Wedding Wrap Up

We are approaching our 5 months of being Married! A lot has happened in the past 5 months, and you will be seeing upcoming blogs on those happenenings, but for now let's talk wedding! Our wedding weekend was fantastic. We had family and friends travel from all over the US to be with us. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere was perfect, everything was great. We only wish someone could have slowed down time so that we could both take in more of the wedding weekend. There is always one thing that you should expect to go wrong on your wedding day. For us, it was the videographer standing us up. He promised he would come and video the wedding, but instead he just didn't show up and didn't even bother to call. He fed us some lame excuses later, but come on! Things that went well were I loved my dress, our wedding cake, the band, the food, the rehearsal dinner, the mountains :), having my brother walk me down the aisle, and most of all...seeing Andy at the other end :)

Here are a few pictures compliments of our photographer Eileen Garcia(http://www.eileengarciablog.com)

Tuxedos and Bridesmaid Dresses

Have you ever seen the movie 27 Dresses? Out of all of the wedding movies that are our right now I would have to say that I love this one. I'm not really sure why? The storyline is typical and the main actress Katherin Heigel isn't my #1 actress..but I love the movie! To sum it up, Katherin Heigel has been in 27 different weddings as either a bridesmaid or a maid of honor. She has worn 27 disgustingly hilarious dresses including one that was apart of a "Gone with the Wind" themed wedding.

When it came to picking bridesmaids dresses I did not want to be complicated. My original idea was to pick a color series and send it to the girls and say "Have fun!", but several ojbections were made and so it was up to me to pick a dress. So our color scheme for our wedding is very garden oriented. We are sticking with Espresso browns, natural greens, champagnes, ivories, pinks and flowers! The tuxedos we picked are the newest BROWN (yes I said BROWN) tuxedo from Men's Warehouse. Everytime someone hears me say BROWN TUXEDO the room goes quiet and the crickets start singing. Even when I mentioend the idea to Andy he was a little hesitant. For everyone out there...the tuxedos look AWESOME! I have a feeling this tuxedo will be a new fav for many out there, especially since I have noticed more of them at SAVI, Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, etc. Typically brides pick a vest color to be their 2nd color for their color scheme. We were already walking on thin ice with the brown tuxedos, so we chose the brown vest and tie so that it wasn't too crazy.

So, going back to the bridesmaid dresses. If I wanted to really bring in natural green I could have chosen that as the bridemaid dress. Well I though back to 27 Dresses, and one of the dresses she wore was moss/olive green, and I remember thinking to myself that I really did not want to put my girls through any type of fashion torture on my wedding day. I also wanted them to actually have a dress that they might wear again. I chose an espresso brown dress, on sale**, from JCrew that is just below the knees with a v-neckline. It's very simple but elegant. I hope everyone likes it, even though I know my sister doesnt but she's also 15 and I can't even keep up with that age of fashion! Been there and done that!

So brown and brown. It sounds so dark, I know! But remember...this is an outside wedding at a time when everything will be blooming (Greens, pinks, purples, whites). I also have additional accents that I cannot mention on here...they are a surprise! So if you are looking for a color to wear to the wedding...espresso brown will be there :)

Yes to the dress!

Dress shopping has finally come to an end! After 29 different dresses and 5 different stores I finally found a dress that I really liked and within my price range! Well there were quite a few that I really liked but I concluded that this one was best for my day. There are many factors to consider for picking out a dress such as:

-The time of year of your wedding date
-The style of your wedding
-Personal attributes that should be accented by your dress
-The location of your wedding. There is a big difference in style from a beach wedding to a chapel wedding. I don't think you will want a huge ballgown with 10 layers of tulle on an 85 degree sunny day on the beach.

My dress most definitely fits my personality and style. It has a modern vintage essence about it, that I really wanted to incorporate into the wedding, and detail that I wanted to incorporate. I was torn between this dress and another. The other was much heavier and longer and would not have been appropriate for an outdoor wedding. Had Andy and I decided to get married at Northside UMC, the dress would have been spectacular...but we're getting married outside so we'll keep with the lighter more comfortable 1940's dress...it is very Audrey Hepburn. After I tried it on, other brides-to-be wanted to try it on..so I guess that's a good sign :-)

A funny story: there was another bride trying on dresses when I was. She and I were commenting on the gowns the other one tried on and finally saw each other come to a final conclusion. We started talking about wedding dates and she said she was getting married in October 2010. I explained that I had originally wanted an October wedding, but we did not want to wait that long. I asked her when she got engaged and her words were "oh, well he hasn't proposed yet, but I think it's coming the Christmas". I was in total disbelief!!! She and her mom had been dress shopping all over the Piedmont area and she finally picked a dress at the store that day...as in ORDERED IT....without even being engaged!!! Please ladies, you can/should research and have a great idea of what you want but don't buy a dress or pay deposits until you have the ring...seriously...you never know what can happen between October and Christmas. I wish the "engaged-to-be" girl all the best and that she finds a ring under the Christmas tree this year!!!

April 10, 2010

April 10th seems like a nice day to have a wedding in North Georgia! We have been working on our Save-the-Date postcards and just received our first sample from www.overnightprints.com. They're an excellent printing company, but the turnaround is pretty slow, two weeks for a standard order. My advice: order your sample super early so that you have plenty of time to make any revisions before you put your final order in. This way you can receive your Save-the-Date cards just in time! Also if you order in bulk you get a discount on the price!

We decided to stick with the postcard idea because we loved our engagement pictures so much that we wanted to share them with our friends and family...plus shipping is quick, easy and cheap! Also, family members can stick it on their refrigerator, planner, calendar or wherever! So keep an eye out for those postcards...maybe in 3-4 weeks<--which will give us 3-4 weeks to finalize our guest list...it's difficult not being able to invite everyone you know :(

Set the Date!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, ok so we have still not set the date. I know that most brides-to-be are somewhat expecting the proposal when it does happen, but Andy caught me completely off guard...so I had not been saving for or even thinking about planning a wedding. I was much more concerned with finding a job and just living. So we set a date for November 7th 2009. We both wanted a fall wedding and thought we could plan it in 4 months...well NO...not happening. So we have decided to start considering days next Spring. So to all of our friends and family who are eagerly awaiting to hear the formal date, we apologize but PLEASE be patient and you will hear from us soon. In the meantime, how about an engagement party? How about celebrating the engagement? OR....just wait and be patient :-)

Engagement Pictures

Even though we have not officially set our date we have taken our engagement pictures! Andy's cousin-in-law Lindsay is an amazing photographer! We were so lucky to steal her for an early afternoon photo shoot while she and Will (her husband) were visiting Atlanta from Red Bank, NJ. Below are a few favorites!









Also, for those of you out there who are trying cut costs entirely...engagement pictures are not necessary. I just really wanted to have engagement pictures and use them for our Save the Date postcards ($25 for 100!!). We got Lindsday a gift card to her favorite store, and she gave us AMAZING pictures. Thanks Lindsay!!!!!!!

Engagemet story!!

So on to the engagement story!! Talk about one exciting weekend for this gal!

Andy and I were living in Washington D.C. We were very far from our family and friends and had grown quite sick of the unfriendly clashing cultures that were surrounding us. We decided to take a trip to Atlanta to see Ryan Adams last show at the Fox Theater in ATL, and to visit our family, and get out of town!

We left on a Wednesday which is when we stopped in Statesville where I bought a new car!! (For those of you who do not know; I was still driving my '95 Jeep Grand Cherokee)



Thursday I had a job interview at ALTA Language Services in downtown ATL! Andy also played in on a few songs with Matt's band at the East Atlanta Icehouse. We got to see Polly and Ricky that night too! It was so great to see them and catch up.

Friday morning I had my 2nd job interview at ALTA (which was awesome!), followed by going over to Matt & Julie's house to help Julie paint. Friday night was the Ryan Adams show (one of the best concerts I have ever seen!). Saturday Andy got me up really early to head up to his parents' cabin in Jasper, GA.



The Moffitt's cabin has always been a special place for Andy and I. It was always our escape from troubled times, stress, or just life in general. We would always go fishing or hiking or take Thomas to the lake.



That morning we were planning on going on the North Georgia Wine Tour with his parents. Andy suggested that we take Thomas to the lake before we drove up the mountain to the cabin (since we were going to be gone all day). He handed me Thomas's leash, then his ball, then a little black box and said "So are you gonna spend the rest of your life with me?!" I had no idea what he was talking about. I was completley surprised! He then got down on his knee and asked me to marry him. It was so sweet and SO "Andy and Crystal".



We spent the rest of the day celebrating at different vineyards in North Georgia with his parents and Uncle Eddie. The ring is white gold with a 1.04 carat blue diamond (like the Hope Diamond) with .03 in normal diamonds on the band.



On Monday I drove back to DC to head back to work. It was Tuesday that I found out that I got the job at ALTA in Atlanta. A week and a half later we relocated back to Atlanta.

Now let the wedding planning begin.........