Day 88 -- An Update

Only 88 days until the big day!!!!!!!

Last week Joe and I spent a TON of time on wedding planning. We narrowed down our options for our registries, we finalized our invitations, picked out the tuxedos, etc. We also got some work done on his house for when I move in. It's all so exciting!

Tonight, Allison, Amy and Ashley are all getting together with me for a bridesmaid night! I'm very excited, it should definitely be fun. It'll be great to share all our ideas and just generally hang out.

Day 100

Well, today is Day 100.

     I am so happy to be on this journey and I cannot wait to finally be married. It has been hard the past two and a half years living so far apart, but it will definitely be worth it in the long run. Despite the distance, things have been incredible so far; however, there are still some wedding plans that need to be finalized. We still need our cake and to finalize the invitations. Luckily, we have the invitations all picked out (except for the verse) and really just need to order them. As for the cake, that has been a tad bit more complicated. We are waiting for a call back from one bakery and looking at other options as well. A cake bar(I love this idea, they logs wouldn't work for my wedding, but I wish it did!), a cupcake bar and just a general dessert bar are all options.

   

My Dress

Visit the full blog at http://ashleyandjoe2012.blogspot.com/

      As pretty much anyone knows, the wedding dress is the most important thing to a bride- second only to the groom. I was extremely lucky and was able to get my dream dress on account of the generocity of Maggie Sottero. Back in 2011, Maggie Sottero hosted a contest called, "Love How YOU Fit," that required the contestants to take a look at themselves and write an essay discussing how they fit, as a person, in with their family, friends, and community. While discussing how we fit, we were also called to discuss how we came to terms with how we fit in our community. Around June 1st, 2011, Maggie Sottero announced its 10 winners and their essays.
     I was elated to discover that I was one of the winners. I had hoped and prayed, but I did not expect that I would actually win the choice of any Maggie Sottero dress!




So I went to the bridal shop....
     They were all SO beautiful. I had never expected to actually enjoy dress shopping. Knowing that I am not the skinniest person, I was afraid that every dress would look horrible on me and that the entire experience would be disheartening. I was so pleasantly surprised. Maggie Sottero's dresses have the incredible abilty to slim and give an amazing hourglass figure with their lace-up corset backs and the design of their dresses. My final line up of favorite dresses was: Primavera, Pasadena, Coco, Desirae, and my final choice which shall not be announced until after the wedding for fear of a snooping fiance.


Finally, I narrowed it between my dress and Desirae, and chose my dress. It was an extremely difficult decision, but I am very glad I made it.

Pre-100 Days before the Wedding

Visit the full blog at http://ashleyandjoe2012.blogspot.com/

 

I have no idea how time flew by so quickly, but there are only 101 days until my wedding today. When I found this out, I decided that I want to do something special every day for the next 100 days.

Once a month....
            I will send him a care-package containing cute things, snacks, random objects, etc.
Once a week....
            I will write a letter to Joe telling him how I feel, discussing wedding plans, and just saying  
            hello.
Once a day....
            I will send a positive and uplifting text message.

I'm really excited to see what comes of this and how I can continue to integrate this into our married life.

Why the sapphire?

      As many of you have noticed, I do not have the traditional diamond engagement ring (much to my fiance's displeasure). He likes the sparkle, I like the depth. There are a ton of reasons why I decided to nudge Joe in the direction of the sapphire, the first being tradition. Now, you're saying, "Wait, didn't she just say she didn't get the 'traditional' diamond engagement ring?' Well, yes, but I wanted to create a new tradition in my family. My mother's engagement ring had two sapphires surrounding a diamond. I fell in love with my mother's ring from a young age. It always fascinated me how they fit together (she too has an enhancer) and how it is so different from any other ring I had ever seen. Her's almost looks like a butterfly.
      The second reason is the meaning behind the stone. Not only is it significant that Joe and I met in September and the birthstone for September is sapphire, but the additional meanings behind sapphire really meant a lot to me. After doing some research, I found that sapphires have been "long associated with peace and happiness, and believed to help with communication, insight, intuition, inspiration, and prayer. The ancients believe that sapphires would help them in predicting the future" (http://www.gemselect.com/other-info/gemstone-meanings.php). I really love the aspects of peace, happiness, and improved communication. We know that many couples, no matter how close, can experience trouble with communication and I thought the sapphire would be an appropriate symbol of our dedication to attempt to put ourselves in each others' shoes and communicate our problems to the best of our abilities.
      My only complaint is that my sapphire does not like being photographed! It's camera shy.