Two months and counting...

Two months from today by this time, we will have said our "I do's" and will officially be husband and wife! We seriously can't believe it is almost our wedding day! We are so excited and anxious and ready for it to get here! We have a whole lot to do in the next two months. We're officially in the crunch time, and the to-do lists are never-ending. I wanted to share a few of the sweet memories we've made over the last few months! It has been such an amazing time with all our friends and family, and we are so thankful we get to share this journey with them!

Al and his groomsmen went to the Panthers/Miami game in Charlotte for his bachelor party, and from all the stories I heard, they had a blast! The Panthers crushed Miami, so that made for an even better time! Al and his friends were able to skate some cool spots in Charlotte while they were there, which I know made this trip even more fun for him. He has some pretty cool friends, and it meant so much to him that they all wanted to be there to celebrate this occasion with him. I know he is so grateful for his dad (his best man) for planning that trip for all of them and for making sure everything went smoothly! It was a success, and they all made a lot of really great memories!

My mom and sisters hosted my first bridal shower on December 10th. It was everything I dreamed it would be and more. I am obsessed with Christmas, so it was only fitting for my shower to be Christmas-themed. They both put so much time and effort into making sure it was the perfect day, and I am so grateful for them. I was overwhelmed by all the love I received that day from so many of the most important women in my life. I was truly showered with love and gifts galore, and I could not be more thankful. We started the day by eating and visiting with each other. Kayla had some games set out for when people walked in, so after everyone was done eating, she told the answers to the games. One of the games was "Guess the Bride and Groom's Ages." I knew this game was happening because I had to tell her the ages Al and I were in the pictures, and I told her from the beginning that Al's mom would win because she has a really good memory. I was right, she did win, but she had a little competition from my sweet friend Abigail. They tied, and both won some kind of goodies! The other game was "Who Knows the Bride Best?," and I had no idea who would end up winning that one. The questions were pretty tough, but one thing almost every person in the room knew about me was how many kids I want to have 😂. In the end, my college roomie Brittany and my soon-to-be sis-in-law Lauren won the prizes for that game. After that, I opened presents for what seemed like hours. I'm telling yall... I was spoiled. My sweet goddaughter was right by my side the entire day. She was such a great helper while I was opening presents, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. These pictures are a treasure to me, and I wish I could share them all, but I thought I would share a few of my favorites. I'm so glad I have these to remember this day by! A huge thank you to every single lady who came out to celebrate this sweet day with me! I cherish my relationship with all of you, and I'm so grateful for the impact you have had on my life throughout the years!

 

Two major life events have happened over the last few months aside from wedding festivities: I graduated from college, and we got our first apartment together! College was not always easy for me, so I was surprised to feel sad when it was finally over. I technically finished college in July, but my graduation day was in December. My sweet family and so many of my friends came to celebrate with me as I walked across the stage! It feels good to be a college graduate, and I truly am thankful for the time I spent at UNCW. That day was an ending of sorts, but it was also a beginning. Before graduation, we came by and picked up the keys to our new home! It was truly a God thing the way this all worked out! We are in love with our new space, and we can't wait to continue making it home for the next year! We are so grateful for this time in life!

Lastly, we got to spend all the holidays with our family and friends! The holidays are so special to me, and I am so glad we got to be with both of our families for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Many times, we've had to be apart in order to be with both families, but we were able to work it out to spend a little bit of time with both sides this year. As we're getting married and starting our own traditions with our own family, we know that holidays and previous traditions will start to change, so I'm so thankful we were able to make the most of this year with all our family! We have been so busy but so happy these last few months as the holidays have come and gone. I truly wish it could be Christmas all the time! 

However, here we are in the new year... OUR WEDDING YEAR! We spent New Years in the mountains with some of our friends, and it was so awesome ringing in 2018 with snow outside in a place we had never been before! We can't wait to make our way back to the mountains for our honeymoon!

I cried (a lot) when that clock turned midnight because I am just in disbelief that this year is finally here. I posted some of this on Facebook, but I have felt a calling on my life for many years now to be a wife and a mother, and I am so overwhelmed with excitement and joy that this time is finally here! Two months from today, we will be getting married, and I am so ready for this next chapter of life. We can't say thank you enough to everyone who is giving their time and energy to us to make sure our wedding day is a dream. We feel so invested in and so supported, and we know how lucky we are to feel that! Thank you to everyone who continues to read my sporadic blog posts about wedding planning. Life gets so busy and blogging takes some time, but I appreciate every person who is interested in my little life and my little stories! Hopefully I'll blog again before wedding day... but let's be real life is only going to get more hectic from here! 

Xoxo,

The Future Mrs.

Engagement Picture Journey // May 20, 2017

A few weekends ago, Al and I took our engagement pictures. Our amazingly talented brother Khyne Daniels at K.Daniels Photography took them, and we are so in love with every single image (more to come!)

Preparing for our engagement pictures was one of the most fun experiences we've had in our engaged journey thus far. When we began talking about pictures, we both knew we didn't want anymore beach or water pictures because we have taken a million of those. We easily decided that we wanted some kind of woodsy-themed pictures, and we started looking for the perfect place. Khyne and I bounced some ideas around for a few weeks, and then one day it hit me as I was sitting outside at my parents' house in Ash. What better place to have woodsy pictures than in our very own neck of the woods? My family owns many acres of land in Ash, and I couldn't imagine a place more beautiful or special to take our pictures, and Al agreed! If you know me, you know there is nothing like home to me. I absolutely love the life my family has built in our little corner of the world, and it is so special to me to have pictures with my future hubs on the land that my granddaddy once worked on with his daddy and so on. It is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world to me! Once that was decided, we started working on our outfits and our props!

One element of our wedding that we have decided on since my last post about wedding plans is that our wedding is going to have a very southern theme. For those who don't know, the pineapple is the symbol of southern hospitality, and we are planning to incorporate that into our day in a big way! So I knew I wanted to use a pineapple in our engagement pictures to tie into the theme we are going for in our wedding (plus, pineapples are just so darn cute)! I also wanted to incorporate an "R" into our pictures because I literally can't wait until that's the first letter of my last name :) I started searching around and found the best of both worlds at a little online boutique called BeauJax. They were so easy to use and had the fastest shipping known to man. Seriously, I ordered it on a Monday and it was here by Wednesday of the same week. I would definitely recommend them to anyone in need of some cute, southern, monogrammed charm around their home.

I had a vision for this wooden plaque with our date painted on it, but sometimes life gets busy and we have to improvise. Fortunately, Walmart always an abundance of chalkboards, and I have decent penmanship. My mom also found the cutest little sign at the Mason Dixon store in Shallotte when she was out shopping one day and picked it up for us to use. I'm so glad we were able to incorporate all of these little elements into our pictures. They added the perfect amount of "us" to the pictures, and each item fit so well with the outfits we decided on!

The outfits were the trickiest part of this whole ordeal. Al and I both wanted to have shirts made that represented our wedding date somehow. I was on Etsy looking around one day and found the perfect Mr. and Mrs. shirts in a shop called Nobull Woman Apparel, and I scooped them up that day. This was literally like two months before we took our pictures, so the shirts were hanging in my closet for that long and I was dying to wear them. So glad I finally can now! We also knew we wanted an outfit that represented our everyday lives. We're both very simple, laid back people, so we wanted to show our personalities through that. This was honestly the trickier outfit to pick out because our styles are so different. Fortunately, Al has a newfound love of jeans, so I was able to find shirts that complimented jeans and each other well. Lastly, I had this picture in my head of tall grass and dressy clothes at sunset since we started talking about woodsy engagement pictures. I searched high and low for the perfect dress for this occasion. Twelve stores later, and JC Penney came through with what is now one of my favorite dresses I own. Picking out dress clothes for Al is always easy, and just like that we had everything together for our pictures (at the last minute, I might add... but I am really me if I don't procrastinate everything?)

Deciding when to do our pictures was tough because we technically don't have to send out our save the dates until early September, but I am not a happy camper when it comes to hot weather. I wanted to do our pictures as early as possible trying to beat the heat of the summer. Khyne agreed to a weekend in May, so we were able to pleasantly take pictures with as little sass from my mouth as possible :) We did get torn up by mosquitoes though... the struggle of living in the Green Swamp in the summer. However, looking back, it just made the day that much more memorable, and I'll be able to tell our kids the stories of their Daddy having mosquito bites the size of quarters on his forehead in between outfit changes and their Papa running around their Mama and Daddy spraying bug spray to keep the mosquitoes away! See, so worth the memories!

The whole experience of taking pictures with Khyne was so easy and stress-free. We may be biased, but we really do think he is one of the most talented photographers we know. He has an eye for beauty and works so hard to get the perfect images that capture the essence of who people are. I cried over the sneak peek picture he sent me. I cried again when he sent me the link to our pictures and I looked at the thumbnail picture attached to the link. And then I was teary-eyed the entire time Al and I looked through the images because I was just so impressed at how perfectly he captured our love for one another. Khyne made us feel comfortable in front of the camera and allowed us to be ourselves. He went above and beyond to get some of the images he did, and we are so grateful that he loves us enough to do that. We are so thankful for this experience with him, and we will cherish these pictures for the rest of our lives. If you are looking for a photographer, please look Khyne up. His website is http://www.kdanielsphotography.com/. Take a look at some of the work he has done. I know you won't be disappointed. He is very versatile, flexible, and easy-going. I literally can't say enough about how wonderful of a photographer and person he is, and we are just lucky enough to call him our brother! We love you so much, Khyne Bug!

Thanks for reading about our experience taking engagement pictures! What a fun memory that we will cherish forever. I'm going to leave y'all with a few more of our favorite images for those who haven't seen them all! Only 270 days until I get to make this man my hubs!

Xoxo,

Future Mrs. Rising