Postable- Online Address Book + Our Engagement Party

I had the advantage of a few friends getting married before me so I could learn a few tricks of the trade. I lived with Lauren during the bulk of her wedding planning and  I remember her telling me about Postable. It is a website where you can add names, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and whatever else you may need to remember about a person. You can even mail cards from the Postable site! The best part? You can send friends a link and they can add their information and address to your contact book. I have already used this virtual address book numerous times!

JT and I used Postable to store addresses for our engagement party. Speaking of...

JT's family hosts a horseshoe tournament twice a year so we decided to incorporate an engagement party into the fall tourny. Most of our friends already know each other (8 years later) so we just wanted a low key party that would continue the celebration into the night. JT and his family worked so hard all week to make the party come to life and they did a wonderful job! From the decorative lights and flowers to the Mexican buffet, we couldn't have asked for a better celebration with friends! 

{I had more individual pics, but my phone broke...so...could you guys resend them to me?;)}

Leigh even brought these adorable margaritas!

Like my outfit? My fashionable friend, Anna dressed me! Check back for her fashion post coming soon! As for Anna, and the other bridesmaids, I gave them Horseshoe necklaces I ordered from Etsy. I ordered from Keep it Close, first and they were so cute, but she didn't have enough when I needed more. Then I found some from Tangerine Jewelry Shop, and they were beautiful too! They each looked a little different but overall, I was so happy with the necklaces. Plus, both shops offered bridal discounts and were super easy to work with.

Children and excitement never gets old!

Thankfully, everyone said yes! So, here's to kicking off our wedding season! 

Stay tuned for May 16, 2015!

What special thing did you do to ask your bridesmaids? 

How did you keep your wedding addresses organized?

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Mallory's Wedding Weekend

Saturday, September 27th was my BFF Mallory's wedding day. We spent the night before at a hotel where we stayed up late  until around 10, talking. The next morning I went for a quick jog before being picked up by Anna on our way to get Chick Fil A coffee. We don't have many restaurants in town so I had grabbed Panera bagels the day before and Anna got some fruit, champagne and orange juice. It made for a good morning time together. We got ready one by one by Niki of Niki's Peace, Love and Hair. She did a wonderful job! If you are looking for a stylist or colorist you should give her a try!

Mirror selfie with the bridesmaids and MOB!

We took turns getting ready... and eating...Mallory's mom, Melissa, presented us with sweet gifts of perfume, earrings, lip gloss, and a pocket mirror from Victoria's secret and we headed out to take pictures. Mallory brought an old school Polaroid camera and it turned out to be such a fun treat!

The photographers were Rachel and Noah Ray and I can't wait to see their work! They were fun and open for suggestions. We even did the Bridesmaid pose...

Pumped to see that one!

The venue was Huckleberry Farms in Jasper, Alabama. The ceremony started with the boys walking down the isle then the girls in navy walking to "All You Need is Love". My favorite part was seeing Mallory for the first time. It's an outside venue so people could see us bridesmaids before we walked, but then, they closed the doors, brought Mallory over on a horse and carriage, and opened the doors when she was standing, ready with her dad. It was so perfect! The ceremony was short and sweet and after a couple "I do's" we started the reception. The new Franklins danced to "I don't Dance" which is like the most. appropriate. song. ever. Then we danced our way through the night, which was over way too fast. We went back to the Franklin home to continue the celebration before finally calling it a night. It was such a fun and exciting time to be a part of Mallory and Jeff's wedding! They are such a down to earth, fun to be around, genuinely nice couple and I am so happy to have them as friends! 

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Photographer...check.

Monday, JT, his mom, Cindy, and I met with Jessica Lee of Jessica Lee Photography. She is based in Wilsonville, Al and we met at the adorable Chelsea Coffee House, sipped on some delicious {sugar free in my case} gourmet coffee drinks and talked wedding. My roommate, Lauren, used Jessica for her first engagement photo session and I loved her pictures then. She hasn't done a lot of weddings so that is where my hesitation came in, but her photos are beautiful and I have full confidence she will do a wonderful job! She was absolutely adorable; as was her assistant, Sydney. Also, compared to the $2600 to $3200 price tag of other photographers I priced in the area, Jessica is much more affordable. I even told her that she should charge more, after my wedding of course! As if her cuteness and obvious love for creating the perfect, romantic photo weren't enough, she then gave me a 40% discount for her packages! I really cannot wait to see how she captures our day. Later that night, I emailed her to let her know that we didn't even need to meet with any other photographers because we thought she was just perfect.

Before meeting with Jessica and Sydney I googled (is there any other way?) questions to ask a photographer Here are the questions I found most helpful:

1) Is there a travel fee? How much?
2) Since you haven't done many weddings, how confident are you in your ability to photograph this one-time event as there won't be any make-up or re-do photo opps? {Ask this and wait for the response- Jessica was quick to reassure me of her confidence!}
3) What if you become ill on my wedding day? {felt weird to ask, but hey-better safe than sorry!}
4) How many pictures will be taken and how many will we get to keep? {good one, added by Cindy}
5) Are all images we will be given retouched?

So, there you have it- a short list of important questions. More importantly, I finally have something I can check off of the wedding to-do list!

What questions would you add to the list?

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Future Mrs. Robinson (Cue Simon & Garfunkel)

JT and I are getting married!! I could go in to how I have the most amazing man in the world and the best friends to boot...but I won't...But I do:)

Friday afternoon, my friend Kathleen invited me to go hiking with her and Emily on Saturday morning. I said, "yea, but JT is coming in to town so let me check with him because he does this thing where he 'forgets' his tennis shoes so he doesn't have to exercise." He said he would go so I passed the message on to Kathleen to make sure she and Emily were ok with him tagging along. She said she was going to bring her camera to practice her photography skills (Emily said she was going to bring her inhaler to practice staying alive--which was hilarious!) and Kathleen had just taken a photography class a couple of months ago, so it was not out of the ordinary. 

Saturday morning, we met at noon in Oak Mountain State Park for the hike to Peavine Falls. We started at the top so it was a pretty short hike to the waterfall. Kathleen said it is usually a trickle, but it rained the day before so it should make for good pictures. Cool, I thought.

When we got to the bottom, I reached towards JT's pocket for his phone to take a picture because my memory is full. Later, I found out that I reached for the ring box by mistake, but never noticed. I took a picture with his phone and then he asked Kathleen to take a picture of him and me in front of the waterfall. To which I un-romantically said "Kathleen doesn't want a picture of you and me on her camera." So I handed his phone to Emily so she could snap a photo for us. Kathleen said she didn't mind since she wanted to practice photography with people. (I was still oblivious at this point). We posed for the first picture with my hand on JT's chest and I noticed his heart was beating fast. When I mentioned that to him, he said, "that was a tough hike!" I thought "Oh no! He's so out of shape- that was such an easy hike!" Although for once, I thought it but didn't say it. Of course, later, I would find out he was nervous. 

After this picture:

JT said he had an important question to ask me. As he got down on his knee, I said, "no, wait, what are you doing?" Sadly, JT and I don't remember what was said in his speech, but I do remember saying "I mean yes, yes, of course"! Then, I remembered Kathleen and Emily were watching and I looked over to them and asked "did you know about this?" They both shook their heads yes, with the sweetest smiles on their face. I really don't remember what else was said, but I needed details. I had to know how this all happened! As the story started to unravel, I realized that not only do I have a wonderful fiance, but also how blessed I am to work with girls who have become friends that care enough about me to help make this so special!

That afternoon, we told my mom in person, called close friends to fill them in, then headed over to Emily's apartment where some of the nutritionists were meeting that day for a charity event we were going to. To my surprise, there were congratulatory signs once we got there that Katie, another nutritionist and friend, had printed at work on Friday! I felt so loved.

Finally, after catching up with friends, we headed to Jasper to tell my dad and siblings. My little sister is 13 and I knew she would be so excited (she's known JT since she was about 5) and she was! She didn't even believe me at first! After that, we met up with JT's family- his beautiful cousins had just gotten back from the beauty walk at their school. His sister gave me an ornament that she had gotten a couple of months ago in Gatlinburg. It was so sweet and thoughtful of her! At last, we made it "official" by posting on Facebook (because nothings real until it's on Facebook, right?) to which everyone made us feel even more loved by congratulating us! Last but not least, Lauren and Chris (who also recently got engaged) cooked us a celebration dinner Sunday night. It was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend filled with love, family, and friends!

And here she is:

Share your engagement story below!

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