Back to Blogging..with a look back at 2010

2010 was a big year for me, full of ups and downs.  Lots of ups, both personally and professionally.  And a couple of downs professionally, especially at the beginning of the year.  Thankfully the agency is doing phenomenally well right now and B & I get married this year - so 2011 is already shaping up to be much more kick-ass than the last.


So, for my first blog post in a while (sorry!) I'm stealing an idea from a good friend and starting 2011 on the blog with a recap of 2011.  This turned out to be a LOT harder than I thought and totally supports my resolution to be better about taking & organizing photos, and actually putting albums together!

Bridesmaids Dresses: LulaKate

Last week, Two weeks ago (wow time seems to be flying lately) I had to be in Charleston for a conference.  While on a break, I was walking down King Street and spotted LulaKate.

LulaKate has been featured a LOT lately and with good reason - their dresses are super cute and they offer a lot of customization that allows each style of dress they make to look great on the girls that wear them.  There are four skirt styles for each dress.  You can choose to have a waist band added or not (like the first picture below).  You can vary the skirt length.  You get the picture..

To be honest,  I was pretty anti-bridesmaids dress this entire time.  I wanted something off the rack that had max re-wear potential. But these dresses were so cute...and so much easier than trying to find something off the rack that was affordable, cute,  and would look remotely good on all 10 (yes 10!) bridesmaids.  I've officially become a fan.

After a quick consult with the maids of honor, it was decided, let the girls pick from one of their three ruffled styles:

 

The strapless dress will have a ruffle added at the top, that folds over - I saw a sample in the store with it and it is SUPER cute in person.  Probably the most re-wearable of the bunch, but also the most simple.

Can't wait to see which dress each girl picks.  And can't wait to pick colors.  I'm waiting on B to choose his ties and then we'll go from there.  Have my eye on navy with fun shoes or this awesome teal that would look great in pics and work with all skin/hair types.  We shall see! 

Post Office FAIL

We mailed our Save the Dates on Friday, December 3.  I dropped them off personally at the main counter; I wanted someone to weight them just to make sure B had bought enough postage for each envelope.  They passed the test, off they went.

We started getting emails and texts from family and friends within a day - great, right?

Well, turns out that many of our close friends haven't even gotten their Save the Dates yet!  Some got them only yesterday.

What is up with the Postal Service?  Is it the holidays?  Or is everyone so reliant on email these days that it has become acceptable for mail to take ALMOST TWO WEEKS?

God help us if the real invitations take this long....

Anyone else experience anything similar with holiday cards?  Or is is just bad luck?

YIKES!

Productive Weekend!

B was out of town this weekend, and while I was bummed that we weren't able to hang out (especially since I was out of town most of this past week), I was pretty excited to have a low-key, productive weekend.  It's amazing how much you can accomplish when you don't go out and drink alot either night!

Here are just some of the things I checked off my to-do list:

1. Mailed our Save the Dates
That's right..they are OUT!   I guess this means we're officially getting married!

Here's what the final product looked like, LOVE how they turned out!

2.  Found a SUPER AWESOME necklace to wear with my wedding dress
It's big, sparkly and will look great!  I keep taking it out of the box to look at it. I have an appointment to try it on with MY dress (the sample comes in early - in two weeks!), keeping my fingers crossed it will work!

3.  Looked for Mother of the Bride dresses
Mom tried on and was kind of considering a short beaded number.  Not so much.  We'll keep looking...

4.  Switched out my closet
One of the joys of apartment living is having to keep off season clothes under a bed, stuffed in a coat closet...anywhere but the main closet.   I know we're not alone in this, but still, switching out closets is one of my least favorite tasks ever.  However, it is also one of those tasks where the end result is always worth the effort.  I feel like I have a whole new wardrobe now that I can actually see all of my winter clothes again.  Am happily sporting one of my (much beloved) black turtlenecks as we speak.  Oh how I've missed you black sweaters!

I also have a new appreciation for that high-school retail job, where I had to fold sweaters with a board to make them perfect:

5.  Decided on Bridesmaids Dresses
On my recent business trip to Charleston, I took advantage of a little down time (okay, I skipped part of the conference) to try on dresses at LulaKate.  Yall,  I didn't think I wanted to go with a "bridesmaids" dress but these were SO cute I couldn't resist.  I had some discussion about diff. styles with the two maids of honor and it was a done deal.  I'll post pictures in a future post.

6.  Got out my winter wreath and FINALLY switched our doormat.
No more watermelon doormat - instead I found a really cute, affordable leaf mat at Lowe's.  Was there to buy something for the shower and stumbled upon this.  So glad - finally feels like we've embraced fall & winter!  About time :) 

--
I got a TON of other stuff done too; it was a VERY productive weekend!  Hope yall also had a great weekend - anyone get a taste of the winter weather?   

'Tis the Season!

...for cute holiday sweaters:

 

Thank you, Bebe, for the awesome Thanksgiving present!   These are perfect for the cold weather we've been having on the east coast.  Love!

Our Wedding Photographers Rock!

Our wedding photographers are featured on Style Me Pretty today...The shoot captures a great, foggy wedding in the NC mountains.  Lots of great shots and gorgeousness, like this:

Check it out

So excited for them to shoot our wedding!!!!

If I Had the Guts...

...I would totally sport this at my wedding.  Made by Style by SOCA, this is a serious piece of gorgeousness.  LOVE.

One of my favorite wedding blogs, With This Ring showcased this earlier last week but I just saw it today.  (And the more I look at it, the more I think it might actually look gorgeous sewn onto the side of a dress as an accent piece.  It would definitely dress up a simple dress!)

Speaking of veils...I'm going to try on a veil with my dress the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Not only does this give me an excuse to put my dress back on but I will finally be able to take pictures, since we forgot the camera on our last trip. 

This is actually a special trip for many other reasons, the main one being that the veil we will be trying on was given to me by my godfather and his wife just weeks before he passed away from a long time battle with cancer.  I have never seen the veil out of the packaging (it was brought over from Belgium in the 80's by the wife's mother) but from the few peeks I got, it looks gorgeous.  What a special way to remember my godfather - I can't wait to try the veil on.  And while I won't share pics here, I'll definitely let you know how it goes!  (obviously those who really want to see can get pics via email...more than happy to share!)

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone :)