More Wedding Inspiration

I absolutely adore The Southern Weddings Daily Blog. They feature beautiful, creative, and fun weddings every day that help to inspire me and my own wedding planning. In the past week, they've featured a few weddings that are especially beautiful....so enjoy the following wedding eye candy!

Running Mix

One of the most important keys (for me) to running a long race is good music. While I trained to run the half-marathon I auditioned specific songs for my final playlist. I must admit that the final product was really good, and helped to push me up a few of the bigger hills, and through a lot of the pain!

Here's my 2009 Half-Marathon Mix:

1. Love Story -- Taylor Swift
2. Single Ladies -- Beyonce
3. You Can't Go Home -- Sugarland
4. Here It Goes Again -- Ok-Go
5. Stronger -- Kanye West
6. Girls Just Want To Have Fun -- Cyndi Lauper
7. How Far We've Come -- Matchbox 20
8. Vertigo -- U2
9. Warrior -- Nelly
10. Welcome To The Jungle -- Guns N Roses
11. Best Days of Your Life -- Kellie Pickler
12. Speed of Light -- Coldplay
13. Shake It -- Metro Station
14. Hell Yeahhhh -- Rev Theory
15. Paralyzer -- Finger Eleven
16. Almost -- Bowling For Soup
17. Love Song -- Sara Bareilles
18. Red High Heels -- Kellie Pickler
19. Ain't Too Proud To Beg -- The Temptations
20. The Sweet Escape -- Gwen Stefani
21. Viva La Vida -- Coldplay
22. Glamorous -- Fergie
23. You Can't Count on Me -- Counting Crows
24. Hollaback Girl -- Gwen Stefani
25. Times Like These -- Foo Fighters
26. Ain't No Mountain -- Marvin Gaye
27. Build Me Up Buttercup -- The Foundations
28. Accidentally In Love -- Counting Crows
29. Womanizer -- Britney Spears
30. Mississippi Girl -- Faith Hill
31. Love Lockdown -- Kanye West
32. Gonna Make You Love Me -- Ryan Adams
33. Chicken Fried -- Zac Brown Band
34. I Kissed A Girl -- Katy Perry
35. Signed, Sealed, Delivered -- Stevie Wonder
36. Before He Cheats -- Carrie Underwood
37. Mr. Brightside -- The Killers
38. Evenflow -- Pearl Jam
39. Forever Young -- Rod Stewart
40. Stand -- R.E.M.
41. Black Horse and the Cherry Tree -- KT Tunstall
42. Beautiful Day -- U2

(Post-race....Carla, Erin, me)

Put a stamp on it

I really wish we could do a custom stamp for our wedding invites (with an adorable pic of Daisy as a puppy).....but I realize that it may make sense to save the extra $50 and just do standard stamps (or at least that's what SB tells me).

Today I headed off to our local post office to purchase the stamps for the main big envelope, and the little return envelope. I had visions of stamps with beautiful flowers, or beachy scenes, or something visually appealing like that. However, after waiting in line for 25 minutes, my friendly postman showed me the only stamp they had in the building that would work with the size of my envelope.....behold the James Michener stamp:
HA! Just the idea of him being on my wedding invitations makes me laugh. Even the postman said that I probably wouldn't want it (ya think!!??). I think I may try to order something online at usps.com instead of searching the entire metro-DC area for stamps that are $0.59.

So after that, I thought surely they'd have plenty of really cute standard $0.42 stamps. Au contraire! Well, they did have a few, but here's the thing....the postman said that the USPS is doing another rate hike for their stamps this May. That means that if I put a regular stamp on the envelopes, if people mail them after May they might not get delivered. He recommended going with the boring old Liberty Bell "forever stamp." Just an alert for any of you mailing wedding invites in the near future!! I'm going to have to find something else to obsess with now that my hopes and dreams for cute stamps have been dashed! (ha!)

A few of my favorite (Atlanta) things...

We've lived in the DC area for about 16 months now, and while I feel like this "new" city should feel like home... the truth is that I still really miss Atlanta. I loved living there. We have great friends there (we're working on making them here...but it hasn't been the easiest process....or at least so far it's not), and a life and lifestyle that we were so used to. The newness of this adventure presents a lot of fun opportunities, but there are still those moments when I long for that favorite city in the south. Here are a few of my favorite Atlanta things:

• ALTA -- the tennis scene in Atlanta is unbelievable. The city has great public courts, tons of leagues, and lots of really great players. It is a tennis playground.
  
• The running trail by the Chattahoochee River. There were tons of trails that went off the main loop into the woods...and when I was back there I could let Daisy off the leash, and it was just the best thing ever. I have yet to find anything like that in DC...yet.
  
• Restaurant Scene -- Atlanta has great food at really good prices. Some of the places I miss most: Eclipse di Luna, Six Feet Under, Murphy's, West Egg, all the great bbq places (Daddy D's, Fat Matt's, etc.), Murphy's, Harry & Son's, Chow Baby, Taqueria Del Sol, Figo Pasta, JCT Kitchen, and dozens more!
• Shopping!! From the boutiques to Lenox and Phipps -- The shopping scene was awesome.
• As a Wisconsin girl, the weather was something that was pretty unbeatable. A real spring starting in March....a mild winter -- ahhh :)
• Real estate prices. Maybe this one is a particular sticking point right now because I would love to be buying a house with a yard right now right before the wedding....and while we could have afforded this in Atlanta, the prices in DC are 2-3 times what we would have paid in Atlanta, for about half the house. It is really ridiculous, and so frustrating. Maybe I should start looking way out in the suburbs to find an actual house, but I just don't know this area at all, so it's hard to know where to start looking even if we work with a realtor, and we still don't have a firm grasp on how long we'll live here.

Ok, now that I have that out of my system I will put the "happy, happy" face back on... The cherry blossom season is kicking off, and there are lots of good things to enjoy here. This spring/summer I hope to make more of an effort to enjoy DC. I really want to go to more museums, and I want to visit Mount Vernon, the Shenandoah National Park, and Charlottesville. Happy happy :)

Happy Birthday to Moi!!

It's a big day in our household....it's my birthday! SB and I kicked off the day with a run with Daisy around our neighborhood. We then watched a romantic comedy ("Made of Honor" -- with Patrick Dempsey....clearly my choice!!) We're doing normal Sunday stuff now, and will be going out for a fun dinner later on tonight.

I love birthdays....but most especially I LOVE birthday cake!! :)

Return of the Clutches!

You may remember this post, about the beautiful clutches I found on an etsy site. Well, after getting so excited about them, and emailing the woman who makes them, I never heard back from her. Soooo....just as I was deciding that I would need to find another gift item for my bridesmaids, I found a NEW etsy site that produces the very same clutches, using the very same fabrics at HALF the price!!! (yay!) I contacted the woman who produces them, and she wrote me back in like 4 minutes, and seems super nice. (double yay!)

I'm in the process of selecting the fabrics....but here are a few faves.... (I'm hoping that my next clutch post will be me holding these beauties in my hands!!):

Wedding Details, Part 3

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” ~nora ephron, when harry met sally

This is SO TRUE! We have 109 days until the BIG DAY and I am already bouncing off the walls in excitement!!! SB and I are really starting to crack down on the details. Last night we looked at our To-Do List, and worked on the timeline for the wedding reception, and selected some favorite songs that we definitely want to hear that night. We sent it on to the band....and then high-fived as we were able to cross one more thing off our list.

For your entertainment, here are our song requests:

*At Last – Etta James (this will be our first dance together)
*My Girl – The Temptations (this will be for the dance with my dad…..Scott and his mom will join us half-way through)
*The Sweetest Thing – James Taylor (cake cutting….so appropriate)
*The Way You Look Tonight -- Sinatra
*You're Nobody Til Somebody Loves You -- T. Bennett
*Let's Stay Together - Al Green
*Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
*Brown Eyed Girl - V. Morrison
*Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Stevie Wonder
*Shout -- The Isley Brothers
*Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry
*Sweet Home Alabama - Lynrd Skynrd
*Love Shack - B-52's
*Hey Ya - Outkast
*Friends in Low Places - G. Brooks
*Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash

(so far the only "banned" songs are the Macarena and the Chicken Dance)

Do you have anymore song ideas that you think we HAVE to have??

Home Sweet Home!

After a wonderful week with my family, I am now back in DC!! It is really great to be home. I love my family more than anything, but I really missed SB and Daisy (and our super comfy bed... the twin bed I grew up with just doesn't cut it compared to our Westin Heavenly bed!!) I will upload pics from home sometime soon!

So even though I'm home, I still won't see SB until tomorrow because he is in St. Simon's, Georgia for a friend's wedding. He went alone b/c it was just too tough for me to try to get back from Wisconsin to meet him there....plus this morning I ran the half-marathon!!!! 13.1 miles!! I certainly didn't set any time records (2:22), but I'm really proud in the accomplishment of finishing it. I ran with two girls from work and we stayed together for the first half, which was great. It was a fun experience....I might try to do a 10-miler later this year.
I really am missing SB.....can't wait for him to get home tomorrow!!

Life is Good

So I haven't had too many opportunities to sit down with my laptop since arriving in Wisconsin, but I thought I'd give a quick update on how things are going.
1. The flight from DC to Madison, WI was quick and not too eventful.....at least for the first 98% of it. I spent the last 2% gripping my book tightly when the Captain came over the PA system to say "If you noticed that we are circling the airport, it is because the landing gears did not fully engage. We will let you know when we attempt to land again." WHAT!? No landing gears? An image of Captain Sully quickly ran through my brain....except there's no Hudson River in Madison, WI. In fact, most bodies of water here are still frozen right now. There is a lot of farmland in the area, but crash landings on frozen ground aren't usually that successful. After about 10 minutes of mild panicking, the Captain announced that the landing gears engaged, and we had the softest landing ever. (though there were tons of firetrucks and ambulances on-hand for the arrival....which made the potential issue a little more real).
2. The bridal shower on Sunday was AMAZING!! My mom and sister outdid themselves, and it was so fun to see so many friends of mine and of our family. I'll post pics when I get back to DC.
3. Spending time with my family has been really wonderful. I've been able to experience a regular old week with everyone, which seems dull -- but it's exactly what I miss when I'm away from it all. I was able to meet my sis for a sushi lunch, and take my 8-year-old niece to ballet last night, which was so much fun.
4. I've gone for a couple nice runs since arriving on Saturday.....one on Sunday with my brother (which always turns into more of a bootcamp class than a run....sprint here, do push-ups there, attempt pull-ups on a playground, etc.), and one this morning before work (I am working while I'm here...I'm able to work remotely which is a great perk). The half-marathon is on Saturday, and I'm excited for it!! I know I won't set any time records, but it will be the first time I run 13 consecutive miles, so that will be an achievement in itself.
5. Tonight I'm making enchiladas for the whole family.....using this recipe. I was planning on making margaritas too for the adults in the fam, but with the half-marathon on the horizon, I think maybe I should just stick to water for now, and save the margaritas for post-race!! Hasta luego!

Seriously, Anthropologie??!!

I just got an email this morning from Anthropologie, one of my favorite stores. However, today's email did not elicit the same kind of excitement it usually does, because the product featured is just hideous! I understand that some cultures may wear these types of pants ....but to me, they just scream "M.C.Hammer!!!" Can you picture yourself EVER wearing these???