In it, is a very helpful checklist of what should be done for the wedding

So here is my checklist and where I am at, excluding stuff I am not doing 

Nine months and earlier

Select a date for the wedding Well obviously that's a big fat CHECK. How would you know its nine months before your wedding if you didn't have a date?

Hire a professional wedding consultant Um sort of check. Robert's cousin does this for a living and she's assisting me and doing a fabulous job I might add.

Determine the type of wedding you want: location, formality, time of day, number of guests I'd say check. We've done almost all of this... except our guest list grows daily- I think number of guests is going to be something we finalize the day of.

Determine the budget and how expenses will be shared Checkity Check Check. Although my wonderful mother surprised me and bought my dress. And since I can't post my dress online because my groom doesn't want to see it (isn't he precious?) I will show you a sneak peek

Develop a record - keeping system for payments made I usually tape my receipts in the section they belong to in my planner... but I've recently had to involve Microsoft Excel just because theres too much to keep up with and my sticky notes were unsticking.

Consolidate all guest lists kind of check. I've split them up into mom's family & friends, dad's family & friends, Roberts family & friends, and then our friends to be invited. But theres no putting priority on guests. We're just inviting everyone... 

Decide if you want to include children among guests NO. I mean... of course your lovely children can come. But if they're bad I'll probably feed them mountain dew and pixi sticks and send them back!

Select and reserve ceremony site We haven't come to a definite decision on this. More on this subject as things get decided or potentially built : )

Select and reserve your officiant This we would classify as a halfway check. Yeah we're pretty sure who we want but I think that depends on the ceremony site. We have a meeting over Thanksgiving break for this.

Select and reserve reception site CHECK. We're having our reception where we got engaged! At the barn! We're renting a tent (hopefully air conditioned). His mom and step-dad got married there and his sister also had her reception there (the wedding I attended right before Robert and I started dating. aww, where it all started).

Select and order your bridal gown and headpiece CHECK. Mom bought my gown in June. and veil and everything that goes with it. I have been creeping on longer veils for the ceremony though...

Determine color scheme Its mostly figured out. The accent colors change with the color of bridesmaids dresses, how much peacock I want to incorporate, etc but I would give this a CHECK.

If ceremony or reception is at home, arrange for home or garden improvements as needed Although this is not a check for my list I'm pretty sure my future mother-in-law is taking charge of this one. No events after Easter at the barn, etc. I'm sure we will do more planting of things and freaking out on the dirty men in our lives in the spring.

Select and book a photographer My wonderful childhood (and current) friend Britt Brown is doing my photography for the wedding. She really is amazing and I love how none of her pictures are too posed. Everything seems natural and candid. 

Order passport, visa, or birth certificate if needed, for your honeymoon or marriage license No checks here. We don't even know where we want to honeymoon. Dream honeymoon: probably Italy. I already have my passport though so Robert would just need his. We will probably not take one right way though, especially if I want to go to Italy!

six to none months before wedding

Select maid of honor, best man, bridesmaids, and ushers That's a recent check! I just asked the last bridesmaid last weekend. Robert had already asked his groomsmen via phone the second we decided. 

Select flower girl and ring bearer Also asked my flower girls. I'm having two! We opted out of having a ring bearer for now. Somehow something always goes wrong with those. Little boys have a mind of their own. 

Reserve wedding night bridal suite not yet.

Select attendants' dresses, shoes, and accessories CHECK. I found these dresses I love in a color that works with my wedding colors. I'm letting them pick their own shoes and jewelry.

Select and book a caterer, if needed Kind of doing a mix of homemade food and ordering what we can. So this is a half check too

Select and book ceremony musicians Uhh no check here either

Select and book reception musicians or DJ Still just don't know what I want.

Select and book florist We are using sunflowers that Robert's family grows as our centerpieces and I'm having the bouquets made from a florist. So another half check.

Okay wow. Another lengthyyyyy post about weddings.

Can't help it I'm obsessed.

And on top of it we bought Robert's wedding band

And I'm getting my dress alterations done 

And creeping on some new veils 

So I am in wedding mode.

Get over it.

Bye Ya'll

This one is interesting because Robert just sat down and we were trying to discuss how we should pose/ stand for our other pictures. Its one of the first pictures we took.

You never realize how awkward hands/ arms are until you are taking engagement pictures. 

This one turned out pretty good but some of them... yikes

Of course we had to represent NCSU!

Taken at Robert's grandmother's house. She was so sweet letting us write all over her barn. In fact, she insisted that we leave all the writing so that the other people in the town would see it. Can you tell she lives in a really small town?

At this point Robert was pretty tired of taking pictures but these "dress up" pictures, as we call them, turned out to be some of our favorites! It was really hard not to just upload them all.

Autumn is by far my favorite scent at Bath and Body Works. 

Last year I bought this one before I realized how fast they sold out.

And spent ALLLL last year hoarding it and only burning it when I REALLY needed a pick me up... and then only for a little while.

This year I bought another one so I've been burning this lovely candle like crazy.

Robert also got a "wood scented" one that is definitely a close 2nd.

Another wonderful thing about fall is 

PUMPKIN EVERYTHING

Above left: cheryl and Co cookies. This is supposed to be a pumpkin. I don't know why it's red.

Above Right: self explanatory and amazing together.

Pumpkin spice creamer is a must for every home.

And if that's not enough Pumpkin Spice Eggos are at target too!!

If pumpkin wasn't enough of a reason to love fall theres halloween.

I don't really dress up (you'll read about that in a sec)

But my babies do...

Pumpkin Mo!! FrankenMo is a much better shot to view his misery joy but I can't find it.

As I mentioned before there are some birthdays coming up to celebrate!

My friend/ co-mermaid Kristi has a birthday TOMORROW!

Robert's best friend has a birthday on the 4th.

My wonderful old roomie/ soul mate has a birthday on the 10th.

My dad's birthday is the 31st (why I usually don't dress up for Halloween. Not appropriate at family dinners... but maybe it should be? Noted)

ALSO

If that wasn't spectacular enough, Robert's sister Katie is due October 4th

This baby will actually have a name before its born (unlike Journee)

And she will be named after her uncle who just passed, Jordan.

AND THEN

If all this wonderfulness wasn't perfect enough we have some events planned:

Fall Break starts TOMORROW (for me anyway)

We are taking part 2 and maybe 3 of our engagement pictures over break

Visiting Robert's grandma

I get to see a ton of my lovelies (including previously mentioned Kristi who lives in NYC now)

We are going to a wedding for my future nephew and niece (Our family is alll confusing)

Then the next weekend we are going camping at our favorite mountain spot, Hanging Rock

Followed by an adventure at the fair with the lovely Jennifer

Then our New Bern family Walking Dead night starts

The next weekend I'm going to the Georgia mountains with my family

(my aunt has already sent me links to a nearby vineyard tour)

Then it's Halloween weekend and our plans are actually up in the air.

I'll probably end up going to my house for my dad's birthday.

And then October will be over and I will be sad because I equate November to winter and my hate for winter is probably matched only by my love for fall.

Seriously if it wasn't for Christmas and my birthday I might hibernate all winter.

Enough of that sad topic...

I have a test tomorrow that I'm procrastinating studying for

My brain is literally fried from last week

But that doesn't matter I have to study anyway

But I will leave you with one more treat for October

one of my favorite pictures from our photo shoot yesterday

Bye Ya'll

Just look at those dresses. Image stolen from pinterest.

The problem: The dresses are $250.

But then I had that moment that every bride has and I thought out loud 

"You could wear that again"

But couldn't you? 

Or am I being THAT bride that has horrible dresses but assume everyone loves them.

I'm going to just assume since they are from J Crew they can only be but so horrible.

So anyway, I thought, "If they're popular enough they have to be somewhere for sale where other bridesmaids are selling them after one wear... That's right ladies and gents I found a ton of these dresses on EBAY!

It might seem a little tacky innovative to buy used bridesmaids dresses, but honestly I love these dresses and I know my friends love me and want to wear dresses I like but at $250 I felt like I was encroaching on bridezilla territory and that I want to avoid at all costs.

So tacky or not, my lovely ladies can get my dream dresses for them for at least $100 off. 

So after emailing two of these potential brides and getting the consensus that they would wear them again and don't hate the price tag I asked Robert what he thought of us having a legit wedding party (see as said before we had already decided not to...).

Then something strange happened...

The KING of never making decisions said 

"You need to make a decision" Followed shortly thereafter with "okay we're just going to do this".

Not only did he make a decision, he made one quickly.

Side note: I don't know how other grooms to be are during wedding planning but my man is really hard to drag an opinion out of. Its not that he's so picky its that he claims he "doesn't care what I do" and then the next thing I know "There should only be two types of wine, not three" or even worse I need him to decide and he just won't.

So now you understand that this quick decision was pretty amazing. 

And thus I decided it must be divine.

So naturally, I immediately ran to Michaels to buy crafts to ask my future maids.

Yes I finished them all in a day. 

Including my precious little future cousins turned flower girls.

And while I was there something else wonderful happened...

THAT is my centerpiece that I created with Roberts cousin/ wedding planner/ helping me on my wedding over the summer. 

THOSE beads in that vase are impossible to find. Several Michaels have been sold out or just didn't even cary them. Well this time Michaels had a billion of the ones I needed so of course I bought 6 bags.

THEN I found that I had a 20% off the entire purchase coupon.

So as you can see things just worked out in my favor all day.

It's so amazing when things just work out.

Thank you God for helping me out of the last week of hell 

(Biochemistry exam, Immunology exam, Biotechnology quiz, and the GRE)

Then Robert and I spent the remainder of the night trying on outfits for our engagement photos today. My wonderful future mother in law is taking them so they should be spectacular.

Note an example of one of our conversations

(that totally relates because it's about the wedding)

Bye Ya'll!!!