T-4 Days: Big Changes Are Coming!

Hi everyone!

Sorry about the unexpected blogging hiatus. I went to South Carolina for 5 days 2 weeks ago and it was a crazy 5 days! I flew that Wednesday to Charleston for a job interview, then drove a rental car to Greenville at the crack of dawn the next day for another job interview Thursday, then Zach met me in Greenville Thursday night because we both had another interview Friday! Then Friday afternoon we drove back to Charleston to spend the rest of the weekend with Caitlin and Dan and came back to Mississippi on Sunday. 

It was an insane few days!

I have accepted a job in Spartanburg and we are moving to the area this Saturday! We aren't living in Spartanburg but in a town in between Spartanburg and Greenville, in case Zach winds up working in Greenville.

We loved the area when we visited and we are really looking forward to arriving and getting settled. Bear with me as this will be another crazy few weeks, but I promise to update y'all as best I can!

 

We visited downtown Greenville when we were there and loved it!

It was such a nice city!

We visited Falls Park while waiting to eat dinner at Smoke on the Water!

Smoke on the Water was great to Zoe. We sat out on the patio and they brought her a huge dog bowl of water and she just laid under the table and people watched. She's such a sweet, well-behaved dog! 

We like how central Greenville is to a lot of people we love and care about! Caitlin and Dan are only 2.5 hours away in Charleston, Mary Catherine and Kevin are only a couple hours north in NC, Jimmy is less than three hours away in Knoxville, and Zach's cousin Shawn is only about 3.5 hours away in Kentucky. It will make road-tripping much easier!

Zach is moving with me this weekend and will spend July writing his thesis, but will return to MS for a few days in August to finish up any missing samples he has left to run in the lab. We will both come back for a long weekend in October for his defense and some MSU football ;)

This will be quite an adventure but we're excited!

Do any of y'all live near Greenville/Spartanburg? Charlotte is close too!

The Bridal Party: How We Asked Them to Be In Our Wedding

Happy Thursday everyone! It's almost the weekend! 

Thank you all so much for your sweet comments on our Charleston engagement pictures! We had a great time with them and I love how they turned out. A few people have asked me where I got my pink dress. It's from the Banana Republic Mad Men collection. I got it back in March. I have seen a few very similar dresses so if you are in the market for a hot pink dress let me know and I'll direct you :)

Today I'm going to show y'all how we asked our friends to be in our wedding party!

We have seven bridesmaids and seven groomsmen!

Each one of them is so important to us and we are thrilled to have them all be a part of our big day. 

The first thing I did for my bridesmaids' cards was make the little accordion ladies like so many of us have seen on Pinterest. They took forever (especially to make 7!) but they turned out so cute I'm really glad I made them. Everyone seemed to really like them!

I also included mason jar "will you be my bridesmaid?" cards I ordered from The Blue Envelope on Etsy. I love how they turned out!

For the ladies I don't get to talk to as often as I'd like, I wrote some of the wedding details on a palmetto moon notecard and sent that along with the accordion ladies and mason jar card. 

And lastly, I packaged it all up together with a pink bellyband and sent them on their way!

They all loved them and they all said yes!

For Zach and his groomsmen, we got each guy a huggie with the palmetto moon on it (the palmetto moon will be a recurring theme in our wedding ;) ) and sent them to each of his groomsmen with a little Charleston card and a personal note Zach wrote to each of them. Guys are a little more low-key about wedding parties than girls are but it was important to me that Zach asked his groomsmen in a special way. It's a big commitment to be in a wedding and I want them to all know how glad we are that they are standing with us on the big day! Although Zach probably would have preferred to just call them, I think they all liked getting a little present in the mail and they all also said yes!

The members of our wedding party are: 

Bridesmaids: Chelsea (maid of honor), Amanda, Emily, Caitlin, Mary Catherine, Brianna, and Danielle

Groomsmen: Shawn (best man), Scott, Jonathon, Dan, Kevin, Jim, and Andy

If you want to learn more about them please feel free to visit our wedding website at zachandashleywedding.com :)

Our Charleston Engagement Pictures!

Happy Monday everyone! 

As promised, I'm starting to catch up and share with y'all what's been going on in our lives the past few months. 

We went to Charleston for a weekend in April to take care of a few wedding things and have our engagement session with our fabulous photographer, Jen from Carolina Photosmith!

We had a fantastic time spending a couple of hours strolling all over Charleston and taking some amazing pictures. I love Charleston as well as our photographer so it was tons of fun! Her pictures are so bright and vibrant! I love how they capture the colors of Charleston! 

Here are a few of our favorites:

Gorgeous lanters and moss covered brick!

I love the color of the house behind us!

My amazing groom-to-be!

The bride-to-be! ;)

My favorite place in Charleston- Waterfront Park and THE fountain!

Zoe wasn't feeling photogenic but I love the Ravenel Bridge in the background!

Little family

Amazing Charleston brick

Cobblestone streets!

Kisses and wrought iron fences

Gorgeous turquoise house!

I love the greenery everywhere in Charleston!

Walking along the battery.

The Battery

I love the gazebo in White Point Gardens!

Thanks so much for checking out our pictures :) We love them!

MIA...But I'm Back!

Hi everyone!

Sorry I've been completely MIA since basically March. I had my defense then literally did not feel like doing a thing until about now. I made all the edits to my thesis, submitted it, then proceeded to sit on my butt for the next two months.

I'm kind of in a weird transition mode...I've graduated, I'm working part time at MSU until I find a permanent job elsewhere (anyone want to hire me? :) ) and I feel like I have a lot to do with extra time to do it but I haven't done anything. I haven't ran, cleaned, packed...nothing. I'm trying to get myself into more of a schedule so I get back to running and working out (I gained a few pounds :-O so mad at myself!) as well as organize our apartment so when the time comes to move my life is a little easier. Bear with me y'all! I've missed blogging!

There will be more in-depth posts on each of these, but here's what I've been up to for the past few months:

Holidays and spending time with family in MS before we move:

 Had our engagement party at the church in Zach's hometown:

 Visited Charleston and explored the Charleston Tea Plantation:

 Took our engagement pictures in Charleston!:

 And I graduated!!:

I also found my wedding dress! But no pictures of that until next March! ;)

I'll be catching up with more in-depth posts of the spring as well as my wedding planning and attempt to run again in 95 degree heat! See y'all soon!

One Year Ago Today

You are sad and discouraged, tossed around in a storm. But I, the Lord, will rebuild your city.

Isaiah 54:11

Wedding Wednesday: Pretty in Pink Bride! and a Few Engagement Pictures!

Happy (Wedding) Wednesday everyone!

As you all know, the colors of my wedding are fuchsia and champagne gold.

I knew from the start I wanted pink accessories to go with my wedding gown, and this past weekend I made my first pink purchase for my wedding day!

I ordered these gorgeous shoes! I got them on Zappos and I saw them and just fell in love. They have a low enough heel for me to be comfortable dancing the night away, and I love the detail in the front! I can't wait for them to get here tomorrow so I can wear them around the apartment.

I've also been in the process of deciding which fuchsia hairpiece and sash I want to go with my gown. I've been corresponding with Eren from Bridal Shoppe on Etsy and she has been wonderful with helping me figure out what kind of styles I like!

Since I don't want to give away every little detail until the big day, I will show y'all something similar to what I like! I love the three flower design of the above hairpiece, but without the feathers.

I LOVE this bridal sash, again without the feathers.

Check out Bridal Shoppe on Etsy to see more gorgeous sashes!

I have no clue what to do about jewelry. I want to wear fuchsia but I also like the classic pearl necklace for a bride. Any ideas?

Here are a few of our engagement pictures from our session at MSU with Matt Dorroh. He was an awesome photographer and we had a great time spending our afternoon with him a couple of weeks ago. Highly recommended!

In Davis Wade Stadium

With our sweet Zoe

In the stadium

On the field!

In front of the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering - where we met!

I LOVE how our pictures turned out. I can't wait to do it again in a few weeks in Charleston!

Chobani Winner!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was very relaxing and I did tons of wedding research online, had lunch with Emily and Eric, and played Scrabble with Zach's mom who came up with Zach's little brother Jonathon on Sunday. They were going to a Junior Day at MSU and came to stay with us for the night!

I've already contacted the winner, but I just wanted to publicly announce that the winner of the Chobani giveaway is:

Dee from Dee Stephen's Adventures!

Thanks so much for entering!! I'll be back tomorrow with a Wedding Wednesday post!