Our Whereabouts...

Kevin and I have not had one minute to catch our breath lately.  Last weekend was a lot of fun- so at least we are enjoying the time together even though every minute is programed to the max! Kevin admitted that he wasn't looking forward to our evening plan last Friday night.  We drove an hour and a half outside of Atlanta to Big Canoe to listen to a band that we were interested in for our wedding.  The band is famous for Sinatra-esque music.  Unfortunately for us, we were the only "young" Sinatra lovers in attendance last Friday as you can see from the photo below!

It was an outdoor music concert and you could bring a picnic and listen.  We got there extra early- just early enough to sit through the rain and wait for the concert to start around 7:30pm.

Kevin admitted after the night was over and we were safely back in Atlanta that it was really a lot of fun and he enjoyed our picnic and music- even if we were the only one's there under the age of 50!

Saturday morning we were on the road bright and early to head to Augusta for one of Kevin's collegiate friend's wedding and Father's Day.  Kevin's parents took us to lunch and then I did a quick change for the wedding and we were out the door for a 5pm wedding!  It was really neat to attend a wedding and experience all the details that the couple had put into making their special day come alive!  The reception was at a beautiful old southern mansion! 

We had a fun and relaxing Father's Day with Kevin's father and family-Always a treat to spend time together! Then we hit the road again to get back to Atlanta!  The weeks and weekends keep flying by!

This weekend my cousin and bride to be, Tiffany, is flying in to attend a shower that my sister and I are throwing for her at The Swan House.  We are doing a bachelorette party for her on Saturday night and she flies out on Sunday! I have been preparing all afternoon and Jenna and Tiffany should be here any minute! Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

the DRESS....

This past weekend when my Momma and Sister arrived ...we BOUGHT my Wedding Dress! I had narrowed down my selections quite a bit and decided on a designer that I adored.  It was just a matter of selecting between several I really loved.  So, what's a girl to do when she likes elements of several? Design her own of course! Brides by Lori in Sandy Springs actually called the designer and we mixed and matched some of the elements on my dress with another dress that I also loved.  It was such a thrilling experience.  I don't think I stopped smiling all day!  It was definitely a long day, but the best part was that I got to prance around the store all day in the dress sample! Here's a sneak peak of my joy and happiness:

Straight from The ROYAL wedding, was TLC's Say Yes to the Dress moderator Monte Durham.  Couldn't believe he was actually at the store the day I was buying my dress.  He was a hoot and added so much spunk and creativity to our experience.  He told us all about British wedding traditions from Princess Diana's wedding to Duchess Katherine!  

It was an very successful day.  I even decided on a bridesmaid dress and color.  More details on this later.  Poor Jenn and Mommy had to stay over Sunday night since my wedding dress apointment lasted from 1 till 5pm on Sunday!~  We went out for Mexican afterwards and met up with Kevin.  It was quite a weekend of meetings and dresses, but so happy to dream about my dress and imagine the actual day!

Kevin and I are off on Friday night to hear a band that is performing in north Georgia that we are strongly considering for our wedding.  Then we are hitting the road on Saturday morning for one of Kevin's college friend's weddings in Augusta.  Then on Sunday we will get to spend Father's Day with Mr. Golden.  Happy Father's Day to all the Daddy's out there! Especially my Daddy who I love dearly!

Memorial Day Weekend

Last weekend was quite the trip! Kevin and I always love spending time with our respective families and it is always refreshing to see Kevin's side as there are a lot of little children that are so fun and cute to play with!

We ended up getting off around 2pm on Friday and started the trek down south.  Atlanta traffic wasn't terrible, especially when we had gorgeous country roads to look forward to as we got closer to Alma.  The first year that Kevin took me down to the farm, I had noticed a rural country road that was called "Rentz road."  I begged Kevin to let me get a snap shot of it this time, as next Memorial Day I won't be able to claim Rentz anymore!

Thankfully, my mom called right before we left Atlanta and told me to check the mailbox.  The newest issue of Martha Stewart Weddings was waiting for me and I was able to study the magazine on the way down.  Kevin gave Momma and me a subscription to the magazine when we got engaged.  One of the best parts so far of the wedding planning process has been talking to mom on the phone while pouring over the magazine together.  We both look through it alone and then dog ear the pages we want to discuss over the phone. 

A wedding related highlight of the weekend for me was being able to ask our adorable Flower Girls to be part of our wedding! Kevin's cousin's children, Grace and Emma, are the most adorable little girls and we were so thrilled that they accepted our invitation to be Flower Girls at our ceremony.  Grace and Emma along with another cousin's child on my side will be the Flower Girl troop.  I had a flower girl cookie made for Grace and Emma, just like I did for the bridesmaids.  Katy, my future sister-in-law was so sweet to take some shots on my camera for me of the moment when we asked the girls.  They were so excited and seemed to enjoy the yummy sugar cookie!  Emma- the younger one kept telling me about a dress that she already had that was white.  Hopefully, they will still be as excited 11 months from now!

And last but not least, the mile high hummingbird cake was delicious! I highly recommend the recipe.  However, make sure you think ahead and test out how high your cake dome is.  I had a to leave off the top two layers as the cake dome was not tall enough to accommodate the mile high height! The white chocolate cream cheese icing was heavenly!  It is definitely going to be a repeat recipe in our house!

Kevin and I are about to hit the road for the weekend yet again! We are headed to Augusta this weekend to stay with Kevin's parents and attend an engagement cookout party for one of Kevin's high school friends.  One of Kevin's groomsmen and his wife will be there and we look forward to catching up with them! 

Happy Friday everyone! Love to all!

Another check mark for the to-do list!

Yesterday, Kevin and I met for lunch as we sometimes do since our offices are so close (on the same road!).  We met with a purpose yesterday.  We had an appointment with our jeweler who helped Kevin design my engagement ring.  This was our second appointment with her to look at wedding bands.  We have been busy looking around at options, but decided to purchase our bands with Brittany at Ascot Jewelers.  She has been such a joy to work with and we are so excited that we have taken this step with her to help us along the way! My band of course matches my ring and Kevin's matches his personality so very well! We are so thrilled to have done this together and check it off the wedding "to-do" list!

Note: These are not our rings- just loved how cheesy this is!

We are headed to Alma, Georgia this weekend as usual for Kevin's family gathering on his mother's side.  I am looking forward to all the Southern food!  I am currently in the process of making a mile high 8 layer hummingbird cake! I have never made this recipe before, so wish me luck as I cut the 4 cake layers into eight tonight before I frost the cake! The recipe is from Oxmoor house which is affiliated with where I used to work (myrecipes.com) Hopefully it will look like this:

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 (8-oz.) can crushed pineapple in juice
• 2 (18.25-oz.) packages white cake mix (we tested with Duncan Hines)
• 2 (3.4-oz) packages vanilla instant pudding mix
• 6 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups milk, divided
• 2 cups canola oil
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 (4-oz.) white chocolate baking bar, finely chopped (we tested with Ghirardelli)
• 1 cup flaked sweetened coconut
• 2 cups chopped pecans, toasted
• 2 cups chopped banana (about 3 medium)
• White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
• Garnish: toasted pecans

Preparation

• 1. Preheat oven to 350°.
• 2. Drain pineapple, reserving juice for another use. Squeeze pineapple well using several thicknesses of paper towels to remove excess moisture.
• 3. Combine cake mix and next 7 ingredients in an 8-qt. mixing bowl. Beat at low speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes; beat at medium speed 3 minutes. Fold in pineapple, white chocolate, and next 3 ingredients. Pour batter into 4 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans.
• 4. Bake at 350° for 34 to 36 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely. Wrap and chill cake layers at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
• 5. Using a serrated knife, slice cake layers in half horizontally to make 8 layers. Place 1 layer, cut side up, on cake plate. Spread with 1/2 cup White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting. Repeat procedure 6 times. Place final cake layer on top of cake, cut side down. Spread remaining frosting on top and sides of cake. Cover; chill in refrigerator overnight. Garnish, if desired. Store in refrigerator.
• Note: Cover cake in an airtight container and freeze up to 1 month in advance. Thaw in refrigerator overnight before serving.
• Test Kitchen Tip: To prepare a 4-layer White Chocolate Hummingbird Cake instead, use half of all ingredients in both cake and frosting recipes. Follow cake recipe as directed in Steps 1 through 4, except use only 2 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. In Step 5, slice the 2 cake layers in half horizontally to make 4 layers. Follow White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting recipe as directed except microwave white chocolate morsels in Step 1 for only 1 1/2 minutes. Assemble cake as directed. Both the 8- and 4-layer versions of this delicious cake slice best after they have chilled overnight.

Oxmoor House
MARCH 2008

Happy Memorial Day weekend to ALL! Safe Travels!

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!)