Rehearsal Dinner Movie

Steven and I put together a little video for the rehearsal dinner and here it is in case you did not get enough the first time around.

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GEL-oh, thank you for the posting suggestion!

Engagement Photos on Tybee Island II

Engagement Photos on Tybee Island

Here are just a few pictures from our photo shoot with the wedding photographer. There are so many to choose from. I will have to put some more up in another post.

Wedding Shower

We had our first wedding shower at the end of February. Two of Steven's fraternity brothers and their wives hosted the shower. It was a couples shower and so Steven was able to attend this one with me. We had a bunch of little kids at the shower since a number of his brothers have just had children. Steven's niece, Hannah, is getting so big!

Dusty and Jennifer traveled in from Augusta to hang out with us and attend the shower.

We got a lot of wonderful gifts and had a great time hanging out with everyone. You can see us above with a set of our everyday dishes.

What is happening in this picture?

Nerds Rejoice!

Last weekend we attended a bachelor/bachelorette party on a disco bus. As you can see the party had a theme and we were all required to dress as nerds. I was a very low key nerd with my Legends of Zelda shirt, but a lot of the group went all out.

The ladies thought that Steven was quite handsome!

This is a group shot of most of the nerd ladies. You can see the bride-to-be in the center with her crown. We drove all over Atlanta and made stops in various neighborhoods to have a drink and then get back on the bus.

Annapolis Wedding

We traveled to Maryland for Kathleen and Robbie's wedding in mid September. They started dating as high school seniors and then spent 4 years apart while Kathleen attended East Caroline University and Robbie went to school in North Dakota. Even though they were over 1,600 miles apart, they made it work.

Kathleen's maid of honor offered her family's beach house as a place to get ready and take pictures. It was a really beautiful setting and a place that had a lot of meaning to Kathleen since she spent so much time there growing up.

A close friend created an emergency kit with anything that you could possibly need.

Kathleen and I started the ECU garter tradition when Courtney got engaged after graduation. This has continued with Kathleen and I already have mine ready to go. We wear two so that we can keep the ECU one and throw the other.

Courtney, pictured above, and Kathleen will be bridesmaids in our wedding.

I said "YES" to a dress.

Everyone needs a little more GEL-Oh in their lives. Click on the title to this entry and you will go to GEL-Oh's blog where you can find out about my wedding dress adventures.

We Have A Date

July 18, 2009

Steven and I spent 4 days traveling through Charleston, Hilton Head and Savannah looking for a great place to have the wedding. Before we left we were almost positive that Charleston would be our favorite. We were quite surprised to find that Hilton Head was the best fit. The church and the reception site are beautiful and the location will give everyone a little time to relax at the beach and enjoy the summer in the SC Low Country. You can view wedding details by visiting our webpage created through THE KNOT.

St. Andrew By The Sea United Methodist Church

Church Interior

Port Royal Golf Club

Entrance to Port Royal

Interior Recption Space

Outdoor Reception Space

Wedding Season

We traveled to Pawley's Island, SC over Memorial Day weekend for Caroline's wedding. Caroline and I have known each other since high school and first met while sitting next to each other in Mrs. Pyles World History class. We did a class project together and have been great friends ever since. She is currently living in Orlando and working for Disney. That is where she met Evan a couple of years ago and now they are the married and living in a town house that they bought in Orlando. The above picture is at the rehearsal dinner.

This is a picture in the limo on the way to the reception. We all celebrated by having a little champagne. Just before this, we took pictures on the beach.

This is Heather who is Caroline's closet friend from Orlando and also the Matron of Honor. I was the Maid of Honor and one other friend from Orlando was also a bridesmaid.


Her grandmother owns a florist and so all of the flowers the entire weekend were just beautiful. I have one more wedding that I am in in September for a friend from college in the DC area. That will be it until my own!

Going to the Chapel

I woke up on the morning of Saturday, May 17th to find that Steven and Sean (Courtney's, my best friend from college, husband) were no longer in the apartment. Of course I am slightly confused and when I ask Courtney where they went, she says nothing. She simply gets off the couch, walks over to Steven's suitcase and begins riffling through it (also a little weird). She pulls out an envelope, hands it to me and tells me to read what is inside.

Steven's first letter beautifully described why he loved me. He used the following part of a Robert Frost poem...I shall be telling this with a sign. Somewhere ages and ages hence; two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. He was ready to travel that road with me and that because of that he had decided to change our plans for the day. I was to meet him at Stone Mountain Park by the old Carillon bells at 1:30. The second letter, which I was only allowed to have once I had showered and gotten ready to go, included a highlighted map of the park and a gift card for me and Courtney to get our nails done. Thank goodness he gave us something to do. I would have gone crazy just waiting for 1:30 to come.

When I arrived at the park at 1:30, Sean told me I was to walk down the path until I reached the bells. The bells sit on a peninsula on the lake inside the park. That path did not seem like it would ever come to an end. As soon as I read the letter that morning I knew what was coming and of course by this point had gotten myself all worked up. I rounded the corner and there he was with roses. He said "Not quite the world of coke, is it?" (We were supposed to go to the world of coke with Sean and Courtney that day. That had been my plan for a month. Of course they all knew what the real plan was and let me talk about it for that long)

Steven got onto one knee and proposed. As soon as I said yes the bells rang. It was an absolutely perfect moment.

We're Engaged! This is the spot where it all happened!

Courtney and Sean brought us a gift basket full of goodies including champagne bottles dressed as a bride and groom, and ECU garter (it is a tradition), and bride and groom baseball caps (seen below).

The surprises did not end here. We hung out in the park for a little while afterwards and I was told we had dinner reservations for later that night. Once again everyone managed to keep another secret from me. We arrived at the restaurant and his parents and mine were already there to celebrate with us. It was so nice to have them all there. We had champagne (which came in a She Said Yes! bag) and toasted the day.

All of the hidden truths came out later and I slowly began putting all the pieces together. I never picked up on it at the time, but when I thought back, it all fit. Steven had met dad in Augusta a month before to ask his permission. There were a lot of people who knew it was coming. I had no clue!

And of course, here is the ring!
GET READY TO PARTY WITH US IN 2009!

Throwing My First Bridal Shower

Earlier this month I organized a bridal shower for Caroline with the help of her two other bridesmaids. Caroline is a friend from high school who is getting married next month at the beach in South Carolina. As her maid of honor, I was really excited about having the chance to plan a shower and throw her a bachelorette party as well as come up with a speech that is not only sentimental, but also funny (well maybe a little more apprehensive than excited about that part). The bachelorette party is in just a couple of weeks and I must admit that I have not started writing that speech yet, although I have been thinking about it a lot.

We threw the shower at a restaurant in downtown Orlando and luckily had almost the entire restaurant to ourselves. The above picture shows the main table where we ate. The bags were designed by another one of the bridesmaids. She did such a good job and was really creative in the way that she used gift bags for the center pieces. We also ordered confetti with pictures of the bride and groom. The confetti below is actually from another shower a couple of summers ago, but I wanted to show you how great it turns out. You just go to http://www.photofetti.com/, upload as many as 10 pictures and then choose the colors that you would like to incorporate.

We ate first and had a great spread of pasta salad, salad, pizza and grilled veggies. We also had petifores and cream puffs for dessert.

After eating we tested Caroline's knowledge of her fiance (she did wonderfully) and then tested the guests about their knowledge of famous marriages and their ability to unscramble words and phrased related to weddings.

Lastly, she opened all of her gifts. Which included a wishing well full of ways to pamper herself.

Since Caroline and her fiance work for Disney we had the chance to visit Epcot while I was there. I became quite fond of the plant man below, but unfortunately had to leave him behind so that he could entertain more guests.