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.