Count Down Begins...

Officially as of today we have 2 months and 30 days til our wedding! Ahhhhh.... I'm so excited :)

Mrs. April Noel Reynolds- has a nice ring to it, eh?

I can't believe its Monday already, literally this weekend flew by and those aren't my favorite weekends. I'm hoping next weekend I can take 3 of my bridesmaids to try on their dresses so we can get things squared away with that. Have to check on my sisters Basketball schedule though, she plays church league.

We picked out our wedding bands this weekend and I'm sad to say that we didn't take ANY pictures. People have started to receive the Save the Dates and Sheila is working on the invitations now! Only a few things left to sure up! Slowly my list is getting smaller....

• Invitations printed and mailed
• Pictures printed for Guest Book
• Ribbon for flowers
• Tiki Torches
• DJ
• Programs
• Food
• Beverages
• Flatware and Plates and Cups

Happy Monday to you all!

Apple

Today I miss my MacBook. And Adobe. And the sounds associated with Mac's. I can't believe it's almost been a year since she died on me.

No News on the wedding front today. I think the cupcake papers came in the mail today. I special ordered them on sale from Amazon. We're going wedding band shopping on Saturday, I'm pumped! Praise the Lord tomorrow is Friday, this week has been crazy.

Ooo so food documentaion:
1 Bowl of Vanilla Almond Special K  for breakfast and luch: 240 Calories
Diet Cranberry Juice from Ocean Spray: 10 Calories
13 Cheeze Its: 75 Calories (ridiculous huh?)
Strawberry Cereal Bar: 90 Calories
Total so far for today: 415 Carlories, and then dinner will be about 400, I'm guessing. I need to find a Calorie Calculator. I'm making Lemon Peppered Talapia, Steamed Broccoli and mashed potatoes only because they're going bad.

Hmm...

Good afternoon bloggers!

Today has been the wierdest day in a while. I went for my second fitting on my wedding dress. Let's just say I was super disappointed. No one really told me you had to go to multiple fittings before you had the 'perfect fit.' So therefore I stressed A LOT during the fitting....

Because the fitting went badly and because I'm taking a cue from two of my close friends, I'm going to start documenting what I eat and watch calories and try to work out for at least 30 minutes a day starting tomorrow morning. Hold me to it please. I need to be in shape for our wedding, for my own health and so I can look half way decent in a bathing suit for our honeymoon! Try to hold me accountable if you can bloggers :) J and I are headed grocery shopping tonight, so WalMart bring on the healthy food!

My friend Sheila is documenting her cravings and I think it helps, so I'm going to try that too. Check out her blog!

Check out this cool wine rack I found on Etsy- I wish there would be some place in our house we could put this. I don't think it will go with our style, sad day.

Dark

So, I went to my hairstylist today and we did something a little drastic. I usually always have blonde highlights in my hair but in the past few weeks I've noticed how terrible it has started to look expecially since I no longer have my summer tan and I'm as pale as can be.

Whelp. This is the outcome and although its darker than I ever would have imagined, I really like it. Shea say's it will lighten up in the next week and if not we can fix it. So, I haven't told J yet. We'll see how he reacts tonight when I see him, fingers crossed. He loves my highlighted hair.

So bloggers what do you think of the 'winter' look as Meredith said?

**Please disregaurd the glasses. I'm STILL having issues with my eyes.

I'm headed back to the doctor this afternoon.

The Save the Dates are supposed to be at the house right now, so I'm pretty sure thats what my evening will consists of is addressing them. Fingers crossed they're here so I can FINALLY send them out.

OMG

I just stumbled on this and I'm thinking of getting it, not sure how I would use it for the wedding but it goes with our theme completely! Its only $5 plus shipping, wow. I'm thinking of getting us a return address stamp with our new address on it too--- ekkk, so excited!

I love Etsy.com- click here to check it out!

Another winter day

I'm so ready spring bloggers, it means we'll be that much closer to the wedding! They're calling for snow again I THINK for tonight, I'm not enthused because if its bad and I can't drive to work I'll have to take another vacation day.

We officially signed the contract on the house on Saturday afternoon and Dad turned it in today, so pending the home inspection and the loan we are good to go. The closing date is March 11, I'm praying we can make it earlier than that. I just want to get started on painting and moving things in and gettings things set up all before the wedding so we don't have to bother with it then, even though I'm not moving in til the week after the honeymoon.

My college girlfriends came into town for my belated birthday party on Friday night, they surprised me and told me they weren't coming and then just showed up. Love them! We went to Red Bowl and Pub House in Rock Hill and then J came and picked us up just to be safe, love him :)

Wedding news: I finally was able to pick up my hair piece for the wedding and and I have an appointment tomorrow to get my hair dyed so I'm going to see if Shea can start playing around with my hair afterwards so we can figure out what we're going to do with it.

• The save the dates have shipped and I'll be sending them out by the end of the week!
• We found rental chairs at Gala Affairs in Rock Hill for the ceremony for a great price, thanks to our wonderful wedding planner!
• J finally picked out the tux's from the Men's Shop in York. We've decided to go with a grey/silver tux, I'm so excited about them!
• Our marriage counseling book came in this moring along with the double faced satin ribbon from Amazon that I ordered last week. I'm very happy with my purchase from them! Amazon is definatly the way to order things, I got 100 yards of ribbon for only $10 including shipping.

Buddy dog thought he was the king when I asked him why he was in my spot last night. He got shots this morning and was a big baby on the way home, all curled up to me and he didn't want me to leave him. He

weighs 25 now, he's getting so big so quickly. It's amazing how much he's changed since we got him in Nov.

Sneak Peak

Well, I couldn't hold it in. The baker called and we changed our minds about one of the flavors for the cupcakes that will be at the wedding and she had me come by and sample. They are GORGEOUS and so tasty! This is just one of three flavors we will serve at the wedding.

Dark Chocolate cupcake and Orange Buttercream Frosting with candied Orange Peels on top

Yummy!

Oooo and unofficially, we have come to an agreement with the bank and the house is ours! Now we're just waiting on the paperwork to come through!



An acute view

The past week or so I've really been having issues with my eyes. I've mentioned it in previous posts, well I had a follow up appointment yesterday and Dr. Oliver dilated my eyes and said things were back to normal and I could start wearing contacts again. Well, today I put in my trial contacts and there is an issue with them so I'm on the phone now trying to see if Dr. Oliver can see me again today. My eye is bloodshot and itchy and its like there is a dry spot on the center of my contact that WON'T go away.

J was a little freaked out when I text him this picture yesterday.

I went to the post office near the Rock Hill Airport today to pick up my hair piece for the wedding and they gave me the wrong post office to pick them up ugh. So I have to wait til this afternoon in order to pick up my certified package. Ugh, the postal service is failing me today. The lady at the post office said to give the downtown Rock Hill post office a piece of my mind! Ha.

Still waiting to hear back from the Bank about the house, fingers crossed still!

Red is coming in to town this tonight and she and I and Stephanie and Rach are going out for my late birthday party with the girls! I'm super excited!

First Encounter

Well, there were a lot of first's yesterday....
I went to dinner with my wedding planner last night at Chili's. I love Missy, she's the best wedding planner I could have asked for! We went through my spreadsheet to figure out what was left to purchase, price quote and brain storm for favors for the older crowd.  We only have a few things left to pay for since I've been paying for everything slowly since October in my weekly spending money. Ladies- this is the best advice I can give: Make a list of what you need and then search for it and spend a little each week that way it doesn't all hit you hard at the end.

Things left to take care of:

• DJ- Missy is calling around getting quotes today
• Food- Missy is calling her US Foods guy to make sure they have what we want avaliable and an estimate
• Chairs for the ceremony- Missy is calling for a quote from Gala Affairs, but we won't know for sure how many til we get the RSVP's
• Tux- I MUST get J over to see Mr. Ronnie at the Men's Shop
• Rings- We're going next weekend to wrap this up
• Plates, Cups and Silverware- Missy and I are going on a shopping to trip to Sam's, I'll report back after to let you know about all the savings :)
• Drink Servers- Sam's
• Alcohol- $2 buck Chuck from Trader Joes and Bud Light cases
• Hay Bale's and covers
• Mail out the Save the Dates
• Bridal Portraits- March 4th
• Order Invitations and mail out

It probably looks ridiculously long to you bloggers huh? BUT if you were able to see my list of things to do way back in October you would be astounded at how much I've accomplished and its only January 20th. I'm very proud of myself. Missy seemed impressed at how much I have done.

Anyways, I went for my first dress fitting yesterday with Mrs. Eleanor in Ft. Mill. There's a whole lot of dress for her to take off since I'm basically one of the shortest people around. I'm going back for a refit next week at the same time. Mom asked her about the price and she said it would be $50... I was SHOCKED! The store where I bought my dress from said it would be $200 plus more for something I wanted to change on the dress but have since decided to keep. This is another way that God is providing savings for us with our wedding and I am so thankful He takes care of us! I'll keep you posted on the progress of the dress and Mrs. Eleanor's phone number for any of you that might need her services in the future.

J and I have officially had our first dealings with the bank for the house as of 9:30 last night. They countered our offer, which was expected and after chatting with Dad and looking over the previous inspection report, we have countered the offer again. Fingers crossed! I'm hoping that will just accept this offer :) I'm praying hard but honestly, I've left it in the Lord's hands!

24

Whelp. I turned 24 on Sunday and honestly, it felt no different than the day before. J bought me some beautiful roses that morning and threw me a dinner party with all of our friends who could make it at Outback that night. He told me last night he bought me yellow since I'm his best friend, what a sweetie.

Friday night, went out with some friends and went bowling and I bowled my very best game- a 126 (I'm listed as May, har har) I was super proud of myself. Although J, refered to on the score board as Jerm still beat me by 2 points.

Mom and I went and met with the baker for the wedding cake and we came up with some glorius ideas that are not only ridiculously amazing and will look fantastic but cheap as well. The baker is letting me make all of the cupcakes and she is going to ice them and make our cake topper! The price for this is more than 1/2 off! I'm leaving the details of the cupcakes a secret until after the wedding :) Lets just say there will be a variety!

I ordered our marriage counseling book yesterday it should be in the mail by the end of the week. I got it off of Amazon.com for $11.99 its called, "Getting Ready for Marriage Workbook." We're supposed to go through it and then meet with Dennis, our officiant again atleast twice before the wedding to talk through things that we might have issues with, work out the ceremony and pray, pray pray!

Last night and today I definatly felt more like a 24 year because officially, as of this morning J and I put in an offer on a house here in the Thrill. I was freakin out nervous while driving away from our showing yesterday, praying constantly asking God if this is what he wanted, to please give us wisdom to know how to handle this situation and to please bless it if this is of him. Lots of tears went down on the car ride to meet J for dinner to discuss what we wanted to do and then this Aaron Shust song came on and I was at peace, praise the Lord!

I am not skilled to understand

What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior

I take Him at His word and deed
Christ died to save me; this I read
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my savior

My Savior loves, My Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God: He was, my God; He is
My God is always gonna be

Yes, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring;
That He who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior

That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

Those first few lines of the song really sunk in, as a human I really am not skilled to understand what God has willed or what he has in store for me. I know for sure that with our house situation, I don't know the outcome but I do trust my God and I know that what he has planned is way better than what I ever can imagine! I've learned this so many times as God continually shows me that I AM NOT IN CONTROL, HE IS.

TGI FRIDAY

I am beyond thrilled that it is Friday! This has seemed like the longest week, especially with the ice and snow. Work has been slow because of the weather, and in general as well. I'm praying that it will get better.

So, at my eye appointment yesterday Dr. Oliver said I have Cornea Edema. And according to Google this is what it is:

Corneal edema is caused by the problems related to dehydration, viral infections, endothelial disorder, ocular surgery, traumatic injury, increased ocular pressure and at times, toxins.

And since this has caused the fog in my eyes to appear, Dr. Oliver said I cannot wear contacts for atleast a week and I have to constantly keep my eyes hydrated. So I'm a four eyes for the next week!

Wedding news: We received our ceramic disc in the mail yesterday and I couldn't be more pleased with it! J was super pumped about it since it will serve a dual purpose as a ring bearer plate and for our future Christmas tree :)

Tomorrow we are going to visit a few homes that we are interested in Rock Hill! I'm very excited and hopeing that things work out for us to buy a place. Prayers are appreciated!

Blah Thursday

I'm headed to the eye doctor this afternoon for an emergency appointment since there seems to be a cloud in front of my eyes regardless of whether I have my contacts or glasses on. Hopefully Dr. James can help me figure it out!

Today is a weird day. I'm tired of a lot of things, especially work. I'm loosing motivation to work at all and I'm frustrated with other things as well, I'm hoping for some encouragement. I need this ice to thaw out so I can back to normal.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him."
-Ecclesiastes 3

Not much to report on the wedding front except I need some help deciding on songs for the ceremony and for our first dance, thoughts? I'm thinking something country.... hmmmm....

WAIT!

I forgot, we booked our honeymoon! We're going to Kissimee, FL and staying for a week and going to Disney World! I'm pumped :)

My boys

Happy Hump Day Bloggers!
My two loves Monday during the snow/ice blizzard of 2011!

Buddy keeps on sliding around the ice when he has to pee, its really funny.

We got our Koozies in the mail from Koozie Revolution on Ebay and I am super impressed and very pleased with them! We got 50 custom printed for $50 including shipping, which is fantastic! I was looking at other places for JUST koozies with no customization for wayyyyy more, which is ridiculous! We definately got our money's worth for them which is great! I only ordered 50 since I know that many of the older people won't be taking them home.

______________________________________________________________________

Edit: Well, officially I've ordered our Save the Dates and I couldn't be happier with them! They should be here next week and I'll be mailing them out as soon as we get them in, I'm so excited :) Things are starting to get official! We ordered 100 of them off of Prints Made Easy for only $35.00 including shipping. Check them out, they do a whole lot more than just print Post Cards. If you haven't already sent me your address please send it to me below in the comments field.

Registration

Happy Snow Day to all you bloggers who are out of work today due to driving conditions! I, unfortunately, am at work and tomorrow I am taking a vacation day in order to have tomorrow off, this sucks. J and Buddy drove me to work this morning and dropped me off and now I'm trying to finish up all my paper work this morning and go to lunch at Mom and Dad's since Mom is making chili for lunch. All this paper work is great to do while catching up on my ABC TV show's from this past week that I misses aka Cougar Town and Private Practice.

J slept on the floor of my office for a bit before decideding to go play with my brother in the snow.

In other news we went to Target this weekend to register which was supser fun til their network went down and we couldn't finish registering. I didn't realize how much stuff you need to register for either but it was so fun while it lasted. We'll be finishing up this coming weekend I think, well, on second thought maybe not since its my BIRTHDAY weekend!

 After the network meltdown at Target, J and I went to his favorite Panera to eat some lunch and of course took a few pictures in the car. He must love me because he's not the biggest fan of pictures.

We met with our wedding officiant this weekend as well and he suggested a book that we go through before we schedule another appointment with him. It was a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to talking things out with J before the big to make sure we're on the same page. This probably sounds like we don't already talk things out but I promise we do, Dennis was actually impressed with how many things we've already dicussed. But for me, marriage counseling is a very necessary thing.

Well, back to work for me. Prayerfully the rest of the day will go swimmingly in the snow!

'Cabs are here!!'

Last night my roommate and I threw a Jersey Shore 3 Premiere Party. Yes, yes I know we are classy individuals :) The party was so fun! 've never thrown or been to a themed party but it went off without a hitch. I made an Italian family style dinner for the for everyone who came that consisted of meatballs, marinara sauce, noodles and the roommate made garlic bread. Since I've been on the hunt for the perfect cupcake for our wedding I ended up finding some great recipes online and I decided to try a few and the outcome was incredible, I'm pretty proud of myself!

Behold my culinary creations, as to go with the themed party I wanted to make cupcakes based on drinks! If you're interested in the recipes just let me know.

Lime Margarita Cupcakes

AND Strawberries and Champagne Cupcakes (these were my favorites)

I even tweaked the recipe on this one and it came out even better!

In other news, its been a long process but the Honda is officially in my name and as soon as its paid off I'll be getting the title too. I feel so grown up to have a car in my own name! Ha. This also means I have to get my own insurance policy, fingers crossed it won't be too, too expensive!

I know this post had nothing to do with the wedding, but honestly my whole life can't about the wedding! Although we did discuss the honeymoon last night and HOLY COW are they expensive, I'd rather save the money for something else. We'll see what J pulls out of his sleeve, he tends to spoil me in that way. 

Have a good weekend!



Sugary Decisions

Bloggers, I am in need of your assistance! My mom and I are going to meet with the Baker next week to discuss the cupcakes at the wedding and I'm at a loss for what I want them to look like or taste like. I've been scouring the Internet look at designs and recently I came across Cupcakes Take the Cake , the most unbelievable cupcakes I've ever seen and they include recipes too. Since stalking their site, I've come across a few ideas but I haven't really narrowed it down. When I asked J what kind of cake he wanted he said, "Rainbow chip!" He's a classy guy what can I say?

I love the smooth frosting on these

I'm such a sucker for Strawberries I love this

These are adorable but I think they'll be out of our price range...

Red Velvet was J's second choice and I love the way this looks!

This is probably my favorite. Isn't it gorgeous?! And look multiple flavors and a variety of techniques for frosting the cupcakes. BUT would my gigantic R look good on top of an extra large cupcake?

So, let me hear from you! Are mini cupcakes the way to go? What flavors are best for a wedding? Should we have a giant cupcake as a topper for J and myself? Should we have more than one flavor? Decisions, decisions...

24 months

Happy 2 Years to me and J!

Looking back...

I sure to do love him! Can't wait to see what the rest of our lives hold, especially as husband and wife :) 

April 30, hurry up and get here!

Dot.Com

In the past year, I have become completely obsessed shopping online for many reason but the main reason is that I can find everything I need all at the click of a mouse and most times at a cheaper price than I can find by hauling my tail around town looking for it. I bet that sounds lazy huh? I call it frugal.

Since I started wedding planning in October I have come across some major inexpensive finds online that have really helped our very small budget for our wedding and I'm proud to share them with you bloggers!

Etsy
Can I get an Amen for handmade, customizable items at a fraction of what you would pay in stores? AMEN.

I had been struggling to find something for my brother to carry our rings in on and then on Saturday I discovered this. Its a Ceramic Disc with an 'R' on it and the Etsy store Aphrodites Canvas I'm buying it from is making it all silver instead of black. After the wedding we can use it on our Christmas Tree!

This was one of my first purchases after our engagement. I bought it in silver from Affordable Cake Toppers on Etsy, and they are some of the nicest people to work with. The first cake topper that came in was broken and they shipped me a replacement within days of my email to them, that's what I call customer service!

I also purchased the 'non' veil from Etsy, but at the risk of J seeing it I'm with holding the picture for now :)

6pm.com

Ladies, if you're looking for designer shoes for 1/2 the price check out this incredible website! As soon as I foudn my dress I started looking for shoes and I came across the most perfect shoes ever but they were over $100 where I originally found them and after much searching, Google rendered me 6pm.com where I found the shoes at $60 including shipping! I wish I could post pictures, but J doesn't want to see anything I'm wearing til the day of and there's chance he'll stalk this site a bit. No worries, after the wedding I'll be posting everything!

Amazon

Amazon is what started my online shopping transformation. So far from Amazon, I've bought Candles with Holders for center pieces, Wine Bottle Candleabra's for center pieces, Sparklers for our exit and Hanging Crystals for center pieces all for under $160.00

Whelp, I'm going to get back to work for today. All of the wedding buzz is killing my drive to work, ha. Headed the Dermotologist in the next hour and then back here to crunch numbers for Q1, better known as 1st Quarter of the year. Shoot me now.

Love, A.

Getting Started

A ton of incredible things happened for us in 2010 as boyfriend and girlfirend and later on as an engaged couple (please check out Her Two Cents for the full proposal story), the Lord truly blessed this past year and I can't wait to see what 2011 holds. I know one of biggest days of our lives happens this year, aka we are getting married!!

Here's a few things I decided on in 2010 for the wedding:

• Casual Outdoor/ Barn Wedding in SC
• Concord Grape and Burnt Orange
• Including the ring bearer and flower girl there are 18 people in our wedding party
• Brett Seay Photography

Glimpse of our Engagement Pictures from Brett Seay Photography , She's freakin' incredible!

More to come tomorrow bloggers. Have a good Monday night, I'm going grocery shopping!