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!