Not Merely Living

annnnd my spirit is BACK!

 

Thank you so much to all of you who reached out to me after reading my post on Friday. I have stayed fairly calm throughout this wedding process, but on Friday I reached my limit. Thank you to all of you who helped pull me out of my funk!

Several amazing things happened over the weekend:

+Viet came back from India (yay! maybe him being gone a week with less than a month to the wedding had something to do with my funk? go figure!)

+My dear friend Tiffany helped me get some major wedding printing done. Check! Thanks friend!

+I had the final walk through with all of our vendors at the venue, and I am SO excited!!! We have the awesomest vendors ever (Grace Street Catering, Got Light, our dj Nigel and my planner Andrea).

Andrea totally talked me down, and made me feel totally on top of things (Thanks Andrea!!).

+I had my final meeting with our florist Mandy Scott. Love her. I can't wait to see her beautifullll flowers.

Probable flowers for boutonnieres:

+ I had an awesome craft party. Our friends came over and helped me to get some stuff done! It was so exciting to see my visions coming to life!

Before the party:

Stacy getting her sew onnn:

Lisa on a roll:

Amit and Casey cuttin it up (hyuck hyuck):

Apparently, I'm a circle cutting queen:

and, of course, we had some treats:

Sunday night wedding awesomeness (sneak preview of escort card awesomenesssss):

Lisa (GOD bless her) is making all our big bunting! Look! They are soooo beautiful:

and lastly, my fiance made us a yummy, yummy dinner:

whew. Life is good. :) Bright and Shiny.

Thanks to good friends, and good days, and great love. :)

Happy Monday-

Bridal Shower Awesomeness: Part 1

I'm a very lucky lady.

I have had two bridal showers over the past two weeks! And they were Epiccccc.

One was thrown by my local Friends of Honor, and another was hosted by my Grams and Aunt in the bama. 

Here are pictures from the first shower (I'll share Part II tomorrow). 

How can I sum up this awesome day?

Sunshine, laughter, great friends, great memories, filled with love.

So Grateful.

Committing to May

Oh May, do I have some goals for you.

Hang on to your panties friends, this month is going to be a whirlwind.

In the next 25 days before our wedding weekend kicks off, 

I am committing to:

+being kind and forgiving to myself if things don't go as planned or as usual this month. e.g. the blog may not be as well planned or reliable as it usually is. . . and that's ok.

+taking care of myself, i.e. getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, staying calm 

+getting in the elevator a lot. This is a metaphor that I came up with to help me focus my life from time to time. I've shared it with a few others, and I'm letting you in on its awesomeness. I like to imagine that I get in an elevator, actively close the doors (with my mind. ninjas can do that)  and then I control which buttons I choose to push, whether it goes up or down, or whether it just stays where it is. Most generally, I am the only one in the elevator (unless I'm playing blackjack with Lisa, in which case we might both be in the elevator).  I find that thinking about calming the world around me walking into the elevator and shutting out all other influence, truly reminding myself that I can choose how to act, react, speak, behave, (and sometimes, gasp) even feel is very empowering. When I'm getting in the elevator I like to take both of my arms (hands with palms flat facing me) and pull them together in front of my face as if they were the elevator doors (trust me. it helps).

+not being afraid to tackle sh*t. I am going to cross stuff off my to-do list like a champ and not be stressed by the number of things left on the list. I just can't.

+enjoying the ride. This is it. It's forever. I'm getting married to an amazing, amazing man, and I am going to enjoy every minute of this even if it kills me  because these are the days.

they really, really are.

 

Friday Favorites

I'm tired this week friends. Too much running and working (hard) and weddingweddingwedding. 

But my favorite things this week have been:

+This new maxi dress I bought for our honeymoon.

+A guy tried to steal my phone out of my hands, and I fought him AND WON. That's right. BOOYAH.

+These new sparkly toms I got for all of my Friends of Honor (bridesmaids) and myself (of course). :) I think I've finally got mine worn in.

+These three songs that keep popping up on Pandora:

    >Right Round by Flo Rida

    >Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine

    >Hold You In My Arms by Ray LaMontagne

+The excitement I am feeling about going to the Bama tomorrow for my bridal shower. I can't wait to see my family, meet Jori, see old friends, and relax. I've been joking I'm going to bring a bunch of DIY crafts with me and try to get volunteers on the plane to help!

+Finding my rehearsal day/dinner dress! Can't wait for you guys to see it.

+getting back on the rock climbing wall this week (with my new harness!!! best Registry item and wedding gift Evah)

+Loving my job (in spite of how crazy it is). You know those days where you work so long and so hard that you can't see straight afterwards but you still feel soooo awesome because you're being a rockstar? Yep. Having those all the time. Not good timing with this lil' wedding we're planning, but I can handle it. :)

Happy Friday Friends. 

See you on the flip side.

Keeping it Real: Wedding Count Down

We are 30 days out today ya'll. 30 days.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so ready to walk down the aisle towards my sweet better half. And I'm SO excited by all the AWESOME people that are coming to the wedding!!! We are so lucky you guys!!! We have lots of friends and family coming from far and near, and I can't wait to spend time with everyone!

So let me just give you a run down of the next four weeks:

>This weekend I'm headed to Birmingham, Alabama for a bridal shower thrown by my Grams and Aunt. SO excited. Check out the cute invitation:

>Next week I'm getting my hair cut, doing the final walk through at the venue, meeting with the florist, and having a craft party on Saturday (12th) where I'm hoping my friends can help me finish up our menus, programs (ceremony and reception), signage, and escort cards (eek! :). 

> The following weekend (19th) I'm heading back to the bama for my brother Andrew's graduation!!! So proud of you little brother!! and on Tuesday morning my mom (!) will be flying back with me, and we'll be in the official funcrazy mode. 

>The next weekend will be memorial day weekend (the weekend before the wedding!!!), and I'm going to have one more craft party on saturday to finish up any last minute projects with friends.

>and then we'll be walking down the aisle folks.

I. Can't. Wait. 

 

my new gel french mani (feeling bridal)

 

 

May 1st photo a day:

 

Peace

 

May 2nd photo a day:

 

skyline

 

whew. alright. happy Thursday friends. 

I want to send a special joyful shout out to my childhood Lydia who is getting married on Saturday!!! Wishing you the most amazing beautiful day ever. 

xo,
Mere 

Sail away with me: An Engagement story

Today's Wedding Wednesday isn't about me and V, it's about T & T!

My dear, dear friend Tiffany got engaged over the weekend. You better pull out your kleenex before reading any further, because it was swoonworthy.

All of her closest friends were in on the gig. Her sweetie had been planning the surprise for weeks. 

About five years ago they met on a sailboat called the Seaward and it was back in town on Saturday.

Little did she know, Tim had contacted all of us and asked us to plan to be there to witness the proposal. One of Tiffany's friends Karen made plans to hang out with her that day, but then literally two days before that, Tim emailed us all to say that they were having trouble filling up the sail.

He invited us all to come sailing (with Tiffany included on the email) even though we were all already committed.

Tiffany firmly believed that Tim had to work that day and wouldn't be able to join us.

A few hours before the sail (little did she know), Karen and I snuck onto the boat to adhere letters to the sail (at Tim's request and with his specific instructions). Here we are. The captain gave us MARGARITAS:

Concentration face! Can't mess up!!!

Here I am raising the sail after our lettering:

At that point, we pretty much felt like it was us that was proposing (!). I mean, we do love her that much:

So after this, we left the boat (made the captain and first mate swear they'd never met us), and then Tim snuck onto the boat and hid down below before anyone boarded.

Like I said, Tiffany thought he had to work and couldn't join us that day on the sail.

She had no idea he was on the boat!

Here's the two of us just chatting and hanging out as the boat left the harbor (I was trying to stay calm and distract her):

 

 But finally I had to convince her to raise the main sail. Mostly that involved me lying about wanting to do it but being scared and needing her help, so she just did it. She was so focused on raising the sail that she didn't look up at it until the very last moment:

and then Tim surprised her and appeared from behind:

and then it was just pure joy:

Tim told everyone about how they had met on that very boat five years before and how his life had been dramatically changed from that moment because he met her (=no dry eye):

and then he got down on one knee (please note our friend Andrew in the background freaking out):

and of course he had the ring on a lanyard until it got on her finger (just in case):

and then there was just pure happiness and lots of celebrating:

Oh and we might have taken a few goofy pictures post proposal once we got back on land:

I couldn't be happier for my dear, dear friend. I love you Fanny! It was an epic proposal and an epic day for an epic lady. I'm sooooo happy for you guys, and I can't wait to celebrate you more!

Love you guys so dearly,

Mere

 

*PHOTO CREDIT: With the exception of the first few shots and the last shot (all taken on my iphone), all the pictures were taken by Hilary Smith

Smart Girls WIN (my bachelorette)

If you haven't been reading, I spent the weekend with some of my closest girlfriends (and my awesome mom) in Las Vegas for my bachelorette. It's really too amazing for words, so I'll let our pictures speak for themselves.

EXCEPT for one small story.

Once night we were all playing blackjack, and some creepy dudes appeared. Like super creepy dudes. . . and at one point one of them leaned over the table and said,

"Ladies. I only have two words for you: 

    Group Orgy."

To which my two brilliant friends replied (almost in sync):

"That's redundant."

he said, "huh?" and they said, "well, obviously if it's an orgy it's with a group."

To which he cooly replied,

"Guys don't like smart girls."

This became one of our many cracks of the weekend.

And the truth is, people DO like smart girls dude. 

Oh, and guess what, Smart Girls WIN.

And the rest can really be summed up in mostly by pictures.

Waiting for the airport shuttle:

On the flight to Vegas:

 

Checking in and looking up:

Night 1:

You know, just me and the Elvises

Day 2. A little sunnin, a little sippin, a little downtown blackjack playin:

my lovely Matron of Honor

Lisa's classic vegas face

BGV and Shap

and day 3.  Thunder, Lighting, the way I love you is frightening.

"We had so much fun, our eyes turned into lasers! :)"-Lisa

I couldn't have imagined a more amazing, more epic bachelorette. I felt soooo lucky. and not just because we did so much WINNING.

Thank you to all of my ladies for making my bachelorette the. best. weekend. ever.

love you guys.

:)

DIY Sneak peak

Check out the amazing sign that my matron of honor Tino had made for me! Isn't it the BEST? We had it up in the room during my bachelorette shower (my friends threw me a lingerie shower while we were in Vegas!).

In case you might read this and get offended, don't.

We sorta say this a lot.

It's a sparkly green inside joke. :) You have to say it with Gusto.

I am going to keep it forever. Check out it's new home above our home bar:

The sign complemented champagne glasses I DIYed for the girls perfectly.  I'll share my step by step tutorial with you all soon, but for now here's a sneak peak:

I wrote each of the girl's names in the middle of the glasses in their favorite colors. I'm hoping we'll be able to use these on my wedding day too.

What do you think? Do you like them? I saw lots of these on etsy and other places, and I really wanted them (but they were way out of my budget). So I made them instead. They weren't perfect, but they were totally fun. :)

Happy Tuesday!

Bright and Shiny Monday

this weekend I 

+ was blown away by the awesomeness of my friends

+ was filled with gratitude for that awesomeness 

+ laughed so hard I cried about 20 times

+ danced like no one was watching (inside the Vegas eiffel tower)

+ basqued in the glorious feeling of being surrounded by friends who know you almost as well as you know yourself

+ felt so loved. And filled with love for friends and mom

+ won. A lot. 

+ sparkled.

+ could not have had a more awesome, more fun, more epic bachelorette party.

I'll share more pictures with you all tomorrow, but for now here's a shot of my happiness (and my new favorite dress):

 

Wedding Wednesday Updates

It is all wedding all the time around here, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it a little. My creative juices are flowing! We are six weeks out, and I can't wait to marry my better half.

Here's a sneak peak at the projects I've been working on lately:

Baby Bunting

My dear and much more talented friend Lisa has graciously offered to make the BIG bunting. Thank goodness. She is the best.

this is the before shot of our future card box!

 

Prototype of our AWESOME Reception book!

Window Sign Project

I can't wait to share with you guys the step by step transformations.

We've also recently been testing out wines for the big day. My old boss has been helping us to find the perfect red and white. I think we may have found the perfect white tonight. We love this one!

 

One of the next projects on the list is our song list! We want fun, upbeat danceable songs.

Do you have any recommendations?! Drop me a comment and let me know what you think are the must play Wedding songs.