Second To Last.

I honestly don't have the time to be writing this right now but if helps me to organize my thoughts and breathe a little then- I'll make time for it!

Today was the second to last walk-through for the house. Nate had to work so his Parent's and I went and met our realtor and the company reps out at the house at 8:30AM to go through every.single.inch. of the structure to pick out any and all flaws and things that need to be fixed. There were tons of little things, but all very minimal- like dings in the walls, nail pops, and the hot & cold reversed in the showers- ha. However, the sod/grass still wasn't down and this has kind of frustrated us for a while because most of our street (all new construction) got their grass put down before their drywall was even hung. So the builder footed their water bill and made sure their grass didn't die for a month or so while we wont end up getting that luxury. They would've put ours down today- 3 days before closing- but, we realized that during the time that we're gone for the wedding/honeymoon our grass would be left to sit un-waterd for about 2 weeks, and consequently it would just die. SO, we are waiting to have it put down until AFTER we return from Hawaii just to be safe. It's kind of annoying but it's better than dead grass and an expensive re-sodding endeavor. So in the mean time it will look like we live in the desert! Hooray! (not.)

I'm exhausted- Nate and I both are. It's an exciting and extremely fun time but man, oh, man is it exhausting! I keep envisioning myself laying face down on a pillow made of towel, on a beach chair, by the ocean, in the Hawaiian sun. The wedding is going to be wonderful, but relaxation is really going to be the payoff!

And before I pass out for the night- check out the flower girl baskets, the ring-bearer pillows, and one of the signs that our little 2 year old nephew is going to hold! (no kids will be left out!) Nate's Mom made them all. :)

Happening. SO. FAST.

Oh HI. I know I've been super MIA lately- I'm so, so sorry!!! I bet you all are wondering what the heck is going on- that is if anyone actually still visits this little website! So, let me tell you what's been up! First things first- we close on our house THIS. COMING. FRIDAY... yeah, I'm totally serious. The last picture I posted here was pre-drywall. So I know I've really failed at updates. Good thing is, most all of you follow me through Facebook and/or Twitter so I don't think anyone has truly been left without a clue! But yeah, this Friday- I'm all like, "IS THIS REAL LIFE?"

We just purchased our dining room table/chairs tonight:



I'm super excited about it! Last weekend we purchased a refrigerator, washer, dryer, grill, and lawnmower! It seems absolutely insane to me that we are buying all of these things. It just still doesn't seem real. WE are HOME OWNERS. US.

And in a few more weeks we will be Husband & Wife, and a day later we will be in Hawaii. :) Ohhh bliss!

I think I will wait on a picture update for the house because, I think if I've waited this long I may as well wait and do it up right with a video tour of everything completely finished. :)

This weekend is going to be spent finalizing wedding details with my coordinator, putting programs together, and packing! I am getting my hair done tomorrow for the last time before the wedding. OH, yes- hilarious story about that. Nate's Mom and I go to the same salon out of town and we got a call today from said salon saying, "OH hey, yeah both of your hair stylists are GONE... yeah so you're appointments tomorrow.. yeahhh.. we don't know." AND I'm all, "EXCUSE ME? The girl who has been doing my hair for over a year and knows what I like is GONE on my last appointment before me wedding?!", and if I would've been the one to answer the phone I might've gone all bridezilla on someone but .. yeah. So we have appointments with some random person we don't know.. with the same person.. so it's going to take twice as long. Yada, yada. If my hair gets screwed up, someone's gettin' hurt! /End rant.

Bridal Accessories!

Etsy.com is my best friend right now! I just purchased THIS from Sew Unique Wedding Garters:



And I'm in the processes of having this customized a bit for my measurements by Archeress Arts:



I am beyond excited about this necklace!!! Now, what earrings and bracelet to go with? Hmm.

Here are a few other things I am drooling over on Etsy for the wedding made by Inspired By Marie:

A "Peacock Wood Burned Wedding Guestbook".


And a "Peacock Feather Wedding Signature Mat".




The prices are a bit on the steep side, but I think the detail in the artwork is definitely worth it! They're just beautiful. I guess we'll see wont we?

And of course I'll need something like this (by Designer Shindigs to go with the guest book!



I want it all! ... I need to do an update on the house soon! It is completely drywalled and looks completely different! So excited to share the pictures with you all!

Initial Here, Here, Here.. and Here

We met with the agents again last night at 6pm to sign the contract on the piece of property we decided on! It's real now. We own this piece of property! This really doesn't make much sense to me because like, when it comes to what I feel "old enough to do" I have the list of things that a seventeen year old is "allowed to do" in my head. While we sat there I kept thinking how silly I must look in there with those "adults" .. signing papers and reading contracts- with a flower headband on my head. Haha! I know I'm being crazy, but it's really just a weird feeling when you realize, HEY I really am THIS grown up now! Weird!

So yes- we own the property. It's OURS. We have an address! We answered some questions about the structural things that we definitely wanted to add on as upgrades so that once all of the paper work goes through the city, they can start building! We decided against the fireplace because it was quite expensive and we had to really evaluate how often we'd use it. It's definitely pretty but, just something to hassle with and maintain (since it would have been wood burning). Plus, all of our electric wiring and such is underground in our community, meaning an ice storm can't take it out on us! I think I'd rather have a generator heat a good portion of our house with space heaters than sit a foot away from my fireplace for days on end, anyway. (I'm trying to talk you and myself into the whole "the fireplace is pretty- not a necessity" idea. How am I doing?) We also decided to go with the 9 foot ceilings- that is definitely worth the money to me, even on the resale side of things. In addition to those we decided to add the attic storage package and the garden tub/separate shower. I think those were the only things we really needed to decide on last night. Everything else is cosmetic, and you already know how excited I am to pick those things out! I believe we'll get to do that sometime next week, but we'll be able to go back a few times if we'd like just to make sure we really KNOW what we want.

Nate and I have been really in-tune through this whole thing for the most part. The only thing we've really "disagreed on" would be my interest in having wood throughout the living area- he wants carpet. But, where-as he is strongly against the idea of that much wood, I could do either and be happy so it's really not even a disagreement. I will most likely end up with wood in the kitchen/dining area and entry area. We will see! On the 16th there are going to be a ton of open houses put on by our builder so we are going to visit a handful to get ideas and see the actual floors/counters/cabinets in "real life" to figure out what we truly want.

So I guess I should show you a few pictures of the model of our home, huh? :)


Here we are standing outside looking at the front (in the dark!). Ours will actually be flipped due to the property we're on and the houses going up beside us.


The front door straight ahead. Door to the right (or left when you enter the front door) is a half bath. Door that you cannot see opposite that door is a nice sized closet under the stairs. The opening right after the half bath is to the door to the garage.


Looking up from the bottom of the stairs.


The desk/book shelves that you see here are an upgrade that costs way too much! We can get the phone jack, electric outlet, etc installed here and then put our own desk there or whatever we would like to do with that space. :)


Looking to the right, the kitchen! It's such an open floor plan.


The kitchen and the dining area!






And like I said, no fireplace. But this will give us more options for furniture placement!


Going up!


The doors you see on the right = the laundry closet room area.


Master bedroom. Standard ceilings. <3


Inside the bathroom... oh and yeah, that is my closet. <3 Nate gets his own closet too!


Garden tub! And that window with the block glass costs extra so we're going with a regular window. I will put gorgeous wood blinds on it and it will be just as wonderful!


Double bowl vanity!


So there you have it! There's a lot that I left out but I'm thinking you've got the idea! :) I can't wait until it starts going up and we can go out there every weekend to take progress pics. Fun, fun, fun! *stares around tiny messy room* ... I think I'm going to clean. And then, I'm going to go to the party store and pick out wedding invitations. I like the peacock invites that I picked BUT at this party store they have the entire book of that brand and collection of invitation and I found a few that I think I like MORE. Plus, my photographer got back to me and he can get them at a very reasonable price so! It's time to pick!

First Post/New Blog Home!

Hello and welcome to our little corner of the internet! You may remember that Nate and I had a wedding blog already BUT I was never able to customize it quite the way I wanted and that caused me to never update. I wanted a fresh start- so here we are! Feel free to follow us (see the sidebar on the right) to keep up with our updates! We also have a twitter dedicated JUST to our wedding. ;)

For those who don't know- Nate and I are getting married on June 12th of this year! I can't believe it's finally 2010. It seems like it took us forever to get here, but at the same time it seems like just yesterday that he proposed to me (April 4th, 2009)! I know that the wedding will be here in a SNAP! We are finally getting a lot done. For example? We have the invitations and bridesmaids dresses picked out. I'm currently waiting to hear back from my photographer on the invitations because he gets a discounted rate on them and so I'm crossing my fingers for that to work out!



Another accomplishment? Engagement pictures! I went to Florida for Christmas and Nate met me down there after Christmas. We had our engagement pictures taken in my hometown. I have yet to purchase them but here is a nice little sample of one of my favorites!



I am really excited to keep up with this blog and use it as sort of a planning tool! I'm going to add the story of how we met and our engagement story soon! Most of you already know the stories but hey- I'm going to gush all I want! :D Stay tuned. I'm going to be blogging like crazy I'm sure!