Happily Married :)

Hello all!

We are married now!!  I haven't blogged since the wedding- it has been a busy month and a half! Everything has gone really well and we are in honeymoon bliss mode. We are taking our actual honeymoon in 3 weeks and it cannot come soon enough! It will be so nice to relax and have a vacation for just the two of us.

The wedding went really well. Of course there were a few hiccups, but that was to be expected and it wasn't anything that was a big deal. The one thing that people kept telling me was that our wedding would fly by and we would barely remember it. I didn't think anything of that comment until it came and went and now it feels like a blur. We had so much going on and so many people there to celebrate with us, that is truly did fly by.

We are thankful for everyone that was there and helped make our day so special! It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

We feel so blessed and are excited at what is to come in our marriage.


Tiffany Alcorn (so exciting to have a new last name!)

10 days away

So I have not had time to blog lately with everything that has been going on! We are now 10 days away from the wedding! It is coming up so fast! I am so excited!

This Friday night is the Bachelor and Bachelorette party. We are all meeting at my parent's house and then my dad is driving the bus over to Citywalk in Orlando. So we can all party together on the way there. And then when we get to Citywalk, the girls and guys are splitting up for a while to do their own thing. At the end of the night we will meet back up before riding back to the house. It should be fun and Andy and I are both excited for it!

This Saturday is my bridal shower which is a surprise for me. I know where and what time to be there but that is all! Ali has worked hard at planning it with the help of my bridesmaids. I can't wait to see how it turns out. :)

We are looking forward to all of the family coming into town and getting to see our friends too. I will blog more of the details after the wedding with some pictures!! 

Wedding night

We booked the hotel for our wedding night and I also bought the lingerie I plan to have for that night too! I can't wait to be Mrs. Alcorn! We get two months to honeymoon at home after the wedding and then we go on our real honeymoon! We are both very excited!

Bridal Stress

I am glad I only have to plan my wedding once! I don't mind helping friends/family plan theirs in the future, but being the bride is something that I will be happy with never having to do again! lol. I can't wait for everything and I know it is going to be a magical day. But this process of choosing everything and trying to stay in budget and trying to make sure everything matches perfectly and making sure that we have everything prepared and done ahead of time… it is a lot to stress about!! To everyone who reads this.. I love all my family and friends who have helped with various parts of wedding planning/preparation and I thank you all so much! I couldn't have done it without you all!

I am still stressed and want everything in the way that I have pictured in my mind. So I apologize ahead of time if I don't do things the way people suggest. I just want this once in a lifetime experience to be just the way I picture it. :)

Sorry that was kind of a long rant. But it is to be noted in my blog, that as much fun as it is to be getting married, there is also a LOT to do! (When you plan your wedding in 4 months like we are). I understand why people have long engagements. You do need the time to plan the wedding without so much stress. BUT I am happy with our way and couldn't imagine waiting a year (or 5 like some ppl) to be Mr. and Mrs.

38 more days!

52 Days to go!!

We are 52 days away from the "Big Day!" I have been working on ordering things we need for the wedding. Today I ordered my garters. I ordered two- one to keep and one for Andy to toss! I have been using Etsy a lot. I love that site. They have so many cool things you can order that come personalized. Also this week I ordered gifts for my ring bearer, flower girl, and my brother who is a groomsmen in the wedding. I had to order him something different than the rest of the groomsmen because he isn't of age to drink.

Today I ordered the rehearsal dinner invites as well. I will be sending those out to our immediate family and bridal party as soon as they come in the mail.

So much more to do! I am trying to make a decision about a unity ceremony. I don't want to do the traditional candle lighting ceremony because we will be on the water and they will not stay lit. I don't really want to do the sand ceremony either. Do we have to do a unity ceremony at all? Can we just make the wedding ceremony sweet and simple?

Wedding Website and Photo App

Our wedding website is created and can be viewed here: http://Timmer-Alcorn.ourwedding.com/!

Also, I decided to use an app called Capsule to collect all the photos that our guests take at the wedding. It is really neat. All you have to do is download the free app on your Android or Apple phone, called CapsuleCam. Then, you put in the code: W2AMH and it will connect you to our wedding website. Then, you take pictures of everything at our wedding and it will upload so that everyone can see! It is a great way to share pictures. It is basically replacing the disposable cameras that used to be popular at weddings. We are in a new digital age.. I love it! 

We will have info on how to download the app at the wedding, but if you are attending go ahead and get a head start and download it now!

60 Day Countdown!

60 days until the wedding!! It is going to be here very quickly! There is still a lot that needs to be done. I haven't had much time to blog lately because I am in the busy part of the semester with school. However, I have definitely gotten some things done since my last post!

Invitations are being sent out. I have already put the first 20 in the mail and am hoping to get the rest out by the end of this week. 

We have planned the bachelor and bachelorette party. Kathi (my sister) is working on the invitations for that. Ali (my Maid of Honor) is busy planning the bridal shower as well. 

This past weekend, I had my dress fitting!! I go back in April to try it on and make sure all the alterations are good. 

I have also been working on the table numbers for the reception. I have this really cute idea that I found on Pinterest. I have these little paper albums that will be on each table. The  guests will answer questions that are written on each page. For example: What is the best marriage advice you've ever received? What should we do for our 1st anniversary? etc.. Each number that is on the front of the album is the table number, but it also represents a year of our marriage. So Table 3 will write advice for us to open on our 3rd anniversary! We are going to make this a tradition so that each anniversary, we open the albums and are reminded of what our marriage should look like. :)

Bridal Party Dress Glasses

So it was supposed to be a secret, but then I realized that the person making these glasses for me posted a picture on Facebook and when I commented on it, all my bridesmaids were able to see it. So the surprise is out, I ordered wine glasses for each of them. I love them so much! I also ordered one for me. So the day of the wedding, the girls and I can all have a nice glass of wine together while we are getting ready! Here is a picture of what the glasses look like! Oh, and I ordered two champagne glasses for Andy and I. They say Mr. Alcorn and Mrs. Alcorn!! So excited!

Engagement Pictures

These pictures are a sample of some of our favorites from our engagement photo session this past Saturday! We love them! I can't wait to see how our wedding photos will turn out as well! Hope you enjoy the pictures! :)

Spray Roses

We made a decision about flowers! We are going to use spray roses instead of regular roses. Not only will they save us money, they are beautiful! Spray roses have 3-5 blooms on each stem, so the bouquets will be so full and pretty! Here is a picture from the florist that we are using, Flowers by Milk and Honey. Our spray roses will be red instead of pink, but this is just an example.

Bridesmaids attire is complete!

Everything is complete for the bridesmaids attire! Over the past couple days, I got word that everyone's dress is in. The girls just have to go pick them up! I also ordered pretty jewelry for the girls to wear the day of the wedding! :) I will give their gifts to them the night of the rehearsal dinner! Lastly, I picked out the shoes I want them to wear as well. Kathi already owns them and gave me the idea. I went shopping yesterday and found the same shoes on clearance at DSW and ended up buying them for myself! I will probably wear them for the rehearsal, because I have this idea of wearing teal shoes on my wedding day! But I couldn't pass up the deal!

Now I need to find my wedding day shoes!!

Jamaica, here we come!!

So one of our most recent accomplishments in wedding planning was booking our honeymoon!! We are so excited! We wanted to go somewhere exotic that we normally wouldn't go for just any other vacation. So we finally settled on a 7 night cruise with Royal Caribbean leaving out of Port Canaveral on July 21st. We will stop at Labadee, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. It is going to be an amazing vacation. Andy and I cannot wait!!!

Classic Photography

Today I made a decision on who I am going to use for our wedding photography! Debbie Amatucci is the owner of Classic Photography in New Smyrna Beach. She is giving us a free engagement session for booking her wedding package! I met her at the bridal show in Daytona Beach on Jan 13th and really felt like she was the right person. I have researched so many photographers.

It is one of the things that is high on my priority list for the wedding. Memories will fade, but photographs will always be there to give a little spark to your memory. I don't ever want to forget the details of my wedding. 50 years from now I want to be able to look at the photos and remember everything from the necklace I wore to the look on our faces as Andy and I got married.

I have included a couple pictures of Classic Photography's work. You can view her Facebook here!

Checking things off the to-do list

This has been a busy week. I am in my second week of school for the semester. Taking 3 graduate classes and planning a wedding means I never get off the computer!! I did get some things accomplished this week though! I chose our DJ for the wedding- DJ Man Joe. He will be there for 5 hours. He will play the ceremony music as well as play music for the cocktail hour and the reception.

Another thing we checked off our list this week was picking out the guys' tuxes and getting Andy measured for his. The groomsmen will wear a black tux with a Malibu color vest and tie. The bridesmaids all got their dresses bought and ordered! They are in Malibu as well. Kathi and Ali were able to take theirs home right away because the store had their sizes. Katelyn and Angela had to order, but they shouldn't take too long to get in!

The other big thing we accomplished was setting up our wedding registry! Our site is located here. Go check it out! We are asking people to give monetary gifts towards something we need. For example, we still need money for the wedding photography, flowers, and the honeymoon. After that is paid, we are hoping to buy a bedroom set and a king mattress, as well as a couple other things for our apartment. Our registry is a little different than the average wedding registry, but times have changed. We are in a more technological world and I hope our guests will not be afraid to use it! That is what we want.

Thanks for following me! I love that people are reading my blog and following our wedding plans! I am so excited for May 17th to get here, but also enjoying the planning process and our engagement! :)

Say YES to the DRESS!

On Saturday, January 12th, I found my wedding gown!! I went wedding dress shopping with my mom and my Maid of Honor, Ali. First, we went to a little bridal shop called, A Bridal Boutique For The Girls, in Daytona. While I got some ideas of what I liked, it was a little out of my price range.

So then we went to David's Bridal, which ended up being the best place for me! I am not someone who really cares about designer. I just wanted a dress that looked amazing on me. It didn't matter who made it. So after trying on so many dresses and just being like, "I think I like that one," I finally put on a dress, walked out of the dressing room and looked in the mirror, and knew it was the one! My mom said, "Oh, wow!" Ali said, "Tiffany, that is your dress!" We all loved it right away!

I cannot put any details because it is going to be a surprise to almost everyone! The only people that have seen it are my bridal party and both moms! But I did take a picture of me holding the bag it came in!

May 17th, 2013 Riverside Pavilion

We chose a date!! This was one of the hardest parts thus far in planning a wedding! It seemed that everybody had in mind when we should or shouldn't get married. We went back and forth for a couple of weeks about different dates. First it was May, then it was August, then it was July, and then back to May. The date is May 17th, 2013! Here are the reasons we chose the date we did:

• May is beautiful in Florida!!
• I have two weeks off of school from April 29th-May 13th and I can devote my attention completely to getting last minute things done for the wedding. (Even though I will be in my first week of summer classes on the 17th, it will be okay bc it is online and there won't be that much work that first week).
• Family members that are also in college, will be out by the 10th, so they will have a week to get down to Florida for our wedding!
• It has always been my dream to get married outside. July is just miserable in Florida. Whereas, May is perfect!
• It will save us about $1000 to have it in May because we do not have to book a church (since we will be getting married outside) and we can have it on a Friday, which is also cheaper. 

So Andy and I are excited about the date. It is super quick, but we are in love and don't see any need in waiting to get hitched. We will be waiting to take our honeymoon in July when I have another break from school! That will give us some time after the wedding to keep saving for the honeymoon!

The location is going to be Riverside Pavilion in Port Orange, FL. Our ceremony will be outside overlooking the river and our reception will be inside. It will be so pretty!

We hope everyone will be able to make it! It will be a wedding you don't want to miss! That is one of our priorities.. to make sure our wedding is fun and that we all have a blast! No stress!

Will You Be My Bridesmaid?!

So I was trying to think of a cute way to ask my bridesmaids and maid of honor to be in my wedding. I looked up all kinds of ideas. I decided to make cards, since two out of my four bridesmaids live out of town. I bought flat cards and envelopes in red, sparkly teal letter stickers, a stamp of a bride a groom, teal flowers, and a piece of teal scrapbook paper.. all from Michael's. I then found individual poems to each girl in my bridal party. The cards are two-sided. I love them! Plus they are a preview of our wedding colors. Maybe not the exact shade, but close!

Cake tasting

This past Saturday, Andy and I were able to do a cake tasting with Sherri at The Pastry Studio! I have babysat Sherri's two daughter's for the past 6 years, so I have always wanted her to make my wedding cake! Her cakes are absolutely gorgeous! You can view her site at www.thepastrystudio.com.

We have a rough draft of our cake and cannot wait to see how it turns out. It will be a 3-tiered cake. We are going to have the top two layers strawberry and the bottom layer chocolate with peanut butter cream. It will be delicious! I am putting the photo that inspired me below. Our cake is going to be different, but this is where I got the idea. 

Photo from The Pastry Studio

We are engaged!!!!!!

Andy and I are engaged! I am so happy and thrilled to be planning a wedding! But first, I want to tell you our proposal story! 

Andy and I have been talking about getting married for several months now. So I knew it was coming, but was not sure on when, how, or where he would propose! We went on vacation with my family to a cabin in North Carolina for a few days after Christmas, leading up to New Years. Andy's parents were able to join us for two nights as well! It was the first time our families got to meet each other. Some of our friends (The Farrays) were there as well. On December 30th (also my Parents' anniversary), everybody took a walk through the woods. Andy told me he wanted to wait until later to go out for a walk, so we waited. A little while later, our family came back and Andy asked me to go on a walk with him. It was freezing outside, but I followed Andy as we walked up the hill away from the cabin. A few minutes later, we came upon a fire burning in a fire pit in the middle of the trees. Andy and I walked over to it to warm up. After another minute, Andy turned to me, took my hands in his and told me that he loved me and that he was really excited to spend his life with me and that he looked forward to our future together. He got down on one knee, pulled out a ring, and asked me to marry him. I had tears in my eyes and a huge smile on my face, and with no hesitation, I said "Yes!" 

When we got back to the cabin, our family had champagne waiting on the front porch for us and threw us a party inside! We got to celebrate with everyone and enjoy the moment! Here are a few pictures of the evening!