Saturday, October 31

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Hope everyone has a Happy and safe Halloween! Can't wait to see pictures of everyone dressed up! We are heading downtown to a Halloween Party supporting Newborns in Need with our friends: Dawn, Chris and Marcie! Can't wait!!!

Blog Love: Letters

I am in love with these letters!

And just for kicks... Brian's Initials:

Invitations: Published

I did a little happy dance this morning when I checked my google reader and found this post. April did such an amazing job on our invitations. We received so many compliments and they truly set the tone for the whole wedding. We love them! I plan on framing one, just as a keepsake. Here is the small image from April's blog. Thanks again to April, Critsey and Jessica. You were all amazing to work with!

Our Wedding Events

We are waiting to get the professional wedding pictures back before really doing any wedding recaps but I thought I would share with you the different events that took place the week of our wedding. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family. It was so nice to be able to spend time with those closest to us in the days leading up to the wedding.

For now, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Thursday, October 1: Family Style Dinner

My best friend and maid of honor, Colleen, arrived Wednesday evening. She was the calm in the storm. She helped me try on my dress one more time in calm my fears. On Thursday, our best friend, Jennifer, arrived as well as my cousin, Ashley and her daughter (our flower girl), Lily. Thursday evening, my parents had us over for dinner, family style. My brother and his fiance joined us as well. I can't tell you how nice it was to just relax with family and my 2 closest friends.
Friday, October 2: Pre-Wedding Events galore

To start off the day, mom and I hosted a bridesmaid brunch at Salem Tavern. This was a time for me to honor those females that have been my rock through this wedding planning process and to simply say "Thank you!". During the brunch, I handed out all the gifts to the girls and we had a great time just being together and having "girl time". While we were having our girl time, Brian and his guys were playing golf. Apparently he played is best round of golf that morning! Good job B!
After the brunch, a group of us headed to the salon to get our nails done. So relaxing and time for some bubbly! The girls made sure I had a "unique" glass.. Nothing like a Halloween green glass. Gotta love them! After we finished at the nail salon, it was time to get ready for rehearsal. The rehearsal was at 5:00pm at the church. Unlike myself, I was late. I forgot to pick up the unity candle holder and remembered at the last minute. Oh well, so we were 5 minutes late. B might not let me live it down. Our rehearsal was literally 15 minutes. It was awesome. We had the best wedding party ever!
After Rehearsal it was time to eat!! Our rehearsal dinner was held at River Birch Lodge and Brian's parents did a wonderful job hosting it. The decorations were great. Since Brian is a UT grad, the rehearsal dinner colors were UT orange and white. We had a great time enjoying the company and having a wonderful meal. We presented the last name prints at this time as well as the groomsmen gifts. I used this time to give Brian one of his presents, since it was so dang big. He loved the Dodgers Stadium print. Oh...and the cake.......It was so yummy!!!
How cute are my dad and brother? They wore orange ties! I love them!
The dinner ended around 10pm and after a long day, it was time for some shut eye. And I will be the first to say, I slept like a baby the night before the big day!

Saturday, October 3: Wedding Day Breakfast

My aunt/uncle and cousins held a wedding day breakfast at my parents house for all the girls. They had the prettiest flowers for the centerpiece and all the food was so delicious! The sausage balls were out of this world. Can you tell we center everything around food? Gotta love the South! We all hung out and relaxed at my parents house for a few hours before heading to the church to meet our hair/makeup people and start getting ready!

We can't thank everyone enough for all they did for us. We are truly blessed.

Date Night

Brian and I have decided that at least twice a month we would have date night. Our first date night as newlyweds was Friday night and it was awesome! With our busy schedules, we don't get to spend much time together through the week so it is nice to have one evening where we spend that time together. Just the 2 of us.

It just so happened that my favorite play, Rent, was in town. Students for the School of the Arts and other local actors/actresses were putting the play on. I saw the advertisement in the paper for it and thought it would make a great date night activity. You can't beat the deal of $16/ticket. The play was held in our local theatre alliance and let me say, there isn't a bad seat in the place. It is small and intimate. It holds at max 60 people. The play lasted a little over 2 hours and we loved every minute of it. Brian was a great sport and didn't even mind my ridiculousness of singing along to EVERY song! Camera weren't allowed so I was only able to sneak one picture of the stage and how close we were prior to the start of the play.

If you are local to Winston, I highly recommend going to see Rent.

Thanks for a great date night, B! Can't wait for our next one.

Are you a big fan of date night? Do you and your spouse plan date night to just get away?

Think Pink!

October is breast cancer awareness month. This is something that I hold near and dear to my heart. A few years ago I headed to Jacksonville, FL to meet up with my good friend, Tracy, and we ran our first half marathon together for the Breast Cancer Marathon: 26.2 with Donna. It was a wonderful experience.

This year one of the departments at work challenged everyone to wear pink. The memo that went out stated: "Pink Day" to promote breast cancer awareness month, Radiation Oncology is inviting everyone to wear "pink" on October 23rd, 2009. Please show your support!!

And that's what we did. Brian even wore his pink tie on casual Friday!


Does your workplace do anything to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

Kitchen Makeover

We didn't do anything big to our kitchen, just spruced it up a bit with all the nice wedding gifts we received. Sorry I didn't take a before picture. But here is all the stuff we had to squeeze into our small kitchen...

and here are some of the after shots. Our beloved mixer (who shall be called Martha) gets a spot all her own. She's big time. We love the stainless steel look. If only we had stainless steel appliances.... guess a girl can dream?

Extreme Home Makeover!

Extreme Home Makeover is coming to the Triad!!!!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Coming to Triad,

NCHedrick Creative Building Selected as Key Builder

Lexington, N.C., October 23, 2009 –

An exciting announcement will be made during Lexington’s Annual Barbecue Festival opening ceremonies on Saturday, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the Emmy-award winning hit TV show on ABC Television, is coming to the Triad to present one deserving family with an extreme home makeover. Lexington builder, Hedrick Creative Building, with a goal to construct a new home in one week, will oversee and implement the project that will make a miracle happen for a Triad family.

On Wednesday, November 11, a Triad family will answer a knock on the door and find Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Team Leader Ty Pennington and his design team waiting to transform their home and their lives. Five families in the Triad have been nominated by their friends and families to receive the home makeover in recognition of their general day to day heroism.

Builder:

"It’s such a great honor to be a part of something that makes such a difference in the life of a Triad family,” said Jason Hedrick, owner of Hedrick Creative Building. “The community is coming together to make this possible, it’s such a feel good project to give back and make a dream come true, that’s why I’ve chosen Let’s Build a Dream as the theme for this build.”

“We’ll be building this home to the National Association Homebuilders Green Building Standards, so not only will we be building the dream home for a deserving family, we’ll be building it in a manner pleasing to the environment. We’re paying attention to energy efficiency, water and resource conservation, the use of sustainable or recycled products, and measures to project indoor air quality.”

Hedrick Creative Building is reaching out to the community for support and involvement. Volunteers are needed to provide time and energy, support and resources to ensure the success of this dream come true project. “I believe in my community and I am excited to see how they will step up to make this dream a reality,” said Jason. Interested individuals or companies can find more information on how to volunteer time and resources at http://www.hedrickextreme.com/.

Pep Rally:

On Friday, November 6, at 8:00 am, a pep rally is planned for all constructions volunteers and subcontractors of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Triad NC build at Reeds Baptist Church, 180 Reeds Baptist Church Road in the Reeds Community in Lexington.

“This pep rally will be an informational as well as inspirational day for all attending,” said Hedrick Creative Building’s owner, Jason Hedrick. “So many have already signed up as partners for the project through material and monetary donations and volunteers for the build and this will be the day to rally us all as one.”

The show’s executive producer, Conrad Ricketts will be attending and providing information about what’s happening with the project for general and skilled volunteers, subs and trades. All media are welcomed and invited to join the excitement of the rally.

For anyone interested in signing up as a volunteer, there are still ways to participate. Watch in the newspapers, on the radio, and on TV for announcements for people needed to cheer on and support all the volunteers and people on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. All individuals interested in participating can visit the build’s website at http://www.hedrickextreme.com/ for more information.

How You Can Help:

Help Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Hedrick Creative Building by getting involved by giving a contribution that will help transform the lives of the deserving family. You can support the cause by contributing to the build. Our website (http://www.hedrickextreme.com/) makes it quick, easy and secure to contribute funds via PayPal to help a family in need.

About Hedrick Creative Building:

Located centrally in the state of NC in Lexington, Hedrick Creative Building is named for its owner, Jason Hedrick. The company, although new in formation, began in 2003, but builder Jason Hedrick has 23 years experience in the construction industry. Jason is accustomed to tackling challenges while overseeing projects of new custom built homes, structural repairs or remodeling. “This project is definitely a challenge, completely building a home is just 106 hours, but with the involvement of my community, I’m looking forward to building a dream for a family,” remarked Jason. For more information: http://www.hedrickcreativebuilding.com/.

About ABC-TVs Extreme Makeover:

Home Edition“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” which has won back-to-back Emmy Awards as Best Reality Program (non-competitive), is entering its 7th season on ABC. The program is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. Anthony Dominici is the executive producer; and David Goldberg is the president of Endemol USA. The show airs on Sundays (8:00-9:00 EST), on the ABC Television Network.

Cha-Ching!

I have a pig named Maxwell. Maxwell is a white ceramic pig that likes to eat my change.

Right before we left for our honeymoon, we decided to finally cash in all our coins that we had. We decided whatever they totaled up to, that would be our spending money on our trip. Since we didn't have time to roll it ourselves, we opted to take it to one of the coin machines at the grocery store and just suck it up and lose a few cents on the dollar. In the end, it didn't matter. Want to know why?

Drum Roll please.........

Grand Total = $232.32!!!!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say, we didn't spend it all on our honeymoon. Our honeymoon was at an all-inclusive resort. So we put the rest in savings! Man, I love saving our change!

Coordinator Gift and Gift for alll

For our coordinator, Alyse, we surprised her with a monogrammed market tote from here. We had the hotel put it in her room prior to her check-in and we filled the basket with all sorts of NC goodies!And the gift that we made for each family/person involved in the wedding was a framed last name print, much like the one seen below. We customized each one with their wedding dates or just there first and last name, if there were single. Everyone was blown away with them and that made us so happy!

That finishes up the gifts! Not sure what is in line next for the wedding round-up, so stay tuned!

Bridal Shower #2 - 10.17.09

After high tailing it 3 hours from Taylorsville to Raleigh, I arrived in time to help prep for the second shower of the day. This bridal shower was for my best friend, Colleen. It was given by her bridesmaids and we had the best time. Colleen's one request was for the shower to be very laid back. We honored her request and had a laid back good time!

Her fiancé, Keith, surprised everyone by showing up at the start of the shower. We had no idea what was going on. Turns out, Colleen and Keith had something up their sleeves and presented Colleen's mom with a beautiful diamond bracelet as a "thank you" for all she has done to help with their wedding. It was incredibly sweet and I saw a few tears shed. Good job guys!

Another highlight of the shower was the "pantie" cake that Colleen's cousin made. It was hilarious. Just like a "diaper cake" but a "pantie cake" for a bridal shower. Pure genius!

The shower was a success and it was nice to meet some of the girls Colleen works with. Can't wait to see everyone on November 7 for their beautiful wedding!

Bridal Shower #1 - 10.17.09

This past Saturday I spent 7 hours in the car and the other waking hours attending 2 bridal showers. In a three month span, we got married, my best friend is getting married and my brother is getting married. Talk about a busy October-December.

Anywho, getting back on track. The first shower was for my brother and his fiancé . My mom's side of the family hosted it in Taylorsville and it was so nice to see everyone again. Delicious food, great company and lots of gifts. The perfect ingredients for a shower. I had to leave early to high tail it 3 hours down the road to my next shower but I had a great time while I was there.

My brother and his fiancé

Shower fun

Can't wait for December 5, Z & T!

Parent Gifts

We knew we wanted to get our parents the standard personalize picture frame. We bought the frames from a local store and then took them to Things Remembered to be personalized with our names and wedding date. The parental units loved them. They looked much like this one.

We gave my dad monogrammed cuff links, just the ones I got B. For his dad, we gave them the same organizational unit we gifted to the groomsmen. And for the mothers, pearl earrings. After shopping around on etsy, we decided on 2 different pair. For my mom, we purchased thesefrom Goldfinch Jewelry on etsy. And for Brian's mom we purchased thesefrom ChristineW Designs on etsy. The moms loved them and both wore them to the wedding.

I highly recommend both etsy shops. Both ladies were extremely nice and I loved working with both of them.

Next up: Wedding coordinator gift and the gift we gave to everyone in the bridal party

Our Gifts

Yes, I know I said parents gifts would be next up but I changed my mind.

Early on, we decided that we wouldn't spend much on each other for wedding gifts. We would rather save the money and use it towards our new life together in some shape or form.

My gift to B was a framed LA Dodgers Stadium print and personalized cuff links. He is a huge Dodgers fan, so I thought it was only appropriate. And the cuff links are something he can wear again.

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Brian completely blew me away with his gift. Seriously, I have the best husband ever! He made me a jewelry box! Yes, he made it. And even had a monogrammed name plate on it with my new initials. And inside was one of the most beautiful bracelets I have ever seen.

Next up: Parent gifts, I promise.

Wine to Water

"nearly 1 billion people in the world today have no access to clean water, and millions of women & children spend several hours every day collecting water from distant often polluted sources"

Wine To Water is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit aid organization focused on providing clean water to needy people around the world.

Doc Hendley, a fellow North Carolinian and bartender by trade, is doing his part to help alleviate this problem. Doc's dream, and now the goal of Wine To Water, is to quench the thirst of the needy in a way that sets them apart from the rest of the world. "If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." (Mathew 10:42)

Wine to Water hosts wine events across the country to educate people about the need for clean water and to raise money. In turn the money is donated to the countries in need and educates the local people about clean water & uses local resources to build & maintain their own wells.

Doc has been selected by CNN's Blue Ribbon Panel as their Top 10 CNN Heroes. Now, you can help choose the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year. Click here and vote for Doc! There is no voting limit.

Get educated and do your part. To learn more check out: http://winetowater.org/

Attendant Gifts

I wanted to recognize those that played a big part in our wedding and helped make our wedding day run smoothly. Two of my long time friends and college roommates (Sarah and Courtney)were our program and guestbook attendants. My cousin, Rebekah and our friend, Tracy, served as our readers. Like the bridesmaids, I made each of the personalized stationary. I also gave each of the attendants handmade mini-zippy wallets from Jenna Lou Designs on etsy.

For Tracy and Courtney, I gifted them these pretty necklaces with their initial... and for the girls that had kids (Sarah, Rebekah and Ashley (my cousin and mom of one of our flower girls).. I had these necklaces made for them with their kids names on them. If you are shopping around for a necklace like this, check out Silver Me Pendants on etsy. She was amazing to work with and the quality is second to none. Each necklace was a little different and I loved that. Sorry for the poor picture quality... All the girls absolutely loved their gifts. The necklaces were a big hit! Each of them mean the world to me and we couldn't have had our wedding run as smooth as it did without their help! Thanks girls for everything!

Next up: Parents gifts, Wedding coordinator gift and a gift to all.

Sneak Peak #2

As promised, here is the remaining pictures in the massive sneak peak that Critsey gave us.And another one of our personal favorites....