| Hello friends and family! We are getting very excited to spend a day with those whom mean the most to us. We are closely monitoring the weather for the BIG day. As of now, it looks wet and rainy. Lets hope and pray that all changes. Indiana weather can do a 360 in a matter of minutes! :) If anyone has questions in regards to hotels or general information, please be sure to contact us. We will proceed with an outdoor ceremony come rain or shine. The reception will be under shelter. We are hoping for a beautiful fall day! Everyone have a very safe trip and we cant wait to see everyone in 5 DAYS!! Love, Jimmy and Jessica We are getting down to single digits today in the countdown. Only 9 days until the big day. We are so excited to see family and friends we dont get to see too often. Last minute preperations of everything are coming along. Honeymoon is coming very quick as well and we have yet to start packing/getting ready for that. One thing at a time for this girl. Jimmy is almost done with his real estate class which will be an exciting time once we come back to reality after the honeymoon. Only 3 working days left for this girl! Its getting so close! We are in the final stretch. Last minute details here and there. Of course most things I have put off. And most of them being DIY things! :) Both the final suit and dress fittings are this week. I have also begun my countdown for workdays, only 8 work days remaining! The groom is very occupied with taking his Real Estate class and working. We went last Friday to get our Marriage License. WHoooop! I had some questions as to how this registry through honeymoon wishes works. Well in one long breath, basically it gives the guests the option to purchase an activity or portion of something for our honeymoon. No, this does not mean if we do not receive a specific item we are unable to do that on the honeymoon. It simply lets you give an activity versus just plain cash. It is then very simple to get the gift and activity you paid for to us almost immediately. (We worry about that) Therefore we will have what you have gifted for our activities on the honeymoon. I hope this helps clear it up, but if not there is a "How it works" tab at the top of the page. Honeymoon countdown, 23 days! We are only 16 days from the BIG day and hoping for some great weather. With both the ceremony and reception being outdoors we hope for comfortable weather for our guests. We are so excited to have family and friends coming from many states away to share our special day. Ta-Ta talk to you soon! We would like to thank everyone who attended our shower this past Saturday. It means the world to us to have our family and friends support and love. A big thank you to the mother of the bride and Maid of Honors for hosting the shower. Thank you to Rosie and Rhonda for your help in setting up! Thank you to everyone for your help.
I hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day today. We are 33days away from the big day. Final numbers must be given by this Thursday which is 30 days out. Finishing some last minute details with vendors. Thank you cards will go out soon for the shower.A few last minute DIY projects. Ta-ta! Today marks 38 days until the big day. I am getting very excited. A bit nervous too, but that goes for any big event I have ever had in my life. Most of the details are coming to a wrap. Planning is slowly coming to an end. We still have a few details here and there. We do have a few RSVP's still out there, so please make sure you send your RSVP. This will ensure we have a seat/table reserved for you.
Saturday marks a big day, it’s our couples shower. We did not want the traditional shower, but rather one that includes everyone. We hope many of you can make it to the shower Saturday. We would love to see you! Those of you that cannot make it, thank you for the kind thoughts a far! I hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day!
Updates: -Dress fitting is coming along great. Next dress fitting is in a few weeks. -Decor is coming along.......... -Momma Tubbs got her dress!
To-Do..... -Still have to pick Music for the DJ -Finalize numbers for vendors -Make my veil -Groom still needs to get his suit fitted!! -And ten million other things! :)
I think that is all for now! I will post again soon! Also, post pictures from the shower next week!
I would not say we or I, Jess, am in panic mode yet but it might be arriving soon. HAHA. I must say the last few weeks Jimmy has perked up and is ready for the wedding! He got his suit! We still need to pick songs, make a few projects, and finalize something’s here and there. My dress is in the process of being altered in hopes to fit me like a glove. But let’s be honest if you could only see my to-do list that seems to be pages long, you too would get in a bit of panic. I really want a few weeks leading up to the big day to be calm and no list. Is this possible? HAHA Overall, we are doing great and zeroing in on the big day! We are both really excited to share our big day with family and friends. Please don’t forget to send your RSVP postcard before August 26th!! As for our couples shower, it is Saturday, August 31st at 3 pm. Please RSVP to Tana, the bride’s mother asap! There will be food and some fun games. As for everyday life, the house is looking great. We have been working on the master bedroom and it should be completed soon. Handy Jimmy has been working hard. Jimmy also has been a canning machine; we have green beans for months! It was a lot of fun; I assisted for the smaller tasks. This past weekend we also made a Sunday afternoon outing to hand pick more green beans! Boy did I feel like a true Indiana girl. The fair was great, we went last week to indulge in the guilty pleasure of fair foods and check out the animals. Yum fair food! Back to the planning and execution of wedding projects! 52 days and counting! I will post again soon.  Oh boy, we are quickly approaching 60 days and have been very busy with wedding stuff and little projects around the house. Jimmy has loved his first crop season. I can't keep him from his prized possession, his garden. Yesterday, Mom, Brittany and I tackled some necessary wedding tasks. Invitations are complete and being mailed out today! Boutonnieres, bridal bouquet, toss bouquet, and maids bouquets are all complete. Feeling accomplished but still much left on the to-do list. We have decided to have a couples shower to include everyone at our shower. It will be held the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. The other exciting part is seeing those friends and family we do not get to see too often. Hope everyone can join us for food and fun! In other news, the downstairs of the house is almost complete. After a hassle with the couch company, we finally have the couch we ordered 8 months ago. Crazy! Next is to tackle painting and decorating our master bedroom here in the next few days. We really hope to have more friends and family over for more cookouts and fun! A few weeks ago we met with our wedding photographers to shoot an engagement session and get better acquainted before the big day! They are so awesome. We got a few sneek peak pictures that are awesome. Can't wait to share the rest here soon. It's also fair time meaning fair, here we come! Who doesn't love some good fair food? ...... we are ready for a 9 day vacation! The honeymoon will be a great break for us both from work and life. :). There is nothing better than some quality time together and a little R & R! It's been almost two years since we have had a week long vacation! We are itching to get away. We will be taking a cruise that leaves/returns to Puerto Rico a week after the wedding.. Our ship will be going to St.Kitts, St. Thomas, St. Maarten , St. Lucia, and Barbados. We will be in San Juan for about two and a half days. Does anyone have recommendations for any destinations of must see, must do activities? We definitely have some great activities in mind! I for one have been dying to zip line! Please give any recommendations for activities, food, etc. Be looking out for your wedding invitations this week! Shower invitations will also be going out soon I believe. Have a great week and I will be writing more as we narrow in on 60 days! We have booked our honeymoon! 7 night cruise to the Caribbean. We will cruise from Puerto Rico to; St. Kitts, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia and ending back in Puerto Rico. **Hawaii is still on our one year anniversary plan. As for planning goes, it is becoming crunch time! We have the venue, food, dress, date, DJ, dessert/cupcakes, photographer, photo booth, make-up/hair appointments and flowers. Still sooooo much to get done. I need to really buckle down. I am creating a lot of things myself. My mom and I have been working hard to get everything done. She definitely keeps me on task! Next up, our rings, linens, invitations, officiant, bartender, and of couse still working on DIY stuff. We are also in the middle of some small house improvements. Life is definitely a busy one this year in our house. I will try to really blog more as the wedding is almost 4 MONTHS away. whhhhhewwww! Bad news first. Our dream honeymoon to Hawaii might have to wait until our first anniversary! Good news, all the planning is coming along. We are almost to our 6 month mark! Lots done and lots still to do. We have sent out our save the date postcards. I am very bad at keeping up with the blog. As we get closer and closer I will keep more updated. Where to start? Well, we now have booked our DJ and photographer. It took us (me) forever to decide on a photographer. If there is one important vendor for my wedding it has to be the photographer. My passion and love for great photos is an important key to our decision. I cannot wait for Micala McClain Photography to capture our special day. The husband-wife duo really stood out to Jimmy and I. I guess what they say...."you should mesh well with your vendors" is actually a true statement. We have done some meetings with day-of-coordinators to make things run smoothly on the big day. We are a little undecided in that category as of now, but plan to make a decision soon. We have decided to do a "station" theme for our food. It will be a wide variety of food for everyone to enjoy. A small theme to the wedding is also "travel". The food stations will be different foods from around the world. I also was able to go maid dress shopping with my two best friends over the holidays. I think the ladies have their dress narrowed down; we just have to get them ordered here within next few months. Yaaaay! My Mom and I have also started knocking out the décor and other tasks. As for the house, we are slowly doing some renovations to the house. I must say how proud I am of my hubby to be for doing a great job on the downstairs bath. I will be sure to post some pictures of his awesome work. As for the entry, living room, dining room and kitchen we are laying wood flooring in all areas aside from the living room. We have also painted the hallway and loft area upstairs. Slllooowwwly. We had to paint the loft and move the old furniture upstairs so our new couch could be delivered. I am ready for comfy couch. Only two rooms and two bathrooms to go for the paint/redo to make it "us"! How is it that two of the rooms left are our master bedroom and bathroom? hahaha. But really, how much time do you really spend in your bedroom?? Not much, but it is starting to drive me crazy with ugly walls. Maybe this weekend will be project master bedroom?? I know this was a super long post, but I have not been posting as I should to this point. So long until the next post. I know it has been sometime since we have kept you up to date. We have had a lot of wedding things going on the past few weeks. To start it off, we finally closed and moved into our new house in mid-September. We are still in the process of getting settled, but really enjoying being new homeowners. p.s by now I HATE painting! Two weeks ago, we went to Chicago to get our engagement pictures taken. They came out really good! I will be adding some here soon. We also had our engagement dinner for our close family and bridal party. It was a great time to have both families get together and for some family members to meet for the first time. We really enjoyed everyone taking time to join us to celebrate and get to know our families. Thank you all for coming, it means a lot to us. The last tid-bit for the day......which is a very exciting piece of news.......I finally said YES to my dres and it is ordered! I am so happy to have one more thing checked off the wedding to-do list/payed for list. :) We will keep you posted in the upcoming weeks of things we are working on for the wedding. To date we have the venue, date, dress, and engagement pictures all checked off the list! Next up is finding the caterer and a photographer. Wish us luck. I am sorry for taking some much time away and not posting. Life has been a little crazy. Of course a good crazy. FIrst thing to tell you, Jimmy and I have found our first home!! We will be closing on our home September 20th! Less than 2 WEEKS away!! We are both so excited for this new chapter. Closing on the house starts the beginning of many jam packed weekends! Shortly after closing we will head to Dayton, Ohio to celebrate Jimmy's 10 year high school reunion. I know, can we say old! :) The first weekend in October, we head to Chicago to get our engagement photos taken. I am so excited for that adventure! Plus, it will be a little break from reality, right? Not so much. Our house will still need to be settled and unpacked. We also have our wedding a year away that still needs planned! Our plan is to resume the 'planning' once we get our photos taken. I am slowly getting little things in place, but definately need to get some vendors book. More importantly, I currently do NOT have a dress to wear for the big day. It's okay. As long as I have my dress ordered by Christmas I will not panic. I have my eye on a dress, but have not had too much time to focus on something that will be THE dress for the big day. Well, that is the hectic life of getting a house, planning a wedding and just general life over the past few months! I will update you in a few weeks as to how we are settling into our new HOME! Jess Where to begin? Jimmy and I went out east to PA two weeks ago for a close family friends wedding. Let's just say omg it was goregous, however, we went to the "beach" for one day and then had to travel the awesome 13 hours back to Indiana. Let just say what I thought would be a nice break from reality really was waaaaay too short. Once I got back to work we found out our contract company was changing. It was a great thing and came with perks. The company also stated that since I was not receiving ANY vacation time from the previous company, they would be looking into which company WOULD be issuing PTO I should have had. Let's just say I feel for those whom are not able to take a vacation. I have been working over 7 months with no time off and I am ready to explode. I need a VACATION!!! I really think it should be manditory for everyone to recieve PTO and possibly more than 2 weeks? Come on America in one year there are 52 weeks and we only get 2 weeks off paid? psssshhhhh! well enough of the ranting and raving. P.S. we are STILL house hunting and I really hope we find OUR HOME soon!!! Bye for now! I am so excited to be writing that last week we made major progress for the wedding! We have been very busy house hunting, but.........we have a date and a venue!! We are having our ceremony and reception at the same location. It will be an outdoor ceremony. The reception will be under a large white peak tent!! It is at a really cool place in Danville, IN. (The Blanton House) http://www.danvilleindiana.org/egov/docs/1268852598_790222.pdf The date? Saturday, October 5th 2013!! We are so excited to have the date and venue checked off! We will probably have some down time on planning until the end of the summer. In the meantime, we will be major house hunting in hopes to have that checked off SOON! cross your fingers :) So we are pretty certain we have found the ONE. The venue that is! We are waiting just a few weeks until we are able to book our special day. We will then have a place for both the ceremony & reception and a DATE! So many have been asking when the big day is and we will now be able to officially have a date set! (SOOOOON) I have been looking long and hard for a great photographer. I love PHOTOS and this is an important aspect of our special day. I am trying to find that photographer that has the style that fits "us", all while staying within our budget. I must say, I really need to get practicing and finding clients because anything in the wedding industry is booming! If any of our friends and family have great recommendations for photographers in the Indianapolis area we are open to checking them out! Wedding dress shopping is definately not close to being finished. That is another area of finding the perfect "something" that stays within my budget. I am definately a different, edgy bride when it comes to the style of gown for my day. I have found a few that I tend to keep my eye on and in the near future will being trying them on. With the time frame I have plenty of time and plus they are NOT cheap! (SAVE SAVE SAVE) By the way, Jimmy and I are happy to announce we have started house hunting!! Very exciting! Although, buying a house and planning a wedding=Jess needs a part time job or two!! I have the time and just might have to jump on that idea! *anyone needing photos, I am your gal!* my goal at a shoot is to have fun, let the client be themself, and natural light! It does wonders! (engagements, couples, portraits, babies, kiddos, families, maternity, etc. You name it I am up for the challenge to bring you great photos!!) :) Not to much going on with our wedding planning at the moment. We are in the works to find a venue for the ceremony and reception. Once we have the venue site we can set in a date!! Last weekend we did take a look at a very nice place. We sort of have it in our minds as the place! It would be perfect for what we are looking for, but we have made other venue appointments to see what else is out there just to be sure. Weddings are alot about BUDGET and the first venue we toured is definately in our budget! Next Saturday, we are going to see a more eligant and expensive option just to say we looked. :) Its a bit difficult to find venues as our wedding is going to be the first/second Saturday of October 2013 and the ceremony/reception will both be outside. The reception will be held under a large peak tent and only select venues will cater to this idea. P.S..... My dress appointment with my mom a few weeks ago went well, but nothing I had to have that instant. I know exactly which style I am looking for and will continue to be on the hunt for the perfect dress within my budget! We will keep you posted on our venue decision! I am so glad this has all we need in one place! We have set up this site as a registry for our honeymoon. We would love for you to follow our blog as well as keep up with our wedding plans on our website. It is pretty time consuming putting in all the great things that make Jimmy and I "US". I will be trying to get as much information as possible onto our website for all our family and friends to see. Enjoy your weekend! So I want the dress shopping to be a special time. In that case I am only bringing my Mom to try on dresses. She is a very honest person and will truely tell me what looks good on me. We have tried dresses on one time prior. That visit I only tried on 3 total and like the look of one in particular. Tonight we have an appointment at another bridal salon in town and I am getting excited. This is one of the fun things to just pick out gowns and try them on, even if you know you will look goofy! Funny thing is if any of you rememeber, I worked in a bridal salon 2 years ago. I know how the industry can be so I will not be a crazy/bossy bride. I am also not bringing an entourage, wayyyyy to many opinions and you truely dont get what you the BRIDE would wear on your special day. You pick out what mom, grandma, sister, friends, aunts, etc want you to wear!! My mom and I are going to have a blast tonight!! Well if you ask Jimmy what he would "vision" for the wedding he spits out a few words that dont make sense together. So I used a bribe to get him in the wedding spirit and excited with ideas, we went to a BRIDAL SHOW!! This past weekend Jimmy and I attended a bridal show here in Indy. The only way to get Jimmy there willingly would be to bribe him with one of his favorite things, FOOD! So, I did just that. I told Jimmy there would be caterers and cake vendors and he could test out some of the yummy things they had to offer. He end up getting very envolved with all the vendors we spoke with (not just the food related) and he started to get an "envision" of what he could see for our wedding day. I will say a few times I had been talking for 5 minutes or so to a vendor and would turn around, no Jimmy. Where could he be? I would look for the next caterer or sweets table and BAMMM he was there. It was a very fun time and I really enjoyed being able to show him all the things "most" brides do. Like I told Jimmy, this is OUR wedding so I am not doing the planning solo. We need to compromise and come up with ideas that mean the most to BOTH of us. Well I think that is enough about our adventure at the bridal show. Ladies I recommend taking your Fiance and get their ideas flowing, or you can just take them to taste food and sweets! :) |