|  First, let me begin with my bachelorette party since I never wrote about it... В It was one of the best times of my life. В Tabatha, Bridget, Michelle, and I drove the 6 hours back and forth to the Epicentre at Charlotte, NC, and it was totally worth it. В We didn't drink a lot the first night; we just got dinner, had a few drinks, took hilarious photos with the security there, and made our way back to our room. В The second night we were there though, was truly an adventure. В It was our own version of The Hangover. В Several guys danced around us, one guy got in Michelle's face because she was dancing near him, and we all jumped to her protection, Tabatha picked women up and put them on the stage for Lord knows how long, Tabatha also took over the microphone for Warrant's "Cherry Pie," got on the piano, and found an Aldo shoe that she was determined to find the owner of. В We made all sorts of new friends, took pictures with everyone (including a guy in white cotton panties sitting in the hallway of our hotel building), shared an endless bag of popcorn, Michelle threw up in a trash can, and I laughed on the floor of our hotel bathroom for a good 20 minutes. В It was soooo much fun, and all caught in photographs. В I think the IHOP we got the morning after, before making the drive back to VA, was the best meal of my life. В I'm so thankful to have such amazing friends. В They went out of their way for me and created memories for a lifetime. Now onto the wedding that was LAST NIGHT. В I apologize for the ceremony starting late. В I had trouble getting into my wedding dress, and it took a 5 woman crew to get me into it. В I knew that might be a problem, but somehow we managed it. В I thought the ceremony was beautiful, and of course, I cried. В The sunset was amazing, and I think all of our pictures will be gorgeous because of the backdrop of water, trees, and the setting sun. В I thought the food was amazing, as well as the cake, and the drinks were definitely strong. В The DJ played all the songs that we wanted played, and there was definitely some major dancing going on. В I know several people were buzzed, if not drunk, and I'm glad they were having such a great time. В I just finished going through the photobooth album a few minutes ago, and it's so hilarious... I'm so happy we decided to do that. В We have so much leftover cake it's ridiculous, and it's so delicious that I fear I won't be able to say "no," and I'll gain 10 lbs. this week. В Our first dance wasn't as perfect as it could have been, but I still thought it went pretty well. В To be honest, I had so much fun and feel so lucky that I got to spend it with so many of my loved ones... I may be biased, but I think we had the best wedding EVER. В I couldn't be happier with the way everything turned out. В The ceremony was beautiful, I know we'll have beautiful pictures and video, the food was delicious, the cake was delicious, the photobooth was a hit, and everything was within our budget! В It feels weird now to say I'm officially a "married woman," but I honestly couldn't be any happier. I may have gone through a lot planning this thing, but everyone was right. В It was 100% worth it. В Totally and completely worth it. I'm so blessed and lucky to now call myself Amber Loren Forehand-Hughes.  I can remember a year, maybe a year and a half ago, when Donald and I finally had set our date and began saving for our big day. I had thought that it would still feel like forever before we were actually husband and wife. To be honest though, the time has flown by. Only 15 days, and we'll be married. Part of me doesn't even feel like it's really happening. This morning I got checks in the mail to the photographer, videographer, florist, and DJ. They're all officially paid off. Yesterday I paid off the photobooth rental. In fact, everything is paid for except the gifts to our parents, the gift to the officiant, my manicure/pedicure/hair appointment, our marriage license, about $50 worth of decor, our rehearsal outfits, the rehearsal dinner, and the final payment to the venue. All of that is because I have to pay for it when it happens (like the hair appointment and rehearsal dinner), we haven't determined our final count for the venue yet, and I still have to pick up our parents' gifts, our rehearsal outfits, and the rest of the decor. Still, there isn't much left to do. I also have to pick out my wedding undergarment, compile the list of songs and put them on CDs, piece the wedding favors together, pick out the passages we want read, go over and edit our wedding vows, and attend our last dance lesson. I'm extremely excited that financially we were able to handle all of this. Our wedding is going to be way bigger and way grander than I believe either of us ever imagined it to be, but... we're only getting married once. We've encountered some obstacles as we saved--wrecking my car, having to buy a new one, problems with Donald's car, medical bills, etc.--but, we have managed to make it work regardless. I don't think there is a single thing either of us really wanted that we had to just settle on. It's going to be amazing, and the happiest day of our lives. Donald and I have been so happy lately. We're not even married yet, but it feels like we're on our honeymoon. After 8 years, and being ready for this since I was 17 and he was 18, it feels great to think we are making the final commitment to be each other's forever. I know I've probably said it a billion times, but I've never been so sure of anything in my entire life. There is no anxiety (other than the minimal 'I hope this all goes right'), just happiness that we're so blessed to be able to share our vows with each other with the amazing family and friends that are capable of being there. I feel blessed to be able to have this whole experience--the wedding, the people, the good food, good drinks, good music... and oh yeah, the love of my life. We were able to invite everyone on our original guest list. That's right... I was all anxious about our wedding count, and we were able to invite about 175 and still have the count under 150 because of those unable to attend. Right now, based on response cards, we have 78 attending and 33 unable to attend. That means if every single person left that needs to RSVP responds that they will be there, there would only be 142 people total. That means I'm going to have to start making phone calls next week to pester people. Still, knowing that there will only be 142 guests at most puts me at ease because I know we can afford the party, I know we'll have enough room, AND I can make sure that our DJ, photographer, videographer, and photobooth attendees are able to get some food as well. Like I said, no more anxiety, just happiness and excitement. -Amber  I cannot believe that it's less than a month until our wedding day. It feels like just last week I was writing my first entry in this blog and freaking out about narrowing down our wedding guest list. Now all the minute details, ordering, and last meetings are in sight. It's coming together... quickly. This Wednesday Donald and I ordered our wedding bands. They are both gorgeous, and I have to say (though I may be biased) that Donald's ring is quite possibly the most gorgeous man's ring I've ever seen. I think it's perfect, and I'm so glad that he found "the one." In order to make my engagement ring look as spectacular as it was when I first got it 6 years and 9 months ago, it had to be sent away to be replated. I had a breakdown as I gave up my ring. I haven't taken it off for any longer than the duration of a shower the entire time I've had it. Now I'm ringless, and it feels weird. I'm constantly reaching for it and panicking for a split second as I realize it's not there and then calming as I realize why it's not there. We've already had our last marriage counseling session, and Pastor Dwight is ready for our ceremony. I think he really likes the idea of our different take on the unity portion, and our first revision of the classic marriage vows. We still have a lot to talk about and discuss in regard to our wedding vows. I think finalizing those and figuring out what passages we want read during the ceremony may be the hardest things in our near future. Our guest list (with my knowledge of who has already said that they're not coming) is actually under 150 now, which is a total relief. We still have a lot of RSVPs to receive though. We're hoping to invite 8 more people, but don't want to risk going over our absolute limit of 150 established by the wedding coordinator at the venue. Hopefully it'll all work out; I have faith that it will. The people that mean the most to us I know will be there and be ready to celebrate. When I went to a friend's baby shower last weekend, I had another friend tell me, right before I left, "The next time I see you... you'll be in a white dress!" My heart leaped. I think it might've been the first time I haven't been just on autopilot but took the time to recognize that this is all real and actually happening. I liked the feeling, and now I'm feeling it constantly. I never knew that it would be this spastic at this point. With working full-time, taking 2 graduate school classes, trying to finish the details of the wedding, and squeezing in the occasional gym time, I feel like I have no time. No time to relax and barely any time to sleep. In the past week, I'm pretty sure I've only gotten 5 hours (if that) of sleep each night, and it's not over yet. Because it's the end of the fiscal year and contracting is crazy in September, I'm working overtime this weekend. No sleeping in for me then either! Today I have to pay off the deposit at Flour Child Bakery, tomorrow I have to go to my hair trial appointment, Monday Donald and I are getting our teeth whitened, and Wednesday I go to my first dress fitting. The Monday after that I meet with the new wedding coordinator to double check all the details because the other wedding coordinator left the venue, and then it's bachelor party weekend, bachelorette party weekend, last dance lesson, and BAM! OUR WEDDING! Of the RSVPs we have already received, I must say we have had some pretty hilarious song suggestions. I can't wait for us to receive more. I can't wait for the big day, and I can't wait to get a good night's rest... hahaha. -Amber  Time flies by so fast; I can't believe it's only 46 days until our wedding day. I finished writing all of the thank you cards for the wedding shower over the weekend. I think that's a pretty impressive feat to accomplish in between all of Donald's birthday festivities. I feel like I should've had them done sooner, way sooner, but somehow I completely forgot about them in the midst of Hurricane Irene and the first week back to school. I apologize, and Donald and I still definitely cherish everyone's time, effort, and generosity that was put forth for our shower. Hopefully I'll get stamps this evening and get them in the mail tonight or tomorrow morning. We ordered our wedding invitations last Friday. I'm so excited about them and believe they'll be perfect. The hardest part was trying to figure out what quote to have at the top of the invitation. A song lyric, a line of a poem? What fits us, our relationship, is rather short, and not generic? We went with a movie quote... one that's somewhat quirky, somewhat funny, and (believe-it-or-not) sentimental to our relationship. I think everyone will get a kick out of it, and I'll share it publicly once the invitations are mailed out. This upcoming weekend I hope to order all the decor, wedding party gifts, and wedding favors. I've had it all picked out forever ago, but I've just been waiting for the right time financially to purchase it all. I also hope we get a chance to look at wedding rings this weekend as well. I want a wedding ring with some bling on it--something different than the traditional band. It's funny how a few years ago, I couldn't imagine myself wearing any jewelry, now I'm BFFs with diamonds. Diamond rings? Diamond earrings? Diamond necklaces? Sure, yes, I would like them all please. I don't want to spend too much on our wedding bands though, because I know after it's all said and done, we'll be getting wedding band tattoos. Speaking of jewelry, I've been planning this entire time to wear my diamond earrings from Donald on our wedding day. This past weekend though, I realized my top 2 holes on each ear had closed up, so I had to repierce them. Delightful. Luckily I realized this now, so they have plenty of time to heal up before the wedding. I've been on a journey to try and get a tan for the wedding. I know I'm a ginger, and I basically don't tan (ever), but I would at least like my body to be all one color (preferrably not piggy pink) on my wedding day. My tanning bed adventure hasn't been successful so far though. I had been going for about three weeks and only had several more freckles appear when I decided I needed to invest in some tanning lotion. I ended up buying a lotion by Designer Skin called "Hemphatic." It states on the bottle that it is for all skin types, and it smells really, really good. It also doesn't have coconut in it... another plus. Today will be my first day putting it to use, so hopefully today is the beginning of my tanning progress. I only have 7 more weeks to make my chest and back the same color as my hands and arms. It may be impossible, but at least I'm trying. It's funny how different guys and girls are when it comes to bachelor and bachelorette parties. I'm now down to only 4 girls (including myself) attending my bachelorette party weekend, and Donald has 12 guys (including himself) attending his bachelor party weekend. That is 3x the attendance, and my party and his party cost the same amount per person! I still believe all my friends love me, they just have other obligations... like childrearing I suppose. Still, I'm kinda jealous, but I know regardless, me, Michelle, Bridget, and Tabatha are going to have the time of our lives. Carpooling, singing obnoxiously to 90's pop, good food, some drinks, and maybe even some bowling? Yes, please!! I've been fretting these last couple days about the shoes I'm going to wear with my dress. I think I found a pair I like, but I'm worried it would overall dress down my outfit. I can't make up my mind, and it's frustrating. The bridesmaid dresses are all in, but my wedding dress isn't supposed to come in until September 27th. Apparently making custom changes takes longer than originally thought. I just hope it ends up being exactly what I hope for. It's scary buying a dress that isn't quite YOUR dress yet. Geesh, it's starting to feel like crunch time. Eeeek! -Amber  Yesterday was our wedding shower, and we couldn't have asked for a better time. Luckily, it didn't rain, although when the shower first started, it was pretty hot outside. There was a lot of delicious food, a super yummy cake, a keg of hard cider that everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy, cornhole, and lots of socializing. It seemed like everyone had a great time, and at the end my mom did a keg stand. I told Donald that it was one of those things that I'll be 80 years old trying to figure out if that really happened or not because it's just too awesome of a memory to believe. Regardless, seeing everyone and having such a great time made me truly appreciate the whole wedding experience. If our wedding is anything like our wedding shower, I know it will be amazing and one of the best days of our lives. Everyone was so generous by bringing food, helping out, spending time with us, and giving gifts... I love all of my friends and family. I couldn't imagine life without you all. Thank you. Hopefully I can get thank you notes in the mail to everyone within the next week. -Amber  Our wedding shower is this Saturday, and I couldn't be more excited. I even thought about buying a sundress to wear for it, but then I got ate up by mosquitos. I think I'm up to 14 or so bites on my legs right now. None of them are smaller than a quarter. Obviously I've been thoroughly enjoying the outdoors this summer. Nonetheless, the mosquito bites look like welts on my legs, and I've itched one to the point of ripping off flesh. Yeah, I'd say my legs need to remain hidden behind pants for the time being. The weather report for Saturday looks decent--a high of 88, low of 73, and 30% possibility of scattered AM showers. Hopefully if any rain does happen, it will happen preferably before 1 PM. I say before 1 PM because there are many errands to run and setting up to do before the actual shower starts. Donald's mom told me that about 40 people RSVPed for the shower, so hopefully a big crowd shows up ready to eat, drink, and be merry. (I'm personally excited about the Strongbow hard cider and cake from Flour Child Bakery.) We have had two contributions already to our honeymoon registry, which is incredibly exciting! Donald and I couldn't be more thankful for the gifts, for everyone's help, and for how much so many people have shown they care about us. We're truly blessed to have such amazing people in our lives. So many amazing people, that having a wedding with only 150 guests is extremely hard for us to do. I haven't made much progress on what's left on my "to do" list, but I'm hoping this Sunday I'll get most of the ordering out of the way. I'm really excited about the gifts we picked out for our wedding party. I think everyone will definitely like them. Anyway, let me go put more anti-itch lotion on these darn mosquito bites... 67 days until THE DAY! -Amber  I know I'm going to have plenty of other people to thank in the long run, but... -Thank you to my parents for buying my wedding dress. I can't wait to get married! 80 days to go! -Amber  I absolutely hate that question, "How has your wedding planning been?" Every time someone asks me that, or any form thereof, I just laugh and for a moment think to myself, "Now, does this person want the whole experience or just how I feel right now?" If you want how I feel right now... It's great. Everything is coming together, and I'm extremely excited to be Mrs. Forehand-Hughes in a little over 2 months. If you want the whole experience... It's been pretty horrific. I think everyone approaches planning their wedding with a lot of optimism or else the bride soon earns the title of "bridezilla." I don't believe I've yet to become a bridezilla, which I suppose is a good thing, but I have definitely had my share of things go wrong. Let's see, so far... I had a bridesmaid drop out in the very beginning. I had the parents of our supposed ringbearer and flower girl take their children out of our wedding. I had chaos over a flower girl dress that was partially paid for, and recently, I've dealt with some of my bachelorette party attendees not wanting to stay in a hotel room booked under my name. Oh, my longest childhood friend has also decided to no longer be a part of my life. It has been the most bizarre experience ever, and if I've learned anything, it's that people are selfish. I'm okay with that though; I guess it's human nature? Luckily now I can laugh at everything instead of taking it all to heart. The most important person has been at my side through it all, and that's Donald. People say that if you can handle planning a wedding together, then you can handle a marriage together. All Donald has done is support me and been there for me when a lot of other people haven't. That's why I love him. That's why we were meant to be together. If anything, wedding planning has made our relationship even stronger. After all of this, I fully expect for everything to go wrong on our wedding day. I expect there to be a hurricane, for someone to get hurt, and for all my roses to die quicker than expected. I expect something about my appearance to look weird, that there will be problems with the photobooth, and something wrong with the food. None of that matters though. What matters is what that day is about, and it's about Donald and me--the two of us confessing our love to each other for all eternity. Even if everything does go wrong, I know I'll cry a little, but Donald will console me, and I'll realize none of it really matters--it's all superficial. It will still be the most amazing day of our lives. -Amber  Today I got the invites mailed for our wedding shower that will be August. I'm so excited about it. I didn't like the idea of a stereotypical bridal shower... why can't the guys be involved too? So, we're basically having a party, keg included. We invited everyone that's invited to our wedding except for children (because we thought it would be inappropriate) and our family in SC, NY, and TX because we didn't want them to feel like it was necessary for them to make the trip here twice. I also went and paid for our wedding shower cake as well. It's going to be Guinness chocolate cake, Irish cream icing, and cheesecake mousse filling. Flour Child Bakery is absolutely amazing! It makes me feel good that everything is pretty much falling into place. My list of "to dos" now includes: -Reviewing the hotels suggested by our travel agent for our honeymoon I hope that I'm not forgetting anything. I feel like the hardest things are behind me. For three weeks in August, I won't be taking any Master's classes either, so I'm hoping that time will be used to finish everything up and get my house clean. :o) -Amber  I'm so excited about how far we've gotten in our wedding planning. The venue is chosen, the food picked out, the deposits put down on the cake, photobooth, DJ, flowers, etc. My dress is purchased and supposed to arrive in August, and my bridesmaids and passage reader have picked out their dresses as well. We also got the save-the-dates mailed out last week, as well as the hotel booked for my bachelorette party adventure in Charlotte, NC. Donald and his groomsmen are going to go pick out what they're going to wear this upcoming Sunday. The consultant, Misty, is so awesome, I know she'll make sure they all look great. I guess it's time for me to order the invitations, some more decor, and the party favors. Eeek! Hopefully, Donald will be booking what's necessary for his bachelor party soon too. Donald's mom is hosting a wedding shower/party for us coming up on August 20th, and I'm really looking forward to it. It will be great to see everyone, have a few drinks, and play some cornhole. I just hope that it doesn't end up being extremely hot that day. With it only being July and a heat index between 105 and 110 over the next few days, I have reason to be worried. I can't believe everything is moving so fast. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was talking to Donald out front of my parents house, hanging out by his old Mustang, after school. Now, tomorrow it will be three months until our wedding day! It's about time though. I've never been so sure of anything in my life. -Amber |