Why I Love this Week + Engagement Party

I feel great today because I went to bed at 9:45 last night. I do not remember the last time I did that! It is December 1 and I am so excited for the Christmas season! We decorated for Christmas Sunday night -- put out pretty lights on our balcony and put up Stephanie's (my roommate) tree. This week is already off to a good start and here are some other reasons why I love this week!

*My wreck was paid off yesterday. You may recall this post in March when I got into a wreck on the way home from a work trip. I have been paying it off each paycheck ever since and it's been horrible. I am so excited that the next paycheck will be the full amount! Such a load lifted.

*I am seeing Couple's Retreat tonight with two of my bridesmaids, Nikki and Ellie. I feel like I haven't seen them in weeks.

*Wednesday night I am c.l.e.a.n.i.n.g. I actually enjoy cleaning.

*Don comes in on Thursday night! Enough said.

*Friday is the luncheon I have been planning for work. Hopefully that all goes smoothly.

*Don and I are checking out a hotel for our out-of-town guests on Friday night. I think 75% of our invites will be coming from out of town so hopefully the hotel can whip up a good rate for us and maybe throw in a bridal suite for the bridesmaids to get ready in!

*Sunday is cake taste testing! We have an appointment with a baker in town.

*My good friend, Dave is coming into town like he does each Christmas. He, along with other good friends and myself will be going to dinner and a movie Saturday night.

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving and our Engagement party. My dress did not turn out as I had hoped.... could be because I had 20 minutes to get ready. I seriously had my silk dress on and one leg over the tub trying to quickly shave my legs because my pantyhose were not working right. I felt like a HOT mess. My sister took most of the pictures from the weekend on her camera, so when she loads those, I will be sure to share!

Bridesmaid Introductions

Even though my wedding is the main thing on my mind right now, I do not want to smother you all with wedding details on a daily basis. I am going to adopt the "Wedding Wednesday" mentality and only post about wedding stuff on Wednesdays! So far, I have gotten a few of the major things down. We have:

-Reserved our receptions site - a beautiful Country Club in town
-Finally decided on a photographer. We were between three fantastic photographers and decided on our favorite.
-Reserved the church
-Decided on wedding party
-Decided on color scheme and picked out bridesmaid dresses
-Gotten quotes from local cakes bakers and graphic designers for save-the-dates/invites
-Started creating our wedding website
-Reserved wedding night suite
-Looked through some honeymoon options

Here are my bridesmaids!

My sister, Ashlyn, is maid of honor

Jen

Meghan (isn't her bridal portrait gorgeous?!)

Laura, Don's sister

My crazy ex-roomies, Nikki and Ellie.

My two cousins, Caroline and Catherine, are Jr. Bridesmaids

Thanksgiving Week

I am thankful for a 3-day workweek this week! I also get off at 4 on these three days and get to wear jeans! Pretty nice Thanksgiving week is already beginning to unfold. The office is very quiet, so I am using this week to catch up on email and get ahead a bit with some projects. We are leaving Wednesday at 4 to drive down to Atlanta. We will get in around 11 p.m. JOY! This year will be great because we get to spend Thanksgiving weekend with both sides of the family. In fact, our parents are meeting for lunch with us on Friday! It works out great that the majority of our family members live in the Atlanta area. Makes for easy holidays. We found out last weekend that Don's family is throwing us an engagement party on Saturday evening! I picked out this Ruffle Shimmer Dress on Saturday at Ann Taylor LOFT and I am so excited to wear it!


Like most of you I am sure, I have a lot to accomplish these three short days:

Go the mall and get my mom a birthday gift
Get my dress dry cleaned
Much needed nail appointment Tuesday afternoon
Taste-test Tuesday evening for rehearsal dinner venue
Make green beans for office Thanksgiving party tomorrow
Mail off photography contract to wedding photographer
Do laundry
Pack
Run (hopefully!)

Have a happy Thanksgiving week!

Bridesmaid Letters

I wanted a cute way to ask my friends to be in my wedding, other than just a phone call. I went to Hallmark and had these invites made last week and sent them off to the six girls I want standing next to me! I think they should be getting them today, if they have not already!

My situation is different as to who we invite to the wedding. I grew up in Florida, so you might would figure that I would invite the people I grew up with to the wedding, however, I have not seen most of them in five years. Also, when my family moved to Alabama five years ago, I made a few close connections there, but only temporarily before I started living in Virginia full-time. So, who do I invite and not invite? Do I invite childhood friends that I haven't seen in years? Not sure what to do.....

Proposal Story

I am so sorry to just leave you all hanging with the Proposal Story! It's been a busy week as you might could imagine. I have had countless phone calls, texts, facebook wall posts, and of course blog comments and all I have to say is a big thank you for your sweet words! Let's just say that I was BLOWN AWAY -- I did not see this coming so soon. Don and I have dated six months and I thought that we would get engaged in the spring, but I guess he just couldn't wait!

Since one of our first dates, Don mentioned how his town has carriage rides during the fall and Christmas season and that we would definitely need to go on one. So, when he called me a week prior to the big day and said that he made last-minute arrangements for a carriage ride (he actually had planned it a few weeks in advance), I just did not think anything of it. I went up to his house on Saturday morning and we had a normal weekend and did things we always did.... went to a movie, went on a walk, cooked dinner Saturday night, cooked waffles Sunday morning, so I didn't 'expect' anything special to happen. He was perfectly normal and calm all weekend. The reason we were dressed up in these pictures is because Don had a short work event Sunday afternoon downtown. The carriage ride left from downtown so I just thought it was all just a nice thing happening. You all have to know that this man always has little surprises and tricks up his sleeve. He is always doing sweet things, bringing me many flowers, getting gifts for me for no reason at all, so believe me when I tell you that I thought the carriage ride was just another one of those 'nice things'. We rode all through downtown and then into a garden where we went on one of our first dates. The horses stopped and he asked me to get out and walked me over to a bench we had sat on many dates ago. There was a red rose, a letter with a wax seal, and a gift on the bench and after reading the letter I started wondering what was going on?! He got down on his knee and told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me and said, "Brittney, will you marry me?" All the while, pulling out a white box with a beautiful ring in it (which I LOVE). I stared at him in shock, then starting smiling really big then starting crying and said "YES!"

We finished the carriage ride and then went to Bonefish Grille for dinner. It was so good!

Shrimp for dinner!

Night shot on the ride home

We have set a date! September 25,2010. We did it a little opposite -- dated shorter, longer engagement, but we think it is perfect for us! I am excited to have ample time to plan while working full-time. So much goes into wedding planning -- I am started to really see that! Of course I have been hitting up Barnes & Noble this week to pick up magazines and am trying very hard to decide on a good Fall color scheme. (Ideas would be great!)

Thank you all for your support and I look forward to telling you all about the wedding journey!

I'm getting married!

Hello all! Much longer post to come, I promise, but wanted to share with you the good news that I am engaged to the most amazing man! Here are a few pictures!

200 Q&A

I woke up this morning after pressing snooze 4 times (I do this every day and it has to stop!), picked up my BlackBerry while still in bed, loaded blogger.com and saw I now have 200 followers! I am so excited. I started this blog a little over a year ago just as an online venting session, and it has turned into something so much more positive! A year ago, I had no idea that other people blogged as well, but my, what a surprise it was to me when I 'met' each of you! I also love reading my friends' blogs from back home as well. Such a fun way to keep up with everyone's families, work lives, etc. I appreciate all the support many of you have given me throughout this year! Rejoicing and encouraging me through exciting times, as well as offering good advice during more challenging times. I am glad that today I am as happy as I have ever been.

I think as a celebration for the 200 fab followers, I want to open it up to a little Q&A! Many of you have hosted a question and answer post and now I would like to do the same. Feel free to leave a comment with any questions you may for me. I will post answers on my next post.

Thanks again, ya'll!

Britt

Bedroom Pictures

Thank you all so much for your comments! I am all moved in and there is only one more box -- I will have to sort through the jewelry box later. Here are more pictures of my bedroom. I am very proud of myself in this apartment -- I did not use one trace of PINK in my bedroom or bathroom! I would have normally had hot pink everywhere, but I decided to be a big girl and use more grown-up colors.

Little hallway by my bedroom and bath.

Looking into the bedroom from the hall. I still need to add window treatments.

I love my bedding! It is Vera Wang collection at Kohl's. I have had it a year and it is still holding up quite nicely. I have a feeling it will go with me for many years and be a great guest bedroom set to have one day!

Moving weekend & Pumpkin Cookies

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween weekend! I did not celebrate because I was MOVING. You don't realize how much stuff you have unitl you have to pick it all up and move it. It all started at 9 p.m. Friday night. We were going to wait until Saturday morning, but we had a sudden burst of energy and momentum and decided, "Why not start?!" There we went -- Don, me, and the Tahoe. We moved all of my heavy furniture (yes, I lifted it!) that night and crashed around 3 a.m. We finished up Saturday with all the boxes. Almost everything is done except for my bedroom. I will post a picture tomorrow of that.

About a week ago, I came across this great recipe for Pumpkin Cookies. I immediately emailed it to myself because they looked delish. I got the recipe from A Wedding Story. At 10 p.m. last night, I got the urge to make them for the new home! It was very easy, quick, and they taste amazing. The glaze is the best part.






Also, as a follow up from my previous post about the BlackBerry Pearl, I can happily say that I am the new proud owner of the BlackBerry Tour! I absolutely love it! No more phone issues-- I am a happy girl!

Now, off to more boxes.....