Meet the Bridesmaids :)

With the wedding being only 72 days away, I thought it might be fun to introduce the bridal party to my blog's adoring fans and stalkers.  I figured it would be a nice thing to do, that way when people arrive at the wedding, they have a friendly face and know a little something about the really wonderful people Brandon and I picked to be a part of our big day.

Maid of Honor: Hadley Hines
Ms. Hines is a native of Nashville, TN who, lucky for me, decided to stay in the DC area after college. I met Hadley while working at the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital. When Hadley transferred from the Leesburg Office to the DC office it took no time at all for us to become joined at the hip and partners in crime during that 9-5 daily grind. Hadley quickly became one of my best friends and a constant source of advice, reassurance and moral support. Her always positive, blast the country music, let's get this party started attitude and unfaltering support through the crazy rollercoaster that is my life made her an obvious choice for my MOH. I would be lost without that southern belle.

Me & Hadley

 
Bridesmaid: Michelle Trotter

Ummm… she is my short sister. That is all… Just kidding, no but seriously, I don't really have much to say about Michelle. If you know me, you know her. We are the same person except she is short and carries a gun and doesn't love pink as much as I think she should. Regardless of her lack of love for pink, I wanted to be Michelle when I grew up. Seriously, in kindergarten if you had asked me “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I would have said Michelle. Once I surpassed her in height, I realized this dream was going right out the window. She is one of the strongest people I have ever met in my life and one of the most generous. She is the best "big" sister anyone could have and I am truly blessed that she is mine :)

Michelle & I circa 1988

Hmm maybe a more recent picture would help...

Bridesmaid: Danielle Torrani… er Dixon

I had the honor of meeting Danielle during the second semester of my freshman year of college and thank God for it. I know that I would not have made it through four years at Lycoming without Danielle and Dee. Yes I would have had a few less rough mornings and gone to maybe just a few more journalism classes (which I still ended up getting an A in), but I wouldn't trade the memories and crazy nights for anything in the world. Danielle, Dee and I lived together sophomore and junior years of college. And during our senior year, Danielle and I partnered on our Corporate Communication capstone project. In the winter of 2009/2010 Danielle opened up D Torr boutique in Madison, NJ. If you are in the Madison area, or really in the state of New Jersey in general, I highly recommend checking it out. She does an absolutely fabulous job with the store and I am extremely proud of her. This past Memorial Day Weekend, I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in Danielle's wedding. Throughout this entire wedding planning process she has been a constant source of inspiration (thanks to planning our weddings at the same time) and reassurance.

Me & Danielle Senior Year

Bridesmaid: Danielle (Dee) Kosalka

Much like Danielle, Dee came into my life second semester of my freshman year and I am just as thankful for her as I am for Danielle. Without the two of them, I probably would have spent more time than is really necessary stressing out over Dr. Wild's classes and studying for professor Wishard exams. Dee is my Bruce loving, fist pumping, perfect tan, proud not to pump her own gas quintessential Jersey girl (hmm 4/7 of my bridesmaids are Jersey girls...). She is incredibly generous and has such a big heart. Whenever I need her, Dee is always there.  No matter how long the time span between talking/seeing each other, we always manage to pick up right where we left off :)

Me & Dee Senior Year :)

Bridesmaid: Kerri Higgins

Kerri and I met during Bonita Kolb's Marketing Principles class my sophomore (her freshman) year of college. (In case you are wondering, I got an A in that class too.) I was crazy and she aspired to be like me. We instantly became friends, but it wasn’t until my senior year when I realized that she and Brandon were also friends that we became partners in crime. The year after I graduated from college, I don’t know who I was more excited to visit when I went to Lycoming: Kerri&Emily (yep, they’re one person) or Brandon. I know that whenever I talk to/see Kerri, I am in for a laugh and that's why I love her :)

Me & Kerri

Bridesmaid: Brittany Gordon

Brittany is the only female (genetically related) first cousin Brandon has on his mom's side of the family. Yup, 7 boys and 1 girl - yikes. Her incredible work ethic (this girl seriously works like six different jobs), ridiculously bubbly, always smiling, can’t help but love her personality makes her an inspiration to me and make her one of those people I just love to be around. It doesn’t hurt that she listens to country music. I don’t get to see her often (please see six job reference), but when I do get to see her, you can be sure there will be some kind of trouble :) Brittany quickly welcomed me into the family – and I am not sure if it’s because she really liked me that much or because she was happy to finally have another girl at family functions, but either way, I am thankful she did it.

Me & Brittany

Flower Girl: Mia Longo

I first met Mia on the day of Brittany’s high school graduation party. She was adorable, fearless and had more personality than most adults I know. I instantly loved her. Brandon and I made the decision to make Mia the flower girl because really, we knew there would never be anyone who could fill that role better than Mia. Her spunk, her humor and her very blunt comments made her a perfect fit to the bridal party. I love when I talk to Mia and she tell me how excited she is for “our wedding”. When I met with the florist for the first time she asked what kind of petals I wanted for the flower girl. I explained to her that I don’t have an ordinary flower girl and that I would need a bouquet for her. If I tried to give Mia a basket of petals, she would try to trade with one of the bridesmaids for her bouquet.

Me & Miss Mia :)

So there you have the lovely ladies... stayed tuned to learn about the handsome gents :)

he must love me a lot :)

Brandon puts up with a lot during wedding planning.  He listens to me go crazy, he calms me when I cry and most of all he stands and takes pictures that I know he has absolutely zero interest in being a part of. He must love me a lot :)

Here we are the day we mailed the wedding invitations :)

invitations sent... and received?

So last night Brandon and I mailed our wedding invitations. We took them down to the Old Town Kensington post office, stood in line with the other people anxiously waiting to mail things out (but obviously none of them were waiting as anxiously as I was) and then mailed our invitations. Together. It was a very weird feeling handing them over to the lovely postal worker. I felt like a big weight was lifted off my shoulders. We received well wishes from the other customers in line and it was actually a lot of fun. :)

Today, not twenty-four hours after mailing them, I got the following text message from one of my very best friends from high school, Beth:

I got this really pretty invitation in the mail today hehe, loved it!

I started laughing and then I teared up. I know, it's pathetic, but come on, I AM GETTING MARRIED!! My co-workers couldn’t help but make fun of me, but I don’t care – I totally deserved it :)

feeling good, feeling productive

I love being productive.  I love it even more when the productivity is directly related to the wedding.  The past two weeks we have been SO productive AND it has been wedding related and with just 93 short days until the wedding, we are going to need to be productive somewhat consistently.  I like the idea of getting everything knocked out of the way and being able to really just chill out in the weeks before the wedding.  I know that won't really happen, because this is the real world, but the less I have to take care of the last two weeks before the wedding, the better off I am going to be!

To Do:
Brandon getting fit for his tux
Get Brandon's wedding band
Get my wedding band
Collect all things for Welcome Bags (we have everything except the water bottles)
Address remaining wedding invitations
Get cake topper
Get dress (now I just have to get it home!)
Mail Wedding Invitations (ahhhh!!!)
Complete DJ Questionnaire 
Timeline for the Wedding Day (almost done! why aren't you surprised?)
Book the shuttle
Print ceremony programs and escort cards
Get the marriage license
Pay deposits for various things (flowers, photographer, etc.)

And really, come Saturday we'll have another thing crossed off the list.  Brandon and I are making the little trip down to southern Maryland to mail our wedding invitations.  Why am I going to drive an hour to mail the invitations when we can go less than a mile from the house?  I have a very good reason.  Loveville, Maryland.  Yep, my wedding invitations will be postmarked from Loveville :)  And rumor has it, they have a special stamper they use for wedding invites. Eek! AND Brandon is done with school on June 17th (for ten days) so one day while he is off we are going to meet at the courthouse during my lunch hour one day and get our marriage license.  I am in discussions with the shuttle service and limo company hammering out details, so that will be done in no time.  I mean really, it's just little things here and there between now and the wedding day. Dang it feels good to be organized.

It seems so crazy.  We're getting MARRIED!! EEK!

I am going to be a wife! :)

Today my Aunt Jodi called.  I haven't talked to Aunt Jodi in awhile, like since Brandon and I got engaged. Actually, that's a vast exaggeration, it hasn't been that long... It was probably some time after we sent out our Save-the-Dates, not that that is much better.  [Don't give me that look -- she isn't really family and she moved and never sent her new address cards that she had printed up and then she fell off the face of the earth, so no one had heard from her, so it wasn't just me. Go ahead, give Liz that look too... I'll wait.] Anyways, the point is, she called and I was really happy to hear from her. 

Her younger son (Josh) and his wife had a baby today -- yay! A boy and he is perfect.  So Aunt Jodi is a now a first time granny and so exited.  But she wasn't really calling because of that, which is surprising because I know for a fact that Josh is her favorite... sorry Eddie.  She was calling because she sees our save-the-date daily and wanted to call to make sure we were still getting married (which obviously if you've been following the blog lately you already know we most definitely are).  She said she that whenever she sees the postcard, she cannot get over the fact that I am old enough to get married (really, because I cannot believe that Josh is old enough to have a baby -- yes, I know I watch 16 and preggers/teen mom and I see pregnant sixteen-year-olds all the time, but like I mean old enough like oh my god, we have our shit together and are getting married and having kids and doing real life adult things).  It was at that moment that I realized that I am not the only one counting down the days until the wedding. 

I mean, I know Liz and Lori are excited and I know Brandon, even though he doesn't ever really show it, is excited, but it's really nice to know that people you don't expect to be excited -- are excited for the big day.  I was going to do my best to never call her out on this, but oh well, sorry Ash!  I guess I should have realized that other people are really excited for our wedding when Ashleigh and her mom, Donna, went out and got their dresses for the wedding in like March.  So here's to everyone else out there who is just as excited as I am that Brandon and I are getting married :)

100 Day Surprise

Last night when I got home from work, I had a lovely surprise waiting for me. :)

A beautiful, pink, Georgetown Cupcake box :)

And inside that box was another box!

And inside that box was...

Some of the most delicious carrot cake cupcakes I have ever had in my life from one of the most amazing friends I have ever met in my life.  Danielle, you know my friend who just got married over the weekend, you know the one who is on her honeymoon right now in St. Lucia, sent me cupcakes to celebrate my 100 days until the wedding.  And sent carrot cake cupcakes to mimic my wedding cake! Talk about thoughtful! And Brandon, who doesn't eat sweets, LOVED them! I couldn't be more blessed. Thank you, Mrs. Dixon :)

100 :)

Today marks 100 days until the wedding! Eek!

...I didn't really have anything important to say about that.  I'm just excited that tomorrow we hit double digits until the wedding.  How did that happen?!  We are almost done with everything, so it should be smooth sailing for the next 100 days! :)