Events leading up to the wedding!

It's about time I got around to blogging about my wedding, right?! I know most of you probably don't care and have already seen the photos on Facebook, but it's good for me to get my thoughts written down. My husband and father-in-law constantly tease me about my scrapbooking and need for photos. They always say that if it's not in a scrapbook, it didn't happen. And while that may seem quite the exaggeration, it's actually somewhat close to the truth for me. I have, I'm certain, the world's worst memory for details once a bit of time goes by. So I need to get this all down! :)

I want to preface the best day of my life by saying how much I love my wonderful husband. Marriage certainly isn't perfect, but neither are people. But it is most assuredly the most amazing blessing. David is such an amazing man, and I could not ask for a more loving, handsome or wise husband. He is the love of my life, and I'm so proud of him and proud to call him mine.

THURSDAY

We started off the festivities Thursday night for the bachelor and bachelorette parties! All of my bridesmaids made it to town in time! We started off at Kanki, one of my favorite restaurants. I don't have very many photos of the party, but I know some of the girls do! Here are a few cute ones I have from dinner — sadly I don't have photos of everyone!

Edith, Lindsey and me

Casey, Kelsey and Edith

After dinner we headed out into Crabtree Valley Mall for some photo games. Of course we had to stop at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert before heading out to City Limits for some dancing! It was amazing how many people paid attention to you when you're wearing a "Bachelorette" tiara and sash. I had men wanting to buy me drinks left and right, and several people gave me marital advice. Although, considering the source, I'm not too sure it was all that sound — rednecks at the local country watering hole ... ;)

I had an awesome time with my girls. They put together the perfect evening, and I could not have had a better time. I was truly lucky to have such wonderful women in my life.

FRIDAY

Friday morning was the bridesmaids' luncheon. I actually didn't take any photos at the luncheon, but my mother and Nicole did.

These were the little name cards I made for everyone.

The luncheon was at Caffe Luna in downtown Raleigh. It was so girly and perfect! The food was delicious. It was several courses, and everyone was able to choose from several different menu options. I think the best part was dessert ... some sort of chocolate cheesecake! It was such a wonderful setting, and I was able to give all of the ladies their gifts.

This is a view of some of the gifts. The bridesmaids got canvas bags filled with all sorts of things — candles, lotions, monogrammed towels, jewelry boxes with their names engraved. The flower girls each had little canvas bags with their names on them filled with treats for little girls. All of the other women in the families got the pink or orange bags filled with picture frames and candles.

I had a wonderful time honoring all of the women who had helped me through the whole planning process and who would come to be such a calming influence on the day of the wedding!

Nicole, me and Gauhara, Nicole's sister-in-law

Reagan and Bailey, my cousins who were the two flower girls, were so cute with their gifts. I'd gotten them these little fairy princess wands as part of their gift, and they were twirling around the cafe playing with the wands. There was one thing in their bags which won't mean much to them now, but I hope they will treasure it one day. I got them each a handkerchief with the following stitched into it:

"For Bailey/Reagan, my precious flower girl,

You are so very young, but the years will pass by and you too will be a bride in the blink of an eye.

You may not remember the day that I married, the part that you played or the flowers you carried.

But there will be a day that will burn bright like an ember.

The day you will wed, you will always remember.

So this is a hankie for the day that you'll say,

'I need something old for my wedding day.'

All my love, Your cousin, Ashley"

Friday evening was the rehearsal at the church ...

But that was just an excuse to have the rehearsal dinner at the Durham Bulls Ballpark!

My mother-in-law put together a spectacular evening, and we were SO blessed to have that unique setting! Everyone had such a blast. We were able to use the field ...

David and his brother and best man, Andrew

Use the batting cages ...

David shows his Major League swing

And use the jumbotron to play video slideshows I'd put together of the bridal party and David and me and also one in memory of David's grandfather, Bill Pollock.

Watching the video of David's grandfather — me, David, Andrew and one of the groomsmen, Steve

We had a wonderful evening! April Sirit, our photographer and owner of Evoke Photography, was able to come out to celebrate with us and capture all of these awesome shots. (I switched to a lower resolution on the rest of the photos, because Blogger was taking forever to load them.)

The wedding party — Back row: Andrew (best man), Eric (junior groomsman), Allison (junior bridesmaid), Andrea (bridesmaid), Kelsey (bridesmaid), Casey (bridesmaid), Lindsey (bridesmaid); Middle row: Steve R. (groomsman), Jake (groomsman), Kevin (groomsman), Nicole (maid of honor), Steve S. (groomsman); Front row: the bride and groom!

After the rehearsal dinner, several of the bridesmaids and their husbands and friends came back to the house to help put together the wedding programs! I had so much on my plate that I just hadn't had time to put them together myself. They were such a huge help, so thank you to Nicole, Edith, Kelsey and her husband Adam, Lindsey and her husband Johnathan, Casey, Andrea and Anna!

Right after they finished, they all pushed me to go to bed. I was so exhausted from such severe lack of sleep, that I don't even know how I was still conscious. I'm such a perfectionist, and I was doing so many things for the wedding that I literally got about 15 hours of sleep in the week leading up to my wedding! Not healthy, huh? I had always thought I would be awake most of the night before my wedding because I figured I'd be so excited I couldn't sleep. Not so with me! I got in bed and fell right to sleep, which is really what I needed. Of course I had to wake up early the next day, but it was so good being able to get so much more sleep than I had been getting.

**More to come!**

An Epic Failure

I open myself up to ridicule by posting this, but it's just so classically me, that I feel I can't not share it.

Evelyn, my store manager, and I were working through a "To-Do" list at the store today. We really needed more $1 bills, because we had about five of them left.

I've never done a bank run to make change before, so I was pretty excited to get to leave the store on the clock and run the errand.

So she handed me the $5 and $20 bills so I could trade them for ones. I put on my coat and headed outside.

I figured I had a 5-10 minute ride to the bank, so I decided to call Lindsey on my way since she'd called me last night.

We're chatting away and I'm beginning to get a little weirded out because I can't find my car. I always park in the same general place when I open the store, so I was starting to freak out because my car wasn't there. I walked around a little bit more, seriously concerned that I was losing my mind.

After about 4-5 minutes of searching, it dawned on me:

David and I carpooled today, and my car isn't even here! He drove!

Epic. Failure.

I sheepishly walked back into the store and told Evelyn what had happened. She could not stop laughing and promptly informed me I would never live that down.

Shattered Memento

Have you ever lost something and you felt really silly for being so upset that you lost it?

Last week when I was decorating our Christmas tree, our first tree in our home as a newly married couple, I dropped the one ornament that I was saving for the very middle of the front of the tree ... right at eye level. You know the place you save for your most treasured or beautiful ornaments?

I always get a souvenir of some sort whenever I go somewhere new. It's usually a t-shirt paired with something else. When David and I were on our honeymoon in Virgin Gorda, I bought a t-shirt and took a good bit of time thinking about what one souvenir I wanted to take home with me.

I knew it had to be locally-made, because what good is a souvenir of Virgin Gorda if it's made in China? The problem I kept running into was that everything was so expensive, so I wanted to be sure I picked the right thing that would be both useful and treasured.

My decision came down to a beautiful picture frame made of locally found shells, put together by a local artist (it was much more sophisticated than it sounds) or a Christmas tree ornament. They had several different designs on the ornaments, but I picked out this beautiful glass ball that had a palm tree with a winter scene in the background. It had some of that smooth, bubbly-type stuff that was "painted"? over it to make it shiny and glossy.

I was so excited about the ornament because I knew it was the right choice. David and I both love Christmas, and we love ornaments. His mom gets him a new Hallmark ornament every year, and I've always been a huge sucker for super-cute ones for the tree.

So as I pulled the price tag off of the ornament to hang it on the tree, it slipped, fell to the floor and shattered into literally hundreds of tiny pieces.

I stood there for a second and then just started repeating "Oh no!" over and over again. David ran into the kitchen asking if I was OK and which one had broken, but by the time he made it to me, I was in tears. I told him which one, and he knelt down and hugged me as I cried it out.

He told me that he'd call the resort the next morning and get them to send us a new one. That consoled me a little, knowing it would at least be here by Christmas.

He called, but they're so hesitant to send us one because with the distance it would travel, it would most assuredly break considering how fragile they are.

I know this sounds ridiculous that I've written this long and am this upset about losing it. But I just can't help but be devastated that I lost that one, because it just had so much meaning to me. That ornament, along with two others that David had specially made for me as part of my wedding gift, were the three most important things to be on that tree.

Maybe getting this all out on here will give me some sort of outlet so I can try not to be as upset by it now.

I'm fairly certain there's something amiss with me, considering I broke that ornament, bumped my head on my shelf containing all 30+ small Yankee jar candles and 5-6 sets of plates and shades which caused the shelf to fall and break all the plates/shades and several of the jars; not to mention the fact that I've consistently been breaking so many things at the store recently. Thankfully I'm not a waitress or I'd lose my tips in paying back the restaurant.

Maybe it's because I've been watching so much "Ghost Whisperer" recently. Maybe something's following me around ...

So this post took an odd turn at the end. But now that I think about it, I do feel better having gotten it out. I just so wish I hadn't broken that one. I guess I just have to keep in perspective that it really was just stuff. :-/

***I promise there will be a post about our wedding soon!***

Where's the palm tree?

Every time I tell someone that I work in retail, I inevitably get asked, "Have you ever had anyone steal anything?!"

My answer as of Monday morning was "No."

This woman didn't just swipe a tiny jar candle or a car jar.

This chick took the giant palm tree:

She walks in with a kid in a stroller and two older girls (maybe 7 and 8ish?) in tow. She asked me if the giant snowman ...

was for sale.

Me: "It is, but we're not allowed to sell the holiday props until after Thanksgiving. And unfortunately, it has already been claimed by another customer."

She responds, I suppose, but it wasn't memorable. She went towards the back of the store, and I moved on to help two other ladies who were trying to pick out some candles for a coupon. As I was ringing one of them up, or helping them somehow, the woman yells at her daughters to hurry up because they need to leave.

You know how some people stick in your mind because they just give you a super weird vibe? As she was walking out of the store, the woman just stared at me. Her face was super red, and she looked oddly guilty and weird. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but I remember being slightly weirded out by her as she left.

Anyway, after the ladies I was helping left, I looked over and the palm tree was ... gone. It was just gone. I mean, you can't misplace a 2.5-foot tall palm tree.

When my manager got off the phone, I told her it was missing. After scouring videotape footage, we saw her.

She wheeled the stroller around behind the display, picked up the palm tree, looked at it for a few seconds, walked around to the front of her stroller, picked the baby up out of the stroller and put the palm tree inside the stroller. During this whole time, her oldest daughter was moving things around in the back of the stroller.

Who does that with their children watching. Not only watching, but helping her!

So now when I get asked if I've ever seen anyone shoplift, I can honestly say that I have. Go figure that she'd take the palm tree.

The Ace, new friends and the Sox

David and I went to Baltimore last Saturday. He took me to my first Red Sox game! It's much cheaper than going to a game in Boston. :)

When we first got into town, I had to visit the Ace. The Ace of Cakes.


I watch "The Ace of Cakes" on the Food Network all the time. It's about this baker in Baltimore named Duff (he's the Ace) who runs Charm City Cakes. It's a super fun show, and I definitely wanted to see the bakery while I was in the city. We drove for about 20 blocks or so once we got off the highway and found it right in the middle of the hood.

They black out the windows with paper so you can't see inside since it's such a tourist place, I would imagine. Anyway, you should watch the show. :)

Unashamed of my mini photo shoot outside of the bakery, we headed back towards the ballpark and the inner harbor to meet up with David's friend Becka from college at Ithaca.

I experienced the most delicious dessert I have ever had at Pizzeria Uno. Sadly, I don't have a picture of it, but they baked this chocolate chip cookie in a wrought iron pan. It was super moist and they put ice cream and whipped cream on top of it. I'm fairly certain that and the pizza we ate contained more calories than I should've eaten in a month, but it was totally worth it.

So I made a new friend in Becka. I totally get why David's stayed so close to her since college. She's awesome, and we all had so much fun hanging out that day! Her sister, Emma, came and joined us at the end of lunch and then we walked around the city, killing time until the game.


We had so much fun! It was beautiful on the harbor that day. It was hot, but the breeze felt wonderful. Becka spotted a carousel, so of course we had to ride. David stood with the dads and took our picture.


Then it was GAME TIME!


We changed into our Red Sox gear. As an aside, I would like to point out that there were far more Red Sox fans than Baltimore Orioles fans there. I felt kind of bad for them considering it was their home. The ballpark was beautiful! We sat behind home plate in the third section above the field. It was far away, but the vantage point was actually quite good. We could really see all of the action!


Obviously, the Red Sox won! We had a fantastic day in Baltimore! It was so much fun spending time with David's friends, seeing the Ace and watching the Sox beat up on the Orioles!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered — They're yours!

The invitations have been mailed! Hours and hours after starting to address and assemble them, the invitations are finally sent!

Our guest list definitely grew and grew and grew. 244 people (not including children) and 127 invitations. We originally planned on 180-200 people. Ha! I know everyone won't come, but we'll definitely have more people than we planned. :)

I'm SO excited to start getting the RSVP cards back and finally have confirmation that people are coming to see us get married!!! I'm stoked to start my little collection of RSVP cards. :)

(That wasn't a plug-in to send in your RSVP cards, because I'm doing that now. If you got an invite, please let us know if you're coming! :) Thanks!)

We're getting married in 46 days!

"I wish I could have known you better."

Along with "I love you," these were the last words that David's grandfather said to me.

Me too, Pops. Me too. I wish I could have known you better, too.



From the first time I met you, you made me feel completely at ease and like a member of the family. You told me your stories from the war days. With such pride and a heart full of love, you told me so many stories about David and the times he spent with you growing up.

In the short time I knew you, I grew to love you like a grandfather. I saw in the first moments I spent with you how much you loved your family, especially your wife.

I'm glad your passing was peaceful today, but you are already missed. I know how much David loves you, and that makes it hurt even more. I'm so sad that you won't be there to see us married in October. I know how much you wanted to do everything you could to be there celebrating with us on that day. And on that day, you will be in our hearts. We are honored that you wanted David to wear your ring. Every time we look at it, we will remember you and how much you meant to everyone you knew.

I love you. I miss you. And I wish I could have known you better.

Smelling sweet

I'm working at Yankee Candle again. But this time, I'm one of the store managers! I'm still in training right now, and there's a lot to remember. I had no idea there was so much involved in being a manager. It's going to be great experience, though, and I'm really excited about it!

I'm at the same store that I worked at in college — The Streets at Southpoint. You should come visit me sometime at the store and smell all the nice, new scents! :)

The company is encouraging employees to find out people's favorite scents, so they have a small hutch in each store with the employees' favorite candles on it. So there is a Lemon Lavender candle up in our store with my name on it. :)


Do any of you have a favorite? :)

I'll be in training for another week and a half or so, so that means I'm working a lot of closing shifts. Closing the store is much more complicated than opening it, since you obviously have to count the money in both registers and make sure everything adds up and is ready for the next day.

Come visit me at the store! You know you want to. ;)

A beautiful start

Our new house is absolutely gorgeous! We're so blessed to have such a wonderful home!

I haven't posted pictures yet for two reasons: I wanted to get things straightened and set up a bit, and I also just realized my camera is broken. The screen on it is shattered, so I'm taking it in tomorrow to find out if it's worth it to fix the screen or if it would be more cost efficient to just get a new one.

Anyway, all of the web sites online have taken the photos of the house off since it's off the market. So Google maps is all I've got at the moment ...


That's our beautiful house!! :) If you can't tell, it's a pale yellow color. I wasn't crazy about it at first, but it's grown on me — I LOVE it now!

We were afraid we wouldn't be able to close on time because our mortgage lender was not cooperating! The night before we were supposed to close, they wanted "one last thing" that we provided for them at 9 a.m. the next morning. At 11 a.m., the closing time, we were at the attorney's office with our Realtor, and our packet of information hadn't arrived yet. No one bothered to call and tell us it wouldn't be on time.

Anyway, after about 45 minutes, we finally hear from our contact at the lender. He wanted "one more thing." So we drove to David's office, picked up the info and drove it over to the lender's office. We kind of tried to rush him along a little bit, but he didn't seem to be in any hurry.

At 2 p.m., there was still no packet. The lender said it might be by 2:30. We gave up about 2:45 and headed to the courthouse for David to close a case. At 3:15, the lender called for "one last thing." As David tried to explain to him the misleading meaning of "one last thing," the lender was still very unsympathetic.

It turns out that was actually the one last thing, since they got the closing papers at 4:30. We booked it down to the attorney's office and were able to fill out the paperwork by 6 p.m. Go figure! It was a day full of "We're closing!" "We're not closing." "We're closing!" "We're not closing." But in the end, everything went well, and we were able to get our perfect home!

I have been a painting fool in the past week! I have painted the large guest bedroom, primed and painted the small guest bedroom, painted the guest bathroom and primed the downstairs half bath.

Today, I tackled the impossible master bedroom! I am exhausted, but I finally made it through the walls in that room. The bedroom is huge, first of all. But second, the ceiling vaults from a standard 8-foot ceiling to a 12-foot ceiling. There's also a ledge about 11-feet high that I had to paint. We're still not sure what we're going to use to decorate it. This photo is similar to our ledge (this is not our house, just something similar) just to give you an idea what it looks like:



The room looks beautiful in the gray-blue paint to match our bedding set:



I'm so excited to set everything up! There are tons of boxes everywhere, and we're still not sure where all of our furniture will go, but we'll figure it out. As soon as I get a working camera, I'll take a few more photos of the rooms that are set, clean and ready to be seen! :)

I can't wait until after the wedding when I can live there, too! It's hard setting everything up all day and then leaving in the evening. :) David's staying in the house before the wedding.

We can't wait for you all to come see it!

A quick thank you

I know that I've made a big deal about this on Facebook, but I thought it deserved a blog post as well.

Nicole and Kelsey threw me a lovely bridal shower on July 18! We had 10 people there, I think. Nicole's parents were in town, so her mother was able to come. Her sister-in-law also had just arrived back in the States from a while on the mission field.

Despite already committing the day to her friend, Lindsey was able to come as well, since she was already up this way.

David's mother was there, despite getting some sad news regarding her father's health on the way there.

My mom, grandmother and one of my aunts (Karen), also came!

The girls did such a great job, and everything was so cute! They had everything laid out in pink, orange and brown, the three wedding colors! The punch was delicious, and there was a ton of yummy snacks!


I love these girls! I'm so thankful for my bridal party. They have been such a huge help considering I frequently need help deciding things about the wedding and trying to figure out what to do for certain things. Kelsey provides a unique perspective considering she just went through this herself last month. Lindsey got married a couple years ago, so everything is still very fresh for her, too. And Nicole knows me better than I probably know myself, so that's a huge help! Thank you ladies for all of your help and for the shower. I love you so much! And for the girls who weren't able to come, I missed you and can't WAIT to see you soon!

Anyway, there has been a lot going on the past month. David and I just bought a house, so there will be more on that just as soon as I can grab a picture!