Wedding Plans!!! {My Bridesmaids!}

Introducing …

My bridesmaids!!!! 

I'm so, so excited to have asked all of these beautiful ladies to stand beside me on our big day! I will give bios/how they are special to me on my wedding site (once it is finished) but now I'd like to have a record of how I asked each of them! 

I ordered their name hangers and began making the cards to ask everyone all the way back in May. I was anxious to ask them since MAY but because we are all in different places, it was spread out throughout the summer! Here is what the cards and the name hangers look like!

Now on to the stories :)

Amy Edwards: Matron of Honor

I was able to ask Amy to be my matron of honor when we went out to dinner for her birthday in the middle of July! We went to Firebirds with my mom and her mom, Mrs. Diane. I first gave her her birthday present and then another bag which contained her hanger and the special note included. We were having such a good time at dinner that we didn't take any pictures!! But I got her to send me a picture of herself with her goodies that night :)

Barrett Royal: Maid of Honor

Anna and Faith Underwood: Bridesmaids

On our first trip to Ocean Isle this summer, with the Royal family, over 4th of July, I was able to ask Barrett to be my maid of honor and Anna and Faith to be my bridesmaids! The first night we were at the beach my Aunt Kim convinced my cousin Chip to take Barrett, Anna, and Faith on a ride in his truck to cruise the island. Meanwhile, I ran to the grocery store with my mom. We picked up balloons at Lowes Food and then went back to the beach house to set up! We had to be quick but I thought it turned out so cute! My Aunt Kim played some wedding music and my mom, Phil, and Uncle Charles were there to watch it happen and take pictures!

Laura Mitterling: Bridesmaid

Now Laura has a been my long distance bestie since freshman year of college. Yes, I have a long distance fiancé AND bestie ;) I waited and waited all summer for an opportunity to be able to ask her in person and it just got too darn busy!! I decided I couldn't wait any longer and I mailed her her hanger and note with a balloon to blow up :) I so wish I could have been there to see her open it up! I will get a picture of her with her hanger and note as soon as possible!! 

Mindy Hill: Bridesmaid

Meghan Mahoney: Bridesmaid

Now these girls were tough! They are my roomies and we all have crazy/different schedules so getting them both at the apt at the same time AND surprising them was hard. I ended up texting them to stay in their room and that they were cordially invited to come out in 5 minutes ;) Meghan followed suit and Mindy asked a million questions ha ha But soon enough they came out to this!

I am SO blessed by each one of these friendships. One thing I know for sure is that I've always been blessed with the BEST friends. These girls support me, cheer me on, laugh with me, and cry with me. I'm so thankful they all said YES!! :)

Engagement Pictures {a story}

Y'all. God is SO good! I want to share a story that shows just a little glimpse of how mighty God is to answer our prayers, big or small.

As you know Andy and I have crazy, hectic schedule. Between his law school and my grad program, we barely have enough time to spend together, much less get wedding planning done! We had our engagement pictures scheduled for Tuesday, August 12th because it was literally the only day we could squeeze in to get them done before our schedules turned crazy again. 

Lori helped us to decide on taking the pictures at Jetton Park in Cornelius. We wanted them to be outside, near water, in a beautiful location and this place was perfection. What wasn't so perfect? The weather forecast. We started watching the weather around Saturday and each day the rain percentage grew higher and higher. 

On Sunday, I read this post by Lindsay; someone I am truly inspired by because of her tremendous faith through all circumstances. It gave me chills at how clearly God reminded her that he was hearing her every prayer. Surely, He could do the same for me? 

After I read that post I began praying God would not only give us good weather but a sunset. Selfishly, I wanted those beautiful sunset, by the water, pictures you see on Pinterest. I just knew God would hear my prayers.

Fast forward to Tuesday and weather.com said 100% chance of storms for 6:00pm. Not good. Lori gave us the option of rescheduling since it would be a huge disaster if it was storming during outdoor pictures ha ha We thought it over for a while but Mom reminded me of how I should trust God to come through with his promises. So, we went for it!

The sky was SO dark as we drove towards Huntersville to get my make-up done. We were nervous. Around 4:30 it began to POUR and thunder and lightening. Yikes. But we kept praying for that sunset. 

Then, at 5:30, when we were getting in the car to head to the park, the sun came through the clouds and it was SUNNY! I was so, so excited!!! We were going to get to take pictures after all :)

During the session, we were having so much fun being near the water and soaking up time together. As we were wrapping up, Lori got some fantastic pictures of us by the water with a beautiful sky. Everything I had prayed for. 

Once we got back in the car and headed home I took the picture above. An absolutely beautiful sunset painted by my absolutely amazing God. 

Andy and I ended the night having dinner together at Birkdale. It may seem trivial and it wouldn't have been the end of the world if we had rain. But at the end of the day, we were SO incredibly thankful and in awe at God's answer to our prayers :) 

Pictures coming very soon!

Last Week of {Break}

While my last week of summer consisted of a lot of appointments, there was some fun thrown in there too ;-)

On Monday night, Amy and Tyler asked Andy and I to be in their wedding!!! I am beyond excited and honored to stand beside my best friend as her maid of honor on their big day! :-) How often do two best friends who have been friends for life get married within 6 weeks of each other and be each others maid/matron? SO fun

Isn't that mirror beautiful!? Tyler gave Andy some funky, cool socks to wear at their wedding :) 

Tuesday was the day of our engagement pictures!!! I have been so excited to take professional pictures with Andy. In our (almost) 8 years of dating we have never had any taken! I was also pumped to work with Lori from CaptureMeCandid because she is SO talented and awesome and I knew we'd have fun! And boy was I right. Even Andy said he had fun ;) 

I was pleased with how this sign I made turned out! Maybe I have a future in chalk designs after grad school, hello etsy ;)

We died laughing at how funny we looked whitening our teeth the night before.

I also got to work with another super talented woman on Tuesday and that was Lindsey Regan Thorne of Be Pretty . She did such a fabulous job with my make-up and was SO, so sweet. I really hope she can do my wedding make-up :)

& after the long day. We were exhausted but had such a great day!

To wrap up all the wedding fun that went on this past week, my mom and I went to the Carolina Bridal Show! It was so fun to get to visit so many vendors (especially florists, bakers, and photo booths which I'm still in the market for). It was also fun being my bride role for the afternoon! Oh and all the free stuff wasn't too shabby ;)

Finally, between all the wedding planning excitement, I got to spend time with my sidekicks turned flower girls :)

I was able to give E her birthday present :)

She was trying to tell me something ha ha

The pool is magically more fun when bubbles are involved ;)

I was sad to see my summer go but I am READY to get this last semester of graduate school classes over with!

OiB Trip

Thankfully, I felt much better on Sunday and I was able to leave for the beach that morning! God really must have thought we all needed rest because it continued to rain until Tuesday morning. Once we hit the beach Tuesday afternoon, we had a fabulous beach week!!

We had beautiful views at this cottage in Island Park!

The pond behind our cottage served many purposes. There were so many turtles in the pond!! We noticed that if we stood on the balcony and looked over they would all swim towards us popping their heads out. So we decided to feed them a few nights :)

We also LOVED to hang out in this little area. It was seriously like our own little oasis. With two hammocks, a swing, some chairs, and the breeze coming off of the pond, it felt wonderful in the evenings after coming off the beach

And finally, Faith thought it was the perfect place to swim. Ha! She found out that her friend Rachel was staying in those condos right across the pond once we got there. They spent more time swimming in that pond than on the beach. Whatever floats your boat … 

My Grandaddy came to stay with us on Wednesday!

Enjoying Ocean Isle Creamery. I like to say I get my love for ice cream from him ;)

Each day around 4:00 the tide would come up so high, we would end up practically sitting in the dunes. But that didn't keep us from enjoying every minute possible!

On the last night we drove over to Carolina Beach to hit up the boardwalk. Faith had been wanting to  ride fair rides all week so we decided Carolina Beach would be a good place to go. 

The first thing we did was stop by Britt's Donuts. My mom and I have been clean eating (which I'll talk about sometime soon) but we made room for a special treat. Both sides of my family have always talked about Britt's Donuts and how it reminds them of their childhood. My Nana even talks about how she'd go as a little girl. This being my first time, Britt's did not disappoint!  

My roomie Meghan's parents live at Carolina Beach so her and her mom met us at the Boardwalk. We were ready to ride some rides after that!

The only ride I rode was the ferris wheel ;)

We ended the night by walking down the Boardwalk towards the beach and the moon looked gorgeous shining on the water. What a perfect way to end our trip!!