So Much - Our Proposal Story

"I love you so much."

"I miss you so much."

When Matt and I began our relationship, we found ourselves saying those two phrases so often that we shortened it to just "so much." Seeing "so much" come across on my phone in a text from Matt would put the biggest smile on my face. And now, it's our own, personal catch-phrase of sorts.

We even got it hand-painted on a sign:



I knew Matt was going to propose to me at some point. I just didn't know how or when. When ended up being Christmas Day. And the how ended up melting my heart completely.

You may remember me mentioning the story behind the sand and shells in this picture in a previous post:



(If not, click here to read why it has so much meaning to us)

As I wrote before, Matt carried the sand and shells with him everywhere after I gave them to him. And he decided he was going to use them as part of his proposal to me. He worked for months and months on his secret and finally, on the night of December 25, he took me to "our rooftop" near his work in DC. This is the rooftop:



That video was shot in 2009 while Matt was doing a 40-day fast for Lent. We were just friends at that time and I greatly admired not only his faith but his dedication, commitment and strength in doing something so amazing in order to be closer to God.

When we began our relationship in 2010, I looked back on that video and I told Matt that I would love to see the rooftop in person since it's where he goes to think and get away. We had a few romantic dates there so it soon became "our rooftop." :)

Here we are on one of those dates:



So it was not only the perfect day for him to propose, but it was the perfect place too. But what he was about to hand to me was even more perfect.

As we stood there under the stars in the cold air, the city lights shining all around us, Matt pulled out the special surprise he had been working on for so many months:



It was a handmade box, carved by hand from a block of wood, into the shape of a heart. He had covered the box in shells, painted it with sand paint, placed hinges on the back and carved our phrase, "So Much" on the top.

This is what was inside:



My engagement ring...nestled inside of the sand and shells that I had given to him.

I. Died. But not before saying, "YES!" lol



When you find a love like I have, gifts don't really matter much, because the best gift is having such an amazing, loving, gorgeous, kind and perfect man to share my life with. One who makes me feel so loved, whole and complete every single day.

But wow, did he blow me away with this! The box sits in a prominent place in our family room now and still holds the sand and shells. It will also hold our rings at the altar on the beach on our wedding day.

And it will hold a special place in my heart forever.

Final Touches

We are slowly but surely checking off the last details on our wedding to-do list and our big day is only a few weeks away!

We have all of our rentals ordered and confirmed through Ocean Atlantic Rentals. They'll be providing our tables, chairs, dishes, etc.

I finally found the perfect reception dress:



I'll be wearing it with heels at first, but then will be slipping into blingy flip flops for the rest of the night:



Speaking of flip flops, I'll be wearing these with my wedding dress for the ceremony, custom made by My Dream Wedding:



Aren't they beautiful?! I found the perfect headband for the ceremony as well, custom made by Lucia Bella:



My necklace is custom-made by Hibiscusdays Jewelry and features two love-birds on a branch, with our initials "D" and "M" engraved on tiny leaves hanging from the branch:



Perfect for our Twitter theme! It's funny, but Matt and I never realized that our initials were the same as the ones for private messages on Twitter..."DM" or "direct messages." Fitting!

I picked up some other "blingy" items for before, during and after the wedding:



I plan on wearing the "I'm the bride" combo during our wedding week and the "Just married" tank for the day after the wedding.

As for our wedding favors, we are donating to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in our guests' honor. We decided to purchase place cards announcing the donation as well as gray ribbon pins (gray is the color for diabetes awareness) to put on each card for each guest. As many of you know, my little girl was diagnosed with Type 1, juvenile diabetes several months ago, so choosing JDRF as our charity was an easy decision.

We picked out additional music for the ceremony and reception but I'll keep most of those songs a secret so there are some surprises left. The one I will share is the bouquet toss song, because it's a pretty obvious choice and one of the more popular bouquet tossing songs...Single Ladies by Beyonce, of course!



But the biggest surprise of all is going to be amazing and I can't wait for you all to see it! As far as we know, it's never been done before and that's the only hint I'm giving!(Don't forget that you can watch the live streaming of our wedding starting at 6:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, September 17 here.)

I think that covers all of the latest news! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by and with all of the planning, I haven't had as much time to post here as I would like. Hopefully I can get our engagement/proposal story posted BEFORE the wedding! Stay tuned! :)

Disclosure: We have received discounts and comp products from various vendors AFTER having chosen them. We want the best for our wedding and would have chosen each vendor regardless of whether or not a discount was given.

Closer

We are less than two months away from our big day! I cannot believe how fast the time has flown by! It's getting closer and closer to the time that Matt and I will officially declare our love and commitment to one another and to the world!

Our wedding planner Marie from Bordeaux Events has been a dream to work with. She has answered countless questions, organized everything on short notice (four months is not a long time to plan a wedding!), and so much more, and she has done it all with a smile.

Our invitations from Magnet Street Weddings have been sent out (everyone has raved about how beautiful they are!) and we are booking guests in our 10-bedroom beach house on a first-come, first-served basis.

There are so many plans being discussed and finalized and we have a really cool surprise in the works! We actually were *this* close to surprising everyone with a huge flash mob on the beach to this song:



Flash Mob America did their best to try to make it happen for us, but it just didn't pan out. (I'll still get to realize my dream of being in a flashmob when they come to DC September 7 though! Can't wait!)

Matt and I will still walk down the aisle to this song after saying, "I do." It just won't be in the midst of a bunch of people flash mobbing our wedding, lol. I think everyone will be pretty amazed at our other surprise though, so stay tuned! (remember we will be live streaming the wedding...just watch here at 6:30 EST, September 17).

We have selected our food choices from our caterer Argyle's. They will be serving:
Appetizers

• Scallops in a lemon and garlic crust with a lemon basil buerre blanc.
  
• Three style hummus bar with crackers and pita.
  
• Mini crab cakes sauteed to a golden brown served with a Chipotle red pepper remoulade.
  
• Coconut shrimp dipped in Tempura batter and rolled in coconut, fried and served with a tropical rum dipping sauce.

Entrees

• Cheese Manicotti - tender crepes rolled with filling of ricotta parmigiana and fresh mozzarella cheeses, baked in a rich marinara, topped with fresh mozzarella.
  
• Shrimp Daniel - large shrimp filled with a crab stuffing and served with a creamy crab remoulade sauce.
  
• Pistachio Crusted Chicken Breast- served in a Dijon herb wine sauce

Sides

• Rosemary Potatoes - roasted triangles of potato tossed with rosemary and onion
  
• Mixed grilled vegetables dusted with citrus herbs
  
• Garden salad
  
• Rolls

Of course we will have a bartender on hand to serve plenty of drinks as well. I wish we could live stream the food and drinks to our online guests!

Our decor plans with our designer/florist Renee from Renee Landry Style are coming together nicely. We will have our phrase "So Much" in the backdrop at our altar (probably on a flowing curtain held up by two white trees or posts) and white, Twitter-shaped birds will be mixed in with our reception decor.

A few tables will have rustic-looking birdcages as centerpieces (along with some creative touches like branches and candles) and others will have candlescapes and/or flowers. White, Christmas-style lights will be abundant and we will have floating Lucite candle barges in the pool.

We are going for a shabby-chic look overall...casual w/ a bit of bling. I'll be wearing my hair down with a Nicole Richie House of Harlow-esque headpiece like this:



...only white with a hint of small flowers on the band. Oh and I decided on a dress! It will be this one from H&M's Conscious Collection:



Casual and beachy. Matt will be in khaki's and a white, button-down shirt. And we will both be barefoot.

For the reception, however, I plan to glam it up a bit and do a costume change into something like this:



I still haven't found something I'm absolutely sold on yet, but it has to be fun, cute and playful like the Betsey Johnson dress above.

We have selected an officiant to preside over our ceremony. Bob Woody from the White Doe Inn is a warm and friendly, inter-denominational officiant and will work with us on creating the perfect ceremony. Our faith is the most important aspect of our lives, so it will be key in our wedding.



We were really impressed with Bob's openness to customizing the ceremony to our liking. We can add on special touches such as sand blending as well as a family union celebration that we can include our kids in. Whatever we finally decide on, we are confident Bob will make it special.

Finally, we have decided to have two songs to dance to since we've had such a hard time narrowing them down. Thank you so much to everyone who voted! The majority picked "Feels Like Home" by Chantal Kreviazuk.



As much as we love that song, Matt still wanted the second runner-up "Crazy Love" by Michael Buble. And I found myself really feeling sad that "Everything" by Lifehouse was in third place.



So that's how I knew we must have both "Crazy Love" and "Everything." We will open with Lifehouse and close with Buble. If we wouldn't feel like total dance floor hogs, we probably would've thrown "Feels Like Home" in the middle, lol.

So that's the latest in wedding planning news! And believe me, there are plenty of details I've spared you in this summary, surprising as that may seem considering the length of this post!

50 days to go. 50! I can't believe our day is almost here! And we can't wait to share it with all of you!

Disclosure: We have received discounts and comp products from various vendors AFTER having chosen them. We want the best for our wedding and would have chosen each vendor regardless of whether or not a discount was given.

Why an Outer Banks Wedding?

Deciding to have a beach wedding was an easy choice for Matt and me. When we are near the ocean, we feel at home and at peace...we've both always felt that that is where our heart and souls belong (and why we plan to live near the ocean one day). There are two reasons why we decided on the Outer Banks, specifically though.

The first reason? "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks. I had watched the movie long before our relationship had begun and it made me long for that kind of love. After Matt and I found our way to each other, the movie took on even more significance for me. If my life could be summed up by a movie trailer, this one would be pretty close:



Of the many quotes that touched my heart, "Who keeps you safe?" was at the top of my list. When Matt and I talked about this movie when we first began talking seriously, I got a Twitter DM from him later that night when he got off work. It read, "Who keeps you safe?" *melt*

Other significant quotes:

• "It's all about choices, Adrianne. You chose that life. You chose that man. Do you even remember who you really are anymore?" (No, I didn't remember who I was anymore.)
  
  
• "I want you to know that any man is a fool who doesn't know how lucky he is to have you." Oh, how I longed to have someone say something like that to me, to feel that way about me, and Matt did and does.
  
  
• "You and I are done pretending..." as they run into each other's arms. That was us. Totally us.
  
  
• "It's never too late for a second chance of a lifetime." It really isn't and it's worth walking through fire to get to if you have to.
  
  
• "We saved each other." We really did.
  
  
• "It was you that I've been looking for all along." It was him and only him, then, now and forever.
  
  
• "There's another kind of love. One that give you the courage to be better than you are. I want you to hold out for it." I wanted my kids to know that they deserve to be loved fully and unconditionally and that they should never settle for less.
  
  
• "You came along and helped me find those parts of myself that I thought I'd lost forever." I really had thought love was a lost cause for me and that I was meant to suffer and be unhappy and lonely for the rest of my life. God showed me otherwise when he gave me Matt and blessed me with a love that is greater than anything I could have ever dreamed of.

"Nights in Rodanthe" takes place in the Outer Banks of course, where horses really do run wild along the beaches (we're hoping we get to see that during our week-long stay before our wedding). But the area near Duck and Corolla had even more meaning to me personally.

During a really rough time in my life and my marriage, a friend of mine let me stay at her parents' beach house in Duck. I went there by myself to find my strength and to try to find the person I no longer remembered.

I ate dinner alone one night at the Sunset Grille and I watched in envy as a couple walked down the pier there hand in hand, so obviously in love. When Matt and I had our vendor day in the Outer Banks not long ago, we stopped at the Sunset Grille and we went to that pier.




As I stood in his arms there, safe in his embrace, all of the pain I had felt all those years ago just melted away and it was replaced with the most incredible love, wholeness and comfort that words cannot even begin to describe. That couple I saw before had nothing on us! :)

I also remember, all those years ago, standing alone on the beach. The waves were extremely rough and the wind was so strong. A hymn came to my mind..."If you pass through raging waters of the sea, you shall not drown." It's from the song "Be Not Afraid."

I attended church and I was hoping to get a sign from God that He was with me. The first thing the priest said to the congregation was, "You are here for a reason. There is something that God wants you to hear." The theme for the mass was..."Be Not Afraid." That God is with us always. I had chills, and when the choir started singing that song, I broke down in tears. But I left with renewed strength and the knowledge that God was walking before me every step of the way.

In my hand during most of my time there was a baggie filled with sand and shells that my friend had given me. She told me that she wanted me to have it to remind me of my strength.



When Matt and I began our relationship, I gave him that bag of sand and shells. I told him that he was my strength now and I no longer needed it. He keeps me safe.

Matt ended up carrying them with him everywhere he went. Little did I know just what he had planned with the sand and shells and how instrumental it would be at a crucial point in our relationship. I'll be writing about that soon.

But the Outer Banks was where I was lost and then found, it was where God reminded me He was with me, it's where I found my strength, it's where we feel most at home, it was where Matt healed my wounds on that pier, and it will be the place we will celebrate the incredible love that we have for each other and commit to spending the rest of our lives together. There really isn't any other place on this earth that could be more perfect for us.

Help Us Choose Our First Dance Song

We are having a tough time deciding which song to choose for our first dance song, but we have narrowed it down to four choices (for now! don't be surprised if that changes). And while we can't guarantee we'll go with the popular vote, we would like to see what everyone would prefer among the four choices.

Below are videos for each song, along with an explanation as to why they mean so much to us.



Feels Like Home by Chantal Kreviazuk. This song was one I sent to Matt early on in our relationship, along with this specific video. "The Notebook" had been a movie that had made us sad before we met each other, but once we fell in love, it symbolized exactly how we felt/feel about each other. The lyrics could not be more perfect, which is why it made the top four cut. Lyrics here.



Love You Forever by Ryan Huston. This song exemplifies our undying love for each other and how we will always be there for each other...forever. Lyrics here.



Everything by Lifehouse. This particular video is one I just found and doesn't have any meaning, but Matt does call me his angel so it's fitting. :) This song, though, probably has the most meaning to both of us. It was also played early on and both the lyrics and the feel of the music fit exactly how we were feeling when we were falling in love. "And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?" *sigh*

The only downside to dancing to this song would be the faster pace around minute four. We did a joke dance at home where Matt started swinging me around wildly while he dipped me backwards...me swinging my hair around all fast, lol. That works for us in our living room but probably not on the real dance floor, hahaha. But we're still considering this one because it means so much to us. Lyrics here.



Crazy Love by Michael Buble. Matt put this song on a CD and surprised me with it on one of our dates. He literally swept me off my feet with it as we danced and he said he wanted it to be our first dance song. So it's in our top four. But the only problem I have with it is it's all about how he feels about me instead of a mutual song. But how romantic is this? To have a guy feel this way about you? *swoon* Lyrics here.

So there you have it! Now...how do you vote? Blogger doesn't have a feature to put a poll directly into this post and when I tried one online, it messed my template up. So the poll is in the sidebar to the right. Just click which song would be your choice and you're done!

Thanks for helping us choose a song!

You Are Cordially Invited...

...to attend our wedding via live feed on U-Stream, Saturday, September 17 at 6:30 p.m.! The ceremony will take place on the beach in the Outer Banks and the reception will follow at the ocean-front home we have rented for the week. We have a BIG surprise in the works as well and we will keep you posted on whether or not we will be able to pull it off.

Due to the capacity of the beach home, we are very limited in the amount of guests we can invite. Having met on Twitter and with so many of our good friends being online, we thought live-streaming would be the best way to include all of those who would not otherwise be able to attend.

Many thanks go out to MagnetStreet.com for providing our wedding invitations (both hard copies and the above image). They were my first choice as I just love their wide-selection of fun and stylish designs, but most of all, I was very impressed with the ability to customize the invitations with our choice of fonts and photos.

In the interest of disclosure, MagnetStreet provided us with complimentary invitations, address labels and thank you cards to facilitate a review (to be published on So a Blonde Walks Into a Review as soon as we receive them), but it was only after I had already selected them as our invitation vendor.

We hope you will be right there with us on the day that we say, "I do!" Feel free to leave a comment on this post if you'll be attending. We'd love to know who will be in our virtual audience!

Update: For those of you who are still experiencing issues with Blogger's commenting system, you can email me here. I may put together an attendance list so please include what name you would like me to use and a link to your Facebook/Twitter/Blog...whichever you'd like included. Thank you!

Vendor Day in the OBX

Note: Blogger is still having issues with commenting and I have not been able to reply to any of your thoughtful comments as of yet. I will probably need to resort to clearing my cache and cookies if it continues but I am hoping I won't have to do that. In the meantime, thank you for your patience and please accept my apologies for not replying!



In case you missed our live tweets from our vendor day a couple of weeks ago, I'll recap everything for you here, including our new vendor choices.

With about two hours of sleep under our belts, Matt and I headed out bright and early for North Carolina from Virginia Beach. We had made an all-night drive to VA Beach where my parents live from Washington D.C. the night before.

Our first stop was at Renee Landry Style, our florist and designer. Our wedding planner, Marie Russell from Bordeaux Events, met us there (Marie's husband designed the famous OBX sticker above, btw). If there was any doubt that Renee was a perfect match for us, and really there wasn't, just walking into her front door proved that she exudes the fun and creativity we were looking for:



We discussed what we were looking for in our wedding decor...fun! flowy curtains! puffy flowers! glitter! umbrellas! a Twitter bird! hot pink and white! casual! Umm, yeah, we want a lot. And that might intimidate a lot of designers, but not Renee! The more energized we got, the more energized she got. We matched each other's excitement perfectly.

As soon as I said I wanted puffy flowers, she immediately came up with a theme name for our wedding: "Puffy Galore." If you don't get it, then you obviously haven't watched Austin Powers and this blog is too PG for me to explain it to you. ;)

So, we decided that our main flower would be the dinner plate dahlia, in hot, hot pink...hotter than what's pictured below:



We discussed dozens of other ideas and Renee will put everything together in a proposal for us to review (we should be getting that by the end of next week). I know that whatever she comes up with will be fabulous and I will be sure to share it with you when we know more.



Our next stop was at Argyles Restaurant & Piano Bar for our first tasting. Since we started our day at 7 and it was now 10, we were definitely hungry and eager to taste everything that was put in front of us!

We tried:



Citrus Lemon-crusted Scallops, Pasta Provencal, Herb-crusted Chicken, Hummus Platter, Chocolate Grand Marnier Cake, Chocolate Eclair Cake and Raspberry Cheesecake. Yes, we ate ALL of that, lol! And it was delicious! I can't even put into words how amazing all of the food was, most especially the Citrus Lemon-crusted Scallops! We were very impressed to say the least! Enough so that we chose Argyles to be our caterer.

We still had more cake tasting to do, however, at Great Cakes! We checked out various styles of cake before tasting and we decided to go with this one:



We may add very, very hot pink ribbon around the base of the tiers and possibly an umbrella and flip flops. Marsha is also going to add edible sand on the table next to the cake and will write a heart in it with our phrase "So Much" next to it. (I'll explain that phrase and the significance of a heart in the sand for us in another post)

We then went on to taste three different cakes:



Okay, you might be able to tell which was my favorite BEFORE we tasted them. The half-eaten Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake. *grin* Being the biggest fan of peanut butter and chocolate alive, I was so eager to try that one that I dug in before I remembered to snap a picture of it!

The other two cakes were Almond Batter with Swiss Red Raspberry and Great Cake's signature cake: Key Lime Cake! (that's a lot of "cakes" in one sentence and believe me, it was a lot of cake in our stomachs too!)

So, now that you know what a huge peanut butter chocolate lover I am, I think it speaks volumes that the Key Lime cake was the best cake I've ever tasted!! It became my favorite AFTER we tasted everything, and I'm not even a big fan of key lime pie! It was that good. Matt and I were sold (he loved it as much as I did) and we decided right then and there that it was the perfect cake for us. It's not only delicious, but it's light and beachy so it was an easy choice.

With our bellies completely full, and with a gift in my hand from Great Cakes:



...we had a quick meeting with our photographer to go over details of that aspect of the wedding, and then we were off by ourselves for our favorite part of the entire trip...seeing our beach house and where we'll be married!

The photos we had viewed online really did not do this house justice. It is HUGE! Huge and beautiful!



We ended our day with a walk hand-in-hand on the beach where we will say "I do!" in front of the house. We collected shells together and slow danced a little with the waves rushing up to our ankles. It was the perfect end to a perfect day, all planned and executed by Marie, who is beyond fabulous.

And just this past weekend, Matt surprised me with the shells we had collected on the beach and added them to this sign I bought for our home:



That's my guy! Romantic, creative, loving and thoughtful. I am blessed beyond words to be marrying such an amazing man! I wouldn't want to share this journey in life with anyone else but him by my side.

Tweethearts

So where did Matt and I meet and fall in love? You'll never, ever guess. Well, unless you read my first post, lol.

Twitter! That's SO not us, is it? *giggle*



We were friends for a very long time and both of us were in marriages that had not been working for some time. We had decided independently of each other that we had given it our all and our marriages were irreparable.

I did not tell him this and vice versa, so those decisions were reached without any outside influence, but when we did finally confide in each other (I was praying hard for his marriage to work and did not tell him about my problems until I knew there was nothing more I could do), we gave each other the courage we needed to end our marriages.

So did we move on because of each other? No. Could we have moved on in spite of each other? I don't know. And that's as detailed as I'm going to be on that subject out of respect for my ex whom I am on good terms with, and for our children.

In between the time that I knew my marriage was over and when I confided in Matt, I thought a lot about him. I greatly admired the man that Matt was. The dedication he gave to a marriage that was never going to work. His faith. His love for his children. His positive outlook on life and his love of fun. And the more I thought about that, the more I began to develop feelings for him.

I clearly remember there were three songs that made me think of him: "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon. "Falling for You," by Colbie Caillat. And "You Belong With Me," by Taylor Swift. (You'll probably find in reading this blog that music is very special to me and I have always used it to express my feelings. And those three songs definitely expressed my feelings perfectly!)







I had no idea that Matt had been feeling the same way about me, but once we opened up to each other, a beautiful relationship based on love, respect, honesty and trust began to blossom. Matt makes me happier than I have ever felt in my entire life. I feel loved, complete and cherished. He filled all the empty spaces in my heart and has healed my wounds. He is my dream come true. My everything. My "tweetheart."

To be continued...

The Song I Will Be Walking Down the Aisle To

Flowers and Pictures and Music, Oh My!

Thanks to the FANTASTIC work of Marie Russell, our wedding planner at Bordeaux Events, we are narrowing down our list of vendors very quickly. We only have four months to plan and Marie has bravely taken on the challenge!

In just a few short days, Marie narrowed down our choice of venues and vendors to who was available for our wedding day (September 17!!!), has helped us come up with a budget, has mapped out a detailed "to-do" list, has given us tips and ideas...she has basically been a lifesaver for this busy couple that doesn't have time to do the legwork that she is doing for us. And she does it so cheerfully and with a smile. You can't beat that!



We will be traveling to the Outer Banks on the 26th of May to do some tastings, work on decor and design, and make our final selections as far as vendors go. Marie has set up our itinerary for us so we don't have to worry about anything other than showing up!

It will actually be a bit of a challenge since we may have to pull an all-nighter for our first meeting at 9 am since Matt doesn't get off of work until 11:30 p.m. the night before and it's a six hour drive, but we'll make it work. We always do! And we'll be live Tweeting and Twitpicking the whole day so you can join us virtually and help us select our cake, food, decor, etc.

I'll also need your help deciding on which wedding dress to choose. Pictures will be coming soon and I will put up a poll for voting.

In the meantime, here's what we DO know. We know where our ceremony and reception will take place. We will be staying in a large, 9-bedroom, ocean-front home for the week of our wedding. The ceremony will be on the beach in front of the home and the reception will be pool-side at the house.

And guess who is invited? ALL of you! Yes, we will be LIVE STREAMING our wedding so that those of you who can't come (we're limited to 50 guests after all) can watch the entire event live online. More details to come.

So who have we chosen thus far? Well, there's Marie of course, our wedding Fairy Godmother. Here's the rest:

• Photographer: Neil GT, who shot the cover of the current 2011 Outer Banks Bride Magazine. Isn't he amazing?!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Florist and Designer: Renee Landry Style. Just look at her site. Are words even needed? It's like someone took all of my style, love of fun and taste and made a replica of me into a florist named Renee. She. Totally. Gets. It.
  
  
  
  
• Entertainment: This is MY wedding so there'd better be dancing!! If you've been a reader/friend of mine for awhile, you know about my deep-seated love of music so this vendor was crucial. We selected SoundWavz Entertainment, Inc. to be our DJ and they know how to get people moving. To quote Ke$ha in "Blow"..."DANCE!" That's an order! Ke$ha says so, so dance you must!
  
  
  
  
• Venue: As stated above, we have selected a gorgeous ocean-front house but the details on that will be kept a secret for security reasons until after the wedding is over. You WILL see pics during our stay, though, so be sure to vacation with us as we count down the days until the the big event starts!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Dress: I am down to two choices but may add some more into the mix. Right now I have a maxi H&M dress from their Conscious Collection and an American Eagle dress. We will not be dressing formally, nor will we have a wedding party so we want relaxed, casual, beachy wear. I am marrying my guy barefoot in the sand! We wouldn't have it any other way! Better pics will be coming, along with the poll, to help us decide which dress is best.

So there you have it! I'll share more information on our vendors in detail as the planning moves along and I'll be sure to report which ones we choose the day of our trip to the Outer Banks. (we still need a caterer, baker for our wedding cake, and a videographer)



And last but not least, be ready for uushy-guushy, lovey-dovey posts that are all about our love story. I'll be sprinkling them into the mix here and there and you won't want to miss them! Especially if you have a vomit bucket on hand. ;) As the Boy Scouts say (and clearly they have this exact situation in mind when they say it), "Be prepared!"

Fine Print: So here's the part where the FCC or some other bureaucratic agency makes me tell you that I have received discounts from some of our vendors due to our writing about them here. What you really need to know, however, is that each vendor selected was chosen BEFORE any discounts were discussed. This is our wedding and we want the best for it and these are the best in our opinion. Discount or not, we would've chosen each one without hesitation. So there, FCC! :P

Welcome!

I am so excited to start a new blog in the "So a Blonde Walks Into..." franchise, especially since this one is all about starting my brand new life with my fiance Matt!

Over the course of the next few months, I'll be sharing the story of how we met and fell in love, photos from our life together, how Matt proposed, our wedding plans from start to finish and of course, the big day itself (which is looking to be mid-September).

Stay tuned as our first in-depth consultation with our wedding planner, Marie Russell from Bordeaux Events, starts tomorrow!

In the meantime, you can follow Matt on Twitter here, and myself here. (Twitter is where we met and fell in love, by the way!)

Thanks for following along as we begin our journey towards our happily ever after!