My Mommy-To-Be Bridesmaid

My mommy-to-be (for the second time) bridesmaid, Nicole!

Nicole, with her husband Nick and daughter Bailey

I met Nicole almost three years ago through a certain someone named Justin. She is part of his core group of friends that stemmed from working at a theater in our college town (her husband, Nick, and Justin have been friends for some time now). I knew that we were meant to be when just a few weeks after meeting everyone for the first time, I threw up on one of her blankets after a St. Patty's Day party and she didn't get mad. She actually probably didn't know about it until Justin announced we needed to take the blanket home with us, but that's neither here nor there.

Nicole and I have bonded over emails throughout the day, coupon clipping, house plans and already built dream homes (she's a realtor), and our fantasy of one day owning our own bread and sweet shop together. She's my go-to for sharing girly secrets, asking girly questions and thus far a lot of opinions about wedding related items. If there's one thing Nicole is, it's honest, so I always know I'm getting her true opinion even when she doesn't agree with me.

To me, Nicole is one of the greatest examples of how mine and Justin's world came together so easily. She, (along with the rest of the group) welcomed me in with open arms, has made me privy to more personal details of life, and best of all? I've been blessed to watch her and Nick's daughter Bailey (our flower girl!) grow from a 4 month old baby to an almost three year old little lady (and the new addition will be here about a month before the wedding!). Justin and I are both only children, so it's an honor for us to be called an 'aunt' and 'uncle' by our closest friends' kids.

To Feed a Wedding

So, the boy and I like to eat. I mean, who doesn't? We were both brought up as meat and potatoes kind of people and there's nothing better than sitting down to a home cooked meal at the end of the day.

(Personal photo)

When we first started discussing a budget for our big day, Justin's priority list was topped by food and open bar. I agreed that good food was also in my top three, so I began my quest for an awesome meal at the right price where all of my research starts: Google.

Lexington provided several catering companies that caught my eye initially. A few even more in particular when I saw that they offered the option for the hosts to provide their own alcohol for the open bar (making it much, much cheaper on us). Unfortunately, either the overall price per person just wasn't where I wanted it to be for what I'd written into my budget (because we all know you can't go over those budget amounts, right? :rollseyes:). And the food itself, while it all sounded absolutely delicious, just wasn't quite the style I had in mind for our day.

During my constant Internet trolling for the perfect combination of food offerings and cost, I would occassionally joke with Justin about having BBQ as our meal, we'd talk about how good it would be, and then we'd resign to the fact that it would just be too messy. How cool would it be if we could hire one of those companies that brings in the huge smokers/grills and have fresh meat? Or a pig roast? All great ideas, but I just don't think the Distillery would approve.

Then one day while we were joking around about the BBQ idea, Justin said "Well, why can't we?" And it's like a little light bulb went off and I said "Yeah, why can't we?" Yet another one of those things that dance right in front of you for the longest time before you reach out to grab it and make it yours. It was decided pretty much in that moment that we would indeed be serving BBQ at our wedding reception and the people would like it by George!

(source)

 

The more I've thought about it, the more fitting it all seems. Pulled pork, beef brisket and BBQ chicken with down home sides like mac 'n cheese and potato salad, topped off with some cold lemonade and sweet tea, all eaten off of paper plates with plastic utensils. That's country dining at its best right there folks. I didn't care anymore about what people would think about us not having real plates, or real forks, or real glasses for that matter (especially since we'd have to rent all of thee above and then someone, i.e. our mothers, would have to be responsible for gathering all of them up at the end of the night to clean and return).

We'll definitely provide plenty of napkins though :)

The Matron of Honor- My California Love

My Matron of Honor, Flo!

Flo, her husband Brian and their doggle Bruno

About six years ago, Flo and I met online. Not a crazy story in this day and age, but I nonetheless giggled a little every time I told one of the many people who asked how we knew one another in the week leading up to her wedding (a valid question consdering she's in California and I'm from Kentucky). At that time we were both dating Airmen, and "met" in a military girlfriends forum on LiveJournal. Forum chatting turned into emails, which turned into phone calls, which turned into a real life friendship as time passed and as I said in her slideshow (asking to be my then Maid of Honor), obviously our friendship was the best thing that came from those long over relationships, lol.

Flo is my rock. She's my soapbox rant listener, my love of music-sharer, my "Squee, I'm so excited!" enthusiasm giver. She always knows how to comfort me when I'm in the throes of stress, indecision or just plain not knowing. And just hearing her voice pick up the phone with a "Hello Sunshine!" or "Shanabear!" makes my day a happy one. Her and her now husband Brian are the parents to two snack size doggles, a dachshund and a mini-Sheltie, both of which I love to snuggle.

I was fortunate enough to head to the west coast to visit Flo and Brian two years ago. We spent a great few days tooling around San Francisco, around the town they lived and eating more delicious foods and drinking awesome wines than I knew was possible (the perks of living so close to Napa Valley). A year later, I was over the moon to get the news that Brian had proposed (although I knew it was coming since I'd helped get her ring size information for him) and even more excited/honored when Flo asked me to be a bridesmaid.

I'm Miss Green :)

I can't wait for this girl to finally make her way to Kentucky next year! I couldn't think of anyone better to fill my right hand spot for my big day :)

Choosing my Girls

I think that every girl has a list of bridesmaids in her head from early on in life. As you grow, as life changes, new friends are introduced and old friends are lost to time, distance and just simply growing apart. So it's only natural for that list to change throughout the years, no matter how sad it may be in the end.

I knew from the first verbalized murmurings of Justin and I wanting to be married someday that my decision relating to my girls was serious business. On one of the biggest stepping stone days of my life, I wanted those closest to me there to help hold my hand and steady me along the way.

In some respects, it was a tough decision. There were some people I'd always imagined by my side that no longer played a part in my every day life. And then there were those that although our times together were far between what they used to be, I still cared for them and our friendship greatly.

After months (literally) of back and forths, what if's and "but I's", I finally made my decisions and put together a pretty rockin' group of girls. Each one represents a part of me, of my life that I treasure and genuinely brings happiness to my soul. And since each of them is so extraordinary, I'm going to give them all their own little post :) But not before I tell how I asked them to take part in mine and Justin's special day.

I had grand visions of ways to ask my potential bridesmaids if they'd like to sign on when it came time. Make cute cards, write poems, bring them all together for supper together and ask them at once. As per usual, my grand ideas and my actual putting one foot in front of the other to make it happen didn't quite meet in the middle and I managed to eek out a couple cutesy slideshows to ask 2 of the girls. Another got asked over the phone (simply because her work schedule was crazy and I wasn't going to be seeing her in person in the near future) and the fourth happened while at work (she's my supervisor of sorts). After being on the receiving end of an awesome bridesmaid package by my Matron of Honor earlier in the year, I felt slightly inadequate, but I promised myself I would make up for it with fun later on :)

Stay tuned for the introductions of some of the prettiest girls in the world...

The Great Church Search

With our reception location now in hand (so to speak anyway), Justin and I set out to find the ceremony venue. To save some time (and possible whining on my part), we ran across the same things in Frankfort as we had in Lexington as far as space, cost and indoor vs. outdoor offerings were concerned. After phone calls with The Kentucky Historial Society, Equus Run Winery (where I tried to play the 'the future in-laws are members' card), and a few hotels around town, I told Justin that it was time to start considering a church wedding.

Before I go any further, I must clarify that neither Justin or I are against getting married in a church as we were both raised by Christian families. But, as it sometimes goes, as we got older, got jobs, went off to college, our Sunday attendance went by the wayside. So in my mind, it was never a must that I be married in a church (although it would make my mamaw a happy lady), which is partly why I was mainly searching for other venues for the festivities. However, life came full circle once again and there we were looking for a church that fit us.

I'll admit that I felt slightly bad for "scouting" churches to use for the ceremony considering we weren't members at any of them. Even moreso after I started looking at their websites for pictures of the actual building first before calling. I'm sure that Justin and I aren't the only ones out there who have done that before though (at least that's what I keep telling myself). I found several around Frankfort and Midway that seemed they might fit our needs, so I spent a few afternoons making cold calls asking if the church allowed non-members to use the sanctuary for wedding ceremonies. I ended up with a few yes's, a few "we're too small"s and one "We're not a wedding chapel you know." Fortunately, one of the "we're too small"s suggested a Christian church right off the Interstate, which brought our total number of possibilities to 3. 3 was good.

The Sunday I arranged to meet with someone at each church, it was absolutely pouring. Justin didn't want to get out and drive, but I made it pretty clear that I would continue to drive him crazy with my stressing out if we just didn't go ahead and do this (I assume I can be pretty persuasive sometimes). The first stop was at the Christian church that had been suggested, which turned out to be beautiful. They'd recently added on a new addition to the building and had a basically brand new sanctuary. The associate pastor was very nice and we left feeling pretty good. Turns out the other two meetings were busts, one church was already locked up after their service and the other the lady I'd talked to never showed up.

As we were driving home, I told Justin that we should keep looking just in case. And then the more I thought about it, the more I hated my tendency for the "just in case" situations. We'd found a place that was more than enough for what we needed and offered some bonuses over others (i.e., a covered area of the parking lot in the front that cars could pull underneath to let people in and out should it be raining). So I pulled the trigger and told Justin that if he was good, I was good. I really just wanted to be able to check it off the list. We put the deposit down the next day :)

Capital City Christian Church

View from the back of the sanctuary

We'll be roping the side sections off so everyone sits in the center

Can you tell there was a wedding scheduled for the day we were there?

The view from the stage

I think that it's bright (well, not in my pictures, but in real life), it's spacey and we can have a slideshow! Yes, I get excited over the little things :)

The Day I "Officially" Said Yes

Two weeks ago today, I became an "official" bride-to-be. After 31 months of dating, 9 months of knowing we were definitely making this thing legal next year and 5 months of actually planning our wedding, Justin made an honest engaged couple out of us by surprising me with a gorgeous bauble that I already felt naked without merely days after receiving it.

At the beginning of the summer, Justin and I took a second trip out to look at rings. This time we visited a jewelry store, Rivards, that is owned by the family of a girl that Justin used to work with several years back. And I have nothing but good things to say about them. That day, the son, Brandon, helped us as we made our way through a lot of their in stock rings, nitpicking and deciding what each of us liked and didn't like about particular ones. After a bit of time, we walked away with two ring styles that we both kept going back to, both of which fit most of our wants list from our first trip out about six months prior. And my ring size- a whopping 3.25. Yep, apparently I have freakishly small fingers on my left hand, lol.

Fast forward a few months, to September 8th more specifically, when Justin declared that the day was too awesome outside to not do something after we got home from work. I suggested hiking or wine tasting (I was still on a wine kick after only being home from my MOH's Napa Valley wedding three days before) and Justin picked hiking. We'd hiked up to the Natural Bridge a few months before and since it was his first time to go, we'd talked about returning to try some of the other trails around the park. A backpack with water and the camera was packed by the time I made it home and we set off just like we would any other day. Except this one was going to be special and I had no idea.

Justin and I finally made it up to the Bridge after taking a detour to "see" what the Needle's Eye Stairway was and having to stop for about five minutes after climbing the stairs that were basically up the side of a cliff (I never said we had to go up them, only that I wanted to see them). We were alone, the sun was starting to set and I was just soaking nature in. When I asked Justin if I could have some water, I had my back to him, so I could only hear him rustling around in the backpack. He piped up a few seconds later with "I've got something else for you too" and when I turned around, there he was down on one knee with the ring box open and a big smile on his face. I'm pretty sure my initial reaction was "Are you serious?" and then after he asked if I'd marry him, I said "Well of course!" I think he finally had to push me away from hugging and kissing him to actually put the ring on my finger and my next question was "Is it going to fit?" and his response was "I sure hope so." No worries, it fits perfectly :)

Our first picture after the proposal

Turns out, Justin had had the ring for about six weeks, and although several people knew about it (including my mom and dad!), no one had seen it. Nor had he told anyone when he was going to pop the question since he was just waiting it out til the right time.

No nervousness (though I guess he already knew what the answer was going to be, lol), no acting suspicious, he really pulled one over on me, that's for sure. And now we've got a great story to go along with it!

The Venue Reveal!

After weeks of searching for a venue that fit both our personalities, capacity needs, budget needs and overall aesthetic wants, Justin and I came back to a place that I'd found early on but wanted to make sure was just right.

Buffalo Trace Distillery Clubhouse

It's a big log cabin located on the grounds of the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort. I was looking for something rustic/country and with Justin being a big Bourbon fan, I thought this location would be a perfect combination for us.

We were able to take a distillery tour back in mid-April to satisfy our curiosity for the venue (and begin our quest of visiting all the stops along the Bourbon Trail). Although there was a meeting inside the Clubhouse that afternoon, we were thrilled with the surrounding land (the Clubhouse sits off to the side of the Distillery itself and is surrounded by large green lawns, pretty trees, a creek, stone bridges and flower gardens) and the outside of the structure. Of course, having all the century old brick warehouses in the background wasn't bad either :)

Fortunately we were able to take a trip back up a few weeks later to see the inside of the Clubhouse (which is built from old logs from cabins torn down around the county), which was exactly what I was hoping for. Dark wood floors, wood walls, a fireplace, a huge wrap around porch complete with chairs, and even a small stage area that would be perfect for a sweetheart table, the DJ or cake table. There was even a separate room to the side that housed the humongous wooden wet bar, which of course sold Justin if he hadn't already signed on by that point. Downstairs holds a full kitchen, and picnic style tables, which is where we'll have the food set up so as to have plenty of room upstairs for tables, chairs and the dance floor (unfortunately the day I took the parents up to visit they were refinishing the floors, so don't mind the construction in progress).

The only downside to the Clubhouse was that it moreso lent itself to an outdoor ceremony, and you guys know our feelings on that subject (beautiful but with our luck, just not possible). So after some discussion, Justin and I decided we wanted to use the Clubhouse if nothing else than just for the reception. And thus began yet another journey down the lane of venues, except this time, specifically for a ceremony. Sigh.