Wedding "Peek" Wednesday: Bridesmaids' Bouquets

Here is the photo peek for today!The bridesmaids' bouquets are going to be B-E-A-Utiful! I am in love with hydrangeas and this color green perfectly matches our wedding colors. The stem will be wrapped with black satin ribbon :-) Love it!

I'm really excited to get back into some serious wedding planning and I think its just about time! Our guest list is just about complete which means several things can get closer to being finalized: invitations, catering, rentals, centerpieces...and cake! I can't wait to go cake tasting! Who DOESN'T leap at the idea of tasting lots of different cakes, fillings, and icings?!?

P.S. We have decided where we want to go for our Honeymoon :-)

THANK YOU Tuesday: Dale & Meredith

Today we really want to thank our photographers. I know I've already told you how amazing they are, but really, they are GREAT!

Not many photographers go out of their way to show you just how appreciative they are. Here is a list of some thoughtful things they do just to show how much they care:

1. The Benny Awards: Throwing a party for brides and brides-to-be is unheard of!
2. Giving away special prizes at The Benny Awards! Examples of the prizes: prints, gallery wrapped canvases, couture albums?!?!
3. Door prizes just for being there!
4. Creating a 'Thank You' video after our engagement session!

If you are looking for a wedding photographer or portrait photographer, please visit their website or their blog.

So, Thank you Dale & Meredith!

Comments

Just wanted to let you know that, as of today, everyone out there can leave us comments on our blog. I know some family and friends (who do not have a blog) have been trying to leave a comment on ours, only to be unsuccessful. Well now you can! Sorry for the delay!

I'll blog today's "Thank You Tuesday" later tonight!

Sunday's Engagement Session

I know y'all are waiting to hear an update about our engagement session, to see pictures, or something! I promise, as soon as they are available I will let you know!

All I can tell you right now is that Aaron and I had a blast with Dale and Meredith on Sunday! (Even though it was 30 degrees outside and windy!) They made taking engagement pictures so easy and fun. At first, Aaron and I were cracking up at each other! We had no idea what to do, it was ridiculous. Dale's first instructions for us were to lean up against a wall and face each other. So there we are, facing each other trying to look cool and smile pretty, but all we could do was laugh! We joke that we have NEVER stared at each other that close, for that long, EVER. Aaron swears that he's going to be crossed eyed in every picture because our faces were so close! Hilarious!

Even through all our awkwardness and uncontrollable laughing, Dale and Meredith were very relaxed and chill. It was great! We ended up going to four or five different locations, one of my favorites being infront of a brick wall painted red at Dead Swanky. We, also, went to a new spot Meredith found (and Dale LOVED) for our last few shots. It was in a wooded area down, off the side of a road. When we walked down the slope from the road, a rabbit basically ran out from underneath Aaron's feet! Dale, Meredith, and I all jumped and Aaron thought it was hilarious!

I highly recommend these two great photographers! They are super sweet and even sent us a "Thank You" video they made of themselves with a message to us! How thoughtful is that?!

That's all I have to update on tonight! Back to The Bachelor :-)

6 MONTHS!

Can you believe that in 6 months Aaron and I will be enjoying our wedding day! A day that we have been waiting for, for a very long time. We are so blessed. It leaves me speechless when I think about all that we have been through and how close we have grown together through it all. God knew the one person in this world that would know just what to do, say, or when to do nothing at all. He knew exactly what each of us needed. I am so blessed and excited to look forward to a life with Aaron right by my side, to help see me through whatever life brings our way. ONLY 6 MORE MONTHS :-) It can't get here soon enough!

Also, last night was the Benny Awards and it was such a great time! We all received a great swag bag filled with all kinds of great things, including some customized stationery with both our names on it! (you know I LOVE that kind of stuff!)

Today we went to the Razorback basketball game....we didn't win, but it was still a great time! Aaron got me a funnel cake :-) He knows the key to my heart! We spent the evening making sure we knew what we were wearing for pictures tomorrow. We are starting tomorrow at 1:30, so wish us luck! Its going to be a cold photo shoot!

Benfield Weekend!

I am so excited for this weekend! Aaron and I will be pretty busy, but we've got such fun stuff to do! I'm leaving for Fayetteville in a few hours and we are going to the Benny awards tonight. I can't wait to see what Dale and Meridith have done with their first annual awards night!Saturday we are going to the Arkansas-Auburn basketball game. Hopefully, we will have a win this weekend! On Sunday, we are doing or engagement photo session! I have been checking the weather all week and, so far, it looks like we should have NO precipitation, just cold air :-) I think I can tough it out for pictures. I can't wait to see how they turn out! I'll update when I get back on Monday and let you know all about or weekend activities! Hopefully you'll get to see our engagement pictures on the Benfield website soon :-)

Wedding Peek Wednesday: Bridesmaid Dress

This may be an occasional occurence only (I can't give it all away!), but I hope you enjoy a little glimpse of what our Big Day will be like :-) Have I mentioned how excited I am to be married? To be a wife?.....crazy! A wife!

This is a picture of the bridesmaids' dress. I think this style works great for all body types. The feedback from the girls is that they love it! Perfect! I know each girl will look beautiful! Thanks, again, girls!

Get ready for next Wednesday!

THANK YOU Tuesday: Parent's, Sister, and Brother-in-law

I got some feedback today about the last post and people say they love getting to see what items our home will be filled with when we get MARRIED :-) (married!!!!) So, to give the people what they want, I'm going to make this a regular occurence. To kick off the beginning of "Thank You!" Tuesdays, here are some more gifts and an update at the end!

My sweet dad gave us a great knife block made by KitchnAid. Aaron was pumped, but kind of bumbed because he was so excited to pick them out...funny the things he likes to pick out versus what I like to pick out. I wouldn't have even thought of a knife block!

My sister(MOH) and her family gave us some of our flatware for everyday use and one of our bamboo cutting boards. Again, Aaron is a goof. If a kitchen gadget has the word 'bamboo' in its description, he wants it! What a tree hugger! (Right, Aaron?) Her family, also, gave us some black and red trivets.

Another gift from my parents is the beloved Bentley tumblers. I love these and I think the rest of the world does too! There are tons of GREAT colors to choose from and other dinnerware items to go along with.

Update: Aaron and I are scheduled to get our Engagement pictures taken this sunday :-) We are praying for good weather! I think I can handle the cold (THINK!), but rain just won't work. More tomorrow!

Better Late Than Never

This is a very late post, but, as I have told you before, our families and friends were very good to us at Christmas! I couldn't help but share all the wonderful gifts we received from such special people that God has blessed us with in our lives. They all really wanted to help give us a head start on getting the things we need for our future life together. It means so much to both of us to have such supportive and helpful people surrounding us during such a special time in our lives! So, THANK YOU! Thanks to every single one of you special people who thought of us at such a special time!

I took some pictures of some of the items we receieved, others I found pictures of on the internet. I would have taken pictures of as much as I could, but the Wonderful Aaron did me a huge favor and took all the gifts up to Fayetteville to be stored in his spare room. I was SOOO grateful to have all the boxes and bags out of my bedroom!

On to a few gifts!

This is a gift given to us from my parents. Its our hand towels! What makes these hand towels even more special, is that they are monogrammed! If you know me very well, you know that I ADORE monograms! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my monogram is changing soon? This special monogram was done by a sweet lady that is a co-worker of my sisters (MOH). She did such a fantastic job and I absolutely love the design of the 'H'. (In case you were wondering, the letter 'H' is my new favorite :-) Thanks to my parents and to sweet Leta for such a special gift!

The next few pictures are wonderful gifts that my Grandpa Harvey and Granny Lenora gave to me and Aaron. Our kitchen colors are red, chocolate brown, beige, and white. We found these casserole dishes at Smith-Caldwell in Benton. I think they are beautiful! Plus, Aaron thinks that everything we cook is going to have an "awesome" imprinted design on the bottom from the dish :-)

This round casserole dish is from my parents! I LOVE it! I didn't 'think' I needed it, but I am so glad that my mom didn't listen to me!


To make sure that we didn't have TOO much red (which really isn't possible for a future home to a Razorbacks loving couple!) we chose to mix and match the red and chocolate brown for accent pieces. This chocolate brown salt and pepper shaker was another great gift from my parents!

Our everyday dishware is made by TAG. This is the best picture I could find. Our dinner plate is chocolate brown, salad plate is red with brown distressing, cereal bowl is beige with brown distressing, and the mug is red with brown distressing. We received place settings from my parents, his parents, his Memaw, and his sweet Aunt Amy! We were so excited to have such a head start on our dishes!

At least we know, now, that we can cook a casserole and have something to eat it on! Thank you to everyone who thought of us a Christmas time! We love you all! There are several other important people I need to mention, but I'll save that for later this week! I promise, if you don't see your gift today, you will see it on here soon! Thank you again. It truly means the world to us to know how much you care for us and love us! God has truly blessed us with so many special people.

We are having so much fun!

Over the holidays, Aaron and I took a break from wedding planning. Now we are trying to get back into the groove of wedding planning and it WAS tough. I say 'was' because it took us about 2 seconds to realize that the wedding is almost 6 months away. Wow! In 6 months and 10 days we will be enjoying our wedding day with all of our family and friends. It blows my mind how fast time is going by!

Here is a little update for you on vendors we have lined up, so far:

Where: FBC Benton

Coordinator: Amber Bohannon

Pastor: Bro. Rick Grant

Photographer: Benfield Photography

Flowers: The Flower Cart

Catering: Yvonne Cates

Rentals: Events

Right now we are trying to finalize the number of guests, so we can have an idea for catering, rentals, and invitations. Hopefully, within the next month we will be picking out the wedding cake and groom's cake. Aaron and I have, also, been reading over ceremony dialogues from my church and really love some of the stuff we are reading! I think we almost have it worked out like we want it. As I sit here and type this I can think of a million more things we have left to do, but there's still time! Right? Ha! Ha!

Over the weekend we went to register at Bed Bath & Beyond. This is the store where the bulk of our items were going to be from, so we knew we were in for it. Now the only reason I am telling you this is to tell you how hilarious it was! First off, we spent approximately 3 hours in the store. I would say "Poor Aaron," but I think he had a blast! Plus, it was his idea! Isn't he a great fiance? He loved using that gun to click on items...especially hilarious things! For example, a stuffed animal that looks like this:
Really? What in the world is that? Its called a Kuky Kuddler...huh? This is what went on the whole time we were there. He was uncontrollable! He kept secretly clicking on random and weird items. No worries though, I deleted this scary creature! This was his favorite item he picked out:

A lemon and lime squeezer. Hilarious! That's my Aaron, so easy to please! He was so excited when he found it. So, once we are married, if you come visit us, hopefully he can make you fresh squeezed lemonade!

Groomsmen!

Wedding planning is moving right along! Aaron's and my family were so great to us at Christmas. We received lots of gifts to help us out when we get married: dishes, decorative platters, cups, silverware, handtowels, etc. My parent's, also, bought us our first Christmas tree! We were both so excited and put the tree up the weekend we got it (the weekend after Christmas) just so we could see how great it looked!

Here is some more wedding stuff for you to look at. I'll post pictures soon of some of our wonderful gifts! Take a look at Aaron's groomsmen!

Best Man: Aaron's best friend since 2nd grade, Jason Miller, pictured here with his new wife, Jess, at our surprise Engagement party.

Groomsmen: Aaron's college friend, Austin Morgan, pictured here as 'Bubba Hog' with Aaron at a football game.
Groomsmen: Aaron's friend since college, Kyle Bunney (second from the left), pictured here with Aaron and some friends at ESPN College Game Day 2006.
Groomsmen: Aaron's long time friend since high school, Matt Gass (far left), pictured here with Aaron and some of their friends at ESPN College Game Day 2006.

Groomsmen: Aaron's college friend, Jeremy Furstenberg (white shirt in the middle), pictured here with Aaron and some friends at a basketball game.

Groomsmen: Aaron's friend since junior high, John Vanderbush.

Tonight we are going to my neice's (and Aaron's 'soon-to-be' neice's) 5th birthday party! Her theme is Curious George! I'll try and get some pictures of the Big Girl!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We cannot believe that it is already 2009! We are so excited and can't wait for all that 2009 has to offer us: planning the wedding, finding a house, celebrating with family and friends, GETTING MARRIED, honeymooning, settling into our new life, and our first Thanksgiving and Christmas as a married couple! God has blessed us in so many ways and we are so thankful for his grace and love everyday! We always talk about how crazy it is for God to put that ONE person into your life that can affect the way you feel when you are with or without them. We couldn't be happier for that ONE person to be each other. We have spent our entire relationship driving 3 hours one way or the other on the weekends, with the exception of some summers getting to be together in the same town. Finally, to know that after July 24th we will get to be together as much as we want is so exciting!

To start off the new year, we are going to give you a look at the wedding party! We will both have 6 attendants. Here are some photos of all my wonderful ladies!

Matron of Honor: My sister, Leah Redmon, pictured here with her husband, Jimmy, at a Razorback football game.

Matron of Honor: My best friend from college, Haley Floyd, pictured here with me in our old apartment on campus at Arkansas Tech University.
Bridesmaid: My long-time friend since junior high, Michelle Williams, pictured here with me at a Razorback football game.Bridesmaid: My long-time friend since high school, Nichole Hurley, pictured here with me at her bachelorette party.Bridesmaid: My great friend and Aaron's long-time friend since middle school, Lauren Albey, pictured here with me in Atlanta, GA at the SEC football championship.
Bridesmaid: Aaron's little sister, Ashley Hilborn, pictured here with me and Aaron in Atlant, GA at the SEC basketball tournament.

Flowergirls: My wonderfully, adorable neices, Ashley (7, on the right) and Gracie (5, on the left)! Gracie just had her 5th birthday yesterday, December 31st! She is growing up so fast!

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the evening and a GREAT 2009!