet Mummy insisted that we go bridal lingerie shopping so I would have a nice set to wear while we tried on wedding dresses and an ivory silk robe to wear in between dresses.  It is so easy to shop in Atlanta, or at least this task was...we found exactly what we needed between Nordstrom and Macy's and were in and out so quickly- we even had enough time left over to hit Anthropologie for a few moments. 

Mommy picking out the perfect bridal robe

Once Jenna arrived we grabbed a delicious dinner near Perimeter and were on our way to do our trial stay at The InterContinental Buckhead.  We had a lovely experience and decided this will be one of the suggested hotels on the Save the Date cards.  The customer attention and service was unparalleled. 

More to come once my sister sends me more pics from our fabulous weekend together! Just wanted to give a quick snap shot of how our girls weekend started!  We made some very important and exciting decisions this weekend which I cannot wait to share!

One more photo of my three best friends lately...I have been spending a lot of time researching and emailing wedding vendors using these three devices! How did they plan weddings before the internet???

Laptop, iPad, and Android phone...three must haves for wedding planning!

March Madness!

Kevin and I ended March with a bang! I am fortunately going to be married to a man who can predict his March Madness bracket better than most! Kevin got first place in a pool of ninety eight other young basketball hot shots.  Thankfully, this sports game had some monetary incentive behind it, so I gladly went along with watching hours of basketball to please my fiance.  We had previously gone to a Mexican restaurant to watch the elite eight games and then this past weekend, we went out on a double date with some friends to Taco Mac.  We had quite a bit of fun since Kentucky lost and that's what we needed to happen!  I was glad Kevin could take some time to enjoy sports during his busy season.

Saturday Night Out!

Last week I spent the majority of the week in Athens which was pretty enjoyable!  My company hosted a team building session which included a stay at our property, Hotel Indigo, a scavenger hunt all over downtown and campus, an 80's themed party complete with an 80's cover band and a photo booth.  Here is a picture of my immeadiate web marketing team from InterContinental Hotels Group.  My boss is the one in the floral tutu on the bottom right.

Working Hard for the Money

This past weekend I did a little hotel hunting for our save the dates (which I am excited to announce are in the works!)  I actually had never been to the InterContinental Hotel in Buckhead before, even though I work on it everyday on their website.  So, after hitting the gym on Saturday I ventured into Buckhead to tour some suites and rooms at the InterContinental Buckhead.  I found it quite refreshing and gorgeous!  I definitely think this will be one of our suggested hotels for out of town guests attending our wedding!

Sitting Area at the InterContinental Buckhead

Outdoor Courtyard at InterContinental Buckhead

On my way out of Buckhead back towards Vinings, I couldn't help but snap these gorgeous shots of all the blooming tulips in Atlanta.  This particular spot was near our reception location and I got very excited seeing all the blooming flowers thinking about this time next year!

The plan for this coming weekend is for my Mother and Sister to visit in order to start DRESS SHOPPING!!! I am so excited about this part of the festivities.  I have called the various boutiques and made my appointments.  The timing works out perfectly while Kevin is working all day Saturday.  Hopefully next Saturday night we will all be together having fun!

Keeping Busy

I hate starting out multiple posts with apologies, but I am slacking on the blog lately and I'm sorry! I had my sister in town two weekends ago, then I got the plague and have been battling that since.  I literally stayed in bed from last Friday until today!  Kevin caught whatever cold I had (to a much lesser degree thankfully) so we were both couch potatoes all weekend long.  What little time we actually did see of each other was spent in silence this weekend as we both felt that bad that we really didn't communicate much, beyond the extent of, "it's time for more medicine" or, "can you please refill my gatorade."  I will send out kudos to Kevin for unloading my dishwasher at my house when he doesn't even know where my stuff goes!  What a sweet heart for doing that while I was completely out of it!  I am really ready for tax season to be over, as I know Kevin is.  He continues to put in the long hours.  The only thing that gets us through is knowing that the next time tax season comes, our wedding will be on the other side waiting for us! (only a few days after tax season 2012 ends!)

So, two weekends ago, my sister visited spontaneously.  I was so delighted that she came all the way to ATL so that we could select our bridesmaids dresses together for my cousin Maggie's wedding in October.  Maggie selected some GORGEOUS dresses from Amsale through Bella Bridesmaid.  I have never been a bridesmaid before, so this process was quite interesting to me and will help guide my decisions for my own girls.  Thankfully, my sister is a pro and we helped each other select the best dress for our body types.  It was really fun being able to do the "bridesmaid" thing together.  It's also nice to know that I have my dress picked out and ready to go for the wedding in October.  As much as I love dress shopping, sometimes the options seem daunting (and with all that is going on wedding wise between now and my wedding, it feels great to have one dress checked off the list!)  Maggie let each of her bridesmaids select a style, but assigned everyone a color.  My color is Vanilla and I couldn't be more excited about it! Here is the style I selected:



I don't have any wedding developments to speak of yet, other than we are counting down til 1 year out (the end of April).  Then all the pieces can start to be fit together!  Once Kevin finishes with tax season and we get our weekends back together, we will resume our to-do list of all things wedding. During the past two weeks during my lunch breaks or right after work I have been investigating rehearsal dinner options and have met with two different location's event coordinators.  I am compiling some options for my future in laws.

Next week, I am headed to Athens for a work trip for three days so this weekend will be spent preparing for that.  The attire for one of the evenings is 80's chic, so I will have to do a little thrift store digging this weekend in preparation!  I threw out the majority of my social costume closet that was used for sorority functions in college, and here I am heading back to college for work and in need of my costume closet!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Last weekend I made a quick trip down to Florida to celebrate my Father's birthday which was March 8th.  It was really nice to be home and spend a celebratory weekend with Mom and Dad (and Chelsea).  Mom made the gorgeous Italian Cream Cake in the pictures for Daddy's birthday.  She is quite the baker.

 Kevin stayed behind in Atlanta to work on everyone's taxes so it was a solo trip for me.  He really has been putting in the hours lately! 

Happy Birthday to a wonderful Father!