Is it bad that after I went to the bridal salon last night and picked up my wedding dress, I locked myself in our bedroom for over an hour, put the dress on and paraded around in front of the mirror? I'm still in love with it!!!

We take my dress Sunday to the alteration lady to start my fittings - I'm so excited to see it all come together! She needs to add the beaded sash, remove 1 layer of crinoline, hem it and put in a bustle. I'm sure I will have tons of pictures on Monday!

Happy Friday (finally!!)

Random Thoughts Thursday

This is seriously the longest week EVER! Working 6 days is never fun and I thought today was Friday when I woke up. Booo - plus I have a double wedding Saturday and will probably be working about 14 hours. J's bachelor party is this weekend, so I will have the house to myself...I see a lot of sleeping in my future for Sunday!

A few of you had questions about my bridal shower and bachelorette pictures...

My friend R got that monogrammed burgee from a local embroidery store that is owned by one of our friends... I'm sorry that's probably not very helpful! I know you can order plain burgees online at sailing supply stores and can get it monogrammed anywhere.

My bachelorette party dress actually came from TJ Maxx - again not very helpful! I got it there about 2 months ago. I had originally bought it for our honeymoon, but realized it would be perfect for the bachelorette party. To be honest, I don't even know what brand it is - but it was only like $19.99.

I had my 3rd personal training session last night and I can't move my arms today. Just typing this hurts! He's definitely stepped up the intensity and I was sweating so much last night!! He also told me I'm one of his whiniest clients - ha! He had me doing some insane stuff last night, so I think I have a right to whine about some of it. I have my first dress fitting this Sunday, so I know all that work will pay off!

Speaking of that - I'm still running my butt off (hopefully literally!) and starting August 1st I'm cutting out a bunch of stuff from my diet. #1 being Coke Zero - ahhhhh! I only drink 1 a day, but that 1 is like the best 10 minutes of my day, seriously! But I need to do it, diet soda is really bad and makes you bloated. I'm also going to attempt to cut out candy, but not all dessert! I need my ice cream!

I also went and picked up my wedding band yesterday! I LOVE it so much - I wish I could wear it NOW! It matches my e-ring, so it's just a thin band with small channel set diamonds around it. We have to take it back in a few weeks for the store to engrave both mine and Jake's - we are getting each other's initials and the date...very traditional.

Did anyone watch SYTYCD last night? I finally caught up and I have to say - I'm loving Brandon and Jeanine. Brandon hasn't always been my fave, but he was amazing last night. I'd like to see Evan and Melissa go home tonight - they are both sort of blah to me. I love when they get down to the end because all the dances are SO incredible!

J and I need to start with dance lessons - eek! We're not going to do a full choreographed dance, we just need help so we don't look like idiots and step all over each other. Our first dance song is Ray Lamontagne, "You are the best thing"...does anyone know it? I'm in LOVE with that song - its sort of jazzy/bluesy. If you haven't heard it, I recommend downloading it, it's beautiful! Hopefully we will look good dancing to it!

Wow, longest, most random blog ever! Just some inspiration that I keep staring at lately:

LOVE these flowers - crossing my fingers that my florist tells me she can get ranuculus when I meet with her next week!

Bachelorette Party!

Here are the non-scandalous pics from the bachelorette weekend. We were down at the beach, which is about 2.5 hours away. My MOH found this amazing condo with 4 bedrooms that slept 14 people! It was seriously amazing and right on the beach with a fabulous view!

This is the view from our condo at sunset on Saturday - amazing!

We spent the day on the beach and then went to this super fun outdoor bar at the beach Saturday night. Things didn't get too crazy, but drunk pictures are not very cute - so most of these are from fairly early in the night! This is all the girls in the condo right before we left to go out. There was 10 of us total - it was so fun! The girls didn't make me have too much embarrassing stuff...I'm not really into the whole "bachelorette" attire with the condom veil and penis leis. I just had a pink sash, blinking button and a blow up penis (which we didn't take out with us) - pretty tasteful! ha!

Right after we got to the bar. I wore this new maxi dress and I loved it - it was really comfortable cause I was able to wear flat shoes. That came in handy late night when we were walking home from the bar!

Me with my bridesmaids!! Love this pic - even though J isn't looking at the camera! 

Dancing to 80's music - I had WAY too many of those frozen drinks. Yikes! Oh and we did have penis straws - obviously! 

Singing along to the music. That's my bridesmaid J, who is Jake's sister in law. We are very different (see her nose ring?) but I love her and I'm so excited to have her as my sister in 37 days!

Obviously towards the end of the night - I saw that guys glasses and I wanted them, so I went up on stage to steal them - and then I lost them later in the night! bummer!

Love these girls!

Walking home at the end of the night - we walked about 20 streets (blocks) before we gave up and called a cab! 

I have to say that I'm not as young as I used to be and that weekend pretty much kicked my butt - I'm still tired! I guess I can't party like I used to! But I had the most fabulous time ever!!

Officially at 37 days - EEEEEK!

Bridal Shower Recap - The Party!

Now that you've seen the details of the bridal shower, it's onto the pictures from the actual party!

A little bit blurry, but this was right as I walked into K's house and saw all my friends and all the decorations - I was SO excited!!

About to cut my cake - it was so good, I think I had 3 pieces!

More cake cutting - gotta practice for the wedding day!

The adorable napkins the girls had made for the shower - love them!

Trying out the photobooth

Some of my favorite girls!

Present time - I got so many amazing gifts!! I got a Junior League cookbook from one of my sorority sisters, white monogrammed towels off of our registry, and tons of wine glasses!

My friend L sat next to me during the presents and made sure I had plenty of wine to drink while I was opening all of them!

Another one of the surprises from the shower - a recipe box filled with recipe cards from each guest! It was so cute and I love all the recipes - maybe I'll actually cook Jake dinner

One of my favorite gifts, from my friend R - it's a personalize sailboat burgee (like a flag) with our new monogram on it! Since J sails and our basement has a nautical theme, I can't wait to frame it and hang it down there!

My bow bouquet after all the presents were opened - between both of my showers, it's huge!

After the presents, things got a little bit rowdier and we hit up the photobooth for tons of pictures!

Playing with the photobooth props!

J came over to pick up all the presents and I made him pose in the photobooth - I love this picture of us!!

My sorority sisters and friends from college that came into town for the shower/bachelorette. I loved catching up with them! I was so excited to see my old roommate, A, who is pregnant with her first baby (in the blue print dress)

The other big surprise at the bridal shower was the fact that we actually left for my bachelorette party at the beach Friday night, right after the shower! We drove late and arrived at the condo at like 1am! But it was great because then we got a full beach day and were laying out in the sand by 10:30am Saturday morning!! I will do a bachelorette party post (with the non-scandalous pictures!) tomorrow! 

Bridal Shower Recap - The Details!

My bridesmaids planned the most perfect shower for me! I love those girls - they planned everything that I love and it was so "me"! 

Here's some pictures that my MOH took before anyone arrived for the party:

The favors were wine glasses - my bridesmaids etched each guests name onto their wine glass so they were personalized and tied pink and yellow ribbons around them...adorable! Mine had my name on one side and then a sparkly "Bride" sticker on the other side. I'm obsessed with it and I used it all weekend! 

A shot of K's living room, all decorated. She switched out all her pictures with our engagement pictures with new pink mats in all the frames. She added a bunch of pink cubes around the room for seating, plus the pink chandelier pillows. 

The bar - tons of pink wine and other delicious cocktails! With it being a Friday evening shower, there was a lot of fun drinks consumed!

The food spread - it was a dessert shower, and there were so many yummy treats. Pink and Chocolate cupcakes, a delish lemon cake and ton of cookies! 

One of my favorite parts of the shower - a candy buffet!!! Filled with pink candy - pink M&M's, candy necklaces, taffy and my personal fave... pink marshmallows!!! 

The funniest part of the shower - the girls took some of our engagement pics and had them turned into an "Andy Warhol" framed print that they hung above K's mantle. Isn't that hilarious and fabulous? I plan on hanging it in my walk in closet...ha!

K's backyard - pink tiki torches and my favorite part of the whole shower - the photo booth!!

Another view of the photo booth - they set up a fun pink damask cloth as the backdrop and then had K's camera on a tripod with a timer to take the pictures. 

Super fun props for the photobooth - hats, boas, jumbo sunglasses! I may have to do a whole other post just with the photobooth pictures because they are hilarious!! 

Stay tuned for the actual shower party pics!!!  

Wow

Ummm so we are back from my bachelorette party at the beach. I feel like I got hit by a truck. Not really from being hungover, just from staying up SO late both nights and having SO much fun!! Both my shower and bachelorette were AMAZING! Unfortunately, I am at work today and I could have really used the day off to recover.

I'll post tons of pictures and a recap of both events later once I'm feeling back to normal. It was seriously one of the most fun weekends I have had in a LONG time!

Off to try and sneak a nap in at my desk!

Bridal Shower Countdown!

My bridal shower is TOMORROW! My lovely, wonderful bridesmaids are throwing it for me and it's at my MOH's house. I'm not sure if I ever shared the fabulous bridal shower invite...

I was so excited when that came in the mail - isn't it beautiful? (well besides my ugly white marks to take out the personal info) It's Anna Griffin - I LOVE it! My one bridesmaid works at a high-end stationery store in Baltimore so she was able to get the cutest stuff for a good price. She also did the invites for my other shower I had last month - I'll have to post a picture of that soon too. She's doing all of our thank you notes and the rehearsal dinner invites as well.

When I got the invite, I realized the best part of the whole shower - My bridesmaid C is coming up for the weekend!!! She lives in Florida and I haven't seen her since February - I am SOO excited she gets to spend the whole weekend up here!! They decided on a Friday evening shower and then we leave Saturday morning for the beach for my bachelorette party so that C could come up and be here for both events!

A lot of my sorority sisters and friends from college are also coming in for the weekend (mainly from DC) - so it's sort of going to be a mini-reunion as well! I just can't wait to see everyone!

It's going to be a long day today and tomorrow waiting for such an exciting weekend!!

Buff Bride!

Now that I'm officially at the 6 week mark for the wedding, I had a little bit of a mini-meltdown about my fitness/toning level while we were on vacation. I've still been running pretty much every day and I have lost a bit of weight, but I really just want to look and feel my best for the wedding and honeymoon.

So, I bit the bullet and hired a personal trainer! EEEK! I have him for 12 sessions - 2 times a week every week until the wedding! His name is J.D. and he seriously kicks my butt! OMG! I had my first session with him on Monday morning and I literally still cannot walk...and I have to go back in today for my 2nd session!!! He did a "baseline" test with me on Monday, just to see my levels for everything. He said he was surprised by how in shape I am (which was a surprise to me too!), so that means he'll be able to push me even harder than he originally thought - GREAT!

He showed me proper form for all these exercises I've been apparently doing wrong - a real correct squat is SO hard...and I almost fell backwards on my butt while doing them because he makes me get down so low. And I never do any upper body stuff, so that was seriously intense...I wanted to cry at the end of it all.

But he promises that I will definitely see major results by the end of the 6 weeks and I will have toned arms and abs by the wedding. I'm willing to put in some hard work and sweat for the next 6 weeks if it means that I will be a buff bride!!

I'm sure I will be doing updates on my progress over the next few weeks - maybe I'll even do photo comparisons of before and after!

Picture Time

A few of the many pictures I took of Block Island and the wedding. 

It was so pretty, I literally just kept taking pictures of everything. I would definitely love to go back there in the future!

Right before we headed over to Block Island on the ferry - it was so cool to load our car onto it!

The view from the ferry - almost made it to the Island!

Our house for the week!

Our amazing view - we were so high up you could pretty much see the whole island from our front porch!

The view from the first morning we were there. 

One of the two lighthouses on the island

 The Northern most tip of the island - the current from both sides comes in and crashes in the middle....it was like being on the edge of the world, it was crazy!

View of the inlet from town

Mohegan Bluffs - the rocky side of the island. We hiked down the steps and rocks to get to this amazing beach. It was really foggy that day, but it made it kind of cool!

The beach from the bottom of those steps. 

Now onto wedding pics! It was seriously such a gorgeous wedding...everything was so pulled together, but still very laid back and relaxed. 

Jake and I before the ceremony. Not sure why the bottom of my dress looks messed up...I think I had my leg up or something. 

The ceremony - first kiss!

Cocktail hour on the lawn 

Bridal party!

Beautiful centerpieces. I loved the graphic fabric on all the tables - it reminded me of Kate Spade. 

Dancing in the tent

J and I at sunset - my favorite pic from the weekend!

Such a fun weekend!