Married

Hello, I am Mrs. Lauren Isbell and I am married to Aaron Isbell. :-)  I was very lucky and the wedding was everything we dreamed of and more.  We had a wonderful and relaxing honeymoon in Asheville and then returned home, to a life with a house with one room packed full of wedding gifts (thank you! thank you!), me getting dressed out of suitcases because I just moved in, catching up with friends and gushing about the wedding, oh-and also attending 2 weddings the weekends immediately after ours, with one left to go to this upcoming weekend.  Life is crazy, but fabulous.  Can't wait to recap and share it all with y'all!!!  

3 days! :-)

I'm getting married 3 days and I CANNOT wait!  My mom and I went to the venue to check things out today-gorgeous.  And the weather looks awesome for Saturday-keep your fingers crossed.  Marc helped us make a timeline today which was so helpful.  It's not just like they give you a space and make you do all the work.   (Link to the venue for anyone who didn't know where the wedding will be http://www.thegardenonmillbrook.com ).  Adelaide also talked to Dawn (florist) and Mark (lighting) as well to make sure set-up goes smoothly.

We had some hiccups-Aaron's ring is a little too small so a new one is coming Friday, a check was due for the venue today and I seriously had some sticker shock when I saw the tally for entertaining and feeding 270 guests...you have to pay with a check so debt is not an option!  Placecards have not been numbered either.  My mom's been by my side pretty much all day (good and bad) and we are working hard to knock it all out.  I just need to go to bed at a decent hour tonight and tomorrow so I'm not too tired the day of the wedding.  I also need to finish packing for the wedding weekend and honeymoon.  

In the hectic-ness of this morning - "they need the check today?!" - mind you the venue is over half of our budget - I accidentally left the bridal portrait at home.  I drove back to the house to get it, ran inside and then OW!! I thought I stepped on a nail-no, stung by wasp!  Which was still alive.  I was shocked, scared and in pain so I reverted back to my child self, shouting for my mom. We arrived to the venue for the meeting an hour late, but they understood!

Thank you guys so much for following my journey!  I'll be back in about to 10 days to share pics and stories!  We are honeymooning in Asheville and Aaron's kept all the details a secret!!!  Feel free to leave advice below!

from our engagement day :-)

WEDDING WEEK!!!

It's wedding week and I am sooo excited!!!  Everything felt more real when I got this beauty in the mail today.

Just Cotton Robe via Etsy...it's like a silky cotton blend :-)

Of course I wanted something cute to get ready in!  Also, I needed a cute robe to wear on the house now that I'll have a man around!  

It really is crunch time now.  The biggest thing we have to left to do is finish the seating chart and take everything to the venue Wednesday when we have our final meeting.  Then I also have to pack for the honeymoon!!! And also clean my room!  It's really hard when your furniture is disappearing around you, you have to pack and also get rid of all the junk you've accumulated.  The girls start arriving Thursday so I need to be finished by that time and simply ready to have fun.

I hope I'll get to post once more this week before the wedding.  I am going to try my best to just soak in every moment Friday and Saturday and enjoy it!!!

This Is It

So if you didn't know what getting married is all about, this is it.  Staying up past midnight with your soon-to-be hubby trying to print your programs.  I've already expressed that I'm not a DIY type of girl and this is why.

While Aaron's works on centering the program, let me tell you what my day has been like...

8:50     up
9:30     Zumba!
10:30   8 minute abs
11:00   In the YMCA shower
11:30   At my aunt's house looking at the program-she's making changes to the changes she made last week.  Ughhh.
12:30   At Harris Teeter buying my lunch, milk and BOGO Cap'n Crunch
1:00     Arrive home, receive RSVP in the mail.  13 days late.
1:15     Aaron calls and says he's swamped at work, can't come to reception meeting and tasting              today
1:30     My aunt's back at my house working on the program (she had to break to get her nails did)
2:30     Mom arrives home to help
3:30     Trying to get out the door to go to the venue for meeting and tasting
3:45     Dad calls, car won't start.  Call venue and tell them we'll be late.
4:00     Successfully jump Dad's car
4:30     Arrive at venue with parents
4:45     Sample hors d'ouvres.  I LOVE the ones we picked.  I'm not telling! :-p
5:00     Sample entrees.  Awesome!!
5:30     Discuss day of details.  Schedule final meeting for Wednesday at 10am.
6:00     Leave venue, ask Mom to take me to a store so I can purchase day of underwear.  My something blue haha.  She obliges.
6:30     Undies purchased, now in Ross as Mom looks for a shawl.
6:31     Leaving Ross.  I love TJ Maxx and Marshalls is nice too, but I can't deal with Ross
6:50     Home
7:00     Mom realizes she has a box of Grandma's tea cups in the attic
7:30     19 tea cups later, I don't need anymore tea cups!
7:40     Fiancé is free from work and comes over to mi casa.
8:30     The fiancé and I head out to print programs at a mystery location.
9:00     Program is proofed, but not centered.  Aaron tries to help a girl out.
1:03     Now.  We just printed our first copy on our linen stock paper.  The end is near?

As Aaron cuts paper...
I was a bit nervous about our tasting today, because last time we sampled a super tasty salmon en croute, but I did not like the sauce on the chicken we sampled.  This time we sampled a chicken saltimbocca and it was really good!  I am seriously so excited.  Even though it's chicken and salmon, I don't think it's typical wedding food.  I hope our guests are happy!  Also-I never tasted the vegetarian entree.  It's spinach stuffed mushrooms and I don't eat mushrooms (although I like the flavoring-chicken marsala, cream of mushroom, I'll eat around the mushrooms lol).  Only 11 people ordered it and and I hope they're happy too!

Well...I guess I'll get back to printing these programs.  I pray in an hour I'll be on my way home!  I'll add a picture to this post tomorrow...my phone is dead!

Missing the soon-to-be hubby

Is it not totally ironic that 9 days away from spending the rest of our lives together, Aaron and I are also at the point that we've never seen so little of each other? Everytime I come over it's like-do this, unpack this, figure this out.  The last time we attempted a quiet night alone I feel asleep on his shoulder immediately after dinner-actually, I think that's happened twice in the past month.  Sigh.  Aaron's mom has been in town since Tuesday and I've only seen her for 2 hours! Life's crazy.  However, we'll be married in 9 days and honeymooning in 10 days! :-)

So close!!!

9 days until the wedding!  I am so excited.  I am also totally ready for it to be over-I am sick of writing checks, charging credit cards.  I never worked a salaried job, so over the past year I've spent more money in my life then I have ever even made.  It's kind of ridiculous but I hope I'm not regretful after the fact.  As long as I take the day as slow as possible I don't think I will be.  I've tried to save money wherever I can, but I also didn't want to half do anything.  Today I went through my OneNote notebook (the best way to organize, I swear) and I was pretty happy with the thoughts and inspiration photos I've collected over the past year and how things have turned out.

Aaron's mom has been WONDERFUL and came to his house to clean.  His house is basically turned up upsidedown while she scrubs and vacuums.  Talk about the best gift ever.

The biggest things on my to-do list right now are finishing the program and completing the seating chart.  My mom's taking a half day Thursday and Friday to help me with these things so I'm confident we'll knock it out!  After that I just have a lot of small tasks but they can be time consuming!  And not at all efficient at all either.  I visit Michaels at least twice a week.  I go to Belk to buy MAC lipstick for the wedding only to recieve a 20% off cosmetics coupon in the mail as soon as I get home.  Of course I'm going to go back, return it and buy it again!  But that works out,  because I looked at my make-up trial pics and now I think my lips look too pink so I'm going to go see my girl at the MAC counter this weekend for us to try some new shades.  So even part of my bridal trial I'm doing twice.  It's the way of the world.

once again, my tired bride photo!

lovely wedding inspiration

This wedding is so gorgeous, I thought it was a staged photoshoot.  Isn't her Vera Wang amazing?  For more photos, visit one of my favorite wedding blogs Elizabeth Anne Designs.